stats via Alexa
Falling traffic at MySpace will cost it $100 million in payments from Google ads according to estimates offered by executives of parent company News Corp. In 2006 Google agreed pay $900 million for the exclusive right to provide search advertising to MySpace over three years based on traffic volume. “We’re still losing traffic,” admitted Chase Carey, chief operating officer of News Corp. “It’s a business in transition.”
(UPDATED) Earlier this week, we reported that a little known U.S. based download site BlueBeat.com had begun selling previously unavailable tracks from The Beatles for just $.25. Everyone knew something strange was going on, but no one knew just how strange. Perhaps this message at the bottom of the company's web page should have been a tip-off:
All audio-visual works copyright © 2009 (reg. # PAu 3-407-524) BlueBeat, Inc, a subsidiary of MRT.BlueBeat transmits simulated live musical performances for free at 160 and 320 kb/s.
Uh? BlueBeat owns The Beatles' copyrights, as well as, those of Abba, ACDC, Ace Of Base and... those are just a few of the "A's" that are in in company's extensive catalog? EMI and the RIAA df course disagreed and filed a lawsuit to stop the download sales.
The Psycho-Acoustic Defense
Then came the company's unique response according to copyright attorney Ben Sheffner:
"Plaintiffs are not likely to succeed on the merits because Defendants' website markets and sells an entirely different sound recording than that copyrighted by Plaintiffs."
Continue reading "Beatles Beat Back Bizaare BlueBeat Legal Defense" »
Imagine a gaggle of trench coated indie rock nerds walk around NYC with blaring boom boxes helos over their heads and you've got a bit of the flavor of this pr stunt involving indie rockers Llyod Dobler Effect. The press release tries to explain, but only the videos do it justice:
A Lloyd Dobler mob – “Mobler” – took over New York City on the release date of November 3rd! Wearing white t-shirts and trench coats and lifting boomboxes over their heads the Mobler serenaded pedestrians and entertained passers by. The Mobler journey through the city ended in Times Square with a performance by the band the Lloyd Dobler Effect of the iconic song from the film “In Your Eyes.” They were joined by many fans throughout the day, as everyone was encouraged to “B-Y-O-Boombox!”
Watch the videos on YouTube.
Following a slightly profit report to shareholders last week that included a continuing downturn in subscribers to its Rhapsody music service, RealNetworks is laying of 70 or about 4% of its 1700 person workforce according to All Things Digital.
This round of layoffs come a year after RealNetworks let go of 130 abiut a year ago and just days after the mighty Microsoft pink slipped 800 as part of a program to cut 5000 from it's workforce.
Search Deal With Baidu May Be Far Less Than Qtrax Claimed
The missteps by ad supported music download site Qtrax are legendary. In 2008, the company held lavish parties at MIDEM to announce deals with all four major label groups that each label denied just hours later. Since then, Qtrax has missed almost every self-stated deadline and in July of this year bounced a $1.8 million check to tech provider Oracle days before its official launch.
On Monday, the company held a conference call to proudly announce an exclusive deal with China's dominant search engine Baidu "to direct music related search inquiries from its Entertainment Portal, and Qian Qian Music Online sites to Qtrax...wherever Qtrax has the queried artist or song in its catalog".
But now an official spokesperson for Baidu says that the deal is far more limited than the Qtrax claimed, "The partnership with Qtrax regards text-based information, such as singer backgrounds; it has nothing to do with the music itself". Baidu also has a deal with Google for music and is expanding the relationship in other areas.
In recent news reports, it’s becoming more and more apparent — that at a time when the record industry is reeling from changes that it barely understands — other industries are beginning to experience many of the same transformations. Take, for instance, the recent pricing war between Wal-Mart and Amazon – where 10 book titles were dramatically discounted by the big-box retailer and Amazon, including many others, followed suit by decreasing their prices as well.
It didn’t take long before the bemoaning began, that, “If readers come to believe that the value of a new book is $10, publishing as we know it is over,” explained David Gernert, who is a literary agent to John Grisham, in Motoko Rich’s article Price War Over Books Worries Industry. Sound familiar? Well, it should. As far back as 2004, Wal-Mart began to insist that it should be able to sell CDs for less than $10, instead of the average price tag of $15.99. It’s not hard to imagine similar laments coming from bedeviled music industry veterans, claiming that if consumers, not yet music fans, believed that the value of a new album by Brittany Spears is $10, the record industry as we know it is over.
Continue reading "A Tale of Two Industries: What Do Books and Music Have In Common?" »
Yes, this is a real product. River Cuomo told Rolling Stone back in May that he and his Weezer bandmates were in talks to produce an official "wuggie" version of the body blanket that's been dominating off-hour tv commercials in recent months. Now River's dreams have come true and Snuggie is producing a special edition with the Weezer logo plastered on the front and packaged with a copy of the band's new CD Ratitude ("A $15 value!) all for the low, low price of just $29.99.
Here's the TV commercial to prove it:
Continue reading "New Weezer CD + An Official Snuggie Only $29.99!" »
Global recording industry trade group the IFPI predictably responded to a new UK study that downloaders of unauthorized music also spend more money than average adding to their music collections legally.
"The net effect of illegal file-sharing in the UK and elsewhere has been to reduce legitimate sales. This is why spending on recorded music has fallen every year since illegal file-sharing began to become widespread."
There have been dozens of studies that prove both sides of this debate.
What do you think?
An expanded move by EMI into live concert recordings offers a glimpse both at a much needed revenue stream for record labels and an additional income source for many artists.
Abbey Road Live, EMI's new live music audio and video recording and instant production service, will allow fans to purchase high quality live recordings of shows they've just attended. Mixed and mastered on site, the recordings will be made available in a range of formats including CD, DVD and USB or via secure digital delivery to home computers or mobile as streams or downloads.
High quality authorized downloads of live shows have already been a source of income for Peal Jam, The Dave Mathews Band, Government Mule, Phish and others for years. Some bands continue to earn significant revenue while still allowing fans to tape live performances and trade them online.
Continue reading "EMI Diversifies With Abbey Road Live Recordings" »
Six months ago Topspin and The Berklee College of Music announced a partnership to offer an online course teaching implementation of the Topspin digital music marketing and sales platform. The course is now ready and the registration is open for the course which begins January 11th.
Non-credit registration costs $995 ($200 more to get college credit) and includes a Topspin account. The course also marks the beginning of Topsin's wider release. To date, they've been a bit selective about who they work with because, as CEO Ian Rogers admits, "Frankly, it hasn’t been ready". "We’ve been using it ourselves all year and know its shortcomings," says Rogers. "We’ve been reshaping it to meet our needs and are excited to see how it meets the needs of other marketers, starting with the Berkleemusic.com course."
A Wider Topspin Release Plus Video
Continue reading "Topspin And Berklee College Partner For Online Music Marketing Course" »
Digital distributor IODA has inked a number of new content deals. Labels include V2 Benelux, Union Square Music, Agriculture, Asian Man, Barge, Catsup Plate, Captured Tracks, Jade Tree and NooN Music IODA also has signed the recently reunited band That Petrol Emotion, who will be digitally re-issuing their albums Fireproof and Final Flame as well distributing their debut album Manic Pop Thrill via Demon Music Group.
Continue reading "IODA Adds Labels To Distribution Roster" »
The Echo Nest will help power MOG's All Access music offering when it launched near the end of this month. Echo Nest is a proprietary machine learning platform that listens to and reads about music across the web to power better music search, recommendation and interactivity.
According to David Hyman, CEO of MOG, "MOG All Access will use Echo Nest in combination with other tools to create a revolutionary listening experience that will forever change how you discover music." That's a strong claim in a competitive marketplace, but Jim Lucchese, CEO of The Echo Nest agrees, "MOG is making use of The Echo Nest's music intelligence platform in some very creative ways. We're fired upto help MOG deliver such a great online music experience.
(UPDATE 2) iLike / MySpace let us know this morning that they are offering the same free and exclusive tracks as Lala.
To showcase their new partnership with Google for enhanced music search, Lala and MySpace/iLike will be offering exclusive tracks and free MP3 downloads for a limited time. These tracks can all be found through a simple Google search, and can be previewed full-length.
Free MP3 downloads from Lala & MySpace:Exclusive tracks on Lala & MySpace:
Continue reading "Lala And MySpace Offer Free & Exclusive Tracks To Showcase New Google Search" »
Background:
About.com Music Careers, Artists
House Music, KnowTheMusicBiz.com, MusicianWages.com, Revolution Number 3
and Hypebot banded together to create a basic, actionable music marketing plan designed around simple strategy,
prioritization of tactics, easy to use tools, and a reasonable budget. It’s our hope that any hard
working, talented musician can utilize this plan to grow their fan base and
help lay the foundation for a sustainable career in music.
The Artist:
Austin Collins from Austin Collins and the Rainbirds is the artist who anonymously participated in the Indie Artist X Project. Austin regularly demonstrates many of the traits required to succeed as a modern indie artist. Austin not only has the ability to write great songs and personally connect with fans but he is also tech savvy, business smart and has an undeniable work ethic.
Universal Music Group's Doug Morris will step aside next year and international chief Lucian Grainge will assume the role of CEO, according to BusinessWeek. Morris, who is 71 this month, will remain as Chairman and reportedly has no plans to retire.
Doug Morris has seen Universal through some of the rockiest times in the history of the music industry retaining the company's position as the world's largest label group. After making the same post-Napster missteps as others in the industry, he has pushed the company's moves into digital while at the same time remaining an outspoken critic of iTune's dominance. A recent initiative under Morris' reign is the VEVO partnership which sees Universal joining with Sony to retain more control of and revenue from online music video.
image via Wired
In a related move, Dimensional's Danny Stein resigned as interim CEO of The Orchard, and the board appointed Brad Navin, the current EVP and General Manager, as interim CEO. Former CEO Greg Scholl left The Orchard last month for an executive position at NBC.
Along with Lala's new deal to provide enhanced music search results for Google alongside MySpace and others comes word that indie artists and label will be able to control and improve the content of their search results according to Matt Rosoff on CNet's Digital Noise.
"Eventually, artists will be able to use Lala's platform to ensure that specific content, such as a new song, shows up in the music search results at Google... (they) will also be able to work with Lala to sell products other than MP3 downloads through Google's search results. For example, Lala is working on a deal with Rhino Records where users will be able to buy vinyl Joy Division records directly from Lala."
Until more details become available, updating content on both Lala and MySpace, since it is now linked to more prominently from Google, has become a priority. Lala has deals with all four major labels and most larger indie distributors, but d.i.y. artists must choose a partner to get their music on the service.
Continue reading "Use Lala & MySpaceTo Improve Google Results" »
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) is inviting Hypebot readers to attend an online seminar this Thursday, November 5th that will examine the results of a recent study of U.S. music consumer buying habits. Membership in NARM is not required.
Under President Jim Donio and Bill Wilson, Director Of Business Development & Digital Strategy, the trade group has worked take a leadership role in the digital music industry. This OnSite Research survey, sponsored in part by NARM, looks at consumer behavior including how they discover, acquire and interact with music. In an hour-long online seminar, OnSite researchers will discuss findings and observations derived from consumer interviews across 20 states.
They online seminar will explore:
Continue reading "NARM Invites Hypebot Readers To Online Music Consumer Behavior Seminar" »
On his personal blog, Topspin CEO Ian Rogers has revealed that in addition to running the direct to fan tech start-up, he's also co-managing a new artist. The focus of Roger's attention is Get Busy Committee, a duo of RyuApathy (solo MC, Army of Pharoahs, Demigodz) and Scoop Deville (in-demand producer for Snoop Dogg, Clipse, The Game, Murs and more).
As Roger's explains it, "being the CEO of Topspin and not having experience managing a band is like running Flickr and not taking photos". The debut album has, as you might imagine, been released with the help of Topspin. But Rogers and the band have also assembled a team to support the release and he's shared their choices in the post. He also promises that this is just the beginning.,"I am going to try to blog the experience in hopes it might be interesting/useful for others."
That's where things could get interesting for the rest of us.
Continue reading "Topspin's Ian Rogers Becomes An Artist Manager" »
(UPDATED) Fostering the artist to fan connection is the current mantra and iPhone apps the preffered cutting edge delivery device. But to date only iLike has offered indie artists an affordable way to join the mobile party. Now the team behind MixMatchMusic are adding to the d.i.y. iPhone app toolbox with MobBase, a service that enables artist created custom iPhone apps. These affordable robust apps can share music, photos, videos, tweets, news, show info, merchandise and other content.
While in beta 22 artists and labels including Pepper, Everclear, Greg Laswell, Rebelution, Stephen Kellogg and the Sixers, Easy Star All-Stars and The Blakes have launched MobBase applications. “The iPod put music in fans’ pockets. The MobBase iPhone app puts musicians in fans’ pockets, with the high value content that fuels the artist-fan connection,” said Charles Feinn, CEO and co-founder of MixMatchMusic, MobBase’s developer.
Hypebot recently published the Indie Maximum Exposure 100 by music marketing guru Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity and her friends as a pdf. It was a collaborative effort, bringing together a team of industry experts who, like Ariel, are in the trenches with independent artists every day. Her dream team included Derek Sivers (Sivers.org), Jed Carlson and Lou Plaia (both from Reverb Nation), Tom Silverman (New Music Seminar & Tommy Boy ), Emily White (Whitesmith Entertainment) and musician Jonathan Coulton.
The resulting list is a must read and now Bruce Warila @ Music Think Tank has published the Indie Maximum Exposure 100 in web form for those who prefer reading it in that format. He's also added links back to the author of each post for additional exploration. Read it online here or download the pdf. Thank-you Bruce and Ariel and all the great contributors.
VEVO, the new music video start-up created by Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment in partnership with Google, is looking for interns for the Spring 2010 semester. Some of the projects interns may be involved in assisting with:
get your job site
at simplyhired.com
Recent Comments