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Indie Band Spanish Prisoners Using Kickstarter To Buy Van For SXSW Trip [VIDEO]

A lot of elements go into a successful Kickstarter campaign. Spanish Prisoners combine a unique request, funding the purchase of a low-budget tour van, with unique offerings, songs recorded in the van along with other goodies from their upcoming trip to SXSW. Of course, the music needs to appeal to listeners and the pitch video needs to communicate effectively. You'll have to decide for yourself but I think Spanish Prisoners have put together a campaign that has a solid chance of success though they've only reached about $2000 of their $5000 goal.

Ted Cohen Gets Google, Merlin, Amazon & Universal Music In The Same Room @ #MIDEM

By Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

The panel "How To Work With The Fab Four" moderated by Ted Cohen served as the centrepiece of Midem’s Visionary Monday afternoon session. The panel comprised Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin; Zahavah Levine, director of content partnerships for Android at Google; Craig Pape, director of music content acquisition at Amazon; and Rob Wells, president of Universal Music Group’s global digital business.

First question: Is there room for new digital service players, or does the industry need a year to take a breather?

The Civil Wars' Success Formula: Live Shows + Social Media + Music Placements

The Civil Wars, with Grammy nominations in Best Country Duo/Group Performance and Best Folk Album, are an indie success story built on live performance, social media and music licensing. The February debut of their first album, "Barton Hollow", gave them a #1 on Billboard's Digital Albums chart and the CD is currently #73 on Amazon's Top 100 in Music a year later. But even without the Grammy nomination, which obviously boosted album sales, The Civil Wars show you can do well by combining what are now well-established approaches to marketing and revenue generation.

A Response To SOPA: Free Pays (More)

Weighing in on SOPA and free music on Music Think Tank, Dante Cullari shares his view that free pays more and talks about his  platform, Beat-Play which allows artists to give music away free. Then, the artists can show their popularity and work with brands to create ads that engage fans. What are your thoughts on this business model?

Midemlab Announces 2012 Music Tech Winners #MIDEM

Midem has announced the winners of its 2012 Midemlab music tech competition. In the Innovation Factory, finalists pitched their business model to a jury of music tech leaders, venture capitalists and media. 

The 2012 midemlab winners:

Techdirt's Masnick Offers "Totally Positive" View Of Music Industry @ #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Techdirt publisher Mike Masnick took the stage in Cannes today offering an optimistic view of the music industry. “The industry is amazing right now… we have more content than ever before, more access than ever before, and more opportnity than ever before. "And this is a good thing,” he said. The challenge is very much a marketing challenge," Masnick told the Midem audience. “It can be met by being more open, more human and most of all, more awesome.”

Watch #Midem Visionary Monday On Hypebot, Join The Discussion [LIVE NOW]

The webcast has ended.  We'll have links to replay.

Join us most of the day on Monday to watch a Livestream of Midem's Visionary Monday. We'll be adding our comments and we encourage you to as well.

WATCH LIVE NOW:

The Orchard Celebrates 15th Year With Expanded EU Staff & New Signings @ #MIDEM

Independent music distributor The Orchard is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a slew of announcements at Midem including new label signings and an expanded European presence.

Programmers Unveil Cannes Hack Day Creations #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

A hearty group of programmers were been holed up overnight at Midem building apps and hacks, as part of the Music Hack Day event. This morning,  SoundCloud’s Dave Haynes and Six Two Productions’ Martyn Davies who have been overseeing it, took to the stage to show off a couple of examples to give a flavor of what’s been created.

Interview: Sony Exec Tom Schaaff On Music Unlimited, Release Windows & More @ #MIDEM

By Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Last year at Midem, Sony's Tim Schaaff was announcing plans for the rollout of Music Unlimited. Now at Midem 2012, it’s available in 13 markets, with more than 1 million active users and a catalog of nearly 15 million tracks.  Schaaf has been upped to President of the Sony Entertainment Network division; and he sat down with Music Ally in Cannes this morning to talk about the service, along with its wider role within the reorganised Sony structure.

NEWS BRIEF: Midem, Spotify Funding, Amazon Grows Music, Facebook IPO, Topspin, Viddy & More

The announcements and soundbites are flowing from Cannes as Midem takes center stage thorugh Tuesday.  Spend a few minutes with our posts (many courtesy of content partner Music Ally) to get the flavor: music streaming and marketing/branding are the dominate topics. We're live streaming today's Midem Visionary Monday here.

• More Money For Spotify? "My sources say Spotify is seeking more capital," MP3.com founder Michael Robertson told members of the invite-only PHO list.  "This is after raising several hundred million."
• Amazon Looking to “Rapidly Grow” Digital Music Team (Xconomy)
• Facebook is likely to go public later this week with a $10 billion IPO and total value of $100 billion, according to multiple media outlets.

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U2 Manager Calls Google "Monopoly", Spotify "Promotional Medium" #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Google’s role in the recent campaign against the proposed SOPA anti-piracy legislation in the US came in for a sustained attack by U2′s manager Paul McGuinness this morning, at the Midem conference in Cannes. “Why are they not trying to solve the future in a more generous way?” he asked.

Webdoc Announces Deals With SoundCloud, Songkick & Topspin @ #Midem

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Swiss startup Webdoc is making a splash at Midem, announcing deals with SoundCloud, Songkick and Topspin to integrate them into its rich-media web-posts platform.

Sony Music Exec Says Streaming Does Not Cannibalize Sales #MIDEM

(UPDATE) Stuart Dredge from Cannes for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

The new president of Sony Music’s global digital business, Denis Kooker, defended streaming music services against accusations that they are cannibalising download sales, during a Midem press conference today. “We are constantly watching our business very closely and looking at how different channels are affecting and impacting each other,” said Kooker.

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

Spotify Hits 3 Million Paid Subscribers, 20% Conversion Rate.

• Startup Murfie Gets $1.4 Million To Rip Used CD's, Sell  Downloads.
• Gobbler Gets $1.75 Million To Expand Musician File Management.
• Indie EU Trade Group IMPALA Comes Out Swinging In EMI Sale Fight.
• Rhapsody Expands Into Europe With Purchase Of Napster UK, Germany.
• Tom Silverman On The 1st Anniversary Of The Resurrection Of The Music Business.

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MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap - Spotify: Millions Of DJs & More

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Simon Tam: The Real Reason Why SOPA Didn’t Pass: Marketing
• Wes Davenport: The 5 Most Important Skills Twitter Teaches Us
• Shane Jones: Digital Piracy Vs. The Music Industry [Infographic]

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Will Anonymous Attack Facebook Today?

A video of unknown origin, but allegedly from hackers Anonymous calls for a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack Facebook, this Saturday 1/28/2012.  Some have question the authenticity of this latest threat, but, after Megaupload was shut down in global sting operation late last week, Anonymous swung into action temporarily bringing down the US Department of Justice, RIAA, UMG, WMG and MPAA sites.

Spotify Hits 3 Million Paid Subscribers, 20% Conversion Rate

During an appearance at at Universal Music Open Day in London, Spotify Chief Content Officer Ken Parks announced that the music streaming service now has 3 million paid subscribers. That's up from 2.5 million just 2 months ago and would mean that 20% of an estimated 12.5 million users are converting from free to paid subscriptions.

Tom Silverman: 1st Anniversary Of The Resurrection Of The Music Business

Guest post by Tom Silverman, music industry veteran, thought leader and founder of the New Music Seminar.

As I sat and planned the program for the June 2012 New Music Seminar, it occurred to me that we are approaching the first anniversary of the music business resurrection. After ten years of decline, the music business hit bottom in the second week of February 2010 and began to rise the week of February 14th. There have been many reports of the music business comeback and many have tried to figure out what was responsible for this upturn. Some have credited Adele, others the shuttering of Limewire, still others the Walmart $5 dump bins.

Let's look at the good news.

The Week In Music Publishing 1.27.12

There may be trouble afoot for EMI and its two separate businesses - recording and publishing - are heading towards merger with Universal and Sony respectively. With EMI set to meet with lenders in New York City to discuss the $1.8 billion loans needed to support the Sony Corp acquisition, there are rumblings that of a battle with independent labels to halt the deal - Universal's acquisition of EMI would give them near 40% market share of the recorded music industry. If Universal loses this battle, it may effect both Universal and Sony's ability to merge with the branches of EMI.

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