ARCHIVE: Music Industry

May 21, 2008

New Napster Mp3 Store; COO Interviewed

Napster continues to involve...from ground-breaking file sharing network, to music subscription (streaming) service, to MP3 download store.Napster recently launched a DRM-free MP3 store to join the likes of Amazon, Zune, Real, and Yahoo.  It claims to have 50% more music than... Read More

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January 07, 2008

Music Lessons from Seth Godin

Another one of my favorite authors, Seth Godin, wrote a fantabulous post today of music lessons for the music industry (i.e. for major labels).  Definitely a great read -- here's a lesson summary, but be sure to check out the full... Read More

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January 06, 2008

Andrew Dubber and Online Media Ecology

Andrew Dubber's New Music Strategies blog is one of my favorite reads in the music space, especially when I need a philosophical infusion of online media ecology (his term, not mine). Well, he's decided to start 2008 by transforming the... Read More

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November 16, 2007

RCRD LBL Launched by Engadget Founder

Peter Rojas, founder of Engadget, Joystiq, and Gizmodo, launched a new biz called...er...RCRD LBL.  (Vowels?  We don't need no stinkin' vowels..!)  Imagine a cross between the mp3 blog Large Hearted Boy and editorially-leaning publication Pitchfork, then remove the unbiased commentary,... Read More

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September 26, 2007

Amazon Selling DRM-free MP3s at the AmazonMP3 Store

Cool -- Amazon just launched a public beta version of AmazonMP3, their new music download store selling DRM-free MP3s.  iTunes is great in terms of user experience, but all purchased music is iPod-bound.  Cool things about AmazonMP3:Launched with 2 million +... Read More

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September 05, 2007

Rick Rubin and the Columbia Records TurnAround

Check out this great article on Rick Rubin in the NY Times.  Rick is simply an amazing producer with an incredibly gifted pair of ears on his head.  Think artists such as L.L Cool J, Red Hot Chile Peppers, Johnny... Read More

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June 24, 2007

12 Great Music Social Networks

Mashable put together a nice little run down of what they think the 12 best music social networks are:Flotones, Mercora Radio, MOG, Last.fm, GarageBand.com's iLike, JamNow, MusoCity, Haystack, Sonific, Midomi, iJigg, Sellaband.There are simply too many of these to keep... Read More

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June 13, 2007

BurnLounge Gets Burned, and I'm Relieved

BurnLounge is basically the Amway of digital music.  Its customers run digital music stores and make money in one of two ways:  1) selling music downloads, and 2) recruiting other people to become store owners.  This kind of business model... Read More

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March 28, 2007

iTunes Charts Bum Rushed, Unsigned Band Makes It

So, an update on the "Bum Rush the Charts" campaign that took place last week (where a group of podcasters tried to launch a currently unsigned band (Black Lab) into the iTunes "top song" charts):The song "Mine Again" reached #11... Read More

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March 22, 2007

"Bum Rush the Charts" Campaign Launches

Man, the RIAA hasn't been making many friends, lately.A bunch of podcasters have been touting a "Bum Rush the Charts" campaign for weeks, calling on everyone to visit iTunes on March 22nd (i.e. today) and buy a track called "Mine... Read More

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March 19, 2007

Create Digital Music Interviews Pandora Founder

Two great posts from Peter at Create Digital Music -- if you're a Pandora fan or just love internet radio, they're a must-read:Interview with Pandora Founder: Royalty Rate HikeInterview with Pandora Founder: How Pandora Works... Read More

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March 06, 2007

Internet Radio Gets Royalty Rate Smack Down

Ouch.  The Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) announced its decision decision to adopt the "per play per customer" royalty rate proposal made by SoundExchange (the RIAA-created digital music fee collection service).  As a result, webcasters will have to pay, retroactively:2006   $.0008... Read More

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February 21, 2007

The Death of Albums and Dominance of Singles

It's always fun to read one of Bob Lefsetz's tirades about the music industry.  His latest rant can be summarized -- focus on great singles, forget the album: Yes, the iPod has killed the album.  Technology has changed the format... Read More

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February 12, 2007

Steve Jobs, Michael Robertson, and Public Letters Re: Mp3s

Hooray.  Industry leaders throw their weight around:Steve Jobs' Thoughts on Music - (Apple head) Steve states his case for why the music industry should stop selling DRM-protected songs (ie Digital Rights Management-protected). Is he just deflecting the criticism and complaints... Read More

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January 18, 2007

2007 NAMM Show Kicks Off Today - Loads of Gear

The 2007 NAMM Show kicks off today in Aneheim, CA with funky music gear galore designed to suction funds out of poor suckers like us.  Check out the coverage at Create Digital Music.Speaking of gear, Brad created a modified version... Read More

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November 08, 2006

Artists Only Conference Panel Has no Panelists

The big, bad Digital Music Conference is taking place next week in Miami, FL.  Most of the session titles sound like the same recycled subject matter that reappears every year.One observation -- all of the panels had anywhere from 10-15... Read More

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October 23, 2006

Recording Studios Adapt to Home Recording

While some big-time recording studios fall in the wake of do-it-yourself home recording project studios, others have begun to adapt, and even cater to, the home recording artist.Check out Talmage Music, a recording facility which positions itself as an extension to... Read More

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October 12, 2006

Tower Records is Kaput, Sold to Liquidator

Ya hate to see it happen.  Tower Records was sold last week to Great American Group for $134.3 million dollars, beating out Trans World Entertainment by a puny $500,000.  What's the difference?  Great American Group will liquidate all Tower Records... Read More

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October 10, 2006

NextCat - Entertainment Industry Focused Social Network

Like me, I'm sure you were thinking, "There just aren't enough social networking sites."  We're all in luck.  Fortunately, some manage to differentiate somehwat to offer a little more value than just a "me too" ripoff.NextCat is a professional network focusing on the... Read More

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September 18, 2006

Fans Fund Band Album Production Through Sell-A-Band

I love novel business ideas like this one. SellABand has developed a model allowing fans to finance the production of a band's album, and benefit from the album's (hopeful) success thereafter. It works like this: 1) Band creates a profile... Read More

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August 07, 2006

The Music Industry and Good Causes

It's nice to see a number of charitable and environmentally friendly efforts being made on the part of various facets of the music industry.  Here are few that were recently brought to my attention:International Day of Peace Concert - Garson Entertainment... Read More

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August 02, 2006

Indie Bands and Net Neutrality

A growing number of artists and internet personalities are contributing to the effort to prevent Congress from abandoning Net Neutrality.The gang at Save The Internet has a music video which includes Tron guy, the singing hamster, and a host of other internet... Read More

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July 19, 2006

Yahoo Music Survey Considers DRM-free MP3s

Interesting - Yahoo! Music recently surveyed subscribers about whether they'd be interested in buying DRM-free MP3s.  The questions were:If Yahoo! Music offered an unrestricted MP3 file format for music downloads, how likely would you be to use it?Would you consider... Read More

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June 30, 2006

Happy Birthday, A2IM

That's right, July 4th marks the one year anniversary of the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM).  Among its none-too-shabby accomplishments, according to the press release, are:* A2IM challenged and redefined the perception that the indie sector comprises 18% of... Read More

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April 06, 2006

Lala.com Takes a New Spin On Old CDs

This is kind of interesting.  Lala.com is starting up a new business involving the trading of used CDs.  Basically, you send in an old CD using their 'starter kit' along with $1 (plus $0.49 for shipping), and select the used... Read More

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March 17, 2006

The Music Biz 101 Contest

If you're between the ages of 18-26, and are interested in working in the music industry either as an artist, publisher, label manager, technology manager, or whatever, check out this contest:25 college kids will will win an all-expense-paid trip to NYC to attend... Read More

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January 10, 2006

Muze & Gracenote Hook Up

Muze and Gracenote announced a partnership to offer a solution that combines music identification technology and services, metadata, album cover art, album reviews and artist biographies in one unifed system.  Muze is contributing the editorial content, and Gracenote's covering the music... Read More

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Music at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES)

Last week was insane, with CES 2006 taking place, etc.  As you may have been able to tell, I spent more time reading about newly launched music services and hardware than I did writing about it.  So be it.Seamless mobility... Read More

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December 21, 2005

Google Music Search

For anyone that missed it, Google stepped into the music space last week by offering enhanced music search results including artist info, album art, reviews, lyrics, and store links.  Google announced it here, and CNET talks about it here.Nothing huge, but it will... Read More

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December 14, 2005

CD Baby Partners With Best Buy

Way to go, CD Baby. Best Buy found that a growing number of customers were asking for independent music not carried by Best Buy, so they turned to CD Baby to deliver. The relationship is only online, currently. If you... Read More

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September 22, 2005

Austin City Limits Music Festival vs. Hurricane Rita

I’m heading to the Austin City Limits Music Festival this weekend. While completely psyched to see an incredible lineup, we’re a tad concerned about the pounding Texas will receive from Hurricane Rita… Austin is about 200 miles offshore, so it... Read More

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September 21, 2005

PROMONET Offers Pre-Cleared Music, Videos, More

The Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA) launched Promonet today, a promotional distribution network providing “qualified” podcasters, bloggers, internet radio stations, and other music sites with thousands of pre-cleared music tracks, videos, artwork, and more, from over 750 independent labels. Qualification... Read More

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Store’s “Buy It, Burn It, Return It” CD Offer

The Wall Street Journal wrote an excellent story about how independent record stores are combating declining CD sales. Scotti's Record Shops has a “Buy It, Burn It, Return It” policy that lets customers do just that. The website reads: Load... Read More

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September 13, 2005

The Future of Music Conference

Speaking of music industry conferences and forums, Paid Content has been providing wrap-up posts regarding the Future of Music conference going on this week. This panel sounded particularly interesting: Is Digital Distribution a Good Deal for Artists?. Billboard does a... Read More

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"The Music Upfront" Forum is Today

The Music Upfront forum is today. According to the ad, "Don't miss this one-day, high-level forum for marketers and music labels to connect and build partnerships." It's taking place at B.B. Kings, and Teddy Geiger, Rhymefest, and Ne*Yo will be... Read More

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September 01, 2005

Cordless: Update On Warner's e-Label for Indy Music

Remember Warner's e-Label announcement last week? Dawn C. Chmielewski at Mercury News provides additional info in this article. Apparently, the tentative name for the album will be Cordless, and will offer song downloads exclusively via the Internet or through mobile... Read More

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August 29, 2005

MTV Music Video Awards Wrap-Up

The MTV Music Video Awards took place last night. In case you missed them (like I did), here are a few quick highlights: * Green Day cleaned house with 7 awards. * Fat Joe and 50 Cent's respective posses almost... Read More

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August 25, 2005

Stellar Biz Model: Warner's CD-Free "e-Label"

Warner Music's chairman and CEO, Edgar Bronfman Jr., talked about their new, experimental music distribution model that relies on digital downloads instead of CDs. Warner Music's e-Label: * Artists will release clusters of songs every few months, instead of entire... Read More

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August 17, 2005

GorillaPop, Community Music Discovery Site

GorillaPop is a community music discovery site in development that contains a library of music submitted by independent artists. Users can search, play, rate, and create playlists for music, while music matching algorithms are used to connect users with similar... Read More

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August 04, 2005

Sound Lab Re-Opens, Announces New Partners

Sound Lab announced a grand re-opening of its subscription-based audio recording facilities, as well as new partnerships with Warner Latin and AMP3. From the press release: NYC Sound Lab is proud to announce its new partnership with Warner Latin; one... Read More

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July 28, 2005

$$ For Indie Labels: iTunes and Microsoft Up Royalties

Viva la music revolution!! You know conditions are improving for independent labels and unsigned bands when major music retailers are offering to pay artists MORE. Get this: iTunes USA raised their wholesale payout to 70 cents (from 65) per download... Read More

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June 29, 2005

No More MGM vs. Grokster Headlines!

I vow not to add another MGM vs. Grokster post to the many, many great articles that already exist everywhere. Except this one. P2P file-sharing certainly won't stop. And it's still a good way for indie artists to get... Read More

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June 24, 2005

Long Tail Economics and Digital Music

If you haven't already read Wired Magazine's The Long Tail by Chris Anderson, you really should. The 5-page noodle-cruncher's title has become a favorite buzz word for anyone dealing in ultra-niche, unsigned/independent, digital content. To summarize: Forget squeezing millions... Read More

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June 23, 2005

Savage Beast Technologies, A Music Recommendation Engine

Savage Beast Technologies is yet another company developing a music recommendation engine to connect listeners to music they will enjoy. Many companies play in this field, including Amazon, ChoiceStream, Yahoo, and Polyphonic HMI. Savage Beast's model is closer to that... Read More

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June 10, 2005

Indie Labels Form New Trade Group

The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) was formed last week by a group of 125 independent record labels to give them more leverage with the four major music labels, John Borland reported. CEO of TVT Records and member of... Read More

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eMusic Offers 100 Free Downloads in Trial Music Subscription

eMusic is currently offering 100 free mp3 downloads [Note: the offer was updated to 25 free songs] as part of a trial subscription to their enormous library of independent music. Pretty cool; if nothing else, it's a great way to... Read More

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June 06, 2005

GarageSpin Spectacular iPod Accessory Awards, June 2005!

It always amazes me how the iPod single handedly created an entirely new industry, that of iPod accessories and services. Below are two that recently grabbed my attention: The winner of the GarageSpin Spectacular iPod Accessory Award for June 2005... Read More

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June 05, 2005

Roadcasting: The New Road Rage

Car-To-Car Streaming? As I embark on a 13 hour drive from Kalamazoo, MI, to Harrison, NY, I can only wish that the technology being developed by Carnegie Mellon University graduate students was already on store shelves. The technology (dubbed "Steer-To-Steer"... Read More

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June 03, 2005

Magnatune, Indie Label With a Revolutionary Business Model

Magnatune's tag line is "We Are Not Evil." I love it. Magnatune is the first for-profit record label to adopt Creative Commons' copyright licenses into its core distribution strategy. Anyone can listen to all of their music at no cost.... Read More

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June 02, 2005

Remix Trend Expands as Record Labels Jump In

Adam Pasick writes in Reuters about the record labels' 180 degree turn regarding master recording licensing for "mashup" use. Over the last couple years, labels have become increasingly willing open their vaults for use by DJs and Remix artists: Amid... Read More

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May 26, 2005

Record Labels: Indies vs. Majors

There's a nice Cliffnotes-ish comparison between the potential paths that can be taken by artists, i.e. the choice between going the indie label route or the major label route. Though a little outdated -- there's little or no mention of... Read More

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May 18, 2005

"iPod Tax" to Combat Online Piracy

What an asinine idea. A new law is being considered in the Netherlands, the so-called "iPod tax", that would be added to the cost of purchasing any digital music player. The assumption is, some music on every portable MP3 player... Read More

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"iPod Tax" to Combat Online Piracy

What an asinine idea. A new law is being considered in the Netherlands, the so-called "iPod tax", that would be added to the cost of purchasing any digital music player. The assumption is, some music on every portable MP3 player... Read More

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May 16, 2005

IODA Named "Breakout Company" by Fortune

The Independent Online Distribution Alliance was named one of Fortune's "25 Breakout Companies". If you're unfamiliar with the company, they provide services to independent record labels and musicians similar to what The Orchard provides, but focus on digital distribution: IODA...