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...
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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...
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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...
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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,...
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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 +...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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"...
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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....
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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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...
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Big news from Yahoo, which launched Yahoo Music Unlimited. Dave Goldberg, vice president and general manager, Yahoo! Music, stated, "For a great value, users get to listen to as much music as they want, while utilizing superior innovations in playlist...
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Julian McBrowne at About displays excellent taste, listing GarageSpin as one of the Top 5 Music Blogs. ;) Also listed were Music Thing (#1), Create Digital Music (#2), Engadget (#3), and Gizmodo (#4). GarageSpin brought up the rear at #5....
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Om Malik from Business 2.0 and Rags Gupta from Digital Music News (and Live365) recently duked it out over the future and/or death of online radio. Granted, their definitions of “online radio” differ. Rags includes thinks of online radio as...
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There you have it, my hunch was right. Rhapsody To Go was launched by RealNetworks, along with a few other options: Rhapsody® Unlimited access to over 1,000,000 songs. Get a free 14-day trial now. Rhapsody To Go Take a million...
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One of many gloomy predictions made in Orwell's 1984 was that all popular music would be computer-generated without human input. Orwell might say we're one step closer to proving that prediction true. Polyphinic HMI's Hit Song Science (HSS) technology, in...
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The "Google of Independent Music"? According to the makers of Indy: Indy is a music discovery program that learns what you like, and plays more of it. And it's free. Indy uses an advanced collaborative filtering system to predict what...
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I received another version of the teaser email from RealNetworks CEO, Rob Glazer. This one was directed towards current and past Rhapsody subscribers, and includes a little more info regarding the "announcement": I also want to share some exciting news...
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But what's the news? I was flattered by a personal and reminiscent piece of spam from Rob Glazer himself, with the subject line, "An important message from Rob Glaser, CEO of Real". It contained the following teaser: On April 26,...
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The fate of the major record labels in the presence of file sharing technology is largely in debate in the press and in the courts. A similar debate is taking place among local musicians. Shawn Macomber reports opinions expressed by...
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Byron Acohido of USA TODAY wrote a good article about the increasing economic and artistic force that is the new digital, do-it-yourself artist: [A] combination of accessible tech tools and pervasive Internet usage has touched off a do-it-yourself revolution in...
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Mediaworks recently announced its release of the "first Family Friendly peer-to-peer (P2P) software" that only includes authorized copy-written music and videos. With the Grokster case hitting headlines lately, this announcement was well timed. Many consumers new to the world of...
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There has been a lot of discussion here lately regarding the development of new musician community sites. On such expanding community is Online Music World, which includes a musician's forum as well as an online music news blog. The forum...
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Ok, we're beginning to see a pattern. Microsoft launched another co-branded DJ site, the Scenario, with Coke. I just wrote about their launch of Crossfader, the DJ/Mixing community site (see post here). The two launches were a day apart. See...
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The new Microsoft DJ/Mixer community site, Crossfader, was released in beta today. Member forums, member blogs, music uploads, and an integrated music/video player are all included, making for a pretty impressive package. I think this may be part of Microsoft's...
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Home recording studio musicians and indie film makers face a similar challenge: getting their work seen and heard by the public. In my last post, I argued that music subscription services help indie music by facilitating discovery of new bands...
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The explosion of portable music subscription offerings is good news for home recording studio musicians and indie labels.Napster To Go, XM and Sirius satellite radio, iRadio, and MusicGremlin are all included. An iPod owner buys music he or she already...
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Maria Schneider, jazz composer, may be the first artist ever to win a Grammy for an album distributed solely on the Web. Using ArtistShare, an Internet-based music delivery service, Maria actually funded the cost of her original budget before she...
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So says a Pew Internet survey. So what? Well, it's significant considering many musicians' views 5-10 years ago, which were cautious or unfamiliar with the term (as was the music industry). Results indicate most US artists and musicians now embrace...
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GarageSpin is garage band buzz, covering audio recording and music promotion technology for unsigned bands. Artist empowerment. DIY. DreamSpin is my 1-man band.