The Music Middle Class (Contd.)

Interesting Model created by Kyle Bylin (available on Hypebot)

The Music Middle Class

A couple of weeks ago, at the Grammy Northwest Music Tech Summit, Ian Rogers from Topspin Media held an interesting keynote about the new music marketing model and the truly existent middle class artists.

Nothing really new but I thought that his keynote gives a very clear and concise overview of the actual situation on the music industry.

His speech can be summarized in few points:

1. The old model is dead.
2. The definition of an hit and success have changed.
3. What it really matters is the artist/fan relationship.
4. A new middle class of artists is emerging.

Following there are some of my favourite quotes but you can read the full talk here.

"Continuing to talk about the health of the music industry on these terms is as if we’d all been crying about the dying cassette business in 1995"

"There is nothing wrong with the music business, the problem is with the CD business (PE's Chuck D MIDEM, 2008)"

"Artists: do a 360 deal with yourself"

"There are only two players in the music business that matter at the end of the day: the artists and the fans. The rest of us either add value or get in the way [..] every player needs to either understand how it truly adds value or it needs to get out of the way, Topspin included. Our business does not operate on lock-in, ownership of copy written work, or long-term contracts. We either add value today with a compelling service or we die. And I’m perfectly happy with that" .

The Alive Drive

I was just checking out my mate's Web site at http://www.newfoundfrequency.com. The site is currently on hold waitng to be relaunched in 2009. One thing that grabbed my interest was a URL in very small text on the animated gif on the homepage - thealivedrive.com. The site doesn't tell you much at all, something about a USB wristband. Sort of innovative, but been done before, then I wondered about the "alive" part of the name and thought wouldn't it be great if it was wireless enabled. A quick Google search later turned up this:

A few months a go, the now 68-year-old Ringo Starr made his new album available as a USB bracelet and now the 52-year-old Jimmy Barnes gets a slap on the wrist, he has also made his new Alive Drive available in the same format. The Alive Drive is a USB wristband that includes his latest album Out of the Blue and a bonus live album. It connects to exclusive Barnes content via the Internet and can be updated to alert fans to Barnes news and upcoming gigs. Over the next 12 months, extra Barnes tracks will be made available to owners of the Jimmy Barnes Alive Drive. No doubt about those codgers keeping up with new technology for their grandchildren. No mention if Jimmy's is available in colours as loud as his voice!

I put the really interesting bits in bold. This is an interesting concept. A personal storage device, no built in playback tech as far as I can tell, but a device that literally ties you to a particular artist. I'll be looking for more information on this and keeping an eye on its development.

The Aura Music Explaura

Another newish music recommender whose peculiarites are:

1 Provide motivation why a particular song/artist was recommended;

2 The system can be pointed toward the right direction expressing what you like but also what you don't like (ex: I like heavy metal but I don't like monster voice).



Watch the demo here.

You Are In Control Symposium

At the "You are in Control" Symposium in Iceland, which just ended yesterday, Laura Seach, head of Digital Marketing at the electronic label Ninja Tunes, had a very interesting presentation about digital promotional strategies.
She discussed the specific case study of the band Roots Manuva and the launch of their new album Slime and Reason.
She says that every digital campaign starts with researching the fans base:
"I need to know how they consume digitally, where they consume digitally, which sites they're on, how old they are, if they are streaming or downloading" .
She mentioned widgeting and channeling, using platforms such as Ilike and Kyte, as the main online expansion tools.
According to Seach, and I strongly agree with that, the critical aspect of an online campaign seems to be ability to create a fully interconnected campaign across several platforms, one that can reach a dispersed and floating fan.
She overcame this problem by creating a totally interlinked campaign, including the artist main website, which update every hour using feeds from Twitter, Flickr, YouTube, blogs and other sources.
Other tactics include the use of mobile platforms and a Bluetooh-based content delivery at shows.
You can read more here

Electrofringe Presentation online

For those who didn't make it to the presentation at the Electrofringe, we uploaded our slides on the website.
This is the link:
http://musictwopointzero.net.au/research.php

Lessig in the WSJ

A piece in the Wall Street Journal summarising Lessig's latest thoughts on remix culture. Nice comment in the context of the Prince/Youtube case:

How is it that sensible people, people no doubt educated at some of the best universities and law schools in the country, would come to think it a sane use of corporate resources to threaten the mother of a dancing 13-month-old?

"In Rainbows" 1 year anniversary

It was the 10th of October 2007 when Radiohead launched what would have changed the configuration of the free music economy, the beginning of a new way how music can be distributed online.
A year after, what can be concluded in terms of the impact of Radiohead's move in the music distribution industry?
The "chose your own price model" has for sure revolutionized the independent distribution model. However, saying that this is how the future of music distribution will be like it might be too naive.
Radiohead is not the first band on the planet to exploit internet distribution but they probably were the first famous band to do it.
The experiment worked very well for Radiohead especially for the considerable amount of publicity they received but, at the end, it is just one of the thousands ideas bands are trying out to get their slice of attention.
I doubt that an average indie band would have received the same degree of attention.
For sure Radiohead set up an example for other bands to follow but their model can not be considered as a template solution for the struggling music business. It was more of a solution for Radiohead than for the entire music industry.
Probably the real lesson to be learned is that there are as many ways to sell music as musicians.

I also wonder if Radiohead would have planned the launch slightly differently, by providing a streaming version of the album for people to try out before downloading it, things would have evolved in a different way.
By not providing a streaming version, the only way for people to judge how much the album was worth to them was to download it.
And many people probably did it for free since they didn't know if it was worth it more than that.

MySpace Music launch tonight!!

It is finally happening.
The over discussed re-launch of Myspace Music it is happening tonight (Thursday morning in the US). However, it will be available internationally over the following months.
All the majors are in the deal (EMI joined last minute) plus The Orchard and few more indies.
According to Hypebot, new services will include:

• The new ‘MyMusic,’ personal music management toolset
• Free and unlimited ad-supported, full-length audio streaming
• Free and unlimited playlist functionality
• Free discography and content catalogues for SONY BMG, UMG and WMG artists
• DRM-free MP3 music e-commerce downloads powered by Amazon MP3
• Ringtone e-commerce powered by Jamster
  

Interesting point, raised by Techcrunch, is the fact that they are keeping unclear how record labels will be compensated. Do they have a special deal with majors which let them avoid pay-per-stream fees or pay a "special" fee?
Other streaming services (lastfm, iMeem) pay between $ .005 to $ .01 per song. If labels will allow Myspace to pay less, that could raise some legal concerns in terms of preferential pricing, antitrust, and price discrimination due to the fact they own stock of the company.
Read more here

A Strangler Flips

From techdirt

Musicans Self-Financing

Quick post from Techdirt with some interesting links to self-finance models for musos.

Birthday Songs

OK. This one is totally frivolous - but it's kinda sorta about music discoverability: Go to this website and you'll find a list of the Number One song for any day going back to 1891 or something - complete with links to itunes where available. (Billboard, US charts if you really must know - does Billboard really go back that far???) I'll leave you with the fact that the number one song on my actual birthday was Herman and the Hermits singing Henry the Eighth. Now go figure it out :-)

For who didn't know....

If you would like to have access to Pandora but you are not in the USA, here there are some useful tips on how to mask your identity and other intersting stuff.. Thanks to Wired!

Critics vs Crowd

Critical Metrics is a newish music recommendation system I came across recently.

Its particularity is its reliance on current and past critical opinions for recommending songs, rather than relying on the more common "wisdom of crowds".

Critical Metrics uses opinions from both mainstream sources like the Rolling Stone ad more niche sources like MP3 blogs such as fluxblog.

According to the founder Joey Anuff, traditional social recommendation systems such as Lastfm are based on "social metrics", and they primarily emphasize what other fans of your favorite band like. Anuff says:

I don't believe social metrics have the same level of authority as critics opinions. For this reason they do a poor job of solving the programming problem every single purveyor has: How do you turn anyone into new music? [....] The undemocratic geek in me is compelled to cite the huge numbers of people - let's just call them "the mainstream"- who do not worry about this, who like what they like and/or hear enough new stuff through happenstance. [...] I am sure there are at least 5 millions music heads in this country who consider music a food group"

It seems like Anuff is probably relying on the music obsessed to help Critical Metrics to take off.

Music blogs appeal to advertisers

Another Fortune article about music and MP3 blogs.
It seems like marketers and advertisers are becoming more and more interested in placing ads on MP3 blogs.. apparently they are realizing that this is where young hipsters are congregating.
They are a very attractive segment since people who recommend music on MP3 blogs are often trendsetters with an high influential power over their peers.
Jon Cohen and Rob Stonehad, two veteran music marketers, had the idea of setting up a network of blogs which all together reach an audience of 240,000. The network includes blogs which are not serial copyright infringers such as RCRDLBL, thefader.com, thetripwire.com...
By creating this network, they can now approach advertisers with an offer of 12 websites combined all in one.

Is the Hype Machine the new gatekeeper of the music industry?

According to a Fortune article of a couple of weeks ago, the Hype Machine, with its 1 million monthly visitors, has become one of the most discussed music website on the internet.

Despite the Hype Machine is operating in a legally gray area, it is considered to be one of the most influential MP3 blog to let people discover new music.

That's why independent labels are willing to tolerate a certain amount of unauthorized downloading in change of having the their artists heard.

On the other hand, major labels haven't expressed their opinion yet and the RIAA declined to comment.

Mr. Volodkin, the founder, has plans of growing the business. He thinks he can help record labels keep track of how their artists are perceived in the blogosphere. But growing the business needs outside money which might be hard to find.. Not sure how many investors would be willing to put money on a business with a high risk of lawsuit.

Reinventing the Charts

And this from Techdirt:

...a rather interesting experiment being done by the BBC and IBM to basically reinvent the concept of the music chart with a beta test of a new offering called Sound Index...

Sony buys out Bertelsmann

From Wired (and no doubt elsewhere:

Sony Corp. said Tuesday it is buying Bertelsmann AG out of their 50-50 music venture Sony BMG for $900 million, giving it full ownership of a roster of artists including Alicia Keys and the increased ability to leverage music over an array of electronic devices.

Latest US Music Retailer Figures

Today's report from NPD:

1. iTunes
2. Wal-Mart (Walmart, Walmart.com, Walmart Music Downloads)
3. Best Buy (Best Buy, Bestbuy.com, Best Buy Digital Music Store)
4. Amazon (Amazon.com, AmazonMP3.com)
5. Target (Target and Target.com)

Indie labels sales are surpassing the majors

A couple of weeks ago BusinessWeek published an interesting article saying how independent labels Sub Pop, Merge and Matador are selling more records than majors.

Sub Pop recently got 3 gold records (the Postal Service and the Shins obtained two of them), increased its revenues by 79% and sold more records in 2007 than in any other year ever.

So, what makes indie successful in a time where music sales are down of 11%?


First of all, there has been an increase of licensing demand for not mainstream music. The Shins, for example provided songs for McDonald, Gap, and Microsoft ads. Advertisers say:

"I don't have to get the Beatles to have a successful commercial, and indie bands come cheaper, to boot"


Other factors include less expenses, reduced staff, and stronger relationships with audience and artists.

MySpace launches its new music service in September

According to a Fortune article (through Hypebot) of few days ago, it finally seems that MySpace will launch its new music service next september.

The new service will include free streaming, songs purchase, ringtones, t-shirts and concert tickets.

MySpace hopes that this move will increase its competitive advantage towards Facebook which, despite has less users than MySpace, is growing at a faster rate.

What the millenials are saying

In summary: technological advancement will promote further diversification in the music industry, in terms of business models, content and mechanisms for artistfan interaction. No single approach is ‘the next big thing’, and experimentation is strongly encouraged. No-one can afford to wait for proof of concept when the next big innovation is always just around the corner. Millennials are constantly experimenting with and evaluating their experience as consumers: we suggest the music business does the same. (source)

Isn't this what everyone has been telling the record industry for a while?

The Hard Graft

There was a refreshing article in the NYTimes over the weekend about rappers selling their own CDs themselves on the streets. This appears to be one of the more difficult ways of distributing music, yet one street peddler has shifted over 65,000 in four years. Sure, that doesn't sound a lot compared to a major artist, but still, given the distribution method, it's quite impressive.

What is Live Nation up to now?

Live Nation are on the move again snagging more big names.

Indies

Interesting post over at Coolfer about what exactly "indie" means in music 2.0. Once you get past the definitional stuff, there's a couple of interesting paragraphs about the necessary intermediaries for success (which is another contested term, but that's a whole different post, or paper).

Artists can succeed without a major label, but a decent career is going to be hard to achieve without the other traditional components: manager, lawyer, booking agent, publisher, web designer and maybe indie label. As you can see, an indie artist is independent only of a major label contract, not of agents, consultants, representation or standard expenses that take up their share of the artist's income.

I get the impression that people think any ol' Tom, Dick or Harry can call up the music supervisor of "Grey's Anatomy" and get a song into an episode, or that those handful of career-changing music supervisors are always serendipitously stumbling across complete unknowns and placing songs in their series. But even though one facet of a career may have changed -- the type of record label -- the name of the game is still relationships and getting your phone calls returned. Major labels have relationships with the most brick-and-mortar retailers. They cornered the market and are a requisite for wide distribution. Music distribution has changed, obviously, but there are still plenty of gatekeepers to get through.

Rhapsody adopts MP3

Rhapsody has gone MP3. It looks as though the major have completed dropped the DRM idea and have embraced open playback.

Ad-supported Music

Here's a blog worth a glance at for another perspective.

After South Korea UK could be the next country to have a licensed P2P service

By the end of the year UK might have a new legal file sharing service licensed at broadband ISP level.

The news was published by the UK-based Register last thursday, which delcared that:

" The move would represent the most radical supply-side reform ever considered by the music business in the modern era".

There are still several things to be finalized but it looks like licensed P2P is finally happening.

Artist finances new album with blank media levy

Torrentfreak has this interesting article.

Summary: Mr.Suitcase’s latest album “Frauds” is something in between a remix and a mash-up, built out of other people’s music, and fully funded by the pirate tax refund he received for his first album.

Right, I'm off to download this album 'cos it sounds interesting.

Update: I've now had time to listen to a bit of this. Nice sound, excellent production. Give it a listen for yourself.

Xihilisk

UK artist Xihilisk has released everything he's done via BitTorrent for free. As this TorrentFreak article states, he's not the only one to ever have done this (hell, I've been giving my stuff away online since the late 90s). It's an interesting article that deals with some of his reasons for giving away the music:

I knew that quite a few people were already doing this, but its still the most exciting and effective way for me to get my music to people who never would have found it otherwise.

Walmart cuts out the middleman..

From today's NYTimes. For all he discussion about disintermediation, it seems to work in any number of ways. Now, Walmart is bypassing the record labels and going straight to artists - something that itunes (for example) is already in the habit of doing...

BPI teams up with Virgin

This story has been all over the news sites lately. Virgin have agreed to monitor their subscribers' file-sharing habits on behalf of the BPI. You can read the exact details for yourself, but what I'm interested in is exactly how they are going to do this - keyword filters, digital fingerprinting? Is there a risk that users might get a strike for legitimate uses of file-sharing technologies? As we see more and more Music 2.0 we're likely to see more and more bands distributing their works via BitTorrent, are users downloading a new Nine Inch Nails album at risk of being targetted? Will we see a repeat of the recent blunders of (RIAA lapdogs) MediaDefender and seeing legitimate 'traders' suffer denial of service attacks, disconnection or the indignity of having a black mark against their name?

Quite frankly I'm disgusted that Virgin have bought into this.

Ten Bucks a song for itunes distribution

Check out Tunecore's distribution deal. (via TUAW)

Another techdirt rant...

Another techdirt rant that has some internet success stories worth following up...

"Freakomendations'

I just came across this blog which mainly talks about music discovery and recommendations.



If you are interested in recommendation systems and how well they really work it's worth to check it out.



I liked the "freakomendations" posts (a new word made up by the Author Paul Lamere to describe strange recommendations that are often made by recommendations systems) and this Power Point Presentation.

So what about this?

An old post from techdirt suggesting a business model for new bands. 

Naaaaaaapster!

Auntie Beeb reports that Napster has just opened the world's largest online DRM-free MP3 store. It'll directly compete with Amazon, which is the only other comparable DRM-free store. Sure, iTunes offers the iTunes+ selection, but it's limited. It'll be interesting to see how this plays out. What I find interesting is that on the one hand the recording industry is trying to fight unauthorised sharing of MP3s but is now simultaneously putting unprotected content out there in the market place. I guess that if nothing else it'll take the DMCA and Digital Agenda's TPM controls out of the game.

Telling Lies

This is bit of a fanboy post admittedly, but I was just looking for an entry on Wikipedia for the movie "Telling Lies" and instead came across the entry for David Bowie's song by the same name.

According to Wikipedia (and I paraphrase Sherm here with an "I know, I know") "Telling Lies" (from the "Earthling" album) was the first freely downloadable single from a major artist.

Three versions of "Telling Lies" were released on Bowie's official website beginning September 11, 1996 — one version was released for each of three weeks — constituting the first ever downloadable single by a major artist. According to issued press releases, over 300,000 people downloaded the original Internet-only release. Two months later it was released as a single by BMG in Europe.

Venture Capital and Music 2.0

There is another interesting Hypebot post summarizing Venture Capital talks at the MusicTech Summit happened in San Francisco last week.



Apparently Venture Capitalists seem a bit reluctant in investing in music 2.0 companies because of the few revenues generated within the industry and the dubious legality of many of their models.



You can read more here



From what emerged in these talks, it looks like the future of music 2.0 companies doesn't look very promising.

Music 2.0 top 10 issues

Hypebot posted an interesting list of what they think are the top 10 issues in Music 2.0.

How this issues will be developed will characterize the future of the music industry.

You can read them here.

The CD's not dead?

There's an interesting article over at Coolfer rebutting Wired's proclamation that the CD is dead. As it's only a click away I won't bother reiterating the details here, but I strongly recommend that you read it because it provides some important reminders.

Combining Music and Art...on stage

The Wall Street Journal wrote an article about a band called Cloud Cult. They combine music with live painting onstage. Instead of making revenues from merchandising, the band sells paintings and other souvenirs.



"In the crowded genre of indie rock, in which bands typically earn more by touring than selling albums, the painters have helped Cloud Cult's stage show stand out. While the paintings offer a glimpse into the economics of a working-class rock band, they're also intimately tied to Cloud Cult's music."

They also spent $15,000 for their CDs (double the price of a typical rate) since they used non-toxic inks and recycled packaging instead of the standard plastic cases.

Admirable idea but I wonder if these extra costs will be transfered to the final consumer.

Tricky

The fabulous Tricky is also on the "let your fans remix your music" bandwagon.

http://www.knowlewestboy.com/

This is one that I just might have a go at myself.

And for the second time tonight I've come across another term that's new to me. It appears that the "let your fans remix your music" trend that has been sweeping the Net is known as "crowdsourcing" - I'm guessing that's a play on "crowdsurfing" with both terms referring to different way that fans can get close to the recording artist :)

What's interesting about this particular instance is (and this is as I understand it from Wired) that remixers will be rewarded with the payment of one pound sterling, but that payment buys your rights in the remix. I'm unsure at this stage how I feel about that.

Tumblelogs

Just when I thought that there was nothing going on in the Music 2.0 world I came across a new term - "tumblelog".

From Wikipedia:

A tumblelog (or tlog) is a variation of a blog that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, tumblelogs are frequently used to share the author's creations, discoveries, or experiences while providing little or no commentary.

Wired has this short, but interesting article about Joseph Arthur's work. It seems that tlogs offer the digital equivalent of a working artist's CV. They may also provide a useful means to engage fans, not necessarily through bi-directional communication but in terms of distributing content (finished and in progress).

Merlin . . . the 5th major?

Twelve thousand indie labels have banded together to form Voltron! Ahem, no . . . they've banded together to form a virtual label called Merlin in order to gain some heavy bargaining power with the majors. According to Ars Technica indies produce 80 percent of the world's music, which is strange, because I was always under the impression that the majors owned about 80 percent of the world's recorded music.

GTA

The music supervisor for Grand Theft Auto IV has stated that GTA soundtracks help individuals to discover new music:

"GTA" soundtracks are a big deal."

'GTA,' more than any game, helps people discover new music and become aware of old music and break bands and all that," Pavlovich said. Those who've been bingeing on the game this week, hearing many of its tunes in their heads, would find that hard to dispute.

Blowback from In-tune Australia Video

MIPI recently launched a video (called In-Tune Australia) featuring a whole bunch of Australian musicians talking about how it's not a rock-star life. Of course, it's nothing less than a more mannered anti-piracy/anti-download campaign, funded by the record industry.

Now, one of the musicians in the video has squealed. Lindsay McDougall from Frenzal Rhomb claims he was never told about the motives for the video, and would never have taken part if he knew:

He said he was told the 10-minute film, which is being distributed for free to all high schools in Australia, was about trying to survive as an Australian musician and no one mentioned the video would be used as part of an anti-piracy campaign.

Et Tu Metallica?

Napster busters Metallica may be having a change of heart. A report in The Age cites a Rolling Stone interview (I know, I know) which suggests that they may be happy exploring the ways of Radiohead and NIN:

In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine, Ulrich said Metallica's contract with Warner Music expired after their next album.

"We want to be as free a player as possible," he said.

"We've been observing Radiohead and [Nine Inch Nails frontman] Trent Reznor and in 27 years or however long it takes for the next record, we'll be looking forward to everything in terms of possibilities with the internet."

We'll see..

RIAA Retail Stats

From Coolfer: The RIAA has released its shipment statements for 2007. Some interesting stats. CDs are down, no surprise there, but vinyl is up as are kiosk downloads and mobile downloads. Digital music subscriptions are nominally up but the dollar value has fallen through the floor.

Full PDF here.

Try not to laugh.

iTunes

On a self-indulgent note . . . yay! My remixes are on the front page of iTunes Australia this week :)

MP3Tunes vs EMI

MP3Tunes CEO Michael Robertson (who is bit of a personal hero) sent an email out today to all MP3Tunes users informing them of EMI's attempts to argue that storing Mp3 files online (at MP3Tunes) is illegal. MP3Tunes is a storage facility (and not any form of file-sharing in disguise):

Files are not MP3tunes' possessions any more than the contents of a safety deposit box are owned by the bank that houses them. The storage provided by MP3tunes is the user's own space. A Locker is empty when someone opens an account and that customer decides what files are placed into their Locker. All files are stored at the request of the user. People who choose to utilize remote storage should be guaranteed the same level of privacy they have for the files stored on their local hard disk.

As you may be aware, the major record label EMI has sued MP3tunes, claiming our service is illegal . . . Much is at stake — if you don't have the right to store your own music online then you won't have the right to store ebooks, videos and other digital products as well. The notion of ownership in the 21st century will evaporate. The idea of ownership is important to me and I want to make sure I have that right and my kids do too.

The Problem with DRM

Microsoft shut down its MSN store when they launched the Zune. Now they're shutting down the authorisation servers for that store. So people who legitimately paid for music won't be able play that music on any new computers they buy. Or upgrade. And they wonder why bittorrent is so popular. Good thing this only affects about six people :-)

Game On

Motley Crue will, according to a SMH story, become the first band to release a single in a videogame. "Saints of Los Angeles" will be available via XBox Live Marketplace and Sony's Playstation store for the game RockBand.

MySpace neglects Indie Artists

Three of the four major labels have become partners in MySpace Music, which will extend MySpace's current musical offerings to merchandise, song downloads, concert tickets and more.



A while ago Listening Post expressed concern for aggregators of Indie music, The Orchard in particular, as they are currently being left out from the MySpace Music deal.

Which means: revenues generated from advertising in indie band’s pages will flow in part to major labels pockets.

Yesterday Wired published an interview with MySpace co-founder Chris De Wolfe about the deal. On the topic of dividing shares with digital aggregators, like The Orchard, he declared:

“We're open to extending our equity deals to the right partners, but at a certain point, you can't extend equity to everyone. What we originally set out to do was create a platform where every artist in the world would not only have a free promotional platform like they do right now — we're providing a free service — but also to create additional revenue streams for them”

Which probably means that only bigger aggregator will be considered but is not clear if they will become equity partners or they will be given just a portion of advertising revenues.

Things get even worst for unaffiliated artists and unsigned bands which will be completely left out.

“Wired: Will unsigned bands on MySpace Music have a way to participate in the ad revenue?



DeWolfe: We don't really have the mechanism right now to develop an affiliate program or a payout structure for millions and millions of bands.... We started with the major music companies, and we're talking to the consortiums because the indie bands are really the heart of MySpace — it's how MySpace Music started. We value their contribution, and one of our initial missions was to help artists that didn't get signed by major labels to create a living based on their art.We first did that by creating this free platform where they could get fans from all over the world that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to reach; and provide a platform for those fans to become friends with those independent artists. And when those independent artists go on the road, they can sell out their shows and make money through touring and merchandise and tickets and all of that. We're trying to extend those revenue streams to the independent artists. This is all meant to be a very, very positive movement for them.”

Listening Post suggests to unsigned artists to start look around for aggregators which could possibly become part of the deal but I think indie artists should just use MySpace to divert traffic into their website.

Get PluggedIn!

A new Internet music company is looking to displace YouTube, MySpace and MTV.com as the hub for music videos on the Internet.

PluggedIn, a Santa Monica-based startup launching tomorrow, is backed by Overbrook Entertainment, the production and management company co-founded a decade ago by Will Smith.

IFPI 2008 Report

Via Coolfer (with some interesting commentary), a link (pdf) to the latest IFPI Report on Digital Music. Thanks Steve.

Slicethepie vs. Majors Label

According to a recent post from Listening Post, Slicethepie declared that in 2008 they are planning to fund 30 new bands which is more than what 3 of the major labels managed to sign last year

Artists... don't forget Wikipedia

This is a very interesting article about how people looking for bands information on Yahoo search engine prefer the link to Wikipedia rather than MySpace by a factor of more than 2-to-1...often the Wikipedia link is even preferred to the artist's web site...

It would be interesting to know why people do actually prefer Wikipedia's link rather than MySpace's or even the actual artist's web site....

And if we consider that Wikipedia holds probably only few thousands of entries, while MySpace has over 3 million, we can easily deduce how artists are missing out on that...

And now you can't throw 'em away...

From Boing Boing:

The Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohmann sez, "In a brief filed in federal court yesterday, Universal Music Group (UMG) states that, when it comes to the millions of promotional CDs ('promo CDs') that it has sent out to music reviewers, radio stations, DJs, and other music industry insiders, throwing them away is 'an unauthorized distribution' that violates copyright law

.

Policing the Police

Following on from the Guardian piece about how download culture has permeated our youth (!), a quick link to a piece in the Australian which suggests that (at least in Sth Australia), its rife amongst the nation's finest. Check it out. Via techdirt

New Found Frequency

This is more of a mental reminder than an insightful blog post, but I met up with Reggie Ray and Juan from New Found Frequency in Sydney tonight for a good chin-wag about the current state of the recording industry. One interesting point was that like Sherm and I, they're also having problems getting responses from APRA :)

Feargal Sharkey is afraid

because according to a new study by the British Music Rights group: "95% of the 1,158 people surveyed had engaged in some form of copying, including taking the music contents of a friend's hard drive". The Guardian has more.

The New Music Equation

Maths ain't my strong point, so it'll take me a while to digest this, but in the mean time, if you figure it out let me know :P

Amazon Money

A preliminary insight into Amazon's MP3 payback structure. First impressions suggest that artists get pretty much the same deal as though they'd gone through iTunes.

Topspin Media

Topspin Media is a company just founded by ex Yahoo Music Ian Rogers together with Peter Gotcher and Shamal Ranasingh.

The aim of the company is "to build web applications that will help artists to earn a living through marketing and distributing their content directly to fans"

No other information have been released so far, but I think it is worthed to keep an eye it to see how the company will implement its mission in the next months ...

More on MySpace joint venture with major labels

If you want to know who will get the most benefit out of the deal and... who will be left out, check out Bruce Houghton forecasts from hypebot.com

Myspace goes corporate?

Well, apart from the fact that it already *is* corporate, here's a Techcrunch piece about how Rupert's social network plans to handle music...

Interesting article - an interview with the founder of Tunecore.

Maybe they *don't* get it...

Radiohead's innovation or lack of has been much discussed. Now, apparently they're asking fans to remix a long forgotten single, but requiring them to *buy* the various tracks to so do. See this techdirt piece. Maybe Steve's apology was premature :-)

More on bands and brands

After Santana launched his new "Carlos by Carlos Santana" line of women's shoes available at Macy's and, during a concert, state appreciation for the soulful qualities of Mariah Carey's signature fragrance, Groove Aramda just sold its soul to Bacardi, sigining a 12 months 360 degree with them.

Video on YouTube


Shame on them

Bronfman wants a service levy

Another Wired piece. This time pointing to Warner Music's plan to "bundle a monthly fee into consumers' Internet service bills for unlimited access to music."

Reznor v Radiohead on Wired

10 Rounds head to head courtesy of the good folks over at Wired

Billy Bragg on Bebo

The chaps over at Coolfer are linking to an interesting story about Billy Bragg's comments on sites that use musicians to drive traffic towards advertisement-ridden web pages but don't remunerate the musos themselves.

This takes me back down my memory lane to what I like to call the golden age of MP3 with the original MP3.com which ran a payback-for-playback scheme where artists were paid from a pool generated by advertising for their playback. I still have my first royalty check . . . sigh

Sony + Subscriptions - DRM???

An engadget report suggests that Sony will shortly launch a subscription-based music service. No big news there - everyone else is doing it, or about to. But the fine print is that it will be ipod compatible which leads to speculation that it will be DRM-free (because apple has so far refued to licence Fairplay to anyone, let alone Sony). We'll wait and see...

Exetel and p2p

Looks like Australian ISP Exetel has caved into the demands of MIPI (the local industry's anti-piracy police) and blocked users who partake a little too much in p2p activity. More in a SMH article here, but not much detail as to how the company identifies such users. Seeing as the rest of the Australian ISPs (and the industry body) aren't too keen on treating their customers in this way, one has to suspect that exodus won't just be the name of a Leon Uris novel. Then again, it's a policy that Exetel say they have been implementing for 2 years so may be a MSM beatup. Whirlpool discussion here.

TechDirt clarifies

The Music 2.0 meme is read by some as the 'Death of the Label'. But as we allude to in our recent 'Towards 2.0" paper (link somewhere on this site) it's way more complicated than that. Whatever new business models emerge require resources and brains that need to come from somewhere, so it's conceivable that clever labels might adapt. Which is all preamble to a nice post from Techdirt clarifying a few thoughts.

New IPod generation

Inspired by the Nokia "comes with music" handset, Apple is thinking of launching a new generation Ipod that would give to consumers free access to the entire ITunes library, in exchange of paying a premium price for the device.

Music industry is only partially happy to have found a new source of income: Apple is thinking of paying only $20 to the music industry partner for each device sold, against the $80 paid by Nokia.

On the consumer side, marketing researches have shown that consumers would pay up to $100 more to have free unlimited access to ITunes for the entire life of the device.

NIN v RadioHead

Trent Reznor on Radiohead on Ars:

"I think the way [Radiohead] parlayed it into a marketing gimmick has certainly been shrewd," Reznor said when speaking to Australian Broadcasting Corporation's Michael Atkin. "But if you look at what they did, though, it was very much a bait and switch to get you to pay for a MySpace-quality stream as a way to promote a very traditional record sale."

Songkick Battle

Songkick is a newish service designed to help users find bands and their gigs. They've mashed together some data from myspace and amazon and given you a way to compare three bands at a time. Geeky and a little bit interesting. Maybe. Check it out.

NIN launches the Ghost film festival

After the release of their last album Ghosts I-IV in editions ranging from free to $300 box, Trent Reznor asked to their fans to create music videos for the songs of the album.



The winners, selected by the band, will present their works on a specific YouTube section.



"To expand the idea of the "Ghosts" project, we're inviting anyone and everyone to create visuals to accompany the album's music. In a few months, we'll be gathering the entries we feel are particularly exceptional and highlighting them. There are no rules to this - be as creative as you like. Create a music video, or a short film, or something completely abstract. Use only one track from the album, or use multiple tracks. Only one caveat: Incorporating copyrighted materials (clips from movies, music by other artists, etc) into your video might limit our ability to feature it in the future"



Very clever marketing 2.0 maneuver....

The Top 20 Record Company Mistakes

From Blender magazine, a list of the biggest screw-ups in the history of recorded music. (via Boing Boing)

REM makes another move

MSNBC is reporting that REMs new album will be available on the social networking site iLike - well before its official release date. We can check it out on March 24th to see exactly what *is* available but apparently:

"the iLike launch will make the 11-song set freely available to anyone using iLike.com, Facebook, iTunes or any of the other social networks and sites that offer an iLike application for their platforms."

Whatever that really means

Un-indie

This from Coolfer on what is (not) truly indie in this day and age. Some interesting stuff about Apple's ad campaigns too.

Jock Dynamite Records

Thanks to CC Rachel for the heads up about this label. All the music is freely downloadable under a CC Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License. I've just downloaded Mr Jabsticks' "I Think We May Have a Situation Here" - thirteen 192kbps MP3s of electronic weirdness - just what I need for this evening :P

The Fairness Principle

This is an interesting piece on fairness in Music 2.0. Of particular interest is Trent Reznor's disappointment about the number of downloaders who paid for Saul Williams' debut release. I have to admit that I didn't pay for it, but after listening to it, it's not the kind of album I would buy. This disappointment probably influenced his release decisions concerning the new NIN album.

More NIN

There's an interesting write-up of Reznor's latest offering at Coolfer.

An interesting aspect is that the music has been licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license. This is all well and good, but not all 'remixers' are mash-up artists. What we really want is access to the masters like Reznor provided in previous efforts to more engagingly interact with his fans. Perhaps they'll turn up on the NIN site at some stage.

Seth Godin's Thoughts on the Music Industry

A fun read here It's long, but here's the flavour:

The internet is the ability to get any song you want in front of the people who want to hear it with huge reach and no barriers. What matters isn’t how many, it’s who. Who are you reaching, who are the thought leaders, who are the people who are going to tell other people?

Nine Inch Nails from 0 to 300

The Register reports that NIN has released its new album a la Radiohead. Get 9 tracks for free, or pay to get more.

More on Facebook Music

Following on from Beatrice's post about Facebook Music, I decided to sign up for an account. At first it seems just like signing up for any other online distribution site requiring users to submit email address, band bio, images etc. But when I finalised all the personal details and was ready to sit down and experience the tedium that is uploading MP3s (**see my bonus little rant about this below) when Facebook asks me to "verify my account". What does this mean?

Well, in what I'm seeing as an ultimate step in copyright paranoia, Facebook asks you to submit an electronic image file (i.e. JPG, GIF or PNG) of some legal documentation that proves your identity (i.e. driver's licence, passport):

For legal reasons, Facebook can only authorize you to upload music to your Page if you verify that you formally represent INfest8. Please upload a valid form of legal identification (only passports, photo drivers licenses, or school IDs will be accepted) that identifies you as Steve Collins. You can upload a JPG, GIF or PNG file.

Why is this required?
In order to upload music to your Page, we need you to submit a valid form of identification that identifies you, the admin of the Page. By submitting a valid form of identification, you are confirming that you either own the copyright to the content you will be uploading or that you are authorized by the copyright owner to upload that copyrighted content to your Page. Please note that you can black out any sensitive information on your identification if you wish, other than your name and picture. We currently only accept photo passports, school IDs, and drivers licenses.

I guess that their trying to cover their backs from the outset so they don't run afoul of those poor old boys and girls in the RIAA.

EDIT: I should probably add that this verification process takes two business days. I assume that means that someone has to sit and go through every submission. Reminds me of when MP3.com used to vet each song for unlicensed samples - I ran afoul of that a few time myself.

**Having been using online distribution sites since 1998 I've signed up with many of them and every time I have to go through the tedious exercise of uploading the same tracks over and over again. What would be nice and probably more cost effective when it comes to server space, would be to have a central repository for MP3s that can just be linked to whatever social networking/distribution site you want to sign up with. Meh!

Facebook has finally launched is Music Section

Since last thursday Facebook Music is finally available.



Bands can now create their own profiles, upload songs, photos, videos, plus fans can buy tickets, merchandise and songs, thanks to deals with Music Today service and iTunes.



It will be interesting to see which strategic move MySpace will do next.......

Show me the Money

The labels have always maintained that copyright protection was about protecting the artists (at least publicly) Now those very same artists are wondering where that protection is. Seems like all that settlement money that the labels have extracted out of lawsuits against Napster and the like has not exactly been handed back to the musos. Maybe they just forgot? Or is it as the article suggests:

Manager Irving Azoff, whose clients included The Eagles and Jewel, said it was a struggle to get money from settlements out of record companies like EMI, Universal Music and Warner Music.

Music 2.0 the Book

No, it's not ours. Gert Leonard (who cowrote The Future of Music) has managed to snaffle the title for a collection of essays on the next generation of music companies. Using the Radiohead model, send him forty euro for the print version, or download the ebook and pay what you want.

itunes is number 2

This is all over the web. itunes is now the number 2 music retailer in the US, behind only Walmart. Given amazon's moves into the downloaded music marketplace, it seems that there really *has* been a shift in music buying culture. 

Music Wars

A - sometimes - amusing medley on the Music Wars:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF7cHmyEJ-c

Music downloads to surpass CD sales by 2012

According to Forrester Research Inc. music downloads will account for half of US music sales by 2011 and will exceed CD sales by 2012. Whilst this sounds like exciting news, you have to consider the source of the information: These projections are derived from surveying 5,000 consumers in the US and Canada.

Although The Guardian (UK) is reporting that album download sales are on the up.

Apologies to Radiohead

When "In Rainbows" came out it was during a period of music industry history I'm hereby dubbing "the big turnaround". Radiohead's decsion to release online and receive payment via arbitrary donation appeared to be exemplary of Music 2.0 . . . that is until news broke that a CD box set was being released. At the time a lot of bands were annoyed and I may have dissed the band a bit. I read this yesterday which reports that the decision was the label's and not the band's.

This is an example, and a typical one at that, of the separation of authorship and ownership that is fostered by copyright industries. I remember when Fields of the Nephilim's "Fallen" was released a few years back - it had been over a decade since any new recorded material came out and I eagerly awaited my pre-ordered copy. Imagine my disgust when it arrived, was promptly ripped to my iPod and listened to. The track "Hollow Doll" opens up as a mono mix, until you can clearly hear singer Carl McCoy say "turn me up" and the whole mix suddenly becomes a stereo picture. A bit of Googling later, I discover that "Fallen" was a collection of half-finished tracks and demos. An official statement from Carl pointed out that this release came out without his permission, was completely the work of Jungle (the record label) and was not to be considered part of the Neph canon.

iband

This is either way cool. Or just too geeky for words. I'm downloading the required apps as we speak!! W6A801 in ten minutes steve?

Ad to your music

Ars Technica reports that the labels are quite taken by the idea of ad-supported music, but it isn't clear whether the labels are aiming for downloads or streaming music.

More to come on this

http://www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-draft-news-corp-working-on-music-hulu-for-myspace/

(sorry, I'm in bit of a rush)

REM asks for your video mixes

REM have released a bunch of music videos in mp4 format under Artistic License 2.0 and are inviting remixes. More on O'Reilly Radar and because over at REMHQ:

In a joint effort, Vincent and the band have launched a web site for Supernatural Superserious which offers visitors a truly unique opportunity to download all 10 takes of the video in High Definition and edit their own version of the video.

Mixing up social networking with live music info

I just found Sonic Living - currently only applicable to those living in the US, it mixes up social networking (Pandora, Last.FM) with live music info and appears to link to iTunes. Will be worth keeping an eye on.

Linking Video Games and Music Sales

USA Today reports that Guitar Hero is providing another promotional means for bands to generate sales. Dragonforce say that their sales via CDs and digital downloads have increased. The interesting thing, is that Dragonforce are not a mainstream band, but they are just one of several bands reporting an increase of sales due to Guitar Hero.

Video games, it seems, provide a new way for bands to get heard by a wider audience. Perhaps the increasing interest is stemming from consumers being exposed to bands outside of their usual consumption patterns.

Extending Copyright (again)

The European Commission is suggesting that the copyright in sound recordings be extended from 50 years to 95 years. One has to wonder whether or not this is really necessary. Once again, we see the old author-centric rhetoric about how musicians ability to profit from recorded works should be pulled in line with other forms of works.

Some of the Beatles' early works are nearing that time when the recordings become public domain as are works by artists including The Who, Rolling Stones, Elton John and Bowie.

Bands like Football Teams??

According to the article Branded Bands, EMI announced the implementation of corporate sponsorships agreements for individual bands in order to help out decreasing revenues.

Jack Horner, Frukt founder, says:

"You could well see a band like Coldplay being sponsored by Smirnoff Ice. The biggest challenge I think is that quite a lot of the EMI artists are very credible and very serious and they have built their careers up.

So whilst EMI may want to have Coldplay sponsored by that drink, you have got to question whether Chris Martin will let that happen.

If the artists are not selling enough music to justify the existence of a record label from their CD sales then other ways of generating reviews have got to be found".

I don't want even imagine my favorite band jumping on stage wearing t-shirts with a big MacDonald logo printed in the front.

Can this be considered a further step into the commodization of music???

Are bands slowly going to loose their reputation and artistic credibility??

From Starbucks to Verizon

Now that coffee shops can do the job of the record labels, it's a natural that mobile phone carriers should be in on the act as well. A piece from Billboard tells us that Timbaland has cut a deal with Verizon in the States to produce a 'mobile album':

Timbaland says the deal will let him reach more fans because "every place don't get a CD [but] everybody has a mobile phone."

The bloke must be a genius :-)

(Thanks for the link, Beatrice!)

Where Music Breaks

Some interesting comments from Jimmy Guterman in a post over on O'Reilly Radar today. But this snippet about discoverability caught my eye:

Until the 1980s, record companies looked to radio to break new artists. Until five years ago, the place to launch new performers was video. For most of this decade, the breakdown of traditional music channels has led to new songs being noticed via video games, television shows, and -- most of all - commercials. Whoever is programming the music for Apple's television commercials may be, right now, the most powerful talent scout in the record industry.

To prove his point, Guterman uses the example of the current top selling song on the US iTunes store being the song used in the MacBook Air commercial.

That was the moment we realised the game was up...

From The Economist a few weeks ago:

IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. “That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,” says a person who was there.

Filtering? That old chestnut?

Carey Sherman's latest suggestion on how to deal with music piracy isn't that original, I seem to remember this idea being banded about a few years back. Does he really expect users to sit by and have RIAA enforcement software installed on their machines just to listen to music? C'mon Carey, get a clue.

The Flashbulb - Pirated by iTunes?

Interesting story of the wonderful Benn Jordan (a.k.a. The Flashbulb) on TorrentFreak. The morale of the story seems to be that the so-called digital revolution has spawned numerous intermediaries - many of which don't seem to really be in control of what they're doing, which leads Jordan to his point about artists being control of their own music:

What I’m promoting is the artist’s freedom to choose what can and can’t be done with his/her music, and more importantly, the listener’s freedom to do what he/she wants with their own computer, MP3 player, or internet connection.

After a journey through miles and miles of bullshit in this industry, you learn one thing: If you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself. Whether you’re downloading my music to check it out, to accompany the CD, or even pirating it…I want you to have a version/rip of it that I’ve listened to and approved of.

**Edit:

Ben responded to the TorrentFreak interview on his own blog, and there's more interesting stuff about his approach to distribution and Apple here.

Even the old guys are doing it

As a fan of Gang of Four I'm pleased that there's a new album on the way, but what's interesting is that they "might be releasing the first single or four songs for free on the Internet, or on vinyl, or both, and just see what the marketplace is like".

(Ongoing) Online Music Shakeup

One of the things to watch is the ongoing rise and fall of online music provider wannabees. Last week's Q-Trax debacle is followed this week by Yahoo announcing its dumping of Yahoo! Music and has moved its subscribers over to RealNetwork's Rhapsody. I guess unless you're iTunes, it's pretty tough out there.

Kicking things off

The rhetoric of protecting creators' interests has been pulled out of the cupboard, dusted down and paraded in front of courts, authors, musicians, lawyers and the public since copyright began.

The RIAA and Apple are looking to have the royalty percentage that is owed to songwriters reduced. The mechanical copyright royalty is a major source of income for many musicians, because typically they earn very little from sales of recorded music. Collecting mechanical copyrights isn't a straightforward operation which is why most musicians sign up with a publisher who deals with all that, but takes (usually) 50% of the mechanical royalty as payment. As you can work out for yourself, if the mechanical royalty is reduced, then the amount due to the songwriters gets whittled down even further.

According to the report (see above link) the main complaint seems to be from the recording side of the industry who claim that the music publishing industry has "gotten fat" whilst the recording industry has suffered.