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.