We all know the story…
CD sales are sky diving, P2P services are incredibly popular, record labels are stubborn, and music fans are getting sued.
Can this nightmare ever be fixed? The Electronic Frontier Foundation has created a plan that in theory could work to combatant the nightmare we’ve all heard above. Their proposal, “A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing” breaks down an innovative plan that seemingly could work.
In brief, the plan is to have file sharers pay a small fee every month to a blanket or collective liscense that is almost exactly the same as what radio…
Researchers at Michigan State University have found that 90 percent of TV commercials contain some type of music and yet the use of jingles is declining.
David Allan analyzed more than 3,400 ads from one week of programming on ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX. Allan, whose work appeared in the Journal of Advertising Research, said he believes the increased use of music is due to music-file sharing on the Internet. He noted music companies are realizing that their stars’ music in ads is a type of product placement and advertisers are realizing the star power of some performers.
Of course, not every musical…
In a great piece written over at the Artists House Music Blog, Andrew Goodrich breaks down what he believes are the healthy traits of a successful music business. He explains that in a such a buyer heavy market, the keys to keeping an entity healthy lie in creating value in absolutely everything you do.
His four main traits of a healthy (music)business are:
Have an easily identifyable competitive advantage.
Constantly strive to increase your product’s viral nature.
Create a social object through which people can build genuine connections and relationships.
Create a synergy amongst your products that points to your core competency.
I particularly love his mentioning of creating a positive feedback loop:
“Make…
From a post that I recently wrote on Artists House Music:
Calling all independent artists!!! Bandcamp is here, have no fear! I think.
For those of y’all who have not checked out bandcamp.mu, you’re missing out. Not only is this the sexiest place that I’ve seen where independent artists can call their music’s home, but it looks as if its not all bells and whistles.
I’m not going to explain all of the fancy features in detail, Ethan Diamond’s screencast is wonderful and I encourage everyone to take the six minutes to watch it; you won’t be disappointed. In particular, the graphs that show the differing…
After years and years of lawyers telling users to pull down copyrighted content from YouTube, MtV and Viacom have changed their minds.
YouTube has announced they will start using a service called Auditude, a file identifying service that matches voices and videos with television shows and videos already in their database. It’s been reported that within seconds of uploading content, Audible can scan and tag the clip, and then identify which show it might have originated from. The end result is an identified video, and YouTube can then use the information to monetize the video by posting an ad over…
Earlier this month I posted about music blogs and how they are influencing the music industry.
Continuing on that theme is a conversation between the author of Music Think Tank and the International Federation of Phonographic Industries. The conversation brings up questions like “Do you think music blogs are the heirs to radio stations and music magazines, both or neither,” and “Do you believe many blogs can become viable businesses or will most remain essentially hobbies?”
Dave Allen’s responses are very insightful and provocative. Check it out here!
Blackberry and their many software partners have been unveiling new apps and software at an amazing rate. One that is getting a lot of attention is buzzd.
Your City, Real Time is the tag line for this innovative software. It’s essentially a social networking site, accessed through a cell phone, usually a Blackberry or iPhone. It also has a mobile web site and SMS capability. The appeal of this site is very clear. It’s there to give real time reviews and information about local events and hot spots. Users can text their zip codes and buzzd sends them back the newest,…
EMI, one of the four major record labels, has sealed a deal with InMotion Entertainment that places music from the label into kiosks in major airports across the country. Before travelers board their flights, they can stroll over to one of the Playpoint Media HotSpot kiosks and browse through a catalog of EMI’s content. Potential buyers need only a credit card, a portable mp3 player, and their fingers. (the kiosks run touchscreen menus)
Although I do commend EMI for branching out and trying to find new revenue streams, I do not see this as a particularly attractive model. It seems that…
We all know that a digital download of a song should cost 99 cents right? Wrong. The arbitrary value of 99 cents/song, set by Steve Jobs for his iTunes, is finally beginning to be challenged. In September of last year, Amazon launched its digital download service, AmazonMp3, which set all of its prices at below 99 cents; most at 89 cents. Since Amazon others have begun to change their price structures too.
The latest, LaLa, has been around for several years, but has just recently changed its price structure. For the price of 10 cents/song, you can stream the bought song…
The fairly new site, Blip.fm, offers an exciting twist for music fans who dig micro blogging. On a basic level, Blip.fm is a musical Twitter. Instead of “tweets,” users or “DJs” receive blips (micro messages that tell what the DJ is listening to along with a personal note from the DJ). DJs can create their own music stations, upload their own music, and stream millions of songs.
Blip.fm users also have the option to sync up with their Twitter accounts. Each time a user listens to a new song, the blip is sent to Twitter and shows up as a tweet.
Here is…
