hypebot

Does This Midem Party Look Like A Failure To You?

Let me admit up front that what follows is not serious investigative journalism. It's just that anyone who has been in the music business longer than Mark Zukerberg's been a billionaire knows that Scott Ambrose Reilly (aka Bullethead) throws a heck of a convention party.  (I dare you to play all night poker with him at SXSW.) So when Billboard wrote about companies cutting back on Midem parties and used a photo of an empty room at Scott's X5 Music party as the poster child, I did some digging.

Is Audio The New QR Code? Shazam Goes To The Superbowl

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Shazam, the fourth-most-popular iOS app of all time, plans to let Superbowl viewers tag the audio coming out of their television sets on Sunday. Tagging audio essentially provides links to online content through your smartphone's microphone, the same way that QR codes can link to stuff through your smartphone's camera, except it's arguably much easier, because you just press a button instead of taking a picture of something.

< Shazam tagging Super Bowl Content

Agile Music: Artist Creativity & Music Formats In the Age of Mass Customization

This guest post by Mark Mulligan, a respected independent music analyst who publishes the Music Industry Blog, includes the full text and main graphics of the speech he delivered at Midem's Visionary Monday earlier this week.

Today I want to talk to you about a concept called Agile Music, a framework for understanding how artist creativity, industry business models and music products must all undergo a programme of radical, transformational change. I'm going to start by outlining the catalysts for this change.

The Week In Music Publishing 2.3.12

A two-year legal battle between the Radio Music License Committee and ASCAP re: royalties paid on an annual basis has been settled. The new agreement scales back payments by 3%, which will lighten ASCAP's coffers by $8OM in 2012.

• GOP candidate Newt Gingrich found himself running afoul of the music biz when he received a cease and desist notice from Canadian music publisher Third Side Music publishing who objected to his use of How You Like Me Know? by British band The Heavy.

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SXSW Accelerator Names Music Tech Finalists

670 companies submitted their web based products and services as part of the fourth annual SXSW Accelerator presented by Microsoft BizSpark. It's the second year that music tech has had a category of its own, and I've been honored to serve on the advisory board and first round jury for both years. 

Live Nation CEO Predicts Strong Year For Live Music

Live Nation President and CEO Michael Rapino is upbeat about the live industry's prospects in 2012. In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Rapino reiterated what the company had teased in an earlier quarterly earnings report; business in 2012 was up as much as 14%. The teaser also reported that the number of shows being booked was on the rise to the tune of 15% worldwide.

Soundsupply: GroupOn For Indie Music. Get 10 Albums For $15 Today Only

Soundsupply is a new startup that is experimenting with a digital bundle of music featuring 10 albums from 10 bands for $15. The offer ran for 10 days, and today is the final day to purchase Supply Drop #1. Lots of digits in this description but the idea of offering a huge amount of music at a low price seems potentially viable for indie rock. I like the idea of monetizing this marketing move but I have to wonder to what degree free has undermined low price offerings.

PLUS: How To Get Your Music Featured In The Next Bundle

News Brief: Digital Music Class Action vs. WMG, ReDigi + Google, Sony Slumps, Rhapsody & More

Sister Sledge Files Class Action Against Warner Music Over Digital Royalties. (Hollywood Reporter)  Band members and actress-songwriter Ronee Blakley are lead plaintiffs in a suit alleging potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in lost revenue from digital download sales.

• Google Says EMI vs. ReDigi Digital Music Case Has Cloud Law Implications. (InformationWeek) Google sided with ReDigi, but the court rebuffed its attempt to file a 'friend-of-the-court' brief.
• Sony Music Sales Fall 11.7% In Fiscal Q3 (FMQB)

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Not On Google+? It's Growing Faster Than Early Facebook Did [CHART]

Adding another social network to your day can feel like the straw that broke the camel's back.  But more and more stats are suggesting that you ignore Google+ at your peril. It took Facebook almost a year to reach a million users and 4 years to reach 100 million. But according to Business Insider, it took Google+ just 2 weeks to reach 10 million, and less than 1 year to reach 100 million. The Chart:

Don't Ignore Old School Music Marketing: Creative Ideas For Press Kits, Merch & More

Though we like to cover new and interesting music marketing ideas and services on Hyepbot, focusing on the tried and true is key to long-term success in music. Such methods include encouraging the press to open your press kit, creating low cost band merch that can be used as promotional items and getting people to review your music. Here are some creative ideas for traditional marketing plus bonus coverage regarding Twitter brand pages and Tumblr content discovery plans.

Get Your Press Kit Opened

Top 30 Sources Of Songwriter Royalties & Fees

(UPDATED) In the modern music industry, songwriters are finding less money from album sales and more from the collection of all sorts of royalties. Bands like the Black Keys, who spent over a decade trying to break through to the mainstream, finally did so with the help of placement of their songs in commercials for TV and film.

The Difference Between The Music Industry & The Recording Industry

Many people use the terms “music industry” and “recording industry” interchangeably, but there is a distinct difference between the two. On Music Think Tank, Jeremy Belcher writes about the difference. The music industry covers a bigger range of industries while the recording industry is a small subset of the music industry. It's important to use the right term when referring to the state of the industries. Do you use the terms correctly?

Full Text Of Mark Zuckerberg's Letter To Potential Facebook Investors

On Wednesday, Facebook announced its much anticipated $5 billion IPO and CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent this carefuly wored yet heartfelt and hopeful letter to potential investors.

"Facebook was not originally created to be a company. It was built to accomplish a social mission — to make the world more open and connected."

Global Royalty Collections Climb 5.5% Despite Economic Downturn

The annual Global Economic Survey released by the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), shows gross royalty collections growing 5.5% in 2010 over the previous year. The uptick stands in stark contrast to some sectors of the entertainment industry and the overall global economy. Key figures for global collections:

Musicmetric: Co-Founder Talks Pro Edition, P2P Data Tour Planning App

Musicmetric is a web analytics platform that recently launched a Pro edition in Beta. It offers an impressive range of stats on everything from social media activity to mentions in articles on websites. One of the most noted features in recent media coverage is their tracking of file sharing activity. Access to such data also powered a midem Hack Day app called TourrentPlans that helps musicians plan tours based on the location of their filesharing fanbase.

Music Ownership: eMusic's Molly Neuman Looks At Consumer Motivations

Guest post by Molly Neuman, eMusic's VP Label Relations and MD Europe via digitalmusic.org.

For a large segment of music consumers, downloading music to own is something that's seen as music's past. But for an even larger share, owning and collecting is hugely important.

NEWS BRIEF: Lana Del Rey #1, Challenges For New Sony CEO, Google + ReDigi, Willie Nelson & More

Lana Del Rey - the new artist every critic seems to love to hate - has debuted at #1 on the iTunes charts in 15 countries including UK, Germany, France and USA.

• New Chief Takes on a Sony That Is a Shadow of Its Former Self. (NY Times)
• Google has filed a brief in the case of EMI vs mp3 reseller ReDigi asking the court to "deny the motion for preliminary injunction without reaching the complex and profound legal issues outlined."

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AmazonMP3 Pulls All TuneCore Tracks In EU & UK, Distributor Alleges Payment Issues

TuneCore informed its clients today that AmazonMP3 had pulled all of their recordings from sale in the UK and European Union. "Amazon removed your recordings as a result of an issue regarding royalty payments by Amazon to TuneCore customers," according to the flat fee digital music distributor.

Rip. Mix. Make. - Saving The Right To Remix

With the realization setting in that stopping SOPA was just the beginning rather than the end of an ongoing struggle, calls are being raised to take proactive rather than reactive responses to such legislation. Rip. Mix. Make. is a creative campaign supporting fair use of creative work in remix videos that represents one proactive approach to issues of copyright.

One For All, Or All For One? Solo vs The Band In The Age Of Social Media

The sky is falling...the music industry continues to live a “Chicken Little” scenario. At least, that’s how Paul Adler describes it on Music Think Tank. Many in the industry think that the business model of the self-promoted solo artist has a better chance of success than a traditional band. It might be easier to be a solo artist and you wouldn’t have to deal with all the issues and conflicts that come up in bands. What do you think of solo artists versus a band in the age of social media?