HYPEBOT FEATURES:
- This week's Coalition of Indie Music Store Charts
- Last.FM says full song streams sell music
- Zune cuts deals with major Latin web sites
- Full text of The Orchard MySpace letter to labels
- Commentary: Indie Treatment At MySpace Music
> MYSPACE MUSIC BUZZ
- "How MySpace Music could beat iTunes" from The Industry Standard plus some additional thought from the author Mellisa Chang.
- Gerd Leonhard comments that MySpace music is more about artist empowerment and than about sales and in what is both a great sound bite and a terrific idea calls for a "Google Apps For Musicians". (I want to be part of that development team if anyone is listening.)
- But all this talk is a bit premature since we have no idea how open the platform will be or what they will charge indies. Read my commentary here.
> CHART ACTION: In case you still care, George Strait is predictably #1 and R.E.M debuted at #2 with 115,00 units sold. Its their best debut in a dozen years. EMI is having a good month as distributor for this week's debut album from Trina. The album charted at #1 on the R&B/Hip Hop chart and #6 on the Billboard Top 200 Chart selling more than 200k digital singles, mobile ring tunes and ringbacks prior to street date.
> A RadioNext study that Kurt Hanson is sharing in advance pieces on his RAIN blog shows that manty people listen to radio more because it is convenient that compelling. What happens when ubiquitous wireless makes net radio just as convenient?
> I got some negative comments from readers for lumping Pitchfork.tv and Sterogum's Videogum together. To explain my logic, in addition to the fact that thetlaunched within 24 hours of the other (coincidence?), both are brand extensions of popular indie music blogs. My question has been which will be the most successful approach - extend your brand within its niche as Pitchfork.tv has done or believe that people trust your tastes to the point they'll also follow your advice on film and all of indie culture as Videogum. Register your vote in our poll. And here's some AP coverage of the Pitchfork launch.
> New Music Strategies Andrew Dubber has a short and worthwhile new ebook called Five Things That Are Still True about music culled from his blog. Here's the pdf.
