Friday's Music Briefing: IODA Nordic, Sonicbids, Taco Bell, Wal-Mart & More

Unlike many of our competitors in the music industry space, HYPEBOT WILL PUBLISH ON MONDAY OCTOBER 13th despite the Columbus Day holiday in the U.S.  Last time I checked this was a global industry.

HYPEBOT FEATURES:

• Wall Street's Pain Felt Down On Music Street
• What The Comics Business Can Teach Music
• Hypebot on Twitter, Friendfeed and Tumblr
• You Give Free A Bad Name
• iTunes Stays Strong As Amazon & Rhapsody Gain

MORE NEWS:

• IODA has launched IODA Nordic through a partnership with Bonnier Amigo Music Group, the music arm of Bonnier AB, the Nordic media giant. Under the partnership, IODA will distribute Bonnier Amigo’s catalog of indie music and labels through its network. Together, Bonnier Amigo and IODA will provide marketing support for their large catalogs to local retail partners in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland. (press release)
• Popular EPK tool Sonicbids has added a Submission Tracker to add more transperency to its sometimes criticized "pay to be considered for..." service.
• Taco Bell continues their indie band Feed The Beat contest.  It's nice to see a national brand use up and comers in their branding.  The always amazing Reverend Peyton's Big Damn Band gets my vote.
• Play.com now offers UK consumers tracks from all for majors and at a price 20 cents cheaper than iTunes. (Billboard.com) And whatever happened to Amazon UK mp3 store?  I'd heard that a bunch of the deals were been done weeks ago.
• Wal-mart has resversed course and will continue to support tracks bought from their online store with DRM. "Based on feedback from our customers, we have decided to maintain our digital rights management (DRM) servers for the present time."
• A extensive Q&A with Universal Music head Doug Morris.(Billboard) It's an interesting read. but sadly as with most old school trade interviews; they don't as any of the tough questions or push hard for tough answers.
• A look at the state of indie record stores in Tempe, AZ  (AZ Central)
• Despite some tech issue, the Slacker G3 could be an iPod alternative. (Chicago Tribune)

Comments

[Captain Wrong]

Wow. Warms my heart to see Rev Payton and family getting more press. These guys are friends of mine and it's been a real pleasure watching them grow from awesome locals to national act. Only sorry we don't get to see them more here.

And Wal-Mart, why not just offer people the option to download DRM free versions of the music they bought? Seems like that would be easier (and great PR as well) but I guess they'd rather go through the cycle of threatening to shut down the server and having the outcry force them not to again. Wonder if they're banking on people not caring in a few years and being able to pull the plug then.