Beginning today, Hypebot will publish our morning roundup of music industry news every weekday morning prior to 11AM ET and when warranted we'll add a PM addition every afternoon around 4:30PM ET.
Thumplay Music is reportedly running out of cash and very close to being sold. (MocoNews)
Since the end of 2010 at least $57 million in investor cash has gone into digital music and more is expected flow into Pandora, Spotify and an array of startups like Rdio, SoundCloud and RootMusic. (NY Times)
Universal's Doug Morris will have to wait until summer to take the helm at Sony, according to The Telgaraph. Other sources say things are still up in the air.
On Sunday, Facebook changed its “Like” button on sites across the net to essentially give it the same functionality as its “Share” button. The new Like button no longer opens a new window or offers any way to edit what their posting.
Lately we’ve been talking quite a bit about how to get a job in the music industry and the realities of the current job market. Some of our readers have been kind enough to share their stories of how they started their careers in this climate and what they sacrificed to get them. Today, I wanted to share the story of Yvanna. When she was 19, she landed her first music industry job. How did she get it?
This post is by Hypebot intern Hisham Dahud. His Twitter: @HishamDahud.
We're beginning to make positive strides in understanding how music will be consumedin the digital age, but we've spent relatively little time pondering how the music itself will evolve.
How will it be different? Will it change for better or for worse?
To learn more, I sought the counsel of a musician who's not only been around music long enough to witness it evolve, but who's been a part of it his entire life.
Apple and Google have confirmed plans that will revolutionize digital music and thwart rampant music piracy. After months of speculation, the two tech-giants have revealed their plans to offer users digital music lockers. Due to the widespread use of the Windows Operating System and its tendency to crash all the time, Apple and Google determined that users are in desperate need of "song insurance."
Upstart Ticketfly believes that social media is its secret weapon in the ticketing wars dominated by Ticketmaster and Live Nation. Last week the primary ticket seller (not to be confused with the huge secondary market) released some stats that show that they're on the right track; and suggest that, particularly when selling tickets for live music, Facebook, is the place to be.
I'm tired of having the same conversation over and over again.
The conversation about how we should go about dealing with "thieves" and "pirates" "stealing" our "product" like so many shoplifters. I'm just gonna say it.
The connected car will shift the music landscape. Experts argue that in little as four years' time, we will see "near saturation" in the U.S. market. This development has real implications for the future of music. Once cars become a Wi-Fi enabled, voice-controlled credit card on wheels, it shifts the paradigm.
EXCLUSIVE: Responding to member requests, today Sonicbids unveiled a new system that replaces submission fees for most gig opportunities with tokens offered free as part to their membership plans.
Last Fall, a Musician's Friend sponsorship made some Sonicbids listings free. But starting today, 60% of all opportunities become part of the tokens program with that number expected to grow to 90% within a few months.
EXCLUSIVE: Scion A/V has produced a video series that provides a virtual tour of the new music industry and many of the best the sites and tools that make it work. Hypebot will feature one every day for the next few weeks. In this installment, David Haynes of SoundCloud describes his popular online platform that lets music pros receive, send and distribute their music in a private setting that enables collaboration prior to public release.
Who says that download prices are too high?: Amazon MP3 has 30,055 albums for sale at $5.99 or less right now including new Cut Copy and Mumford & Sons releases. (Amazon)
I'm a Belieber: The 11 Greatest Superfan Communities (Rolling Stone)
Facebook reaches more than half of all of US web users, but less than 20 million US adults used Twitter at least monthly in 2010. (eMarketer)
YouTube the Movie: 'The Chronicles of Rick Roll' announced. A collection of Internet stars from Antoine Dodson to the Double Rainbow Guy are making a movie. (Billboard)
If you're getting radio airplay, how do you turn that exposure into traffic and sales? In this short video, Nimbit President and co-founder Phil Antoniades shares his experience with getting radio airplay and how he used promo codes to drive users and sales on his site.
Two things are true about radio: they like giving stuff away and saying their station name. So, Antoniades used the station name as the promo code and let the radio DJs give them away. It's an iningenious bit of advice. Watch the Video:
The April 2010 release of the Apple iPad has created a huge play for tons of computer manufacturers to enter the tablet arena.
I’ve tested some of the unreleased machines that have been created to compete with the iPad including BlackBerry’s Playbook, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, and HP Slate, but nothing comes close to the reliability and flexibility of the IOS platform.
At the New Music Seminar conference in Los Angeles, founder Tom Silverman opened by revealing that CDs were still 74% of sales in 2010. “CDs aren't doing so bad,” he remarked. “People still like CDs.” In other words, the format is in decline, but it still makes up a substantial amount of sales revenue. It’s important to realize though that it’s the economic engine that’s built around CDs – not the CDs themselves – that’s dying.
Yesterday, Hypebot wrote a post about Topspin in an attempt to offer a balanced view on what people think of the direct-to-fan platform. Many readers and music industry thinkers took the time to weigh in too and share their thoughts on Topspin.
The main theme expressed runs along the lines of just because you have a TypePad account doesn't mean that you're a blogger. It takes months of practice and the advice of a few experts to get in and use the platform to its full potential.
Courtney Holt is leaving his post as president of MySpace Music after two years, reportedly over differences with MySpace CEO Mike Jones over the direction that Jones is taking the site. Holt is moving to a post as a consultant with MySpace owner News Corp's digital division and will remain on the MySpace board.
EXCLUSIVE: Scion A/V produced a video series that provides a virtual tour of the new music industry and the sites and tools that make it work. Hypebot will feature one every day for the next couple of weeks. In this Installment,Yancey Strickler of Kickstarter explains their unique new way to fund and follow creative projects.
David Hahn has some new advice for musicians about where to find work. In his recent post on Music Think Tank, Hahn lists five employers that range from for-profit gigs (ie. cruise ship gigs) to education. He then recounts when the recession first hit and the impact it had on music. In Hahn’s opinion:
“The arts were one of the first sectors of the economy hit by the recession, and I think we’ll be one of the last to recover.”
Be sure to check out Hahn's awesome blog Musician Wages too.
Music's race to the cloud is heating says the Financial Times. Google hoped to launch a download store next month, but has not completed the deals; and wants to add cloud music locker if labels give consent. Apple is planning a summer launch limited to cloud backup of tracks bought on iTunes. Meanwhile, Spotify is close, but no one knows how close. Sadly, none of this is game changing.
Yesterday was the deadline to submit bids to purchase the Warner Music Group. No word on who stepped up, but rumors range from BMG to Russian billionaires; and there's buzz that Bronfman & Co are pushing sale of publishing harder than the record division.
As more artists and marketers use the Topspin direct-to-fan platform and the company nears a March expansion to include a self-service platform, several views of its design and functionality are emerging. Many agree that Topspin is the most robust music marketing toolkit available. But despite several educational initiatives, some still find using Topsin confusing. "To maximize the potential of the platform, you will probably need a web marketing guru/developer," according to musician and marketer Charles Alexander.
