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MusicThinkTank Weekly Recap: Marketers Aren't Afraid To Annoy and Social Media Overload

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

• Minh Chau: Great Marketers Aren't Afraid To Annoy

• Chris Seth Jackson: 12 Tips to Handle Social Media Overload

REWIND: The Music Industry's Week In Review

• Sony passes UMG as top label group.
• RIAA releases 2010 sales data and it isn't pretty.
• Fan funding site Kickstarter adds $13 million to new music economy in $13 years.
• Sony admits credit info of 77M PlayStation & Qriocity Music Unlimited users hacked
• Rethink Music Conference: "ClingTo Old Vines" vs. Exploring New Compensation Schemes
• Join the debate: Can Netflix serve as a a model for the new music industry.

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It Isn't Pretty: RIAA 2010 Music Sales Data [CHART]

The RIAA has released sales dates for US music shipments in 2010. The numbers speak for themselves - a 12% increase in the dollar value of downloads can't make up for  a 22% drop in the sale of physical goods. That lead to a 10.9% overall drop in the total value of recorded music sales. The RIAA 2010 Year-End Shipment Statistics:

Kickstarter Added $13 Million To New Music Economy In Just 2 Years

Kickstarter turned two years old today and shared some stats that show just how important their fan funding platform has been to d.i.y.  music and the new music economy. Overall $53,107,672 has been pledged and $40 million collected to fund 7496 successful Kickstarter projects. Of that, $13,094,547 went to fund music related projects.

N.E.R.D Joins New Era Flagbearers. Are Musicians Losing Tastemaker Status?

The news that alt pop group N.E.R.D., Pharrell Williams, Chad Hugo and Shae Haley, had joined the New Era Flagbearers lineup as part of the Fly Your Own Flag campaign took me back a few years to the days when Pharrell was taking on the role of high dollar tastemaker and New Era was pursuing limited edition local cap campaigns like they were a sneaker company. It's weird how quickly cutting edge marketing approaches become business as usual for reaching youth and/or the almost sacred to marketers realm of 18 to 35 year old males.

36% of U.S. Mobile Users Have A Smartphone

The music industry has just begun to tap into the potential of uibiquitous smartphones. Results of Nielsen’s latest survey suggests understanding the consumer landscape for mobile apps begins and understanding of the Apple iOS and Google Android ecosystems.

• 36% of U.S. mobile consumers now have smartphones
• Consumers with Apple iOS (iPhone) and Google Android OS mobile phones represent the majority of the smartphone market in the U.S. and 74% of mobile app downloaders

Can Netflix Serve As Model For The Music Business? Billboard vs. Black Rim Glasses

Envy is a powerful drug and right now the music industry is suffering from Netflix envy. That's let to an interesting debate between those who believe Netflix' success is a model for the music industry, and those who see radical differences between consumer engagement with visual vs. audio content.

Amazon Declares War: Drops Hit MP3s To 69 Cents

In recent days, the price of most track downloads in Amazon's Top 100 Singles have dropped to $.69 cents. Many of these same songs sell on iTune's for $1.29 including Katy Perry's "E.T.", Jennifer Lopez's "On the Floor" and Lady Gaga's "Born This Way." Sources tell Hypebot that the labels receive full wholesale payments with Amazon absorbing losses in an effort to attract new customers.

Sony Passes UMG As Top Label Group

Sony Music Entertainment has passed the Universal Music Group in year-to-date U.S. music market share for the first time since 2005. According to Nielsen SoundScan, Sony's overall album market share is 29.35%, just above Universal T 29.26%. That means when Doug Morris takes the helm of Sony un June, he will once again top the most successful label group in the country. But an aggressive release schedule could tip the scales towards UMG later this year.

Live Gig Engine NuevoStage Wins Rethink Prize

NuevoStage, a service that helps fans and bands work together to book live gigs, has won the $50,000 top prize at the Rethink Music business plan competition sponsored by Berklee College and Harvard Business School. The startup brings group buying to live music. After a band and their fans prove demand through advance ticket sales, NuevoStage works with a venue to confirm performances.

News Brief: Amazon vs, Labels, MySpace Suitors, Shazam + eBay, Hackers Have Sony Data & More

• Behind The Scenes: Record Label Demands From Amazon (TechCrunch)
• Shazam has launched “Unlimited Tagging” globally sponsored by Ebay.
• Security researchers say they'd seen discussions on underground forums indicating that the hackers who infiltrated the Sony PlayStation Network last week may have made off with the credit card numbers of customers. (NY Times)

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12 Tips To Handle Musician Social Media Overload

Facebook, Twitter, YouTube...the list goes on. Dozens of social media that artists use to connect with fans and market themselves. Great tools, but tiresome if you have a billion other things like make music. On our sister blog Music Think Tank, Chris Seth Jackson has tips in time management for artists.

Looks Like iCloud Is Name Of Apple's Music Locker

Apple's pending cloud based music service will likely be called iCloud according to GigaOm.  Sources tell Om Malik that Apple just paid $4.5 million for the domain of the former cloud locker service. Xcerion who bought iCloud recently just re-branded it to CloudMe after the company acquired the CloudMe.com domain on April 5th. 

More: Apple Set To Beat Google To Music Cloud

Co-Founder Of #1 Music App RootMusic Says Facebook Must To Do More For Musicians

BandPage is is the #1 music app on Facebook with 21 million active users; and that's quite an accomplishment since it was created for bands rather than the masses fo fans. But in addition to artists friendly features like the ability to offer free music in exchange for a Facebook like or email address, the main reason behind RootMusic's success is Facebook itself.

Sonicbids Teams With House Of Blues Clubs For "New Music Nights"

Sonicbids has teamed with Live Nation to bring an emerging music night to select House of Blues concert halls. "New Music Nights at House of Blues" will launch in Los Angeles, San Diego and Las Vegas with plans to rollout nationwide. Local bloggers and tastemakers will select the three bands to play their market’s House of Blues.

Still Trying To Decide Whether To Build an iPhone Or Android App? Look At These Stats

iPhone apps are all the rage, but Apple's lead over Android will disappear by the end July. In the chart below, ou can see the gap between Android and iPhone closing to by the end of July, according to Business Insider. The Chart:

The Recorded Music Industry: Crisis Or Opportunity

 

危機 "When written in Chinese, the word "crisis" is composed of two characters. One represents danger and the other represents opportunity."  -  John F. Kennedy

The recorded music industry has been in crisis for more than 5 years. Instead of trying to "fix it", wouldn't both music and the industry be better served if we seized this opportunity to build something entirely new?

Topspin, Dolby Chairman Peter Gotcher On Venture Capital & Music Entrepreneurship [VIDEO]

Peter Gotcher is an independent venture investor focusing on investments in digital media companies and the Executive Chairman of Dolby Laboratories, as well as Chairman of Topspin Media, which he co-founded in 2007. He's also on the board of Pandora and Line6. So when Peter talks about money in music, people listen. Here he shares his thoughts on music entrepeneurship and what kind of music startups are getting funded.

News Brief: New WMG Lawsuit, Rdio+Amazon, Sony Stumbles, Neurotic Checks In, Wolfgang TV & More

• WMG Accused of illegally selling rap songs and keeping the money. (AllHipHop)
• Rdio becomes the first music streaming service to add an Amazon Payments option tapping into that huge user base.
• Sony's mis-steps. - From hidden rootkits on music CDs to the hacked network, the software company has suffered a lot of bad publicity. (Guardian) As the Sony Network outage stretched into Day 8...

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Marketing To Hispanics: Reaching A Growing Demographic

The 2010 U.S. Census continues to be a goldmine of data as the AP revealed recently in recognizing that Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans in most U.S. cities. This news was gathered from a March Creport by the U.S. Census Bureau, Overview of Race and Hispanic Origin [pdf]. Soincidently, as I was planning this post about reaching the Hispanic demographic, Billboard ramped up coverage in advance of its Latin Music Conference & Awards,  But it's important that the music industry takes a deeper look.

#RETHINKMUSIC - "ClingTo Old Vines" vs. Exploring New Compensation Schemes

OneHouse and former Choruss founder Jim Griffin, forced a dramatic shift in the discussion during today's "Alternative Compensation Schemes" Rethink Music panel by arguing that most monetization plans are naively based on the antiquated concept of control. "The music industry is clinging to an old vine and its time to find a new one," Griffin argued calling for blanket compulsory licenses. "As creativity moves from the center to the edge of the network, so must licensing."

Spoon's Jim Eno On Artist Diversification [VIDEO]

At the Rethink Music yesterday, Spoon drummer and co-founder Jim Eno shared thoughts on being a self-directed 360 artist and creating diversified income. Eno is also a producer whose work includes Black Joe Lewis (who performed a rockin' set at the conference last night), the Heartless Bastards and John Vanderslice.

Pitchify: Spotify’s Music + Pitchfork’s Taste

Love them or hate them, it’s tough to deny that online music review outlets Pitchfork Media and Drowned In Sound are tastemaking kings when it comes to influencing trends in new music. Combining long-form reviews, analysis, and commentary with user-friendly number ratings, both Pitchfork and Drowned In Sound provide one-stop, easily navigable guidance in the often-daunting world of new music and up-and-coming artists.

News Corp Set To Loose $500M To Unload MySpce

News Corp is seeking a minimum of $100 million dollars for MySpace and has set a bid deadline of this week, according to sources. News Corp paid more than $580 million for MySpace in 2005 and invested more in the years that followed. Despite falling user numbers and the rise of Facebook, several suitors are set to make offers.

Watch Rethink Music Conference Live Today

Can't make it to Boston today or don't have an extra $995 lieing around? It doesn't matter because Berklee, Harvard and MIDEM's Rethink Music Conference is broadcasting live via starting at 9AM ET today. Watch the action live here: