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The Root's ?uestlove On Marketing Music Careers By Building Music Movements

In 2008, Derek Jennings interviewed The Roots' ?uestlove in a wide ranging discussion that included a section about building a movement with other musicians that has stayed with me ever since. ?uestlove described how big acts in popular music had always been part of larger music movements so that's what he and Roots' manager Richard Nichols decided to try to create. It's an interesting perspective that one sees echoed in the building of local scenes, musician collectives and even festivals yet one rarely hears music marketers encouraging musicians to build community beyond one centered on the musician in question.

?uestlove recounts:

Michael Robertson Calls Amazon's Cloud Service "Sinkhole That Devours Your Music"

Mp3.com founder Michael Robertson may be called biased, since he runs cloud music locker Mp3Tunes, but he won't be accussed of pulling his punches. "Amazon's personal music service is a sinkhole that devours your music, but makes it difficult or impossible to get it out," he wrote on on his blog. "

Grooveshark Is Not Alone: Google Drops More Music Search & Download Apps

After Grooveshark's very public battle over Google's decision to drop their Android app, Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm did a survey of music search and download apps and found that many had gone missing.  No one is talking about why Google decided to drop these apps now, but the internet giant is applying the boot at the very same time it is in tough negotiations with the major record labels to launch a cloud music service. Here's a partial list of the music apps dropped:

 

Top 10 Earth Day Songs

(UPDATED) Today is Earth Day. 

“There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew,” wrote Marshall McLuhan way back in 1964.  As with most things, music serves to remind us of the importance of each of us being better stewards. Here are my favorite Earth Day songs:

Apple Set To Beat Google To Music Cloud

Apple is nearing launch of a cloud music service according to sources. Unlike Amazon's recent cloud launch, which in not licensed and acts as an online hard drive, Apple is getting licenses from labels and will return revenue. MediaMemo is reporting that Apple has already completed licenses with two of the four majors. COMMENTARY:

News Brief: Sheet Music Takedown, EFF vs. Google, DeDuper, Indaba, & More

UPDATED:

• Music publishers force domain seizure of the nets biggest public domain sheet music site. (TorrentFreak)
• The EFF is blasting Google for lack of transparency in the Grooveshark takedown.
• 4 million watched YouTube’s webcast of the Coachella festival. (Music Ally)

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Live Nation Senior Exec Calls Bob Lefsetz An "Asshole With A Computer"

(UPDATED) After it was reported that former Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino had gotten a 137% pay hike, music industry commentator Bob Lefsetz joined the chorus wondering how a company that's losing money and laying off staff can pay each of its top executives millions of dollars in bonuses. That drew an angry response from Live Nation's CEO of Global Music, Jason Garner, who in 2008 was #15 on Forbes Higherst Paid Under 40 list. Full text of Garner's emai to Lefsetz:

One Band Gets Official Love From Twitter

"In the past, getting close to your favorite musicians required a backstage pass at a crowded venue," begins a breathless new post on Twitter's official blog. "Now you can just follow their Tweets to feel like you're right there with them."  What hot band did Twitter chose to illustrate this amazing music meets Twitter phenomenon?

Chuck D: 'If A Community Cannot Supports Arts, Then Arts Cannot Support The Community'

During this weekend's Record Store Day, Chuck D visited Grimey's in Nashville and spoke about the importance of the arts and local community. (Video below.)

"If the community cannot supports the arts, then the arts cannot support the community.  When it comes down to radio stations and stores like what Grimey's has done, it's all about community..."

ScoreBig Scores $14 Million More For Ticketing

In case anyone needed more proof that investors believe that Ticketmaster's dominance is waning and ticketing is still up for grabs, ScoreBig, which offers discount and no fee tickets for concerts, sports and theater has grabbed $14 million in Series B financing round. With this round, ScoreBig has raised a total of $22.5 million.U.S. Venture Partners led the latest funding, which also included previous investor Bain Capital. 

Do You Really Want A Major Label Deal?

This guest post comes from Robin Davey, a musician, artist and Head of Music and Film Development at GROWVision Media.

A recent survey suggested that 75% of artists are still chasing that ever-elusive major deal. This shows the credulity of bands, rather than the shimmering prospects that a major can offer.

At this stage of my career I have signed to two major labels and a bevy of independents, and I can tell you this from experience - you are a long way from “making it” at the time of inking a deal. Even when the advances used to be respectable, it would only set you up for a few months at best. After that you better be earning money independently of the record label, because it’s a long wait until that next advance is available.

Jolson To Jay-Z: Covers, Collaboration & Sampling

Techdirt points us to a video that chronicles how a song originated. Producer Tony Rome, who says he inspired by reading James Boyle's The Public Domain, takes a look at how music is collaborative by examing the influences behind Jay-Z's" Empire State of Mind".  While this video is unlikely to win awards,  it serves as both a musical history trip and important reminder of the need for copyright reform.

Rebecca Black Buys Herself A Billboard

Rebecca Black's "success" has come thanks to new school marketing - a viral YouTube video with more than 113 million views in just two months. But her team has now decided to promote the teen sensation in a very old school fashion: with full page ads in trade magazines and at least one Hollywood billboard.

SongVest Gets Into Fan Album Funding Game

SongVest, best known for selling shares in hit songs to fans, is joining the fan album funding game. First up is Reggie, founder of Midnight Star and the Calloway Brothers.  Up to $100,000 will be raised for marketing and promotion since the album has already been recorded. and Universal is on board as distributor.

How To Make Music With A Game Boy [VIDEO]

I'll spare you a long lecture on how this video proves that you can make music with almost anything and is a great example of (insert something super important here). The truth is that I thought this was fun and creative; and wanted to share it:

News Brief: Amazon Cloud Sputters, Apple Soars, $750K to ex.fm, Dre Wins, Topspin + LiveJam & More

• Major problems with Amazon's cloud infrastructure has crippled some major internet operations today, including Hootsuite, Foursquare and Reddit starting early this morning. A quick check of music sites found Moontoast down.
• Apple reported some impressive 2nd Quarter numbers: Revenue was up 83% and they sold 18.7M iPhones, 3.7M Macs, 9M iPods, 4.69M iPads (projection was 6M, but couldn't manufacture more).
• iTunes Posts a Record $1.4 Billion Quarter. (MediaMemo)
• Social Jukebox exfm Raises $750,000 For Its Music Discovery And Sharing Extension. (TechCrunch)

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Prince Wants To Stop All Cover Versions Of Songs (Not Just His Songs... Everyone's)

Appearing on the George Lopez Show recently, Prince declared is distaste for those artists, like Sinead O'Connor and Chaka Khan, who have recorded covers of his songs. Despite the millions of dollars that he's made from people covering his hits, His Royal Purpleness believes that the world would be a better much place if there were only be one version of his - or anyone else's - songs.  Watch the video:

Shift Happens: A Story of Frustration & Opportunity

This guest post comes from Bob Baker of TheBuzzFactor.com, author of "Guerrilla Music Marketing Online", Berkleemusic's "Music Marketing 101" course, and many other books and promotion resources for DIY artists, managers and music biz pros.

Here's a quick story about change that might surprise you... Leo and Harry knew firsthand that new technology has the power it turn the status quo on its head.They were part of an economic boom in the music industry that allowed songs to spread faster and more efficiently to more people than ever before.

What Do Music Fans Want To Own, And Why?

On Music Think Tank, Chris Stoneman discusses the topic of ownership. With the changes in how fans consume music, ownership has changed as well. Chris explains three ways we desire music and how these desires affect our need to own something. Read on to see how fans want to consume music and what some companies are doing.

A2IM Analysis Show Grammy Hurt Indie Labels More Than Majors

(UPDATED) An analysis by the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) trade organization of the past two years of Grammy Awards showed that if winning is the primary measure of success, the impact of the recent category reductions and consolidations would effect the independent label community and the four major labels equally. But the bottom line effect of the Grammy's changes cut far deeper for some independent labels.

Soundtrkr & Songasaurus: Music + Social + Location

Two of the internets hottest trends - social and location - are combined with music in two apps that offer a glimpse of where ubiquitous smartphones may take music discovery and sharing. Soundtrckr bills itself as aa free music service that blends internet radio, social networking and location-awareness. Users can:

The Tyranny Of Novelty

This guest post comes from Jeremy Schlosberg, the founder and curator of Fingertips, which has been seeking out the web's best free and legal music since 2003.

A press release received yesterday afternoon informs me that Ben Folds, Amanda Palmer, Damian Kulash of the band OK Go, and writer Neil Gaiman (Palmer’s husband) will be writing and recording eight songs in eight hours on Monday April 25 at Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and will release them 10 hours later. This exercise, or game, or what-have-you, is part of the Rethink Music conference being held in Boston next week.

News Brief: JamLegend Joins Zynga, WMG Bidding, Twitter Spam, Pay.me Sold, Snoop Dogg & More

• The entire staff of online music gamer JamLegend, which announced it was shutting down yesterday, is moving to gaming powerhouse Zynga. 
• In what must be part of an effort to push their sale price higher, WMG Board has provided Eliminated bidders with company data. (Billboard)
• Twitter has been hit with a number of spam apps in recent days (NYT)

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iTunes Top 10 Singles & Albums This Week

For the week ending April 18, 2011.

Top 10 Singles
1. "E.T. (feat. Kanye West)," Katy Perry
2. "S&M (Remix w/Britney Spears)," Rihanna
3. "Just Can't Get Enough," Black Eyed Peas
4. "Judas," Lady GaGa
5. "Rolling In the Deep," ADELE
6. "Down On Me," Jeremih, 50 Cent
7. "The Lazy Song," Bruno Mars
8. "On the Floor" (w/Pitbull), Jennifer Lopez
9. "Look At Me Now," Chris Brown
10. "Till the World Ends," Britney Spears

Top 10 Albums

One Band's Actual Promo Strategy: Takeover iTunes, Make Fun Of Your Music Collection [VIDEO]

UNLEASH THE PARISIANS AND LET THEM MESS WITH YOUR FAVORITE BANDS. DIGITALLY.  That's the headline on YouTube and that's pretty much the some total of the marketing strategy of French band The Parisians. Here's how it works: download 18 specially created covers into your iTunes, turn on the screen saver, they make fun of the covers next to them. Sounds confusing and stupid? Watch the video: