Artist manager and label co-founder Emily White tells the story of her career in music. From her internship with Amanda Palmer and The Dresden Dolls, to her time at Live Nation, and finally to founding her own management company and record label.
White led with her positive spirit, business smarts, and can-do attitude. Hear her stories and learn from her music industry lessons in this Interview Series episode of the Upward Spiral podcast. Listen below:
Jim Donio, President of NARM, shares the stats from this week’s sales report issued by Nielsen SoundScan: "Queens of the Stone Age set several sales milestones this week, notching its first #1 album with …Like Clockwork. It was also the first #1 record for the band’s label, Matador Records. It’s also notable that 13% of its total sales, 12,000 units, were from vinyl."
Canadian musician Amanda Zelina, known by her stagename The Coppertone, is using crowdfunding to buy back rights to her music from her former record label. Titling the campaign "Help Free The Coppertone," Zelina frames it in terms of a personal commitment to integrity and the call to "Claim Yourself." Zelina's campaign is also symbolic of the power of crowdfunding to help musicians take control of their careers with the support of their fans.
Global rights agency Merlin turns five this year with a growing roster of 20,000 independent
labels, and a catalog of three million tracks from 35 countries. Merlin represents 10% of the global and US digital music markets, the largest share outside of the 3 major label groups.
Brooklyn-based label Captured Tracks is moving to bigger digs in Greenpoint. The extra space includes room for a retail store currently referred to as the "Captured Tracks Shop." But it's intended to be more than a showcase for Captured Tracks releases. In fact, the Captured Tracks Shop is expected to be "more than a record store" as well.
Long running new release e-newsletter and site New Music Tipsheet published it's final edition today. "No dire financial
situations, no crazy debts," wrote publisher Scott Perry of Sperry Media, "It's just that running the Tipsheet has been a
labor of love that I have loved long enough."
A2IM,
the American Association of Independent Music, has announced the results of their
2013 Board of Directors elections as voted by the A2IM label membership. The new A2IM board includes:
The American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) has awarded its second annual Libera Awards Lifetime Achievement Award to Tom Silverman. The industry veteran is the Founder and CEO of Tommy Boy Records and co-founder of he New Music Seminar. Silverman will be presented
with the award by Island Records Founder Chris Blackwell on June
20 at NYC's Highline Ballroom.
Have you been wondering if you should be pursuing a record label or whether you're just wasting your time? There has never been a better time to be an independent musician but you have to know what your goal is and you must have an informed and practical plan of action. Mark Doyon helps sort through your best bets on Music Think Tank.
The RIAA today made a rare change to the formula used to certify Gold and Platinum awards to include on-demand music and video streams. Services that will now count towards certification include Spotify, Rhapsody, MOG, Muve, Rdio, Rhapsody, Slacker, Xbox Music, VEVO, MTV.com, YouTube and Yahoo! Music.
Iconic jazz label Blue Note is partnering with music crowdfunding platform ArtistShare to create a new record label devoted to recording and releasing a new generation of jazz artists. Under the arrangement, UMG owned Blue Note will be involved in the selection of
artists, add its logo and promotional support to the release, and if response warrants it, upstream the artist to the official Blue Note roster.
Ethan Schiff is an artist manager. He’s on Twitter @ethanschiff and blogs on creative music entrepreneurship at www.SchiffBlog.com.
Although the music industry is evolving, it is still hard for artists to get out of the “pick me” mindset, which has been drilled into bands’ heads through a combination of the traditional record business model and endless stories of A&R scouts signing bands in dirty bars.
A2IM’s annual Board of Directors election opens for voting on Wednesday, May 1, and this year 20 candidates are vying for just 4 seats the independent music trade associaition's board. Due to term limits Eric Brown (Sub Pop), Dave Hansen (Epitaph) and Tom Silverman (Tommy Boy) are stepping down. Jim Selby (Naxos) is seeking relection. The 2013 A2IM Board nominees are:
The American Association Of Independent Music (A2IM) has announced the nominees for the 2nd Libera Awards (The
“LIBBYs”), to be held June 20 at NYC’s Highline Ballroom. The LIBBY's celebrate Independent
labels, artists and services; and are voted
on solely by members of the indie community. ATO Records & Dualtone Music Group earned the most label nominations this year. Bandzoogle, PledgeMusic, Rdio and Spotify were among the top nominees from music tech.
What does it take to be a musician? A regular listener (and, sometimes, even a music business person) doesn't always realise how many challenges are associated with building a career in music. We talked to Reimut Van Bonn, an indie musician and a representative of VUT (German Association Of Independent Music Companies) about the issues artists face today.
My name is Corie. I am 27 years old. I have an MBA and my undergraduate degree is from one of the best public universities in the United States - the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. I have a full time job as a manager for a well-respected health insurance company.
The rise of music subscription services and the growth of emerging markets contributed to create just .2% global music industry growth in 2012, according to the IFPI's Recording Industry in Numbers 2013 released today. However tiny the victory, 2012 was the first year that the music industry had grown since 1999. More highlights:
Beneath the surveillance of SoundScan and the Official Charts Company and beyond the grasp of those who know of avant-gardes only from schoolbooks and museum tours, the cassette subculture continues to build without need of outside approval. In order to get a sense of recent developments, I gathered a number of news items from the first quarter of 2013 featuring recently launched labels, a handful of new releases and "cassettes are making a comeback" coverage from scattered locales.
Concord Music, one of the largest independent label groups in the U.S., has been bought by Wood
Creek Capital Management, a division of MassMutual
Financial Group. The acquisition is being made on behalf of funds which Wood Creek advises, and an individual investor group that includes members of Concord’s senior management and industry veterans Steve Smith and Scott Pascucci.
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