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Lyrics Freaks and Streaming Programmers feat. Emily White (WVAU): Upward Spiral 18

The Upward Spiral is back! This episode catches the guys with writer, pundit and college radio GM Emily White, as she joins to discuss how lyrics are ripe for a richer multimedia experience, and whether streaming services need more music curation (as Jimmy Iovine implies). Plus recommendations for new music, gear, events and Vietnamese food!

Why Cassette Labels Are More Important Than Many Can Understand

Though numerous individuals have directly scoffed at the idea that cassette labels are anything other than an obscure novelty, a closer look reveals a mostly underground world of experimental music that is gradually moving towards releases that are more accessible to the mainstream. That doesn't mean we're about to see an outbreak of experimental music in arenas and on the charts but what is becoming clear is that something important to music is happening and the business infrastructure is gradually emerging to support those who want to become more visible.

Indie Labels "In Shock" Over MySpace "Free Ride" Licensing Policy #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge of UK consultancy and blog Music Ally.

The owners of Myspace’s ears will have been burning this morning, during a Midem press conference at which independent labels put the boot in to the relaunched social music service.

At issue: the company’s decision to not renew the old Myspace’s deal with indie rights agency Merlin, telling labels that if their music was on its site, it must have been uploaded by users, so will require DMCA takedown notices to remove it.

Getting It Done: The Week In D.I.Y. & Indie Music

• CD Baby Slashes Rates For Direct Digital Sales
• Africa's Music Industry: Building With Cassettes & MP3s In An Underdeveloped Terrain
• DIY Rapper Kellee Maize On Building Her Brand With SEO, P2P & Creative Commons Releases
• Myspace Allegedly Hosting Unlicensed Indie Music, Merlin Prepares Legal Response
• BandPage Extends Profiles, Concert Dates To Pandora, Facebook, Twitter & Soundcloud

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Sony Pacts With Ultra Music, Names Patrick Moxey President Electronic Music

Sony has made a significant investment in EDM label Ultra Music and cut a global deal t includes A&R, distribution and international repertoire. Under the agreement, Patrick Moxey, President of Ultra Music, has been named to the newly minted position of President, Electronic Music, Sony Music Entertainment.

StoryAmp Seeks Indie Labels & Music Publicists To Beta Test New Pro Tools

Music pr platform StoryAmp is looking for early adopter record labels and independent publicists to be beta users of it's new StoryAmp professional tools. The new prof accounts provide labels and publicists with these tools:

5 Tips For Indie Musicians Who Want To Go Global

Entertainment attorney Marty Frascogna shares some basic tips for taking an indie music act overseas. In fact, Frascogna maintains that it's easier for indie acts to go international than it is for major acts. I assume by that he means more complicated but, be that as it may, his tip video is a great introduction to some of the ways touring internationally can be different from touring in the States.

Dualtone: A Small Label Makes Big Moves By Taking It Slow

Nashville's Dualtone Music Group is starting to see some big successes from their 12 years of hard work. The Lumineers are up for two Grammys and Shovels and Rope made American Songwriter's list of top albums from 2012. It's been a long slow process that reflects their unique approach to running a record label that nurtures a small group of artists who are also building for the long haul.

Indie Music Grabs 32.6% Of U.S. Album Sales In 2012

According the A2iM, The American Association For Independent Music, Billboard and SoundScan stats show that independent labels grabbed 32.6% of U.S. album sales in 2012.  As in 2011, indie labels outpaced each of the major label groups grabbing the #1 sales spot followed by Universal, Sony, Warner Music and EMI respectively. This chart breaks sales down by label group:

15 Best Cassette Releases Of 2012

Cassettes continued to reign in what sometimes seems like an alternate universe though most of the releases travel far beyond cassette decks with tandem digital releases if not LPs or CDs. Two cassette specialists recently shared their top 15 lists of cassette releases from 2012, Luke Carrell for Impose Magazine and Sean Gray for DCist. Each gives a very different take on what was most outstanding in the land of throwback formats.

Zappa Project Roxy By Proxy Funding Experiment Receiving Poor Public Response

The Zappa Family Trust is attempting to raise funds to complete the film The Roxy Performances for theatrical and DVD release. Focused on concerts from 1973, they are offering 1000 people the chance to be a "distributor" with their own copy of the "CD Duplication Master" for $1000. From what I can find, response on the web has been mostly negative with the recurring suggestion that crowdfunding would have been a more appropriate choice.

Getting It Done: The Week In D.I.Y. & Indie Music

• Musician's 30 Minute Daily Strategy for Social Media Marketing
• A Band Tries to Disappear from the Web
• Music Distributors Refuse to Join Labels in the Present
• 8 Tips for Making Your First Music Video
• GRAMMY365 Networking Wins A Grammy Nomination For Obscure Musician Al Walser

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Music Distributors Refuse To Join Labels In The Present

By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

If you know people who work at record labels, you know they are not without complaint. From Napster to YouTube, half of the new technologies in the world at any time seem specifically designed to subtract money from their bank accounts — oh, and everyone thinks they’re too rich, serve no purpose, and are quite probably evil to their very cores, all because they thought it was a good idea to get a job finding great music and selling it to people.

Yamaha Entertainment Group Founder Chris Gero Discusses New Record Label

Yamaha recently launched a new record label under the auspices of the Yamaha Entertainment Group of America. The news itself was worth noting as an example of the current range of experimentation with music business models and approaches including corporations creating in-house labels. I took the opportunity to speak with Founder Chris Gero to find out more about the story behind the news.

Metallica Splits From WMG To Launch Blackened Recordings

It’s official: Metallica has gone independent. Announced last Friday, the famed rockers have left longtime label Warner Music Group after 28 years, and were able to take ownership of all their master recordings with them, including all music and long form videos under provision of their renegotiated joint venture agreement with the WMG in 1994, where all masters revert back to the band as of November 30, 2012. The band also announced the formation of their own independent label, Blackend Recordings.

Why Artists Should Sell To Fans And Let Labels Sell To Consumers

Guest post by Benji Rogers (@BenjiKRogers) for sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank. Rogers is the CEO and founder of PledgeMusic. 

I'm tired of the gimmicks that surround music releases today. True, they aren't entirely new, but they are for some reason feeling particularly worn out lately.

“Tweet this and it unlocks this; that leads to a stream of the new song,” etc.

X5 Expands Into World Music With A Train, ARC Label Deals

Digital catalog compilation label X5 has added two new indies, ARC and A Train, to its growing list of label partners. X5 compilation releases in classical, blues and video game music are already in the Top 5 on most digital music charts; and the new deals add deep world music catalogs. They plan to release 200 digital compilations this fall and winter, curated from 30K newly licensed tracks.

X5 Music Group Extends #1 Digital Success To Blues, Video Game Soundtracks & More

X5 Music Group has scored #1's before with ultra-low priced digital-only classical music compilations. With high track counts and prices as low as $.99 - $1.99 driven by SEO friendly titles like "Mozart - 100 Supreme Classical Masterpieces", X5 has dominated the classical music charts for months. Now they're successfully extending their formula to higher priced compilations with fewer tracks in new genres.

BandPage Launches 'Connect' To Integrate Artist Profiles Across Social & Music Platforms

BandPage today announced the launch of their BandPage Connect API, widening the reach for musicians on their recently expanded BandPage Everywhere platform. Connect allows artists to instantly integrate their BandPage profile onto several social and music platforms across the web for free, including initial launch partners Wordpress, Guitar Center, Midem Music Festival, PledgeMusic, Conduit Mobile, Earbits, StoryAmp, Tixie, Music XRay, Local Music Vibe, WeDemand and The Social Radio.

Do You Have Drive? [VIDEO]

About a year ago, I wrote an article entitled “Musicians: Remember to Start with Why” that spoke about defining the intrinsic motivation behind your music career. The piece spoke about the differences between “work” and “effort”, and challenged readers to really consider why they are choosing to pursue one of the most difficult ways to make a living these days – to examine their inner drive.  

A Whole Lot of Blood and Sweat: Living Your Musical Career Under the Radar

Guest post by Matthew Moore (@MatthewrMoore) of sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank.

Everybody loves an underdog. They are the artist whose career started as a local opener with huge dreams to make it big. They worked for years to build a fanbase, growing it from their local area to the entire U.S. market and suddenly a major label wants to sign them. But is signing to a label always the best path for these artists?

42 Ways to Make Money As An Independent Musician

While often difficult, it is never entirely impossible to make a sustainable living as a musician these days. In fact, the Future of Music Coalition assembled a list of 42 ways that musicians can potentially earn money in today’s music space – demonstrating the multitude of revenue streams that today’s working musician must keep into account when venturing off into the world as an independent musician.

Ryan Leslie Talks About Mastering The Craft & Going Independent [VIDEO]

Record producer, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Ryan Leslie knows a thing or two about attracting an audience with media rich content. Not only does he completely produce and engineer his own records playing each and every instrument, his latest album “Les is More” has the artist producing and directing full-scale music videos to each song on the album – making the experience a complete visual album. Back in mid-2010, the artist parted ways with his former label Universal Motown to begin life as an independent artist, rapidly attaining a growing fan base on his terms.

A Closer Look At The Plight Of Uninsured Musicians

New York Magazine's recent story with Grizzly Bear exposed several economic realities of being an independent artist in today’s music business. The NYM went on to reveal that, “some band members don’t even have health insurance.” The Brooklyn-based rockers are far from being alone, as one third of full-time working musicians do not have health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. For a look at the plight of uninsured musicians  – and what's being done to address it – we spoke with Adam Huttler, a leading health care reform advocate whose organization, Fractured Atlas, has been providing affordable health insurance to musicians and artists for more than a decade.

Metallica Prepping First Independent Release

The famed rockers from Metallica are gearing up for their first non-major label release – a live concert DVD / Blu-ray entitled “Quebec Magnetic”, which will be released on the band's very own label in North America (no name for the label just yet). The material for the video was filmed over two nights in 2009 during the band’s Death Magnetic tour, and is due out on December 10^th. This marks yet another recent departure by a legacy artist from the major labels, as several others are beginning to fancy the independent route.