Daft Punk is back with a wide-ranging marketing campaign for their new album "Random Access Memories." Though using teasers and promos is normal for high profile albums, Daft Punk has brought a special flair to their promotions that has been matched in many respects by the response of their fans to their return. Though Daft Punk can't help but reference the past, they adapt well to the web.
By Frank Woodworth (@GlacialConcepts), Director of Business Development at Thrillcall, a concert discovery and ticketing platform for web and mobile applications.
A major label is going to buy a DIY distributor, such as TuneCore or CD Baby. This is the next logical step in the roll up of distributors. In the past five years the independent distributors have been merged in much the same way that labels were merged over the past 20 years.
Yesterday, activist investor and hedge fund manager Dan Loeb called for Sony to sell 20% of its music, film and entertainment division. Third Point, the fund managed by Loeb, owns 6.5% of Sony stoking, making it one of the company's largest shareholders with a stake of $1.1 billion.
Google has completed deals with Sony Entertainment and Universal Music Group to launch two parallel streaming music services, according to several reports. Google appears likely to make the announcement at its I/O developer conference around Noon ET today. A deal with Warner Music Group is reported to have been completed earlier this year.
During today's earnings call, it was announced that former Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman, Jr. is leaving the company's board. His exit marks the end of an era. With first Lyor Cohen and now Bronfman officially exiting, along with their old school salaries and attitudes, we've lost two of our easiest major label targets. Here's a look back at our favorite Edgar Bronfman moments:
(UPDATED) Universal Music Group has agreed to license it's catalog to Apple's iRadio streaming music services, according to reports. Apple has apparently dropped requests that it be charged a lower rate in exchange for a share of ad revenue, and opted for the .125 cent rate that Pandora pays, according the the Financial Times.
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.
We live in a world where someone handing Katy Perry a demo could lead to their next big break. With the plethora of self-marketing strategies available
that include everything from Facebook and YouTube to SoundCloud and ReverbNation, most continue to dream of the moment they run into that one special
producer or A&R person in the elevator. But why is that? Could it be because the popular music elite like Perry or Rihanna, who many artists want to join
at the top of the music industry, aren’t accessible through the Internet?
So much for fan engagement... Jimmy Kimmel sent a reporter to Coachella to interview attendees
about the bands they were most excited to see. But the band's they were asking about - The Obesity Epidemic, The Chelsea Clintons, Shorty Drizzle and the Plumbercracks - don't exist. WATCH:
If you think the solution to fixing the music business lies within the belly of the beast, Warner Music has posted a NYC opening that could be your dream job. The official title is Manager User Experience who as the ability to bring an "an open mind to every discussion" and will "advocate for the fan". The post makes no promises as to how open to your ideas the WMG exec at the head of the conference table will be. But still, "this is a serious opportunity to shape the way fans engage with artists
and music online."
Universal Music Publishing Group's Santa Monica, CA office has been
"infiltrated with pervasive drug use where you could smell marijuana
seeping from various offices, and openly used in common areas, and
lounges," according to a lawsuit filed in LA Superior Court Tuesday. The filing names several artists and executives involved in the alleged misconduct.
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:
Roger Faxon has had a distinguished career in the entertainment industry. He was executive vice president/COO at LucasFilm, a founding partner of the film and television production unit Mount Company, and a senior executive vice president at Columbia Pictures. He joined EMI in 1994 after serving as CEO of London-based Sotheby’s Europe. Until a year ago, he was CEO of EMI Group. Faxon orchestrated the sale of EMI’s Recorded Music and Publishing Assets, respectively, to Universal Music Group and Sony/ATV Publishing.
Though you might not think of YouTube as a place for classical music, except when classical musicians are covering pop tunes, classical pianist Valentina Lisitsa used YouTube to build an audience after her career appeared to be going downhill and then got a major label record deal. It's a great story of an artist who used her direct connection to fans to break the rules and get a deal after aging out of the traditional career path of classical musicians.
Alexz Johnson got her start in show biz with a lot of tv appearances in Canada that included her music. But when she got her first major label deal, followed by her second major label deal, she ended up without an album of her own. A couple of indie label releases followed but it wasn't until she went DIY and got into crowdfunding that she really began to build her own career in music.
Not too long ago, I was discussing with a friend of mine what we felt our purpose in life is. For some, their purpose may be to become a writer, a doctor,
or a lawyer. But for me it’s music. Regardless of how tough and unstable that may be at times, it’ll never change. In the middle of our conversation, in
the midst of voicing my frustrations and concerns regarding the future, my friend calmly repeated a phrase his father said to him during trying times, “We
just have to adapt.”
Spotify has started it's periodic licensing renegotiations with the major labels, and this round is shaping up to be a difficult one. In an effort to be profitable, Spotfy is seeking a significant reduction in what it pays to play music along with an extension of it's free music offering to mobile.
Music's transition from physical to digital has been matched a major decline in the number of people who buy music. 10.5 million fewer people are buying music in the US and UK than their were in 2008. Some consumers have not made the transition to digital, others - whether via free streaming or p2p - prefer getting their music for free. Accompanying the sales decline are dwindling album sales. But, according to an analysis by industry consultant Mark Mulligan, "the abandonment of the album by engaged music fans is changing the face of the top 10".
