hypebot

There's Just One Territory For Releasing Music Now: The World

Guest post by Michael Brandvold of Michael Brandvold Marketing.

I came across this on Bravewords.com this morning: Starting at roughly 8:00am EST on Thursday, February 2nd, VAN HALEN's new album A Different Kind Of Truth will reportedly be available via the Australian iTunes store (12:00 midnight on February 3rd Sydney time). Go to www.apple.com/au/itunes for more information.

Tom Silverman: 1st Anniversary Of The Resurrection Of The Music Business

Guest post by Tom Silverman, music industry veteran, thought leader and founder of the New Music Seminar.

As I sat and planned the program for the June 2012 New Music Seminar, it occurred to me that we are approaching the first anniversary of the music business resurrection. After ten years of decline, the music business hit bottom in the second week of February 2010 and began to rise the week of February 14th. There have been many reports of the music business comeback and many have tried to figure out what was responsible for this upturn. Some have credited Adele, others the shuttering of Limewire, still others the Walmart $5 dump bins.

Let's look at the good news.

Major Labels Take HMV Equity Stake In Plan To Save Music Retailer

U.K. music retailer HMV has sold an equity stake in the company to suppliers, including Universial Music in an effort to solidify their financial position for the next three years. According to The Guardian, HMV has sold a 2.5% stake to their suppliers in the form of warrants, but the company declined to comment on the other terms of the agreement, which likely entail a shifting of some risk to suppliers.

Why Fans Buy Vinyl & The Apps That Guide Them

Guest post by Andy Cush of Evolver.fm.

As someone who spends lots of time thinking about the future of music as an app phenomenon, it might surprise you that I do a lot of my listening on vinyl records. I'm not alone – reports abound of vinyl's surging sales numbers over the past five or so years.

Odd Future Joins The Pop-Up Store Craze

News that Odd Future are planning pop-up stores while on tour is the latest in a growing range of such temporary retail shops, many of which have been developed for music events. Though some may consider this a trend, pop-stores or shops are now well-established and could be thought of as an option for taking the merch table to another level at a time when music merch is become more important than ever to working musicians.

Music In Books: Gil Scott-Heron, Elton John, Lil Wayne, Johnny Ramone, Carly Simon, Megadeth, MTV VJs

News that Lil Wayne and some MTV VJs from the 80s all have book deals inspired me to check out what else was on the way. Quite a number of interesting books by and about famous musicians are coming out in the first half of 2012. For me, Gil Scott-Heron's memoirs are a must read and I look forward to Lil Wayne's prison tales. I'm also curious about Johnny Ramone's autobiography, written while he knew was dying. What are you looking forward to reading and what have I missed? Let us know in the comments.

Spin Magazine Replaces Most Album Reviews With 140 Character Tweets

Spin Magazine, the 26 year old music magazine once known for it’s counter-culture reporting (today known to be more pop-culture centered), has announced that it will be moving a large portion its album reviews over to Twitter, with more than 1,500 album reviews this year alone arriving as 140-character tweets. The magazine has said, however, that it will continue to post roughly 20 full reviews each month on their website.

Menyou: Partner With Fans To Sell Your Music

Menyou, one of midemlab's 30 finalists, offers an embeddable online store for your music that your fans can also use to sell and get a cut. Artists are provided with an ecommerce option, fans can spread the word via sales from their own sites and social media outlets and Menyou makes sure everyone gets paid.  A percentage of proceeds for specified charities is also an easy option.

Dympol's Charitable Checkout Offers Simple Way For Musicians To Do Good In 2012

Dympol was one of the launch partners for FanBridge's Partner Ecosystem and they offer a great way to focus one's positive energies for 2012.  Dympol provides a service called Charitable Checkout which connects bands (and other brands) to charities and a sponsoring organization via a widget that is integrated into the ecommerce process or social media settings. It's one simple way for musicians to do good by leveraging the activities they already do and the audience they're already building.

Is Music Piracy The Problem… Or The Solution?

Yesterday in a comment left on one of Hypebot's Best of 2011 articles, one reader expressed a viewpoint that ending piracy is the #1 route to a professional career in the music industry. They went on to say:

“You can't have jobs where there's no money. People who aspire to professional careers need to learn who is robbing them of those opportunities.”

While it’s clear by now that piracy has caused the music industry as a whole to lose a substantial amount of its revenue, it’s important to examine the root of the behavior in order to fully understand piracy and the people who choose to participate.

Courtney Taylor-Taylor's One Model Nation Combines Graphic Novel & Fictional Band

"One Model Nation" is a graphic novel and music project that started as a film script. Originally envisioned by Courtney Taylor-Taylor of the Dandy Warhols and Donovan Leitch, who did much of the historical research, the script was written by Taylor-Taylor and the resulting graphic novel illustrated by Jim Rugg. After an initial paperback appearance in 2009, a hardback edition is being released with a related album by fictional German band, One Model Nation.

Shirtify T-Shirt Of Month Club: Music You Like, Money For Independent Artists

[Updated below] Shirtify is a t-shirt of the month club that's based on your social listening preferences. This Canadian starup uses music services like Spotify to identify what you're listening to and sends you a t-shirt for a band you enjoy. If you're an artist whose music is getting streamed a lot, this might be a good way to get paid.

Does The Music Industry Spend Its Own Money On Music? [SURVEY RESULTS]

This guest post is by David Chaitt of SoundCtrl.

Intro: Two Mondays ago, I left work early with a migraine. After a long shower and a nice nap, I woke up completely in a daze like any time I nap. I was in the mood for something laid back. At that moment I got an email that Sigur Ros was doing a "Cyber Monday" email blast to promote the various package options for their new live DVD/album Inni. I made the impulse buy and dropped $58 on the Vinyl/DVD package as a nice early Chanukah gift for myself.

Previously Unpublished Steve Jobs Interview From 2003 iTunes Launch

Laura Locke interviewed Steve Jobs for TIME magazine on April 28th, 2003, prior to a launch event in San Francisco for a new digital music service. The product being launched turned out to be the iTunes Music Store, characterized as the "first acceptable alternative to 'free' unauthorized file-sharing services", and Locke found herself in the enviable position of recording some of Jobs' first comments. The interview has not seen light of day for an unspecified reason until Technologizer published it in its entirety this week.

Rolling Stones & Fugazi Launch Digital Archives with Radically Different Approaches

Musicians have been using the web to amplify and extend their careers in a variety of ways. One still emerging solution is to create digital archives with content ranging from copies of old newspaper clippings to recordings of live concerts. Recently both the Rolling Stones and Fugazi opened online archives with quite different approaches to content and access that reflect their respective approaches to the business of music.

Bands.com: (Almost) Free Direct-To-Fan Sales & Management Platform

(UPDATED) Taking aim at the likes of BandCamp, OneSheet, BandPage and VibeDeck, Chicago-based Internet media company Emerge Media has released Bands.com - a new platform for artists to aggregate and manage all the digital spaces they currently participate in, and provides a platform on which to sell music and merchandise direct-to-fan.

6 Tips From Nimbit's "Ultimate Guide To Selling And Promoting Your Music On Facebook"

Last month Nimbit added Spotlight landing pages to their direct to fan Facebook storefronts. They're now spreading the word with a guide to selling and promoting your music on Facebook that gathers together their top tips and insights on Facebook marketing. Included are tips that may seem obvious but continue to be overlooked by DIY artists.

Dizzyjam vs. Bitvibe: Music Merch Store Battle

Dizzyjam.com and Bitvibe offer contrasting models for web-powered music merch stores. Dizzyjam.com is similar to CafePress with more limited options while Bitvibe is an even newer breed of merch store similar to Soulblendr which was previously profiled at Hypebot. Both provide platforms that feature band merch without requiring as much in-house work as creating and fulfilling merch requests on one's own.

NARM's Donio: 20 Years Of Music Retail Upheaval & Next Shift From Sales To Streaming [VIDEO]

(UPDATED) Jim Donio, President of NARM, joins Ian Rogers for a new episode of This Week In Music to talk about how music retail has changed over the past 20 years. Since 1958, The National Association of Recording Merchandisers has represented retailers, wholesalers, and now technology companies selling recorded music. Jim and Ian speak about the evolution of that process over the past decades, as well as NARM's new technology initiatives. About 18:30 in the pair tackle the coming mega-shift from the sale of music to subscriptions and streaming

Flexi Of The Month: A Playable Music Postcard Club

With vinyl showing strong growth as a specialized music format and cassettes making a surprising return, the re-emergence of seemingly outdated formats makes the upcoming launch of the Flexi of the Month club right on time. A new project from the folks at Hifidelics, Flexi of the Month is inspired by flexi discs in the form of Polish Sound Postcards.