hypebot

3 New Strategies To Monetize Music: YouTube Contests, Monkeybars Market, Pivotshare Subs

Monetizing music and music videos is a constant struggle for independent artists. But three new strategies offer possible solutions: combining use of YouTube's sync licensing with a video contest, Monkeybars' social marketplace that shares the wealth with artists and fans, and Pivotshare's rev share-based service for paid subscriptions to audio and video content.

Music Smasher: Search Grooveshark, MOG, Rdio, Spotify and More, Simultaneously

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Music services sometimes issue press releases when their catalogs break certain thresholds — 10 million tracks, 12 million tracks, and so on. But they never mention it when a certain artist, album, or song disappears from their catalogs, which happens as licensing contracts end, or when musicians reconsider the wisdom of licensing their music to unlimited services.

Spotify's Daniel Ek On Streaming Royalties, Social Media & The Future [INTERVIEW]

This interview by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm with Spotify CEO Daniel Ek originally appeared on GRAMMY.com. Ek is keynoting the GRAMMY Foundation’s Entertainment Law Initiative Luncheon & Scholarship Presentation today. For more information on the GRAMMY Foundation, visit vwww.grammyfoundation.org. The 54th Annual GRAMMY Awards airs live on Sunday, Feb. 12 on CBS. 

Evolver.fm: Can you give us a preview of what you intend to discuss today at the luncheon?

Ek: There’s a lot of interesting debate going on now about streaming, and I like that it’s become more about streaming, and not what’s free or not. But what I really want to talk about is the future.

Raditaz: Location-Specific User-Created Radio Stations

This week I spoke with Tom Brophy, Founder and CEO of Raditaz, a mobile and web-based radio service with a particularly interesting location-based aspect. Raditaz offers the option of creating your own station and listening to stations created by others along with some preprogrammed options.

President Obama Tweets His Spotify Playlist

On Thursday morning President Barack Obama shared his Spotify playlist on Twitter. It covers all the music and political bases from Ray LaMontagne to No Doubt and Electric Light Orchestra to Zach Brown.

First Apple iTune's Match Payments Arriving, TuneCore Gets $10,000

Tunecore has just gotten its first payment for $10,000 from Apple's iTune's Match, and CEO Jeff Price believes that's a hopeful sign. "Seeing an additional $10,000+ appear out of the thin air for TuneCore Artists by people just listening to songs they already own is amazing!"  Now, $10,000 for all the acts that TunecCore distributes isn't much money, but it is a start.

INgrooves CEO Robb McDaniels On Music Streaming: Setting The Record Straight

Guest post by Robb McDaniels, Founder and CEO of INgrooves.

It's a format change – that's why it is stoking so much fear and anxiety in the marketplace. The ability to "access" your media and stream it to any device, anywhere is simply the logical progression of technological development that has led us from vinyl to cassette to CD to download to stream. With each of these format changes, there were a lot of other things that changed as well: economics, marketing strategies, product types and level of consumer engagement are just a few aspects of the music ecosystem that were forced to adapt to the new, different reality.

Music Ownership: eMusic's Molly Neuman Looks At Consumer Motivations

Guest post by Molly Neuman, eMusic's VP Label Relations and MD Europe via digitalmusic.org.

For a large segment of music consumers, downloading music to own is something that's seen as music's past. But for an even larger share, owning and collecting is hugely important.

Interview: Sony Exec Tom Schaaff On Music Unlimited, Release Windows & More @ #MIDEM

By Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

Last year at Midem, Sony's Tim Schaaff was announcing plans for the rollout of Music Unlimited. Now at Midem 2012, it’s available in 13 markets, with more than 1 million active users and a catalog of nearly 15 million tracks.  Schaaf has been upped to President of the Sony Entertainment Network division; and he sat down with Music Ally in Cannes this morning to talk about the service, along with its wider role within the reorganised Sony structure.

Spotify Hits 3 Million Paid Subscribers, 20% Conversion Rate

During an appearance at at Universal Music Open Day in London, Spotify Chief Content Officer Ken Parks announced that the music streaming service now has 3 million paid subscribers. That's up from 2.5 million just 2 months ago and would mean that 20% of an estimated 12.5 million users are converting from free to paid subscriptions.

Rhapsody Expands Into Europe With Purchase Of Napster UK, Germany

Rhapsody is making its first international moves with the purchase of Napster in the UK and Germany.  In the U.S., Rhapsody acquired Napster from Best Buy last year and retired the brand. In Europe, the music subscription service will operate under the napster brand and retain all Napster International.

8 Things Spotify Could Do Right Now To Show They Care About Musicians

This guest post is by Gavin Castleton, a songwriter and producer from Portland, OR.

1. Promote “Buy Now” links on album pages and next to individual tracks.

2. Allow artists to edit their own profiles.

Scott Perry Talks To Spotify: The Case FOR Day & Date Music Streaming

Earlier this week a guest post "On Withholding Music From Spotify & The New Economics Of Album Releases" by Scott Perry of New Music Tipsheet and Sperry Media set off a heated discussion among Hypebot readers.  It also led to a call with Spotify that left Perry questioning his previous assumptions.

On Withholding Music From Spotify & The New Economics Of Album Releases

Guest post is Scott Perry of New Music Tipsheet and entertainment industry marketing and consulting firm Sperry Media.

Don't care what anybody says, artist has a right to withhold their music from streaming services in order to make a couple extra dollars from physical & downloads. It ain't greedy, it's business -- if you can sell out Madison Square Garden in 10 minutes (Black Keys, pictured left), if you can sell out 3 nights at the Hollywood Bowl (Coldplay), if you are on the verge of sweeping the Grammys (Adele), the world can afford to pay full price for your art.

Join Music Tech Meetups With Spotify Engineers [New York, Stockholm]

Spotify is holding two meetups that should be of interest to the many music tech entrepreneurs who read Hyepbot. Anchored by Spotify engineers and their tech team, these January Tech Meetups will be held in in Stockholm and in New York. Here are details to attend:

Losing Your Free Spotify Account? 2 Grooveshark Staffers Make It Easy To Switch

Despite hints yesterday that Spotify may make their free accounts a bit more attractive, some users are looking hard for alternatives.  One, for now, is Grooveshark which is still up and running despite being sued by every major label. To make the switch from Spotify easier, two Grooveshark staffers, Julia Anderson and James Hartig, created ToGrooveshark as a side project.

Facebook Takes On Turntable.fm, Launches "Listen With" Group Listening & Chat

Taking cues from Turntable.fm, multiple Facebook users can now listen in on their friend’s music while simultaneously initiating a group chat together. Announced today, the new Facebook feature called “Listen With” provides users with a chat room in which they can share songs and initiate messaging - simulating the experience of being in the same room while enjoying tunes together.

Spotify Free Users, Don't Despair. They're Planning "Some Changes"

After Hypebot and other media pointed out earlier this week that, according to previously stated Spotify policies, users that signed on during the service's initial U.S. launch were about to loose their unlimited free service, the company issued a brief statement this morning saying that "some changes" will be forthcoming "in due course. Here's the full statement:

From CES: Justin Timberlake, MySpace On Your TV, Pandora In Your Car

This week's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas includes plenty of news about smart tvs and car connectivity with two big announcements on Monday related to music.  With the help of Justin Timberlake (video below), MySpace and Panasonic announced the introduction of MySpace TV which should debut the first half of this year.  Pandora announced additional deals with automakers and aftermarket suppliers that continue a long, complicated process of establishing a solid base in the automotive industry.

2011 TechCrunch Crunchies Finalists Include Spotify CEO Ek & Mulligan's Onesheet

The 2011 Crunchies, the annual tech awards show created by TechCrunch, takes place January 31st in San Francisco. Voting has begun to choose the winners from the list of finalists and you are encouraged to vote. Though there are no outright music or entertainment categories, music tech companies made a strong showing across categories. In addition, a number of prominent companies and products that are important to the music industry are up for awards.