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Ethan Kaplan: Culture Is A Product

Guest post by former Warner Bros. Records digital exec Ethan Kaplan of Live Nation Labs. He blogs at Black Rim Glasses.

 A year ago I walked out of the Warner Bros. Records building, put a box in my car and drove home. I left with a collection of memories, but also a sense of unfinished business that I intended to keep in mind when I started my next venture.

When it started becoming apparent what my next venture would be, I sat down and started writing.

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.

ShareSquare Offers Quick & Easy HTML5 Mobile Sites For Musicians, Bloggers

ShareSquare, once known primarily for its mobile QR Code campaigns, has expanded its services to offer an HTML5 mobile website creator. Basically ShareSquare detects content and design elements on your original site, if you have one, and "mobilizes" those elements by prepopulating related modules to create the initial version of your mobile site.  So instead of being faced with a bunch of initial choices, you begin with a site that draws together feeds and sometimes even fans from such services as Twitter, Facebook and SoundCloud.

The result is an easy way for musicians to quickly and very affordably create a mobile presence.

Music Meets Tech At Unique MTV O Music Awards Unboxed Events

The O Music Awards is a music and tech oriented event from MTV that happens twice a year. Now event organizers are adding to the year's schedule with Unboxed, an attempt to create a new kind of event drawing together music, art and technology in a party-friendly environment.

The O Music Awards' first Unboxed event takes place February 23 at New York's Webster Hall featuring "MNDR, Miracles of Modern Science, a mystery app, a rainbow machine, an interactive music video shoot, and tons of dancing."

A Bright Future For Music Tech: Lessons Learned At SF MusicTech X

The number ten is quite a symbolic number, representing the start of a whole new order of numbers, and the culmination of the numbers that came before it. The number ten also implies the completeness of order. Last Monday at the Kabuki Hotel in San Francisco, the SF MusicTech Summit celebrated its tenth summit.

With what has become arguably the most influential gathering of music technologists on the West Coast, came a degree of symbolism that the number ten represents; that perhaps this sector of the music industry is finally ready to see the beginning of a new paradigm.

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.

Concert 2021: Is This The Future Of Live Music?

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

In one possible dystopian future, a single ticketing company has come to dominate the live music space to the point that concertgoers have no choice but to attend virtually. Concert 2012, which puts forth this vision, was one of the more curious apps to emerge from Music Hack Day San Francisco this past weekend.

EMI's Neil Tinegate Details OpenEMI's Support for Indie Developers

I recently spoke with Neil Tinegate, EMI Music VP of Digital Projects about OpenEMI. OpenEMI is one of the best examples I've seen of a well-established corporate entity finding a direct connection to the innovative energy of startups. Though OpenEMI is available to anyone with the ability to realize a great idea, it is particularly well-designed for small shops, the two guys in a garage model for music tech entrepreneurship.

Clyde's Top Picks From SF Music Hack Day 2012

Though the Grammys may soak up much of the mainstream media attention that might otherwise go to outstanding apps from SF Music Hack Day 2012, the 60+ hacks announced include numerous examples with industry buzz potential as well as apps that could attract mainstream attention. Though Music Hack Days are softsell environments, by having a presence one can boost industry buzz and by allying a timely theme with pleasing design one can cross over via mainstream media.

Industry Buzz Potential: Prizes, Sponsorships & Infrastructure

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.

TasteMakerX Raises $1.8 Million For "Fantasy Sports For Music Lovers" App

TasteMakerX has raised $1.8 Million from an A list group of investors for a mobile app mobile app that enables fans to discover artists, trends and inspiration; compete against other tastemakers; and share experiences through geo-tagging, commentary and photo sharing." The app is expected to launch at SXSW.

Drip.fm Creates Subscription Revenue Stream for Indie Labels

I spoke yesterday with the founders of Drip.fm, the platform that's powering Stones Throw Records' new digital subscription service. Sam Valenti IV, who founded Ghostly International, and Miguel Senquiz, Ghostly's head of product development and digital strategy, created Drip.fm as music fans who run their own label. Now they're gradually opening Drip.fm to other labels to feed superfans with an ongoing stream of digital releases.

PledgeMusic's Benji Rogers On Going Beyond Fan Funding To Power Album Campaigns

PledgeMusic is a unique web service for indie musicians and labels that, in my opinion, faces a bit of an identity crisis. When I recently spoke with founder Benji Rogers, he maintained that they are not a fan funding company, though most musicians perceive them as one. I am sympathetic. Yet given that fan funding is a key tool in PledgeMusic's album campaigns, the problem is not in being mislabeled; but rather that there isn't an easy label that encompasses all that they actually offer.

Audio Tags: Why Lady Gaga Would Create Sounds Only Your Smartphone Can Hear

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Audio tags are looking more and more like the new QR code — not only are they way less ugly than those jagged black-on-white squares, but you don't need to take a picture of anything in order for them to work. (See also: Shazam and the Super Bowl.)

New Music Marketing Opportunities On Tumblr, Instagram & Chill

Being an early adopter has its pluses and minuses. You can get wrapped up in chasing every new thing and lose site of your overall goal. But if you're already involved with a service or platform, new developments can give your music marketing a fresh look. For example, Tumblr is now offering highlighted posts for a buck and Jux has introduced a photoblog option for Instagram pics. Chill is also trying something new with a pivot from being a group video viewing service to becoming a video sharing site.

Soundsupply: GroupOn For Indie Music. Get 10 Albums For $15 Today Only

Soundsupply is a new startup that is experimenting with a digital bundle of music featuring 10 albums from 10 bands for $15. The offer ran for 10 days, and today is the final day to purchase Supply Drop #1. Lots of digits in this description but the idea of offering a huge amount of music at a low price seems potentially viable for indie rock. I like the idea of monetizing this marketing move but I have to wonder to what degree free has undermined low price offerings.

PLUS: How To Get Your Music Featured In The Next Bundle

Musicmetric: Co-Founder Talks Pro Edition, P2P Data Tour Planning App

Musicmetric is a web analytics platform that recently launched a Pro edition in Beta. It offers an impressive range of stats on everything from social media activity to mentions in articles on websites. One of the most noted features in recent media coverage is their tracking of file sharing activity. Access to such data also powered a midem Hack Day app called TourrentPlans that helps musicians plan tours based on the location of their filesharing fanbase.

OurStage Raises $650K Of $10M Funding Round

Boston based musician opportunity platform OurStage.com has raised $650,000 of a $10 million funding round. 19 unnamed investors were involved according to an SEC filing which earmarked $300,000 for executive compensation.

Share Free Music With Midemlab Entrant Musicplayr [FREE BETA INVITES]

As more startups emerge featuring free music via such services as YouTube and SoundCloud, it becomes increasingly difficult to sort them out and decide who is worth covering. But Thorsten Lüttger, cofounder and Co-Ceo of musicplayr, an entrant in the upcoming Midemlab, has story was worth telling even though the service itself is rather simple and straightforward. Simple is not always so easy to do and part of the strength of musicplayr to date is its successful development from a minimal viable product.

Gobbler Gets $1.75 Million To Expand Musician File Management Solution

LA based Gobbler, a service that helps musicians backup, organize and transfer large audio and video files, has received $1.75 million to expand the service. Investors in the round include ff Venture Capital, Black Ocean Group, Mindjolt CTO Aber Whitcomb, Facebook VP Dan Rose, ex-Googler Jermey Wenokur, Science’s Mike Jones, and the founder of LowerMyBills Matt Coffin.