BeatDeck, a new web metrics service, launched this week with free service for musicians. It's the first stage of a larger vision but the key for musicians is the offer of a free dashboard for tracking one's social media and fan activity across multiple accounts. Definitely worth checking out to see if it will fit your needs.
Splash is an events website that provides serve yourself event pages, email and ticketing services for special events. It looks great, but at first I considered it overkill for most musicians' needs until reading some of Solveig Whittle's comments about using Splash for a special CD release party. Yesterday I spoke with her a bit more about her experience of using Splash and why it was particularly appropriate for supporting a unique event.
Calling all DIY artists: Kyle Bylin brings us an essay by Jay Frank that gives us some brilliant insight into the modern music industry. Exploring the significant roles of YouTube, Live Touring, and Sync Placement, the focus is placed on the bigger picture. See for yourself as the world of DIY success become demystified on Music Think Tank.
Spotify launched two new charts this week in each of the 28 markets that it serves. Macklemore & Ryan top this week's most played track in the U.S., but Five Finger Death tops the most shared songs. In the UK , Daft Punk tops the most played chart, and Hoodie Allen has the most shared track. The Charts:
Launching today, concert recording and sales app Lively offers a simple way to record and sell live recordings immediately after the show. Available for Android and iOS, Lively is led by startup veteran Dean Graziano.
Soundhalo is a brand new service for taking live concert video recordings and transforming them into mixed single song videos for immediate sale. It's an interesting hybrid that's currently being offered as an Android app that allows purchases during the live show. DRM-free concert files are then available for viewing on any device. Sounds like a potential winner on impulse buys if Soundhalo can pull off some formidable challenges.
I’ve always been skeptical of how music startups view music listeners. There have been many times where I’ve read a press release or heard an elevator pitch and narrowed my eyes. The suspension of reality can be astounding at times. Music startups seem to think that people have an infinite capacity to discover music and spread their love for artists.
This is the preface for Divergent Streams, a collection of essays edited by Kyle Bylin (@sidewinderfm) and written by influential executives, startup founders, and thinkers in the music industry. Download a free copy of the e-book here.
I wanted something to read. Something that challenged me. Something that engaged me. Something that forced me to sit down and consider the writer’s
perspective. What I found instead were news stories about trivial developments, blog posts with big headlines but small insights, and numbered lists
lacking intellectual substance.
Muzeek is a new gig booking platform that hopes to go beyond simply being a handy booking tool and towards something a bit more powerful. In addition to taking care of agreements, bookkeeping and payments, Muzeek hopes to build a self-reinforcing community to ensure good behavior from acts, promoters and venues. Beyond that they see Muzeek as an "intuitive booking platform" that can ease the booking process based on data.
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.
Have you been wondering if you should be pursuing a record label or whether you're just wasting your time? There has never been a better time to be an independent musician but you have to know what your goal is and you must have an informed and practical plan of action. Mark Doyon helps sort through your best bets on Music Think Tank.
Wreckroom is getting close to a year old and it seems to have settled into a pleasant groove. Adrian Grenier and friends open their basement recording studio to record a song and shoot a video. The audio and video are distributed on the project's channels and via participating acts. It's an increasingly common model for web arts projects and, maybe, for somebody a business. For now Wreckroom is putting out a steady stream of multimedia and hitting music festivals for low key showcases.
By Jason Spitz (@jasonspitz), an e-commerce expert who helps bands, comedians, and other artists build direct-to-fan businesses.
1. Shopping Habits
One big bottleneck to reaching the full potential of direct-to-fan is the audience’s shopping habits. Music consumers have learned that iTunes and Amazon offer a smooth, seamless shopping experience with reliable fulfillment.
SoundCloud has hired Dan Gerber, previously the National
Director of Strategic Partnerships at Pandora, to head brand revenues. Gerber will start in June, and SoundCloud
will open it's first ever New York City office later this summer.
Music blogs are an interesting sector, one that continues to evolve with the artists that they cover. I have several friends and colleagues who know a lot about where music blogs came from and where they might be going. So I asked them this question: How has the music blogging and curation landscape changed in recent years? Talk about some of these changes and then bring us into present day. What does that landscape look like right now?
Digital sheet music startup Chromatik has raised $5.7 million of an $8.8 million Series A founding round, according to an SEC filing. Funders include Rustic Canyon Partners in the lead role, along with Plus Capital, Baroda Ventures, 500 Startups, and rapper/actor Will Smith.
Jack Conte, known in part for his role in Pomplamoose, yesterday launched a patronage platform called Patreon that's designed to connect content creators with patrons. It's an interesting hybrid that combines elements of subscriptions, pledging and tipping and reconciles them with the sometimes erratic creative schedule of any working artist.
By David Dufresne (@DavidDufresne), CEO of Bandzoogle, a website builder and marketing platform for independent music artists.
I think when Apple and Google finally launch subscription music services (or partner up with an existing one), and bundle them with each iOS and Android device sold, this will be a huge game-changer. It will definitely be the tipping point towards massive adoption of on-demand music access, and it will accelerate the downfall of music ownership.
By Brandon Chiat, co-founder, Marquee a live music discovery and rewards application.
There’s a new buzzword being thrown around by marketing teams. SoLoMo, which stands for Social-Local-Mobile, refers to the integration of social, location-based, and mobile marketing tools into new customer acquisition
platforms.
(UPDATED) Now that a myriad of services deliver 10-15 million songs to our pockets, simple and personalized music discovery has become the music tech's holy grail. To add to their discovery efforts, Spotify has acquired Tunigo, a music discovery app that scours Spotify's library and playlists; adding news, new releases, and an advanced music player.
When the Echo Nest added $17.3 million in funding last year, they promised aggressive international expansion. This week the music
intelligence provider announced three new European partnerships: WiMP, Viamo and Xite.
Songza has always been about quickly finding a playlist that fits your mood and taste. With today's release of Songza 3.0 for the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, the fast rising music streamer has made that experience even simpler. “This app update coincides
with four new milestones for Songza," states Elias Roman,
co-founder and CEO of Songza. "We’ve just had our 6 millionth App Store
install and served over 560 million songs in the last 30 days. We’re now
reaching 4.7 million monthly active users who spend more than 65 million minutes
with Songza each day.” The company also recently completed a $3.8 million fund-raising round.
At TechCrunch Disrupt, Lady Gaga manager and technology investor Troy Carter talked about how technology is changing the music industry. “I don’t think tech has screwed the music industry, the music industry
has to adjust to change," said Carter. "When people in remote villages throughout the
world can access music, it’s a good thing.” he said. Two areas are particularly ripe for disruption, terrestrial radio and live touring, according to Carter.
