(* Source: Jason Kinad *)

Jason says.. 

We’ve seen a number of music sites like Seeqpod and Grooveshark that leverage user-uploaded music scattered across the web to offer free, on-demand jukeboxes. These services manage to skirt legal repercussions by only serving content that is hosted on other sites, which makes them harder to sue (though some have tried).

Streamzy, a media search startup that launched earlier this year, has taken this approach one step further. Instead of trying to index user-generated content, Streamzy uses Seeqpod’s database as a content source, which it further refines by weeding out broken links. The site, which used to only support audio, has just introduced video playback as well.

Streamzy offers a streamlined (and much improved) interface for Seeqpod’s content, sporting a minimalist player that neatly labels each song by title and artist name. Beyond basic media playback, Streamzy also offers an intuitive drag-and-drop playlist maker that users can save for future reference. In the future the company plans to allow for users to embed playlists on their blogs and social network profiles.

Streamzy isn’t much more than a resigned interface for Seeqpod, but it’s a redesign that was badly needed. And while it will have a hard time differentiating itself from the likes of Jogli, Songza, Soundflavor and a number of others, it’s a good place to start for music on demand.

Posted by brian tiong at 02:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Amie Street, the music store that features dynamic pricing that varies according to a song’s popularity, has secured a deal with digital music distributor The Orchard, which holds a catalog of over 1 million songs. For the time being not all of The Orchard’s music labels will be taking part in the deal, but Amie Street hopes to have them all finalized in the near future.

Amie Street offers musicians a unique marketplace that scales prices according to how many times a song has been purchased. Fledgling musicians trying to establish an audience will likely see their songs sell for only a few cents, but as they grow more popular song prices increase to up to 98 cents (Amie Street gets the first $5 made by each song, musicians keep 70% of any revenue thereafter). They’ve been one of our favorite startups since launching in mid-2006.

The deal marks a huge win for Amie Street, which has gradually been able to establish itself as a destination to discover new music, especially when compared to more traditional stores like iTunes and Amazon. The Orchard features a long list of notable labels and artists, and while it’s currently unclear how long it will take all of them to sign on, it’s clear that flexible pricing is being accepted as a viable business model by the music industry.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hefflinger *)

Posted by brian tiong at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says... 

The Filter, the media recommendation engine that we covered last April, has opened its doors to the public. The Peter Gabriel-backed company offers an entertainment start page that provides recommendations on movies, music, and online video (it is mostly focused on perfecting its music recommendations for the time being).

In the following video Peter Gabriel explains why we need sites like The Filter to reduce the overwhelming abundance of information available online down to a manageable level.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Erick Schonfeld *) 

Erick says... 

Can video games save the music industry? Probably not. But video games are emerging as a powerful distribution channel for digital music downloads. Players of Grand Theft Auto IV can buy the songs they hear in the game from Amazon by making their characters dial a number on their cell phones.

Now the rock band Mötley Crüe (yes, they are still alive) is getting in on the action as well. They released a single from their latest album, Saints of Los Angeles, both in the video game Rock Band and as download on iTunes, Amazon and elsewhere. In the first week that the digital single was available for sale (the physical album won’t be released until June 24), it was downloaded 47,000 times on the Xbox alone compared to 10,000 times on iTunes and other digital download stores on the Web.

Maybe people who play Rock Band are just naturally drawn to the Crüe. Or maybe video games are just a better way to sell music. You get to hear the whole song as part of a more immersive experience. And if you just scored high in the game, you are probably more receptive to shelling out some cash for the song that helped you get there. All those feel-good endorphins have to be channeled somewhere.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mike Masnick *)

Mike reports... 

We wrote about Metallica's latest foray online, where it's attempting to build a community around its latest music. Given Metallica's history of attacking Napster all the way back in 2000, we expected there to be some pushback, but what was really stunning was how many of the comments were from people (many of whom had been big fans of the band) still pissed off about Metallica's actions, and refusing to have anything to do with the band. We weren't the only ones to notice. Wired had a story on Metallica's efforts and discovered exactly the same thing. The vast majority of the comments were vehemently negative. Clearly, Metallica really tarnished its reputation by its actions eight years ago, and it's still paying for it.

This brings up a good point, that we've mentioned in the past in the comments, but not so clearly in a post. A person, organization, band or company's reputation is an important "scarce" good -- and once damaged, it's quite difficult (though not impossible) to rebuild the shattered goodwill. When talking about what would happen in a world without copyright, for example, people often say "but in a world without copyright, couldn't someone just copy your own creation and pretend they were their own." The answer is yes, but they do so at the risk to their own reputation. If the news comes out that the person/organization/band/whatever was taking others' works and not giving credit where it was due, that would harm their reputation. And, as Metallica is learning, a tainted reputation can have serious long-term impact.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:22 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mike Masnick *)

Mike reports... 

It's been quite some time since we heard about Allofmp3, the Russian online music download store that offered extremely low prices on DRM-free downloads (you even got to pick your format). The company insisted that it was legal in Russia, and had all the appropriate licenses. Multiple times, the company was brought to court in Russia, and every time, it was found to be legitimate. In fact, the company even tried to pay royalties for the music it sold, but the recording industry refused to accept the payments.

However, the entertainment industry had US diplomats lean on Russia, claiming that if it didn't shut down the site, the US would block Russia's admittance into the WTO. So, eventually, Russia did shut down the site through somewhat questionable means. Of course, within minutes of it being shutdown, the company reappeared under the name Mp3Sparks. In fact, Allofmp3.com accounts worked just fine on Mp3Sparks. And, of course, there are a dozen or so other Russian online download stores that also offer the same sort of deal (and all of which are playing by Russian copyright laws).

For some reason, though, Mp3Sparks just hasn't received nearly as much attention as Allofmp3, and it seems like The Pirate Bay has taken on the role of "public enemy number 1" for the recording industry. So, it should come as little surprise that the RIAA has dropped its lawsuit against Allofmp3.com, saying that the company is now defunct, while totally ignoring Mp3Sparks.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:08 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Alana Taylor *) 

Virgin Radio, the UK’s most popular national rock and pop station, announced today that it is partnering up with coComment, a distributed comment system. This means that Virgin Radio’s 4.5 million monthly listeners will now be able to discuss their favorite songs or topics online and interact with each other using coComment. They can then track these conversations through their coComment account.

coComment was the early mover in the distributed comment space, but has since been joined by the likes of Disqus and SezWho, who have both been adding lots of new features and gaining lots of attention lately. In April we noted that SezWho added the feature of tracking RSS feeds rather than simply just comments, and recently we mentioned that Disqus launched their new video commenting feature through Seesmic.

In the end, however, all three services provide very similar features that allow users to interact and share information about what they find on the internet at rapid speed. The idea that blog comments are turning into an active world wide conversation is becoming a reality.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mike Arrington *) 

The BBC has been testing a new service called SoundIndex, which lists the top 1,000 artists based on discussions crawled from Bebo, Last.fm, Google Groups, iTunes, MySpace and YouTube. The top five bands according to SoundIndex right now are Coldplay, Rihanna, The Ting Tings, Duffy and Mariah Carey , but the index is refreshed every six hours.

This is somewhat similar to Songkick’s “Battle Of The Bands,” which we covered in March. Songkick uses different data - MySpace, Amazon and blogs - to determine rankings, and the results are completely different.

SoundIndex also lets users sort by popular tracks, search by artist, or create customized charts based on music preferences or filters by age range, sex or location. Results can also be limited to just one data source (such as Last.fm).

SoundIndex was created in partnership with IBM (IBM’s Semantic Super Computing is used to crawl and analyze sites), and the UK’s NovaRising produces the site. The project is coming out of BBC Switch, BBC’s new teen service delivering content to 12 to 17-year-olds across multiple platforms, TV, Radio 1 and online.

Posted by brian tiong at 01:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *)  

Mike says...

Napster just announced that they are now selling their entire catalog of 6 million songs for $0.99/each, no DRM. And for some reason I’m having trouble getting excited about it (CNET, however, has more than enough excitement for both of us, saying “This is a huge day for digital music.” Whatever.)

The fact is that Napster is still unprofitable and still makes most of its revenue from all-you-can-eat subscription sales. Both AOL and Yahoo bailed out of this business, since consumers don’t seem to like it and the labels take all the revenues. Ian Rogers explained why that business sucks last year, right before he bailed out of Yahoo.

So Napster is making their big push into DRM-free sales, a market dominated by iTunes and increasingly Amazon. And…cough…BitTorrent. The days of paying for recorded music are nearly over. And there’s nothing Napster can do to change that.

 

Posted by brian tiong at 01:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hefflinger *) 

Mark reports... 

The major record labels that sued Tanya Andersen (Atlantic v. Andersen) for infringing their copyrights on file-sharing networks, then eventually dropped their case, have been ordered by a federal court in Oregon to pay her nearly $108,000 in attorneys fees and costs, P2PNet reports.

The sum is the largest attorneys' fee award so far to be levied against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in its legal campaign against file-swappers. 

"This will assist in levelling the playing field in other cases," Andersen's lawyer, Lory Lybeck, told p2pnet.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:28 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark Hendrickson *)

Twitter is an efficient technology for spreading and harvesting concise ideas. Unfortunately, it’s not so great for sharing rich media. Want to broadcast a video? You’ll have to settle for a TinyURL to YouTube, or maybe switch over to Seesmic altogether.

Pownce improves on the Twitter model by supporting file transfers and at least one new data type: the structured event. It also appears to be evolving into a better system for trading music, possibly with a full-featured music player.

But if music is indeed a significant part of Pownce’s future, then Blip is one step ahead. Call it “Twitter for Music” since it’s essentially just that: a way to suggest music and share your thoughts about it with a network of contacts.

The beauty of Blip is that, unlike with Pownce, no file uploads are necessary. Just search for the song you have in mind and Blip will grab it from Seeqpod, Skreemr, or parent company Fuzz’s own database of music. Your followers (”listeners”) can hear full versions of the songs you post using a Songza-like player at the bottom of the page.

Of course, just as people are wary of joining yet another social network, they’re sure to think twice about leaving behind a network of followers for a new micro-blogging platform. So Blip debuts with the ability to push messages out to FriendFeed, Twitter, Pownce, and Tumblr. This may not ensure its survival in the long run, especially if Twitter or Pownce decide to integrate Songza, but it should help with adoption rates.

Fuzz, the company that created Blip, is a self-described “CRM for bands” - a place where indie artists can set up web presences and manage their relationships with fans. It also features a mixtape maker like Mixwit and Muxtape, but with songs contributed directly by artists themselves.

Posted by brian tiong at 11:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Cliff Jones *) 

As record labels lose their way, bands are getting into bed with consumer brands. Is this the way of the future?

From boutique favourites such as Agent Provocateur and Joe Bloggs to icons of the global hyper-mall such as Diesel, Yahoo!, Audi and Coca-Cola, brands have awoken to music’s potential as a powerful communication tool, and a content gold rush is on. Under the “lifestyle” umbrella, household names are seeking out, signing and promoting music. And far from heralding a sellout, taking the corporate shilling may be the smartest career move a struggling artist can make. With unsigned MySpace hopefuls such as the singer-songwriter Tom Glynn partnering Caffè Nero for instore music and branded CDs, and big-name acts such as Madonna, Annie Lennox and Paul McCartney serving divorce proceedings on their labels as they “consider their commercial options”, brands are invading the ground left by the labels’ retreat.

 

“There’s no doubt we are at a crossroads,” says Steve Levine, producer of Culture Club and a spokesman for artists’ issues with the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters. Having consulted on brand-related music projects, he has seen a marked change in musicians’ attitudes: “It’s as if we’ve suddenly become aware of the truth behind the smoke and mirrors of the record deal. Most artists now understand how the business works and who their fans are. That is always going to be valuable to a brand. It’s certainly a freer, more equal relationship. Record companies have to own everything, because their whole model is based on selling records - ‘Is it a hit, will it make us our money back?’ If brands do nothing other than free musicians from the tyranny of needing a radio-friendly smash to have a career, it has to be a positive.”

 

It isn’t just financial necessity that is driving artists into the arms of some of our favourite household names. Joe Public’s relationship with brands has also shifted: we love them, and we don’t much care that they are colonising our lives. Marketing gurus have a term for it. According to them, we are all “cheerfully commercial” now. Yet, despite this, the dwindling budgets and the brutal roster-cleansing, the industry still appeared shocked when the dance duo Groove Armada gave into the siren call of Bacardi last month.

Their decision to leave Sony BMG and sign with the drinks giant sent a clear message to labels and brands alike that Bacardi saw a big future in taking its partnership with music beyond mere sponsorship. The one-year deal has the drinks giant releasing the band’s music through its own label and download platforms, as well as paying for a series of “parties” that GA will curate and headline.

“It feels very natural,” says Tom Findlay, one half of the dance duo. “Bacardi have a strong heritage in dance and putting on parties, and so do we. They’re offering a decent sum of money, we get to play in places we would not normally get to, and we keep the copyright in our recordings.”

What of the accusation that they have sold out? It seems everyone is too busy being “cheerfully commercial” to worry. “With sponsorship now such an essential part of the festival scene, it’s something I’m relatively comfortable with,” Findlay says.

The role of brand as benefactor and the structural changes in the music business reflect changes in how we perceive the value of music. The internet will eventually ensure that recorded music is largely free. Meanwhile, the emotional worth of music that makes up our personal soundtracks is as strong as ever. As the dust settles, managers, lawyers and producers will work with brands to bring new artists into the limelight.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source:  Jason Kincaid *)

Jason says... 

The race is on for software supremacy on Google’s Android platform, as developers compete to develop the applications that will eventually come preloaded on branded phones. Today TuneWiki, one of the most popular third-party developers for the iPhone, has announced a media player for Android that will feature an iPhone-esque interface, support for synching with iTunes, and the karaoke-like lyric functionality that put them on the map.

Owners of jailbroken iPhones may be familiar with TuneWiki already - As we mentioned last week, the iPhone version has seen “hundreds of thousands” of downloads since December 2007. The iPhone version of the software features a player that displays karaoke-style lyrics in time with songs in the device’s library. TuneWiki has partnered with Universal to provide lyrics legally, and has ongoing talks with other music labels.

The Android version of the software has the same karaoke synching, with added support for music videos that are synched with lyrics. While this is significant in itself, the real news here is the media player that will accompany the software. From the brief demonstration seen in the video below, the player seems to be every bit as usable as the one seen on the iPhone (it looks nearly exactly the same, which isn’t a bad thing).

Android may be an “Open” platform that will allow handset manufacturers (and possibly users) to install whatever applications they want, but we’re going to be seeing a few dominant leaders emerge in each space. There won’t be any shortage of iPhone-imitating apps, but TuneWiki has given itself a leg up by establishing a number of features that will be difficult to replicate. Whether or not these will be enough to lift TuneWiki above the rest of the pack remains to be seen.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Paul Resnikoff  *)

Mobile phones are frequently viewed as a distinct media environment, separate from other platforms like PCs and television.  But as mobile devices increasingly assume computer-like characteristics and reach beyond carrier-provided signals, their status as a separate platform is starting to erode.  "The question is whether it makes sense anymore to license for a platform, or if we are now talking about a pervasive experience," said Ted Cohen, head of digital consultancy TAG Strategic, during an executive roundtable at MusEXPO in Los Angeles on Monday.

Cohen pointed to an oncoming generation of handhelds that include WiFi browsing and offer easy connectivity to PC-based collections.  Indeed, that future is already among us, and the emerging media consumer is clearly a cross-platform animal.  "It never made sense to license separately for mobile," said Ian Rogers, former head of Yahoo Music and current chief executive of Topspin.  "Mobile will eventually start to look more like the internet, and at that point, it stops making sense to view it as a completely different model."

Others etched a similar vision of convergence.  "It will be very difficult to tell the difference between a laptop on WiFi or WiMax and a mobile device, and you might make phone calls on both," said Chris Barton, strategic partnership development manager at Google.

But the ex-Yahoo Rogers touched upon the somewhat restrictive nature of the current mobile platform, one heavily controlled by carriers.  And that mostly defines today's landscape for mobile music and media, at least for those wanting to promote, sell, or acquire content on handhelds.

For carriers and major content owners, the present-day environment offers an easier mechanism for controlling customer billing relationships and extracting dollars from content.  "It really comes down to where the billing relationship is," explained David Pakman, chief executive of eMusic.  And that existing relationship makes its advantageous for carriers and other stakeholders to preserve the existing landscape.

But despite that carefully-crafted moneymaking machine, attendees continued to question the power of mobile platforms to deliver solid, independent revenue streams.  One pointed to a growing threat from tiny, flash-based storage cards, easily swappable among users.  Another pointed to side-loading among users, who predictably want to extend their massive, PC-based collections onto their devices.

Meanwhile, consumers are now getting ready for a beefed-up iPhone, perhaps the vanguard of a more sophisticated, powerful mobile device class that is stretching beyond carrier-imposed limitations.

Posted by brian tiong at 08:47 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Kristen Nicole *) 

MyStrands has always had a very large push on the mobile front; being a European-based company has allowed MyStrands to explore this front more so than it could do strictly in the US. It’s latest announcement takes mobile access to MyStrands to another level, with scrobbling integration for Last.fm content.

With the latest update for MyStrands Social Player, Nokia users can scrobble tracks to Last.fm as they play music on the Symbian S60 3rd Edition and J2ME (optimized for Nokia S40) devices (download the respective applications here and here).

The beauty of such devices is that they do in fact act more like computers than mere cell phones, and Nokia has been at the forefront of app development towards this end. In doing so, Nokia has allowed companies like MyStrands to really pour a lot of resources into the development of mobile applications, which have large bearings on the web applications as well.

In providing scrobbling for Last.fm accounts, MyStrands bridges the gap between its own service, mobile devices, and Last.fm users, which can then broadcast listening activity and recommendations far beyond the realms of these three options.

Likewise, such mobile scrobbling integration with Last.fm means that users can search and discover new music from their mobile devices as wel, thanks to the MyStrands Social Player and reccomendation tools for songs and artists, as well as like-minded users.

Posted by brian tiong at 10:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

You start with Chilirec by choosing from a preselected set of a few hundred channels. Two downsides: you can’t load your own channels and you can’t listen to them normally before choosing to record. But once you to start recording, Chilirec will begin loading the songs into its Flash-based player so you can play them back at your convenience (somehow it knows just when songs begin and end, and which ones they are).

After you’ve built up a recorded collection, you can search through your songs using keywords that will match artists, titles and genres. You can also play recordings by channel, artist, and playlist. A “toplists” feature will presumably display the songs that are most popular across your selected channels, but it takes at least a day of recording to work.

If you want to play a song outside of Chilirec, you can click on an icon next to it and it will be saved as an MP3 on your desktop. It would be great to see them add a feature for bulk downloads in addition to the ability to load your own channels (for your local radio station, for example).

Chilirec is a nice tool for when you don’t know exactly which music you want to add to your collection. Other music search sites like Songza and Skreemr are better when you have an artist or song name in mind. And of course, Pandora and Jango are great for when you want to find music related to the stuff you already know you like.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Mark 'Rizzn' Hopkins *)

 Podtrac, TNS and eMarketer have put together a few reports indicating the effectiveness of podcast advertising relies on its longtail, as contrasted with the instant gratification methods more prevalent in other types of Internet based advertising like Google’s AdSense or YouTube’s overlay ads for video. The companies studied podcast advertising from February 2006 to March 2008 across multiple product categories and ad types. Unaided awareness for podcast ads was 68%, compared with 21% for streaming video and 10% for television

In eMarketer’s analysis of the data, Doug Keith, president of Future Research Consulting was quoted as saying: “The data suggest audiences are paying close attention to show content and the embedded ads within them which greatly increased ad effectiveness in the studies. The high unaided ad recall figures are no doubt the results of a less cluttered environment.”

It’s great data, and bodes well for the producers in the podcasting world looking to make their bones and their living producing audio and video content.  As James Lewin at Podcasting News notes, though, since the data comes from a company that makes their living evangelizing podcasting, the data is a bit suspect.  What makes it even more suspect is the fact that it comes from PodTrac, a monetization group that unfortunately has a reputation amongst the podcasting producers’ community for a lack of responsiveness to talent inquiries, a severe shortage of advertising opportunities, and a history of slow payments.

Still, there’s an element of truth in the studies, even if study comes from a questionable source.  The nature of downloadable and on-demand media doesn’t lend itself very well to the impulse purchase, but more towards the brand impression mode of marketing.  There have been ongoing attempts by many of the leading podcast advertising networks, like The TechPodcast Network and Podango, to push CPA (cost per action) ads. These types of deals don’t pay anything to the content producer unless the listener/viewer takes an action, and usually does so using a certain URL or discount code.

Given that with video and audio, there isn’t really such thing as a hyperlink, it’s usually nigh impossible for the producer to receive credit for all the actions generated by the advertising. While I certainly believe in the medium of podcasting, and it’s ability to be, as these aforementioned studies show, at least seven times more efficient than traditional advertising, I have to wonder if CPA and the lack of the hyperlink has something to do with that cost effectiveness - at the expense of producers.

Posted by brian tiong at 05:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Duncan Riley *) 

Duncan reports... 

Sonific, an online music playing servuce similar to Pandora and Seeqpod, is to close May 1 as the company was unable to obtain licensed music rights in a way that made the service viable.

Gerd Leonhard, Co-Founder & CEO writes:

1) There are countless startups providing access to any and all music streams without any license whatsoever. However, when we approached the major record label decision makers in order to obtain licenses for some of the music in their catalogs we have routinely faced demands for very large cash advances and fixed per-stream minimum payments, pressure to give them ‘free’ company equity, and requirements of utterly bizarre usage restrictions. It seems that the industry’s major stakeholders still prefer this turf to remain unlicensed rather than to allow real-life, workable and market-based solutions to emerge by working with new companies such as Sonific. This is not the way forward.

2) We therefore had to realize that a company that wants to provide interactive streaming music services must either a) risk the constant complaints of their users, due to the lack of hit content b) proceed to use any and all music (this is routinely done by allowing users to upload their own MP3s) without the required licenses, and therefore be at the total mercy of the record labels at some point in time, and c) build a huge audience very quickly, based on having the content available - permission or not -, and then very quickly sell themselves to a large company that will take care of placating the labels while the money is plenty and the pockets are deep.

Unfortunately we don’t like any of these choices.

 

 

Posted by brian tiong at 12:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Digital Music News *)  

More sampling means more buying, at least according to Last.fm cofounder Martin Siskel.  Just recently, Last.fm started offering full-length, on-demand access to a considerable catalog, instead of 30-second samples.  That has now caused a "direct and positive impact," specifically a 119 percent gain since January.  "In just over two months it's become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer," Siskel said. 

Siskel pointed to a potent combination of previewing, discovery, recommendation, and social networking, elements blended smartly by Last.fm.  Specifically, Siskel referenced an Amazon-based increase, though the company also has affiliate partnerships with iTunes and 7digital.  But the specifics ended there, and the company declined to detail hard numbers.  That raises questions about the absolute volumes involves, and introduces the possibility of insignificant totals.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:33 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Ed Peto *)

Mathew Daniel says...

As Olympic hosts and country-of-honor at MIDEM, China’s music industry is an increasingly common feature on the western agenda. There is, however, almost a whiff of the ‘Wild East’ in the way companies are approaching licensing in the Middle Kingdom.

It has to be realized that the vast majority of labels at MIDEM are probably currently unscathed by piracy in China and that’s likely because their music is so obscure in the Chinese consciousness that they have not even had the dubious honor of gracing the servers of China’s notorious MP3 search engine, Baidu.

Piracy in China often gets a lot of attention but many forget the other Ps of marketing and these are the basics that labels intending to come into China should first focus on. For dramatic effect, let me first quote Tim O’Reilly when he said that “Obscurity is a far greater threat to authors and creative artists than piracy“.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that one is worse than the other as it is a case of horses for courses. I would also add that in China, in true Darwinian fashion, one man’s piracy is another man’s marketing. But as O’Reilly explained, piracy eventually develops in a manner akin to progressive taxation in exchange for greater exposure and appeal: There is always the regretful possibility that one may eventually despair at the crossroads of Robert Johnson.

Ed Peto’s piece about the music business in China also noted the labels’ part in engendering piracy in China:

“The arrival of western product in the early 90s came courtesy of ’saw-gashed’ CDs: Excess stock and deleted titles from western majors attempting to avoid taxation and disposal costs. These CDs had their cases cut to mark them as defective and were then shipped in to China through free-market economic ports like Guangzhou, only to end up on the black market. An end result that can be seen as a partial shooting-in-the-foot for the western majors who then had to come in and fight against the pirate networks they inadvertently helped set up.”

Kaiser Kuo, one of the pioneers of China’s rock scene added, “During the 1990s they were an important source of foreign music”. And so, this rejected music from Western shores - a good proportion being hitherto obscure - has bizarrely taken root in China while the majors also propagate low common denominator fare like the Backstreet Boys, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, Sarah Brightman et al in CD stores. A recent alumnus of this group, UK’s X-factor winner Shayne Ward was in Beijing this week and was awarded a Gold Record for sales of 15,000 for his new CD ‘Breathless’.

The major labels are still counting on physical distribution to help make their numbers in China and International Marketing Director at Universal Music China, Danny Sim has worked tirelessly to develop the market for international artists. In 2007 his efforts resulted in “a significant increase in revenues for CDs and I expect it to be even greater in 2008″, but in general international artists still account for probably less than 10% of the majors’ overall digital revenue in China. As more Chinese are being exposed to Western music via the internet and the media playing more Western music, Danny also hopes that the labels and SPs can work together to cultivate music genres and themes instead of single song hits.

However, this cannot happen in a vacuum and other Western labels who do not have the benefit of an existing network in China will have to do their part to sow the seeds in areas that are often taken for granted, like pro-actively providing artist information in Chinese, building artists’ websites in Chinese and, in general, stimulating more literature and musical discussions about artists online.

The following is an important checklist for labels intending to license digital music in China and illustrates the prior requirements before their music even tempts the pirates:

Posted by brian tiong at 09:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: b-side *)

I've been watch this social networking meets music space for some time (nearly 2 years now) and been on the side experimenting with blogs (blogger), various social networks (myspace, facebook) and now have launched our very own RightClicka widget.

Have a listen and drop us a few comments... enjoy the music.

Posted by brian tiong at 12:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Fred Wilson *)

Fred highlights some interesting observations on streaming music and its importance in the near future. 

Fred says...

"Like everything that has happened in digital music, the rights holders have been once again been forced into dealing with an emerging technology. Companies like last.fm and imeem and others have, over the past year, have done deals with the leading rights holders to give them permission to stream pretty much any song they want to listeners over the Internet. They can do this “on-demand”, meaning you want to listen to the new Jack Johnson song, you tell your favorite web music service that and it plays. They can also stream music in various forms of smart playlists, either the tracks you have marked as your favorites, or the tracks your friends have suggested to you, or the tracks that people who like the same music as you like. Each and every service has a different take on these playlists. I happen to like last.fm and hypemachine. You may like Pandora. Someone else might like Jango. Your kid’s myspace page might have an imeem playlist on it.

And because of all this innovation in streaming music over the past year, the number of people actively listening to music streamed over the Internet is rising quickly. It’s becoming a mainstream activity, particularly among the younger set.

I think of these web services as the new radio stations. Everyone of my generation has had their favorite radio stations. Everyone of my kid’s generation will have their favorite web music services. There will be hundreds of them. All supported by advertising, just like traditional radio stations, and all of them licensed by rights holders (eventually), and all of them paying the rights holders a little coin every time their song is played. And because these services will be free to anyone who wants to listen, they will be very popular. Never before have you been able to decide you want to listen to something you don’t currently own and then just play it. No searching on Limewire or bittorrent, no waiting for the download, you type in the name of the song you want to play and you hit play.

These services are coming to mobile phones, probably in the next year we’ll all be listening to pandora or last.fm in the gym on our phone instead of our limited library on our iPod. That’s when this new form of listening is going to explode. And that’s when Apple is going to wish it had thought more about streaming and less about file based music. But you can’t feel too badly about Apple because a good number of people will be listening to pandora or last.fm on their iPhones."

 

 More here

Posted by brian tiong at 11:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Apple *) 

Apple® today announced that the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com) surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group*. With over 50 million customers, iTunes has sold over four billion songs and features the world’s largest music catalog of over six million songs.

“We launched iTunes less than five years ago, and it has now become the number one music retailer in the world,” said Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes. “We are thrilled, and would like to thank all of our customers for helping us reach this incredible milestone.”

*Based on data from market research firm the NPD Group’s MusicWatch survey that captures consumer reported past week unit purchases and counts one CD representing 12 tracks, excluding wireless transactions. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008.

Posted by brian tiong at 04:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *)

We’ve confirmed through sources that MySpace has settled the pending litigation Universal Music, albeit in a very unique way. They’ll create a new MySpace Music joint venture, with equity stakes from all the major labels (except EMI, which is still negotiating).

Expect the announcement today, and a launch of the new music property in July or August 2008. The news was first reported by Reuters, with additional information from SAI.

The new company will own the MySpace music property, get a cash infusion of $120 million or so from parent company News Corp, and distribute that $120 million to Sony BMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group. In return, the litigation will be dropped and the labels will give streaming and downloading rights to their catalog to the new entity. Approximately $100 million of the News Corp. capital will go to Universal; the rest will go to Sony BMG and Warner.

Users will be able to stream music on demand, create playlists, and add widget music players to their profiles. The streaming will be advertising supported - at first via display ads (like Imeem), and later via in-stream audio ads. DRM-free downloads will also be available, either advertising supported or on a pay basis like Amazon’s Music Store.

Advertising revenue will be split among the joint venture partners according to their equity stakes, not based on play counts.

Posted by brian tiong at 03:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Chicago Tribune *) 

A week after releasing his four-volume instrumental work “Ghosts I-IV” through his Web site, Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor is reporting that he amassed more than $1.6 million in orders and downloads.

Reznor made the albums available at five different prices, including a free download, without any advance publicity. His marketing campaign, such as it is, consisted of a terse announcement on his nin.com Web site. On Wednesday, he reported 781,917 transactions, including free and paid downloads and orders of physical product. A $300 box set sold out of 2,500 copies within a day. Nine of the 36 songs were made available as a free download. The complete set also was available as a $5 download, a $10 double-CD and a $75 set with bonus visual content.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:57 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Digital Music News *) 

Live Nation has now executed a massive, 12-year deal involving U2, according to deal points shared by company president and chief executive Michael Rapino this morning.  The pact covers lucrative merchandising, touring, digital, and branding areas, and is global in scope.  The relationship does not include recordings or publishing assets, as Universal Music Group will retain its ongoing relationship with the group.

That falls short of the all-encompassing deal structure involving Madonna, though Live Nation is jumping into a significant basket of U2 revenue-generators.  And like Madonna, U2 is an absolute powerhouse that can stuff massive venues.  Additionally, both artists will allow Live Nation to compete aggressively on the ticketing side with Ticketmaster, a partner that is being phased out in favor of an internal solution by next year.

Posted by brian tiong at 09:13 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

(* Source: Michael Arrington *)

Mike says...

We learned yesterday that Warner Music, the third largest music label, is gunning for a $5/month music tax on U.S. residents.

Some of the details were in the article: they’ve hired industry veteran Jim Griffin to create a new entity around the project, presumably to get other labels involved. Griffin threw out the idea of a $5/month tax (which would be added to people’s ISP bill), generating $20 billion/year in revenues. The tax won’t be mandatory, he implies. And he also said that it isn’t really a “tax”: “we have no such interest in government running this or having any part of it.” Griffin also talked about advertising subsidies for partners who don’t want to pay the fee.

Users who are paying the tax will be able to download music from the Internet legally, through all the normal channels (BitTorrent, other P2P networks, etc.).

Nothing he said is strictly untrue. But a source with knowledge of the project clarified a number of points for. Those details, combined with the vague outline provided by Griffin, show a scheme that is very similar to classic criminal protection rackets. We threw out that term to describe the scheme in our post yesterday as well - today, with these additional details, it seems to fit like a glove.

Here’s What They’re Really Planning: Pay Us Not To Sue You

The tax w