Music Business Times People in the News Feed Informer http://feed.informer.com/images/fd.gif http://feed.informer.com/ http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/CH5XESWDEJ.html Respective post owners and feed distributors http://feed.informer.com/ Charlie Gillett was a broadcaster, journalist and author who played a significant role in shaping the tastes of several generations of music fans. After writing The Sound of the City, one of the first books to attempt a serious survey of the early history of rock'n'roll, he began his broadcasting career on BBC Radio London, presenting the weekly Honky Tonk show throughout most of the 1970s. The programme became hugely influential, popularising American roots music and unearthing British acts such as Dire Straits, Elvis Costello and Graham Parker, all of whom received their first exposure on his show before any of them had signed a recording contract. He also co-managed Ian Dury and discovered Lena Lovich... http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7066912.ece Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article7066912.ece? Sun, 21 Mar 2010 04:44 GMT Magnatune relaunched itself today with a new business model. We're now in the no-limits membership business. Why the change? Simply put: membership today accounts for 74% of our revenue. Over the past two years our album download sales have declined while the unlimited downloads memberships have grown. The two graphs below spell out a clear message from our customers: We don't want to buy your downloadable albums one at a time, we want unlimited access. And we're willing to pay. Here is our revenue over the past two years, comparing downloads vs membership: http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2010/03/new-business-model-for-magnatune.html Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2010/03/new-business-model-for-magnatune.html? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:30 GMT A songwriter and music producer who claims he helped launch pop star Lady Gaga says she squeezed him out of her lucrative career after he co-wrote some of her songs, came up with her stage name and helped get her record deal. Rob Fusari filed a $30.5 million lawsuit against the Grammy Award-winning performer, saying his protege and former girlfriend ditched him as her career soared. 'All business is personal,' said the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Manhattan state court... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_en_mu/us_people_lady_gaga Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_en_mu/us_people_lady_gaga? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:24 GMT Have you heard of Chat Roulette? It's the latest web site to create a major buzz in a very short period of time. In a nutshell, Chat Roulette allows anyone with a webcam to log on and randomly be connected live with other people on the site one by one. If you don't like who you're connected to, you click 'Next' and get another random paring. It's been widely covered (and made fun of) in the media. But I, along with a lot of online marketing people, thought it was a flash-in-the-pan novelty site with no possible self-promotion value. How could you possibly make use of such random connections... http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/the-1st-musician-to-make-amazing-use-of-chat-roulette.html Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/the-1st-musician-to-make-amazing-use-of-chat-roulette.html? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:18 GMT Online celebrity news and entertainment site No Good TV (NGTV), backed by entertainment industry veterans including company chairman Gene Simmons, also of the rock band KISS, and Al Cafaro, music industry veteran and former chairman and CEO of A&M Records, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on February 25. Kourosh Taj, co-president and head of programming, confirmed the news, saying: 'NGTV filed for chapter 11 protection primarily to implement a reorganization plan with the cooperation and consent of our senior secured lenders... http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/18/dmw-exclusive-gene-simmons039s-ngtv-files-bankruptcy Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/18/dmw-exclusive-gene-simmons039s-ngtv-files-bankruptcy? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:48 GMT As the teenage singer for the pop-soul outfit the Box Tops, Chilton topped the charts with the band's song 'The Letter' in 1967. Their other hits were 'Soul Deep' and 'Cry Like a Baby.' Chilton grew up in Memphis and formed the band with friends from school. His short run with Big Star brought less mainstream success but made him a cult hero to other rock musicians, as evidenced by the title of the 1987 Replacements song, 'Alex Chilton.' Big Star's three 1970s albums all earned spots on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest... http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_alex_chilton Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_alex_chilton? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:37 GMT The anticipatory press, the fans champing at the bit for a leaked video still and the premiere during E! News would have been considered par for course in the music industry 10 years ago. But lately, that kind of event has been few and far between. There are a few reasons for that shift, but the most crucial one is the reality of the recording industry: a blockbuster, big-budget video no longer means blockbuster record sales... http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/15/music.videos.future/ Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/15/music.videos.future/? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:24 GMT Herb Cohen, the tough, litigious manager and label operator who introduced such notables as the Mothers of Invention and Tom Waits during the '60s and '70s, died Tuesday of unknown causes in Napa, Calif. He was 77. After beginning his professional career as an L.A. club booker and operator, Cohen branched into management in the mid-'60s. His biggest clients were Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention, the outre band that became a top attraction in venues on the Sunset Strip... http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016565.html?categoryid=16&cs=1&nid=2568&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+variety%2Fnews%2Fmusic+%28Variety+-+Music+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118016565.html?categoryid=16&cs=1&nid=2568&utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+variety%2Fnews%2Fmusic+%28Variety+-+Music+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:22 GMT An anxious music industry is watching to see whether debt-laden EMI is about to fall into the hands of its US bankers Citigroup. All the signs are that one of the great sagas of the credit crunch — private equity firm Terra Firma's $6.3 billion purchase of EMI, made at the height of the boom in 2007 — is heading for a climax. First, Edgar Bronfman, boss of rival US record label Warner Music, who has long coveted EMI, moved from New York to London last autumn. His office in Kensington Church Street is a couple of hundred yards from EMI, although he keeps a low profile here... http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23816120-time-for-guy-hands-to-face-the-music-at-emi-and-sell.do Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/markets/article-23816120-time-for-guy-hands-to-face-the-music-at-emi-and-sell.do? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:19 GMT Most entrepreneurs are best known for the enterprises they have founded. Michael Robertson certainly has been associated with successful companies, enough of them to probably put his net worth in nine figures. His considerable reputation in tech circles, though, isn't based on his companies as much as on the lawsuits launched in their wake. There have been three, the most recent of which is heading to a trial in a few months. Each has raised a fascinating issue that ought to concern everyone who uses a computer, especially if you listen to music... http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/17/digital-music-copyright-technology-breakthroughs-mp3tunes.html?feed=rss_home Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/17/digital-music-copyright-technology-breakthroughs-mp3tunes.html?feed=rss_home? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:14 GMT If you can play the guitar, you can quit your day job! Well, maybe. But independent musicians who are accepted by YouTube's 'Musicians Wanted' section will be able to do just that if their music videos and live musical performances draw enough views through a new feature of Google's YouTube Partner Program... http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/sxsw-youtube-launches-partner-program-for-indie-bands Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/sxsw-youtube-launches-partner-program-for-indie-bands? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:04 GMT Spotify CEO Daniel Ek had a big revelation at SXWS: 'On certain days, we're consuming more Internet capacity than Sweden has as a country.' Ek made the statement when asked why Spotify chose to use a P2P model, rather than centrally store all of its music in one place and stream it from there. Ek noted that if they were to stream from one UK datacenter, they'd consume all the bandwidth. So instead, they leverage the power of the Internet to get their users to help them stream to other users... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031602851.html?nav=rss_technology/partner/three Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031602851.html?nav=rss_technology/partner/three? Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:01 GMT The reality of the music industry today is that there isn't one biz model. It's about figuring out how to use downloads, streaming, promotion, ticketing, all these things. I don't think streaming music is stream with Spotify; people label us 'free' music. But people pay, either with time (adverts, which are targeting), or actually paying for the service... http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031602669.html?nav=rss_technology/partner/three Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/16/AR2010031602669.html?nav=rss_technology/partner/three? Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:58 GMT Digital music subscription service eMusic announced on Tuesday that it has added Sub Pop Records to its roster. The deal will add tracks from artists including Nirvana, Sebadoh, Wolf Parade and the Shins to the eMusic catalog... http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/16/emusic-adds-sub-pop-records-digital-music-service Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2010/03/16/emusic-adds-sub-pop-records-digital-music-service? Tue, 16 Mar 2010 23:52 GMT With an ever growing list of mobile music tools, like MultiTrack, we're going to see a flood of these kinds of releases from artists this year, some are already coming in from live performances, turning the iPhone into a professional recording device and instrument... http://www.indiemusictech.com/music_marketing_for_indie/2010/03/artist-creates-latest-music-release-entirely-from-iphone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsnapmusic%2Fmusic_marketing_for_indie+%28Indie+Music+Tech%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Delicious/mbtimes/peticker http://www.indiemusictech.com/music_marketing_for_indie/2010/03/artist-creates-latest-music-release-entirely-from-iphone.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2Fsnapmusic%2Fmusic_marketing_for_indie+%28Indie+Music+Tech%29&utm_content=Google+Reader? Tue, 16 Mar 2010 00:14 GMT