Music Business Times Marketing News Feed Informer http://feed.informer.com/images/fd.gif http://feed.informer.com/ http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/QFEOQ7LDWP.html Respective post owners and feed distributors http://feed.informer.com/ 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/fticker http://blogs.magnatune.com/buckman/2010/03/new-business-model-for-magnatune.html? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:30 GMT It is easy to make the case that the music industry, far from imploding, is one of the great success stories of the recession. The most dramatic example of this is in what kids are supposed not to be buying any more: single tracks. Last year sales of singles soared to an all-time UK record of 152.7m units, an astonishing 33% rise in a year when the whole UK economy (GDP) contracted by 3.3%. If the music pundits seriously think that these are not being bought by kids, then it shows how out of touch they are with their customers. These same youngsters who were – and probably still are – massively downloading free music from the internet were prepared to pay up to... http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/mar/12/demise-music-industry-facts Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/blog/2010/mar/12/demise-music-industry-facts? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:21 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/fticker http://www.musicthinktank.com/blog/the-1st-musician-to-make-amazing-use-of-chat-roulette.html? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:18 GMT At SXSW Wednesday, eMusic debuted a new A+R (Access + Rewards) program that gives U.S. members exclusive offers and discounts. In addition to their eMusic subscription members now get special access to selected clubs and festivals, opportunities to connect with artists, deals on music hardware accessories and discounted entry to music museums like the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. New offers will be added on an ongoing basis. A partial list of U.S. launch partners and benefits... http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/emusic-adds-subscriber-rewards-program.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/emusic-adds-subscriber-rewards-program.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:12 GMT The analytics tool was developed in-house by The Orchard's technology team and is available in English, Spanish and French. It transforms daily and weekly sales data generated by stores into easy to understand sales figures viewable by type of transaction, time period, and location. The tool displays near real-time sales information from album downloads, track downloads, track streams, video streams, video downloads, and ringtones... http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100318005383&newsLang=en Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100318005383&newsLang=en? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:55 GMT The bigger Pandora gets, the bigger its royalty bill, a variable cost structure that makes it difficult for many content-based businesses to scale. Pandora is a serious chunk of total SoundExchange royalty revenues from online radio. Despite all of the wrangling over non-interactive royalties on recordings, Pandora now accounts for roughly 44-45% of total SoundExchange royalties for non-interactive streams, according to details confirmed by both companies... http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/031710pandora/view Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/031710pandora/view? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:54 GMT The Universal Music Group could rewrite U.S. music pricing when it tests a new frontline pricing structure, which is designed to get single CDs in stores at $10, or below. Beginning in the second quarter and continuing through most of the year, the company's Velocity program will test lower CD prices. Single CDs will have the suggested list prices of $10, $9, $8, $7 and $6. To accommodate the lower pricing, UMG labels also plan to step up deluxe versions of albums that can sell at higher prices for the more devout music fans and collectors. UMG is also banking that the lower price points will at the least be offset by increasing CD sales volume... http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i56ed42b9a46f8554e2671afccecca01b Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i56ed42b9a46f8554e2671afccecca01b? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:50 GMT Fan aquisition and monetization platform Topspin used SXSW 2010 to announce the public availability of a suite of APIs that more seamlessly integrates their e-commerce and promotional tools into major website platforms and social networks. The company also recently upgraded their public web site TopspinMedia.com... http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/topspin-expands-platform-opens-api.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/topspin-expands-platform-opens-api.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:33 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/fticker http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Music/03/15/music.videos.future/? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:24 GMT The global mobile apps economy is set to be worth $17.5billion by 2012, according to an independent report commissioned by GetJar, the world’s second largest app store. Mobile app downloads across all types of handset are also expected to increase from over 7 billion downloads in 2009 to almost 50 billion in 2012 – a year on year growth rate of 92%. This would mean that the value of apps sold would be greater than the value of CDs sold in 2012 ($13.83bn)... http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100316007140&newsLang=en Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.businesswire.com/portal/site/home/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100316007140&newsLang=en? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:06 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/fticker http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/03/sxsw-youtube-launches-partner-program-for-indie-bands? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:04 GMT On the 15th of every month, 34 music bloggers from 34 different countires cross post an identical list of hot bands from their nation along with a description and mp3. This self-titled Music Alliance Pact (MAP) has been coordinated by Scottish music blogger The Pop Cop since 2008 and has thus far thrived completely outside of the for profit music business. But that doesn't mean that some of the artists featured aren't the benificiaries of increased popularity. After being featured by MAP bloggers last year, almost unknown Irish duo Holy Roman Army watched kudos pop up across the net... http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/34-music-bloggers-offer-exposure-in-34-countries.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2010/03/34-music-bloggers-offer-exposure-in-34-countries.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+typepad%2FDqMf+%28hypebot%29&utm_content=Google+Reader? Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:15 GMT Universal Music Group was early to tap into the whole music gaming phenomenon by partnering with Tapulous to make iPhone apps for artists such as Lady Gaga and Souja Boy Tell 'Em. Now it's branching off and working with others to create even more gaming applications. The record label's latest app is called Six-String and is now available for $4.99 from the App Store for the iPhone or iPod touch. The game was developed by Frontier, which makes popular guitar simulators for the iPhone. The app will be used to highlight new releases... http://moconews.net/article/419-universal-music-releases-an-iphone-game-to-promote-artists-sell-tracks/ Delicious/mbtimes/fticker http://moconews.net/article/419-universal-music-releases-an-iphone-game-to-promote-artists-sell-tracks/? Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:04 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/fticker 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/fticker 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