Music Business Times Publishing News Feed Informer http://feed.informer.com/images/fd.gif http://feed.informer.com/ http://app.feed.informer.com/digest3/UXTJUIMZBC.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/pticker 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/pticker http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100318/ap_en_mu/us_people_lady_gaga? Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:24 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i56ed42b9a46f8554e2671afccecca01b? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 23:50 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/pticker http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_obit_alex_chilton? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:37 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker 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/pticker http://www.forbes.com/2010/03/17/digital-music-copyright-technology-breakthroughs-mp3tunes.html?feed=rss_home? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:14 GMT Conservatives are Canada's new iPod freedom fighters. Cabinet ministers and MPs are putting up a vigorous defence against the NDP's move to have a levy applied to all new MP3 players, hard drives and laptops. The money would theoretically go into a fund for Canadian music artists the same way as the current 29-cent levy on blank CDs and cassettes... http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-fight-back-against-digital-music-tax/article1503675/ Delicious/mbtimes/pticker http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-fight-back-against-digital-music-tax/article1503675/? Thu, 18 Mar 2010 01:11 GMT