hypebot

Musicmetric: Co-Founder Talks Pro Edition, P2P Data Tour Planning App

Musicmetric is a web analytics platform that recently launched a Pro edition in Beta. It offers an impressive range of stats on everything from social media activity to mentions in articles on websites. One of the most noted features in recent media coverage is their tracking of file sharing activity. Access to such data also powered a midem Hack Day app called TourrentPlans that helps musicians plan tours based on the location of their filesharing fanbase.

Music Ownership: eMusic's Molly Neuman Looks At Consumer Motivations

Guest post by Molly Neuman, eMusic's VP Label Relations and MD Europe via digitalmusic.org.

For a large segment of music consumers, downloading music to own is something that's seen as music's past. But for an even larger share, owning and collecting is hugely important.

AmazonMP3 Pulls All TuneCore Tracks In EU & UK, Distributor Alleges Payment Issues

TuneCore informed its clients today that AmazonMP3 had pulled all of their recordings from sale in the UK and European Union. "Amazon removed your recordings as a result of an issue regarding royalty payments by Amazon to TuneCore customers," according to the flat fee digital music distributor.

Rip. Mix. Make. - Saving The Right To Remix

With the realization setting in that stopping SOPA was just the beginning rather than the end of an ongoing struggle, calls are being raised to take proactive rather than reactive responses to such legislation. Rip. Mix. Make. is a creative campaign supporting fair use of creative work in remix videos that represents one proactive approach to issues of copyright.

One For All, Or All For One? Solo vs The Band In The Age Of Social Media

The sky is falling...the music industry continues to live a “Chicken Little” scenario. At least, that’s how Paul Adler describes it on Music Think Tank. Many in the industry think that the business model of the self-promoted solo artist has a better chance of success than a traditional band. It might be easier to be a solo artist and you wouldn’t have to deal with all the issues and conflicts that come up in bands. What do you think of solo artists versus a band in the age of social media?

VEVO Is Profitable With $150M Revenue, Adding XBox "Within 30 Days"

"Our strategy was never about scarcity,... but rather ubiquity," VEVO CEO Rio Caraeff told attendees of the D: Dive Into Media conference yesterday.  The strategy is working. VEVO is profitable company after just 2 years and generated $150 million in revenue in 2011. In fact, Caraeff envisions $1 billion in revenue within a "short period of time."

Spotify's Royalty Rate For Indie Artists Up Just $0.001 In 2011, Despite Big Subscriber Growth

Spotify and other streaming services were the talk of the Midem conference which just wrapped up in Cannes. During the gathering, U2 manager Paul McGuiness labeled Spotify as nothing more than a “promotional medium”, while Sony’s Denis Kooker claimed that streaming services “do not cannibalize sales”. 2011 saw Spotify's reach widen and it subscriber base increase considerably, but how does this affect independent artists?

 THE REAL STATS

Rock-Til-You-Drop Connects Part-Time Musicians

Rock-Til-You-Drop.com (RTYD) is a social network, support system and promo site all tied into one that's dedicated to "supporting and promoting older musicians and bands active at a local level." Founded in 2008 by Toby Burton, RTYD has a focus on the UK and Ireland but Burton hopes to eventually develop sites for other regions. Given that I know a lot of rock musicians in North Carolina that are 40 and over and have been playing since at least their teen years, I believe older musicians in rock who play for enjoyment represent quite a large demographic.

On Last Day As WMG Chair, Bronfman Takes On Apple & Google, Promises EMI Battle [VIDEO]

On his last day as Chairman of Warner Music Group, Edgar Bronfman Jr. sat down for an interview with Peter Kafka at the D: Dive Into Media conference. During the session Bronfman promised that WMG would fight Universal's purchase of EMI "tooth and nail". On Apple, Bronfman admitted "it was a great deal for Apple...and not a great deal for music," but he saved some of his strongest words for Google.

OurStage Raises $650K Of $10M Funding Round

Boston based musician opportunity platform OurStage.com has raised $650,000 of a $10 million funding round. 19 unnamed investors were involved according to an SEC filing which earmarked $300,000 for executive compensation.

NEWS BRIEF: Facebook Lowers IPO to $5B, Spotify Nabs Coldplay, Pirate Bay Shifts Domains & More

(UPDATED) Rumors peg today as the day that Facebook will file a $5 billion IPO. Pour Mark, that's down from an estimated $10 billion.

• Spotify has finally nabbed Coldplay's Mylo Xyloto and the Bob Dylan's catalog is back up. The changes were first noticed by Struart Dredge of MusicAlly who we thank again for providing much of our great Midem coverage. UPDATE: Just got word the MOG has it too.
• The Pirate Bay has quickly shifted its domain from .org to .se to prevent domain seizure.

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This Week's Top iTunes Songs, Albums & Apps

For week ending 1.30.2012

Top Songs

1. "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," Kelly Clarkson
2. "Set Fire to the Rain," ADELE
3. "Turn Me On (feat. Nicki Minaj)," Nicki Minaj, David Guetta
4.  "Rack City," Tyga
5. "Young, Wild & Free (feat. Bruno Mars)," Wiz Khalifa, Snoop Dogg

Music Marketing With Free SoundCloud Story Wheel

SoundCloud recently released Story Wheel, an app for creating a slideshow using Instragram pics and audio via SoundCloud. It's an interesting webtool with a lot of potential for music marketing involving storytelling. Though they will be connecting Story Wheel to additional services, the creators are insistent on maintaining a retro feel via Instagram's use of filters. The combined limitations of retro pics and talking can either be used to create something one might not otherwise think of creating or to be pushed against to give a different look and sound to stick out as more people produce Story Wheel shows.

Ian Rogers: Instead of SOPA, Here's How To Combat Piracy While Encouraging An Open Internet

Guest post by Ian Rogers of Topspin Media.

Last week's Internet-wide SOPA/PIPA protests divided the Internet between content owners looking for stronger anti-piracy tools and technologists who believed the proposed legislation was an overreach. Those opposed said SOPA/PIPA opened the door to content companies taking down sites such as Tumblr and WordPress based on infringement by even one of the sites' millions of users. Though I was at AOL/Nullsoft when Gnutella was created I am not pro-piracy by any stretch - half of what our company, Topspin, sells is easily-pirated digital audio and video (it could certainly be argued Topspin stands to benefit from SOPA-style legislation) and our raison d'être is helping artists leverage their creativity to build a fan base and earn a living.

Gigs4Good: Connecting Artists & Non-Profits

Team Up for Nonprofits is a Seattle-based nonprofit that organizes music events for other nonprofits in their Gigs4Good program. Created in 2009, they're building up to their 10th event benefitting a Washington state-based organization. The focus is on raising both funds for and awareness of nonprofits among the 20 and 30-something demographic. It's a great idea that allows good causes to gain support without having to start from scratch with music events.

How The 80/20 Rule Applies To Your Social Media Strategy

The Pareto Principle, more commonly also known as the 80–20 rule, states that for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. In business for example, 80% of a company’s profits tend to come from 20% of their customers, 80% of sales are made by 20% of the sales staff, and so on. For today’s music artist, this rule of thumb applies in a more indirect way in regards to how they should properly communicate with their audience.

A Musicians’ Guide To Google – Tips To Maximize Your Google Experience

There’s no denying Google's impact. It has become part of the vernacular (I am going to google...). On Music Think Tank, Ariel Hyatt explains why Google is awesome and shares 9 tools the search engine offers.

Midem 2012: A Roundup Of News & Announcements

Unofficial estimates put MIDEM attendance up 12% to 6,900 - 1st gain in 5 years. Find our full Midem coverage here.

• Coke‘s Head Of Global Entertainment And Sports Marketing, Emmanuel Seuge hinted at a likely Spotify deal: “We’re very intrigued by the business model of Spotify – and very interested in a strategic partnership with them”.
• A2IM reports a record 150 U.S. indie music companies at their American Independents Pavilion, in its seventh year.

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Analyst Mark Mulligan On The New "Agile Music" #MIDEM

From Cannes by Stuart Dredge for Midem content partner Music Ally. Find them at musically.com and @musically.

On Monday, Music analyst Mark Mulligan  today shared is theory of "Agile Music" - how music products need to evolve in "the age of mass customization". Mulligan said that the decline and fall of recorded music is why there needs to be a “format revolution” now.

STOP COMPLAINING! Study Shows New Era Of Abundance In Music, Entertainment [INFOGRAPHIC]

A new white paper presented today a Midem, Techdirt founder Mike Masnick heralds a very different present and future for the music and entrainment industries than the doom and gloom often presented in the mainstream media. Combining statistics from a  number of sources, "The Sky Is Rising" shows that: