hypebot

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

• Apple is buying online music service Lala.
• As record labels struggle is artist income on the rise? A chart and analysis.
• Harvard Study: 1/3 Of Sales Drop Due To Digital, Creative Bundles May Be Answer
• $5 unlimited music streams launches from MOG. A Hypebot first look.
• Two absurd royalty statements from WMG: Too Much Joy and The Guardian
• Whosampled.com matches sample to original song.
• 50 Cent's 4 Rules Of Fan Engagement
• Georgia Wonder has innovative lan to record an album with no money.
• More Free Music: Windows 7 And ReverbNation, RCRD LBL And MySpace Music
• Interview: Scott Kirsner of book "Fans, Friends & Followers"
• VEVO adds CBS Radio and Last.fm. To launch Dec 8th.
  
• Seth Godin: Watch The (Music) Money
• MySpace Music launches in the U.K..
• SoundExchange and ReverbNation partner to deliver royalties.
• Shorefire Media restructures. Lets three go.
• Musicians - Be brilliant or get out of the way.
  

Weekend Fun: Dave Mathews Does Ozzy On SNL

Too funny not to share:

Apple In Advanced Talks To Buy Lala

(UPDATED) Apple is reportedly close to acquiring Lala. "Talks are very advanced." according to CNet. "One of the sources said that the sides have already agreed on terms and have only to sign a final agreement."

Exactly what Apple's plans are for Lala remain unclear, but its an indication that the the tech giant finally understands that music consumption is moving to more than the buy an iTunes download model.  Lala's dual focus on free streaming, bolstered by its new relationship with Google, as well as, play anywhere music in the cloud, could both be attractive to Apple.

Neither company has commented yet, but Lala's founder has a strong history of building company's to sell.

Several new sources are adding insights:

• The deal is done; not tentative.
• As I speculated Apple is buying primarily music in the cloud tech and the smart engineers at Lala that created it.
• Apple may have gottent Lala at a bargain price. "One person with knowledge of the deal," a source to the NY Times, "said that the negotiations originated when Lala executives concluded that their prospects for turning a profit in the short term were dim and initiated discussions with Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president in charge of iTunes".

Another Sad Warner Music Royalty Statement

Just in case you thought that Too Much Joy's absurd royalty statement from WMG was an isolated incident, here's a sadly similar story from Christian metal band The Gaurdian as told by former band member and music industry veteran David Bach:

This week (Nov.-2009) - I received another royalty statement.

"Wow!...we've gone backwards!

In May 2007, we were unrecouped to Warner Brothers to the tune of $174,073.84

Now...our balance is up to $174,717.56!

Talk about 'pushing forward back!'.

How is this possible?

VEVO to Launch Dec 8. Adds Last.FM, CBS Radio

VEVO, the online music video service owned by Universal and Sony and powered by YouTube will launch on December 8th. Yesterday the companay announced and deal to add music programming from the vaults of  Last.fm and more than 90 CBS Radio music stations early next year. 

Through the deal, live musical performances, in-studio artist appearances, as well as interviews and behind the scenes coverage from CBS Radio stations and Last.fm will be featured across the VEVO Network. Additionally, VEVO will offer exclusive access to select CBS Radio station events like KROQ's Acoustic Christmas and B96's Jingle Bash.

Shore Fire Media Restructures, 3 Let Go

(UPDATED) In response to my inquiry asking if the restructuring included layoffs, I received this statement on Friday morning. "The integration of our online and pr teams caused us to eliminate 3 positions from the existing staff that had become redundant;  we’re already searching for new hires for early 2010 who will more fully complement the new integrated pr/online structure, and I expect the staff size to stay constant at around 20-22 full time as it has been for past couple of years. "

Music-centered pr and marketing firm Shore Fire Media today announced changes designed to integrate its digital, new media and traditional media efforts. As part of the restructuring, Shore Fire has promoted Mark Satlof to SVP, Matt Hanks to VP and Nick Loss-Eaton to Director. The company also named Nick Baily to the newly created position of Director, Business Development and Digital Strategy.

READ THIS NOW: Musicans - Please Be Brilliant Or Get Out Of The Way

"The future does not fit in the containers of the past.”

"...musicians need to drop the notion of making money from CD sales through record labels and concentrate on making money from the experiential awareness that surrounds their brand; a brand they own, no one else. The downside to this for musicians is that they need to get organized and work hard, or arrange for what I call the “fifth Beatle” to help with online communications, selling merchandise etc...

Trent's Tweeting Again

"...I will be tuning out of the social networking sites because at the end of the day it's now doing more harm than good in the bigger picture and the experiment seems to have yielded a result. Idiots rule..." - Trent Reznor

After declaring in June that he was done with Twitter and other social networking, Reznor has slowly begun tweeting again. First came two tweets in October announcing a fan recorded, edited and released concert video of the band's landmark 1994 album The Downward Spiral. (Intro video after the jump below.) Early on Friday there were two more Tweets including one promoting the band's auction of gear on eBay.

Welcome back Trent. I knew you couldn't stay silent for long.Having 635,000 people instantly reading your every word is just to addictive. You can follow on Trent on Twitter @Trent_Reznor.  I never stopped tweeting @Hypebot.

WhoSampled Matches Sample To Original Song

A WORTHY CLICK

WhoSampled.com matches the sample to the original work. "We're building the ultimate database of sampled music and cover songs. Dig deeper into music by discovering direct links between over 17,000 songs and 7,500 artists, from Hip-Hop, R&B, Funk and Soul via Electronic Music and through to Rock, Pop and beyond. Watch the videos, contribute new content, discuss and vote!"

More New Music Industry News: ADA & WEA Merge, Ticketmaster, Pirate Bay, Decade In Music & More

• WMG has merged its ADA indie arm into its overall WEA distribution arm. "While the Warner Music Group is folding the sales staff of the Alternative Distribution Alliance inside that of WEA, the two distribution staffs will be kept separate in their dealings with account and labels." (Billboard)
• Ticketmaster / Live Nation merger: Consumer groups continue their opposition to the deal (Ticket News)
• Pirate Bay Founders Granted Appeal Against Operating Ban - In October the Stockholm District Court banned two of The Pirate Bay’s founders from operating the site. If they continue to work on The Pirate Bay, both will have to pay fines of $71,000. The two founders immediately decided to challenge the verdict and the Appeal Court has now announced that it will grant the appeal. (TorrentFreak)
• A full list of the Grammy nominees is here. I know I shouldn't care, but I do...
• Universal Music Netherlands has made an unspecified investment in Dutch digital music download firm Target Media. (Billboard)
• Online ticket reseller sees revenue surge. - So-called secondary ticket websites are becoming mainstream, says boss of UK site Seatwave. (Guardian)
• NPR is taking at The Decade In Music. The two installments so far deserve a listen The Way We Listen Now on how technology has changes how we listen to music and How Musicians Create.
• Music Ally is conducting a digital marketing survey.  Get involved here.
• Do-It-Yourself iPhone App Service Mobile Roadie Teams Up With Ustream. (ReadWriteWeb)

Harvard Study: 1/3 Of Sales Drop Due To Digital, Creative Bundles May Be Answer

(UPDATED) A new study by Harvard Business School Associate Professor Anita Elberse looks at the loss of music industry revenue caused by single track sales and how particular forms of bundling may increase future sales. Elberse talked about her key findings with Working Knowledge. Highlights include:

•  "when consumers start buying music online, they switch from buying full albums to cherry-picking their favorite songs...each album no longer bought is "traded in" for one, perhaps two, individual songs"
• "a drop of around one-third of the total weekly sales across the album and its associated songs is directly attributable to people switching to buy music online"
• "The number of songs on an album does not really matter...That is, bundles that are highly uneven in how popularity is distributed across individual components see an even greater decrease in revenues over time...it doesn't necessarily correspond with the popular belief that one or two popular songs can "make" an album."

"Smaller, More Consistent Bundles"

Mobile Marketing Grows, But Targeting Necessary

Mobile ad spending will grow 27% to $2.1 billion in 2010, according to the Mobile Marketing Association. But while the audience for mobile marketing is growing, it's still relatively small and confined to a limited segment of the market.

Marketers who employ mobile marketing to the wrong group risk turning them off according to an analysis of BIGresearch’s Simultaneous Media Usage Survey of over 22,000. Those who like mobile marketing tend to be young men. They are cell phone-centered and more likely to use social media. Those who don’t like mobile marketing tend to be slightly older women who are not as centered around their cell phone or social media.

Key Characteristics of Mobile Marketing Users and Non-Users:

More Free Music: Windows 7 And ReverbNation, RCRD LBL And MySpace Music

Does Free Music Still Have Value?

A free sample track to share has become the price of entry for every new artist as well as many more established acts. But will giving away music free still have value if everyone is doing it? The music industry may be close to finding out as to more players jump further onto the free music bandwagon.

Microsoft Windows 7 has just announced a second round of their Windows Sponsored Songs partnership with ReverbNation. This time it is called “Playlist 7” and has a few twists. They're still giving away free music, but now followers on Facebook, MySpace and Twitter also get special access to a weekly pool of 50 Featured Artists. They can download up to 7 of these songs free, and those downloads help decide which artists will be available for others the following week. More here.

MySpace Music has partnered with the music discovery site and digital label RCRD LBL for RCRD of the Day. This exclusive free, daily music download will be available only on MySpace Music. RCRD of the Day is the first result of a collaborative relationship between RCRD LBL and MySpace. Thursday's free track is the Cold War Kids available here.

COMMENTARY:

While both relationships are smart for each of the partners, are they good for the artists?

Amazon MP3 Launches In Austria & Switzerland

Continuing its march across Europe, Amazon MP3 launched in Austria and Switzerland early Thursday morning. The sites are now live at www.amazonmp3.at and www.amazonmp3.ch. Each launched with more than 10 million tracks encoded at 256 kbps with additional tracks and labels being added daily.

Tracks in both stores begin at 68 cents. To celebrate the launch, more than 2000 albums are on sale at $4.99 euro. Each site also features local content.

New TweetDeck Features Ease Networking Overload

Keeping your social networking presence on multiple platforms up to date as well as monitoring incoming messages, retweets and important news can be a full time job for artists, marketers and music 2.0 entrepreneurs.

For a growing number of social networkers, TweetDeck has become a kind of social media dashboard aggregating their activity from multiple social networks including Twitter, Facebook, MySpace and now LinkedIn. The newest version of TweetDeck also simplifies retweeting and integrates Twitter's new Lists and and geolocation features.

Watch an intro video of the new TweetDeck v.0.32:

More New Music Industry News: Music Hack Day, Open BitTorrent Still Open, Vinyl, Indie India & More

• The next Music Hack Day takes place in Stockholm Sweden on January 30-31.
• Swedish Court Refuses To Order Shutdown of OpenBitTorrent - Last month, the Swedish ISP Portlane was sued by several Hollywood movie studios for hosting OpenBitTorrent, claiming that the tracker is a re-branded copy of one previously operated by The Pirate Bay. Now the Stockholm District Court has rejected calls to order the shutdown of the tracker. (TorrentFreak)
• TheBanded.com is the latest web site that encourages bands to upload music and fans to vote for them. 
• Vinyl frontier: Why records sales are soaring again - By reissuing classic albums on vinyl, the industry has convinced fans to purchase music that they've already bought on CD. (Guardian)
• Record labels must face the music - Instead of trying to criminalize its customers, the music industry should be looking at innovative ways to make filesharing work. (Guardian)
• Keith Jopling: Real consumer insights can still create value for innovative music services. (MidemNet)
• New York City based 2050 Music Design appoints Margarita Sullivan as General Manager. (press release)
• India's new license to rock - Forget Bollywood. India's independent music scene is headed in entirely new directions. (Global Post)
  

MySpace Music Launches In UK

As rumored for months, MySpace Music finally launched in the U.K.on Wednesday evening. The site offers the same features as U.S. and Australia including free ad supported song and video streams, e-commerce, personal music players, user and artist playlisting plus analytics and charts tools for artists. Downloads can be purchased from iTunes.

MySpace Music

MySpace Today Trailers | MySpace Video

MOG: A First Look

I'll be writing a longer post tomorrow morning that includes my interview with MOG.com CEO David Hyman. But before today gets away from me, I wanted to share a few first impressions of the MOG $5 per month unlimited streaming music service that launched today:

• MOG is more than a streaming service It combines social networking, playlists, blog content and music.
• You can be as passive (like Pandora) or active (like Napster or Spotify) a listener as you want to be.
• High sound quality.  Streaming at 320kps. I believe that is a higher bit rate than any other streaming service.
• Nice interface.  Like anything new that's trying to do a lot, it may take some time to figure it all out, but overall a stellar experience.
• 1 Hour Free Trail. It's nice that you don't have to give up credit card info, but how can the average fan decide if they like MOG an hour? After the hour, you can get 7 days free with a card, but still...
• Europe is next. Look for the UK and then more of the EU by the beginning of Q2 2010.

Check out the first impressions of Hypebot readers here and add to the discussion.

Interview: Scott Kirsner of Fans, Friends & Followers

From Kyle Bylin: Today, I spoke with Scott Kirsner, author of Fans, Friends and Followers: Building an Audience and a Creative Career in the Digital Age.  Scott shares his perspective on active consumers, why some fans still want to be passive, and the greatest lesson he learned in writing the book.

Right off the bat, you present the great paradox of our times, “Breaking out, somehow, is both more of a possibility than it has ever been – and harder than it has ever been.”

What degree of disparity, and, yet, in the same breath, newfound hope and empo-werment do you believe up-and-coming musicians, artists, writers, and the latter can find within that great paradox of our times?  

Scott Kirsner: I tend to be optimistic, so I think there’s a lot of hope for up-and-coming artists to find a way to build their own fan base and earn a living. There are incredible shifts happening in the worlds of music, film, and publishing – and individual creators can be much more nimble when it comes to understanding them and taking advantage of them than big mega-media corporations.

MOG All Access Streaming Is Live

UPDATE 3: 

MOG.com is now live. Read my "first look" here.

Read Hypebot readers' first impressions after the jump below.

Leaked Memo Shows U.S. Gov't Supports 3 Strikes

In recent weeks, privacy advocates and others have been encouraging the U.S. government to make public it's secret "Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement", but so far the Obama administration has refused on "national security" grounds.  But a leaked EU document outlines many of ACTA's goals including implementation of a global three strikes law for online offenders.

According to analyst Michael Geist:

Too Much Joy's Absurd WMG Royalty Statement

(UPDATED) There is a long and illustrious list of artists who have complained about major label accounting practices; and almost every audit or lawsuit that I've ever been aware of results in at least some additional payment from the label. But the problem rrally hits home when you see it in black and white, as we can thanks to VP of Music Programming for Rhapsody America Tim Quirk.

 "...labels are evil and avaricious AND dumb and lazy"

Back in the early 1990's, Quirk was a member of "Too Much Joy" and signed to WMG subsidiary Giant. What irks Quirk is not so much that his WMG royalty statement still shows the band almost 400K in the red, but rather that the label is failing to account for thousands of dollars earned each year from digital sales.

50 Cent's 4 Rules Of Fan Engagement

Even as his success has reached mega-proportions, 50 Cent has maintained a level of engagement that leaves his fans feeling that he is still one of them. Their loyalty now extends to the purchase of fashion and perfume as well as his million selling music. Robert Greene  of Copyblogger shares 50 Cent's 4 Rules Of Fan Engagement.

1. Crush all distance - "In this day and age, to reach people you must have access to their inner lives — their frustrations, aspirations, resentments."

2. Open informal channels of criticism and feedback - "It is much different when you interact directly with the public, hear in the flesh their criticisms and feedback. You create a back-and-forth dynamic in which their ideas, involvement and energy can be harnessed for your purposes."

MOG Launches $5 Music Streaming Today

UPDATE 2:

MOG.com is live. Read my "first look" here.

MOG's All Access premium music service goes live in the U.S. today (12/2) at 7 AM PST. MOG promises a deep on-demand library for $5 a month with a free trial offered at launch. All four major label groups have signed on.

Watch a MOG intro video:

Video: Six Female Rock Journalists Share Stories

Women Who Rock from Caitlin Wittlif on Vimeo.

What is it like being a female in the music journalism industry? 6 women in the field share their experiences in this documentary. Women featured include: Maura Johnston (Idolator), Paige Maguire (WOXY), Ellen Carpenter, Callie Enlow, Rachael Maddux, and Margaret Moser.

NARM Hosts Online Look A The Ultra Fan

On Wednesday December 3rd, NARM is hosting an online look at a study of 5200 hard core fans. FanboyFAQ took a quantitative look at the critical Fanboy/Fangirl audience. The online seminar will look at how these ultra fans make or break music, movies, TV, games, and books, and how they become drivers of new media, platforms, devices and hardware. Some numbers from the study:

•  32% of fanboys are teens (13-17)
• 36% of those 18+ are married
• 45% of those 18+ are parents

Sign up here.

More Music Industry News: Facebook, Free Music, Spotify, Cyber Monday, 7Digital, P2P In Japan & More

• Facebook eliminates regional networks, tops 350 million users. (VentureBeat) Yahoo is also deepening its relationship with Facebook. (NY Times)
• "Can Music Be Free?" Music Ally takes a week long look.
• Spotify has denied reports that it could soon be launching its music-streaming service on video games consoles. (Telegraph UK) Forrestor's Mark Mulligan tweeted yesterday that it is in the works. "Bet Music Choice is thrilled." Osca r Stol has joined Spotify as CTO bringing a background in mobile monetization.
• Cyber Monday Music: The Biz Waits For Cyber Week After Christmas Instead. (Billboard)
• 7digital opens MP3 download stores in Finland and Norway. Partners at launch include Spotify, Last.fm and AOL’s Winamp. 7digital now live in 16 countries. (press release)
  
• A Decade In Review: David Stubbs Asks Whatever Happened To Pop? (Quietus)
• Scott Perry of the always informative New Music Tipsheet has added online TV star to his resume with AOL's Spinner's New Music Minute.
• Study: Terrestrial Radio Still Dominates Listening. (FMQB)
• Japan sinks P2P pirates - Rights orgs, police arrests 10 users of Share software. (Variety)
• Bogota Columbia based Yimup is offering a suite of online music sales and marketing tools.(press release) More confirmation that music industry innovation is happening everywhere.

How MySpace Can Still Beat Facebook

CNet UK assembled a gaggle of social media experts to tell MySpace how to save itself from the Facebook juggernaut. Some of their ideas:

1. Sort out it's design mess.
2. Focus on music.
3. Get into live streaming.
4. Open up its platform.
5. Buddy up with Apple.
6. Embrace a counter culture role.
7. More sharing and collaboration.

More at CNet UK.

Spaulding Promoted To President Of UMG's Fontana

Ron Spaulding has been promoted to President of Fontana, Universal Music's independent distribution arm. Spaulding formerly served as EVP and GM of Fontana. Fontana distributes more than 100 labels including Downtown, Savoy, Vagrant, Eagle Rock, VP, American Gramaphone, Six Degrees, Ministry of Sound,MySpace Records and others.Prior to joining Fontana, Spaulding served as...

Executive Vice President/General Manager of Asylum and EastWest Records and as the Senior Vice President of Sales at WEA, Warner Music Group's distribution arm.

Who Uses Mobile Devices The Most? Guess Again.

Young Latinos and blacks are driving the increase in the use of mobile devices for texting, sending e-mails, playing music and instant messaging according to a new Pew study.

As Labels Struggle, Is Artist Income On The Rise?

(UPDATED)Yesterday, I published a chart from the the Times UK showing that while record labels are suffering, artists were making more money than ever from live performance. (see chart)  Some Hypebot readers, as well as, Glenn Peoples from Billboard countered that the chart's "interpretation ignores the realities of superstar-driven ticket prices...Live music is a winner-take-all market. The value is concentrated at the top.  Once an artist becomes a huge success on the road, he/she can command ticket prices well above the rates charged by sub-superstar artists. In the middle of the pack, ticket prices do not have the same flexibility."

Same as it ever was?

They are right of course, but only to a point. Are live earnings really any different than the rest of the industry?  Isn't the same earnings concentration at the top also true in the recording industry - a few artists get rich while most don't see a dime.

The new music industry is not reflected in either the Times chart or any chart published in Glenn's Billboard. Most of it happens beyond the reach of  Nielson and Ticketmaster. 

Wanduta Launches Offering Musicians Health Care, Discounts And More

Think of it as an AARP for artists. Newly launched Wanduta, is a free online resource for musicians, offering a suite of benefits including access to health care, a credit card and musician-centric discounts like travel, gear and both live and online showcase opportunities.

The AARP analogy fits because, like the association for senior set, it appears that Wanduta makes some of its money from affiliate fees on sales of the services offered. There's nothing wrong with a for-profit model. Doing well by doing good is an increasingly accepted and powerful business model. Presumably Wanduta vets each opportunity and negotiates the best group discounts. As more musicians join; so should its negotiating power.

It's too early to judge the quality of Wanaduta's offering or ability to deliver real value. But unlike most membership organizations, Wanaduta is free to join; and the concept - power in numbers - has merit.

Buy A Piece of Nine Inch Nails On eBay

Trent Reznor wasn't kidding when he said that he was dismantling the entire Nine Inch Nails touring machinery. He's selling it off piece by piece on eBay.  Get in on the action here.

SoundExchange Partners With ReverbNation To Deliver Digital Performance Royalties

Royalty collection agency SoundExchange has partnered with ReverbNation to register and deliver digital performance royalties to RN's 500,000 member artists. SoundExchange collects payments for the use of recordings on satellite, internet and cable TV music stations.

Artists and labels who may be due compensation should sign up at SoundExchange.com.

More Music Industry News: Smashing Pumpkins, IsoHunt, Holiday Sales, RouteNote & More

• Smashing Pumpkins and label settle lawsuits. (AP)
• IsoHunt Asks Court to Legalize Its Operations - For more than a year, BitTorrent search engine isoHunt has chased the Canadian music industry in court. In an act of self-defense, the founder of the site has sued the Canadian branch of the RIAA, asking the court to legalize its operations. After an initial setback, isoHunt submitted a full claim to the court this week. (TorrentFreak)
• Music Retailers: Holiday Selling Season Off To A Decent Start (Billboard)
• Alicia Keys to perform live on YouTube. (YouTube blog)
• Online music distribution service RouteNote has launched a desktop program to simplify the process of uploading music to iTunes, eMusic, Amazon and elsewhere. (press release)
• Canada's record companies branch out - Loss of markets, retailers means dancing to a new beat. (The Star)
• Big companies are dominating Facebook. (Epicenter)
• Indie label Earache recently partnered with file host RapidShare to promote Gama Bomb's new album and the two are declaring the experiment a success. During the first days, the album received 10,000+ direct downloads from RapidShare via Earache's site and 30,000 elsewhere. Gama Bomb's previous album sold just under 7,000 copies in its first year. (press release)
• Live Nation hires a new promoter team in France. (press release)

Seth Godin: Watch The (Music) Money

"If you're in the music business but you never buy tickets or downloads, can you really empathize with the people you're selling to?

...Money is more than a transfer of value. It's a statement of belief. An ad agency that won't buy ads, a consultant who won't buy consulting, and a waiter who doesn't tip big—it's a sign, and not a good one."

- more on Seth Godin's blog

Georgia Wonder: Recording An Album With No Cash

Nevada Music Hands Over The Keys After Hours

(UPDATED) Indie rockers Georgia Wonder are a lot like other struggling musicians. They wanted to record, but had no cash. Not even enough for a decent home studio; much less professional mics or all the extra gear and instruments. But this band turned that obstacle into an opportunity and added a new page to the indie d.i.y. playbook.

Georgia Wonder asked for and got the keys to Nevada Music, the largest music shop on the south coast of the UK (think Guitar Center USA).  Both during store hours and after the store closes each night, they'll be recording their next album dubbed "Made In Nevada" using all the gear the store has on sale.If they can raise the cash for an HD camera (donate here), they'll also shoot the whole thing and post it on Muzu.tv and a week later on a special YouTube channel. "It will be part fly on the wall documentary, part product demo, and part watch us make stuff up as we go." says the band's Julian. Moore. "We really haven't a clue what's going to happen".

Any resulting media attention and buzz benefits both the band and the store, and costs each virtually nothing. "One thing I have learned about guerrilla marketing is if you can think of something virtually free to do and everyone wins then you have thought of something that will actually get done," says Moore. The band has just released their second EP "Destroy" with CD pressing funded by fan pre-sales. Check it out via Bandcamp.

More:

• Georgia Wonder's 10 Reasons MySpace Is The Best Music Site Evah

As Music Industry Struggles, Artist Income Grows

(Updated) The UK's Times Online called this "the chart that the music industry didn't want you to see;" and I've been hesitating publishing it without adding context and analysis. But the more I stare at it, the more it speaks for itself.

It tracks the three pillars of music industry revenue - recorded music, live music, and UK performance royalties collected by PRS over the last 5 year for both artists and the industry. Conclusion: while record labels are suffering, artist income is on the rise.  Join the debate.

Follow up Essay: As Record Labels Fall, Is Artist Income On The Rise?

MIDEM Announces Showcases & Twitter Contest

MIDEM has launched a Twitter contest on for students and younger music industry professional. Now through December 9th you can win entry to the world largest gathering of the music industry. If you are between 18 and 26 years and not registered at MIDEM, add this message at the end of each of your tweet:

• # RT & WIN I am under 26 and I want to win a MIDEM VIP access +http://tiny.cc/Du6kl

One winner will be picked in a random drawing on December 16th. The prize is 2 MIDEM VIP passes plus 2 car transfers, 2 nights hotel and 2 invitations to the NRJ Music Awards.

For the third year, MidemTalent is promoting developing artists with strong export potential. From January 24-26, thirteen diverse artists and will perform at the Carlton Hotel in Cannes for those attending MIDEM.

A full list of artists and what's new at MIDEM 2010:

The Beatles 3000: An Historic View From The Future

1000 years in the future, the legacy of John, Paul, Greg, and Scottie remains. (via The Daily Swarm)

More Music Inudstry News: Billboard, Spotify, Pirate Bay, iTunes LP, Terry McBride & More

The music industry news should start to get more interesting this week as companies rush to make announcements and finish deals before the end of the year. Sadly more layoffs seem ahead and MOG launches $5 streaming this week. Stay tuned...

• The sale of Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter seems close with Lachlan Murdoch a lead investor. (Financial Times)
• Borders has entered receivership in the UK according to Forrrester's Mark Mulligan who tweeted "The Media Meltdown claims another victim.
• Can Spotify's free music pay off? Spotify's digital music service has been hailed as the future of online music. But can its business model hold up? (Guardian UK)
• Pirate Bay Adapts To Stay Alive - Most other sites would have thrown in the towel by now, but despite unprecedented pressure, somehow The Pirate Bay remains alive and in pretty good health today. As one door closes, the site morphs and adapts to find ways to stay open and possibly even stay legal. Is the site becoming more and more difficult to shut down? (TorrentFreak)
• Apple opens iTunes LP and iTunes Extra to indie artists, labels and developers.
• Nettwerk Music CEO Terry McBride on imagination in business and cultivating wrongness. (video)
• Ian Rogers comments on the new Black Keyes / Blakroc release being iTunes and CIMS indie stores only. (Fistfulayen)
• RED Distribution has teamed up with SPIN, Best Buy and Napster for the premiere SPIN mini-magazine, available now at Best Buy locations nationwide. (press release)
• Top 10 Spotify Spinoffs. (Music Ally)

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review

• MOG's $5 music subscriptions will launch this Wednesday Dec. 5th 2nd.
  
• Live Nation and iTunes to offer audio and video concert downloads.
• Last.fm adds 1 million listeners in a single week thanks to Xbox Live.
• Indie artists Amanda Palmer shares the secrets of her d.i.y. success.
• Kyle Bylin: Interchangeable Identities: The Collision of Culture, Technology, and Self
• Apple opens iTunes LP and ITunes Extras to indie artists, labels and developers.
• Social Networking: Is Twitter use in decline? and Video viewing on social networks doubles.
• Warner Music Group reported growing losses and Wall Street added a majorthumbs down.
• Despite debt EMI shows improvement.
• The Get Busy Committee On Acid, Home Recording & The D.I.Y. Attitude
• Reports have Lady Gaga getting just $167 from Spotify for 1M plays, but the free streaming services says that the reports are wrong.
• U.S. Visa restrictions could hit touring acts.
• Bruce Houghton: Is Everyone In The Music Business?
• Music festivals offer artists a unique opportunity to grow their audience.
• Introduce yourself and your project during Hypebot's online music networking event.