hypebot

A2IM Charts A Course For The Future Of Indie Music

ONLY 6000 OF THE 105,000 ALBUMS RELEASED IN 2008
SOLD MORE THAN 1000 COPIES

During the recent 4th anniversary meetings of the American Association Of Independent Music (A2IM) members gathered in think-tank sessions to "do the serious work of charting a course for the future of independent music".   The result are two brief manifestos (my term, not theirs) that say a great deal about how independent labels view themselves and the future course being charted by its most active members.

Navigating The Future

Record labels need to consider and embrace changes in their structures and missions. All labels must consider themselves music companies, and must maximize their and their artists' income through a variety of revenue streams in a post album-centric world. Labels must explore all facets of the business, from syncs to video game placements to wireless, mine new emerging revenue streams, and craft bespoke contracts customized to each artist's individual needs. Music companies must innovate -- to help artists stay connected to their fans, and generate revenue in a way that transcends the now archaic traditional album cycle. Increasingly, labels must take a new approach to staffing -- the A&R department has to think financially, and the accountants have to be passionate about their label's music. In short, the next generation of successful music companies will have a nimble staff with the flexibility to adapt and thrive in a rapidly changing music marketplace.

 Labels Matter

TuneCore Partners With Universal Music

 

(UPDATED) An upstart digital distributor that made a name for itself by criticizing the major labels has now joined hands with one. TuneCore has entered into a strategic alliance with Universal Music Distribution, the sales and marketing arm of the Universal Music Group.

TuneCore will host distribution portals for UMG's labels as well as partner labels and artists. As an artist develops, they'll have access  to a number of artist discovery, marketing and upstreaming opportunities within the UMGD system.

Last year Universal made a major investment in digital distributor INgrooves in part to be able to use its technology. These moves appear designed to give the major label group greater involvement with  a larger piece of the growing long tail of artists in their early stages. Whether Universal made an investment here is unclear, but according to Tunecore neither party will be taking rights or revenues from participating artists.

UMGD will also provide TuneCore's customers with a menu of artist services, including licensing opportunities and professional audio mastering. Additionally, Guitar Center, also a TuneCore investor and strategic partner, will provide to UMGD access to its entire chain of over 200 nationwide as a non-traditional retail channel for the sale of physical product which includes select TuneCore Artist titles.

The usually fiercely independent CEO of Tunecore Jeff Price has nothing but praise for Universal.

Indie Distributor Lumberjack Mordam Goes Under

Independent distributor Lumberjack Mordam has gone out of business. Effected are more than 100 mostly punk and hard core record labels. Sources tell Hypebot that a number of  the labels were left with $30,000 - $50,000 in unpaid invoices, an amount that can be devastating for a small label.

We're working on a more extensive story including quotes from some of the indie entrepeneurs effected.  Until then here is a partial list of effected labels via Punk News.

It's Official: Sony Invests In IODA

This time the rumor mill proved correct. Sony Music Entertainment has entered into a global partnership with IODA which includes an investment in the digital distributor.  IODA will now provide digital services for Sony's RED indie label arm, as well as, offer expanded overseas opportunities. In return, IODA can now offer its labels physical distribution and the stability of a corporate partner with deep pockets.

How Will Independent Labels React?

The exact details of how the two companies will work together are still being worked out. But if as Thomas Hess, Sony Music's President of Global Digital Business, U.S. Sales and Corporate Strategy told Billboard, IODA will be "joined at the hip" with the major, it is unclear how an often firecely independent label community will react.

Video Interview: Duncan Hutchinson Of Rights Flow & Blackheart Records

Interview by Virgil Dickerson. Duncan Hutchinson is a music industry veteran who is chief content officer at Rights Flow. Rights Flow handles professional services for music rights management.Duncan also works with Blackheart Records and discusses the latest release by Girls in a Coma.

MORE EXLCUSIVE VIDEO INTERVIEWS:  Virgil Dickerson's interviews from NARM include  Kevin Arnold of digital distributor IODA , Tim Hinsley of SuperD Distribution and NARM President Jim Doneo, Sandy Bitman of indie retailer Park Avenue and ex-Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford and Eric LeMasters of Koch/E.

Let's Prove That Artists Don't Need Major Labels To "Make It"

Help Build A Database Of Music 2.0 Success Stories

During every interview, convention panel, startup negotiation or conversation with an industry peer, there is inevitably a moment when someone says something like, "All this talk about social networking, new media and digital marketing is exciting, but does it work?  And if it does, where are all the successful artists that have made it because of music 2.0?" 

They're not interested in stories of Trent Reznor, Radiohead and Jill Sobule who have maintained and even grown careers using all the 2.0 techniques after leaving a record label who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars trying to break them.These skeptics want to know about artists that have "made it" without ever having the help of a major or even larger indie label.

I usually point out that in an era when only 950 new releases sold more than 25K copies in the U.S. last year, we need to redefine success. Touring, merchandise and direct to fan sales all are part of modern artist income streams. But even after that re-calibration of expectations, the doubters understandably want examples.

 They Want Proof? Let's Give 'Em Proof

To answer the skeptics, I'm starting a list of artists that are growing and sustaining real careers in what I like to call the new musical middle class (or above) without label largess.  I've included links to articles on Hypebot about each act or to their web site.  This very short list is just to get things started. Will you help me add to it?

• Jonathan Coulton
• Cory Smith

Publisher Bug Music & Kings Of Leon Launch Label

Indie publishing giant Bug Music has launched a new record label with Kings Of Leon. Details of the first release on the imprint, The Features “Some Kind of Salvation,” will be announced next week.

The new venture is part of a creative deal the two parties entered into in the fall of 2008 which allow the Kings Of Leon to sign and develop artists with Bug Music. The first artist signed is fellow Tennessee brethren The Features who toured with the Kings in the UK and US in 2007.

Video Interview: Eric LeMasters of E1/Koch

Virgil Dickerson interviewed Eric LeMasters of VP of Business Development at distributor E1/Koch at NARM. Other Virgil NARM interviews include  Kevin Arnold of digital distributor IODA , Tim Hinsley of SuperD Distribution and NARM President Jim Doneo, Sandy Bitman of indie retailer Park Avenue and ex-Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford.

Fleet Foxes Thank Piracy For Success, Pledge To Stay Indie

One of the breakout indie bands of 2008 was Sub Pop's Fleet Foxes, and the band openly credits online piracy for providing both inspiration and a promotional boost for its 200K+ selling debut album.

As much music as musicians can hear, that will only make music richer as an art form," singer Robin Pecknold told the BBC. "I think we're seeing that now with tons of new bands that are amazing, and are doing way better music now than was being made pre-Napster."

"I've downloaded hundreds and hundreds of records - why would I care if somebody downloads ours? That's such a petty thing to care about," says Pecknold. "I mean, how much money does one person need? I think it's disgusting when people complain about that, personally."

On recent rumors that the band was signing to Virgin, Pecknold wrote in a blog post:

eMusic CEO Blames Indie Labels For Price Increase

When eMusic recently added major label Sony to its previously indie only music subscription service, it also increased prices per download.  Still cheaper than iTunes and others, the reaction from many eMusic fans was strong and negative.

Since the initial announcement, the company has been on a bit of a campaign to clarify why the price hikes happened; and in an interview with Wired's Eliot Van Buskirk, eMusic CEO Danny Stein said that it was the independent record labels and not a deal with the big bad Sony that forced the price increases:

"Our existing labels, for the most part, have been asking us to raise prices for a long time. What I told the New York Times is that we were looking for a “catalyzing event” to do it. And really, the catalyzing event is adding catalog, adding more content. We used this as an opportunity to do it, but we didn’t do it because of Sony...

Video Interview: Ex- Judas Priest Rob Halford On His Record Label, New Band & More

Virgil Dickerson interviews Rob Halford, former lead singer of Judas Priest and current God of Metal who talks about NARM, his record label and what he has been up to.

Other Virgil NARM interviews include  Kevin Arnold of digital distributor IODA , Tim Hinsley of SuperD Distribution and NARM President Jim Doneo and Sandy Bitman of indie retailer Park Avenue.

Distributor Traffic Entertainment Taps The Orchard

(EXCLUSIVE) Massachusetts based music and video distributor Traffic Entertainment has moved to The Orchard for both digital and physical distribution, Christian Hedlund of Traffic  and The Orchard's head of Physical Distribution  Michael Bull told Hypebot in an exclusive interview. Previously, Traffic used IODA for digital distribution in addition to direct sales to iTunes and brick and mortar.

The alliance with Traffic, best known for releases including EMC's "The Show", Vaughn aka MF Doom's "Vaudeville Villain", De La Soul's "Mission Impossible" and Lil Scrappy's "Silence & Secrecy" marks the first time that The Orchard has opened their marketing and promotion to another distributor. The Orchard recently proved its muscle by delivering a gold single for Pitbull.

Many labels had seperated their phsyical and digital distribution, but bringing both back under one roof is bcoming a popular option for indies.  Sales declines at brick and mortar, as well as, bankrupcies and consolidation has led to fewer physical distribution options for indies. And for digtial distributors like The Orchard via its recent purchase of TVT and INgrooves through investor UMG's Fontana arm, adding physical counters downward pressure on sales fees caused by Tunecore and others.

Founded in 2002, Traffic Entertainment Group has carved a niche...

What Will A Record Label Look Like In 5 Years?

 

2009 2010  2011 2012 2013  

Martin J. Thörnkvist is a music industry thinker and strategist who operates indie label Songs I Wish I'd Written and is one of the founders of The Swedish Model consortium of labels. This article first appeared on the group blog Digital Renaissance.

The future. This undefined scope of time with a divine shimmer around it. When it comes to the future of music I’ve always consider myself an optimist.

For one, I’m certain that musicians and music fans have a prosperous future ahead of them. That’s because music is the single most important ingredient in the music business soup and music is, of course, a result of an artists creative minds. And it’s when musicians interact with listeners that a window for business is opening. Not before, and not just because some A&R person, marketeer or CEO opened their wallet. That the relationship between musicians and fans is the foundation of the business and the single most important piece of knowledge that we all have to submissively recognize. This is the key to the future for the middle men we call record labels – we have to encourage the interaction and realize that it will live without us.

We middle men have to remember that we always need to convince our customers (musicians and fans) why they should engage with us....

Virgil's Headed To NARM. Are You?

The Ongoing Adventures Of An Indie Entrepreneur

Intrepid indie maven (Suburban Home, Vinyl Collective) and Hypebot columnist (You Can Always Go Back to School), Virgil Dickerson is packing his bags for SanDiego for next week's two headed mother of all music retail conventions - NARM (brick and mortar) and NARM Connects (digital).  He'll be filing regular reports for Hypebot; and if you're headed there we'd  both like to hear from you too. Stop Virgil in the hall and say hi; or write something and send it in. Or just add a comment to  one of Virgil's posts. Whatever works for you. And please buy Virgil a meal or a drink. It's his virgin NARM experience.

VIRGIL DICKERSON: I am excited to report that for the first time in my 14 years of running a small, independent label and distribution company, I have decided to experience NARM. NARM (The National Association of Recording Merchandisers) is a not-for-profit trade association that serves the music content delivery community in a variety of areas including networking, advocacy, information, education and promotion. Each year, they host NARM Connects, a convention aimed at bringing together retailers, distributors, labels, artists, as well as mobile, digital, and technology companies.

I registered as a retailer, as Vinyl Collective, but my main goal is to meet with distributors with the hope of gaining better distribution. Since my label, Suburban Home, left Koch, we have been self-distributing ...

Assembly Of Dust Offers Half Of Album Free

The new studio album by Assembly of Dust "Some Assembly Required" features guest artists on every track and is being promoted by free weekly downloads.

The band will give away half of the album via free downloads from their website at the rate of one song a week through the release date of July 21st..  “High Brow”  featuring Al Schnier of moe debuted this week.

iLike Grabs Exclusive Sonic Youth Advance

Indie rock pioneers Sonic Youth will debut their not yet released album, The Eternal, exclusively on iLike starting today. The week long online listening party is part of the pre-release campaign for a June 9th retail release on Matador Records.

iLike is finding success as both a music discovery and an artist services platform and iLike will syndicate Sonic Youth’s album stream across its site, iLike’s dominant Facebook music app and other social networks and online platforms.

A2IM Elects Three To Board Of Directors

A2IM, the American Association of Independent Music, has announced the results of their 2009 Board of Directors elections as voted by theirlabel membership. New members are:

• Glen Barros (President, Concord Music Group)
• Jim Cooperman (COO, Wind-up Records)
• Portia Sabin (President, Kill Rock Stars)

Barros continues on the A2IM board having been re-elected, while the other members are beginning their first term in July. The remainder of the organization's board are: Beggars Group CEO Lesley Bleakley; Razor & Tie EVP Douglas Keogh; Bar/None owner Glenn Morrow and Lookout Records co-owner Molly Neuman. Tom Silverman and Amaechi Uzoigwe have left the board because of term limits.

INgrooves Adds Physical Distribution With New #1 Crystal Method Release

Digital distributor INgrooves has added physical distribution to it offering with the new Crystal Method album "Divided By Night" released on May 12th.  In its first week of release, the album hit #1 on Amazon and was the #1 electronic album on iTunes.

INgroove's brick and mortar distribution will be handled via Universal's Fontana, a relationship facilitated by UMG's major equity investment in the company last year. Competing digital distributor The Ochard began offering a similar dual service recently with it's aquistion of TVT.  Physical sales are shrinking.  But because of  increased competition, so are the margins that digital distributors can charge making  revenue diversification an essential busines stategy.

Interview: CIMS' Jim Fahy On ThinkIndie.com

The Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) recently launched their ThinkIndie online download store. The site was conceived as an answer to the revenue lost to iTunes by independent brick and mortar music stores, as well as, a place for online music discovery. Traffic will be driven by and profits shared with participating indie retailers. Just days after the launch, CIMS' Jim Fahy answered a few questions about the new online store:

Q: Is the ThinkIndie.com only partnering with CIMS stores or can other indie stores get involved?

FAHY: A healthy portion of AIMS stores are also among us. Other stores may be involved in the future.

Q: The selection is currently all indie. Do you ever intend to sell music from the major labels?

FAHY: Of course. One of our major label deals is about to be finished. After tha,t it's just a matter of uploading the content that makes sense. We're hoping our other deals will work out soon - especially as they see how it runs. Lawyers are a bigger problem than people.

Q. Does all of the music come from individual labels. Which of the indie digital distributors like The Orchard, IODA and INgrooves do you have have deals with for ThinkIndie?

"iTunes' magic lies in its integration.
Our magic is knowledge."

FAHY: Some of it does. Our deals with Sub Pop, Merge and Matador, for example, are all direct.As far as the digital distributors you mentioned: Yeah, we have deals with all those guys.

The Orchard are still involved in the physical business and employs several people who have been friendly with us over the years during their respective tenures at other labels. We're hoping that we'll be going ...

Indie Label Sponsors BitTorrent Site To Promote New Album

If the first rule of marketing is to go where the people are, then promoting your new album on a BitTorrent site actually makes a lot of sense.  That's exactly what indie label Honor Roll Music did for Miami based band Awesome New Republic's new release with a month long banner ad on isoHunt.

“As far as we know, we are the first record label/band to advertise directly on a torrent search engine,” Colin Foord, the creative brain behind the campaign told TorrentFreak. “We are sponsoring isoHunt with a banner that links directly to our homepage where the album can be downloaded for free.”

New Deals: Razor & Tie With Sony, IODA Adds Orfeon

• Indie label Razor & Tie has expanded its distribution deal with Sony to include digital.  The two have been tied for physical distribution since 1998. (press release)

• Digital distributor IODA has inked a worldwide distribution deal with Orfeon, Mexico’s largest independent label. With a catalog from all over Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and the U.S., Orfeon’s artists include Agustin Lara, Celia Cruz, Pedro Infante, Grupo Cañaveral, Enrique Guzman, Chico Che and Alberto Vazquez.

Think Indie CIMS Digital Store Launched Today

ThinkIndie.com launched today as the music download destination for  Coalition Of Independent Music Stores' (CIMS) indie music retail outlets. The catalog comes entirely from indie labels with tracks encoded as DRM-free 320 kps mp3's; among the highest bit rates of any download store. Album downloads are generally $9.99 with individual tracks at $1.11 though many exclusives and specials are priced much lower.

"This launch has been a long time coming and we are stoked that the big day is finally upon us," says an enthusiastic CIMS head Jim Fahy. Still one can't escape the feeling that Fahy and his member stores would rather you came by in person and bought a CD. "If you gotta buy an MP3 then we want you to do it from us," continued Fahy. "What's best is that you can buy said files from the record store of your choice, enabling you to still shop digitally and locally. It's all the convenience and twice the snark... Just how we like it."

Independent music has long needed an alternative online download destination to eMusic, which is only accessible via subscription. Think Indie, which was built by a group of indie record stores to compete...

Surprise! Study Shows Few Indies On Radio

Artist advocacy group The Future Of Music Coalition has released a new report "Same Old  Song" confirming that indie music is not getting its fair share of airplay on broadcast radio.

In April 2007, the FCC found widespread payola and ordered the four largest U.S. radio groups (Clear Channel, CBS, Citadel and Entercom) to pay $12.5 million in fines and work with the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM) to draft 8 “Rules of Engagement” and an “indie set-aside” including 4,200 hours of unsigned and indie label music.

But FMC's new survey of Mediaguide airplay data shows little has changed in the 2 years since the FCC decree. Indie music did make slight gains at AAA Non-comm. and Country radio. But at all 5 other dominant radio formats (AC, Urban AC, Active Rock, CHR Pop, and Triple A Comm.) the share of indie music played remained stagnant at 78-82% despite ndies comprising 30-40% of the marketplace.

Not surprisingly, the FMC also found that there were very few slots for any new music .There too, new major label songs typically receive more spins than indies. Finally, FMC looked at the indie labels...

INgrooves Adds Telarc & Headsup Overseas

INgrooves has inked Telarc and Heads Up International, both divisions of Concord Music Group for digital distribution worldwide excluding the US and Canada.  The wide ranging Telarc and Heads Up catalogs include jazz icons like Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner and Stanley Clarke, the blues of Taj Mahal and Tab Benoit, contemporary jazz from the likes Candy Dulfer and  Victor Wooten and world music from Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Hugh Masekela, Miriam Makeba and Zap Mama. Current artists include bassist/singer Esperanza Spalding, Hiromi, Take 6, and guitarist Mike Stern.

Harmonia Mundi - An Indie Classical Label That's Thriving In Tough Times

Classical Record Industry Down 30% In '09, Harmonia Mundi Up 9%

All this week on Hypebot, we're exploring how the double whammy of falling sales and the global economic downturn is effecting the music industry. This guest post by Charlie Dahan, which first appeared on his Center Of The Indie Label Universe blog, shows how one indie label is using old fashion A&R to thrive in tough times.

You think the pop record industry is having a hard time of it - look at the classical music industry. Product has been devalued by labels like Naxos to be a budget line item, stores are closing, radio is disappearing, funding from the private and public sector is drying up and the audience is graying. Most labels have closed their classical division and sales are down over 30% for 2009.

Not for French indie, Harmonia Mundi. They have seen an increase in their sales in 2009 of nearly 10% by recording new music, signing new artists and getting the hell out of their way and letting them develop over several records - sounds like a winning formula. They have also developed a loyal customer base, who trusts the brand and is willing to give anything with a Harmonia Mundi stamp on it.

Read about them and listen to their NPR interview here. Even if you don’t like Classical music, you can learn a lot from their business model and practices.

Video: The Branding Of Sub Pop

This clip from the documentary “Hype” about indie powerhouse of Sub Pop explores how they branded the label. (via Center Of The Indie Label Universe)

Ryko Distribution Folded Into ADA

WMG has shuttered Ryko Distribution moving all labels to its ADA independent distribution division.  WMG aquired Ryko Distribution as part of a 2006 aquisiton of the Rykodisc label. 

All 25 Ryko staffers will be let go and may apply for new positions in a slightly expanded ADA, according to Billboard, who also reports that 10 staffers are being eliminated within WMG major label distributions arm. Ryko Distribution logged about $50 million in sales last year and the combined indie divisions should top $200 million.

Expect more consoluidation within the distribution sector as sales continue to decline. "The irony of the bad economics and piracy is that indies are getting crushed and majors are getting more powerful," on independent abel exec told Hypebot yesterday after learning of Ryko Distribution's demise. "The 'leveling of the playing field' is going away fast."

 

Record Store Day Gives Indies Sales Boost

Saturday's National Record Store Day provided U.S. indie music stores and labels with a tangible boost in sales.

Billboard chart analyst Ed Christman put the gain at just 1% of overall independent label sales. But Coalition Of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) outlets were up 22% over the previous year and vinyl sales jumped 222% according to the indie store alliance.

"What we have here is one more glimpse into the future," said new CIMS head Jim Fahey. "We can make these days happen more and more through a concerted effort to let the indies sell something worthwhile and let The Big Boxes go back to selling microwaves and cheap TV's. Leave the music to the experts."

Here's a video of Smashing Pumpkin Billy Corgan at an Indiana record store on Saturday:

Northern European Music Industry Blazes Trails Others Should Follow

Guest post by Mike Masnick reprinted with permission from Techdirt.

I'm not entirely sure why, but it appears that a bunch of folks in the northern parts of Europe are doing some rather interesting analysis of the recording industry in that region. Perhaps it's the fact that so much attention has been placed on those regions thanks to file sharing services like The Pirate Bay and Mininova (both based there), but either way, we keep seeing studies from such countries that seem worth talking about. Last month, it was a detailed and fascinating study on file sharing in the Netherlands, which suggested (again) that it was a business model issue rather than a legal one, and now a bunch of folks have sent in a study from Norway claiming that those who download are much more likely to buy music than those who don't. We've seen analogous studies saying similar things in the past, so this is no surprise.

Separately, a couple weeks ago someone sent in a long but fascinating study from Finland on the history of two of the more successful record labels (pdf) in that country. The key finding ...

Video: Amanda Palmer To Her Record Label Roadrunner "Please Drop Me"