Browsing all posts in June, 2008.
(RED) & Music Discovery
GAP & Bono have recently shed light on (RED). By taking portions of profits from everything from ipods to t-shirts, (RED) gives to causes related to AIDS in Africa. Now (RED) is getting into music discovery. For $5 a month, (RED) will send you one song by an established artist (such as U2), another song [...]
MySpace
I went to a BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.) sponsored event in Atlanta a few nights ago. It was organized by a good friend of mine who works at BMI. There were 5 bands that played at this particular showcase. Before each act would start playing, my BMI friend would come up to me and say [...]
Coldplay
Why has the new Coldplay album Viva la Vida sold so well? I think one reason is because of the deep emotional connection that Coldplay has with its fans. I have friends who said they have wept through half of a Coldplay concert. Wept. As in tears streaming. I just purchased the latest album two [...]
Starbucks Music
What’s going on with music discovery at Starbucks? Actually, quite a lot, but not in a good way. Apparently, by September of this year, Starbucks will drop their music sales and itunes giftcards at all store locations. This topic is near and dear to my heart. It also has a lot to say about companies [...]
360 Deals in India?
One market that we all need to keep a close eye on for music & entertainment is India. Their music industry is booming. And the market looks much different than the US market. For starters, upwards of 60% of music sales are of songs found in films. The tie between movies and music is extremely [...]
Worldwide Social Networking Sites
New global user data is now available from comScore media metrix for Facebook and MySpace. Worldwide, Facebook is taking the lead with 123,900,000 unique visitors, an increase of 6%. Those 123 million + visitors were just for the month of May. This is compared to 114,600,000 unique visitors to MySpace, which is down 1% from [...]
Democratization of Recording
The emerging musician middle class just got a new tool to assist going on their own. A new software tool titled ‘Direct Note Access’ will be available Fall ’08 for the price of $399. What Direct Note Access allows you to do is to pick out a single note within the cacophony of a song, [...]
USA Rock & Roll in India
Does Rock & Roll resonate in the remote areas of India? I have written before of the universality of music, and how music from the USA has enjoyed a great deal of international success and airplay. In today’s NY Times, we get a glimpse into a small village in India called Shillong (pop. 260,000) and [...]
Global Music Sales
Here are some more global music sales numbers. Please note these numbers differ from the numbers in my blog from yesterday. That is because these numbers are for albums whereas the numbers yesterday were for albums & singles. This time the info comes from IFPI: Global sales of albums in 2007 were 1.86 billion albums [...]
Live Nation’s Business Model
The record industry is closely monitoring new music businesses in search of the next business model. The major labels are investing in internet start-up, social networking sites, and streaming music sites. They are also closely watching Live Nation, who has just signed a number of 360 deals with artists such as Jay-Z, U2, and Madonna. [...]
