Browsing all posts in March, 2009.
The Music Bank
Lars Ulrich, drummer from Metallica, recently said the role of the music label was to be that of a bank. Historically, that was a big role of the label. There was a simple trade off. The label would present seed money to the artist in exchange for an advance to the band. The band was [...]
Selling the Beatles Catalog
Word is that Apple Corps Ltd., the multi-media company set up by The Beatles (not to be confused with Apple, Inc), is considering selling the Beatles catalog on their own website. The Beatles have been noticeably absent from iTunes by not licensing their catalog to the mega online store. It’s not like the Beatles need [...]
South American Music Downloads
There is some interesting news coming out of Argentina and Brazil regarding music downloads. In Argentina, a wireless carrier has just begun selling song downloads wirelessly and on their website. In Brazil, a website called Discografa was taken down because it had over 1 million users illegally sharing music files. But here is the really [...]
Music Connection with Fans
I attended a discussion yesterday in Atlanta titled “Economic Evolution: Alternatives, Re-Invention, and Opportunity in an Uncertain Industry.” There were a number of panelists, including an entertainment attorney, a VP of promotions, Pres of an indie label, a few well known artists, and an associate director at SESAC. It was a fascinating discussion, and here [...]
Great Quote
Here is a quote that succinctly describes the current state of the music industry: “Trade analog dollars for digital pennies.”- Jeff Zucker This says a lot about the current state of the music industry. Record labels that spent vast amounts of money promoting, recording, and building artists are faced with a world where they can [...]
Censored YouTube
Google-owned YouTube just removed a number of videos for users within the United Kingdom for artists associated with the Performing Rights Society (PRS). This includes over 60,000 artists. The PRS had a licensing agreement with YouTube that just expired. Apparently, PRS asked for much higher rates this time around. That created a stalemate, and YouTube [...]
Upcoming Peruvian Concerts
In 2008, I had the opportunity to live in Peru for a few months. While there, I saw the USA band Collective Soul do a concert near Lima. They sold 10,000+ tickets at roughly $50 a pop in a country where 20-yr-olds are lucky to make $300 a month. One thing that became very apparent [...]
Social Networking vs. Email
Are you noticing more and more of your time being spent on Facebook as opposed to Gmail? If so, you are not alone. A recent study from Nielsen concluded that Social Networking Sites have participation levels of 67% compared to email’s 65%. This is the first time that social networking sites have overtaken email’s importance. [...]
Beatles: The Video Game
You know a major shift has occurred when the Beatles, yes, the Beatles, release their songs digitally to a video game but still don’t have their songs on iTunes. It was just announced that the Beatles will release part of their digital catalog to be included in the “Rock Band” video game. The announcement noted [...]
No Chinese Oasis
The British rock band, Oasis, has had their Chinese performance license revoked. Oasis was set to play two upcoming shows in Beijing and Shanghai. But the Chinese government has put a stop to that and has demanded that anyone who purchased a ticket receive full reimbursement. Apparently a band member of Oasis attended a free [...]
