Browsing all posts in April, 2009.
Satellite Radio Copyright
The Canadians just settled on a royalty rate for song use in satellite radio. The ruling by the Canadian Copyright Board is that satellite stations should pay out 6.2% of their revenues in order to use the music. Regular radio stations pay 7.1% in Canada. In the USA, satellite radio stations pay 6.5% of revenue [...]
Facebook vs. MySpace
Facebook is really starting to take off internationally. I’ve noticed it just in friend requests I have recently received from contacts in Poland, Mexico, Egypt, and Peru. In total, Facebook now has 200 million users around the world. This compares to 130 million users around the globe for MySpace. MySpace continues to boast a larger [...]
New iTunes Pricing
iTunes is branching out from it’s $0.99 per song pricing structure. iTunes has now launched a 3-tiered system with price points of $1.29, $0.99, and $0.69. Supposedly, the higher priced items will skew towards the songs with the highest demand. Initial results are that 46% (138 of 300) of the top 300 tracks have pricing [...]
The Future of Music
The empty parking lot says it all. Stay tuned,Erikerikrostad.com
Come KISS in my City
Although not a huge fan of Gene Simmons, I’m pretty impressed with some ideas coming out of the KISS camp. KISS has announced a “Fan-Routed Tour.” KISS will be using the website Eventful.com to have fans demand where the next KISS show will be. The band is expected to play in some random places, based [...]
Daring Dylan
Bob Dylan has been experimenting with some new ideas in the music business. First of all, Dylan has an album set to be released on April 28th. As part of the promotion for the album, Dylan is releasing some of the singles in some pretty random places. The latest song can be streamed at newsweek.com [...]
Live Nation – MySpace Partnership
Live Nation and MySpace are teaming up for a Spanish fiesta. Live Nation, the concert promoter, is doing a little outsourcing of its marketing of live shows. MySpace, which boasts a Spanish user-base of 2.7 million people, will market the shows to users and provide advance ticketing options. A lucky few will even win backstage [...]
Living Album
The record labels have had to seriously rethink their business. Any company would need to be seriously reconsidering their business plan if their main product was experiencing annual sales declines in the double digits. The record labels used to have a pretty surefire moneymaker in the album. But those days are gone. So, what will [...]
First Quarter Music Sales
The news isn’t good. No one is expecting album sales to all of a sudden skyrocket, but these year over year declines are substantial. Look at this: Album sales in the USA for March ’09 were down 17.9% compared to the same month in ’08. Album sales in the USA for March ’09 were down [...]
Ringtone Sales
The recent sales numbers for music are abysmal. Double-digit sales % drops from just March of last year. About the only bright spot in the industry is sales of Ringback Tones. BMI just put out a report that estimated Ringback tones would be at $235 million in sales this year, up from $205 last year [...]
