This is a great addition to the iLike mobile capabilities found on the iPhone. iLike already has over 50 million users through its ubiquitous presence on social networks like Facebook. This application is great news for companies like Live Nation who should really be capitalizing on apps like this.

Another thing that iLike does in relation to the iPhone is to create an iLike presence for artists on the iPhone. This is a nice way for artists to keep in touch with fans and provide ways for people to purchase music and auxiliary items.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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Maxrave is a subsidiary of BCBG Max Azria that caters to women aged 16-24. Maxrave has over 280 stores in the USA.

And for bands, with competition increasing daily, there needs to be a way for the artists to get their music to the right demographic. What better way than to have music playing to a semi-captive audience? Here you have a store full of teenage/college girls. If your music fits this demographic, this is really a great avenue to pursue.

Maxrave will be working with artists such as Cassette Kids, Maiysha, TeeJay, and Mike Posner. When Maxrave customers buy something at the store, they will be given a card that provides access to music download playlists at this website. Clients then have access to download tracks by these artists that they will also hear in-store.

Mitch Towbin, executive director at Blue Maze, had this to say about the initiative:

“We basically worked with the client to analyze their in-store and online demographic and to determine what type of songs would reflect the musical tastes of their core audience. A lot of these artists are just starting to get radio play so they are fresh and can add some trajectory to the lifespan of this initiative.”

Great job by BCBG and the artists involved in this initiative.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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Check out these numbers:

• 105,000 new albums were released in the USA in 2008 (that’s four times as many as in the early 2000′s)
• of these 105,000 new albums, only 6,000 reached sales of over 1,000 units in the first year
• 30,000 new albums were released in the U.K. last year (that’s a 30% increase from the year 2000)
• There are more than 10 million bands on MySpace (3 million in 2006, and 600,000 in 2005)

What does this tell us? That with the changes in the industry with CD sales and downloads, this technology also allows artists around the world to write a song, post it live, and record a video for the song, all in the same day. Thus, the proliferation of music online as evidenced by the numbers above.

So, who is going to navigate through all of this music? Who will determine what is cool? Who will the arbiters of taste be?

And, as a band, how will you get heard through all of the noise? Do you need to be with some sort of label for promotional purposes? And what about the band that has all of their music online but cannot afford the up front costs to fund a tour?

It seems that a middleman is still required between the artist and the fans. I don’t think this middleman will be the label. I think it will be entrepreneurs that see financial opportunities in helping bands swim through the competition.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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In the article, David Segal notes that Jackson reached worldwide fame and popularity in a simpler time. The album was still king. MTV was pretty much the only medium where teenagers watched music videos. And the record labels still had a strong hold on the music that made it to the record stores.

Contrast that with today’s artists. The album is no longer king. Jackson sold 100 million copies of just one of his albums – Thriller. Now, and artist is extremely lucky to sell just 1 million albums. MTV was huge for Jackson. Now, MTV rarely plays music videos and most people are watching videos on YouTube. And with the proliferation of the internet, the user now has control of the playlist instead of the radio station or record store.

Basically, the mass media outlets are being replaced by silos of taste. As noted above, the consumer makes the choice. This does not bode well for the superstars. Top artists will still make their way out of the fold through word of mouth, but I don’t think we will ever see another artist like Michael Jackson.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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And now Meebo is partnering with Universal Music Group in an effort to create buzz and chatter around music videos. This is really a smart way to harness the power of social networking and new music discovery. Martin Green, COO of Meebo, states “The partnership between Meebo and UMG gives our users the ability to engage with thousands of videos from the world’s largest music company.” Some of the initial artists to be included will be Ludacris, Kayne West, and the Killers.

How this will work is that artists will be able to insert Meebo widgets onto their sites to encourage chatter and friends telling their friends about the new music. Meebo is making it extremely user-friendly to share new music with your social network.

This is a great brand extension for Meebo and good thinking on Universal’s part to get in on this type of a deal. It has also been reported that Universal is looking into launching their own YouTube-like video sharing website.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

One way to keep up is to be known as a site with exclusive content. The content won’t remain exclusive for long as the songs will make their way to free download sites, but the more important issue is to have music lovers know the site as one that is on the cutting edge of new music and exclusive content. People are more likely to go to your site first if you are leading as opposed to following.

To that end, iLike has just announced some exclusive song releases by Jack Johnson. A new holiday compilation album will be released exclusively on iLike and will contain Jack Johnson and a number of collaborators.

iLike is a social networking site with a music focus. The site invites its users to “discover new music with friends.” In addition to helping search for new artists, they also have a great platform for letting users know about upcoming concerts in the area. iLike has also received strong investment and has a user base of over 30 million.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

Why is Universal wasting their time with this? I don’t think it’s a very effective way to get people to hear your music. And why would someone pay $25 or $50 to have this added to their computer when there are so many free music discovery websites out there? I have always hated the pre-loaded music that has come on past computer purchases.

It seems to me that Universal has business needs that are much more urgent than bundling music to computer buyers. How about funneling those resources to discovering new artists and making sure that the Universal music catalog is being found when people are actively searching for music.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

MySpace Music really has the potential to make a big splash in the music industry. For one, it is the first time that a music discovery site is teaming up with all the labels (EMI almost there) and some major sponsors to allow for ad-supported streaming.

You can purchase music with iTunes very easily, but it is not all that conducive to music discovery. They are trying to change that with their new Genius software, but most people I know have been using MySpace for music discovery.

In addition, bands will be able to use the site to sell tickets and merchandise. By adding all of these features, MySpace is set to expand their role as the biggest source for music discovery as well as be a formidable force of competition for iTunes.

MySpace Music is also seeking venture capital in the range of $200 million to expand their business even further. Will the venture capital firms pony up the money? Will they have faith enough in the venture to expect venture-capital-like returns? That will be a big telling point on the financial industry’s faith in this new venture.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

At its heart, Get Closer is a social networking site built upon music and film tastes. This is a great extension of the website in offering a service that was traditionally held by radio stations, record stores, and music magazine. Instead of keeping up on all possible albums or songs of a band, a website can now do this for you.

Unfortunately for all of us in the USA, this site is only available so far in the U.K. But expect Get Closer to expand to the USA, or for some other site to fill in the gap. This is a great idea, and one that could be quite lucrative if the site can recommend items to complete a set and then have the person purchase right from the site.

Stay tuned,
Erik
erikrostad.com

In addition to suing clients, RIAA also pressures websites it doesn’t like into shutting down. Their recent bullying came against Muxtape (www.muxtape.com). Muxtape allows its users to create customized playlists by using their uploaded MP3s. Apparently Muxtape has not paid royalties for use of these songs.

I understand that. RIAA has a point. But here is my problem with it. Muxtape was an incredible way for friends to share music with their friends. It was an amazing system of music discovery that was completely user generated. Radio no longer had the control of what was heard or not. I received invites to listen to friends Muxtape playlists and it was always thrilling.

And this is where the old mindset comes in. RIAA looks at this and doesn’t see money being made for their artists. Ok, granted. But what RIAA is not seeing is that bands that they represent were achieving a completely new fan base that had never heard of the particular band before their friends introduced them through Muxtape.

Perhaps the person who discovered the new band really liked that band discovered through Muxtape. Perhaps they buy their album. Maybe RIAA is not that lucky though and the fan just downloads the album for free. But, what if this new fan now attends a concert when the band tours in their city. Now the band has made $10 off a ticket sale compared to just $2 off an album sale.

And therein lies the problem. RIAA would not see the kind of money from the ticket sale that it would see from the album sale. So their interest is to squelch music discovery instead of allow bands to build a fan base.

News flash RIAA – music discovery will happen anyway, through a different method. But keep spending your funds suing and shutting down. Destroying is so much easier than building, isn’t it?

In unrelated news, RIAA executives Mitch Bainwol and Cary Sherman each pulled in 2006 annual salaries of $1.5 million.

Stay tuned,
Erik
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