Browsing all posts in record labels.
Digital Music Percentages
A disconnect exists between the % of digital music consumed and the % of Record Label sales derived from those digital sales. EMI’s CEO, Elio Leoni-Sceti, recently stated that “seventy percent of music consumption is digital and yet only about twenty percent of music company revenues are derived from digital.” It is likely that 80% [...]
The Do It Yourself Artist – Part II
For the Do It Yourself artist, what is one of the most important determinations of their success? Well, like all entrepreneurial endeavors, success largely depends on keeping expenses low. Very low. As in, each band member lives very frugally. And herein lies the trouble. The superstar artist of the past lived extravagantly off money from [...]
Michael Jackson’s Fame
The NY Times had a great article in Sunday’s paper about Michael Jackson and fame. The point of the article was that Michael Jackson will likely be one of the last superstars in this new age of fragmentation. In the article, David Segal notes that Jackson reached worldwide fame and popularity in a simpler time. [...]
New Role for Record Labels
Two rappers are providing a glimpse into the changing landscape of the role of the record labels. In the past, record labels would try to find bands that were just on the verge of breaking and making it big. They would bankroll the album and provide initial funds for touring. Now, it seems that labels [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Record Labels
The market share numbers for the major labels have been released. They pretty much stayed close to ’07 numbers. Here are market share numbers as of the end of 2008 for the big 4: Universal – 31.52% (down from 31.9% in ’07) Sony – 25.3% (up from 24.97% in ’07) Warner – 21.38% (up from [...]
Project Playlist Turnaround
What a difference a day can make. Yesterday, I blogged about Project Playlist’s expulsion from MySpace Music, which was brought upon by pressure from the major labels. Today, it has been announced that one of these major labels, Sony Music, has now signed a licensing deal with Project Playlist to provide their entire library for [...]
Digital EMI
EMI has launched a new platform in Beta on their main URL www.emi.com. Here one can peruse artist videos, biographies, songs, etc. This site has a iTunes look to it. A very simple and clean look. The site has a dual purpose. The obvious one is to be a hub for information and content for [...]
