Thursday, May 26, 2011

A Comparison Of Online Music Distributors

Here's an interesting chart that I found (my apologies, but I can't remember where) that provides a nice overview of some of the popular online music distribution services. With all the hoopla over Tunecore recently raising their prices, it's interesting to see that they're really not that out of line when you look at a side by side comparison.

So which one should you choose? Price isn't always the most important element of your decision. Things like free UPC codes and which stores and subscription services they service are also important. Ultimately, the general feel of the distributor and their user interface may have more of an affect on your decision than anything, so make sure you check them all out before making your choice.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Facebook Partners With Spotify For Blockbuster Deal

Forbes Magazine is reporting the Facebook has partnered with Spotify on a music-streaming service that could be launched in as little as two weeks, a deal that could have a huge effect on the music industry.

According to the article, "Clicking on the Spotify icon will install the service on their desktop in the background, and also allow users to play from Spotify’s library of millions of songs through Facebook. The service will include a function that lets Facebook users listen to music simultaneously with their friends over the social network, one of the sources said."

The partnership is a win-win for both services. Facebook gets the music app that it's long wanted, and Spotify gets exposure to a huge audience. Although there's no money changing hands and Spotify won't be seeing any of Facebook's ad revenue, it does give them a chance to upsell their Facebook users to their premium service, which is what they really need to prosper. Spotify is currently a free service but limits users to just 10 hours a month. The premium service is currently 10 pounds in the UK and 10 euros in the rest of Europe.

Want to know the downside? It still won't be available in the US until Spotify finishes up it's license talks with the labels, although that's rumored to be coming soon. When that happens, this deal will be a game-changer.

Read the entire Forbes article.
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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.
Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.

Monday, May 23, 2011

A Startling Comparison Of Online Versus Broadcast Radio

Here's a couple of eye-opening charts that were presented at the NARM (National Association of Record Merchants) convention in Los Angeles last week by the research company Nielsen. The data is from a period of January to May 1st of this year. What you see is that online radio has more variety but traditional broadcast radio has way more reach.

These charts make it seem as if Internet radio doesn't stand a chance against broadcast radio, and this may be true in advertising only. Don't forget that it doesn't cover "personal radio" subscription services like Rhapsody, Rdio, MOG, etc. So if you're an artist, there's no question that you have a much better chance of being discovered online.
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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

The Serious Ramifications Of The Eminem Lawsuit

As stated in the last couple posts about this subject, the Eminem win in court over Universal Music Group (UMG) would have some serious ramifications on the major labels at some point. It looks that point is now.

To catch you up, Eminem's production company sued UMG over how the royalties were computed for digital music. They suit hinged on whether a download is a treated like a record royalty or license agreement. The difference is that in a record deal, the record label manufacturers the product (CDs) and pays the artist a royalty of anywhere between 12 and 20% of the wholesale price. In a licensing deal, the record label provides the licensee (such as a distributor in another country producing CDs) with a master, and they in turn manufacture the product. The record label and the artist split the proceeds from the license deal 50/50.

Since in the case of digital downloads, a label doesn't actually manufacture anything and provides the user with a master, it sure looks like a license and the court agreed.

UMG originally won the case but lost the appeal, meaning that the court agreed that a download is really a license rather than a sale, awarding FBT (Eminem's production company) the right to collect a lot more money, reportedly as much as $30 million. The irony is that Eminem declined to be part of the lawsuit so as not to make waves with UMG, so he might not see an extra dime.

As predicted, more classic artists are coming forward to sue UMG. First came the estate of Rick James, then last week Rob Zombie, White Zombie, Whitesnake and Dave Mason filed a class-action suit against UMG in the United States District Court in San Francisco.

Supposedly a number of attorneys for other UMG classic acts are preparing lawsuits as well. As predicted, this will change the music industry in that the major labels don't have enough money as it is, and they'll all be in serious trouble if big payouts are necessary. That said, some artists are afraid to engage in a battle with a major label, especially if they depend upon royalties from their catalog. There's enough accounting shenanigans that goes on with labels already, and many artists are wary about giving them an excuse for more.

A suit by artists signed after about 2003 won't happen however, since the labels put language in the all contracts from that time on that clearly specifies that a digital download is a sale.
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Help support this blog. Any purchases made through our Amazon links help support this website with no cost to you.

You should follow me on Twitter for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for daily discussion of music, recording, and production tips and tricks.

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