Thursday, April 3, 2014

Topspin Sold Again

Topspin sold image
It looks like Beats Music recent acquisition of Topspin was just a way to bring some money into the corporate coffers, as it was announced that Transom Capitol Group would now purchase it from Beats.

Transom Capitol is the holding company of Bandmerch and Cinderblock, which were both merged together recently. This now gives the company a very strong position in the merch space, handling both products and ecommerce technology.

The client list of the combined companies is very impressive, with names such as The Who, Manchester United, Kid Rock, Death Cab for Cutie and The National.

The Topspin name was also acquired, and the company will continue to use it to do business, announced Transom Capitol.
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You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Wednesday, April 2, 2014

What's The Most Downloaded Smartphone Audio App?

smartphone lineup image
Every year Edison Research produces a research document entitled The Infinite Dial that looks at the state of radio, and more recently, the social media around it. This year's survey has a number of very interesting facts, but one that stuck out was the most downloaded audio app on a typical listener's smartphone. This is what it found.

Pandora - 50%
iHeart Radio - 16%
Spotify - 9%
Google Play All Access - 4%
SiriusXM - 4%
Slacker - 4%
Tunein Radio - 3%
Rhapsoday - 3%
Songza - 2%
Last.fm - 2%
Rdio - 1%
Stitcher - 1%

What's interesting is the inroads that Pandora has made, and how little market share other services like Spotify and Slacker have. Pandora is a lot more powerful than many give it credit for.
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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Tuesday, April 1, 2014

Billboard's New Twitter Charts

Billboard logo image
Twitter has showed his music muscle once again, signing an agreement with Billboard Magazine to institute a number of real time Twitter charts. The charts will monitor not only the top tracks by popular artists, but also the ones with the most engagement.

Billboard is built around its more than 200 charts, which are recognized worldwide as the gold standard for success of a release. Adding additional charts derived from a social network like Twitter is a move to keep the company more relevant and timely in today's market.

While all this sounds well and good, the new charts do put an additional burden on an artist to develop a Twitter following. Although Twitter can hardly be ignored by any artist these days, it's sometimes not as emphasized in an artist's marketing the way other social networks are. That could all change with the creation of these charts.

If there ever was a good reason to get a Twitter account, it's these new Billboard charts.
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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Monday, March 31, 2014

A Look Into The Music Industry’s Crystal Ball

Crystal ball image
“Crystal Ball, Crystal Ball, tell me things as you think they will be.” The great thing about the music business now is that, unlike previous eras, it’s rapidly shifting and morphing at a faster pace than ever. That makes it difficult for some to keep up, more difficult for others to adapt, and pretty near impossible to predict what will happen ten years from now. That said, there are a number indicators that allow us to look into the near future and take an educated guess at what we may see just a few years down the line. Allow me to gaze into my crystal ball.

Streaming will become the primary way that most people consume their music. We’re only at the beginning of the streaming era of music and there’s a lot of room for growth. World-wide there were only 28 million paid subscribers of streaming services last year according to the latest IFPI digital music report, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the number of music consumers on the planet. More and more people are discovering just how useful the access model is as compared to the ownership model. It doesn’t take long to realize that your digital storage filled with a library of songs can’t compete with having access to 10+ million songs anytime and anywhere.

But there will be fewer outlets that deliver it. Right now streaming is a part of the industry that’s completely upside down financially. None of the major platforms, Spotify, Pandora, Beats Music, Slacker, etc., turn a profit yet, instead playing for the big score down the road when the economy of scale flips their way when enough new users sign up. Unfortunately by that time it will be too late. Apple will have entered the game with their own streaming service that will play on all platforms, and will be able to convert its massive existing customer base into monthly paying customers. Amazon will be in the game too, and Google will intensify it’s already potent efforts (perhaps with a separate new YouTube component). Read more on Forbes.
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You should follow me on Twitter and Facebook for daily news and updates on production and the music business.

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

Sunday, March 30, 2014

The Rapid Rise Of Digital Music

The Rapid Rise of Digital Music image
Digital music has become a huge part of the global recorded music income, now bringing in just over a third of the total, according to the latest IFPI report. Here's a chart from Statista that shows how rapidly the sector has grown over the last 10 years.

As you can also see, downloads still make up more than half the digital music income, although expect that to decrease and for streaming income to increase in years to come.
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Follow me on Forbes for some insights on the new music business.

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

Check out my Big Picture blog for discussion on common music, engineering and production tips and tricks.

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