More Google Music Clues Surface
More clues are surfacing as to what form the impending Google Music service will take, as Epicenter reports that in addition to a paid on-demand streaming service, there will also be a free option similar in style to Pandora. The free option would include audio advertisements intermixed with streaming music, and it may be available via YouTube as well. This is the latest in a string of information about the new music initiative from Google that has come to light in the last week. Here’s a recap of what is known so far… Last week TechCrunch reports that Google has hired former Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes attorney Elizabeth Moody to assist in its industry negotiations… The following day Moody’s hiring is confirmed in a Billboard Q&A… And on Monday the New York Post reported that Google is in the midst of accelerated talks with the Harry Fox Agency. Stay tuned…
07.22.10Thursday Bits & Pieces: New Music Seminar, Google’s New Legal Gun & More…
BigChampagne's New Ultimate Chart Tracks Popularity Across Many Platforms
The New Music Seminar (NYC) wrapped up yesterday after featuring a number of speakers and presenters including Tom Silverman (NMS Co-Founder), Eric Garland (BigChampagne), Corrie Christopher (Agent, VP APA), Ariel Hyatt (Ariel Publicity & Cyper PR) and Peter Kafka (All Things Digital) among many others. There was a wide range of topics discussed, all focused on the future of the business, including media, touring and breaking through. BigChampange’s new Ultimate Chart, which measures artist and song popularity using a number of metrics including the three F’s (fan/friends/followers), also created a lot of discussion following its unveiling by Eric Garland during the conference’s State of the Internet Address… Google has hired veteran music attorney Elizabeth Moody, formerly of Davis Shapiro Lewit & Hayes, presumably to help them through the label terrain as they move closer to launching their much-discussed new music service likely to be known as Google Music… July 31st will see a first-of-its-kind star studded event in India for the release of the audio to the new film Endhiran, composed by Oscar winner AR Rahman who became a household name in the West after winning Best Original Score for Slumdog Millionaire. South African label Think Music has acquired the rights to Endhiran’s audio, beating out a number of larger labels who were rumored to be vying for the rights… Elsewhere, Atlantic Records has signed Christina Perri, the overnight sensation who performed her song “Jar of Hearts” on So You Think You Can Dance recently. Perri is also the younger sister of former Shinedown lead guitarist Nick Perri… Linkin Park has teamed up with MySpace Music, Indaba Music and TopSpin Media for a new online fan collaboration contest… And Forbes discusses music in the cloud with Thumbplay Music chief exec Evan Schwartz…
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In Case You Missed It: Reading Recap
The Best Things in Life Aren't Free?
Not to be left out of the growing media preoccupation with new music services from industry giants like Google and Apple, not to mention the handful of new players who have emerged ahead of the curve like mspot, MOG, Spotify and Rdio, MySpace Music is back in the mix with renewed reports this week of a looming subscription service. The company is said to be in talks with labels about moving away from their current free streaming model to a paid service… Simultaneously MySpace parent News Corp. was quick to deny rumors that the company is in talks to sell the once supreme social network that has been facing a tough transition and revolving door of executives over the last year… An article in the WSJ today examines the increasingly tough road for the live music business – and for those keeping score, Rihanna’s “Last Girl on Earth” tour appears to be the latest summer outing to announce cancellations… Elsewhere, Wilco is planning to start their own label and will be leaving Warner Music after a 15-year relationship, having released albums on both Reprise and then Nonesuch… And CAA + “The Decision” x Kanye West = LeBron to The Heat…
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Wednesday Bits & Pieces: Sony Music, Apple + EMI, A MySpace without Google & More…
“We had to change the stretch limo culture that prevailed in many areas of the music industry,” says Schmidt-Holtz
A Sunday piece in the New York Times takes a look at Sony Music and its head Rolf Schmidt-Holt. Much of the article examines Sony Music’s moves into territory outside of the traditional music industry, including its partnership with Simon Cowell and a consulting relationship with the government of Argentina… The other apple, Apple Records, announced a new partnership with EMI for the digital release of fifteen remastered albums from artists including Badfinger and James Taylor, though it doesn’t appear that any Beatles releases will be included… MySpace’s lucrative ad-deal with Google is just about up, and while the Wall Street Journal recently reported on News Corp.’s shopping of a new partnership, TechCrunch asks some crucial unaddressed questions… And if you thought those Jonas Bros. albums you bought in the privacy of your home would go unnoticed, think again. In a move to further propel its new iAd platform and compete with Google, Apple is mining data from billions of iTunes downloads to study user’s buying habits…
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Wednesday Bits & Pieces: WMG + MTV, eMusic Working on Cloud Service, Pitchfork’s New Blog Collective & More…
Warner Music Group brings in MTV Networks for ad-sales
Warner Music Group announced today its new partnership with MTV Networks, in which MTV will sell ads against the music group’s video content. The arrangement replaces a previous partnership between Warner and Outrigger, a smaller sales company. The most interesting part of the new deal is that MTV parent Viacom is still in court with Google, yet YouTube (owned by Google) is likely to account for a majority of the ads-sales by MTV. Make sense?… First week sales of Eminem’s Recovery came in at 741,000, making it the biggest release yet for 2010 and the biggest first week since 2008’s AC/DC album Black Ice… Pitchfork has announced it’s launching a sister site dubbed Altered Zones that will act as a blog collective of sorts with 14 different music blogs supplying content… The NY Times technology blog, Bits, has an article on cloud music companies to watch (spoiler, Apple and Google aren’t in there), but a surprise inclusion is eMusic. The piece reveals that the once indie-only subscription service that added both Sony and Warner Music catalogs to its service in the last 12 months, will soon also add Universal Music and is working on a cloud music service that could be introduced early next year… Expect a sold-out crowd at L.A.’s The Echo tomorrow night for the double-down and uber-indie bill featuring Dum Dum Girls and Crocodiles. That latter recently recorded their new album with producer James Ford (Arctic Monkeys, Florence & the Machine, Klaxons) at the famed QOTSA studio Rancho De La Luna (check out “Sleep Forever” from the new album at Stereogum), while Dum Dum Girls, who recently released their debut full-length on Sub Pop, will head out on a North American tour with Vampire Weekend in August followed by a string of MGMT dates in Europe…
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Tuesday Bits & Pieces: More Google Music, Eminem’s Recovery, Gulf Relief Benefit & more…
Google's Music Plans
Google is headed for the cloud, or so it would seem with further reporting on the search giant’s forthcoming moves into the music space. No concrete details yet, but a download store could launch as early as this year, with a cloud-based service slated for 2011. Should the Apple rival be careful not to move too quickly…? Interscope cleared the release decks this week to make way for the new Eminem album Recovery. The question from many is whether or not the highly-anticipated release that dropped yesterday will live up to its name after the industry’s recent extremely sluggish sales-weeks… Leading up to the Northside Festival in Brooklyn this weekend, Sirius XMU is featuring special artist-hosts starting today including Real Estate, Woods, Au Revoir Simone and Wavves… Jes Hudak is the Los Angeles winner of the Ourstage 2010 Lilith Fair talent search; she will perform at the July 10th festival stop… And tonight at El Cid a Gulf Coast Relief benefit concert for Global Green will feature acoustic performances from local artists Voxhaul Broadcast, Trevor Hall, Heavy Young Heathens and others…
** Today only head HERE to get a %20 discount on badges for Northside Festival with promo code “LMAG”
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Wednesday Bits & Pieces… Google Music, MTV Twitter Jockey, Limewire & OK Go
MTV looks for Twitter Jockey
Chatter is starting about a possible Google Music Store launch as early as this fall – if true could Apple be far behind… MTV has launched a campaign to find its own official Twitter Jockey… Reports have surfaced that AOL had sold its music service Bebo, though the media giant was quick to deny any sale… Limewire has a new legal music service in the works, but many wonder if the bridges are already burned… And OK GO has just released a new music video complete with a Facebook fan-contest…
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In Case You Missed It: Reading Recap
Buzzmedia Adds New Music Sites to Network
If issuing a press-release on a holiday can be considered an attempt to downplay a story, that wasn’t the case with the announcement on Monday of Buzzmedia’s addition of a handful of music sites to their growing stable. The new site additions including PureVolume, Popmatters, RCRDLBL, Gorilla vs. Bear and other highly-trafficked music properties got extra coverage because of the fairly confusing details. Are they acquisitions, ad-partnerships, lease with an option-to-buy, or a mixture of all three? It appears to be the latter… The New York Post was the first to report that publisher Bug Music is being shopped by JPMorgan for $300-million, and that those in the hunt include Sony/ATV, Universal Music, Warner Music and new (old) player KKR/BMG. Billboard chimed-in to include Evergreen Copyrights, Chrysalis Music and an unnamed financial firm as other possible suitors… As AT&T revealed that they would be popping a cap on customers unlimited internet, some were raising concerns about services like Pandora being seriously affected by the change, though further reporting showed the percentage of current users who would take a streaming hit was negligible… The founders of Kazaa and Skype unleashed their latest service Rdio Wednesday night at midnight. The cloud music service operates like a music-only Twitter and currently is only available via invite… Elsewhere, Vevo and boss Rio Caraeff are celebrating being the top spot online for music-videos… Alan McGee gives his 2-cents on the state of EMI Music… And is Google naming its still-to-be-unveiled iTunes competitor Google Music? Probably…
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Meet Me in the Cloud: Rdio Launches
Twelve hours ago at the strike of midnight, the new digital music service from the founders of Kazaa and Skype was launched. Called Rdio, the service has deals with all the major labels and some indies, and is the latest to join an arena occupied by other similar services like MOG and mspot. It looks like they have tried to differentiate the site by creating a Twitter-like environment focused on music, in which users can follow what and who other users are listening to in real-time, along with other unique listening data and rankings. Right now the service is invite-only (ala Gmail), an indication that Rdio is in no hurry and intends to create a strong base built on serious music fans… This new service comes ahead of any announcement from juggernauts Apple or Google who many expect will soon unleash their own cloud music services. Meanwhile Spotify continues to be quiet on any U.S. launch, though there’s been recent speculation about one major label holdout in particular and that there is already a small segment of users in the states…
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In Case You Missed It: Reading Recap
The Video Site Hits the 5 Year Mark; 2 Billion Views a Day
YouTube celebrated its 5-year anniversary this week, and announced some impressive statistics, including the site’s 2-billion views per day and a #3 ranking for most visited sites on the web… Computer processor maker Intel and lifestyle media group Vice make for strange bedfellows, as the two have announced a new partnership to bring together The Creators Project where “curated artworks and installations, screenings, a panel discussion and dozens of performances by creators from all over the world,” which will take place in cities like New York and London over the summer… Mobile start up mspot beat Apple to the punch and unveiled its new free music-in-the-cloud service that allows users to sync music collections across Android phones and PC/Mac computers… Not far behind was Google’s announcement of its acquisition of Simplify Media at the Google I/O conference on Thursday. Simplify’s software allows users to stream home music libraries on mobile devices… Elsewhere, data shows that the iTunes Store now accounts for more than half of all digital music sales, increasing by more than 5% from 2008-2009… Axl is suing Irving… And Harmonix announced strong early numbers for its Rock Band Network…
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