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…
06.16.10Wednesday 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
Buh Bye bebo; AOL Plans to Sell or Shutter the Social Network
The week began with a report that EMI was apparently still in talks with Sony Music about a possible catalog licensing deal, though some have pointed out that contracts with key EMI artists might prevent such a deal from going through. No further updates followed, other than a cheery financial outlook from Terra Firma boss Guy Hands… AOL revealed that it was planning to sell or shutter the social networking site bebo that it paid $850 million for in 2008, while Rhapsody spun off into an independent company shedding former partners RealNetworks and Viacom/MTV; the subscription music service now also counts Universal Music Group as a new minority investor… Digital royalty collection organization SoundExchange announced that its 2010 Q1 payouts to artists and copyright holders topped all previous quarters… Details about the Solid Sound Festival were released this week, the Wilco-currated three-day event will take place in June at MASS MoCA in North Adams, MA… And Sonicbids owner Panos Panay talks about the artist-as-entrepeneur…
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