More from Dive Into Media: Vevo, Spotify & Neil Young
Neil Young addresses labels, piracy & more
Vevo CEO Rio Caraeff, made the first public statements regarding the video site’s profitability at the digital media conference this week, putting it plainly, “We are making money, yes,” with a reported $150 million in revenue last year. In terms of the future, Caraeff predicted that the joint-venture, which includes Sony Music, Universal Music and EMI, could be a billion dollar business in a “short period of time”… Meanwhile, Edgar Bronfman Jr. lauded Spotify as being artist-friendly and not detrimental to download sales, during his interview, and called Google Music an oxymoron, explaining that there’s no “beef” between Warner Music and Google, but they need to decide if they want to be a content platform… And Neil Young addressed a number of topics including audio quality, record labels, piracy and how he and the late Steve Jobs has discussed how to reconcile the current issues facing the digital music era by combining all three.
12.15.11News Bytes: BigChampagne acquired by Live Nation, Rara-who?, Sony & Warner join Grooveshark fray & more
Yesterday evening our Twitter feed was filling up with congratulations for BigChampagne, and founders Eric Garland and Joe Fleischer, following the announcement that Live Nation had acquired the pioneering media measurement operation. While not well known outside of entertainment biz circles, the company is anything but a flash-in-the-pan tech start up – having celebrated its 10th anniversary this year and launching the Ultimate Chart last year, not to mention having their analysis frequently cited and quoted by The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, USA Today and many other publications. Tip of the cap indeed. For more information about how BigChampagne began and an overall interesting read, check our Q&A with Eric Garland from 2009, here… A new streaming music service surfaced this week from the founder of Omnifone. The service is called Rara and it appears to be targeting the segment of online music consumers who want to use a streaming service, but find Spotify, Rdio, MOG and others… too complicated? The service is launching with the help of some built-in links on select HP computers and a discounted 3-month trial price of $0.99 per month… Meanwhile, Sony and Warner Music are reportedly joining Universal Music Group in taking legal action against online music service Grooveshark… The bizarre story of the Megaupload song and video that featured Will.I.Am and a number of other celebrities and artists lauding the file-transfering service, takes another strange turn, Hollywood Esq. has the details… Check marked in the ‘plus’ column for Spotify this week, it was revealed that Arcade Fire’s catalog would now be available on the service in all its current territories. This follows headlines that the new Black Keys album is not being made available on any streaming music services, for now… And for an streaming availability scorecard, Wired published a side-by-side comparison of content exclusive to either Spotify or Rdio.
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Round Up: Grooveshark bites itself, Spotify announces apps, major label moves & more…
Grooveshark emails have bite
Catching up after a turkey hangover, some of what’s happening around the biz… Things are looking messy for Grooveshark, who is facing aggressive legal action from Universal Music Group, with the surfacing of some incriminating internal emails… After teasing a big announcement and “new direction” for Spotify, the streaming-music service unveiled the news in New York City yesterday of a new platform with integrated apps from a variety of third party developers including Rolling Stone, Songkick, Pitchfork and others… According to CNET, it seems the rift between Vevo and MTV may soon be ending, with word that the two parties are negotiating a deal which would give MTV’s online properties access to Vevo’s music videos… Prior to the holiday weekend, Warner Bros. Records announced a three-year global partnership with Vice Music. Those keeping score note that the deal was originally spear-headed by now departed Warner Bros. A&R executive Steve McDonald, who also currently plays in OFF!, one of the bands on Vice’s roster… Dizzee Rascal is taking his label Dirtee Stank to Universal in a deal that will see the major distributing and marketing releases from the UK indie… Elsewhere, more changes within the ranks of Sony Music emerged this week, with further reporting of Sony’s top digital executive Thomas Hesse departing for Bertelsmann, while Tricky Stewart and Mark Shimmel are expected to be announced as part of the continuing executive selections at Epic Records under L.A. Reid… Meanwhile, the New York Posts‘ Page Six reports today that Drake has parted ways with both his management firm, Hip Hop Since 1978 and his agency, ICM, in favor of William Morris Endeavor… And top-notch writer/producer and former member of Whiskeytown, Mike Daly, has taken a new position doing A&R at Walt Disney Records.
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Digital Round Up: Spotify teases with press event invite ala Apple + Universal Music vs. Grooveshark again
Taking some cues from the Apple playbook, Spotify sent out media invitations yesterday for a global press conference next week in New York on November 30th, with plenty of intrigue including phrases like “major development” and “new direction for the company.” What the announcements will include is of course being heavily speculated upon. An MP3 store is one possibility, while other guesses range from the more mundane, like an iPad app, to more significant prospects like a major ISP or mobile carrier tie-up or even an acquisition. Evolver.fm has an interesting theory that the news will include a commercial API that would allow developers to create and SELL music apps that would pull from Spotify’s large catalog of songs… Elsewhere, Universal Music Group has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against online music service Grooveshark parent company Escape Media Group Inc. along with executives from the company for allegedly illegally uploading songs to the service. The Wall Street Journal has more details on the action here… Stay tuned.
11.15.11And then there were 3… EMI split, where does it lead?
Universal Music Group and Sony Music continue to dominate the music biz storylines this year with the unpredictable conclusion of the EMI auction, which saw the two industry leaders beating out the long-expected winning bidders in Warner Music and BMG Rights Management. It might be too soon to call it the era of the ‘big three,’ with the regulatory process expected to last well into 2012 after Citigroup’s auction split EMI into two – the recorded music going to UMG while EMI Music Publishing is set to fall under the ownership of an investment consortium including Sony Music, the estate of Michael Jackson, music mogul David Geffen and others – but however you slice it, the trend of contraction continues. And for all the growth and ‘turning point’ talk, including from the CEO of UMG parent company Vivendi, in the wake of an increase in music sales over last year, the revenue from those sales is still in decline due to the lowering of prices, as pointed out in a Bloomberg article this week… So where do things go from here?
Independent music company coalition IMPALA began saber rattling prior to the announcement of the EMI auction winners, and were quick to make public their intentions to block the acquisitions by both groups following the announcements on Friday. Industry insiders however are questioning the association’s ability to ultimately triumph in stopping the completion of either deal. Universal Music is expected to dispose of a certain amount of assets, particularly in European territories where they would now hold a market share well over 50%, and their key argument for approval will be that the music industry is in a much different place even from just a few years ago, and that they like others are at the mercy of technology companies like Apple in this new digital age. How well that justification will fare remains to be seen, as there are seemingly plenty of holes. One could easily look to how long it took Spotify to launch in the U.S. due to the process of acquiring licenses from the four major label groups, and further, that they negotiated equity stakes in the service in order to allow a launch in America… It will also be interesting to see how well Google does with the launch of a new music store, expected to be this week, with only two major labels onboard, Universal and EMI (coincidence?)… And while iTunes Match is expected to succeed, it’s clear that Apple feels comfortable with their current position and power in the music space, as they continue to expand their sites in new areas of media and content domination… And as far as the EMI publishing spoils go, many see the creation of the investment entity, of which Sony only holds a minority stake, as making the approval process easier.
Some of the other big questions being asked by observers this week include, what is the fate of EMI Group CEO Roger Faxon? A role within Universal Music on the recording side seems unlikely, and while EMI’s pubco is expected to remain its own entity with Sony/ATV in a management and administration role, will there be room for Faxon to reunite with his former EMI publishing co-CEO Marty Bandier, and more importantly would he take a reduced-role? How does this play for current Sony Pub players Jody Gerson and Danny Strick? Will Warner Music be first in line to snatch up EMI recorded assets in European territories from Universal, particularly in light of their recognized weakness abroad and the shake-up among its international management structure announced by Lyor Cohen just last week? Will Edgar Bronfman Jr. now exit WMG completely as expected? Contrary to public comments from BMG Rights Management CEO Hartwig Masuch today that the EMI publishing purchase was not “necessary” for the company, those in the know believe that it was indeed a crucial acquisition for the KKR and Bertelsmann backed venture, and having failed to secure it, are wondering if KKR will now get out? Insiders share that the Germans are considering buying out KKR’s stake. And having purchased most of the mid-level music publishing business over the last couple years, including Bug Music during the EMI auction, will BMG now shift focus to unifying its management structure and operation?
Plenty more action to come…
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Quick Bytes: (Give It To Me Baby) Digital Royalties Lawsuit Against Universal Music to Proceed, Tunecore Launches Publishing Admin Service & More…
A federal judge is permitting a class-action lawsuit against Universal Music Group to move forward that involves a group led by Rob Zombie and the estate of Rick James. The issue at hand is digital royalties and the difference between treating downloads purchased at digital retailers like iTunes as a “sale” or a “license” as is relates to the artits’ split. This case follows similar litigation involving UMG and Eminem recordings, which was settled last year… Tunecore has launched a new songwriter publishing administration service that will register copyrights, collect royalties and issue licenses for users. The new service is among other recent entrants to the previously absent sector of expanded publishing admin for independent artists. More info can be found here… Spotify user numbers might be skyrocketing with the new Facebook integration, but it isn’t the only one – monthly users at MOG have quadrupled following the pairing up with the social network… Meanwhile, some are asking where the native Facebook music player app has gone, and what this means (if anything), for future music apps after it disappeared from the site this week… RIM will be launching its new BlackBerry Messenger music service this week… And Apple missed the ‘late October’ launch for its new iTunes Match service that was announced back in June, with no word from the company as to when it can be expected. [UPDATE: It appears that iTunes Match is still in the 'testing' phase.]
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Digital Round Up: New Music Economy, Steve Jobs Bio Reveals iTunes Dealings & more…
swimming upstream
An article on Rollingstone.com has been getting passed around this week, as magazine contributor and author of music biz treatise, Appetite for Self-Destruction, Steve Knopper, took a stab at outlining the “new economy” of music sales. Streaming-music services in particular are a hot topic recently among artists, record labels, music-tech start ups and those who observe and comment on all of their goings-on. Among the choice quotes from the piece includes one from Jeff Price, founder of TuneCore, who commented on the confusing nature of streaming royalty rates, saying “It is beyond complicated. It took me literally three months to understand this thing,” while MOG founder David Hyman chimed in on the record labels distribution of streaming royalties to artists, “Once they get that wad of money, how do they distribute it internally? I have no idea”… The biography of Steve Jobs and its contents has been another widely discussed subject recently, with various story lines that cross into the music industry sector as well, including the Jobs experiences dealing with major labels. A New York Post item today points to Apple’s iTunes negotiation with former Sony Music boss Andy Lack, as particularly difficult, with Lack asking for royalties on each iPod sold, and Jobs criticizing him for not understanding his own business. Meanwhile, other more obvious iTunes related revelations are made, such as the reason that The Beatles only recently appeared in the digital marketplace was due to ongoing and unresolved contractual issues between the group and EMI… Elsewhere, Twitter has made its first specialized music hiring, in former Disney Music Group marketing manager Tatiana Simonian… AOL SVP of business development Jared Grusd is reportedly heading to Spotify… In a surprising move, Coldplay has opted to not make their new album Mylo Xyloto (pronounced “@&*%^$”) available on streaming services like Spotify, Rdio, MOG, Rhapsody and others, in what could be seen as a stance similar to holdout artists whose material still isn’t available on iTunes and other digital retailers… And more clues about Google’s upcoming launch of a music store comes this week with evidence of an expanded Android mobile landing page for the new Google Music service.
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Digital Round Up: New Google Music plans revealed, Rhapsody stands up to Spotify & more…
Going beyond beta
Back as a hot topic in the music + tech arena this week is Google Music, which follows the company’s halfhearted initial step into the cloud-music sector earlier this year with Music Beta. Now it appears that Google will be launching a digital music store in the coming weeks, but with a “twist,” as it is being reported, following Android chief Andy Rubin’s appearance at the AsiaD conference this week. Cnet reports that the twist will likely be social features, which will enable sharing capabilities among users – social enhancements are being touted as a big driver behind Spotify and similar services recent rapid growth. According to multiple reports, the only major label close to an agreement with Google right now for the new music service is EMI, while a number of independent labels are apparently already onboard. Other bits concerning the new Google Music talk include whether or not it will have a ‘mirroring’ component or ’scan and match’ that finds music already on a users’ computer – a feature that Apple’s upcoming new iCloud music offering will feature. Or as noted by Evolver.fm – if Google follows up their digital store by offering their own streaming-music subscription service, it could achieve the same outcome. Currently users of Music Beta have to upload their music to Google’s cloud-based music locker. While seemingly late to the game in all this, some observers are noting what a huge advantage and launching pad Google-owned YouTube will be for any new music service they bring, as the video site continues to reign as the largest free music site around… Following the recent acquisition of Napster, veteran music-subscription service Rhapsody continues on the publicity trail, with executives recently interviewed by Business Insider among others and speaking at this week’s CMJ Music Marathon conference. The biggest question has been about sustainability and relevance in light of all the new similar services, mainly Spotify, and how they plan to compete. But Rhapsody maintains that their business is healthy, they received a boost from all the press surrounding the aforementioned European startup’s launch in the U.S., and with the new Napster customer-base and planned wireless and cable provider deals, they’re doing just fine, and without a free offering to entice new users, for now… And how much of all the optimistic talk surrounding the bourgeoning on-demand and streaming music territory is hype vs. substance? A new report from the NPD Group, studying music listening habits, does show that in America at least, newer ways of accessing music are gaining real ground on traditional radio and CD listeners, with possibly the most revelatory statement being that “a tipping point is approaching when vehicles and portable devices move from a tethered connection to a more integrated one” – read more in the press release… In other quick items… Pandora has named its first chief marketing office in Simon Fleming-Wood… New music service Beyond Oblivion Inc., also known as Boinc and partially owned by News Corp., is reportedly close to finalizing licensing agreements with the four major label groups… Jimmy Iovine isn’t the only Universal Music exec with a penchant for high-end audio, as music industry veteran and co-CEO of Sanctuary 5B Artist Management, Carl Stubner, has been named to the advisory board of high-definition audio company Max Sound… And the popular music curating and aggregating site The Hype Machine has reached 1 million users.
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Digital Round Up: More Spotify, Rhapsody + Napster, Rdio goes free & more…
There seems to be quite a bit of optimism lately in the realm of digital music and what the future holds for subscription services. So far 2011’s album sales are already up from the previous year, with a big bump from digital, and at least one major label is claiming that they’ve finally figured out “free”. Glassnote artist Mumford & Sons became the third artist ever to sell 1 million digital albums, and even MTV has announced a second O Music Awards show, celebrating music and technology, which is set for October 31st… Spotify was quick to release new user data within only a couple months of launching its service in the U.S., and while they are clearing unclear in terms of paying versus free and how many are U.S.-only as opposed the world-wide, the overall statement is that a lot of people are trying out the service. The announcements in the music arena made during Facebook’s recent f8 conference also helped boost the outlook of not only Spotify, but a number of other digital music services including MOG, Rdio and iHeartRadio that were also included in the social networks big changes. And while most eyes remain on the Swedish-start up, the competition continues to counter with new moves of their own. Rdio announced this week that it will be launching a free on-demand streaming service, that has no ads, and an unspecified limit on free-listening, which follows a similar move by MOG… Meanwhile, Rhapsody has acquired Napster from Best Buy, in a purchase that will raise the longtime streaming service’s plateauing numbers… Elsewhere, Apple revealed during their press event on Tuesday that its new iCloud service will be extended to Europe, following recent reports that the company was seeking worldwide music rights from labels and publishers… And after only a few months as the new owners of MySpace, Specific Media held presentations for top-level advertisers at Radio City Music Hall on Monday, trying to generate excitement for the site, which will be focused primarily on music and video content. Creative partner and investor, Justin Timberlake (who has also been tapped to play Neil Bogart in an upcoming biopic of the Casablanca Records co-founder) was on hand for the presentations as well.
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Bits & Pieces: Live Nation + UMG, Facebook’s f8 Conference & more…
Monday afternoon saw the official news of a major deal that has been in the works for months that unites Live Nation Entertainment and Universal Music Group in a new pact joining UMG’s management properties, including Sanctuary, Twenty First Artist (and presumably the new producer management arm Twenty First Republic that was formed earlier this year with World’s End) and 5B Artist Management, all under LN’s Front Line Management… Apprehension by banks to finance private-equity firms in buyouts and mergers is growing, according to an WSJ article this week, and that might mean the stable of bidders for EMI is shrinking. It might also mean the likelihood of the music group being sold intact is also lessening… Tomorrow is Facebook’s big f8 conference, where they will announce many new features and major redesigns, and music fans are looking forward to the expected integration of new streaming services like Spotify, MOG and Rdio. Some are expecting Pandora to be added to that list as well, given the redesigned and relaunched player from the web radio service today, which includes among other things increased sharing capabilities and the removal of the cap on free-listening hours. Exactly how seamless the integration of media services into the social network is unclear, as MediaMemo points out, FB was originally planing on allowing users to access music and video services without ever leaving the site, however now that has changed. Announced speakers and panelists at the conference will include CEO’s from Spotify and Turntable.fm along with Clear Channel Chairman’s Bob Pittman who has been busy promoting iHeartRadio and manager Troy Carter among many others… Elsewhere, video site Vimeo has launched a Music Store in a new partnership with Audiosocket, that will help video creators easily find and license music… R.E.M. is calling it quits after three decades… Van Halen is reportedly ending their longtime relationship with Warner Bros. Records and heading to Columbia Records… And Jeremy Summers has been named EVP/Chief Marketing Officer at Interscope Geffen A&M.
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