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…
06.30.10Wednesday 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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Bonnaroo Festival Ups Fan Experience Online
The Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival kicks off today in Manchester, Tennessee and while attendance is expected to be healthy once again for Bonnaroo, now in its ninth year running, organizers Superfly and AC Ent. have upped the online experience as well. Throughout the four-day festival there will be live-streams via YouTube, webcasts via NPR and television coverage from Fuse. And of course there’s an iPhone app. This one complete with maps, schedules, sharing features and Bonnaroo Radio, which will play tracks from the artists at this years festival…
05.21.10In 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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It’s Been Said…
DIY Currency: Solid Gold
SXSW is 6 weeks away and if you’re starting your ‘must-see’ list, be sure to add Minneapolis’ Solid Gold. The indie-electro trio has been building one of the more impressive DIY stories of late. They’ve sold close to 10,000 albums, received press nods in Billboard, NME, Pitchfork and Filter among others and their new video is premiering on MTV2 and mtvU this month. We hear labels are circling in on this one with some offers already in. The band has two upcoming hometown shows if you want to beat the SXSW rush.
Labels and pubcos are taking notice of Oren Lavie, as the buzz continues to build around the Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter. Lavie, who has now garnered over 10.5 million views of his “Her Morning Elegance” video on YouTube, played a string of recent dates at the Hotel Cafe that brought out majors and indie A&R folks (with no record or pub deal in place, and an a new album’s worth of material, it’s no surprise). Attorney Ben Laski is handling legal duties…
The story keeps building on Matthew Mayfield. His new EP Breathe Out in Black was sitting at #1 on the iTunes singer-songwriter chart this morning, just two days after being independently released. In fact the entire EP was recorded, mixed, mastered and up for sale digitally in the span of a week. Check out www.matthewmayfield.com for more… Keep an eye on L.A. locals The Sequel. The band has been popping up on label radars of late and has more than a few showcases already on the horizon. EMI Music Pub players Dan MacCarroll and Declan Morrell snapped up the band early for publishing. Get on it…
Young gun Ben Adelson settles in at a new A&R gig at Epic Records. Adelson was previously at Universal Republic and brought in Flobots and Owl City. He also co-manages recent Roadrunner signing Young the Giant (formerly The Jakes)… Meanwhile, we hear there is an established big-rock act who is currently a free-agent and is being courted by multiple labels on both coasts. Inquiring minds want to know? Here’s a hint, they didn’t play the Super Bowl Halftime Show…
IN THE MIX: K Sera, Moonlight Bride and Tyrone Wells…
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In Case You Missed It: Reading Recap – Extended Remix Edition
Linkin Park charity releases digital compilation to benefit Haiti
A lot to stay on top of over this short week, so enjoy this special extended edition of our weekly recap…
More chatter about a possible new iTunes streaming service from Apple continued, fueled by Michael Robertson’s prediction that the service will come in the form of a version update allowing users to access their iTunes media library from anywhere via the proverbial “cloud”… The lineup for Coachella 2010 was announced, and headliners include Jay-Z, Muse, Gorillaz and Thom Yorke… Ad-supported download service Free All Music announced a deal with EMI, who joins Universal Music as the first major music companies to strike agreements with the start-up… Elsewhere, Sony and Warner Music appear to be engaged in an eMusic pricing battle… YouTube launched a new music discovery and playlist experiment… Comcast appears to be taking steps toward an a la carte music streaming service for internet and cable customers… Other ISP news includes a report that Virgin Media’s long delayed “unlimited” subscription service might be called MusicFish, it might not be unlimited and could be arriving this summer… It looks like Live Nation is putting its venues on the block in an effort to ease regulatory concerns over the Ticketmaster merger… And Prince revealed a new song “Purple and Gold” that he penned for his beloved Vikings - sorry Purple One, we’ll be rooting for the Saints…
** If you haven’t yet, make sure to visit www.musicforrelief.org, where Linkin Park took the “pay what you want” model to their charity’s digital album that benefits the crisis in Haiti. The band quickly assembled a compilation of unreleased songs from Peter Gabriel, Alanis Morissette, All-American Rejects and many others. The effort saw a quick and impressive collaboration of artists, labels and publishers who all granted full gratis rights for the compilation, and over a holiday weekend no less.
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YouTube Blues for ADA too?
After Warner Music Group’s recent announcement concerning the removal of all WMG content from YouTube, industry insiders are asking what effect this policy will have on Alternative Distribution Alliance, WMG’s indie label distributor? Can we expect ADA to make a similar motion by requesting all its partner labels it distributes to pull their content from the online video site as well? And will ADA-distributed labels comply? The video site is now a widely-used marketing/promotion tool. What’s certain is that we can expect the rocky relationship between major labels and YouTube to continue in the new year. Stay tuned…
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