October 2, 2007

Tuesday Business Links

Snocap and CD Baby are ending their short-lived partnership. CD Baby artists will be able to work directly with Snocap outside of their normal relationship with CD Baby. Snocap will waive the initial $30 annual fee for those who make the switch. It appears there were too many cooks in this particular kitchen. Wrote Snocap CEO Rusty Rueff in an email that went out Friday, "These experiences have shown us that SNOCAP works best when used directly by artists without the extra support of CD Baby." (Digital Audio Insider)

• Two promotion bits of news at Billboard.biz: LiveNation has a deal with the Seneca Indians to book events at the Seneca Events Center and the Bear's Den Showroom at the Seneca Niagara Casino Hotel in Niagara Falls; and AEG has acquired an interest in Grit Rock Rodeo, operator of the Wrangler ProRodeo Tour and the World's Toughest Rodeo.

• The state of Connecticut began allowing ticket brokers and individuals to resell tickets for whatever amount they desire. The law places no limits on the amount of the resale but does require brokers to refund the price of the ticket, plus fees and delivery charges, when the event is canceled. (Ticket News)

• The Country Music Association has teamed up with the National Business Association and Vanderbilt Universal Medical Center in Nashville to offer comprehensive health care to CMA members. (Press release)

• Of all the commentary on the new Radiohead album, the best comes from Jupiter's David Card. On the "Most.Revolutionary.Concept.Ever" commentary compiled by the New York Times' The Lede blog, Card wrote, "Most of them are pretty naive." That goes for Pitchfork, The Guardian and Lefsetz, and I agree -- though short-sighted or overexcited may be better than naive. In the end, this Radiohead event is mostly symbolic. If 15 to 20 major artists follow Radiohead's lead in the next 18 months, I may change my mind. (Sorry, Charlatans, you don't count.) An additional note: Those people calling it revolutionary must forget, or did not know, that Magnatune has had a similar model for years. Its artists have cut out the middleman, let people pay according to how they value the music and have made a decent living a country mile or two from mainstream attention. (David Card)

• Getty Images, which acquired Pump Audio in June, has launched its Soundtrack online music licensing service. Soundtrack will make available over 20,000 tracks (from independent artists) for use in broadcast, film production and advertising. (Press release, via Hypebot)

• Somewhat related to the music business: A U.K. regulator has ruled that music service provider Music Choice is the legal owner of and has exclusive rights to the bullseye logo that is also associated with retail giant Target. The article points out the U.S.-based target has international branding problems beyond Europe. Coles, Australia's second-largest retailer, is also called target and has virtually the same logo. (Financial Times)

September 18, 2007

Tuesday Business Links

• Just a week after her terrible performance at at the MTV Music Video Awards, Britney Spears has reportedly been dropped by her management company, The Firm. A statement by the company says "current circumstances" have prevented it from properly doing its job. (NBC4.com)

• Digital store 7digital has at least two things iTunes does not have: Radiohead albums and the ability to sell to consumers in any country. (Listening Post)

• Here's a really good, lengthy article on the changing live music industry and how it is robust in an era of label sluggishness. "An expanding audience has allowed promoters to push up ticket prices, tempting more artists out on tour, creating demand for ever more elaborate shows and attracting investment in a new generation of venues to cater to concert-goers." (The Financial Times)

• Citing differences over amounts paid to the label, Epitaph has left eMusic. (Digital Music News)

• Larry Jenkins has been named the EVP of CBS Records. Jenkins is a former SVP of marketing & media for Columbia Records. (Variety)

• MC Hammer is preparing the launch of his new venture, a web site called DanceJam. The site, which has well known investors, is a mix between YouTube and "American Idol." (Don Dodge, via Techmeme)

August 15, 2007

Live Music Doing Just Fine: Mean Fiddler, Bowery Presents In The News

Live music, now there's a healthy part of the music industry. Case in point: UK-based promoter Mean Fiddler Music Group is going to expand into the U.S. under the new Festival Republic moniker. Said MFMG managing director Melvin Benn, "If we wanted to, we could still operate Reading and Leeds, plus Glastonbury and Latitude under the Mean Fiddler banners. The reality is that we are not going to use it. Festival Republic is the new company that I'm running and I want it to move away from the legacy of what was the Mean Fiddler, and to build something that was about the team of people that have created the best festivals in the world."

Mean Fiddler will also expand its recently acquired British venues and brands. This week the MAMA Group acquired Mean Fiddler Holdings from MFMG, owned by LiveNation, for £6 million (US $12 million).

New York can't get enough live music. Bowery Presents will ratchet up its competition against LiveNation and A.E.G. Live when it opens up the 3,000-seat Terminal 5 in Midtown Manhattan in October. Terminal 5 will be Bowery Presents' largest venue and is about the same size as LiveNation's Roseland Ballroom and Hammerstein Ballroom, and 1,000 seats or so larger than A.E.G.'s Nokia Theater in Times Square. MSG Entertainment, owned by Cablevision, owns the similarly sized WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, for which Bowery Presents books concerts. Terminal 5 used to be the dance hall Exit.

For additional reading on Bowery Presents and the heated competition in New York City, here's a good New York Times article by Ben Sisario from June of this year.

Wednesday Business Links

• Album sales dropped 3% last week and were 14% lower than the same week last year. For the year, album sales are down 14%. Last week's #1 album was a debut, UGK's Underground Kingz (Jive). With sales of 160,000 units, it was the only album to break the 100,000 mark. Digital track sales were flat last week and were 45% higher than the same week last year. For the year, digital track sales are up 48%.

• Everyone is always looking for a sign that the Beatles' catalog will be released digitally, and we're getting warmer. John Lennon's solo catalog -- sixteen albums -- is now available at iTunes. (Sydney Morning Herald)

• A year-long EMI marketing project will be handled by Saatchi & Saatchi. Well, music is marketing. (AdWeek.com)

• Sirius Satellite Radio inked a deal with Sonos that will allow subscribers to stream Sirius at home through Sonos' home music systems. A 30-day trial will cost subscribers an additional $2.99. Only 80 Sirius channels are available, and the home streaming service will be available only to U.S. subscribers. (Hollywood Reporter)

• Here's an idea: An underage music festival held in the London. The Underage Festival was open for people aged 14 to 19 and hosted 37 bands on four stages. "Corporate sponsors have been quick to embrace the trend, and all the hard parts — staging, logistics, security — have been arranged and paid for by the likes of MySpace, Converse and BBC's Radio1. Seizing the moment, UK indie music company Mute Records has also launched a label, Irregulars, pitching new, young talent at a new, young market, with (event organizer Sam) Killcoyne on board as a talent-spotter." (Time)

• Hal Hassel is moving from CMT.com to VP, Consumer Marketing at echomusic. (Music Row)

• Music bloggers, here's a topic for conversation: Spoon's Ga Ga Ga (Merge) came out the same week as Interpol's Our Love To Admire (Capitol). Currently Spoon sits at #68 and has sales of 100,000 in five weeks. Interpol is at #85 -- and dropping -- and has sold 129,000. Spoon is on an indie, Interpol is on a major. If nothing else, this makes for a good addition to the "indie or major?" debate.

• Jeff Leeds has an article on very overlooked marketing tools: Mobile phones and text messaging. It's not the sexiest medium in the world, but there's money to be made by artists, promoters and artists. (New York Times)

July 25, 2007

Wednesday Business Links

• Album sales dropped 2% last week and were 9% lower than the same week last year. Year to date, album sales are down 14%. Sales of digital tracks rose 3% last year and were 52% higher than the same week last year. For the year, digital tracks are up 48%.

• Lenders could be jittery over Terra Firma's buyout of EMI. "It is understood that Citigroup, which is financing the acquisition of EMI by Guy Hands’s Terra Firma, has not given its approval to extend a key deadline for shareholders to vote on the deal." (Times Online)

• Joni Mitchell signed to Starbucks' Hear Music label, which will release her album Shine on September 25. I expect the media blitz surrounding her move to Hear Music will be beneficial to sales of the album, just as it was for Paul McCartney. The label's third of fourth gray-haired signing, though, should expect less attention. (Billboard.biz)

• I forgot to post this yesterday: The U.K. government does not want to extend copyright on sound recordings to 70 years from 50 years. The government followed the recommendation of Andrew Gowers given late last year. The BPI and other trade groups reacted by pledging to continue its campaign for the longer copyright. (Inquirer and Hollywood Reporter)

• XM president and CEO Hugh Panero will leave the company next month. COO Nate Davis will take over as interim CEO. In the event Sirius merges with XM, Sirius CEO Mel Karmazin will take over the reins of the combined company. (Radio Ink)

• The lineup for the Vegoose music festival was announced yesterday. It's an odd mish-mash of old (Public Enemy, Cypress Hill) and new (Ghostland Observatory, Battles). Rage Against the Machine, Daft Punk, Queens of the Stone Age and Muse headline. (Pollstar)

• Universal Music Publishing Group has signed Ric Ocasek to an exclusive publishing administration deal. Under the deal, UMPG will have world-wide administration and sync rights to Ocasek's catalog of hits. (Press release)

• CinemaNow, an online distributor of online movies, signed licensing agreements with Sanctuary, EMI and Sony BMG to offer music videos and concert performances. CinemaNow and WatchMusicHere.com will offer more than 6,000 videos. Music video downloads will be priced at $1.99 and concerts and long-form videos will go for $9.95 to $14.95, or $2.99 to $3.99 for rental in the WMV format. (Press release)

• Lee Gomes has an article on the industry's drive to expand royalties for music. "Most lay people surveying this terrain quickly conclude that it would be more efficient to have everyone involved in music creation, be they record labels or songwriters, aligned on one side and negotiating together, with the same occurring across the table with music users, be they radio stations or Web broadcasters. But there is little chance of that happening. The legal, financial and institutional interests all diverge." (Wall Street Journal)

July 15, 2007

Monday Business Links

AEG, one of the largest entertainment presenters in the world, has opened an office in San Diego that will be headed up by two former employees of independent promoter Viejas Entertainment. AEG is now the exclusive booker of the San Diego Sports Arena. (Billboard.biz)

The Telegraph details the upcoming changes at HMV and Rough Trade: "The stores will include so-called refreshment hubs where shoppers can browse the internet. HMV is also considering introducing a manufacture on-demand service, allowing shoppers to burn their own CDs in store. ... Rough Trade is also aiming to be more than just a record store: it is planning a series of regular events about the music industry by insiders, including an art exhibition by Pete Fowler, the sleeve designer behind Welsh rockers Super Furry Animals." (The Telegraph)

• An updated FairUse4WM claims to strip DRM from Vista and Zune software. I haven't tried it but will take their word for it since the last version worked like a charm in my very limited test. (Engadget)

• NME has a track-by-track review of the Price CD that was available for free as a Mail on Sunday covermount, while The Guardian has a better, broader critique. (NME.com and The Guardian)

• The Guardian says Prince's CD was distributed in "about three million" copies of the Mail on Sunday. That means an additional 700,000 to 800,000 or so newspapers were distributed above normal circulation numbers. That also means way, way more people got Prince's new album than bought his previous one. (The Guardian)

• And now Prince's Planet Earth has made its way to the Internet. (BBC News)

• I hate to pass along rumors, but....there's discussion of Apple starting a record label with Jay-Z and Beyonce. (MacRumors)

June 19, 2007

Tuesday Business Links

• There's money in them hills: The just-completed Bonnaroo music festival, put on by Superfly Productions, sold out its 80,000 tickets and raised about $17 million in ticket sales -- up from $14.7 million last year. (Billboard.biz)

• Contrary to popular opinion, digital music has been no better for the environment than CDs, wrote Billboard's Anthony Bruno. Discarded MP3 players leak heavy metals and chemicals into landfills, and consumers are buying more blank CDRs to burn the music they have acquired digitally. The Consumer Electronics Association has launched www.MyGreenElectronics.com to help consumers responsibly use their electronic devices. (Billboard)

• Verizon now offers full track, over-the-air downloads from Wind-Up Records artists such as Creed, Scott Stapp, Evanescence and Finger Eleven. An over-the-air track costs $1.99 and comes with one copy for the PC and one for the mobile handset. (Press release, via Digital Music News)

The Canadian Private Copying Collective (CPCC) announced it has distributed more than $100 million from private copying levies in just four years. In Canada, the CPCC collects levies on blank media, such as CDRs and cassettes, and gives the money to rightsholders. (Press release)

• Inside the guts of a Zune Marketplace desktop software file are hints that Microsot's Zune may be preparing a content partnership with MTV, VH1 and CMT. (Engadget)

• You know there's a premium on news for anything relating to both digital music and the Beatles when news of a Ringo Starr digital reissue makes waves across the Internet. (Billboard.com)

• Music attorney Chris Castle dissects a Washington Post op-ed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation's Fred von Lohman. (Digital Music News)

April 17, 2007

Tuesday Business Links

• A panel of judges rejected webcasters' requests to reconsider a ruling that increased the royalties they must pay to labels and artists. The one victory for webcasters was the decision to allow royalties to continue to be based on average listener hours. (Billboard.biz)

• Google CEO Eric Schmidt says YouTube is close to incorporating a filtering system, called Claim Your Content. (paidContent)

• Texas officials are planning a $1.5 billion development for the film, TV and music industry in Austin. The first stage of the Villa Muse development will be several sound stages. Negotiations are underway for a 70,000-capacity amphitheater. (AP)

• Sony/ATV acquired the publishing catalog of Leiber and Stoller, which includes such songs as "Jailhouse Rock," "Hound Dog," "On Broadway" and "Yakety Yak." (Billboard.biz)

• Starbucks is teaming up with Razor & Tie to release a a two-CD compilation of performances from the 1967 Monterey International Pop Festival. The release will be available at U.S. and Canada Starbucks and will have a normal, wider distribution. (antiMusic)

• NY Times on shopping via text messaging. I think that would be a great way to buy all sorts of music. A band could put a text code on stage (or around the venue) during its performance. Concertgoers' credit cards would be billed and they'd save their pocket money for the bar. (NY Times, via Julie Ask)

February 14, 2007

Wednesday Business Links

• EMI warns of lower profits for the fiscal year -- a whopping 15% decline year over year -- and points to weakening sales in North America. (Press release)

• David Goldberg, one of the leading critics of DRM, is one of two execs leaving Yahoo! Music for "personal reasons." He said he will return to his "entrepreneurial roots." (Billboard.biz, more at paidContent)

• At the 3GSM conference, music executives criticize mobile operators for poor user experiences. (New Media Age)

• Trans World announces Vcommerce Enterprise, consolidates the majority of its stores under the name f.y.e." (Press release)

• LiveNation has closed the Starwood Amphitheater in Nashville and canceled its 2007 season. (WKRN.com)

• Venture capital for musical acts. (Billboard.biz)

• Canada is making a second attempt to tax MP3 players. (VNUNet)

December 12, 2006

Tuesday Morning Business Links, Notes

The Financial Times reports EMI has hired a third investment bank to advise on a potential deal with Permira. It is a sign a deal could be finalized soon, maybe this week. (Read Reuters article)

• Forrester takes the iPod down a notch. Analyst Josh Bernoff: "The iPod is not necessarily a machine for generating revenue for the music industry." He has found that iTunes' rapid expansion has slowed (as has digital sales in general), which echoes worries by music executives around the world. (Read article at Globe and Mail)

• The holiday layoffs continue. House of Blues layed off 79 people post-acquisition by Live Nation. (Read article at Billboard.biz)

Hits reports on more structural changes at Sony: Columbia Records' promotions staff is now organized by "national specialist cells by format." (Read post at Hits Rumor Mill)

• An IDC report on mobile music services are not connecting with consumers. One of the main reason is prices, which are seen as too high. While SMS (short message service) is popular, only about 20% of respondents have purchased a ringtone and only 10% have purchased either a graphic, wallpaper or game. (Read post at Playlist)

J. Valentine, known for a sound described as "R&Bay" (rhythm and bay) has signed with J Records. His album will be out in early 2007. Production was handled by Scott Storch, Cool & Dre, The Underdogs, Dre & Vidal, Polow Da Don, Needles and The CityBoyZ. Among the guest artists are E-40, Keak da Sneak,Bailey and Keri Lynn. (Read press release,, via Kings of A&R)

• Sony Music Studios unveiled Sony Music Studio Internet Mastering, an Internet-based mastering service that will professionally master four songs per project at a cost that starts at $99 per track. (Read article at Mixonline.com)

• A few bits from yesterday's FCC media ownership hearing in Nashville. The Hollywood Reporter has a good overview. Radio Ink has excerpts from introductory remarks from Chairman Kevin Martin and Commissioners Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein. The FCC website has the full texts of their remarks (read PDFs of Martin, Copps and Adelstein).

November 29, 2006

Wednesday Morning Business Notes, Links

• Soundscan unveils its mastertone sales data this week. Edna Gunderson has an article on a global market that is projected by one firm to gross $6.8 billion by 2010; U.S. sales are projected to be over $600 million in 2006. How are sales right now? Recently, an average of 4.6 million ringtones have been sold per week at an average cost of $2.40. (Read article at USA Today)

• Columbia Records has named Michael Caplan as its new Senior VP of A&R. Previously he held the same title for the Sony Music Label Group. (Read article at Hits)

• Here comes the video revenue streams (one day): Warner Music International has launched a new video content division called Warner Music Entertainment (Read article at Variety)

• House of Blues is considering building a 7,000-seat music venue at the Great America theme park in Santa Clara, CA. The site is adjacent to the site the San Francisco 49ers are considering for a new stadium. (Read article at Inside Bay Area)

• Not that it matters much to Americans, but Charlotte Church has parted ways with Sony BMG to concentrate on her TV talk show. Check out her theme song and her infamous cover of "Beat It" with an incapacitated Amy Winehouse. (Read article at Metro)

• A report of healthy HD radio sales. (Read article at Radio Ink)

November 21, 2006

Tuesday Morning Business Notes, Links

• Sony BMG fired the president of its classical music division, Gilbert Hetherwick, and six other staffers at Sony BMG Masterworks. The Masterworks label is being folded into Sony BMG Music Entertainment Commercial Music Group to make it (quoting from a statement) "eaner, more responsive and more effective in adapting to the new realities of reaching the classical music consumer." (Read article at Playbill)

• Rhino Records, the venerable catalog label owned by Warner Music Group, has a deal with Verizon Wireless that will allow V CAST customers to purchase ring tones and ringback tones of classic songs from the Rhino Catalog. The songs will be released in a series called "Songs You Know." Each volume is a bundle of tones and songs (that will be downloaded to the PC) and have a price tag of $9.99. Artists on the first volume include Otis Redding, Mr. Big, Devo and Skid Row. Volume Two includes songs by Dio, Brandy, The Ramones and En Vogue. I can't speak for all consumers, but I think these are pretty terrible mixes of artists and genres. This would be fine unbundled, but bundling Dio and Brandy doesn't make sense. (Read press release)

• Warner Music International has partnered with social network elHood.com. The deal will put WMI content in the music-focused, Latin-targeted social networking site. (Read article at elHood.com)

• A country Coachella? Goldenvoice, who puts on the popular Coachella Valley and Arts Festival, is putting together a country version to take place May 5th and 6th, 2007. Artists on the bill so far are Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams, Kenny Chesney, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Earl Scruggs and Nickel Creek. (Read article at Pollstar)

• Brooklyn band Mgmt has signed with Columbia. (Read article at Hits)

November 16, 2006

Thursday Morning Business Notes, Links

• Clear Channel agreed to a sale price of $18.7 billion. The lucky owners are private equity firms Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital, and the founding May family. Thomas H. Lee Partners and Bain Capital should sound familiar to you. They're part of the investor group that purchased Warner Music Group from Time Warner in 2004. (Read Reuters article)

• EMI warned that it may not license its content to YouTube because it was not convinced the website could respect its copyrights. Insiders say the company is holding out for a Universal Music Group-like deal: about 1% of YouTube's equity and a payment of about eight-tenths of a cent every time an EMI song is streamed. Funny how equity eases fears that previously only DRM could allay. (Read article at Times Online)

• Very related: paidContent interviewed EMI CEO David Munns at the Web 2.0 conference. Munns said a deal with YouTube should be done soon. Munns had comments about artist contracts and extended rights deals and when we can expect to see the Beatles' music online (soon). He had no comment about price negotiations with Apple. (Read post at paidContent)

• Related: Google has set aside $200 million for defending YouTube in court. (Read article at The Guardian)

• Lose a few thousand, gain a few: Nordstrom, the upscale department store, plans to sell CDs. Its goal is to be "considered a tastemaker." (Read article at Hits)

• The New York live music biz is heating up: MSG Entertainment purchased the 2,800-seat Beacon Theater in New York City. A nine-month restoration is planned for 2008. (Read article at NY1)

November 13, 2006

Monday Morning Business Notes, Links

• EMI boss David Munns hinted that the Beatles catalog may go digital soon. (Read article at Times Online)

• Jeff Leeds has an article on the grants that indie rock bands are getting from their governments. Groups from Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Australia, Scotland, Finland and Denmark are mentioned in the article. It's good money, and because they're grants they don't have to be paid back. The Figurines, from Denmark, have received more than $18,000 in 2006. Canada's Broken Social Scene has received over $140,000 over the years. (Read article at New York Times)

• A judge ruled that a defendent could challenge the RIAA's $750-per-song claim to statutory damages. (Read post at Slashdot)

• After the nightclub fire at a Great White concert in Rhode Island, music venues around the country are seeing the repurcussions. In some states, clubs are mandated to install sprinkler systems. (Read article at Pollstar)

• An explanation of Microsoft Points, which is the currency used at the Zune Marketplace. (Read post at Medialoper)

September 26, 2006

Tuesday Morning Business Notes, Links

• Charles Duhigg has an article on a scuffle between live event company Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Live Nation's chief executive is trying to bring down average ticket prices, while Ticketmaster controls ticket sales at most of the 29,000 Live Nation events. Live Nation has the option of handling its own ticket sales, which could be incredibly damaging to Ticketmaster. (Read article at Los Angeles Times)

• Digital jukebox company Ecast received $20 million in funding from Focus Ventures and others. (Read press release, via paidContent)

• If I cared about ring tones I would finally be thrilled to have Verizon: The carrier's VCast Music service will have an exclusive on over 60 Jimi Hendrix ring tones and ringback tones. (Read the press release)

• McDonald's is testing a free, SMS-based multimedia zone called m-Venue. Diners access audio and video content -- from Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Sony Pictures -- via cell phone, mobile Internet or Wi-Fi-enabled laptop. After setting up an m-Venue in an Illinois restaurant, sales were up 17% over the same period last year. "We've created a unique destination that brings us competitive advantage and attracts more customers to our restaurant," said the owner. (Read the article at Wireless Week)

• A good article on efforts to introduce competition to the EU's collecting socieites and create pan-European licenses. (Read article at BusinessWeek.com)

• Nokia's acquisitiion of digital distributor Loudeye was approved by regulators. (Read very short article at Reuters)

• Not much is heard from Snocap these days, but the company did bring on Sirius Canada chairman Guy Johnson to its board of directors and hired corporate law specialist Rich Mosher as general counsel. (Read the press release)

July 5, 2006

Wednesday Morning Business Notes, Links

Live Nation, which owns, operates and/or has booking rights to 153 venues (Google FInance link), will buy House of Blues for $350 million before the end of 2006. House of Blues is a privately-owned company that owns, operates of exclusively books venues in 19 venues across the country. (AP)

• Bertelsmann completed the purchase of its 25.1% stake previously owned by Groupe Bruxelles Lambert. The company will pay for the acquisition in part by the pending sale of BMG Music Publishing. (Billboard.biz)

• A profile of Milwaukee's new Bulleseye Records, which will focus on used CDs and vinyl. Bullseye is owned by Luke Lavin, who closed down his Farewell Records in March. (OnMilwaukee.com)

• Free download site Epitonic is back with new downloads and a new design. (Via Tuning Fork)