In an email sent out today (but dated August 18) Nimbit announced that its MySpace "online merch table" is now an official MySpace app and is "the only official MySpace application that allows you to sell your own music." The new app can be found in the MySpace applications area and is said to have a faster, easier checkout procedure. Previously, MySpace required the purchaser to leave the artist's MySpace page and checkout at a Nimbit page. This deal happens to come a week (if the rumored launch date is true) of the debut of MySpace Music.

Obviously one may think back to Snocap, a company with a similar product that had a first-mover disadvantage in its exclusive widget deal with MySpace. Snocap had an inability to get visitors into the habit of purchasing music from a small box on a page that typically offers free music and video streams. The widget itself was rather primitive compared to those of competitors, and some artists complained about the payout. Nimbit's widget is far superior to that of Snocap, and I think a faster checkout may help. (Nimbit has a point-by-point comparison of its widget versus that of Snocap.)

Posted by Glenn at 5:49 PM | Link
|Snocap|

• 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)

Posted by Glenn at 7:41 AM | Link
|Live Music||Snocap||Ticketing|

With EMI's deal to sell high quality, DRM-free MP3s through Snocap (read press release), downloads have become untethered from online retail. EMI artists have Snocap widgets on the artist websites, and Blue Note has a widget on its page. Tracks will cost $1.30 apiece, in line with prices for similar files at iTunes.

What has been overlooked so far is, to me, one of the biggest parts of the announcement: Albums will be made available through Snocap "later this year." To date, Snocap has sold only individual tracks. It has not been a cost-effective source for EPs or albums. Cherry picking at $1.30 per track is a fair deal, but a typical ten-track album would cost $13.00 through Snocap (outside of the country genre, most albums have more than ten tracks). If EMI prices its DRM-free albums the same as at iTunes, that would be $10.00-- an amount that covers almost seven a la carte tracks purchased at $1.30 each.

One problem I see is some artists' Snocap widget do not give any details on the file format or sound quality. It's basic information that should be readily visible. Not all Snocap-enabled downloads are MP3. People will want to know if the format is WMA.

Posted by Glenn at 3:53 PM | Link
|EMI||Snocap|

• The House Small Business Committee Chairwoman doesn't want to get involved in the webcaster royalties issues. At a hearing yesterday she said, "I really don't think Congress would be the best type of vehicle to resolve this type of issue. July 15 is just around the corner, and I hope the two parties can come together and resolve this issue." She hinted that webcasters and SoundExchange could change the definition of a small webcaster, which would allow larger companies to pay lower rates. (BusinessWeek.com)

• As the U.K. division of Sony BMG announces it will not be part of the global plan for the upcoming Prince album comes news that Prince is planning to use the album as a free giveaway with copies of a The Mail on Sunday newspapers. As one would expect, music retailers are incensed. Price also plans to bundle a digital copy of the album with each ticket sold for an upcoming series of London concerts. In May, The Mail on Sunday drew the ire of Mike Oldfield when The Mail gave away copies of his classic album Tubular Bells (The Guardian)

• Much ado about nothing? Retuers has an article about music executives who are fretting that the iPhone will "too much clout to Apple Inc. in shaping the future of the fledgling mobile music market." Once again, maybe I'm missing something but the iPhone is an iPod with a phone attached. It sideloads music just as an iPod sideloads music. I agree with Groove Mobile CEO Adam Sexton: "I don't think the iPhone is going to be the game changer that people are predicting." It will change the mobile phone game, but until it introduces a drastically new way to purchase and experience music, it won't change the mobile music game. (Reuters)

• MySpace Music and Snocap have combined to co-sponsor a tent at this summer's Warped Tour. If those kids have either a credit card or a PayPal account, that will turn out to be a great promotion for Snocap. (Snocap)

• Just how few decent music DVDs are being released these days? A year ago, there was only one music DVD in the top 20 that had been out for 100 weeks or more. Last week, there were six releases in the top 20 that had been out for over 100 weeks.

• Jupiter analyst Mark Mulligan offers analysis of the BBC's online broadcast's from the annual Glastonbury music festival. "The online content include information on acts, photos of performances etc. All of which were great discovery tools. I personally ended up buying a dozen or so tracks from acts I’d seen for the first time. And now the BBC has updated the site to provide video and audio highlights." (Mark Mulligan's blog)

• In this review of Ash's Twilight of the Innocents, The Guardian is still talking about the death of the album. Dorian Lynskey hits the bullseye when pointing out that that the band, which has disavowed the album format for good, never was an album kind of band to begin with. "But whatever the logic (let's assume the resultant publicity was just a happy side-effect), Ash are prime candidates for this experiment. Like Slade, Madness or the Sugababes, they excel at sprints, not marathons. If you could only own one Ash album, it would have to be their impeccable singles collection, Intergalactic Sonic Sevens." (The Guardian)

Posted by Glenn at 7:12 AM | Link
|Apple||Marketing||MySpace||Snocap||Webcasting|

• The Financial Times reported that Universal Music's acquisition of BMG's music publishing division will be approved the the European Commission in the coming days. (Variety)

• Trisha Yearwood has signed with indie Big Machine Records. The country singer was with MCA Nashville for 16 years. (Billboard.biz)

• Disney has launched a music and video download site called Disney Mix Central. Files are protected Windows Media and meant to go with the Disney Mix Stick MP3 player and the Disney Mix Max video/MP3 player. (Billboard.biz)

• Snocap launched Live @ Snocap, a private concert series recorded at the company's San Francisco office. (Press release)

Posted by Glenn at 3:42 PM | Link
|Indies||Publishing||Snocap|

Warner Music Group artists will be available through Snocaps MyStores (read press release). One important angle that will probably dampen excitement for the new distribution deal is the file format. Downloads will be protected Windows Media, which work with PlaysForSure devices. The widget is very upfront about the restrictions placed on the files (see above).

Posted by Glenn at 11:53 AM | Link
|Snocap||Warner Music Group|

• The Sunday Times reported that Warner Music Group may pursue a merger with EMI by making a direct appeal to its shareholders. The report claimed WMG execs were "astonished" that EMI had moved to drop DRM from downloads while it was a bid target. (Forbes.com)

• Merril Lynch analyst Jessica Reif Cohen warned of more declines this year (no kidding). "With digital growth naturally decelerating over time and the decline in physical sales accelerating, an imminent return to growth for the industry no longer appears likely." She kept a "neutral" on Warner Music Group. If you recall, Reif Cohen caused Merril Lynch to drop out of WMG's IPO and lose millions in underwriting fees after she told the firm it was overvaluing the shares. (Hollywood Reporter)

• It's high time for indie culture to go mainstream: Top indie labels will create a series of compilations, similar to the Now That's What I Call Music series, and partner with MTV2. Distribution will be aimed at mass merchants like Wal-Mart. Vice will release the first volume. Sub Pop and Matador are considering future editions. Said the always quotable Adam Shore of Vice, "We don't really expect indie-rock stores to support this record. It's for the casual fan." (Entertainment Weekly, via Hypebot)

• Sony BMG announced it will release two music titles on Blu-ray this summer: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Sreet Band: Live in Dublin, and Chris Botti Live with Orchestra and Guests. (High-Def Digest)

• Warner Music Group will offer videos through Joost. (Press release)

• Some feedback on download sales at MySpace. In a nutshell, they're quite low thus far. "People don't go to MySpace to buy," one source said. "I just don't think people are going to MySpace to buy stuff," said another. Obviously Snocap and Hooka have to get people to register and become familiar with the process. (Digital Music News)

• A profile of Dennis Mudd, CEO and co-founder of digital music company Slacker. (USA Today)

Posted by Glenn at 8:35 AM | Link
|EMI||EMI WMG Merger Talk||MySpace||Snocap||Warner Music Group|

• Muzak reported a 3.0% increase in fourth quarter revenue and a 0.7% increase in annual revenues. Net losses improved to $39.2 million from $48.6 million. CEO Stephen Villa called the turnaround a "dramatic improvement." (Press release)

• Pump Audio and Snocap have entered into a client-sharing agreement. (Digital Music News)

• The only places in Greenwich, CT where you can find a CD is the public library and Starbucks. (Greenwich Time)

• The lesson here is, Music fans shouldn't live in Greenwich. In Seattle, Silver Platters is showing the CD is still a viable format. The indie retailer recently added 42,000 square feet. (Seattle Times)

• San Francisco area indie retailers are surviving in their respective niches. Mod Lang moved to El Cerrito and has found it "liberating" to no longer cater to university students. Aquarius Records uses its exhaustive staff reviews to attract sales. Amoeba is Amoeba. (San Francisco Chronicle)

• In England, Rough Trade is expected to soon open Britain's biggest music-only store -- a 5,000 square foot store in London's East End that will "reflect the public appetite for exciting new music." (The Independent)

Posted by Glenn at 9:00 AM | Link
|Brick-And-Mortor Retail||Earnings Releases||Snocap|

• To help win European Union approval for its purchase of BMG Music Publishing, Universal Music has offered to sell of the Zomba Music Group catalog, home of hits by Backstreet Boys and Britney Spears. (Reuters)

• Snocap inked a deal to sell Sub Pop, Dangerbird and New Line labels through Snocap MyStores. The deal will allow artists on those labels to offer downloads directly through their MySpace pages and other websites. Sub Pop is home to current Top 40 artist The Shins as well as The Postal Service. (Press release)

• Indie execs speak on SXSW's first day. Said New West founder Cameron Strang: "The digital thing hurts our business. It doesn't hurt the music business, but it hurts the record business." Matador's Gerard Cosloy said he's trying to find ways to offer more value with each CD purchase. (Billboard.biz)

•Digital distributor IODA has launched Promonet Pro, a suite of digital marketing tools. (Press release)

Posted by Glenn at 8:25 AM | Link
|Snocap||Sony BMG|

While I was gone, Snocap had a couple of key announcements. One, via an email (no press release to link to) said Snocap now accepts Visa and Mastercard for purchases. Previously, Snocap purchases were made through PayPal. The addition of credit card payments is a huge step forward. Small, digital music transactions can grow only as fast as ease of purchase allows. And given that Americans prefer credit card transactions, it's an important development. (I wish I could find the email to offer a screenshot, but I must have deleted it. I did, however, go to my Snocap account and saw that Mastercard and Visa are now mentioned as acceptable payment methods.)

There was another Snocap announcement, this one with a proper press release. The company dropped, slightly, the fee charged to artists for MyStore downloads to $0.39 from $0.45. It's a small amount, but it may have an impact. There has been some negative attitude toward Snocap's fee, and I know of one artist who is using DigStation as an alternative/protest.

Posted by Glenn at 9:38 PM | Link
|Snocap|

The recently formed Merlin, a coalition of indie labels gathered to secure licensing deals, signed a deal with Snocap that will allow Merlin's member labels to sell their songs at MySpace (read Reuters article). The artists will use Snocap's MyStore to sell downloads from their MySpace pages. The deal with launch in the "near future."

The article says the songs will be sold in MP3 format.

A couple thoughts on this. First, the importance of this deal is counter to the frequent claims that MySpace has peaked, or that it has no competitive advantage in the Web 2.0 space. In music ciricles, MySpace is incredibly important. It's at the top of the social networking heap, and it is adding innovations. Second, I hope Snocap reports these sales to Soundscan. Third, the MP3 side to the story is sure to get a lot of attention. Many Merline labels, though, already sell MP3s via eMusic. This development isn't as much about the format as it is distribution. For digital music to grow, points of purchase need to be user-friendly and nearly ubiquitous.

Posted by Glenn at 12:40 PM | Link
|Indies||MySpace||Snocap|

• The media has heartily covered the IFPI's report on digital music. One topic that has been widely picked up is the IFPI's declaration that Internet Service Providers will become a target in the music industry's war on piracy. Chairman John Kennedy said litigation would begin "in weeks rather than months." EMI's head of digital operations, Barney Wragg, said the industry has been left with "with no other option." (Read article at The Independent)

• The Guardian's article on the IFPI report showcased one of the industry's reasons for optimism: mobile phones. Wragg on the potential of mobile music: "We have the opportunity to satisfy the impulse purchase. We are acutely aware that we are competing for every pound, every euro and every dollar in the consumer's pocket." (Read article at The Guardian)

• Universal Music Nashville co-chairman James Stroud has left to form James Stroud Productions, a production venture that will handle Billy Currington's next album and about six others. (Read article at The Tennessean)

• Snocap and ReverbNation.com announced a partnership that will allow ReverbNation.com users to sell downloads through the site's DistroNow module. Snocap will handle the customer transcaction and royalty payments. Here's the part that stood out to me: The technology will be incorporated into ReverbNation.com's TunePak, which is a music player that can be sent via email or posted on web pages. That allows songs to be purchased wherever the music player resides. (Read press release)

• FCC Chairman Kevin Martin showed his hand on a possilble merger between XM and Sirius. The two satellite radio operators must remain in place, he said, and pointed out that there is a prohibition of one companies owning both licenses. Shares of both companies dropped immediately. XM was down almost 10% and Sirius sank 7%. (Read article at BusinessWeek.com)

Posted by Glenn at 8:49 AM | Link
|Piracy||Sirius||Snocap||XM|

• EMI and Chinese Internet portal Baidu announced an ad-supported music streaming service. Baidu will set up a dedicated "EMI Music Zone" that will offer the entire EMI Chinese roster free of charge. In return, reports Bloomberg, EMI will drop its appeal on a lost lawsuit over copyright infringement claims. This agreement is the first of its kind for a major label and a Chinese company and goes to show a good licensing deal trumps a lawsuit any day of the week. (Read article at Billboard.biz and Bloomberg)

• Music Nation raised $5.5 million in first-round funding. Music Nation is a nationwide, online music video competition -- an online "American Idol" -- with an advisory board filled with major label executives such as Charlie Walk (Epic Records) and Terry McBride (Nettwerk). It was founded in April 2006. (Read post at paidContent)

• Bertelsmann, parent company of BMG Music, may name its new chief executive this week. (Read article at Bloomberg)

• Unsubstantiated rumor of the day: A Beatles fansite has a report from an "unnamed source" that an agreement has been reached between Apple Corp and Apple Inc that will put the Beatles's recent mashup album, Love, on iTunes. (Read article at Macworld)

• Whil the Beatles aren't yet at iTunes, but there may be a Beatles-themed performance in this season's "American Idol." Executive producer Ken Warwick says the show has permission from Sony, the owner of the publishing rights. Certain songs, though, have been deemed off-limits by Sony. (Read USA Today article)

• An op-ed at Billboard takes the Grammy Awards to task for eliminating the female rap category. (Read article at Billboard.biz)

Posted by Glenn at 8:51 AM | Link
|EMI||Snocap|

• Sony Urban will be folded in Columbia, and Lisa Ellis was named Executive Vice President, Sony Music Label Group. Hits has the full text of an email accouncement from Howard Stringer. (Read article at Hits or this one at Billboard.biz)

• Phil Quartararo, EVP of EMI Music North America, is leaving to start his own strategic marketing company. (Read article at Variety)

• Sevendust and its label, 7Bros, have partnered with Warner Music Group's Asylum Records. Alpha is slotted for a March 6, 2007 release date. Asylum, along with Cordless and East West, is part of WMG's Independent Label Group. Much ado has been made about WMG's digital gains, but one of the real successes has been Atlantic's deals with a few indies. Downtown and Eleven Seven each had a big year, thanks to Gnarls Barkley and Buckcherry, respectively. And Cordless looks to be establishing its identity. (Read article at IGN.com)

• Snocap hired two execs, Bruce Taylor and Karin Visnick. Taylor will be the VP of marketing while Visnick will be VP of Product Management. (Read press release)

• A bold prediction: XM Satellite Radio Chairman Gary Parsons said regulations would have no reason to think a merger with Sirius would harm compeition. "We are operating in a much larger marketplace than satellite radio ... The competition is predominantly terrestrial radio," he said. (Read article at MarketWatch)

• It's that time of the year: The Hollywood Reporter laid off eight employees, including music editor Chris Morris. The publication is owned by VNU. (Read post at Variety)

• Want to hear "Thinking About You," the Norah Jones track that Yahoo! Music will sell in MP3 format? Click for your choice of WM, RA or Quicktime and prepare to get mellow.

• American Scientist has a review of Chris Anderson's "The Long Tail." Classic first line: "If a book about the demise of the best seller becomes a best seller, does that undermine the book's credibility?" After reviewer Brian Hayes ran through some of Anderson's examples, he came in with some feedback. "Unfortunately, quantitative evidence supporting this proposition is hard to come by," he wrote. In the end, Hayes was disappointed by the lack of "forensic economics" but thinks "Anderson may well be right about the waning influence of the hit parade and the greater scope for ideas without mass-market appeal." (Read article at American Scientist)

Posted by Glenn at 7:56 AM | Link
|EMI||Satellite Radio||Snocap||Sony BMG||Warner Music Group||XM|

Coolfer readers will remember a post about Linx, a web management product created by Snocap, a digital music company founded by the creator of Napster, Shawn Fanning.

Though the company started out with the goal of enabling peer-to-peer businesses, Snocap has since focused on enabling commerce at social network sites. In September of this year, Snocap announced its partnership with MySpace. The collaboration, called MyStore, brings together Snocap's digital music registry and backend operations with MySpace's far-reaching social networking site. It is Snocap's first partnership and the company expects more in the future.

Recently I had the opportunity to speak with Alex Rofman, Snocap's VP of Business Development, to find out about the new MyStore program.

MyStore is a collaboration with MySpace that will allow artists to easily sell its music on their MySpace page. Once artists register their content with Snocap, they can automatically populate their MySpace page with a Flash-based application that will appear below the MySpace pages's existing media player (see picture below from The Format's MySpace page). Initially, PayPal will be used to pay for MyStore purchases. Rofman said traditional credit card support will be in place "in the next couple months."

MyStore's ease of use looks to be one of its strong suits. Snocap goal was to make the upload-to-sale cycle fast, simple and free of complications. An artist can use MyStore to avoid the usual procedures involved with selling music online. Rofman described a scenario in which a band could record a live show, upload the songs and sell the tracks to fans that same evening.

All tracks will be in the MP3 format. Rofman said it was obviously important that the songs play on the iPod. MySpace and Snocap will share a $0.45-per song fee. The artist or label is free to set the price for each download.

The companies are rolling out MyStore in stages. By the end of 2006, the MyStore will be available to the three million-plus artists with MySpace pages.

Given the high volume of traffic at MySpace, and since practically every artist have a MySpace page, the MyStore collaboration has a good chance to make an impact and stands a fair chance of starting a shift toward the decentralized, artist-empowering model that so many expect to find in this new digital era. MyStore potential lies in the fact that much of the music is lost amongst millions of other songs. A reduction in search costs is a key to growing the digital music market. At a store like iTunes, underground artists are connected to consumers mainly through a search query. MyStore's strategy is to capitalize on the already existing traffic at an artist's MySpace page. It encourages impules purchases that otherwise may not be realized.

Just how well it performs could be unclear. At least in the short term, Snocap will not report its sales to Soundscan. (This makes sense. Songs and albums reported to Soundscan must first be registered. MyStore's quick upload-to-sale cycle doesn't fit well with Soundscan's more formal procedure.)

Posted by Glenn at 12:57 PM | Link
|Snocap|

• 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)

Posted by Glenn at 8:02 AM | Link
|Live Music||Ringtones||Snocap|

• NPD Group research reveals hip hop accounted for 23% of all ringtone sales in July. Roc was 17%, pop was 11% and alternative was 8%. Women downloaded 53% of all ringtones. (Hits Rumor Mill)

• The Internet is about democratization, but wireless has the starpower: Beyonce's music and fashion line will be the object of a mobile game being developed by Starwave Mobile. (Press Release)

• Add the Barenaked Ladies to the list of artists selling their music on their MySpace page. At the $0.89 per track price point, the band is actually taking in less than Snocap gets per sale; Snocap takes $0.45 per track and splits it with MySpace. (Barenaked Ladies at MySpace, via Digital Music News)

• This CNNMoney.com article says demand for MP3 players at Best Buy is cooling off. The retailers is shifting toward flatscreen televisions to compensate. (CNNMoney.com)

Posted by Glenn at 7:27 AM | Link
|Mobile Music||MySpace||Research||Snocap|

The Wall Street Journal has reported that Snocap, the digital services company founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning, has partnered with social networking site MySpace. Though the nature of the deal isn't clear, sources told the WSJ that MySpace could get a minority position in Snocap.

More details were given in the LA Times' article about the Snocap/MySpace deal. The download store will be called MyStore and will be out later this year. (A side note: www.mystore.com has been registered by "leading domain name attorney" Ari Goldberger.) Fans will be able to sell bands' music to other fans. Also, some economics of the deal were given. The two companies "will split the processing fee of about 45 cents per track," which implies the artist should set a track's price well above $0.45.

Jupiter Research's David Card has doubts about MyStore's ability to make much money. "I believe in a 'long tail,'" he said, "but I have yet to find a media company make a living delivering only the long tail without delivering any of the hits."

Coolfer had previously posted on Snocap's Linx, the widget that enables download sales on MySpace.

Continue reading "MySpace Forms Partnership With Snocap" »

Posted by Glenn at 7:36 PM | Link
|Digital Music||MySpace||Snocap|

An follow-up to Coolfer's post on The Format's use of Linx, a sales-enabling widget created by Snocap: Brooklyn Vegan sent a link to the Wikipedia page for the album Dog Problems that has been updated with news about the album's digital sales:

"On May 19, 2006; an MP3 version of Dog Problems leaked to the internet. In response, The Format immediately made the entire album available digitally for only $7.99, through their online music store. This led to the sale of almost 3,000 digital copies, before it was officially available in stores on July 11."

The band's online music store is actually the download store of the band's label, Nettwerk. The album was also available via a Linx widget on the band's MySpace page.

Posted by Glenn at 2:12 PM | Link
|Digital Music||Snocap|