John Pareles' "2006, Brought to You by You" in yesterday's New York Times, in which he talks about Web 2.0 portals and their glut of user-generated content, is sure to cause a stir. Pareles may have the business side wrong ("empty vessel" does not accurately describe the valuation of either company) but some of his comments ring true in the music arena.

Some thoughts on Pareles' article.

1. The claim to fame of user-generated websites has been sheer volume, not any meaningful enablement of commerce. YouTube views have rarely translated to a meaningful increase in music sales. It is for this reason that labels are wise to pursue revenue-sharing deals with YouTube. While radio and television have palpable effects on sales, YouTube has not yet exhibited a similar impact.

2. Message to labels: Keep trying new ideas, one of them may work. Warner Music Group won kudos for its forward-thinking strategy of creating branded channels at YouTube for two of its priority releases, Paris Hilton's self-titled debut and Diddy's Press Play. The problem is that YouTube obviously did not help either title. Hilton's album will be remembered as The Flop of 2006, and Diddy's Press Play had an extremely short stay in the Top 50 and is well on its way to flop status.

3. As with P2P, much of YouTube traffic is driven by other promotional efforts. For YouTube to best enable commerce, it needs to be synthesized with other marketing ingredients.

4. Pareles is one of the few journalists to highlight the need for filters and portals. While there has been an incredible increase in online content, there are still only 24 hours in a day. Time-starved people will require more efficient means to discover quality online content. Of long tail content, Pareles, wrote, "Face it: Song for song, most of them just aren’t as good." How very true. Existence does not guarantee a listenership.

Media critic/blogger Jeff Jarvis took Pareles' article to task. Others will surely bash Pareles for daring to diss Web 2.0. Jarvis wrote that Pareles is complaining about choice. But I think Pareles, who has made a career of highlighting music, worries about a lack of quality in all that quantity. (Think of a music critic getting 500 CDs in the mail every week when he used to get a more manageable 50 per week. ) The quality is there. Somewhere. Finding it is the problem.

The article is a comment to those who underestimate the work and skill involved in Web 2.0 success. Distribution is now like turning on a water faucet. How do artists use ubiquity to their advantage? The new system is "one that requires just as much hustle and ingenuity as the old distribution system," Pareles wrote. True. It's no coincidence that music's finest YouTube and MySpace success stories, OK Go and Lily Allen, are both signed to major labels. Even in Web 2.0, success takes a village.

Posted by Glenn at 12:39 PM | Link
|Web 2.0||YouTube|

• Warner/Chappell Music announced a sub-publishing deal with Disney Music Publishing. That puts the rights to over 10,000 Disney songs in the hands of Warner Music Group's publishing arm. (Read press release)

• UBC Media will launch a new service in the UK starting in May that will allow radio listeners to instantly download a playing song to a mobile phone or digital radio, as well as to their computer. Six radio groups and three major label groups -- WMG, Universal Music Group and EMI -- are on board; Virgin Mobile will be the first phone company to offer the service. UBC's chief executive calls it "radio's killer application," but there's a problem with the method of payment. Consumers will have to use a pre-paid account to buy the songs. Nothing says impulse purchase less than a pre-paid account. (Read article at The Scotsman)

• Fortune writer Devin Leonard asks, Can Web 2.0 can make music stars and rescue record labels? OK, who really thinks Second Life is a good place to market music? I'm skeptical. Selling music to virtual reality addicts who may or may not be avid music consumers strikes me as a potential waste of money. They're not the type of consumers who break a band, so if labels do go with Second Life it should be for established names. Anyway, the press labels will get from such different marketing strategies could be more productive than the actual marketing -- but that press will dry up eventually. Will Second Life break a band? Probably not. Will Second Life assist in breaking a band? Probably...but just assist. As with bands that supposedly rose to prominance through blogs, there's more going on than meets the media eye. (Read article at CNN Money)

• Speaking of breaking a band, here's another article on OK Go and YouTube. This one gets it right: "I don't think this works without all the TV appearances and endless touring these guys have done," said Capitol Records' Ted Mico. "It doesn't work in its own hermetically sealed box." (Read article at USA Today)

• Warner Music Group dropped to 25.80, is trading at a three and a half week low and has dropped below its 50-day moving average. On the positive side, WMG was trading at 17.80 a year ago. Encouraging results and EMI-related speculation pushed it higher, now some of that merger optimism is being squeezed out. WMG reports earnings this Friday. (Read article at Trading Markets, view at Google Finance)

• Country music makes its comeback in Los Angeles. (Read article at Los Angeles Times)

Posted by Glenn at 9:01 AM | Link
|Mobile Music||Publishing||Radio||Web 2.0|

• Here's a cool Web 2.0 site: Live Nation launched a social networking video site centered around the U.K. Download Festival. For a sample of the site's user-generated content, check out this upload titled "Wasted" and this clip of Guns N' Roses performing "November Rain." Roadrunner Records has will allow its acts to be streamed on the site for one year. Live Nation will work on licensing with other labels for future concerts. (Article at Billboard.biz)

• The Game's second album, The Doctor's Advocate (Black Wall Street/Geffen) has been bumped to November 14th from its original street date of November 7th. "It's OK (One Blood)" is the first single (watch the video at YouTube). The album's second single will be the Scott Storch-produced "Let's Ride." (Article at SOHH)

• A profile on Terry Reid, the "superstar who got away" who was approached by Jimmy Page to be the singer for Led Zeppelin. (Article at The Independent)

Posted by Glenn at 6:33 PM | Link
|Web 2.0|

• CNET writes about the new Microsoft Media Player 11 -- which has received some very good reviews -- and how Microsoft is now better in sync with its vendors. iRiver's new and well-received Clix (pictured) was built to compete with the seamless iTunes/iPod combination, and MTV's URGE is integrated into WMP 11. If it slays the iPod it won't happen overnight, but Microsoft appears to have put itself in a more competitive position. (CNET)

• How to get better audio quality from an iPod. (Wired, via Digital Audio Insider)

• Pitchfork's Chris Dahlen profiles music recommendation programs -- Last.fm, Pandora, et al -- which comprise one of the most anticipated segments of all Web 2.0 companies. (Pitchfork)

Posted by Glenn at 2:30 PM | Link
|Portable Music Players||Web 2.0|