modern music marketing

Hillary Rosen wants to help you!

So I'm checking out the new celebrity blog, The Huffington Post, and see an article written by the music business' own version of Katherine Harris, Hillary Rosen. And she's writing about her problems with the iPod!

Here's an excerpt:

I know Steve Jobs is a god. Look, I bowed at his feet when the iPod and iTunes was created because HE GOT THE BALL ROLLING. He is as laconically casually cool as Bono and makes really good cartoon movies too. But keeping the iTunes system a proprietary technology to prevent anyone from using multiple (read Microsoft) music systems is the most anti-consumer and user unfriendly thing any god can do. Is this the same Jobs that railed for years about the Microsoft monopoly? Is taking a page out of their playbook the only way to have a successful business? If he isn’t careful Bill Gates might just Betamax him while the crowds cheer him on. Come on Steve – open it up.

Complete Post on The Huffington Post Website   

first full album on a memory card

EMI and the UK’s biggest mobile communications retailer, The Carphone Warehouse, have teamed up to offer the first full album on a memory card. UK artist Robbie Williams has released his latest album, Robbie Williams Greatest Hits, plus video content, on a tiny stamp-sized gadget that slides into the user’s mobile phone, allowing them to listen to Williams and see videos on their mobile.

Record Labels Said to Be Next on Spitzer List for Scrutiny

Elliot Spitzer, the New York State attorney general is casting his eyes on the music industry, particularly its practices for influencing what songs are heard on the public airwaves.

According to several people involved, investigators in Mr. Spitzer's office have served subpoenas on the four major record corporations - the Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, the EMI Group and the Warner Music Group - seeking copies of contracts, billing records and other information detailing their ties to independent middlemen who pitch new songs to radio programmers in New York State.

The inquiry encompasses all the major radio formats and is not aiming at any individual record promoter, these people said. Mr. Spitzer and representatives for the record companies declined to comment.

The U2 iPod

(via Paid Content) Rumors on this surfaced yesterday and Forbes.com is confirming it...the U2 edition of iPod will come preloaded with the band's new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, along with portions of the group's 25-year catalog. The iPods will be black and will be made available the same week as the band's 11th studio album, to be released on November 23.

The custom iPods are part of a larger agreement between the band and Apple. The company will have exclusive rights to sell all the songs from the new album online through its iTunes Music Store for at least the first few weeks following the release.

A look at record pools

...With CD sales slipping in recent years, marketing is even more crucial for artists. Whether you blame bad music, Internet piracy or competition for entertainment dollars, the music industry saw CD sales drop an estimated 15 percent to 31 percent since 2000. News this year is encouraging, however, as sales have increased nearly 5 percent thus far over last year with 463 million CDs sold.

Record labels throw promotional weight behind the Jay-Zs, John Mayers and Pinks of the industry, while the Ciaras struggle for attention. Radio stations tend to stick with proven hit-makers rather than risk having listeners turn the dial because they don't recognize a song or artist.

Nightclubs have long been a breaking ground for new music, but with the consolidation of the industry into four major labels, and a few media conglomerates controlling most of the radio stations, it's tougher to promote new music by unknown artists.

"(`Goodies') is a record that made it because of record pools," said independent promoter Vernon Shelton, of Charlotte-based Voodoo Music Inc....

Full Story

Arenas in trouble?

While business was up earlier this year at clubs, theaters and arenas, according to midyear stats released by industry magazine Pollstar, business dropped dramatically at the nation's amphitheaters.

The numbers tell a scary story for large amphitheaters and their owners. The total tickets sold for the nation's top 50 clubs was up 400,000 while top theaters saw an impressive increase of 840,000 and the top arenas jumped 800,000. Meanwhile the top 50 amphitheaters, nicknamed "sheds" in the industry, reported a decrease of 1.1 million tickets - a 35 percent dip.

"Clearly, something is happening to the public's perception of the amphitheater experience," read the 2004 midyear business analysis, which called the trend "the most startling statistics" within the report and was careful to point out that "the heart of the shed season has yet to play out, but it appears that outdoor venues are going to take the brunt of the downturn we are seeing in sales."

Videogames and Rock

The kids like rock and roll. The kids like videogames. So, why not put them together?

That’s the basic marketing concept behind this year’s Nintendo Fusion Tour featuring Story Of The Year, lostprophets, My Chemical Romance and Letter Kills.
This is the second year that Nintendo has put major sponsorship behind a rock tour and sent videogame demos out with the bands. This year the draw is a combination of up-and-coming indie rockers Story of the Year and a chance for game fans to sample some top-notch Nintendo fare and get a sneak peek at the new Nintendo portable system, the Nintendo DS.

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Green Day is encouraging fans to burn their own compilation CDs.

Green Day is encouraging fans to burn their own compilation CDs. In the buildup to Tuesday's release of "American Idiot," the band's Web site is offering a set of custom-printed blank discs. Each CD-R features different artwork, one with a photo of the Reprise Records neo-punk band and the others with album cover art from "Dookie," "Nimrod," "Warning" and the new release. The five blanks come with color-coordinated cases as a special boxed set for $7.99 with free shipping. Some industry observers have said that this is one way artists can make money from people copying their friends' music collections. The purchasing information does instruct users to "burn responsibly" by acquiring music legally and encourages fans to create their own best-of-Green Day compilations using these discs. To quote the site's irreverent wording: "You've downloaded the music. Now here's a place to shove it."

Site plans to help fans find offbeat sounds

EMUSIC plans to start a new online music service that will give independent musicians a place of their own.
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The site will sell only music from 3,700 independent labels, a total of a half-million tracks.
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The aim is to help fans locate the small, the obscure and the eccentric - and, in doing so, grab a chunk of the $2 billion to $3 billion in revenue generated annually by independent music labels.

Prepaid Music

An interesting article about the profitability of prepaid services and notes how it's being used for music downloads...so it's possible for you to sell prepaid cards at shows which would allow fans to download your music...hmmm

...In Europe and Asia, the trend to offer SMS, multimedia messaging service (MMS), gambling, games, and music dowloads is picking up tremendous momentum. For example, in Japan ringtones, gaming, video and music clips have gained enough popularity that NTT DoCoMo has signed thousands of contracts with content providers.

SmarTone Mobile Communications, Hong Kong's leading mobile network operator in multimedia services, is introducing attractive content services as are Orange and Vodafone in Europe.

Telecom Italia has launched broadband prepay services and P&T Luxembourg has implemented prepaid for its 2G (GSM) and 3G (UMTS) networks.

Pre- and postpaid convergence is taking place globally, as evidenced by Indonesia's Excelcom, Taiwan's Far EasTone, France's SFR Groupe Cegetel, Romania's Connex and Turkey's Terkscell - all of whom have implemented or are in the throes of implementing rating and billing in support of hybrid services...