China is becoming a hot place for music, as Western influences gradually seep into the country. Last year hip-hop became a dominant force in Chinese music (although mostly with Chinese artists, not American imports) and now it looks like electronic music is hitting there too. As a result, Sony Music has launched a new label […]
Continue readingOne of the things that music consumers love about vinyl records is the liner notes on the album cover. Those of us who grew up in the vinyl era know that we’d frequently buy an album based on the credits that were listed, as many times it indicated a level of quality or taste that […]
Continue readingIf ever there was a moment where you saw a format die, it’s this one. Best Buy has informed all record labels that it will no longer stock CDs in its stores as of July 1st. Not only that, if labels don’t play ball with Target’s new terms, that company won’t stock them either. This […]
Continue readingWhen we look at streaming subscriber numbers, it always looks as if Spotify is in a commanding lead with over 70 million paid users as compared to Apple Music’s 36 million. But as we’ve seen so many times before, statistics can be deceiving. According to an article in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required to […]
Continue readingChris SD is a music producer who’s worked on 5 albums that have won Juno Awards (Canada’s Grammys) among his 7 nominations, and he was also nominated as Engineer Of The Year in 2012. He’s a clever guy who came up with the idea of starting an online recording studio that brings world-class talent to […]
Continue readingUp until now, official artists video channels were part of the record label-owned Vevo, much to the chagrin of Google-owned YouTube, but now the platform is fighting back by launching its own version of artist channels. Starting this week all unofficial channels will be consolidated into one YouTube artist destination. Vevo stands for “Video EVOlution” and […]
Continue readingSpotify has been in running battles with songwriters and publishers for the last year over the fact that the platform was playing music without complete copyright information, and therefore without a license. This has resulted in several lawsuits against the streaming giant, with more threatened. A new free service launched recently by SXWorks, a subsidiary of […]
Continue readingWe live in a new world where promotion is no longer left solely to the record label. Now a good artist management team knows that they must be proactive online in order to increase the branding and visibility of their artists. In this excerpt from my Music 4.0: A Survival Guide For Making Music in […]
Continue readingWhile payouts averaging $0.005 to $0.007 to artists from streaming seems pretty minimal, it’s even worse for songwriters, who generally only see about a tenth of that revenue. That’s why the recent ruling by the Copyright Royalty Board’s (CRB) that awards songwriters a 44% increase is so important. While still just a fraction of what […]
Continue readingThis week’s podcast features Roy LaManna, who is the founder and CEO of Vydia, a music video technology platform that allows artists to distribute to network partners like MTV, Fuse, BET, and Nickelodeon, and publish their videos platforms like Vevo, YouTube, Daily Motion, and Facebook. The platform also helps artists to monetize their videos, while […]
Continue readingOne way to invest in the stock market reasonably safely is by investing in an index fund, which is a type of mutual fund with a portfolio constructed to match or track a market index, such as the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (S&P 500). Advantages of an index fund include broad market exposure combined with very low operating expenses, so it becomes sort of […]
Continue readingYouTube has decided to begin assigning ID numbers to creators using the International Standard Name Identifier (ISNI) initiative, which may be enough to other distributors to begin adopting the system as well. The platform will share ISNIs with its label and publishing partners in an effort to promote the standard. ISNI is the ISO-certified global standard number […]
Continue readingThanks to online website builders like WordPress, Wix, Weebly and Squarespace, it’s now incredibly fast and easy for an artist or band to set up a website. That said, just because it’s easy to do doesn’t mean that what you’ll come up with will be visually appealing. Since so much of website engagement is built around how the site looks […]
Continue readingSome states want to lure film and television business to shoot in their cities by offering a tax incentive, but Georgia is concentrating on the music business. On January 1st, the new Music Investment Act went into effect offering 15% of tax relief for tours and music projects created in the state. House Bill 155 gives […]
Continue readingMy guest on the podcast this week is Billy Decker, who was one of the first mixers in Nashville to embrace mixing in the box and one of the first to mix a #1 single ITB as well. All totaled, he has mixed eight #1 hits so far for artists like Kenny Chesney, Darius Rucker, […]
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