It’s been no secret that SoundCloud has been up for sale for some time. Both Twitter and Spotify reportedly looked into acquiring the service and decided against it over the last few years. Now the latest rumor has Google acquiring SoundCloud for around $500 million, which is about half of what it was going for […]
Continue readingWhen we think online audience engagement, we usually think of views or streams. There’s a lot more to it than that though, as this infographic from Statista shows how industry insiders evaluate true engagement. As you can see, Shares are the #1 most valuable engagement element, closely followed by the actual amount of time users dwell on […]
Continue readingGrammy-winning engineer Tim Latham has worked with a wide variety of artists across many musical genres, including the Black Eyed Peas, Kid Rock, Lou Reed, Erykah Badu, De La Soul, A Tribe Called Quest, The Roots, Britney Spears and many more, and he’s the guest on Episode #142 of my Inner Circle Podcast. Tim has […]
Continue readingOut of all the music streaming networks, Tidal seems to get more than its fair share of publicity. No doubt that’s because it’s owned by a music celebrity (Jay-Z), but for a relatively small player in the streaming game, Tidal manages to punch above its weight. The company recently released some interesting numbers that covered […]
Continue readingHere’s the Music Industry News Roundup for the week of December 30th, 2016, the last week of the year. As expected, there hasn’t been much in the way of blockbuster news, but there have been some interesting pieces. Mozart was not #1 in album sales. A story made the rounds that a box set by the […]
Continue readingIt looks like you can expect a lot more from Facebook in 2017 in more ways than one. The company is advertising for an in-house composer to add to its in-house sound design team. According to the advert: The in-house Music Composer role requires 10+ years of professional experience in the music industry, plus experience […]
Continue readingIf you look closely, streaming is teaching us all some marketing lessons, according to analytics service Next Big Sound (now owned by Pandora), a company that looks at social, streaming and event data as well as the interaction between an artist and a fan. While many look at it as just a way to get their […]
Continue readingEpisode 141 of my Inner Circle Podcast features my annual year end review as well as a look ahead to what might happen in the music business in 2017. So much went down last year that was eventful, and some of it was completely under the radar, so you’ll want to listen to this episode for […]
Continue readingIn an effort to “own the topic of music online,” the Hollywood Reporter-Billboard Media Group has acquired SpinMedia, whose assets include Spin, Vibe and Stereogum. This means that the company is now the world’s largest online music brand and its sites will see traffic of about 45 million per month as a result. It will […]
Continue readingHere’s the Music Industry News Roundup for the week of December 23rd, 2016. Surprisingly enough, there’s a lot of music business-related and social news this week, despite the Holiday season. iHeart Radio is in big financial trouble. Radio is dying in general, and a few years ago when the hedge funds bought in they didn’t realize that […]
Continue readingEvery artist, whether they’re selling out arenas or still working in clubs, has two types of fans. Most artists never bother to differentiate between the two and therefore don’t grow their fan base as quickly because they tend to cater to the wrong group. In this excerpt from the latest edition of my Music 4.1: […]
Continue readingVideo is an important part of every artist’s tool box these days. While many prefer to stay within the confines of produced videos uploaded to YouTube or Facebook, live streaming video can be extremely effective as well. Google Hangouts and Facebook Live have been the predominant ways to broadcast to fans and followers, but Facebook has […]
Continue readingMike Elizondo is a musician, songwriter and producer who’s worked with hit artists as diverse as Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent, to Kieth Urban, Maroon 5 and Carrie Underwood, to Avenged Sevenfold and Mastadon. He was nominated for producer of the year in 2008, and has a ton of huge singles and albums to […]
Continue readingIf you read my Production Blog, the you’ve probably seen my 10 Cool Holiday Gifts For Musicians post a few days ago. Here’s another gift guide, but this one concentrates just on music business and social media. 1. Music 4.1: A Survival Guide For Making Music In The Internet Age You know that I’m biased […]
Continue readingHere’s the Music Industry News Roundup for the week of December 16th, 2016. There are a lot of interesting news items again this week (more than usual for so late in the Holiday season), so let’s get right into it. Global music grew by a billion dollars in 2016. That’s a big deal because it was at […]
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