Category Archives for "Music Industry News"
November 2, 2016
Packaging Band Member Remains A New Way To Sell Albums
Sales of physical product are declining year after year yet record labels, artists and bands continue to release them. As formats that you can hold in your hand become much less desirable, it’s more difficult to get the public interested in purchasing them. The experimental San Francisco band Negativland has found a way to go beyond the usual value-adds included […]
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October 31, 2016
Avenged Sevenfold And Warner Music Test The 7 Year Rule
California has an interesting law on the books called the “7 Year Rule” that releases employees from a personal services contract, like a record deal, after 7 years. Th was actually part of a law that was enacted way back in 1872 as a way to protect the then burgeoning entertainment industry and helped to […]
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October 26, 2016
Will We See Higher Royalty Rates From SiriusXM Soon?
Low royalty rates are something that concerns every artist, label, songwriter and publisher. The good news is that they’re gradually rising, and since there are more paying subscribers to streaming services every year, the revenue pie is also getting larger. This may take an even better turn if the proposed new rate increase that SoundExchange wants from SiriusXM […]
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October 25, 2016
Dirk Ulrich From Brainworx And Plugin Alliance On Episode #132 Of My Latest Inner Circle Podcast
Dirk Ulrich is the founder of 2 great music plugin companies, Brainworx and Plugin Alliance, but his journey into software development involved an extensive stint as a studio owner and producer first. In this interview, we talk about some of the company’s very cool plugins, Dirk’s outlook on the future of plugins, as well as […]
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October 24, 2016
11 Popular Artists Still Not Streaming
Billboard recently posted a very interesting article about 11 artists, some major, that still can’t be be found on a streaming network. While you have to admire that they stand for their principles, it does seem to be a somewhat dated view, since streaming has not only become a major source of income for previous […]
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October 19, 2016
Amazon’s Actually Losing Money From It’s New Music Service
The major record labels are adamant about keeping the price of a music streaming subscription at $9.99 per month, regardless of the platform, so it was a great surprise last week when Amazon announced that its new Amazon Music Unlimited service was priced at $7.99 per month for Amazon Prime members. It turns out that the […]
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October 13, 2016
Don’t Be Fooled By Amazon Music Unlimited’s Price
Amazon has finally launched it’s long awaited stand-alone streaming music service and it’s called Amazon Music Unlimited. On the surface it has a number of interesting features that differentiate it from the other major streaming services, but one has to wonder whether potential users will find them compelling enough to subscribe. Perhaps the service’s biggest […]
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October 12, 2016
There’s A New Sound Recording Metadata Standard
Many artists, bands and musicians don’t think much about metadata when creating a song but record labels take it very seriously. It’s a major way to be able to track a song to make sure that all the stakeholders get paid. That said, metadata isn’t standardized and is sometimes filled out incorrectly, defeating its purpose. […]
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October 10, 2016
Spotify’s Paid Over A Billion Dollars To Record Labels This Year
The major record labels seem to have it out for Spotify, but the platform is contributing mightily to their bottom lines. It’s been reported that the company has already paid $1.2 billion dollars in royalties to the music industry this year, and over $5 billion lifetime. The platform is paying out around $133 million per […]
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October 5, 2016
Amoeba Music Can Now Sell Weed Too
In what seems to be a match made in heaven, the Amoeba Music record store based in Berkeley, CA can soon begin selling marijuana as well. An Amoeba employee leaked the announcement on Facebook, according to Fact. It’s been reported that the store intends to put a dispensary where its current Jazz Room is now located to […]
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October 3, 2016
YouTube Misses The Point With Its Lyor Cohen Hire
If you want to start a music label executive ranting and raving, just mention YouTube. It’s currently public enemy #1 to the music industry thanks to its relative intransigence over royalty payouts that execs and artists alike feel are way too low. That’s a good reason why Youtube may think its brand new hire of […]
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September 28, 2016
Is The Music Supervisor Killing Songwriting?
In my experience there are two kinds of songwriters. One writes completely from the heart as an expression of art, while the second does it more as a business, writing whatever the situation calls for. Neither is more noble than the other, they’re just different, and both require a tremendous amount of skill and passion. That said, […]
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September 26, 2016
Apple Music At 17 Million Subscribers After 70 Exclusives
Record labels hate giving exclusives to streaming services, but they appear to be working when it comes to signing up new paid subscribers. During Apple’s latest product rollout, CEO Tim Cook mentioned that Apple Music was now at 17 million subscribers thanks to over 70 exclusives with artist like Taylor Swift, Frank Ocean and Drake. The […]
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September 21, 2016
Yeah, People Still Buy Songs, Especially When They’re 69 Cents
There’s an experiment going on in Apple’s iTunes Store that not many are paying attention to, but it just might prolong the download side of the music business for a few more years. It’s true that streaming is all the rage, with subscription numbers increasing at a steady pace while the download business is falling […]
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September 14, 2016
Will The New Cheap Tier From Pandora And Amazon Be Worth It?
Ever since music streaming began in earnest, there’s been a mantra inside the music industry that’s gone something like this – “Until the paid subscription rate gets to $5 per month, streaming is never going to scale.†That’s only partially been true, as subscriber numbers have grown steadily at the now standard $10 per month, […]
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