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Music Industry

YouTube Music Key Streaming Service Finally Launches - Free and Paid

Source: HypeBot
November 13, 2014

The long promised YouTube music service finally launched today. Based on the freemium model. YouTube Music Key comes in two parts. The free version, for now at least, attempts to make sense of the fire hose of music that YouTube already offers by adding a dedicated “Music" tab with playlists. A version adds full access to GooglePlay Music 30 million track catalog and all of the features you'd expect from a $9.99 music serivce plus the addition of video. Discovery - At it's ...

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Music Industry

Robert Plant Ripped up Richard Branson's $800 Million Offer to Reunite Led Zeppelin

Source: HypeBot
November 11, 2014

Particularly in this age of mega-sponsorship deals and music in advertising, there's something noble about a musician who says 'no, this doesn't feel right' to a big pile of money. Robert Plant apparently did just that with an offer from Sir Richard Branson to do just 35 shows with his old Led Zeppelin bandmates. Plant is said to have ripped up contract for 35 dates in just three cities in front of “astonished promoters" after the other members of Zep had ...

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Music Industry

CD Baby Reduces Shipping on CD Orders to 1

Source: HypeBot
November 11, 2014

We love it when companies try things that help independent artists make more money, and CD Baby is doing just that with a promotion designed to sell more CDs during the upcoming holiday gift giving season. For a limited time, standard domestic and international shipping for CD sales through CDBaby.com will be just 1¢; and it will not affect how much artists make from CD sales or the pricing they have set. Starting December 1, 2014 (Cyber Monday) and running for ...

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Music Industry

The Shearing Sound That Wasn't

Source: JazzWax by Marc Myers
November 10, 2014

In 1948, George Shearing and Buddy DeFranco were kicking around the idea of forming a quintet. With Shearing's block chords and Buddy's bop clarinet combined with their speed, they figured they'd knock out audiences. They performed together with bassist John Levy and drummer Denzil Best at the Clique Club, which would become Birdland a year later. But business and technology got in the way. With the advent of the 10-inch LP, Buddy was signed to Capitol in 1949 while Shearing ...

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Music Industry

The Lead Sheet: Twin Cities Live Jazz, November 7-13

Source: JazzINK by Andrea Canter
November 8, 2014

As we settle into standard time, shorter days, cooler nights, and the beginning of the holiday media blast, it's comforting to have our favorite jazz venues running at full tilt. This weekend includes the final three nights of the Zeitgeist New Music Cabaret at Studio Z, a favorite voice of jazz in a rare vocal night at the Black Dog, a return engagement at St Barneys with one of the most swinging instrumental duos in any town, and the third ...

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Music Industry

The RIAA Responds: How David Pakman Shortchanged Role of Record Label

Source: HypeBot
November 6, 2014

By Steven Marks (Chief, Digital Business & General Counsel, RIAA) on RIAA's Music Notes Blog I respect David and his accomplishments in the music space, but his blog “The Artist’s Share” misses the mark. The piece wrongly assumed that labels pay royalties to artists and simply keep the rest. This is not the case. Let’s take a closer look at the value labels actually bring to the table. First, the numbers. A label P&L (balance sheet) looks far different than ...

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Music Industry

If You Schmooze, You Lose: 5 Things to Avoid at SF Music Tech

Source: HypeBot
November 5, 2014

We've all been there - you walk into a conference where hundreds of people are gathered for a common cause or interest, and without fail, there are those people who know they can do “it" better than everyone else in attendance. Whatever “it" is, they've got the monopoly on the best ideas and they're going to let you know about it. You find yourself in a cesspool that reeks omnipotent elitists schmoozing while tauting their over-inflated egos and choking on their sales pitch. ...

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Music Industry

It's Time for a Streaming Pricing Reset

Source: HypeBot
November 4, 2014

By Mark Mulligan of MiDA on his Music Industry blog. There is a growing realization that that streaming revenue is not growing quickly enough to offset the impact of declining download sales. It is an eerily familiar echo of the recurring narrative of the noughties that download sales were not growing quickly enough to offset the impact of declining CD sales. The situation is very different now in that the industry licenses the disruptive force. Back in the noughties the ...

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