Music Industry News

Pow!: Tigran Hamasyan, Wunderkind or Just Good?

Source: Inverted Garden by Eric Benson
February 8, 2011

Tigran Hamasyan—Solo + Quintet Tuesday, February 8th at 7 Le Poisson Rouge When I started receiving emails from Search & Restore about the upcoming appearance of the Armenian piano whizkid Tigran, I thought it best to approach with extreme caution. Our society is obsessed with prodigies, but especially in jazz, words like “whizkid" often equate to “flame-out." Jazz wunderkinds don't suffer the typical case of too-much, too-soon—even star jazz musicians don't make enough to snort fortunes ...

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Mobile Social Net MocoSpace Wants MySpace

Source: HypeBot
February 8, 2011

Amid all the rumors of who might or might not be buying MySpace from parent News Corp., the one that has had the most legs has now been confirmed. MocoSpace, creators of mobile social network, hopes to buy the struggling social network. “MySpace was a pioneer in the social revolution and we think their business could be paired synergistically with our offerings," according to MocoSpace CEO, Justin Siegel. “MocoSpace and MySpace would be a powerful combo in the social networking ...

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MP3 Rocket - "Hey RIAA Boss, Our Users Do Not File-Share Music Anymore, They Time Shift It!"

Source: HypeBot
February 8, 2011

Here we go again. MP3 Rocket is mostly known for being a LimeWire spin-off. Not anymore. The company has dropped the P2P functionality of their service and gone legit—sort of. Due to the declining quantity and quality of the MP3s available over the Gnutella network, as well as mounting legal concerns, they have decided to reposition themselves as YouTube downloading technology. The client works as it did before, but with one exception. When users search for music, the results that ...

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The Case Against Artist Management

Source: HypeBot
February 8, 2011

This post is by Robin Davey of The Hoax and The Bastard Fairies.  Interview. Managers don't know more than you about the music business. They may know more people in the business, but it doesn't mean they know more about it. It's a bold statement I know, but the reality is the music business they now deal with is changing so rapidly, that everybody is learning and it's a level playing field now. The old school ideology is over. The previous management model was based ...

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Ticketbattle! - The Ticketmaster, AEG Deathmatch

Source: HypeBot
February 5, 2011

AEG has joined forces with OutBox to take over ticketing at its105 arenas and theaters. This positions the company as a direct rival of Livenation's Ticketmaster. But according to Andrew Dreskin, CEO of Ticketfly, this is mark of growth that will drive competition and lower ticket prices for fans. In a statement to Hypebot, Dreskin expressed concern that, “Concert ticket prices and service fees for the largest acts have gotten out of control." Back in 1996, the average price of a ...

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The Most Popular Music Websites in 2010

Source: HypeBot
February 5, 2011

yan Van Etten (@ryanve), Editor/Producer of VirtualMusic.tv, has created a fascinating music website heat map; it depicts estimated web-based music consumption in the U.S. in 2010.

The visualization is based on traffic data from Compete. Green indicates positive growth in 2010. Red indicates negative growth in 2010. Notable is the fact that cloud-based music services, aside from we7 and Rdio, had a bad year traffic-wise. we7 and Rdio may have grown, but they appear to hold a much smaller percentage ...

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Where Local Music Ecology Goes when It Dies

Source: HypeBot
February 4, 2011

The record industry is dying. That's what we're told. The corporate behemoths have for too long gouged music fans and screwed over artists. Thus, the digital revolution is equal parts murder and suicide.  Major labels shot themselves in the face and everyone else dug their grave. Yet behind the scenes of this tragedy, something much worse looms. Our local ecologies of music culture are vanishing. And the landscape has been tilted against their development. This is the natural, living part.  And unlike ...

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YouTube Says Free Music Now Pays as Well as Paid Music Plus What That Means for Music Streaming

Source: HypeBot
February 4, 2011

Citing growing traffic, a 200-300% jump in advertising revenue over the last year and an imporved Content ID system that allows music rightsholders to profit from infringing content (like  videos of cats singing Lady Gaga), YouTube says that free content on its site is often returning as much revenue as paid music. “Our larger music partners on the site are making millions of dollars per month," YouTube director of content partnerships Chris Maxcy told Evolver.fm. “The other thing that's astounding ...

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