Music Industry News

Record Label Rule Book Gets Startups No Where

Source: HypeBot
February 1, 2011

We're learning something important about music startups. If a company is cool and people like it, there's a good chance that they're either getting sued or working their way up the magical list. Grooveshark is a perfect example of this. More and more people are getting turned onto the site because the interface is pretty and the user experience is great. Is it the best music service? No. But it's the best at what it does.1 Then there's Sony's Music Unlimited ...

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The Neolin: Incomparable Electro-Acoustic Violin Choice for Jazz, Hip-Hop, Rock, Pop Musicians

Source: Jona Rapoport Artist Management/PR
January 31, 2011

Bodo Vosshenrich, a master violin maker in France, creates distinct instruments for today's musicians. He dares a novel electro-acoustic approach to the violin, destined for the new generation of musicians who play popular, improvised and amplified music (Rock, Hip-Hop, Pop, Jazz, Electro...). They now have their own voice: the Neolin!

Owners of the Neolin include renowned UK jazz violinist Chris Garrick; Didier Lockwood, Mani Neumann (Farfarello) and others.

Find it in the US at Blaise Kielar's Electric Violin Shop, and ...

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Worth the Gamble? Rdio Lands the Latest Round...

Source: Digital Music News
January 29, 2011

Rdio's got that shine that attracts investors, but is this a horse that'll still be trotting in five years? Well, the guys at Mangrove Capital Partners think so. The Luxembourg-based VCs are the latest to plunk down on Rdio, according to details confirmed by partner publication paidContent. The tip-off was an off-the-cuff tweet by Mangrove cofounder and managing partner Mark Tluszcz. But Mangrove isn't disclosing the amount.

Actually, the tweet was sent to MC Hammer, himself a digitally-savvy fellow. “@MCHammer ...

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Why Creating a Perfect Digital Music Service is Really, Really Hard

Source: We All Make Music
January 29, 2011

If you've ever wondered why these dadgum deals involving cloud music or Spotify or eMusic or whoever seem to take forever, well, this will be of great interest to you. At MIDEM this week, Music Ally put on something called a Music Licensing Crash Test, in which a fictional digital music service tries to launch. Real life actors, including the head of digital at Domino Records, the Executive Vice President of ...

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You Have to Network, but You Can't Engage in "Networking"

Source: We All Make Music
January 28, 2011

If “networking" seems unnatural, it might be because you're doing it for the wrong reasons. The other day, How to Run a Band's Seth Jackson ran an interview with Whiskey Tango about getting their music featured in a film. At the very bottom, Jackson posted a brief (but true) takeaway: they networked with friends that happened to be in the film biz. So making friends seems to be the way to go in order really grow your band. That stirred ...

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Indies: They Suddenly Have a Major Problem...

Source: Digital Music News
January 27, 2011

Indies typically have far less resources than major labels, but far better artist-to-fan bonds. A Katy Perry fan will be gone tomorrow, generally speaking, while a Belle & Sebastian fan will stick around. And that, more than anything, has offered indies some insulation from the avalanche being suffered by the majors.

In previous years at Midem, we actually bumped into indies having great years. But this year, a number were saying something different. Specifically, that good fan engagement seems to ...

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Play Along with Records the Right Way with Jammit

Source: We All Make Music
January 27, 2011

Some of the greatest musicians of our time learned their instruments by trial and error: playing along with their favorite records, imitating what they heard other players doing, and just trusting their ears.

Today, thanks to Jammit, there's not only an app for that. There's an app that makes that process so much more helpful.

Created by hard rock producer Scott Humphrey, Jammit essentially updates the time-honored tradition of learning a song by listening to it over and over and ...

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#Midem w/ Berklee's Dave Kusek on Future of Music

Source: HypeBot
January 27, 2011

Dave Kusek, President of Berklee's online music school and co-author of The Future Of Music, gave MIDEM attendees a look at the music business from the perspective of the creative people working in it and how it works for them. “After all," says Kusek, “that is where music comes from." He also included case studies of alternative music business models.  Here are the slides of his MIDEM and NAMM presentation: Kusek Music Business 2011 ...

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