Music Industry News

Music Industry

The Outpost Influences of Julee and Junko.

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
June 6, 2010

I haven't engaged in a thorough binge of pandering to women in a while so I'm way overdue. I've also been neglecting frumpy little Boston lately. The good old Outpost is a wealth of material so let me make what I may of this convergence as I embark on yet another lazy post by exploiting meaningful coincidences.

While the participation of women as musicians in free jazz is about as expansive as its ever been, their role on the advocacy, ...

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Music Industry

Why Your Right to Sell Promo CDs Matters

Source: HypeBot
June 5, 2010

This guest post is by Fred von Lohmann, the Senior Staff Attorney of the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

On Monday, a federal court of appeals in Seattle will consider whether it is legal to resell “promo CDs." You've seen them, the CDs mailed out for free by record labels to industry insiders, reviewers, and radio stations, each bearing the label “promotional use only, not for resale." Do those labels stand up in court? And why should you care?

The case pits ...

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Music Industry

Value-Added Music Gets a Logo

Source: HypeBot
June 5, 2010

Music industry trade group NARM has created a promotional icon and messaging program dubbed “music + more“ to support the sale of physical, digital and mobile music that contains value-added or enhanced content. An October 2009 Deluxe Products Survey showed that 60% of respondents believe that consumers are “more likely" to purchase deluxe product over the standard CD once they are aware of it. The Deluxe Product Workgroup which created the campaign includes representatives from NARM member companies ...

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Music Industry

Jazz for Society's Darkest Side

Source: Michael Ricci
June 3, 2010

POISSY, FRANCE On a recent afternoon, an incongruous sound was seeping into the central courtyard of the Maison Centrale de Poissy, the highest security prison in the Paris region. Some of the most dangerous convicts in the country were being treated to an explosive improvisation by the Gregksy Trio, a Paris-based experimental electro-jazz band, as part of the annual Saint-Germain-des-Pres jazz festival. The two-week festival, which finished last weekend, celebrated its 10th anniversary this year with about two dozen gigs, ...

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Music Industry

Europe, Taxes and All That Jazz

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
June 3, 2010

Reading about the impending demise of the JazzBaltica festival, and noting the European allusion in Matt's recent posting, it struck me how unexamined is this business of European jazz subsidy-and how seemingly anomalous. What's actually behind their willingness to lay out tax spondulics? The meager explanation we've been fed all along is that Europeans are simply “more cultured" than we Americans, care more about the arts, etc. Come on, people, does this 19th century explanation ring true to you? Not ...

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Music Industry

Top Ten Reasons Why "Best of" Lists Suck

Source: Brilliant Corners, a Boston Jazz Blog
June 2, 2010

The “Best Of" List Industry continues to grind out the sausages. Downbeat Magazine's recent listing of the 25 Favorite Big Band Albums is not the worst example, but it did snap this camel's back. Call it vain, call it ironic, but in an attempt to undermine this international conspiracy, I offer my own top ten list:

1. Usually there's no commentary at all to validate a listing. If there is, it doesn't.

2. Hyper-selectivity is anathema to discovery. Stumbling through ...

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Music Industry

Tax Talk

Source: Visa Views
June 9, 2010

Don't have enough to worry about?  Just when you thought it was safe to go into the water, up floats the issue of taxes and the artist visa.First consideration:  Who pays the taxes?  Is it the foreigner, the sponsor or someone else?Most U.S. income received by a foreigner (while on an artist visa), is subject to a U.S. tax rate of 30%.  If you're lucky, there's a tax treaty between your home country and ...

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Music Industry

The 10 Worst Music Catalog Marketing Ideas Ever

Source: HypeBot
June 9, 2010

From The Orchard's Daily Rind blog via Proper Discord:

1.“We've noticed that a competitor's compilation is selling well, so we spent five minutes creating an almost identical one, and although we are offering no promotional plan or marketing support, we'd like you devise and fund a major retail marketing campaign for it."

2. “Wagner for Relaxation"

3. “You already have this product in stock, but we'll be sending you a new copy with slightly different artwork. Can you ...

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