Music Industry News

One Person's "Modern"

Source: Jazz Lives by Michael Steinman
June 1, 2010

When I was in graduate school, we knew that “modernism" began around the First World War; we are now in post-modernism," although the name makes me itchy, especially when it's collapsed into pomo."

I feel a kinship to “modernism" as practiced by Woolf, Joyce, Kandinsky, Stravinsky, and so on. Looking at the world through rose-colored glasses that are a little askew, intentionally. Breaking things up to see what nifty shapes they might take. Shoring those fragments against our ruins.

In ...

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Amazon and Walmart Tie for #2 U.S. Music Retailer

Source: HypeBot
June 1, 2010

iTunes Still #1 As Digital Grows

iTunes continued to be the top retailer of music with 28% of all music purchased by U.S. , up 4% since Q1 2009 according to researcher NPD. Amazon gained 3% to tie Walmart's shrinking music department for second position at 12%

Sales of digital tracks and albums accounted for 40% overall music sales in the first quarter of 2010, up 5% from Q1 2009.*

When reviewing sales ...

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Will MySpace Music Stay Free? It's up to the Labels

Source: HypeBot
June 1, 2010

At yesterday's TechCrunch Disrupt conference, MySpace co-presidents Jason Hirschhorn and Mike Jones were interviewed about the future of the struggling social networker.

On falling numbers -“We have 120 million unique visitors worldwide. US numbers have been fairly flat. Page views are down... substantially by design. MySpace used to have processes that took 10 page views that should have taken 1."

How important is music? “It's incredibly important. The pedigree of MySpace is around musicians. Free streaming access from record ...

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A Record Collection of Links

Source: HypeBot
June 1, 2010

Collecting In The Age Of Streaming Music The guest essay comes from Robbert van Ooijen, a graduating master student New Media & Digital Culture at the Dutch University of Utrecht. It's based on a research paper he wrote at the wonderful Dutch start-up Twones and asks what remains of the intimate relationship between collector and collection in the age of streaming music. van Ooijen also blogs @ HaveYouHeard.It.

The world is about to embrace streaming ...

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Will.i.am on Rave Culture

Source: Michael Ricci
June 1, 2010

“The underground is bigger than the surface. That's what people don't understand." Black Eyed Peas co-founder and producer will.i.am discussed his experiences discovering the first-wave rave scene in the early 1990s. In fact, he and Electric Daisy Carnival founder Pasquale Rotella went to high school together (Palisades Charter High School), and attended the same early raves and club nights (the most popular being Club What?). Here's an edited transcript of the conversation. Will was on the phone in Europe while ...

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Musicians Differ in Responses to Arizona's New Immigration Law

Source: Michael Ricci
May 29, 2010

For the singer Larry Hernandez, the 2010 Billboard Latin Music Awards should have been a moment of pure celebration.

But when it came time for Mr. Hernandez to accept his award as new artist of the year, he got drawn into politics, prefacing his remarks with a condemnation of the tough new immigration law that his home state of Arizona had just adopted.

It is deplorable that they are discriminating against us just for the simple fact of looking Latino, ...

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Musicians and Health Insurance: Taking the Pulse

Source: HypeBot
May 29, 2010

A new Future Of Music Coalition study “Taking the Pulse“ found that, of the 1,451 musicians who responded, 33% said they do not have health insurance. This is nearly twice the national average of 17% uninsured, as estimated by the Kaiser Family Foundation. (pdf of full report here.)

With that as a backdrop, the FMC is continuing its campaign to help musicians understand their health insurance options under the new health care law. Efforts include HINT, an online ...

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Phonograph Blues: Robert Johnson Mastered at Wrong Speed?

Source: All About Jazz
May 29, 2010

Robert Johnson's “The Complete Recordings," issued in 1990 by Columbia/Legacy, is one of the most popular blues collections ever released, and is undoubtedly the biggest- selling album ever by a pre-World War II bluesman.

The compilation of works by the late, legendary singer-guitarist -- originally released in two LP volumes, in 1961 and 1970 -- has been certified platinum.

A story published Thursday in the U.K. paper the Guardian now maintains that Johnson's dark, much-cherished blues have been reproduced for ...

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