The online availability allows access from anywhere (and anytime), perfect for professionals and even touring musicians. The course starts with a broader look at the shifting music industry and emerging technologies. It then winds through specific applications, sites, and methods for distributing and marketing music online. “By the end of this certificate program, you’ll have an in-depth understanding of the major changes and innovations affecting the music industry, a professional level understanding of both online and physical marketing strategies, and a fully timed, integrated, and optimized marketing plan that you can employ to build up your digital touch points, generate interest in your music, and sell your music online,” the course description explains.

Other future-focused courses are also on the way. That includes ‘Pro Tools: Virtual Instruments and Effects With Topspin’ and ‘Online Music Marketing with Topspin,’ both classes that starts early next month on Berkleemusic.com. The college is planning to officially disclose the courses later this afternoon.

But how bad? According to details disclosed by Nielsen Soundscan at Canadian Music Week on Thursday, album sales slid 2.2 percent last year to 35.1 million units, part of a broader slide over the past few years. Nielsen Company senior vice president of Analytics & Client Relations David Bakula noted that album sales have been “down about 20 percent over the last four or five years.”

But the real number is probably worse. The calculation relied on ‘TEAs,’ or track-equivalent albums. Instead of a straight-ahead album count, the TEA aggregates ten individually-sold songs and treats them as an album unit, a debatable approach.

On the digital front, Canada also has a familiar problem. According to the stats, a ‘record’ 56 million digital tracks were purchased in 2009, an increase of nearly 40 percent. Additionally, digital album sales accounted for 13.6 percent of total album sales. That is up from 9 percent during the previous year, though digital formats are failing to compensate for broader physical declines. By comparison, the digital album percentage in the US was 20.6 percent last year.

And vinyl? Different country, same story. “Vinyl sales were huge in percentage terms, but really less than a quarter percent of all sales were vinyl,” noted Vanessa Thomas, SVP of Sales at Nielsen Music.

So how will this partnership work? SoundExchange is focused on recording royalties on digital and satellite streams, areas not pursued by iLike. But this deal is not about direct royalty payments; rather, it involves database matching for artists that have uploaded their information onto iLike. “Essentially, we’re acting on behalf of thousands of artists,” Partovi explained. “They have money sitting in escrow, so no one was really benefiting.”

The next step involves sending checks to artists with positive matches, many of whom are in for a nice surprise ($1,000 or more in many cases). But according to Partovi, the $8 million was just a first-run effort involving the smaller iLike database, and a broader initiative involving MySpace Music remains forthcoming. “MySpace has a much larger database, so we’ll be unlocking even more money,” Partovi continued.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in San Francisco.

In context, publishers were getting a bit beat up at the Seminar.  Over and over again, executives accused publishers of being uncooperative, inflexible, and poisonous to creative marketing ideas.  In fairness, the publishing sector had few executives to play defense, though some constructive suggestions were raised.  McBride himself made the case for a ‘collapsed copyright,’ a structure that would allow businesses, artists, and labels to move more quickly towards opportunities without haggling over royalty payouts with multiple stakeholders and agendas.

And perhaps some financial pressure will make the publishing sector less demanding.  One of the largest publishers, WMG-owned Warner/Chappell, showed a noticeable decline during the six-month period ending March 31st.  Specifically, revenues slipped to $269 million, down 10 percent, though operating income stayed mostly steady.

Warner squarely blamed the revenue dip on mechanicals, though the picture is now getting more complicated.   Just recently, a pair of top-ranked publishing executives agreed to walk Digital Music News through a number of serious pressures ahead, ones that span performance and synchronization (or, sync) licensing sources.

A big part of the problem is the broader economy, and picking apart disruptive versus macroeconomic pressures is important.  The drop in mechanicals is mostly a disruptive problem – CDs (and concomitant mechanicals) are dropping primarily because of huge shifts in consumer behavior (though tighter wallets are accelerating that trend).  Also on the mechanicals front, paid downloads face a structural battle against near-zero alternatives, and total media abundance.

The story is a bit different on performance and sync streams.  According to the sources, PROs (performance rights organizations) like ASCAP, SESAC, and BMI are finding themselves pitted against plunging advertising demand for major media outlets.  “Advertising on television networks is going way down, and [networks] will definitely be renegotiating their deals,” one publishing executive told Digital Music News on Tuesday.

Indeed, BIA Advisory Services is now calling for 2009 yearly revenues at television stations to dip 17.3 percent to $16.6 billion, on par with 1995 levels.  Across the board, advertising budgets are shrinking and networks have less leverage.  But automobile mega-advertisers like General Motors and Fiat/Chrysler are not even at the table – just recently, the pair skipped so-called ‘upfront’ fall advertising discussions while they reorganize, according to Reuters.  But even later-stage discussions will feature distressed valuations from a once-behemoth buying class.

Actually, that story is replicated across another traditional broadcast industry – radio, a group that uses music more directly.  Meanwhile, production budgets are shrinking across Hollywood and television, adding downward pressure to sync deals.  “Lots of the vanity financing is leaving film – money from big hedge funders, etc.,” one Hollywood studio executive relayed.

In some ways, those declines can be considered cyclical, based on the ups and downs of the macro-economy.  A traditional take is that things generally recover, and businesses with fundamentally sound models return.

But there’s a disruptive and structural element involved as well.  Both traditional television and radio broadcasters are looking at serious consumer shifts towards on-demand and digital consumption, and potentially serious long-term revenue pressures.  Publishers are an intricate part of that threatened ecosystem, forcing serious adaptations ahead.

Report by Paul Resnikoff in New York.

That was a lingering question at the New Music Seminar in New York on Tuesday.  In the afternoon, a so-called panel quickly shifted to a drawn-out, direct interview between TopSpin president Ian Rogers and Crystal Math Entertainment partner Mathieu Drouin.  The pair focused on the direct-to-fan, label-free success of Metric, a TopSpin client that came into the deal with some serious tailwind.

But what about those just starting out?  Can TopSpin take buried gems to a deserving audience, and build careers?  Rogers has been pointing to the upcoming release of an off-the-shelf digital platform for smaller groups, a mass-scale solution that would pit TopSpin more directly against a company like ReverbNation.

Now, that platform is getting closer.  On Tuesday, INgrooves revealed a deal with TopSpin, while referencing a TopSpin ‘platform’ for participating artists.  According to at least one source, INgrooves will act like a beta partner on the platform, ahead of a more formal release.

That was later confirmed by TopSpin itself.  “Self-serve is still some months away (looking at early 2010 for this milestone to be reached),” TopSpin senior director of Marketing & Artist Services Gary Brotman tipped Digital Music News via email.  “But the platform has progressed to the point that it’s able to be piloted by partners who are trained to use it.”

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in New York.

So what were the top issues being discussed?  These floated to the top:

(1) DIY responsibilities can, and will, crowd out quality creative time.

What happens when music is your full time job?  Creativity often takes a backseat to endless fan-building, Twittering, emailing, coordinating, and MySpacing.  Pandora founder Tim Westergren even cited a study that showed that creative channels get blocked and muted in the brain if not exercised regularly.

The answer?  Westergren predicted the emergence of an executive group to fill the non-creative needs of the talented artist.  Others pointed to a definitive role for the label – especially the independent label.

But good music is paramount, and artists should specialize in what they know best.  “If the music is bad, none of this stuff matters,” said Vin Rock of Naughty by Nature.

(2) The amount of music being released is soaring, and that presents serious marketing problems for artists.

Tommy Boy founder Tom Silverman opened the event by pointing to a swell in the amount of music being released.  The ability to create cheaply and distribute quickly means that fans are getting inundated with content.  Of an astounding 105,575 releases in 2008, just 1,515 sold more than 1,000 copies, according to presented data.  And just 110 artists sold more than 250,000 units.

(3) The reality?  Most artists are selling very little.

So, quit the day job?  Not so fast, according to several on hand.  Naughty by Nature’s Vin Rock noted that he was “up at 5 in the morning scrambling eggs,” but that a job kept his artistic ambitions alive.

On that point, Westergren noted that “a lot of artists think they have to be all in,” but a hardscrabble existence can force sub-par gigs like “Holiday Inn piano playing” and “playing covers” to make rent.

But the bigger point was critical.  Smart artists have moved beyond expectations of grandeur, and instead redialed their expectations towards middle-class success.  But just drawing a comfortable living from music remains a huge challenge for DIY artists, a shift that may keep only the most passionate and dedicated in the game.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in New York.

So what are the steps required?  For starters, labels and bands will need a premium membership to Microsoft’s XNA Creators Club Online.  That costs $50 for four months, or $100 for a full year.  The Creators Club provides the framework and instructions for creating game-ready tracks, and interfaces with the Rock Band Network.

It also includes a test-bed and even a venue for peer review. “The proven strength and stability of Microsoft’s game development tools, technologies and services allowed [developer] Harmonix to focus on making an easy-to-use experience for authors without needing to reinvent the wheel,” said Dave Mitchell, product unit manager for the XNA publishing platform.

The songs must then be approved, and content owners can choose pricing levels.   Songs will initially appear on the Xbox 360 for 30 days, and stand-out tracks will eventually move to the PS3 and Wii according to MTV Games and Harmonix Music Systems.  The Network opens in late August, and the first songs are scheduled to appear on the Xbox in the fall.

Report by Alexandra Osorio.

But ex-MTV and Interscope executive Courtney Holt accepted, and is now sinking his teeth into a tough challenge.  So, can this site win?  The challenge is undoubtedly difficult, though during a keynote interview at EconMusic in Los Angeles on Thursday, Holt displayed ample amounts of acumen and surprising levels of candor.

For example, why is the MySpace Music interface so cluttered and confusing?  On that question, Holt admitted to layout-related issues.  At a top level, MySpace Music revolves around four components: the user page, artist page, front door, and search.  “Each one of them is somewhat of a cul-de-sac, you [follow] what you’re looking for and then you’re stuck,” Holt shared.  “If I find an artist then I have two options: out or back, and that’s not a good user experience.  But we have all of this great data,” Holt continued.

And data, according to Holt, is a critical part of the strategy moving forward.  That includes the ability to understand who is listening to what, and how those listening experiences are connected to other bands and friends.  That information opens the possibilities, and theoretically allows MySpace Music to tighten connections with fans and bands.  “My goal is not only to provide that data back to the consumer, but also back to the artist.”

And, properly presented, dissected and relayed, the data opens innumerable possibilities.  Fans are more engaged, discovery is piqued, and connections are tightened.  Similarly, artists can theoretically gain a deeper understanding of the demographics of their fan base, and discover related groups.  “At the end of the day, those artists that engage MySpace will get something out of it,” Holt said.

But what about right now?  What is Holt doing during his first one-hundred days?  The executive pointed to quick upgrades on the player, independent label deals, “lots of time with the product guys” and “lots of evangelism” both “inside and outside the building”.

But the future is far more interesting.  Playlisting was the big blow-up of 2008, yet startups like Muxtape floundered amidst label lawsuits.  Holt, eyeing the opportunity and holding major label relationships, pointed to serious playlist upgrades ahead.  “The next thing that we’re launching is public playlists, which is the first time that playlists get their own pages,” Holt stated.  The playlist development map includes 100-song lists, as well as playlists that are search-enabled, feature drag-n-drop functionality, and stir a high level of collaboration.  “We really want to make it much, much easier for users to create and publish playlists, that is going to be the heart-and-soul of our business,” Holt envisioned.

The rest is big, blue-sky thinking, especially in the face of a tenuous business model.  “I’m focused on brand-building,” Holt stated.  “The brand – and brands we are creating – will help drive our business forward, and the effective CPM on an artist on MySpace is not going to be subject to the same rules.  Our revenue spread is going to be much broader than that,” Holt envisioned.

Report by publisher Paul Resnikoff in Los Angeles.

Click here to view the embedded video.

In A Place Like This – Manor, Texas Workshop

• “Best Documentary” – City of Temecula Youth Media & Arts Festival (2008)
• “Best of Show” – Josiah Youth Media Film Festival (2007)
• “Best Documentary” – Josiah Youth Media Film Festival (2007)
• “Audience Award for Best Short Film by a Student” – McAllen Art & Film Festival (2007)

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