Dr. Dre Keeps Battling the Worst Kind of Leak…
At this point, most artists are philosophical when it comes to leaks. Most labels are accustomed to slips happening at least a few days ahead of launch, though leaks sometimes spring weeks in advance. But what about unintentional release of unfinished material?
Bing Music: Cool Integration, If It Works…
Bing has been a bit of a surprise by Microsoft, though an integrated stab into music appeared crippled on Monday. In testing, a Zune-powered, ‘playable search’ result refused to play, at least in Google Chrome and Firefox. Instead, a pop-up window offered an unexpected ‘coming soon’ result after serving no music, despite a launch last week. “Coming Soon: Zune and [...]
Judge Sides With Google In $1 Billion Viacom Suit…
Is YouTube ripping off Viacom – and the broader media industry, for that matter? Not according to US District judge Louis Stanton, who quickly dismissed Viacom’s billion-dollar lawsuit in summary judgement Wednesday afternoon.
Yes, Google Is Readying a Major Music Launch. No, It Won’t Kill iTunes..
Yes, Google is preparing a serious cloud-focused music launch, though most are skipping past the inevitable ‘iTunes killer’ descriptions. Last month, Google indicated that its recently-acquired Simplify Media would power access to a music collection from anywhere, though not through a typical cloud structure. Instead, Google will remotely access a home collection without creating duplicate song copies, a critical differentiator [...]
Twitter for Audio? audioBoo Announces Funding, Partnerships…
Twitter obviously resonated with the masses, and forged a totally different form of communication and interaction in the process. But does that translate into audio?
The Story on Touring? It’s Complicated…
Touring was once considered an antidote to file-sharing, and a fresh path for artists to make money. Sounded great on paper, though realities have been mixed for artists and concert promoters. Some artists are ‘killing it,’ others are getting killed, and broader concert receipts have been disappointing across various artist tiers.
MySpace Music: Losing $10 Million a Month?
How bad is MySpace Music bleeding? An earlier analysis by Digital Music News showed serious traffic declines, and suddenly huge contrasts to sites like YouTube. More recently, TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington pegged MySpace Music losses at $10 million a month, according to conference notes from paidContent. “Your music business is losing $10 million per month – is that working for [...]
Even Digital Dipped at UMG Last Quarter. But Why?
Universal Music Group suffered a mild digital decline last quarter, though the takeaways were less-than-obvious. During the recent quarter, digital revenues slumped 1.7 percent, according to disclosures by parent company Vivendi. That is part of a broader, more serious revenue drop of 13.4 percent to 889 million euros ($1.1 billion). On constant currencies, the decline was 12.6 percent.
The New A&R: Is There Any Room for Gut Anymore?
“The music has to be great…” The latest cliche for the music industry is actually more of a truism. And, fans are really the ones that determine greatness, not the arbiters of good taste. But how to find that winning, multi-talented artist that super-connects with a big audience, and delivers great music?