Archives for the category ‘News Roundup’
February, 17th 2012 19:06
Indie labels storm the Grammys, and social media goes wild!
Last Sunday (12th February) saw the annual Grammy Awards take place, with a huge social media surge surrounding the event. Facebook and Twitter were amassed with 13 million comments generated by users in the US in the 3 hours before and after, as well as during, the telecast. A new social TV record was also achieved by the awards ceremony, beating the hugely popular Super Bowl event last week.
Independent labels triumphed this year by winning 34 trophies in categories including Best New Artist, Best Album and Best Country Song. According to A2IM (American Association of Independent Music), Bon Ivor won awards for Best New Artist and Best Alternative Album, and label winners included Concord Music Group, Rounder Records and Big Machine.
2011 was also the second consecutive year that the independent labels and artists dominated industry nominations, accountable for 194 of the 387 possible nominations.
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Tags: A2IM, Bon Iver, Google, grammy awards, Handelszeitung, IFPI, independent artists, independent labels, Jennifer Hudson, online piracy, RIAA, rnbxclusive.com, SOCA, Social media, Sony, Whitney Houston
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February, 10th 2012 20:24
iLike closed on Facebook, moved to Myspace
This week saw the closure of iLike, once the most popular Facebook music application peaking with 60 million registered members. As reported by Music Week, the online music sharing and download service was snapped up in 2009 by Myspace after its launch, but only three years later their official website redirects you to their Myspace page, bearing the words “We welcome you to Myspace, home of the largest catalog of FREE steaming music on the web!” on its banner.
In the wake of the closure, iLike co-founder Hadi Partovi spoke in an interview with Geek Wire, blaming “radical changes in the Facebook platform” as well as Rupert Murdoch’s failure to take advantage of available tech assets for Facebook under his management. However, the iLike team are still on full form as Partovi has hinted on the new startups they are involved with in Seattle, namely ThinkFuse, Familiar and PaperKarma.
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Tags: Downtown Music Publishing, Facebook, iLike, M.I.A., Madonna, MySpace, NFL, Nicki Minaj, Paul McCartney, Rdio, Rhapsody, Songs Music Publishing, Spotify, Super Bowl, VEVO
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February, 3rd 2012 20:04
What happened at MIDEM…
This week saw MIDEM, the annual music industry conference take place in Cannes, France. Among the many announcements made during the four day event, Webdoc.com announced integrations with SoundCloud, Songkick and Topspin, promising to “provide fans and pro users with a range of new opportunities for self expression, sharing and community engagement”, as reported by Music Week. A strategic partnership between Spotify and Coke was also hinted at.
One of the highlights included Hack Day, in which around 30 developers participated in creating new apps to enable fans to discover new music, and to have a deeper involvement with the music by their favourite artists. Hypebot has compiled together a full list of creations from Hack Day, which you can check out here.
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Tags: Believe Digital, coke, Daria Musk, Early in the Morning, Facebook, Google, Google hangouts, Hack Day, Higher Love, iTunes Match, James Vincent McMorrow, LOVEFiLM, MIDEM, Songkick, soundcloud, Special Edition album, Spotify, Topspin, Webdoc
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January, 27th 2012 18:50
IMPALA oppose the purchase of EMI by Universal
IMPALA, the Independent Music Companies Association is in strong opposition of the move by Universal Music for their proposed £1.2billion takeover of one of the music giants, EMI’s recorded music division. As reported by City A.M, IMPALA, who has over 4000 members across Europe in its trade body, are concerned that Universal’s bid for EMI would disregard competition interests.
In a statement published on IMPALA’s website on 26th January, Helen Smith (Executive Chair) said “Neither the USA nor Europe wants to see the music sector become a two-horse race, devoid of competition from any other companies.” As reported by CMU, if EMI are to be taken over by Universal, the sheer size of both Universal/EMI and Sony will overpower that of Warner and will effectively leave just two major labels as the big players in the industry.
The statement also brings to light the fact that independent artists contribute to only 6% of the Top 100 for both airplay and downloads across Europe, despite accounting for 80% of all new releases. Universal, EMI and Sony would also account for 76% of the Top 200, according to a new report by EMO and Eurosonic/Nooderslag. IMPALA also stated that in 2011 an astonishing 94% of airplay and 95% of the top 100 downloads in Europe were releases by the major labels, with Universal and Sony the leaders of the competition by a long way.
If the deal goes ahead, it will mean that artists such as The Beatles, Coldplay and Kylie Minogue, as well as the label’s subsidiaries including Parlophone and Virgin, will be under Universal’s control.
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Tags: Anonymous, DJ, EMI, IMPALA, Kim Dotcom, Major Labels, MegaBox, Megamovie, Megaupload, Napster, Pirate Party, Pure Music, Rhapsody, Simon Cowell, Sony, SOPA, Syco, Universal, X Factor
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January, 20th 2012 13:50
What Artists and Creators think about SOPA…
The topic on everyone’s lips this week – the on-going online piracy saga with SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and PIPA (Protect Intellectual Property Act). Many internet sites, including Wikipedia, Mozilla and WordPress, showed their protest against this by having a blackout on Wednesday which stopped users being able to see the contents on their website.
The anti-SOPA protest counts actors, authors and musicians among its supporters, and even US President Obama has said that he would not support SOPA. According to Hypebot, the following points were made in an open letter addressed to Washington posted on 17th January, from the point of view of a collective of artists and creators which includes Trent Reznor, MGMT and OK Go among the list of names:
- They mention their gratitude for the measures put into place by policymakers, to help protect their works from copyright infringement
- They highlight the importance of social media in reaching and communicating with their fans, and the “benefits of a free and open Internet”
- They voice their worry that artists and creators will be censored and legitimate services and websites blocked under PIPA and SOPA’s new powers, even though they themselves are legitimate users
It seems as though the takedown of sites has already begun, with sites Megaupload and Megavideo being closed down on Thursday. According to Tech Digest, the US government’s reasoning for this was that they considered the webmasters of the sites to be involved in a “Mega Conspiracy, a worldwide criminal organization whose members engaged in criminal copyright infringement and money laundering on a massive scale.” The Telegraph reported that the operators of Megaupload were accused of ignoring requests to remove pirated material from music and film firms, and charged with criminal copyright infringement. According to the BBC, the site has been accused of costing copyright holders over $500m in lost revenue, in an accusation by federal prosecutors.
In response, internet hacking collective Anonymous launched a DDos (distributed denial-of-service) attack on a list high profile websites, including the websites of the US Department of Justice, the FBI, Universal Music and the Motion Picture Association of America. According to Tech Digest, it is thought that each organisation linked to the targeted sites have supported the anti-piracy bills in the past. Anonymous later tweeted:
They have also since uploaded a map showing the current number of network attacks by geographic region.
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Tags: #WorldWarWeb, Anonymous, anti-piracy, Beastie Boys, Big Chill, Coachella, DJ Bl3nd, Download, Eric Clapton, Facebook, Facebook application, Festivals, Foo Fighters, Glastonbury, justin bieber, Lady GaGa, Listen with friends, live stream, Megaupload, Online music, Paul McCartney, PIPA, Rdio, RFID, Rihanna, SOPA, soundcloud, Spotify, Stevie Wonder, Ticketmaster, twitter
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November, 9th 2009 15:19
After a fairly dry week last week we’re kicking things off this Monday with a healthy roundup of news, so, without further ado, here you go…
According to Digital Music News, MySpace has shed 67% of its share of social networking traffic this year and subsequently lost $100 million in advertising revenues due to the falling traffic and an existing deal with Google.
French streaming service Deezer, similar in type to Spotify, has announced a new, two-tier, subscription model for customers adding offline functionality for users paying the top rate ($14.85) as well as a new iPhone App, which will work only for subscribers.
Music Week is reporting that the merger between HMV and digital music retailer 7 Digital will see new functionality built into the HMV website from early next year. Zimbalam customers can sell their music on both platforms already so we’ll be sure to keep you in the loop with all developments.
In other interesting news, The Cribs are premiering their latest single, ‘We Share The Same Skies’ on November 12 through the online magazine of sports radio station ‘Talk Sport’. This is interesting as they are taking an alternative approach to promotion, releasing that, not only do sports fans buy music, there is far less competition in the arena to worry about. This is a very interesting approach and one, we would suggest, that is worth considering in the promotion of your own music. Why not think outside the (penalty) box (sorry!) yourselves…
Finally, the Rock Sound Readers Poll voting is open so head on over to Rock Sound to cast your votes, there’s also a posh music phone and some subscriptions up for grabs to people who vote so get stuck in…
As always, send any news tips to suggestion@zimbalam.com and check back tomorrow for more!
Tags: 7 Digital, Deezer, HMV, Music Industry, Music Week, MySpace, News, News Roundup, Rock Sound, Talksport, The Cribs, Zimbalam
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November, 4th 2009 13:09
After a couple of quiet days on the news front, we’ve got some interesting stuff for you today centering on piracy (obviously), talent contests and Lady GaGa, read on for more…
There’s an interesting article in The Times today in the wake of the proposal to disconnect persistent file-sharers, discussing whether the Internet can now be considered a human right and therefore, whether the three-strikes proposal is immoral and a breach of said human rights. Read the article here and let us know what you think.
There’s a lovely heart-warming story reported by The Independent about an unsigned band seemingly in the race for a Grammy award. ‘Shakey’s Brother’ from Clitheroe (That’s ooop North) have only been together for around 12 months and all work 9-5 day jobs and their previous biggest success consists of getting to the regional final of the Surface Unsigned Festival (which we mention again later on). I’m not quite sure what the story means, it would appear they’re sort of ‘pre-nominated’ and have become so by signing up with a ‘Grammy specialist’ agent in the US but only time will tell once the official nominations are narrowed down in December. We wish them the best of luck!
Lady GaGa has set a Billboard chart record in the US by achieving four number one singles from her debut album, ‘The Fame’, for the first time in the ‘Pop Song Chart’s’ 17 year history. Quite an achievement, let’s hope one of you chaps has the same success with Zimbalam. Read the full story here…
MSN re-launched their music service yesterday, report Music Week magazine, with a new element of the site dedicated to music downloads, the long-term goal appears to be to offer another free streaming store with download links but for now the public can choose from over 1 million tracks mostly provided by major labels with a standard 79p track price and £7.99 album price.
Kit Kat have also announced today a sort of battle of the bands type thing being run in 6 student unions across the country. It’s being judged by Frankmusic (that pop guy) and has a £3000 prize and a free remix from the man himself on offer. This is all well and good but there are definitely some genuinely beneficial contests and showcases out there for unsigned artists, we’d suggest you sign up with Surface Unsigned Festival (where you stand to make £60,000 if you win…) or perhaps register for a chance to play at The Great Escape. However, if you feel like Kit Kat and Frankmusic are worth some of your effort as well, find out more here.
Well that’s all for today and if this has been more to your liking than the previous quiet issue, feed us with your news; send any tips to suggestion@zimbalam.com and we’ll quite possibly never have another quiet day again…
Tags: Billboard, Frankmusic, Kit Kat, Lady GaGa, MSN Music, P2P, Piracy, Surface Unsigned Festival, The Great Escape, three strikes, Zimbalam
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November, 3rd 2009 13:59
Welcome to a new week and more industry news for you, there weren’t many stories floating around yesterday (or indeed today!) so instead we’ve got sort of a ‘bumper’ double-issue for you to peruse (although there’s still not much to say), let’s get started…
Radio presenter George Lamb is leaving his daily radio slot on digital station BBC 6 Music to go to a weekend slot instead, Lamb’s critics are many and they are vocal but he has always played a lot of new music on the show, albeit from larger artists. What do you think about the move? Were you a fan? Find out more about this and the other presenter changes, here.
There has been another study into music piracy and once again it has been revealed that pirates actually buy a lot of music too. What do you think about this? Is it fair to buy some music and steal other music? It might be a little fairer to the artist if that attitude resulted in some, but less, money for both artists rather than none for one and some for the other and who reserves the right to dictate what deserves paying for? However, that said, if this is the attitude we’re all going to adopt, surely subscription models are the future? Let us know your thoughts and find out more about the report here.
In other news, the annual Record of the Day PR & Journalism awards have been announced and you can find out more and cast your votes over at their site.
We told you there wasn’t much to report, help us make sure this doesn’t happen again by sending any tips to suggestion@zimbalam.com and we’ll make sure to keep you up to date with as much relevant industry news as possible.
Tags: 6Music, BBC, George Lamb, music indusdtry, P2P, Piracy, Record of the Day, Zimbalam
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October, 30th 2009 18:05
There’s some interesting news floating around out there today, so get on with reading it already…
UK Broadband provider, Tiscali, have got involved in the new download store boom and launched their very own new music download store, ‘Tiscali Music For Life’. The service is powered by eMusic with the eMusic catalogue available through the new portal. As the service is powered by eMusic, Zimbalam artists’ music will already available on the new service, which is great news as the ‘launch’ should bring a significant number of new customers to the service. Find out more here.
As we told you yesterday, Google launched a new music service yesterday, ‘OneBox’, and today Billboard have weighed in with an interesting article about what this could mean for the music industry and the way we consumer music. Their are some interesting theories in the article but in our opinion they have missed the point of the new service, claiming that, for the most part, finding music using Google is already easy enough so why bother with the new platform. In our eyes, the argument is not so much about ease of discovery, but more to do with ease of purchase and the instant provision of a legal, legitimate and high quality result to music searches, rather than relying on sketchy pirated YouTube videos and lyrics websites for music links.
The Guardian have also blogged some thoughts on the previously reported story that single sales in 2009 are higher than ever before, discussing whether the single can save the music industry. There are definitely some interesting opinions, mostly focusing on the fact that while singles are selling more than ever, they’re also selling for much less than ever before and the resulting low margins (which are now lower than ever) are not enough to sustain the business, which still focuses heavily on album sales to turn over sufficient profits. Read more on the blog, here.
Finally, here’s one we missed yesterday, Steve Purdham, CEO of popular music streaming service We7 has written a piece for The Times, explaining his opinion on why Mandelson’s ‘three strikes’ policy is not the answer to music piracy. Check it out here, very interesting, and well informed, read.
As always, send any news tips to suggestion@zimbalam.com
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next week!
Tags: Billboard, Google OneBox, Music For Life, Music Industry, P2P, Piracy, Single Sales, The Guardian, Tiscali, We7, Zimbalam
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October, 29th 2009 18:41
There are some pretty big music industry stories breaking today so we’ll get straight onto topic and get stuck in…
Firstly, Google Music, or as it’s officially named, ‘OneBox’, launched in America today. Currently 1-5% of our trans-Atlantic cousins can access the new service (www.google.com/music) but this will be ramped up over the coming days and weeks to provide access to everyone and presumably bring it overseas in the not too distant future as well… In essence, the service uses the traditional Google interface, via a new ‘Music’ tab and will allow users to search by artist, title, lyric or song for music. The results will be presented with an image representative of the artist and a ‘play’ button that, when clicked, will open a new player, powered by Lala.com, allowing the user to stream the song once, in full, for free, before being directed to purchase it from various other platforms.
We are looking forward to having a go on this service, it’s great to see that the big companies are starting to realise the potential of bringing music to the mass audience in a cost-effective and revenue generating fashion. You can watch a video and find out more about Google ‘OneBox’ on Google (believe it or not!) here, or, for less biased information, you could try this story from the BBC.
Next up is file-sharing, now we all know about file sharing and there’s been a great deal of discussion in the press of late, from the perspective of artists, industry professionals and the public discussing the issue but the government have now weighed in and apparently finalised plans for a slightly amended version of the ‘Three Strikes’ legislation that will see persistent file sharers slapped with internet suspension.
Peter Mandelson announced this at the C&binet meeting in Hertfordshire this week outlining that the legislation may be brought into action if internet piracy has not fallen by 70% one year from April 2010. There is a lot of discussion surrounding human rights and complaints from the public, as well as some from artists and the ISPs in charge of the connections but you can read more about all of this here.
What are your thoughts on the piracy debate? It’s always interesting to hear from artists, especially those new to music who have seen ‘free’ music as somewhat of a promotional tool and a way to attract attention.
In related news, there are two interesting (and conflicting) opinions on the fall of torrent-based internet piracy circulating the web today, one from the perspective of the music industry and another from the perspective of the pirates. One suggests torrent traffic fell by 80% when the Pirate Bay was closed in August, the other, claims this is entirely nonsense… Can you guess which opinion belongs to who?
Well that’s it for today and as always, send any news tips our way on suggestion@zimbalam.com
Tags: file sharing, Google, Lala.com, Mandelson, Piracy, three strikes, Torrents, Zimbalam
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