Burn your music on demand

Music on demand, for small quantities of cds. Could it work for you ? Think about it…
Major Labels Release Long Tail Music on Amazon
Sony/BMG and EMI plan to release out-of-print albums on CD through CreateSpace, Amazon’s service for creating products as customers order them — sort of like CafePress for CDs, books and DVDs.

(…)

CreateSpace allows anyone to sell CDs in a similar fashion, essentially reducing inventory costs to zero by only making CDs that have willing buyers.

Your audience, your patrons

An open letter written by the composer of the music for the series Battlestar Galactica to its listener. An excellent point of view of the relationship between the music artist and the new role the public is playing, as a patron of the art rather than as a consumer.

Bear’s Battlestar Blog » Blog Archive » An Open Letter to the New Patrons

The course of contemporary music has always been decided by the Church, the Emperor Joseph IIs, the Stalins and the ruling elite. Now, it is decided by you. You determine which artists thrive and which are relegated to obscurity.

Videos on your site

Online videos bring traffic to your site, and help you build your brand.
The article below is an excerpt on the stategies used by a record store to embrace the internet. But theses strategies can be used for other businesses, such as selling your music online.

A Brick-and-Mortar Record Shop Adapts – BusinessWeek

Online Videos

Other Music puts recordings of the in-store performances and interviews with artists on its Web site. A recent series also chronicled bands at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Tex. The company hopes to find sponsors for the videos to turn them into a revenue stream. For now, the “Live at Other Music” series drives traffic to the Web site and pushes sales of the featured artists.

Tip: Online multimedia like videos can build your brand and bring in revenue beyond your core retail business.

How do we get the metal bands onto the music video games

you get on these games and you get known instantly. How to do it, though? I’m still looking into it…

Rock Band and Guitar Hero 3 new home for metal debuts

Both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III have become big business in the gaming world, and with the opening of the online music store in Rock Band, it seems that games have become yet another way for labels to push their music to the masses. Rock Band’s music store allows gamers to browse by band, by song, as well as to look at cover art from the album and hear previews of the songs before they are purchased. Now both games are going to try to test the power of their brands for pushing new releases by well-known (if past their heyday) acts: both Rock Band and Guitar Hero III will be debuting new tracks by Mötley Crüe and Def Leppard before they are available anywhere else.

Amazon for men, iTunes for women

Lots of room for digital downloads to grow. So go get your songs online !

Amazon MP3 store’s gains not coming at iTunes’ expense

(…) According to a new report by the NPD Group, the data shows that Amazon may be able to continue growing alongside iTunes. The market research firm said today that only 10 percent of Amazon MP3 customers had previously bought music through iTunes, showing that Amazon is building its own user base that is independent of the ones patronizing other stores. In fact, there are a number of demographics that differ between Amazon MP3 and iTunes users, NPD says. Amazon has a stronger following among male users (64 percent, compared to iTunes’ 44 percent), although iTunes is more popular among teenagers between 13 and 17 (18 percent, compared to Amazon’s measly three percent).

NPD believes that the difference in demographics is proof that the market for digital music is bigger than we think (…)The firm noted, however, that Apple’s music sales are still 10 times those of Amazon’s, so it may be a while before Amazon catches up. iTunes’ gift cards have proven to be quite popular (particularly among teenagers), and gift cards for music are something that Amazon still lacks. iTunes also benefits from its tightly-integrated universe of music sales, music management, and iPod syncing. NPD’s data shows that, even though Amazon trumps iTunes in DRM-free content, users are still content to buy from iTunes out of sheer convenience.

A tool for the user

Sounds a bit scary to have an online tool monitor so completely your choices… Although it sure looks like that’s what Internet companies are already doing to you. Perhaps you might as well benefit from it too. But won’t The Filter just keep pusing you more of the same things you already like ? How can you grow that way ?

Peter Gabriel and the Filter

(…) The Filter, backed and advised by the British singer and technology evangelist Peter Gabriel. (…) The new system(…) takes a more comprehensive approach. The service will now filter all online media habits – the music and movies people like, the Web videos they watch, and soon, the books they buy – and offer advice about all their entertainment and information options.
“In this age, where the curator is becoming just as important as the creator, the disc jockey becomes the life jockey,” Mr. Gabriel said. “You carry this around with you as a tool that is available 24 hours a day to help you make choices.”

Users must still download the Filter software to their desktop, where it spies on… er, digests various streams of Internet behavior (…)

High quality video for free on the web

Check out this new site. Got a good video ? Post it there for your fans viewing pleasure… I haven’t had a chance to check it out properly yet, but will keep you posted…

Will Smith and PluggedIn

A new Internet music company is looking to displace YouTube, MySpace and MTV.com as the hub for music videos on the Internet.
PluggedIn, a Santa Monica-based
startup launching tomorrow, is backed by Overbrook Entertainment, the
production and management company co-founded a decade ago by Will Smith. (…) So where does Pluggedin fit in?

“We look at the all the changes shaping online entertainment and see massive opportunity for lots of companies to appreciate and forge really viable consumer connections,” said Jeff Somers, chief executive of PluggedIn. “We think what will separate us from what is out there today is an unbelievable high-quality viewing experience, matched with in-depth content and community tools.”

A good summary

Check out this article. it’s a good summary of the new music business

Kiruba Shankar: Business of free music

While the music industry is playing ostrich, a few music bands are smartly embracing the Internet by giving their music away for free … and in the process, making money!

No more file protection on music

Looks like we’re about to finally enter a new era, with powerful companies organizing into lobbies to counter the record companies and move music into the third millenium. About time, too !

Online music sellers look beyond DRM

ERA Digital, which represents companies including HMV, Orange and Play.com, on Thursday set out a five-point plan to drive digital music sales which includes addressing the problem of illegal filesharing by commercial means, rather than using legislation to force internet service providers (ISPs) to “police” their customer’s internet activities.
(…) Carphone Warehouse boss Charles Dunstone recently rejected calls from music lobbyists to police the web, saying “the music industry has consistently failed to adapt to changes in technology and now seeks to foist their problems on someone else.”
(…) The plans include abandoning copyright protection technology – called digital rights management or DRM – for one-off digital downloads because “it is confusing and inconvenient for the music fan and hampers music sales”. DRM can be retained, however, for new business models such as all-you-download subscription services.

Music everywhere

Here’s an example of music getting new distribution opportunities. Since everyone wants music, brands are begininning to think they should honor this wish. Should you start looking at marketing your music through brands ? Why not ? It’s another outlet and opportunity to be heard.

Tommy Hilfiger to link fashion with contemporary music

Tommy TV, an online music channel, will offer exclusive concerts, called The Hilfiger Sessions, featuring stars such as Wyclef Jean and Beyoncé. Jean will appear at the first Hilfiger concert in London next month.

Young musicians, who upload their tracks to the site, will be chosen to join the stars. SonyBMG hopes that the initiative will uncover new talent that it can sign.