Archive for: music
After spending months in public beta and lots of changes to the ad supports music service, We7 is about to launch out of beta with a bang.
We7 have launched with a “Big Listen” campaign. This new service has some great new features including Free on-demand, unlimited access to full tracks and albums, “Search, Click & Play”, A ‘Celestial Jukebox’ with several million track, ‘Play Anywhere’ – a link and play system for blogs and websites, Users can create playlists, share with friends and buy mp3’s, Payments to rights owners and artists.
The first thing you will notice with the new site is that they have a completely new design. Other new additions include a Magazine, Blog and a much improved list of advertisers. Im sure we will be hearing a lot more from We7 in 2009!
Since the launch of Myspace Music I still havent been able to understand where they are heading with this company!
Myspace prior to Myspace Music had pretty much every band in the world signed up to the service, that doesn’t mean they use the service frequently. Then when the service launched the changes were so minimal, but now Myspace had to offer the four major labels and some minor distributors a revenue share and possibly even equity. What did Myspace get in return for this revenue share and even equity deal? Not much at all!
The way Myspace and their music section is setup has not really changed. Myspace still provides exclusives on albums, myspace tours, and featured videos. Recently Youtube started a test with adding affiliate links to video pages, but this seems to be the obvious revenue stream Myspace Music is missing out on. With all the music that is on Myspace Music I can see them launching an Amazon Mp3 competitor very soon, and if they don’t they are out of their minds. In the meantime I would be adding affiliate links to each myspace profile, this could be added in a box under message area in the left column of every profile.
Myspace Music has been trying to find a new CEO for at least six months, and the job keeps on getting turned down, why? No one actually wants to be Myspace Music CEO because there is really no direction at the moment and for them to make changes they have to go through many levels of hierarchy.
Myspace Music has a great opportunity to build either a web app product or even a music product offering, but it will need to find the right person to run the show! Currently, Myspace has offered a revenue share to all the major labels and have nothing in return, and this has to change sooner rather than later, or they might be in a little trouble when it comes to hitting Murdoch’s revenue targets.
Apple has announced this morning that the Apple iPod shuffle is getting some new colours, and here they are. The shuffle has been transformed into the same colours are the new iPod Nano’s. However, they still come with a very attractive price tag, $49 USD.
The concept of cloud computing has had its champions, but also its critics. Many believe cloud computing will be the future of information where nothing is stored locally. The critics feel that if the “cloud” goes down, so does all of our information.
Still, with the ability to access your documents, spreadsheets, pictures, and other media through various storage sites, you can now access your music anywhere, from any location as long as there is an internet connection. Welcome to the concept of blueTunes, where you can take your music to the cloud. The site allows you to upload and store your music to not only free up your personal storage space, but to allow free and clear access where ever you are.
The site is in beta right now, so invites are by email only, but sign up on their site and enjoy!
Spotify, founded by the former Tradedoubler team, is understood to have raised €15.3m from Northzone Venture Partners at a monster €71.6m pre-money valuation. The service is still in private beta.
The Stockholm-based Spotify can essentially be summed up, in the words of one blogger, as a kind of hybrid of Skype, last.fm, the iTunes Store and Bittorrent. A lightweight iTunes-like application streams songs via encrypted P2P technology. The service is ad-financed, hence the comparison with Last.fm.
Spotify has the same look and feel as iTunes, but it basically just a huge library in which allows users to stream albums and tracks as much as they want. Im not sure how they are going to include the advertising part of the business, because it is currently missing from the design. However, they have a great design and this could be a tool that is going to be used a lot in the future, but only as long as they get the monetization part of the business correct.
In recent weeks there has been a lot said regarding the possible rate hike for distributed music. Sites like iTunes, Amazon, and Napster to name a few, are all music distribution sites with business models that would have been greatly affected by this possible increase.
The Copyright Royalty Board was to meet to discuss a rate increase of almost 60%, which would hit deep into the profits that distribution sites make. Apple, so angered by this possibility threatened to shut down iTunes if the board passed the rate increase. Apple, who currently owns the largest margin of mp3 players on the market, the iPods, would have shut down their site? A part of me says no, perhaps an idle threat. All in all, the board has decided to keep rates the same, 9 cents per song. You can read more about the decision here.
Still, Apple may not have come out of this situation without egg on their face. The reality of one of the largest music distribution markets completely shutting down, with an mp3 player that is connected to propriety software, iTunes, may scare people into moving towards a more functional player that is not directly tied to any one site. Could Apple have shown it’s own weakness? Or is Apple relying on its millions of dedicated fans to stick with the “in” platform of choice?
For now iTunes is safe.
Imeem is a music social network like no other. Currently, Imeem is the most popular music community in the world and its growth has really been amazing in the last year. Imeem allows artists and users to both have their own profiles and communicated in a social enviroment.
Artists on Imeem can have their own profiles while at the same time make money from their streams on the site. Thus, each time someone listens to an artists tracks the artist receives some royalties, these royalties are based on a percentage of advertising revenues.
Users are able to check out songs from their favourite artists while fill out the basics of a social networking profile. Additional features include mail, creating playlists and more.
Imeem is a great platform that is definitely on the rise, especially in the USA. Look out for more and more changes that im sure they will be bringing to the service in the coming month. The only downside is the quality of advertising on their site! Due to Imeem paying royalties, they must try to each as much advertising revenue as possible for their artists, and in doing so their quality seems to be very poor and lack creativity.
After reviewing MySpace music, I thought I had found the definitive way to market your music and gain exposure within a target fan base. I could not have been further from the truth. A recent discovery led me to RouteNote, a music platform that allows artists to enter a non-exclusive agreement to share their music over some of the hottest music networks.
This amazing service allow independent artists to not only market themselves and their music, but gain notoriety across more than one network. RouteNote provide exposure on iTunes, Amazon, MySpace, and PumpAudio to name a few. By partnering with some of the biggest and hottest music distributing networks, RouteNote looks to establish themselves as the home for indie artists. This idea coming from the ever expanding shift of listeners moving towards digital distribution as opposed to traditional CD sales. RouteNote remains cutting edge and looks to expanding their partnerships to offer more for the artists.
Making money is easy with this well connected service. As soon as the online artists uploads their song or songs onto the network, and once they’ve selected which partner sites they want to carry their product, the music will earn money almost instantly thanks to RouteNotes world wide distribution model.
Users can keep up with their blog in order to find out what RouteNote is doing, and who their latest partners are. If you’re an indie artists I definitely recommend you check out RouteNote as a way to gain further exposure.
MySpace is known as one of the, if not the biggest social networks on the market. With millions and millions of users, advertisers get the attention of a lot of ey
es, but it’s grown even bigger than that. MySpace has long been known to be the launching pad for music artists, knowing that the MySpace market is a target they just could not ignore. Users are able to listen, stream, and even “friend” artists and stay informed.
It just seems like a natural progression for MySpace to enter the music foray with their own MySpace Music site. Just 24 hours old and already MySpace Music has a huge following, and an interesting model that looks to beat out all other music sites. Four major labels on board (Universal, Warner, Sony, EMI), several major publishers, and even the largest independent music provider look to make MySpace Music stand out on its own merit.
Users are able to stream any of the music on the site for free, create playlists of up to 100 songs, share their lists, their streams, and even participate in ranking and viewing other users music selection. All of this creates a music social network that is bound to grow just as fast at their social network specific site, MySpace. New music is also introduced exposing users to new artists and up-can-comers, with the added ability to purchase music which is done through Amazon’s music download service. You want a ringtone? No worries, via Jamster any song on MySpace music can also be yours to carry on your mobile.
The flexibility of MySpace music is unheard of, and I look forward to seeing its growth.
Records, 8-track tapes, cassettes, CD’s, physical media has been a constant in the world of 
music. Just recently within the last ten years, music has begun the transition from physical to streaming/download acquisition. When I try to think back on the last time I actually entered a music store, I’m almost shocked at how out dated the concept of buying a CD really is. Today with access to iTunes, Amazon Music Store, and other outlets to purchase your media, I was shocked when I read that SanDisk was able to convince music labels that the future was in MicroSD.
Big labels bought into this idea after what had to be an amazing presentation, and to make it even more amazing was the fact that they convinced Walmart and Best Buy to carry the product. Quite honestly this idea may have been approved, but it’s dead before it’s even started. Pricing is not bad, with SD cards looking at a retail value of about $7-$10 apiece, but of course that’s before markup, and any other additions they plan on adding to the sale.
Just looking around my house I don’t know where I would put my MicroSD card, my phone maybe, but I don’t use it as a media player nor would I want to. I’d like to know what mind numbing, hypnotic method they used to get anyone on board with this idea. If you want a taste of this market, I suggest by early, because the MicroSD idea will almost certainly be dead by next year.
Can anyone say collector’s item?
By: Luis Sandoval
Amidst the myriad of online music options such as Last.fm and Pandora, Grooveshark has come into play as a more social networked option of the previous two. While this is a great way to connect like minded listeners via their music selections, the product could still use some major adjustments.
I’d like to start with installation. Like Last.fm, Grooveshark has an executable file which taps into your system to install an application. Groovesharks download is called Sharkbyte, and essentially attempt to connected with other media folders to extend your sharing options via the music you already have on your computer, for example in the iTunes folder. Once you’ve selected what you want to share you’re off to their website. I personally selected nothing since I do not like applications sharing anything that I currently have on my computer, feels too invasive.
As a user I was overwhelmed with the options the website offered. I felt the design was not fluid, and options were not clearly labeled as to their uses. While it seems like the site is very informative, for a first time user it’s crowded and hard to follow. What I found fascinating with Pandora is the ability to surf the options without ever leaving the main page where the music is playing; and when you did have to open a new page, it opens as a new tab in the browser for ease of use. I got lost too often on Grooveshark’s site. In an attempt to salvage my online experience I clicked on their FAQ’s and became frustrated when there was not sufficient coverage for my question to warrant even a click.
Now for the meat of the site, the music. From what I was able to see, the music options seem aplenty, and the created music playlists are very helpful. I enjoyed the fact that you could take existing playlists and make your own playlists by selecting only the songs you want. Creating playlists was fun, and the instant option to purchase is always good to have right at your fingertips. The quality of the music was clear, the player was a little awkward, but once you set the music to play, I overlooked the player. When the first song completed a major flaw came to light, it did not go onto the next track. I attempted several times to see if I could play entire playlists to no avail. One song? I only get the pleasure of listening to one song at a time? No thank you!
Grooveshark truly has a lot of potential, and of all the music networks I am on, this was definitely the most social. You can add friends who have similar interests in music, chat with them, drag and drop songs to share, broadcast your playlist onto Twitter and Pownce so your friends know what you are listening to. This could be an amazing social music network if only the rest of the site was not so frustrating.
Luckily this site is still in beta, so there’s hope. What are my suggestions to Grooveshark? Drop the install app, I don’t know many that want to openly share their library. Is sharing our playlists and favorite songs through the site not enough? Streamline the design of the site, make it intuitive, think of a first time user as opposed to someone who is familiar with Groovesharks offerings. Finally, let the music play. Let entire playlists play and use the site’s music engine to match new music onto our playlists to expose us to new groups. That is a way to grow a community; that is an excellent way to expand a listeners horizons.
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