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Coalition Calls For Better Digital Revenues And Azoff Plans To Get More For Songwriters
October 31, 2014
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"What Irving did was look at what songwriters were earning historically and offer them a premium," said Barry M. Massarsky, an economist who specializes in music publishing and is not affiliated with Global Music Rights. "He believes he can carve out a higher value for those songs from radio and pay less in administration fees, so that ultimately the songs would make more money than they have from ASCAP or BMI." (From the New York Times article linked below)
An international coalition of creators has joined forces to call for fairer rules and greater transparency in the distribution of royalties by digital music services.
The proposals were presented in a new report on "Fair Compensation for Music Creators in the Digital Age," released by the International Council of Creators of Music (CIAM), with the support of the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers (CISAC), Music Creators North America (MCNA) and the Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN). Fair Trade Music: Coalition Calls For Better Digital Music Revenue Model
Here at home, when Irving Azoff exited as Chairman of Live Nation last year, one of his many moves was to form Global Music Rights as part of his Azoff MSG Entertainment, a new joint venture with the Madison Square Garden Company. There were rumors that some major songwriters including members of Journey, Foreigner, Fleetwood Mac and Soundgarden had signed on. Now I's becoming clear what Azoff has planned for his growing song catalog, and it strikes at the heart of a marketplace dominated by BMI and ASCAP for decades.
Azoff has apparently been telling potential clients that he will negotiate royalties from radio stations and online music broadcasters that will be up to 30% higher then they are currently getting through ASCAP or BMI. This leak comes via the New York Times, who quote three anonymous sources.
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THE 'A-SIDE' - TRACK 2
THE DROP IN SALES CONTINUES AS iTUNES SEES DIP AS WELL … AND BEATS FOLDS INTO iTUNESThe sales decline in the industry is across the board (with the exception of vinyl sales, which are still increasing) and Apples iTunes is feeling it too as streaming becomes more popular everyday.
From MarketWatch, "Digital music sales at Apple Inc.'s iTunes store have fallen 13% to 14% world-wide since the start of the year, according to people familiar with the matter, underscoring the fragility of the music industry's nascent recovery.
"The dive in download sales is stark compared with a much shallower dip last year. Global revenue from downloads fell 2.1% in 2013, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry" Read the article
Since global music sales at Apple's iTunes are down 13%-14%, the cure, Apple hopes, is Beats Music, which it acquired along with Beats audio for $3.2 billion. Beats To Become Part Of iTunes As Apple's Music Sales Fall 14% This Year
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CHECK OUT 'MAD GENIUS' RADIOMad Genius Radio has unveiled the "Ultimate Personalized Radio to Create an Infinite Playlist" and the first app to deliver a truly personalized, yet unpredictable, mix of current hits, discovery and deep cuts utilizing a unique 0-10 sliding scale and 0-5 ratings that enable users to control how often each genre, artist or song rotates in their mix.
"The outdated streaming model has pushed users to on-demand streaming services or canned playlists based on an artist or song, and there are a lot of problems with this approach," said Eric Neumann, founder of Mad Genius Radio. "Most importantly, it takes the emotion and fun out of hearing old songs you love, but may have forgotten; deep cuts you never hear on other services; and that 'oh, wow, who sings this?' feeling that radio used to give us. Mad Genius Radio combines the best aspects of radio, eliminates annoying ads and makes you the program director of your favorite station. We improve upon professional curation by empowering natural personalization, proving that the art of radio is more robust now than ever."
I tried it, and it's a true blast.
To download Mad Genius Radio, visit the App Store, Google Play or www.madgeniusradio.com
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NEW PANDORA TOOL HELPS ARTISTS & MUSIC COMPANIESVentureBeat reports, "Try as they might, music services have yet to come up with a universally preferred method for artists to track listener data about their work." Read More
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FROM THE NEW YORKER MAGAZINE 'AFTER THE FALL -- BOB DYLAN'S LEGENDARY BASEMENT TAPES'A terrific article by Sasha Frere-Jones in The New Yorker about Dylan, and his now famous "Basement Tapes" made after the period of his motorcycle accident in 1966.
From the article, "Next week, a six-CD set called 'The Basement Tapes Complete: The Bootleg Series, Vol. 11,' featuring 139 songs, will be released. It is not exactly an album, and was never intended to be. Some of the songs began circulating in 1969, on an album that came to be called "The Great White Wonder," and brought the word "bootleg" into the context of music…"The Basement Tapes Complete" reveals a reluctant prophet and his new friends looking for something. Their search was wide and lacked dogma."----------------------------
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ANALYST SAYS THE TERRESTRIAL RADIO LANDSCAPE COULD CHANGE DRAMATICALLY IN 10 YEARSHalf of all AM/FM broadcast stations will disappear by 2024, according to a new report from top radio analyst Gordon Borrell. The reason? The rise of the so called "digital dashboard" and more choices for in-car listening. "There are other means of sending out audio -- you won't need an FCC license," says Borrell.
"That was one of the toughest predictions to make," Borrell told RAIN News.
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BETWEEN THE GROOVES
ITEM: More dollars headed into the gaming biz. GamesIndustryBiz reports Sales of Nintendo hardware have been "gathering momentum" in the first half of the fiscal year, with the Wii U shifting 600,000 units in the second quarter.
ITEM: Broadcasting & Cable reports Channel Master, a supplier of DVRs and digital antennas that targets the cord-cutting crowd, said it will soon add YouTube alongside other features to its lineup of subscription-free DVR products.
ITEM: A new report from Mark Mulligan and media industry analysts MIDiA looks at the massive impact YouTube along with its yet to launch Music Key service will have on the music industry. YouTube delivers a massive audience of 210 million active music fans, according to the study. But it fails to deliver the commensurate revenue, and that is likely to get much, much worse. YouTube Music Service Could Cost Artists, Labels $2.3 Billion Per Year In Lost Income
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THE 'A-SIDE' - THE BONUS TRACKSMartin Scorsese Producing Grateful Dead Documentary
Heart Say 'Thank You' to Foo Fighters With Raw Cover
Sammy Hagar: 'I Would Agree to a Van Halen Reunion'
Robin Thicke & Pharrell Lose First Fight Against Marvin Gaye's Family
Charting A Music Career: Good, Fast, Cheap -- Pick Any Two
Stellar sound in a classy package
You'll Never Guess Which Country Hosts The Most Pirate Sites
2015 Grammy Nominees To Be Announced Dec 5th With A Twist
5 Ways The Internet Will Revolutionize Work And Play By 2025
Best sounding-soundbar yet
The outer limits: the Cowon Plenue 1 music player
FTC sues AT&T for limiting speeds on unlimited-data customers
Short News Items ...
FLOYD'S LAST:
David Gilmour has spent much of the last 20 years trying to make Pink Floyd a thing of the past. "The whole thing was becoming bigger than I liked," he tells Rolling Stone. To the surprise of everyone in the camp, he's resurrected material from a 1993 jam. Read More
TAYLOR TO SET ANOTHER RECORD:
Taylor Swift will become the only artist to sell more than one million albums in a single week on three separate occasions, not to mention on three consecutive releases, when her new album '1989' goes on sale. Seven of the current Top 10 iTunes singles are tracks from that album. (Editor's note: Again, in a time when music sales are declining, streaming is increasing dramatically, and people still download illegally, this proves that REAL artists who make GREAT albums still can sell in BIG quantities)
FAREWELL TO THE 'BOARDWALK':
'Boardwalk Empire' pulled in 2.3 million viewers in Sunday's 9p series finale, an uptick of 7% from last season's ending episode. Including subsequent replays, the series finale totaled three million viewers for the night -- the largest Sunday night audience for the series this season, HBO boasted. Season to date: "Boardwalk" averaged a gross audience of 6.6 million viewers per episode.
TAYLOR ON NEW YEAR'S EVE:
Taylor Swift has signed on for ABC's "Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest 2015," during which she'll perform live in Times Square for over one million fans.
PRINCE ON 'SNL' THIS SATURDAY:
When Prince plays 'Saturday Night Live' on Nov. 1st, he will play one extra-long segment in the middle of the show. Instead of two performances, he'll provide the audience with eight full minutes of unadulterated, commercial-free Purple glory.
PAGE ON ZEPPELIN:
"I don't intend to revisit the vaults for a while," says Jimmy Page about spending the past decade in a retrospective frenzy. In a sprawling Q&A, he tells Rolling Stone about the latest Led Zeppelin reissues, his choirboy past and potential new music. Read More
CLAPTON FOR JACK:
Following the death of bassist Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton has shared an instrumental ballad called "For Jack" that he recorded in tribute to his former Cream bandmate. The sweet, reflective two-and-a-half minute instrumental finds Clapton strumming softly on an acoustic guitar and harmonizing alongside a singer who isn't there. Clapton posted the track on his Facebook page
ALLMAN'S LAST:
The only note of sentiment at the Allman Brothers Band's show at New York's Beacon Theatre -- possibly their last gig anywhere -- came after more than four hours of music. "Never did I have any idea it could come to this," said Gregg Allman. Read More
Leaving Us
Jack Bruce, best known as one third of Cream, has died of liver disease. In a statement issued by his family last Saturday, his family said: ""It is with great sadness that we, Jack's family, announce the passing of our beloved Jack: husband, father, granddad, and all round legend. The world of music will be a poorer place without him but he lives on in his music and forever in our hearts."
Bruce played bass, sang and was the principal songwriter in Cream, but even leaving aside that group, in which he played with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker, his history reads like a comprehensive guide to the British blues boom, with spells in Alexis Korner's Blues Inc, the Graham Bond Organisation, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers and Manfred Mann. Following the demise of Cream in 1968, Bruce worked mainly as a solo artist or as part of small groups. Cream reunited briefly in 2005 for a short series of shows, but soon split again.
Quotes of the week
"He was a great musician and composer, and a tremendous inspiration to me,"
-- Eric Clapton, writing about Jack Bruce's passing on his webpage."Had I imagined that it would last more than a month-and-a-half, I might have named it something else. It's the dumbest band name ever."
-- Dave Grohl talking to Anderson Cooper, behind the scenes of Foo Fighters' ambitious 'Sonic Highway's documentary for Sunday night's episode of '60 Minutes'"We're filming our tenth season. We've had nine seasons of spin-offs. We have more episodes than 'I Love Lucy.' We have so many milestones that people don't think about." She further declared, "I don't think reality TV gets the respect it deserves." -- Kim Kardashian, Speaking at the Re/Code Code Mobile conference on Monday, complaining that her success is viewed as inferior to that of other celebrities.(Uh, yes it is, Kim, because "other celebrities" like Lucille Ball had REAL talent)
The B-Side - 'Blips'
THE ONION (www.theonion.com) STORY OF THE WEEK:
Pathetic, Washed-Up Rock Star On Fifth Decade Of Doing Exactly What He Always Wanted
DETROIT—Peter Wolf, a pitiful, has-been rock musician who hasn't had a Platinum record since 1981, has now spent more than 40 happy years doing exactly what he always wanted, reports confirmed this week. Read the rest
The Music Industry Past, Present & Future, And The Internet I answer questions on EconTalk
I did an interview about the industry and the Internet at EconTalk with host Russ Roberts. Russ is also a professor of economics at George Mason University, blogs at Cafe Hayek, and has written three novels that teach economics. He's also the co-creator of the Keynes-Hayek rap video. (And if your understanding of the economic meltdown that occurred needs to be enlightened, this video will do it)
In the interview we talk about the evolution of the music industry, the impact of the digital revolution, and I give my reasons for believing in the virtues and potential of the Internet in enhancing the music industry. I point out, as I have many times here in the newsletter, that the internet allows numerous artists to make money from their music and it can enhance revenues from live performances by expanding an artist's base. We also discuss the challenges facing record companies and I suggest that the full potential of the Internet as a distribution channel has yet to be fully exploited. There's a lot of ground covered, but based on the comments already posted of those who have tuned in, they've enjoyed it.
Read more about it by clicking here.
Smart Marketing Consulting Services
Smart Marketing Consulting Services has been in business sixteen years, and consults clients in the music, entertainment, attraction, media, and technology industry on branding, marketing, online exploitation, maximizing new media, and more.
"And the beat goes on, the beat goes on ... drums keep poundin' rhythm to the brain."
"Work is life, you know, and without it, there's nothing but fear and insecurity." -- John Lennon
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