WaTunes

Venzo Mobile Expands To Android With Jazz App

Fri, 20 Jul 2012 13:33:44 -0400

Venzo Mobile Expands To Android With Jazz App
ATLANTA, GA - July 20th, 2012 — Venzo Mobile, a subsidiary of Venzo Digital & the free app platform for musicians to build apps for the iPhone has just expanded its app presence to Google’s Android Market. Venzo Mobile allows artists, record labels, distributors, and publishers to build unlimited music apps to the iTunes App Store for free! In exchange, artists are paid 50% of any paid app downloads from the App Store.

To kick off the expansion, Venzo Mobile has launched the Aleasha Smooth Jazz app, a popular app sold on the iTunes App Store for $0.99. This app lets users tune in to 24/7 of jazz music, share photos of their favorite jazz artists, keep up to date on the latest news, and more. “This is an exciting time for us. We are very proud of the progress of our mobile business. Venzo Mobile has taken great strides with much more to come. We look forward to its growth as we move onward to the year. With our entry to Android, we are now able to expand the mobile presence of brands from our content partners while driving down cost.” says Kevin Rivers, CEO of Xeinge Group, the parent company of Venzo Digital.

For more information on Venzo Mobile, visit the website at: http://mobile.venzodigital.com

See the full gallery on Posterous

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What exactly is Venzo Digital?

Wed, 11 Jul 2012 22:11:30 -0400

With no upfront fees, subscription fees, renewal fees, or maintenance fees whatsoever, Venzo Digital provides clients customized marketing, promotion, sync licensing and administrative support to help maximize the earnings potential of specific music and video releases or catalogs. At the heart of Venzo Digital is “INTRANET PRIME”: a proprietary, end-to-end digital asset management platform that automates many distribution and administration functions.

Utilizing the Client Console, artists have total visibility on the status of their releases as well as how, when and where they are distributed, the ability to opt in and out of retail deals and review and export weekly & monthly sales reports. Our platform is a content hub that connects directly to iTunes, Amazon, Spotify, eMusic, Yogitunes, VidZone & Muzu.tv with much more to come. Venzo Digital is a true digital company, not just an aggregator of services.

Our entire organization is staffed by senior engineers, and there is no non-technical or non-software producing management. Venzo Digital has a radical approach to enterprise application development. Specifically, we develop enterprise software as if it were shrink-wrap software, therefore the software is installable on any platform and scales to the enterprise level!Venzo Digital is also the perfect solution for mobile app development. Whether you’re an artist, movie maker, record label, distributor, radio station, magazine, or publishing company, we can build the most beautiful and vivid music apps in the world. By using our powerful platform, we can enable you to gain entry into the mobile space freely. This will allow you to increase your social network and generating more money without hurting your wallet! We get paid, when you get paid!

So what are you waiting for? Get in on the action at: http://www.venzodigital.com

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Venzo Music Signs New Store: YogiTunes As Part of Prime 7 Launch!

Fri, 06 Jul 2012 14:08:10 -0400

Hey guys,

We are extremely excited to welcome the world’s largest Yoga Music Store: YogiTunes ( www.yogitunes.com ) into our INTRANET platform. As part of the new Prime 7 update, we have integrated this amazing new service along with some great new features.

So how does YogiTunes work?YogiTunes allows artist’s music to be played by the world’s best yoga teachers. This will help any artist gain notoriety in the yoga world. YogiTunes offers a premium download service that enables yoga fans to download music. As always, artists can sell unlimited music through us for free + earn 80% of everything sold.

What other new features are available in Prime 7?

In our latest update of INTRANET Prime, we’ve added a new “Cover Art” feature. This enables Venzo Music customers to view the album cover they have currently selected for your albums. Secondly, we’ve beefed up our security features, making Prime 7 a very secured software to use. Finally, my personal favorite feature is the all-new “Send All Albums” feature! With our breakthrough technology in INTRANET, we have enabled our customers to send their entire catalog of music to any particular store with just ONE click! This feature is extremely useful as we add new additional stores, update catalog to current stores, and more. No longer do our artists have to re-submit an album to a new store (if they wanted to). Now with the power of Prime 7, they can send their entire catalog of music with only a push of a button. Its that easy!

On another note, we have also partnered with CNET and we are glad to announce that INTRANET Prime is now available on Download.com. So what are you waiting for? Visit http://music.venzodigital.com, create your FREE account, and start using the new INTRANET Prime 7 today! FOR PRESS: If you are a PR agent, press, blogger, news team, editor and would like to see the new Prime 7 in action, please feel free to contact us and we’ll send you a brief link where you can view the demo video!

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So Why Did MOG sold to HTC for $14 Million???

Wed, 04 Jul 2012 17:09:08 -0400

Source: GigaOM

HTC revealed Tuesday in a note to its shareholders that it spent $14M on music subscription service MOG through its Beats Electronics subsidy this week (hat tip to Unwired View). Of course, the number is not much of a surprise to GigaOM readers, as Om first reported it as the acquisition price more than three months ago. What remains is the question: Why did MOG sell for so little after raising $25 million?

The obvious answer is that MOG simply didn’t have that many users. MOG had never broken out the number of paying subscribers, but the company’s CEO David Hyman said in February that it had a total of 500,000 active users, which included users of its free service tier. To compare, Spotify announced in January that it had reached three million paying users worldwide.

But there’s another reason for MOG’s low valuation, and it has nothing to do with its popularity: MOG’s music licenses are of limited use for any buyer, HTC included. This was pointed out by former MOG employee and web audio pioneer Lucas Gonze when rumors of the sale bubbled up in March. Back then, Gonze wrote on his blog:

“Companies like MOG, Spotify, and Rdio rely on negotiated deals with record labels. Those deals usually contain clauses that make the deal non-transferable in case of a change of ownership.”

I asked Beats about this, and a spokesperson replied via email:

“Mog the music service and the rights they retain will remain the same today as they were last week pre-aqusition.”

That’s decidedly vague, but makes some more sense if you put in in the context of the acquisition announcement itself. Monday, Beats announced that “MOG’s music service will continue to operate as an independent company,” which may just be what it needs to do in order to not lose those precious licenses. Or maybe it’s part of a deal hammered out between the labels and Beats during those long months ever since the first sale rumors surfaced in March. Maybe one day, we will know why selling MOG for so little took so long.

However, one thing is already clear: HTC won’t just be able to take the licenses MOG originally negotiated with the labels and use them to launch its own, Beats Audio-branded music subscription service for HTC handset owners. To do so, it has to go back to the negotiating table. The same would have been true for any other potential suitor, which explains why in the end, MOG was worth so little.

So why did HTC buy anyway? Because it’s one of the few companies that doesn’t actually have to worry much about music licensing. Again, Gonze:

“It happens that one of the major stakeholders in Beats is Jimmy Iovine, who is also a lead at Universal Music. That’s not to say that in this deal UMG is getting ownership of MOG (they already have equity anyway). It is to say that getting Universal’s blessing is pretty much a done deal. And where Universal goes, Sony and Warner go, because Universal is the 600 pound gorilla of labels.”

And of course, it only helps that Universal also has equity in Beats. In other words: HTC is a perfect buyer for MOG – but there aren’t many other companies in its position, which meant it could pick up the subscription service on the cheap.

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OFFICIAL: Dre & Iovine's Beats Buys MOG

Tue, 03 Jul 2012 13:12:54 -0400

Source: Hypebot

It’s been rumored for weeks, but now it’s official: Beats Electronics, the company co-founded by musician and producer Dr. Dre along with Interscope, Geffen, A&M Chairman Jimmy Iovine, has agreed to acquire on-demand digital music service MOG. The MOG Music Network (MMN) blog network is not part of the acquisition rumored to be priced around $10 million.

For MOG investors, the sale marks an exit from a marketplace overcrowded with competitors including Spotify, Rhapsody, Rdio and Deezer. MOG, however, fits Beats plan to create an end-to-end premium music experience, that to date that has meant hardware including headphones.

MOG’s music service will continue to operate as an independent company with no immediate changes to the service or impact on MOG users/subscribers. The MOG Music Network (MMN) is not part of the acquisition and will remain its own entity.

MOG employees will remain with the company and will continue towork out of MOG’s offices in Berkeley, CA. MOG founder and CEO, David Hyman, will assume the title of CEO of MOG reporting directly to Beats President and COO Luke Wood.

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Google Unveils Nexus Q: 8 Things It Will Do For Music Fans

Fri, 29 Jun 2012 08:54:03 -0400

Source: Hypebot

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm.

Yesterday, Google announced a new hardware device: Google Nexus Q, a $300 Android entertainment system for the home that Google calls “the first social streaming media player.” Here’s what it will do for music fans, according to what we know so far:

Change Color With the Beat. The spherical Google Nexus Q has “32 LEDs” around it that “shift and change color in time to your music,” sort of like a software visualizer. Google says you’ll be able to choose your favorite effect. This sounds cool.

Social Music Selection. As with the Sonos system, Google Nexus Q will allow multiple people to add songs to a queue. This could make it attractive to people in offices, apartments with multiple roommates, and family homes. However, you’ll only be able to add the songs to the queue from an Android phone or tablet. In the video below, Google says this is “the first device that lets you create a social playlist with your friends.” That is utter hokum, but the feature is still great to have.

Multiroom Music. According to Google, you’ll be able to sync multiple Nexus Qs around your house, playing the same music on all of them. You can also do this with Apple’s AirPlay devices, although according to Sonos, that leads to phase cancellation (which can affect sound quality, because the music doesn’t arrive at the speakers at the same time). However, we have not noticed that effect with AirPlay systems, and suspect we won’t notice it with Nexus Q either.

Power for Speakers. The Google Nexus Q has a 25-watt “Class D” amplifier. According to my extensive research into “Class D” amplifiers, that will be more than enough power to fill one or more rooms with music at a loud level, because they are far more efficient than the ones you’d find in grandpa’s hi-fi system. Class D amps are already fairly green, and Nexus Q makes this one even greener by shutting down the power to the unit automatically when it’s not in use. (Incidentally, Google will sell you $50 speaker cables or $400 speakers to go with the Nexus Q, but you can probably do better on both fronts in terms of price/quality.)

At Least Two Music Apps. We know that Google Nexus Q runs Android 4.0 (the so-called “Ice Cream Sandwich” operating system). We also know that SiriusXM and other app developers are going to demonstrate their apps later today on some sort of Google TV device. Is this that device? It looks fairly likely, although for now, Google only lists three compatible apps (two that play music), and they are all made by Google:

Google Play Music (i.e. it will play the music in your cloud-based Google Music locker, which holds up to 20,000 songs for free)
Google Play Movies and TV
YouTube (It would probably help if you try this trick for better sound.)

To be fair, third-party apps for Nexus Q could be coming later; SiriusXM says its app will be available from Google Play “soon.”

Bluetooth. In addition to WiFi and NFC (near-field communication), Nexus Q has a third wireless compatibility: Bluetooth. This should mean that you’ll be able to beam music from any app on any smartphone (including the iPhone) to the Nexus Q and have the music come out of its speakers, the same way you would with, say, the Jambone Jambox.

Touch To Mute. Twist for Volume. Google says Nexus Q has a “rotating top dome volume control” and ”capacitive touch sensor for mute on/off.”

Optical and Digital Outputs. If you like super-clean sound and you have a modern home entertainment unit near the Google Nexus Q, you’re in luck. The device includes a TOSLink (S/PDIF) optical connector, as well as an HDMI port, so you can send the 1s and 0s that represent your music to your more expensive home theater system with a single, thin wire, and do the D/A conversion there.

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Xeinge Group CEO Kevin Rivers Celebrates 25th Birthday!!!

Wed, 27 Jun 2012 18:04:21 -0400

Hey guys,

I am excited that today is my 25th birthday. I am extremely grateful of the wonderful wishes and gifts from everyone. I’d like to thank first and foremost God for everything He has given and done for me. I also thank my wife and supportive family, friends, and even clients who took their time to join the celebration. Its been more than 8 years since Xeinge Group (parent of Venzo Digital, WaTunes, and other great brands) was founded, and we’ve had some great memories. I am very pleased to have worked with many talented individuals as well as very great people within the company. Mostly, I am proud to have served and work with many new and establishing artists, record labels, distributors, publishers, and other affiliates. You guys made everything happen.

So as we move forward into 2013, I thank everyone for making this possible.

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Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:35:59 -0400

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Music Is Now Less Than 0.3% of Revenues at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, & Target...

Sat, 23 Jun 2012 10:33:50 -0400

Source: Digital Music News

For years, the music industry blamed big box retailers for destroying mom-and-pop record stores. Now, it simply looks like physical retail itself - small, medium, or large - is evaporating entirely. Here’s what EMI Music chief executive Roger Faxon told a Senate panel on Thursday about the state of the largest retailers.

“Let’s understand. Best Buy and Target, music is a very small part.”

“If you take Walmart, Best Buy, and Target, music represents less than 0.3 percent of their turnover.”

“If we as an industry or even a significant player tries to raise prices in a way that is going to reduce demand, and therefore reduce turnover per square foot, what is going to happen? It’s a very simple thing, and so they will resist and we have to supply at the terms that they will accept. And these stores, they look at their square footage and say, what’s my turn, what’s my profit retention, and if music isn’t providing it, they put something else in.”

“We know that, because shelf space has vastly reduced in our industry, and our prices in the physical world have declined, and they continue to decline even to this day.”

Entire music section at a Walmart outside Austin, TX (picture taken in March, 2012; more pics here.)

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Why Investors Don’t Want to Back Your Music Startup!

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:47:42 -0400

Source: BetaBeat

The problem, as one philosophically-minded audience member pointed out, is that there are too many problems in the music industry. It certainly felt that way Tuesday afternoon at the New Music Seminar Tech Summit, “Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained – A Look at the Digital Music Vertical.”

The discussion at the AMC Loews Theatre focused on the difficulty of acquiring investment as a music industry startup, the issues with music copyright laws, the free-downloading plague and innumerable other chinks in the business.

To bring an investors viewpoint into the mix, Chris Fralic, a partner at First Round Capital, explained why many financers are hesitant to back music-technology startups.

“You can not only lose money, you can end up in court for years and years,” he said, pointing to Napster as an example. “There’s a graveyard of companies that have failed in the music industry.”

But his speech wasn’t all blood and gore. He did note that the music industry was picking up now because startups can grow faster at a much lower cost. A good investment is a lot of “engagement and reach,” even if it doesn’t initially generate revenue, he said.

So what companies did Mr. Fralic miss the boat on? “Kickstarter,” he said, a company he had the opportunity to invest in twice but never quite took the bate. Mr. Fralic also passed up LyricFind, the brainchild of Darryl Ballantyne, who was one of the four other panelists.

“We couldn’t convince Chris to invest in us, or anyone else, except for my mother, and that was with a whole bunch of strings attached,” Mr. Ballantyne said. “It took us three years to get all the majors signed … We were either clairvoyant or stupid.” One of the problems Mr. Ballantyne faced was getting the licensing for the songs and their lyrics, and he certainly was not the only frustrated attendee.

Copyright laws and licensing were a hot-button issue at the discussion, something that inspired quite a few metaphors. It’s like charging the hungry to look at the menu, said the panel’s co-host Bill Wilson of digitalmusic.org. It’s like buying a car and having to pay separately for the engine, said audience member John Simpson.

In a nut shell: The music industry doesn’t like the current state of copyright laws, and no one in the audience could really come to a consensus on how to improve the problem.

Mr. Wilson’s fellow co-host, Ted Cohen, a managing partner of TAG Strategic, pointed to another problem in the music business in an interview after the panel with Betabeat. “Big companies have a tendency to assimilate things that are cool. There’s innovation, followed by real apprehension, followed by assimilation,” he said, a vicious cycle that he thinks sometimes kills the uniqueness of record labels and other music start-ups. “I don’t think that Def Jam Records at Universal is what Def Jam Records was when Russel Simmons and Rick Rubin ran it 20 years ago.” Hipsters, I think you have found a new spokesperson.

So, Mr. Cohen, as the expert on all things too-mainstream, what is the most overdone pitch-line in the music industry?

“‘We’re going to save the business,’” he said, noting that many so-called “cool” companies don’t have business models or a clear purpose, a problem echoed during the panel.

Of course, when those overachievers we love to hate send in 100-page pitches, “no one’s ever read one of those or ever funded one of those that came in,” Mr. Fralic said. According to him, the key is a 10 to 15-slide presentation. “Tell a story. Talk about why this got you excited and why you are willing to go.” And you probably shouldn’t put your potential investor to sleep.

J.J. Rosen, the CEO of Indaba, Benji Rogers, the founder and CEO of Pledge Music, and Olivier de Simone of Webdoc, also participated in the panel discussion, half of which they spent discussing the growth of their company and the other half of which they spent answering and discussing issues with the audience.

“I wish there were more wonderful sort of ‘think sessions’ like this, because I think that the technology sector has a lot of these sort of talks, but I feel like the music sector talking about technology doesn’t have enough yet … It would have been nice to have another two hours to hear even more ideas,” said attendee Neeta Ragoowansi, the vice president of business development of legal affairs for TuneSat LLC.

But possibly the highlight of the whole discussion occurred in the last five minutes, when Mr. Cohen dragged Mr. Fralic’s nephew from the audience, handed him a microphone and asked if he paid to listen to music. Well, of course, the kid replied. (Wink, wink.) Yeah, we pay for our music too.

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Role of Digital Music Underpins Senate Hearings on Universal-EMI Deal

Fri, 22 Jun 2012 09:29:23 -0400

Source: NYTimes

Alex Wong/Getty ImagesThe chief executives of Universal Music Group, Lucian Grainge, and EMI, Roger Faxon, were among those testifying before the Senate on Thursday.

6:05 p.m. | Updated The Internet has changed almost everything about the music business, of course, from introducing a vast piracy threat to opening up avenues of distribution that allow musicians everywhere to instantly make their work available online. But when it comes to the big record companies, could the digital revolution actually have made the strong even stronger?

That thorny question was among those being wrangled over at a Senate subcommittee hearing Thursday afternoon that featured some of the most powerful executives in music. The topic was the impact of Universal Music Group’s $1.9 billion bid for EMI’s record labels, a deal that would take the beleaguered music industry to a new level of consolidation, going from four major labels to three. (Fifteen years ago, there were six.)

“Market power is why they’re doing this,” Martin Mills, the founder of Beggars Group, said at the hearing before the Senate Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, competition policy and consumer rights. “The power to dominate Internet services and impose their demands upon them, the power to leverage a disproportionately onerous deal, the power to squeeze out the competition.”

In addition to Mr. Mills, whose acts include the superstar Adele, there also were Edgar M. Bronfman Jr. of the Warner Music Group and Gigi B. Sohn of the consumer advocacy group Public Knowledge to speak against the merger at the hearings, which were chaired by Senator Herb Kohl, Democrat of Wisconsin.

Testifying in favor were Lucian Grainge of Universal; Roger Faxon of EMI; and Irving Azoff of Live Nation Entertainment. They argued that the Internet has weakened the record companies, thus making another step toward consolidation less than worrisome.

In one sense, it’s hard to dispute that: the record business has lost half its value since the late 1990s. The monopoly these big labels once enjoyed in releasing music has also been broken, since high-quality recordings can now be made on a laptop and anyone with a Twitter feed, a Kickstarter project or access to self-service distribution platforms like TuneCore can deliver the music directly to the public.

Nor would there be much dispute that the independent music world is strong. Mr. Mills is one of the rare independent figures who is widely respected among the big shots of the corporate music world for developing a strong, influential company — with the biggest act in the world — on his own terms.

But despite all the ways that musicians can now make and distribute music by themselves, the digital economy has given the big labels a huge advantage: their content — all of it — is crucial to the success of any online service. In an age when iTunes has 20 million tracks, no new Spotify or MOG or Google Play can expect to succeed in the market without a similarly vast offering. (Never mind that plenty of those 20 million tracks might be duplicates or quickie cover versions — the number itself is an advertisement for the fulsomeness of the service.)

At the hearing, Mr. Kohl, asked directly: “In almost all industries, reducing the number of competitors from four to three expands the market power of the remaining companies and increases the risk of higher prices. Why shouldn’t these same principles apply to the music business?”

Mr. Grainge argued in the hearing that increased size would give Universal no advantage over other labels, since a record company’s strength depends on the quality of its artists’ music and it has an incentive to license as many services as possible.

“The thought that we would constrict our artists who we’ve invested in, and construct the investment we make in EMI to dissolve the market would be commercial suicide,” he said.

The opposition on the panel portrayed that attitude as disingenuous, saying that Universal’s real aim was to wrest as much control over the marketplace as possible.

Mr. Bronfman — who years ago tried to merge Warner and EMI, a fact that executives in favor of the Universal deal made sure to mention — said in written testimony that Universal “would become the troll guarding the bridge, exacting a toll on innovation.” Ms. Sohn and Mr. Bronfman also made numerous comparisons to the proposed merger of AT&T and T-Mobile USA, which would have given the combined company a market share of about 43 percent, but was opposed by the Justice Department and dropped late last year.

Since the major labels control anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the music out there — the accounting depends on which side of an argument you are on — this means that most new digital services are paralyzed until they can first come to terms with the big labels for licenses. And those big labels often have big demands, which over the years many digital executives have called onerous; a typical deal calls for labels to receive up to 70 percent of a service’s revenue, with other restrictions over free trial periods, users’ ability to share content, and other matters. The digital graveyard is filled with dozens if not hundreds of companies that could not make their business work.

The biggest worry among most opponents of Universal’s deal isn’t that it would prevent other people from making music or getting it — somehow — to their fans. It is that when one company controls 40 percent of all songs, it can effectively call all the shots, and therefore stifle innovation.

Universal’s central challenge is to convince regulators that the Internet has leveled the market enough that its 40 percent market share won’t matter. So far its chances of success are unclear. It has come under close scrutiny from the European Commission, which this week delivered to the company a “statement of objections,” a formal list of problems to the deal, which could be a prelude to either concessions or an outright block. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission has made no public statements about the deal, and may still take weeks or even months to make a decision.

But on Thursday one ray of light opened for Universal: New Zealand’s Commerce Commission approved the company’s acquisition of EMI.

“We continue to work with regulators in other jurisdictions,” Universal said in a response on Thursday morning, “and remain confident of other clearances.”

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Google Looking To Shut Down YouTube-To-MP3 Conversion Sites

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 21:59:01 -0400

Source: Hypebot

YouTube is easily a top destination for music consumption, and not just in the viewing of music videos, but for general streaming of music as well. Recognizing this, several websites have been created and utilized by large numbers of people that allow for the conversion of audio from YouTube videos into downloadable mp3s, making it easy for people to “own” the tracks they’ve streamed – and Google, owner of YouTube, is not happy about this. According to a report over at TorrentFreak, sites like YouTube-Mp3.org and Music-clips.net have been receiving letters indicating that their services allow users to download material from YouTube, which directly violates the company’s terms of service. The sites even allow users to input the YouTube link directly and receive a download with the video’s audio. While YouTube-Mp3.org does not use YouTube’s API, they remain in Google’s crosshairs, having been sent a letter on June 8 threatening to be sued if they did not shut down in seven days (Google’s own DoubleClick service reports that the site receives 1.3 million hits per day).

YouTube-MP3’s owner, named only as “Philip”, is contesting the action and sent a long response to Associate Product Counsel at YouTube, Harris Cohen, looking to negotiate. YouTube and Google, however, do not seem to be interested. In fact, Google has blocked all of YouTube-MP3′s servers from accessing YouTube, essentially stripping the site of its primary service.

While there are certainly several other sites that provide a suitable alternative to YouTube-Mp3.org or Music-clips.net, Google looks to be eliminating the issue by starting out with the biggest ones first, saying they have a mandate from their users to protect how the content they upload to YouTube is shared and disseminated.

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Selling More Than 100 Downloads a Year? Then Consider Yourself Very Lucky!

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:49:58 -0400

Source: Digital Music News

Did you sell more than 100 downloads last year? How about more than 1? We spent the morning compiling some statistics related to paid downloads, specifically from 2011, and found some stunningly-lopsided figures. That includes some statistics just revealed at New Music Seminar, which show that paid downloads are extremely skewed towards larger, mass-marketed (ie, major label) artists. And, that it’s easier than ever to get buried in the pile.

First, consider these top-level stats from the top of the sales pyramid, as shared by Nielsen Soundscan several months ago:

(1) The top 10 artists accounted for 9.52 percent of all a-la-carte, digital downloads in 2011 (does not count digital albums).

They are: Adele, Lady Gaga, Mumford & Sons, Jay-Z & Kanye West, Lil Wayne, Coldplay, Drake, Micheal Buble, Katy Perry, and Foster the People.

(2) The top 10 selling songs accounted for 3.1 percent of all a-la-care paid downloads in 2011 (does not include digital albums).

(3) The top 10 digital albums accounted for 6.43 percent of all digital albums sold in 2011.

Now, consider these stats emerging from the lower end of the pyramid, as shared at NMS.

(4) Roughly 8 million songs were downloaded just once in 2011, also according to Nielsen.

(5) 94 percent of all songs were downloaded less than 100 times in 2011.

and, the background…

(6) The iTunes Store now has a catalog of 28 million songs.

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Music Video Site VEVO Agrees To Pay Independent Publishers (Finally!)

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:14:15 -0400

Source: Hypebot

Yesterday, we reported to you that the U.S. National Music Publisher’s Association (NMPA) and their CEO David Israelite recently called for reform in the way publishers license digital content, particular with the way VEVO conducts its payouts. Today, Universal Music Group (part-owner of VEVO) announced that they will begin paying independent publishers for the use of their compositions streamed on VEVO, representing a huge win for independents. While no specifics of the deal have been disclosed, it has been said that publishers stand to receive 15% of advertising revenues generated by music videos and that the deal takes effect back to 2008. However, for the first two years through 2009, the agreed upon rate is 10% of revenue, while the 15% revenue rate kicks in for music videos in 2010.

Before this announcement, monies were paid by VEVO and kept by UMG, while indie publishers were basically getting left out. This agreement (which covers North America) has been coined by the NMPA as a “groundbreaking model licensing deal” due to the fact that it will allow songwriters and music publishers to a share in revenue from music videos.

“We’re all navigating through a rapidly changing business environment,” said Israelite. “This is a model example of how record labels along with songwriters and music publishers can move forward together to ensure that the licensing process is more effective and efficient, and that all creators are fairly compensated.”

The deal been said to also cover a wide array of content beyond just music videos, including concert footage, backstage videos, and artist interviews. The agreement also provides songwriters and publishers monies for additional UMG product offerings including ringtones, dual disc, multi-session audio and locked content products.

The Harry Fox Agency will serve as the administrator for the deal between NMPA and UMG, and both Harry Fox and NMPA should announce additional details in the coming weeks. Stay tuned for more details as they surface.

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Google+ Hangouts Add YouTube Playlists For Intimate Music Parties

Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:10:51 -0400

Source: Hypebot

Google+ continues its slow transformation into what is hoped to be a social media powerhouse with the addition of YouTube playlist parties to Google+ Hangouts. One of the potentially more powerful of Google+’s products for music marketing, Google+ Hangouts allows for small group interaction with large scale broadcast capabilities via Hangouts On Air. Now Google+ Hangouts includes the ability to create YouTube video playlists during a Hangout offering another marketing tool.

Google+ Hangouts, a free video chat service for small groups of up to 9 people, is one of the stronger results of the Google+ experiment. It’s geniunely useful for connecting small groups via video and it offers some interesting music marketing possibilities.

For example, intimate listening parties were an early direction for musicians wanting to share their music.

Google+ then introduced Hangouts On Air that allowed one to broadcast Hangout sessions and archive them on YouTube. Will.i.am was an early adopter and the feature was eventually rolled out to the general public.

Google+ Hangouts just added video playlists using a YouTube app in Hangouts:

“Everyone can add videos in the Hangout through a search tool in the app, or remove the videos you don’t like. All your friends in the Hangout can drag and drop videos to sort the order in the playlist, or skip forward or backward to play the next one. Click the “Push to talk” button to chat with the group…”

“If you like a video that’s playing, you can share the video with your Google+ circles at any time…you can also save the playlist that you and your friends created to your YouTube account as public or private to enjoy later.”

The Next Web’s Drew Olanoff reports that currently you can’t share the playlists via Hangouts On Air. But that seems like just a matter of time before that feature is added there as well.

Based on the Google+ graphic for Hangouts On Air and for the announcement of the playlist feature, they clearly value the association with musicians who don’t want to limit their reach to small groups.

More: Daria Musk recently appeared in a Verizon Wireless Google+ Hangout.

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Songza Hits 1 Million App Downloads In 10 Days

Mon, 18 Jun 2012 18:24:33 -0400

Source: Hypebot

In the 10 days since the June 7th debut of Songza’s iPad app, it, along with their iPhone app have been downloaded 1.15 million times. Featured in Apple’s ‘New and Noteworthy’section of the App Store, the new Songza iPad app has also been getting strong ratings and reviews.

Long Island City, NY based Songza combines curated playlists with guided discovery. Driving the impressive growth in recent weeks has been Songza’s ‘Music Concierge’ feature which offers up playlists to fit the time of day and the users mood or current activity: waking up, working or working out, commuting, partying or unwinding, and more.

“With the right curation, music is a powerful way to make our everyday moments better. Our mission at Songza is to deliver the right music for any moment and this growth confirms the need for a service like ours,”
said Elias Roman, CEO and co-founder of Songza.

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Indie Labels Are Now Heavily Dependent on Major Label Distribution...

Sun, 17 Jun 2012 16:37:11 -0400

Source: Digital Music News

You don’t need a fancy report to tell you this. Just look at what’s happened to the so-called ‘indie digital distribution’ space for ample evidence of major label domination. The Orchard now features a massive ownership share by Sony Music, INgrooves Fontana is substantially owned by Universal Music Group, and once-indies like IODA and Iris Distribution have been swallowed alive by the machine.

Indie groups like A2IM will scream that they’re still in control, they’ll blast Soundscan and the majors for shady marketshare counting. But according to a report just issued by the Consumer Federation of America and Public Knowledge, the fact that majors can get away with this creative counting proves they’re in a position of power. ”We interpret the recent brouhaha over the calculation of market shares as a demonstration that the independent labels have failed to diminish the market power of the dominant firms,” the report grates. ”We believe this dispute proves the continued importance of the majors, not their imminent demise. While independent labels have grown, they have been unable to escape from the domination of the major labels.”

But just how dominant are the majors in this picture?

“The independent labels are dependent on the majors for distribution of over 60 percent of their content, hardly a demonstration of their ability to challenge the majors with regard to fostering new distribution.”

Methodology please? The groups calculated that indie marketshare is roughly 30 percent regardless of the ultimate distributor. But when indie-only distribution channels are isolated, that marketshare shrivels to just 12 percent.

But who really cares about that? Universal Music Group, that’s who, especially as it tries to convince lawmakers to approve its pending acquisition of EMI. Which would explain why the label is suddenly trying to undo its marketshare-grabbing calculations with an “eleventh hour flip-flop,” according to the report. Because smaller marketshare means a smaller anti-competitive threat, which means the game suddenly changes. And both Consumer Federation and Public Knowledge, both ardent opponents of this merger, are more than happy to expose that game.

But wait: majors still control a massive amount of music the mainstream wants - across physical and digital. Which means the broader picture looks like this:

Perhaps this is just a prelude to the real problem. After all, massively-funded companies like Spotify aren’t paying royalty ransoms and doling out ownership stakes because it’s fun. ”Alternative distribution models must gain access to the content of the majors to succeed because, as we have already seen, the majors control such a large share of the music that sells across all media and genres.”

And more importantly, they can crush the small-but-growing level of independent marketshare by using these tactics. ”Major labels can stifle this competition by limiting the number of successful digital distribution platforms, which are the very places where independent labels’ offerings can compete with those of the major labels on a level playing field. The major record labels may accomplish this by withholding licenses entirely or by demanding high advances, royalties disproportionate to their market share, or an equity stake in the digital service as a condition of a license.

“Any of these tactics threaten the long‐ term sustainability of independent labels.”

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Music Streamer WE7 Sold To UK Retailer Tesco For $17 Million

Fri, 15 Jun 2012 12:55:30 -0400

Source: Hypebot

www.google.com” src=”http://www.hypebot.com/.a/6a00d83451b36c69e201761581ab0a970c-200wi” alt=”image from www.google.com” style=”margin: 0px 5px 5px 0px;” />The world’s third largest retailer, UK based Tesco has purchased a 91% stake in customized online radio service WE7 for $17 million USD. The acquisition follows Tesco’s 2011 purchase of online movie service blinkbox. Tesco has said it will continue to acquire companies that give it a foothold in the digital entertainment market.

Founded in 2008 with funding from musician Pater Gabriel and others, We7 became an ad-supported music streaming service and download store. Steve Purdham has serves as CEO since the company’s inception.

We7 has claimed 1 million UK users, but growth appears to have slowed since Spotify and others moved aggressively into the UK.

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The iTunes Of Beats? BeatStars Launches Digital Production Marketplace

Thu, 14 Jun 2012 18:02:13 -0400

With the new music industry taking a shift to virtually obsolete release dates and on-demand music services, the ever-growing need for high quality (and affordable) music production is at an all-time high. In comes BeatStars, a digital production marketplace where singer/songwriters, producers, and vocalists can collaborate and monetize their compositions.

BeatStars claims to have the highest average transaction for its user base in the digital music industry at over $100. Many of today’s well known producers and songwriters currently utilize the platform, inclduing Grammy Award winning music producer Focus (Beyonce, Christina Aguilera, 50 Cent). Focus uses the BeatStars platform to manage his catalog of beats and compositions and he calls the service “The iTunes of Beats”. Mason “MDL” Levy (Justin Bieber, Maroon 5, Cee-Lo), producer and writer of Justin Bieber’s hit song “Boyfriend,” also utilizes the BeatStars platform to create a passive income for himself.

Music producers and artists are not the only people benefiting from the service. Up-and-coming record label Funk Volume, which is home to XXL magazine’s Freshman alum “Hopsin,” uses the BeatStars HTML5 widget to create a new source of revenue directly on the label’s website.

“Our fans love our artists, but they also appreciate the beats they record over,” says Dame Ritter, founder of Funk Volume. “Why wouldn’t our fans that buy our songs also purchase our beats? The BeatStars widget has been a great source of revenue for us.”

Click image to enlarge

The bootstrapped start-up founded by former INgrooves distribution and content development manager, Abe Batshon, has envisioned his marketplace since the mid 90’s.

“As a songwriter, I originally developed BeatStars for myself and then quickly realized that tens of millions of aspiring recording artists around the world are struggling to find the best available production as well,” says Batshon. “There is a huge disconnect between the music producer and recording artist communities. Access to high quality production from Grammy Award winning music producers has never been attainable until now. And not to mention the millions of beats created everyday on DAW’s that don’t have a proper hosting and monetization mechanism for their content. Imagine video without YouTube – that’s the current state of beats today.”

From inexpensive non-exclusive licenses to complex synchronization licenses, BeatStars is steadily positioning itself to be a go-to hub for recording artists in need of studio quality compositions to record vocals over, as well as for music supervisors seeking the right sound to fit their next TV/Film project.

BeatStars is integrated with Facebook Timeline and available in the iOS app store and Google Play.

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Tablet Owners Love Online Video

Sat, 09 Jun 2012 18:33:51 -0400

Source: Billboard

Tablet Owners Watch More Online Video Than Smartphone Owners
Here’s some good news for YouTube, Vevo and any other company betting there’s a business for streaming online video: tablet owners are far more likely to watch online videos than smartphone owners.

A recent release from comScore says 53% of the U.S. tablet audience watches video or television on the device each month compared to 20% of the U.S. smartphone audience. There is a similar gap between tablet viewing and smartphone viewing as frequency increases from once to three times a week (24.6% versus 10.3%) to at least once a week (18.9% and 6.7%) to almost every day (9.5% to 2.9%).

In addition, 26.7% paid to watch video on their tablet devices. That could be a function of the type of consumer that’s buying tablets. Younger demographics — 18 to 24 and 25 to 34 — make up larger proportions of the smartphone audience than the tablet audience. Older demographics and consumers who make over $75,000 per year account overindex on tablet use. Oddly, the 13 to 17 demographic also over-indexes on tablet ownership — perhaps because they are more likely than the 18 to 34 crowd to live with their parents?

comScore also found that smartphone ownership is highly predictive of tablet ownership. In April, 23.6% of smartphone owners also owned a tablet compared to just 10.4% of feature phone owners. In other words, it doesn’t appear feature phone owners are skipping a step and jumping right into tablet ownership. This could be a result of consumer income since tablets are relatively expensive and aren’t used as a replacement for mobile phones. Another factor could be the ability of a smartphone to act as a stepping stone to tablets — both use the same apps and have similar user interfaces. This should be encouraging news for music video service Vevo, which has apps for the iPad and BlackBerry PlayBook in addition to an Android app that runs on both smartphones and tablets. These are good trends for YouTube and its content partners, namely Warner Music Group, as well as paid online video services like Hulu and Netflix. The more people are watching, and the more likely they are to pay to watch, the more robust the online video market can become. ( comScore press release)

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