The Forrester Research analysis we talked about yesterday is getting some people to think the sky is falling. One of the fears is that since iPod sales are falling that the labels should worry about sales slowing down. I would argue that there are a few thinks we may want to think deeper about about. 1. People are buying phones that play music. My subway rides now see people using Android phones to listen to music. 2. While we did see Billboard show that less people are listening to buying music, I wouldn't call iPod sales an indicator. Let's address leaks, more people learning how to use torrents and files sharing sites. By 1999 everyone and their mother owned a CD player, this didn't stop CD sales. Let's blame tactics like raising the price on MP3's and it becoming more acceptable to not pay for music, not the fact that a large part of the population owns a technology. There is plenty of reasons to worry but slowing iPod sales are not it.
Twitter has just rolled out a way to do an advanced search that involves a way to search where someone is tweeting from. While people are getting less tolerant of twitter spam you can always give it a shot to use this new function to suggest to people a show if they have recently tweeted about an artist that you are similar to. Follow me to the jump and I will show you how!
Just sync your Iphone/iPod.
The iTunes LP is big news to many of us who have been waiting for this for years. If you want to see them in action right now here is how to do it.
Have you wanted a Flip Mino HD to record your live show? Have you needed an iPod and a voice recorder to capture inspiration. Well it seems Apple decided to grace you with the perfect piece of technology to take care of all of these jobs. For $149 (8GB which is twice the size of the Flip Mino) or $179 you can have an iPod Nano! These seem to be a pretty kick ass option for most musicians looking to get a lot done for very little. More at TechCrunch.
Gizmodo has got the scoop!
From Gizmodo's live blog
"For iTunes LP, it'll include videos, liner notes, credits and other customized content that you used to get when you bought LPs in the past, except now it's digital."
From Gizmodo's live blog
"For iTunes LP, it'll include videos, liner notes, credits and other customized content that you used to get when you bought LPs in the past, except now it's digital."
Yesterday night Muse's widely anticipated new released leaked to the web. Like Jay-Z's earlier this month it became so popular it was a trend on Twitter. Yesterday we wrote about how Jay-Z's release has had over a half a million pirated copies fly around the net before it was available to buy. Like fear mongering retard Glenn Beck I am a huge fan of Muse. As a fan of their music I am willing to pay for it. It becomes a very big dilemma when you see a leak and want to support an artist. You don't want to contribute to something they didn't sanction and support them and at the same time you want to hear their music so bad. While many people do hold out, it is a tough moral decision, your intense love for someone's music will often be the thing that drives you to learn how to use torrents and then it becomes a very slippery slope. I know, I was initially drawn into torrents this way. while today we read reports of record sales plummeting yet again, I have to wonder why is it record companies haven't pressured iTunes, Spotify and the rest of the lot to obsolete the leaks by making records available the second they start to leak. We know that leaks cause record companies huge ulcer's of pain, and it would fatten their wallets if artist's were able to get their music available to be paid for the second they leak. This would also help stop the turnover of people who are music buyers turning into pirates which is the industry's ultimate goal. iTunes and Spotify both attempt to be cutting edge music software yet their uploads are anything but. Through expensive rush service you can get your music on iTunes in 3-7 days through services like TuneCore and WaTunes, but this isn't fast enough. If immediate upload became available these leaks could finally be done offering fans who have waited years to hear from their favorite artists a way to do so, and before people who they feel are not "real fans" who pirate the music. It's about time that iTunes and any other online music distribution to step up to the plate if they want to survive.
Forrester Research has come out with a big giant report that we are all supposed to go and look at, with lots of fancy charts about how we can make money in the music industry today. Thankfully, Eleet Music has written a great post that dumbs this monstrosity down for us all and shows how the DIY class of musicians can use this knowledge to defeat the evil major label death star. Check it out!
We save you the trouble of going to a million websites and just tell you what garbage is worth skimming over.
From Billboard:"Since February, weekly sales of tracks has dropped from the 25 million-per-week range to 21-22 million in July and 20-21 million in August. [...] It must be noted, however, that the cause of the drop in track sales - variable pricing and $1.29 at iTunes for most hit songs - has resulted in an increase in wholesale revenue to labels."
One of the oddest things in the music industry is the fact that Entertainment Lawyers often do a lot of the legwork in shopping bands around to various labels. Once you think about the fact that many of these lawyers have made strong bonds with label heads through daily dealings it does start to make sense. Unfortunately, over the years artists have had it branded into their heads that some sleazy manager who they signed a deal on the back of a napkin in blood with, will then shop them to all of their connections that they do coke and get prostitutes with. In reality a lawyer who is super busy, always late on every project you need and probably a little to socially active will be the guy who calls a label and mails over a press kit. Follow me to the jump and I will explain how it all works and how to get your very own lawyer to shop your music to the record label of your dreams. 
In the past we have suggested looking up artists who are similar to you on Hype Machine and sending them your music in hopes of getting written up by them. This technique can also be done using Regator. Simply type the artist who you want to find into their search and click "Search Posts" (not Search Blogs, which admittedly is confusing). This will then produce a bunch of blogs that have written about these bands, under the blog post title will be the name of the blog, simply click that and then click the blog title again and you will be at the blogs page. Look for their contact and send away.
We save you the trouble of going to a million websites and just tell you what garbage is worth skimming over.
Going on tour in Europe can be intimidating and scary, especially if you have seen the movie Hostel. Thankfully, the Internet has graced us with another great site that will help you navigate something through the kindness of others. BackPackEurope has everything from travel tips to transportation advice to a directory of hostels. This can be very valuable if you plan on taking your act on a Euro trip anytime soon.<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106
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