New Platforms: Variety posted an article that discusses different platforms that are now used by artists to help expose music. For instance, American Idol contestant Eliott Yamin sold 92,000 CD’s in one week, but instead of being signed to a major label, he used a hybrid marketing company called Rocket Science that offers the full functions of a record label.
“There is no one single way of doing business these days,” Talking Heads frontman David Byrne recently wrote in Wired. “That variety is good for artists; and good for audiences, too, who will have more, and more interesting, music to listen to.”
Does Blog Hype Sell Records? Yes! According to two researches at NYU. The amount of online “chatter” about an upcoming album release directly correlates to higher physical album sales. The number of Myspace friends a particular band has also correlates to better album sales.The Winners: A complete list of the Grammy Award Winners can be found here.
Calling All Fans: If there is one thing Jack Johnson has, it’s an incredible ‘loyal’ fan base. According to Hits, his new Brushfire/Universal Republic will sell 350-375k first-week.
Clive Davis Still Searching for Hitz: In the current issue of Rolling Stone, Rich Cohen profiles music executive Clive Davis, the last record man. After 30 years, Clive is still looking for the next hit asking himself “can the record cross-over?”. KOAR is looking for Hits as well, email tips@kingsofar.com and tell us what track we need to listen to on you’re myspace. Click here to check out some of the artists Clive has guided over the years.
Measuring Success: The New York Post points out the fact that Soulja Boy is nominated for a Grammy while only selling 746,000 copies of his disc, which is typically low. Even though CD sales were low other vehicles that point to the song (Crank That) success is 40 million streams on YouTube and 2 million ring tones sold. Steve Berman, President of sales and distribution for Interscope, Geffen and A&M Records says “We measure success much differently than we did in the past. You can’t compare things to 3- or 4-years ago,” he said, later adding “Album sales are [now] just a piece of the puzzle.”
Signings: NYC alternative act The Urgency just signed with Mercury/Island Def Jam and was posted in KOARs New Music and Recommended Listening column 2 weeks ago. Supposably it was an old school bidding war between a couple of majors that took place within the last two weeks. Another band mentioned in the same post is now getting cornered by major music labels and has garnered 100k plays a day on their myspace this past weekend.
Most Added: Alternative rock act 10 Years new single Beautiful that evolves around the death of celebrityism was this weeks active rock most added and second most added behind Panic At the Disco on alternative radio. This band may shakeup the dreadful rock playlist…you think?
Timbaland Preparing For Mobile Album: You know times have changed when artists are making records for cell phones. According to Billboard the beat producer struck a deal with Verizon Wireless to make the first “mobile album,” which will be exclusively available to subscribers of V Cast, Verizon’s mobile entertainment service. “As Verizon’s mobile producer in residence, Timbaland will produce one song per month throughout 2008”.
Jay-Z to Launch Ad Agency: Jay-Z is partnering with Steve Stoute and will launch Translation Advertising in New York, that will focus on helping marketers reach multicultural consumers.
President Out at MTV: The President of MTV Christina Norman will be leaving MTV at the end of the month. While an MTV spokesperson characterized Norman’s leaving as “amicable,†sources familiar with the senior-level-management structure at the company have said for many months that Norman has not been happy there, stemming in part from a sometimes unclear management structure.
SXSW: Its that time again, March is almost here. Check out the SXSW full band list.
Insider Trading? Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman was recently placed under formal investigation by French authoritie.
Yes or No: Should You Watch Sunday Night’s Grammy Awards? Find out here.
New Stream: R.E.M. has posted their new single online and can be streamed here. It’s good, sounds so nineties…
Network Filters: RIAA talks about network filters in this video on YouTube.
The Friday ‘New Artist’ Roundup….
Losing You by Camera Cant Lie.
Keeping Pace With Planes by Conditions.
Sundowner by Streetside Symphony
Total Music: Two major labels have been served notice of a antitrust investigation due to a new project called Total Music. Total Music is a yet to be launched subscription service backed by Universal and Somy BMG, has prompted notices from the US Department of Justice.
According to the Music Ally newsletter, the DoJ has served Universal and Sony/BMG with notices to find out more about Total Music, and has also requested information from Warner Music Group and EMI.
Spin Goes Live: Spin Magazine made its debut on Myspace posting it’s pages on the web for free. Access to Spin Digital will be offered free for the next 12 months to registered users of MySpace Music.
New Music: Check out the track Sundowner by Streetside Symphony. We love this track. In 2007 Streetside Symphony who hails from Memphis gained the attention of Atlanta producer/engineer Rick Beato (Trey Anastasio, Shinedown). A few months later, they entered the studio to record The Curse, the first release on Beato’s Ten Star label. The Curse will hit streets Feb. 29th.
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God or Julie has been picked as BMI’s band of the month for February 2008. The band will performing at The Mercury Lounge (NYC) February 12th.
Fighting Piracy: The New York Times article ‘Verizon Rejects Hollywood’s Call to Aid Piracy Fight‘ shows us how much work needs to be done and how big companies are reluctant to change and effectively position themselves in a new era.
“We generally are reluctant to get into the business of examining content that flows across our networks and taking some action as a result of that content. “We don’t want to solve any network congestion issues by restricting the flow of certain kinds of traffic” says Tom Tauke, Verizon’s executive vice president for public affairs.
The truth is Verizon only wants to fight battles that inherently affect their corporate profits. For instance, Verizon sued and literally bankrupt Vonage over alleged patent infringements. Music piracy does not cut into Verizon’s profits and would actually cost them money to police the flow of traffic.
AT&T understands the new era and is talking about developing a system that would identify and block illicitly copied material being sent over its broadband network.
New York’s New Rock Station: Radio station WQCD (101.9) pulled th plug on Jazz and re-emerged as WRXP, “New York’s Rock Experience.” WRXP describes itself as a mix of classic rock, new music, alternative and local rock.
Ours: KOAR received an interesting press release today regarding the indie band Ours. Ten years after signing with Dreamworks, having never sold many records, perceived as uncompromising and difficult, four record companies later…Why has Rick Rubin made Ours a priority at Columbia records? read the full press release in our comment section.
New Streams: You can now stream the new Simple Plan record here. The self titled record will be released 2/12.
Listen to the tracks The End and Love Is Lie.
Counting Crows has posted a song called “You Can’t Count On Me” that can be streamed here.
Last week was the first of a 4-week hearing from the Copyright Royalty Board to determine new mechanical royalty rates. The National Music Publishers Association proposes a royalty increase for physical music, from 9.1 cents to 12.5, and a digital rate of 15 cents per track. And in the other corner are the RIAA and DiMA. The RIAA proposes a cut to 6 cents per physical track, while both groups support a digital royalty under 5 cents. Someone slept through economics.
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