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Artists sell most of their digital music through the iTunes Store.  However, the most dedicated fans are often found on artist homepages and fan clubs - a well defined niche sales opportunity.  While indie artists have offered MP3s on their pages for years, a deal between Musictoday appliedSB will have major label artists increasingly selling MP3s through their personal web pages.

Charlottesville-based Musictoday (a business unit of Live Nation) powers a number of online and digital services for major artists, including homepages, fan clubs, mailing lists, and merchandise sales for the likes of Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Elvis Presley, Celine Dion, The Rolling Stones amd others.  Those artists are tied to major label recording agreements, though majors are now authorizing DRM-free licensing to the artist page level.

Three of the four majors (Sony, Universal, and EMI) have already licensed MP3s for sites powered by Musictoday.  Dallas-based appliedSB will be aggregate, host, and deliver the downloads within the artist sites. No word yet on Warner.

This is the latest DRM-free development by majors, and a nice win for appliedSB given that the majority of the majors have unitedSB as their technology platform for music.

The stated goal is a totally self-contained artist-centric approach, one that keeps the fan embedded within the artist environment.

Already, Dave Matthews Band is selling MP3s on their destination, and artists will be joining the initiative at a clip of roughly 10-20 per month.  As those artists activate their content, downloads will also populate both Musictoday and Live Nation online stores (also powered by appliedSB)

Wendy Tanaka, Forbes

In another move aimed at boosting revenues, MySpace said Monday that it has partnered with Viacom’s MTV Networks and content “fingerprinting” company Auditude to deliver ads to copyrighted MTV Networks’ videos that users upload to its site.

Jeff Berman, president of marketing and sales at MySpace, said the partnership is a win-win-win for MySpace, MTV Networks–which owns 150 TV channels, including Comedy Central and Nickelodeon–and Auditude because all three companies will share the ad revenues. “This allows us to monetize the content,” he said.

The companies were shy about sharing specifics, such as how they plan to share the revenue and how much they hope to generate from the new ad-matching system. In 2007, MySpace generated an estimated $800 million to $900 million from ads placed on other parts of its site, according to analysts. In October, MySpace launched two new ad initiatives: MySpace MyAdds, a platform that allows individuals and small businesses to create display ads on the site, and MySpace Music, which sells advertising against music streams on the site.

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What began as a quirky novelty game has evolved into a revenue engine for the video game and music industries

It wasn’t until Tim Riley was standing in a London recording studio watching the seminal 1970s punk band the Sex Pistols rerecord their smash hit Anarchy in the U.K. that he realized just how popular Guitar Hero had become.

To include the band’s songs on Guitar Hero III, Mr. Riley – the man in charge of bringing music to Activision Blizzard Inc.’s video games – needed master tapes. But the original recording of Anarchy in the U.K. had been lost for decades.

Much to his surprise, the surviving members of the band offered to go back into the studio – something they hadn’t done in 30 years – just to record a song for a video game where players rock out on plastic guitars in time with coloured dots on a screen.

“It was the craziest thing ever,” he said. “I never thought something like that could happen.”

Tuesday marks the beginning of the latest chapter in the unlikely story of Guitar Hero, with the release of its latest incarnation, Guitar Hero: World Tour.

But what began as a quirky novelty game has evolved into a revenue engine for both the video game and music recording industries. As CD sales continue to decline, rhythm-based video games are starting to fill the void, offering musicians new fans, while providing labels an opportunity to generate new revenue streams from back catalogues.

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The news that Google settled two longstanding suits with book authors and publishers over its plans to digitize the world’s great libraries suggests that some level of détente could be reached between old media and new

If true, it can’t come soon enough for the news business.

It’s been an especially rotten few days for people who type on deadline. On Tuesday, The Christian Science Monitor announced that, after a century, it would cease publishing a weekday paper. Time Inc., the Olympian home of Time magazine, Fortune, People and Sports Illustrated, announced that it was cutting 600 jobs and reorganizing its staff. And Gannett, the largest newspaper publisher in the country, compounded the grimness by announcing it was laying off 10 percent of its work force — up to 3,000 people.

Clearly, the sky is falling. The question now is how many people will be left to cover it.

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The Copyright Board of Canada has issued the second part of its Tariff 22 for music on the Internet.

And game sites that use music will start at 0.8%.

Belt-tightening consumers more likely to cut back on movie tickets, DVDs and top-tier cable, study finds

Amid the threat of tough economic times, Internet and cellphones have become almost like heat and water for consumers - they are among the last monthly expenses that households are willing to cut from their budgets during a recession.

A survey conducted last week in Canada and the U.S. suggests that if consumers are forced to reduce spending, they will look almost everywhere else in their household budgets before they unplug their computer or switch off their BlackBerry.

“Many consumers, with minor exceptions, view these as essential utilities, like water or electricity,” says the report, which was compiled from interviews with 800 consumers last week, and is expected to be released today.

“People were saying, ‘It’s not going to happen - you would have to pry it out of my hands,’ that kind of language,” said Kaan Yigit, head of Solutions Research Group, the Toronto firm that produced the report. more….

On the chopping block: Ranking consumer targets for cuts:

1. Big-ticket events (eg. concerts, sports)
2. Movie-going
3. DVD buying
4. Magazine subscription renewals/newsstand
5. Cable/satellite TV extras
6. Video game buying
7. Home phone
8. Mobile/wireless phone
9. DVD Rentals
10. Home Internet

Solutions Research Group

SEATTLE & BROOKLYN, N.Y., Oct 20, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE)

iLike, the leading social music discovery service, and TuneCore, the leading digital music distribution service, today kicked off a joint effort to help independent artists make money and get discovered, effectively becoming their own label.

This unique alliance leverages TuneCore’s digital distribution model and iLike’s music promotion and discovery services to give independent artists a turnkey solution to distribute, promote and sell their music. With this initiative, independent artists can essentially be their own label, as follows:

• Distribution: TuneCore empowers any artist to distribute their music and videos worldwide to iTunes, Rhapsody, Amazonmp3, and other leading online music stores and subscription services while keeping 100% of the royalties.
• Marketing and Promotion: iLike offers a range of free and paid music-promotion services for artists to reach new fans on leading social networks and platforms across the Web.
• Making Money: Artists will also earn royalties when their music is streamed on iLike.com, Facebook, and other platforms where iLike is available.

More on how it works

NEW YORK — YouTube, the largest video-sharing Website, has started to run full-length TV shows from CBS Corp’s archive, in its latest step to boost advertising revenue by adding professional programming.

The site, owned by Google Inc, said on Friday it was talking to other TV networks to sign similar deals to CBS. Many TV networks already run short clips on YouTube, which also offers millions of home videos uploaded by users.

A mix of archive CBS shows, including Star Trek, Young and the Restless and Beverly Hills 90210, will now be available in full-length episodes of 20 minutes to 48 minutes.

Until now, YouTube videos were predominantly short clips of 10 minutes or less. The company has been experimenting with full-length shows for some months with Time Warner Inc’s HBO and CBS’s Showtime cable networks.

The new partnership will put YouTube in more direct competition with Hulu, the online video site owned by News Corp and General Electric’s NBC Universal.

YouTube’s audience size dwarfs Hulu. YouTube is the world’s largest online video site with more than 330 million users in August, according to Web audience measurement firm comScore. Hulu, by comparison, had just 3.3 million users.

But even with more than 13 hours of video uploaded every minute, YouTube has struggled to establish a strong advertising business model to justify the $1.65 billion price tag that Google paid for the site in 2006.

Advertisers have been reluctant to commit major marketing dollars to running brand campaigns alongside grainy, unprofessional home videos.

This is partly why YouTube executives have been working on deals to extend their relationship with media companies. Google and Youtube are also fighting a $1-billion copyright infringement lawsuit from Viacom Inc over content uploaded to the site without Viacom’s permission.

BARBARA ORTUTAY

The Associated Press

October 8, 2008 at 4:58 PM EDT

NEW YORK — Google Inc., the leader in online search and advertising, is muscling in on video game territory — though it won’t exactly be in the form of a shoot ‘em up game.

Google announced Wednesday it is launching the beta version of AdSense for Games, a technology designed to put relevant advertising in Web-based games.

It is an expansion of Google’s AdSense program, which matches ads to the content of Websites. Similarly, AdSense for Games will show, for example, ads targeted at young men in sports and action games. The ads themselves would be videos that players watch before or after a game, or after completing a level.

AdSense in Games lets Google offer advertisers “yet another place” to reach customers, said Christian Oestlien, senior product manager at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company.

Google’s entry into the gaming space has long been anticipated and could be a hedge against slippage in online advertising from the economic downturn. Google bought Adscape Media, a small in-game advertising company, in early 2007, less than a year after Microsoft Corp. bought in-game ad company Massive Inc.

Google’s chief rival, Yahoo Inc., already offers ad-supported, downloadable games. Double Fusion and NeoEdge, two in-game advertising companies, are selling video ads integrated into the games.

Even so, Jameson Hsu, chief executive of San Francisco-based online gaming network Mochi Media — which is working with Google to provide in-game ads in Europe — said Google’s entrance into video game ads is “validating the market.”

“It’s a very big milestone,” he said.

From Forbes online by James Erik Abels

Ding. Ding. The digital music war just heated up with News Corp. and CBS in opposite corners. Last month’s winner based on buzz: News Corp. with its launch of MySpace Music. The site was cast as a maverick new competitor jointly owned by major labels EMI Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and Universal Music Group.

Yet true originality is rare, and this month CBS rival Last.fm punches back. The site has been pursuing a similar advertising-based music strategy since launching in 2002. Through various distribution methods, Last.fm claims some 20 million users worldwide. Someone must be listening: CBS bought it in 2007 for $280 million.

Forbes.com sat down with Chief Operating Officer Spencer Hyman to talk about digital music’s next round.

Click Here for Interview

NEW YORK — MySpace’s new music service managed to bring major record labels together, but a group that licenses song rights for thousands of independent labels feels left out and angry, partly because indie musicians were a big reason the social networking site rose to prominence in the first place.

News Corp.-owned MySpace opened the much-anticipated MySpace Music on Thursday, giving its roughly 120 million users free access to hundreds of thousands of songs from the biggest recording labels.

Revenue for MySpace Music will come mainly from on-site ads and the sale of songs through Amazon.com Inc.’s MP3 downloading service. All four major record labels — Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group Inc., Universal Music Group and EMI Music — brought their catalogues to the service, which is operating as a joint venture between them and MySpace.

Sony ATV/Music Publishing and The Orchard, a large independent music distributor, were also on board for the launch, though neither have equity stakes in the service.

Other independent labels want to be a part of MySpace Music as well, but some executives from those companies were upset that they were excluded from the initial rollout.

“We’re extremely disappointed that they seem to misread their constituents so badly that they’ve ignored what we think is their core, their sweet spot, when they launched,” said Charles Caldas, chief executive of London-based Merlin, a music rights licensing agency that represents more than 12,000 independent labels.

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By REUTERS
Published: September 25, 2008

Record labels, music publishers, songwriters and online music services have reached an agreement on how to compensate music creators for online distribution of their content, they said.

The agreement, revealed Wednesday, is designed to settle how the industry calculates royalty rates for limited downloads and music that is streamed online, including when it is provided by subscription and advertising-supported services.

Fans using on-demand music streaming can select the songs they want to hear but do not keep a permanent copy.

Under the proposal, providers of such services will pay a royalty of 10.5 percent of revenue after other royalties are calculated.

The Digital Media Association described the agreement in a statement on its Web site Wednesday as a breakthrough that would facilitate new ways to offer music to consumers online.

The other groups involved include the National Music Publishers’ Association, which represents American publishers, the Recording Industry Association of America, the Nashville Songwriters Association International and the Songwriters Guild of America.

from Digital Music News
MySpace Music is now opening its eyes to the world, the beginning of an aggressive experiment by labels, artists, and the social network.  The early-morning launch includes participation from all four majors, including EMI Music, an eleventh-hour partner.  As expected, those majors will carry an equity stake in a joint venture structure, and receive payout percentages on related advertising and purchases.

The independent collection is far less complete, at least at launch.  The Orchard is among the early participants, though discussions with other groups remain ongoing.  For example, Orchard rival IODA is not part of the initial appearance, and independent label consortium Merlin is also absent.  ”We are actively working with the indies,” MySpace senior vice president of Product Strategy Steve Pearman told Digital Music News on Monday.  ”From a systems perspective, an artist is an artist is an artist.”

But independents are not expected to become equity stakeholders in the joint venture.  According to Orchard chief Greg Scholl, the group is receiving a share of advertising revenue but is not a partner, a structure that will most likely extend to other independent groups.  That is a major sore spot for Merlin chief executive Charles Caldas, who blasted MySpace on Wednesday and warned of “a situation that is both unhealthy and dangerous.”

In a discussion with Digital Music News, Scholl seemed less focused on a broader equity position, and more interested in negotiating a share of a liquidation event.  ”It’s easy to say we want equity too, but I’m more interested in when does equity matter,” Scholl explained.  ”Instead of focusing on equity, let’s focus on what happens if there’s a dividend, a sale, or an IPO.”

The Orchard content is now being positioned, though the entire catalog of 1.3 million songs will take some time to load.  ”The rollout will happen over time,” Scholl explained.  ”Everything is uploaded and in the queue, but there is a large volume of content.”  Additionally, major-owned, independent-focused units ADA (Warner Music Group), RED (Sony Music), Fontana (Universal Music Group) and Caroline (EMI Music) are also launch partners.

On the publishing side, MySpace also pointed to commitments from major publishing groups, including Warner/Chappell Music, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, and EMI Music Publishing.

In terms of structure, MySpace Music revolves around on-demand access to a library of millions of songs.  In a demonstration earlier this week, MySpace executives revealed a service that allows users to create endless playlists, share those playlists, and explore a multi-million-strong catalog.  Outside of on-demand access, MySpace is tapping AmazonMP3 to deliver paid downloads, as expected.

Those elements matched the live experience this morning, though the launch process was described as iterative.  Other aspects, including merchandising, ticketing, and related assets, will be included at a later date.

As expected, McDonald’s, State Farm Insurance, Toyota, and Sony Pictures are sponsoring the initial splash.  Additionally, MySpace has tapped Jamster to deliver artist ringtones.

RACHEL METZ Associated Press September 3, 2008 at 10:48 AM EDT - Edited

NEW YORK - A new website is trying to make it profitable for music lovers to stay ahead of the curve – by paying them when other people purchase MP3s they’ve bought.

Popcuts charges users 99 cents a song. Thereafter, whenever someone else buys the same song, those who have already bought it get paid in credit that can be redeemed for more Popcuts music. The earlier you buy a song, the larger your cut of future sales.

And while credit is currently the only payment option, the site’s founders hope to eventually pay users in cash, too.

The site’s initial selection is still pretty slim – it includes around 700 songs from about 200 artists – but Popcuts is adding musicians through a deal it recently made with music distributor DashGo Inc. and is looking to connect with more distributors and with record labels.

Anyone making music can sell their tunes through the site, while maintaining full rights to their work. The agreement between artists and Popcuts is not exclusive, Mr. Hesse said, so music makers can sell songs through services like Apple Inc.’s iTunes store as well.

Popcuts takes 10 to 20 per cent of song sales. Artists can determine what cut they get, and the rest goes to fans.

Since fans who buy songs early get a larger cut of subsequent sales, Popcuts thinks a lot of people will search for new tunes and buy those that sound promising.

Popcuts’s future is uncertain, though. Besides its small music catalogue, it’s navigating a market populated by several large, established players like Apple and Amazon.com Inc. that already have the allegiance of many digital music buyers.

Still, Mike McGuire, an analyst for Gartner Inc., said Popcuts’s model of sharing with users can be very effective. Besides making money, users might feel as if their purchases are helping to invest in the bands on the site.

Then, “I as a consumer can say, ‘Hey, I’m doing my part,’ ” Mr. McGuire said.

Digital album downloads deliver the music, but the complementary visuals (band pics, lyrics that come with a CD) are typically non-existent outside of the thumbnail of the album’s cover that is attached to the track.

Now, there is an attempt to expand beyond music delivery. MusicWeek has reported that Apple is partnering with Snow Patrol on a new, interactive album format.  The album will be presented as a self contained application for the iPhone or iPod touch, one that allows fans to access lyrics, artwork, and other extras.

“It will be an interactive element; a digital booklet that will take you into the videos and content,” Polydor product manager Liz Goodwin said.

The album, A Hundred Million Suns, is scheduled to hit iPhones next month, according to the report.   Snow Patrol will be the first of several artists to test the new format.