Category Archives: music

Inflexion Point: Digital Music Sales exceed CD Sales

The Recording Industry Assn. of America released its year-end numbers for 2011 and showed total music shipments up for the first time since 2004. Digital sales exceeded 50% of total music shipments for the first time ever with subscription services … Continue reading

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Rdio Revamps User Interface

Music subscription service Rdio launched a redesigned website at SXSW 2012 on Tuesday. The service (competing against Spotify, MOG, Rhapsody and Sony’s Music Unlimited) is focusing on providing users with improved discovery and better social integration. Along with a lighter color scheme and expanded navigation, Rdio … Continue reading

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MTV launching new platform for artists

MTV is now launching an artist-focused, DIY platform called ARTISTS.MTV.  Artist pages will live on MTV.com with lots of MTV distribution potential, and Topspin wil power key components of the backend.  Right now, artists can jump onto the beta at artists.mtv.com.

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“No One Wants to Pay for Music…”

Muve Music now has over 600,000 paying subscribers in the US.  The catch is that access to music is only sold as an Android-based mobile package that also includes essentials like voice, texting, and browsing.  Unlimited music is positioned as … Continue reading

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Music Subscriptions: choosing access over ownership

Interview by Globe and Mail with Rdio, the streaming service that made a successful effort to set up in Canada. click here

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Google Music is Open for Business

http://music.google.com/about/

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What’s the future of a paid album? An App

Those following Bjork have been introduced to an interactive multi-media experience biophilia which is a customized app for iPad/iPhone. Now comes  eVinyl, an LA-based oufit focused on building a new format for music.  Consider it a mashup of an ebook and … Continue reading

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The Incredible (Physically) Shrinking Music Industry

Digital Music News has put together a “Thirty Years in 30 Seconds” GIF that shows the changes in both format and music sales. A bit jumpy, but the pie gets smaller and smaller…. Watch the GIF

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Gaga Releases New Tunes on Farmville

Zynga, the social games developer, has pop star Lady Gaga music downloads connected to its games. GagaVille, a farm within the FarmVille game, will have unicorns and sheep on motorcycles (who knew?). The album “Born This Way” is released May … Continue reading

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Google launches “Music Beta”

In a long expected announcement to bring music storage to the cloud, Google has launched a streaming music service. Named “Music Beta by Google,” the service acts as a sort of  “digital locker,” allowing users to store their music in … Continue reading

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Black’s “Friday” making money?

With nearly 40 million views on YouTube and the song on iTunes, is Rebecca Black making money on her mom’s $2,000 investment for a video that was produced over a weekend? The terms of the deal between Black and the … Continue reading

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Canadian Music Week March 9-13, 2011

This March, Canadian Music Week celebrates 29 years as one of North America’s premier all-media events with conferences, award shows, a trade exposition, film festival, and Canada’s biggest new music festival – Canadian Music Fest. http://canadianmusicfest.com/

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Sony Subcription Service for your Living Room

Sony Corp will be offering millions of songs through a digital jukebox connected to popular devices like TV sets and games consoles i.e. home-based listening vs. mobile. Music Unlimited Powered By Qriocity launched in the U.S.A on Thursday, offering six … Continue reading

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2010 – Physical Media Sales Continues Death Spiral

Nielsen Soundscan has released their official sales figures for music in 2010. These are US-based numbers for the 52-week period ending January 2nd, 2011.  All percentages are calculated against 2009 totals: Albums, Overall: 326.2 million units; Down 12.7% Albums, Physical: … Continue reading

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Jack White defends eBay auctions

Jack White responded to complaints of fan exploitation, saying his decision to sell limited-edition vinyl from his label to the highest bidder on eBay cuts out the opportunists who were profiting  from secondary sales of his label’s material. My favorite … Continue reading

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