Do we have to talk about the demise of the major label system again? Perhaps this is just a four-car pileup that demands a slow-down and stare. The lights are dimming at EMI, political upheaval is tainting UMG and Sony, and WMG is often considered 'next' for the wolves. But if the majors are bleeding so badly, then why are they still creating the biggest artists? And, perhaps more importantly, why aren't indies and DIYers even close to taking the lead?
Sure, indies and DIY artists have more fan access and traction than ever before. And major label artists are selling less every year. But manufactured acts like Katy Perry, Bruno Mars, and Lady Gaga are still perched atop the charts, and casting a long shadow over anything with indie cred. This isn't the way it was supposed to work out, and it's harder than ever to blame some Soundscan skew.
Why? For starters, Soundscan isn't the only chart barometer anymore. Take a gander at the BigChampagne Ultimate 100, and a somewhat-similar list of big-label priorities emerges. In fact, the latest Ultimate 100 lineup has less indie cred than a Celine show in Vegas. On the latest ranking, the top ten artists were Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Rihanna, Ke$ha, Eminem, Daft Punk, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, Lil Wayne, and Enrique Iglesias, in that order.
But how can that be? After all, BigChampagne is blending a broad number of online, offline, traditional, interactive, non-interactive, and physical elements into its rankings. Yet it still regularly produces chart toppers like Jason Derulo and Katy Perry, not Pomplamoose and Amanda Palmer. In fact, most of the top 100 are serious major label priorities.
Maybe the fantasy was that somehow, a total chart upheaval would result from all of this digital disruption. That big bullhorns like terrestrial radio wouldn't matter anymore, or that do-it-yourselfers would rise to superstardom without any serious backing. That artists like Corey Smith were dyed-in-the-wool DIYers, not musical careerists. Or, that the idea of big, mainstream artists would somehow vanish.
How naive we were.
-pr.
Join the early discussion at
http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/011011majorlabels
Showing posts with label Big four record labels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Big four record labels. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Monday, December 13, 2010
Monday, July 26, 2010
Google Hires Top Industry Attorney To Jump Start New Music Service
Google has hired well known music attorney Elizabeth Moody to negotiate with record labels, music publishers and other rights holders for a planned Google Music service.
Sources close to recent negotiations with the label groups concerning similar music streaming services say that each of the four major labels are voicing different concerns making uniform - and profitable - deals difficult. Moody, a true music industry insider with deep experience working with most of the majors, backed by the deep pockets and prestige of Google, may be able to break the log jam that has kept Spotify and others of launching in the U.S.
“This is a really big deal," a former Moody client told TechCrunch. "She and (her law partner) Fred did everyones deal. That is a great hire for Google. The flipside is that I interpret this as another nail in the coffin for music startups…”
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
MySpace Music Acquires Shuttered Imeem Music Service
ok so just this morning i was talking about myspace and how it tends to insist on itself with all its changes. It loses sight of what the brand is then they turn around and buy imeem (which is my favorite music sight!!!!) and thus further echoing my sentiment and to prove it here is the timeline on the messages with me not knowing that imeem had been bought. i think i know a little about this social networking stuff. ALso let me say that google wave will grow and in the next few years take the place of twitter.. and you heard it first here.
Maurice Nate Willis Since every1 has sent myspace to the social networking graveyard, how long b4 fb joins? Then twitter? will google wave b 4 the cool peps
Maurice Nate Willis Honestly myspaces biggest assets could be their weakness. The inablity to change without completely reforming user experience.
Maurice Nate Willis Does the same but not as brand conscious. although they have created the best user experience from taking from other SN they lost the brand
- By Eliot Van Buskirk
- December 8, 2009 |
- 1:53 pm |
- Categories: Crowdsourcing, Media, Miscellaneous, Social Media,Startups
MySpace Music, a joint venture between MySpace and the major labels, completed a deal to acquire “certain assets” of the popular social networking site Imeem on Tuesday. Imeem is now offline. Various reports claimed the deal was done over the weekend, but MySpace Music CEO Owen Van Natta announced that the two companies only finalized the deal today.
So, what does MySpace Music have in store for imeem? According to Van Natta, MySpace Music plans to “leverage imeem’s industry leading technology” for starters, and “over time, meaningfully integrate their products into the MySpace Music experience.”
The entire imeem service has been removed from the internet, and its smartphone applications no longer function. According to two sources with knowledge of the deal who asked not to be named, imeem’s full-track-playback licenses essentially expired as a result of its inability to keep up with licensing payments, which apparently combined with a lawsuit from The Orchard (more on that below) forced the site’s sale to MySpace Music and near-simultaneous closure.
The imeem.com domain now redirects to MySpace Music, while links to some individual songs on imeem now redirect to their corresponding pages on MySpace’s recently-acquired iLike site (where, ironically, some of the songs come from MySpace competitor YouTube). Embedded imeem songs and playlists, including hundreds I have posted on Wired.com, no longer load at all. Imeem CEO Dalton Caldwell, CTO Bryan Berg, COO Ali Aydar and VP of Sales David Wade have signed on to MySpace Music as consultants to “help manage this transition,” including porting imeem playlists over to MySpace Music, which has its own licensing agreements.
Of particular interest to MySpace Music — the ad-supported, on-demand music service not to be confused with MySpace’s band pages — are imeem’s 16 million worldwide users and its staff’s experience in building the first music service that allowed users to embed songs and playlists on third-party websites. MySpace Music also getsimeem’s SnoCap property — a large database of music, co-founded by Napster’s Shawn Fanning, that allows independent bands to sell music on imeem, MySpace and other sites through embeddable widgets.
You were fun while you lasted, imeem, rest in peace — although it looks like you’ll rest in pieces instead. Fans now have one less licensed music source.According to insiders, imeem, which was alreadystruggling to cover its music licensing fees in a weak advertising market, was brought to its knees by a lawsuit from independent music consortium The Orchard that accused imeem of playing TVT Records’ music without the proper licensing. The lawsuit asked for the maximum penalty of $150,000 per infringed song; imeem apparently thought it had a case, but lacked the funds to pursue it.
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