The Google Play store offers some 250 apps for downloading MP3 files to smartphones and tablets powered by its Android software. Several tout the benefit of connecting users to the sources of free music that they could find through a typical Internet search.
But, the most popular of these Android apps, Music Maniac, has been downloaded more than 10 million times — and affords free access to all 10 of the top songs listed on the current Billboard’s Hot 100 list. The Recording Industry Association of America said it has sent notices to Google requesting the app’s removal, claiming it enables song piracy. Google has thus far refused. The apps tend to have the get-out that they can legally be used to find free or uncopyrighted music.]]>
Personal recommendations are also popular when it comes to music, with 21% of the respondents mostly relying on their social circle to stay up-to-date. Among the plethora of online music services, surprisingly, YouTube is the most important one for music discovery, 10% find new tunes on Google's video portal. Given how woeful most US FM radio is, this suggests the streaming services are doing a terrible job. Is YouTube's recommendation system better? Or is it simply bigger? Pandora is only just behind YouTube, at 9%.]]>
Curiously, the on-demand subscription music services like Spotify, Deezer, Rdio and Beats Music are all priced the same at more than twice consumer spending on music. They largely land at $120 per year (although Beats has a family-member option for AT&T users at $15 per month.) Which means, logically, that something's gotta give. And you're not going to get those huge numbers of people to suddenly spend more on music, when that hasn't happened over generations - we spend no more, on average, than our parents did on music. (Pakman has been at the sharp end: he used to work at eMusic.)]]>
But Vulfpeck’s latest album is a business experiment, not a musical one. The idea behind the project is for fans to stream the “songs” constantly, generating royalties for the band in their spare time.]]>
PonoMusic partnered with Ayre Acoustics to create the device.
When it becomes available for purchase, the Pono will be a triangular-shaped music device weighing about 0.28 pounds. It will have 64GB of internal storage and a microSD slot supporting up to another 64GB, for up to 128GB of total available storage (about 5,000 tracks at CD quality). Yes, triangular. Nestle it with your Toblerone to make a comfy parallelogram.]]>
In tech, if you don’t dominate, if you don’t have almost all of the market share, you’re on your way to marginalization. Which is why Apple is faltering and YouTube is dominating in music. If I’ve got YouTube, why do I need Spotify?
That’s what the Swedish company has to convince people. That they need to pay for the service.
As for the musicians complaining about payouts, ignore them completely, they’re wasting their breath, the battle has been fought and the war is over, streaming already won.
Ain’t that typical. Ignorant old school purveyors bitching about something they know nothing about. To rail against streaming services on any level is to complain that you can’t buy a car without a catalytic converter, to insist that Tesla must not exist because it hurts Chevron and Exxon.]]>
It’s happening a bit: Spotify’s new Discover tab often tells me when a band I’ve been listening to is playing nearby, via Songkick. There’s a lot more scope here to provide artists with tools to sell stuff though, including themselves.
What if everyone listening to your music on Spotify could see that you had gigs coming up, or were selling an exclusive/deluxe music bundle on Bandcamp, a DJ mix on Beatport, a limited-edition t-shirt, and so on? What if a streaming service could point all your listeners towards the Kickstarter campaign that will fund your next album?]]>
Music streaming sites pay artists very nearly nothing. Spotify is a vehicle for promoting the more well known acts of its record label owners. Therefore its purpose is to promote the more commercial artists e.g. Rhianna, rather than supporting new bands
Music streaming sites such as iTunes and Spotify WILL kill music. Cash cows like The Rolling Stones won’t be around forever. How can new artists break though when they’re earning, at best 0.22GBP per play. The royalty statement below shows Rapids!’ earnings at the height of their career - a total income of 400 quid. ]]>
Paying homage to music that came before by creating something new out of it isn’t a novel idea, and in fact, musicians were borrowing riffs and lyrics from each other before the advent of recorded music, but this ability to trace samples through a simple app is. Back in the day, you had to read through a CD’s pamphlet to find out where the group had cleared its samples, and then seek out the original recording — and even then, you’d miss all the unofficial samples. Bet it's a favourite with record execs looking for some extra royalties. (Thanks @slimbowski for the link.)]]>
Zechory told CNBC, "We're changing the way people consume music." That may sound like an exaggeration, but one of Silicon Valley's biggest investors is betting he's right and lots of big artists and millions of fans are on board.]]>
Boom. Moments later my phone had the answer: The track was “Didn’t I,” from some semi-obscure ‘70s-era musician named Darondo. He’s now the star of my music collection.
Bing Audio is one of those Windows Phone features that, once you know it’s there, you find yourself using all the time. Sounds just like Shazam, which is already available on Windows Phone. Interesting strategy. ]]>
Now Pandora has responded, sending out the following statement saying they're the ones lying. Well, Pandora puts it more like "mistaken", but clearly neither side is delighted. Pandora just can't keep out of the news...]]>
Step 1. Lowery and his royalty reports clearly state he only owns 40% of the songwriting. As he says, this means the total fee to the songwriters was $16.89 x 2.5, or $42.23.
Step 2. Songwriters actually only get about 43.5% of the songwriting/publishing rights. The publisher and the songwriters split the fee 50/50 after the rights administrator’s (BMI in this case) operating expenses, which appears to be about 13%. So the full songwriting/publishing fee was in fact about $97.
Step 3. Pandora also pays a separate royalty for the performance itself, distinct from the songwriting. In 2012, that royalty was $0.0011 per streamed song.2 For 1,159,000 plays, that works out to a total performance royalty of $1,274.90.
After the administrator SoundExchange takes its fee of 5.3%, the performance royalty is split, with 50% going to the recording owner (i.e. record company), 45% to the band/performer, and 5% to any session/backup musicians. So the band in this case received $543.30 for their performance.
Conclusion. By this math:
Pandora paid a total of about $1,370. The band received a total of about $585. So (department of corrections) it's more than we thought. But if they had sold a million copies of the song - or even 100,000 copies - then it would be a stack more (probably around $100,000 in total?). Streaming is the low-paid future.]]>
Billboard and other sources have positioned these iRadio rates against those per stream rates paid by “Pureplay” webcasters such as Pandora. Unfortunately, these sources have, by and large, underestimated the true obligations that an Apple iRadio would face if it were truly to pay royalties as a Pureplay webcaster.
Enter the letter of the Law. Part of why it's been signing (what are sure to be) flat-rate deals. As of course Google will have done - it won't have wanted to open itself to the liability of every Android user streaming from its music service.]]>
Mapping Music on Facebook from Facebook Stories on Vimeo.
More than 110 million songs, albums and radio stations have been played 40 billion times through apps integrated with Facebook’s Open Graph. So what does it look like when millions of sound waves travel through Facebook?Turn that racket down in New York! (Thanks @beardyweirdy666 for the link.)]]>
The websites targeted by the campaign include the biggest torrent pages and file-hosting search engines, like ExtraTorrent, Torrentz, TorrentReactor.]]>
In this instance, the results that Google serve me do not match my search intent. I want to download Incubus’ album – but instead Google is pointing me in the direction of illegal download sites, music videos, and a streaming platform.
To paraphrase Google’s mission statement, they want to offer me the most relevant result in as few clicks as possible – and at the moment there are no legal and relevant results within 3-4 clicks away. Surely Google can do better?
So here is where I think we’re heading. Please note that these are photo-shopped images, and not actual screenshots. His suggestion is that Google Play Music All Access results will be pushed to the top of music search results - as happens with lots of other Google properties. One has to wonder about the antitrust implications.]]>
While 7digital has similar deals with BlackBerry and HTC, it’s Samsung’s new Android handset that will account for a big chunk of the company’s new shipments – analysts expect it to ship 60m units by Christmas.]]>
That led some folks to conclude that the views were "fake" and that nefarious "black hat" techniques were being cooked up by the labels to falsely inflate their views. The truth, however, isn't nearly as sexy.
Interviews Billboard.biz conducted with YouTube, label executives and analysts from Next Big Sound told a very different tale. Here's what really happened. They weren't faked. Start from there.]]>
The service - free space for 250 songs - is available in France, Germany, and the UK. Customers wanting the Premium service, which ups the storage capacity by 1,000, will, as in the US, have to pay for the privilege. The UK price for up to 250,000 imported songs is £22 per year. Then again, you have to import them, where Apple's iTunes Match just matches without import. (Then again, it obliges you to use Apple devices.) Google Music next?]]>
He listened to the song thousands of times, eventually figuring out a way to convert it into an MP3 while preserving the warmth of her performance. As reporter Hilmar Schmundt remarks, in an article noted by Sterne: “When an MP3 player compresses music by anyone from Courtney Love to Kenny G, it is replicating the way that Brandenburg heard Suzanne Vega.”]]>
The response was tremendous, running more than 14,000 comments and garnering the attention of Spotify, which gave him six months of free membersion and a 13-hour playlist that covers a huge range of music. In the Reddit conversation, bands like The Beatles and Led Zeppelin figure in prominently, as do classical composers such as Beethoven (side note: can you imagine listening to this for the first time?). Overall, Chapman said to me over email that Beethoven's Ninth was the top most recommended piece. Technology plus humans = result.]]>
According to one source, ”Google has offered at least one label over a billion dollars for all the rights in every country for every piece of music and for every platform.” This means that Google could potential be writing checks for a total of well over $5 billion, if they’re crazy enough to actually go through with it. By comparison, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry’s (IFPI), total revenue generated by the global recorded music industry in 2011 was $16.6 billion. Isn't going to happen, though it might sorely tempt some labels. Problem for Google is that (if the report is correct) it has a slight air of desperation, which is never a good way to look in negotiations.]]>
It soon became clear that my preparations were in vain.]]>
At Southwark Crown Court on Thursday, James Batchelor was jailed for two years, Siobhan Clarke was given an eight-month suspended sentence and 150 hours' unpaid work, and Colton Johnson was order to undertake 80 hours' unpaid work. The sentencings were the last to take place in connection with the fraud, which has already seen 11 other people convicted and sentenced.
The fraud cost Apple and Amazon somewhere in the region of £1m, the Met said. The members of the gang were originally arrested in 2009 following a joint operation between the Met's Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) and the New York Police Department. Thousands of compromised US and UK credit cards were used for the fake purchases. Stupidly, they picked too few albums - they'd have been major recording artists to get that volume of purchases.]]>