Listen to this great description of how one listener uses and enjoys iMix selections from the Apple iTunes Music Store. People in America used to use radio and mixtapes for that kind of experience, but now they turn to other…
Ticketmaster and Venues Experiment with Auction Pricing
Instead of selling every seat in the house for $30, INXS recently staged an auction on Ticketmaster. The highest priced ticket sold for $500, the lowest for $3. Nine Inch Nails used a similar model, and watched online scalping drop…
links for 2006-09-12
BNL’s Steven Page weighs in on Spiral Frog (tags: musicbusiness)
CD Prank on Paris Hilton
A UK performance artist has secretly switched copies of Paris Hilton’s new CD with Folger’s Crystals his own remixes and cover art. Nobody has brought the affected discs back for refunds, since — well, has anyone not affiliated with her…
links for 2006-09-10
Former Songwriters Guild of America manager pleads guilty (tags: musicbusiness) Laissez Faire In The Studio Forget Autotune, forget multi-tracking. The very best producers in the history of recorded music identified raw talent — and got out of the way. (tags:…
Orson Leaves Hollywood, Finds UK Success
At some point, I seriously have to undertake a study of why it is — culturally — that audiences in the UK adore and embrace new music, while American audiences have to be dragged by the ankles to see a…
How YouTube’s Making Indie Music Look Better — But Not How You’d Expect
Jeff Jarvis cites Bob Garfield’s assertion that “a million monkeys at a million videocams…” could eventually produce something that approaches Hollywood standards. It wasn’t that long ago that folks thought the same way about home recording studios. I’ve been in…
links for 2006-09-08
Can Not Knowing About Contemporary Culture Be A Career Liability? “Freston got his job as a CEO of Viacom because he was deeply informed about contemporary culture and lost it because he was not informed enough.” (tags: musicbusiness) David Byrne…
5,000 Records Is All You Need
Lefsetz has a gloriously cynical look at this week’s sales. Pay close attention to what he says about the effects of an $18.98 list price, and the fact that publicity does not equal sales. Also note that a Guns &…
links for 2006-09-07
Jordan Knight is Coming Back Hard – On QVC (tags: musicbusiness) Technology News: Social Networking: Music Scene May Be Unchanged by MySpace Move It *will* take a long time for a critical mass of folks to buy music on MySpace.…
links for 2006-09-06
The false fight between fun and business (tags: fun business)
Why Billy Bragg’s Fight Against Bad Contracts Matters
Billy Bragg’s back in the news today, calling out MTV for a poorly worded contract that appears to give Viacom unlimited rights to do anything with any content uploaded to its new Flux service. While Flux and other social media…