Written by Submit My Music on 30 July 2010
Billboard reports that Spotify’s licensing negotiations with the major music labels have reverted back to square one. Having failed to persuade the major record labels to go along with its vision for a U.S. version of the popular European service, Spotify in the last month has approached the labels with a clean slate to determine what type of service would be possible to launch before the end of the year.
Spotify has been working on a U.S. launch for almost two years, originally expecting to go live in this market in 2009. But some labels, most notably Warner Music Group, have gone on record stating their displeasure with the “freemium” model that Spotify champions, which offers unlimited streaming for free under an ad supported model designed to drive users to a premium paid service that eliminates ads and offers mobile access.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has insisted he wants to offer Spotify in the U.S. under a similar sort of model, with perhaps some changes to the length of time that the free version would be available.
Billboard’s sources say Spotify is open to short-term deals that would allow it to launch a framework of the service by the end of this year, designed to evolve over time as the in-dispute elements are revisited.
Find out more about Spotify here.
Tags: Streaming Services
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Written by Submit My Music on 29 July 2010
Music Xray is a platform used by over 600 music industry professionals to receive song submissions from artists, acts, & rights holders. The company is announcing the launch of a new song to opportunity matching service called S2O that automatically pairs songs to opportunities.
Artists simply upload their songs at MusicXray.com and wait to be alerted when appropriate opportunities for their songs are identified. The new service is completely free and marks the first time music analysis technology has been combined with other talent-identifying tools to form the world’s first and only enhanced A&R platform.
In late 2009 Music Xray began enlisting top industry professionals to conduct their A&R activities via the site. Today, the platform is used by several major labels, dozens of independent labels, license agencies, radio stations, advertising agencies, music supervisors, managers, promoters and even influential music bloggers who take submissions from artists vying to have their music featured.
“It’s a great way to conduct A&R.” said Alex Torrez head of Torrez Music Group in Nashville who previously held a position in the A&R department of Columbia Records and who now sources music for many of the top labels and artists. “It’s easier, more organized and the quality of submissions is higher on Music Xray, making it more rewarding to evaluate acts and their music”.
Music Xray does not track the deals that occur between artists and industry professionals but a “Success “Stories” section of the company’s website lists some of the deals of which the company has learned. Todd Gross, manager and father of emerging musician/performer Mary Sarah added, “Music Xray has enabled us to access some of the top people in the music industry more quickly and easily than would have been possible before. As a result, Mary Sarah is being looked at by several top companies and we’re discussing several potential deals.”
Artists sign up on the site to receive weekly emails alerting them of the new submission opportunities that have been added to the listings over the previous week. Currently that email reaches nearly 100,000 artists and the number grows by several thousand each week. Additionally, Music Xray offers artists sleek song presentation packs (called Music Xrays) that enable artists to showcase their songs for free together with the song’s lyrics, artist bio, a video, and even graphs that show how an artist is performing across all the social networks and Internet radio.
“Millions of songs are created and posted to the web each year. The music industry needs the ability to evaluate them for commercial purposes and to efficiently separate the wheat from the chaff.” said Mike McCready, co-founder and CEO of the company. “Music Xray harnesses all the capabilities of the social web, music intelligence technologies, and collective expert knowledge to help the industry spot the hottest new talent and the best songs first.
“In addition to doing deals with industry professionals, artists use Music Xray to get professional feedback on their music, advice and career coaching.”
Tags: Music Xray
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Written by Submit My Music on 28 July 2010
paidContent:UK recently published a overview of the most popular on demand streaming services around the world. You can find the full overview here, but The Orchard’s Daily Rind Blog has published a quick recap:
Rhapsody remains ahead of the pack with the largest published subscriber base of close to 675,000 subscribers, although this number has been steadily declining.
Napster has continued to be a well-known brand name, despite being “the biggest loser” of the 2005 Super Bowl Ads.
MOG is fairly new service in the US (and soon UK) that offers unlimited streaming ($9.99/month) with a catalog of 8 million songs. Last week, MOG unveiled its long anticipated mobile app for the iPhone and Android.
Apple is a wild card. Shortly after Apple shut down recently purchased Lala, many speculated that Apple will step up with a global service of their own. Yet, the future of Apple’s place in online music streaming still remains unknown.
Same goes for Google, who recently hired music attorney Elizabeth Moody. They are rumored to launch a music service later this year along with the Android 3.0.
Tags: Streaming Services
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