Friends,
Below is an essay I’ve written in response to a recent article by Jon Pareles in the NY Times about SXSW. I hope you’ll give it a read. I may well be off the mark on some of my thoughts, but they reflect what I—at least at this moment—believe to be true. [...]
PRESS RELEASE
Overall consumer music acquisition increased by 6 percent in 2007, but average annual per-capita music spending fell by 10 percent
PORT WASHINGTON, NEW YORK, February 26, 2008 — According to The NPD Group, a leading provider of consumer and retail information, the amount of music that consumers acquired in the U.S. increased by 6 percent [...]
Hopefully everyone reading this is at least somewhat familiar with the debate that started a couple of weeks ago in congress concerning future royalty rates. If not, then you need to get your head out of whatever hole it’s been in and start educating yourself.
Not to alarm anyone, but our very existence could very well [...]
As we head toward next month’s Country Radio Seminar, where every record promotion exec in town will be working like mad to get radio’s attention focused on their artists and singles, it seems like an appropriate time for some inspiration to those in the trenches.
To that end, I reached out to a group of country [...]
Five years ago this writer offered a plan, bravely titled Digital Manifesto, designed to insure the economic survival of record companies, artists, songwriters, publishers, producers, musicians and other creative members of the music industry. To be successful such a plan should be uncomplicated, require little or no enforcement and wholeheartedly embrace the consumer and technological [...]
Universal, Warner Bros. and Sony BMG have been holding back DRM-free license approval from iTunes while extending that approval to Amazon.com and some other startups. Only EMI has offered its music in DRM-free, MP3 format to both vendors. This marketplace inequality appears to be a punitive measure against Apple, for refusing to agree to label [...]
Check out the New York Post’s interview with Lyor Cohen.
Attempts to promote and distribute albums online without the backing of a major record company shows that labels do have value.
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Regardless of how you spin it, the CD took a beating last year. Sales were down 15% overall and country—even with unexpected stocking stuffers like the Eagles and Garth Brooks —suffered its worst sales showing since 1991 when SoundScan history began. Nashville’s 2007 CD sales dropped 16.3% to a disappointing 62.7 million units.
The Economist recently [...]
Universal Music will release a Rolling Stones album via a one-project deal. The band has been with EMI since 1991, but Billboard reports that their deal expires this spring.The new album, due in March, is the soundtrack to the band’s concert film Shine A Light. Following in April is the Martin Scorsese directed movie, [...]
