Looking for more reading on this Thursday afternoon? Check out the ten stories we thought you’d like to read below.
Jul 052012
Jun 212012
“Indie” is more than just music–and even indie music is more than the musicians! The support structure around bands and artists is increasingly important in the independent community. Limerence Magazine is an online and (hopefully soon) print publication that is dedicated to bringing us news about indie culture. They cover industries from fashion to literature and comics to, of course, music. Many As The Music Plays artists have had the opportunity to be interviewed by their wonderful columnist, Lawanda Johnson.
As they embark on this mission to share and grow indie culture, please help them with your donations!
Jun 122012
According to the Berlin-Brandenburg Medienboard (and The Hollywood Reporter), music piracy in Germany cost the industry $660 million last year alone. Not only music is suffering in the country, though–the film industry lost almost $200 million as well. There is no argument that the piracy is caused by filesharing sites such as Kino.to. Though that particular site was shut down, it is impossible to remove all of the similar sites that have jumped to take its place.
Jun 042012
This morning, Pitchfork announced its latest entertainment venture with Soundplay. The music company teamed with its partners at Kill Screen (a video game art and culture magazine) to bring a new breed of video game.
Each game developed through Soundplay has more than a soundtrack–the games themselves are inspired by musical works. The first two games have launched today, and they are inspired by “Intro” (M83) and “Street Song” (Matthew Dear). The games were created by Jake Elliot and Santa Ragione, respectively. We can expect to see three more games released in July, including one inspired by a song by Cut Copy.
More promotion for Soundplay also includes the Soundplay Arcade at the 2012 Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago and a two day event in New York City hosted by both Pitchfork and Kill Screen where developers can gather to create their own games inspired by specific music.
Jun 042012
LivingSocial, the daily deals site, has partnered with AEG, the concert promoter company. Together, the two will offer LivingSocial subscribers one-of-a-kind experiences at AEG sponsored events. This is to expand LivingSocial’s Live Events category.
“This partnership is different than any other because it is really focused on providing exclusive experiences to the best shows in the best venues nationwide, including LivingSocial-created events. LivingSocial looks to partner with companies who can bring a unique dynamic to our member base, and AEG absolutely fits the bill. We’re excited about the offerings we have coming up and the reception our members will undoubtedly have.” –Tim O’Shaughnessy, Co-Founder and CEO of LivingSocial
Goods to be purchased will range from tickets to events to VIP offers, and extended venue hours.
More details at Hypebot.com and the AEG press release.
May 222012
How does branding affect the revenue for your band? Does it?
May 162012
According to Mark Mulligan (music industry analyst) and the Active Users numbers published on Facebook, Spotify has over 20 million monthly users.
Spotify, however, is saying that they don’t think this number is accurate, and is sticking with its last report of 10 million active users. The Billboard article we found says that these numbers are fairly old, and could have viably risen to 20 million since the report was published.
Why do you think that Spotify would not want higher numbers of active users being reported?
May 092012
According to Digital Music News, Facebook has confirmed that they will no longer be supporting Facebook Connect to the Grooveshark application due to copyright infringement complaints. The complaints are nothing new to those paying attention to industry news, but it is good to see Facebook taking copyright issues like this seriously.
Not only has Facebook removed access to the app on their site, but they have disabled the ability for Grooveshark users to login using Facebook Connect, which means that the website will surely lose a number of users who do not want to create another account.
DMN shared the above image to show readers what happens when you try to log in to Grooveshark now.
Readers: Do you think Grooveshark will take the necessary actions to become a legal service?
Apr 252012
Thanks to the Midem blog for providing the top Tweets from the conference with Seth Godin, such as quote:
The Internet is the first media that wasn’t developed to keep advertisers happy. #rethinkmusic
Mar 192012
MTV announced at SXSW on Thursday that they are launching a brand new artist platform, Artists.MTV. The site will be open for independent and established musicians alike. MTV’s hope is that users will create profiles at a digital hub for their online presence.
In addition to providing an online home for music, the site will also host a monthly contest where fan votes will determine music that will be featured on MTV, VH1, and CMT (all owned by parent company Viacom).
The site will begin in beta May 2012–are you looking forward to trying it out?
