music industry news bits june 08

VINYL:

At present, the format remains a growing niche, and an interesting trend. According to shipment figures supplied by the RIAA, sales of vinyl LPs and EPs moved to 1.3 million units in 2007, up 36.6 percent from 2006 figures. That represents a dip from 1997, which featured a total of 2.7 million units.




TUNECORE:

Starting June 20th, flat rate digital distributor TuneCore will deliver a single track into any 11 digital stores of the customer's choice for a flat rate of $9.99. Current stores include: iTunes US, iTunes Canada, iTunes Japan, iTunes Australia/New Zealand, iTunes UK/Europe, AmazonMP3, eMusic, Napster, Rhapsody, LaLa, and Groupie Tunes. Shockhound and Amie Street will be added in the near future.




LISA LOEB GOES INDIE from http://hypebot. com

HYEPBOT: A lot of people believe there isn't a future in selling music and the artist needs to focus on selling products and services around their music instead.

Going forward, how do you see artists earning a living?
LOEB: For musicians who just want to make music, I think they can focus on making a living from their "music life," whether it’s selling records, recordings of live shows, tickets to shows, everything having to do with music.


For me, it makes sense that music is only a part of what I do. I like making TV programming. It provides me the creative freedom that I need in my life. I’m into physical fitness and food and nutrition. I want to be like Oprah and say “This is place I like to go get coffee,” “This is the reason that I use these tissues,” “This is the book that I read which is really cool”... For me it’s great to have a multi-media platform, and however I can monetize it [is okay].


Music is the core of what I do. I am considered a musician, and I am a musician. But I see it as more amorphous... Different things generate income and different things cost money to do. I want to do what I want to do, and I still want to make a living. It’s an interesting balance to figure out where your income is and where your output is going to be.



FANDOODLE

FanDoodle. com enables fans to distribute downloads for artists and labels and get paid for it. Unlike the Burnlounge pyramid scheme, which I understand finally went out of business, FanDoodle is straight forward and artist friendly.



Once music has been uploaded, fans place banner code or text links in their emails, websites, MySpace or Facebook pages, blogs, or forums. When someone purchases a download, the fan keeps 20%. While the ability to distribute downloads is not new, the ability to instantly distribute them in partnership with their fans is. Potentially, an artist or label can sell music through thousands of distribution points rather than just a handful. It's $9.95 for set-up and artists receive 60% of sales. Fans and FanDoodle split the remaining 40%. Not a bargain but comparable to what most indie acts receive after iTunes and a distributor take their cut.



From Matt:

I think there is a user generated commerce boom coming down the line. Artists who give up control of their content to fans who will take it and create revenue generating activity as a result will engage dynamically and profit wildly.