YouLicense, the first online music licensing marketplace, released a product update last week detailing the launch of Private Label, a new service catering to YouLicense’s target customer base comprising of independent labels and enterprising artists. Private Label is essentially a branded storefront, specifically developed for the streamlined procurement of synchronization and master use music licenses. This is a major turning point for YouLicense which, until now, has very much operated as a destination site and, arguably, the only standalone open marketplace for music licensing. The company has already converted noteworthy distributors and labels including INgrooves, Big Fish Media, AWAL, MBop Digital, Dashgo, and Cyberset Records. Private Label is currently in closed beta but interested parties can request an invitation here.
SpiralFrog, the highly profiled ad-supported download service, has shut its doors after a lukewarm reception in the UK and endless content licensing and upper management strife in the US prior. The company was the first to deploy a ‘feels-like-free’ music download service in 2006 and secured both Universal and EMI, with competitors Qtrax and We7 following suit with similar ad-supported download services, before spiraling to its demise.
SoundReef, currently in closed beta, has come up with an interesting angle in a very lucrative ‘indie’ music licensing market which YouLicense.com is competing in and PumpAudio ? acquired by Getty Images in 2007 for $42 million ? has already won a tidy share of. Offering online music licensing solutions for independent artists and small companies, SoundReef hopes to encourage new business by making it possible for clients seeking music for commercial use to license music by compensating the artist (or copyright administrator) with promotional effort. What a clever idea! As most commercial use of music is small-scheme with zero-budget, music buyers now have an alternative currency to barter with and it just so happens to be the most valuable commodity of all for bootstrapping artists: Exposure. Let’s see how this venture kicks off.
I’ve been following Bandcamp for a little while now (see earlier post) and I noticed today that the company made some revisions to its home page. Most notably, Bandcamp created a “features” page which lists the entire suite of tools and services. I was also delighted to learn that Bandcamp now provides Creative Commons licensing designations:
Under the Creative Commons licensing designations, artists who make their music public, in this case via Bandcamp, are providing limited rights to other artists and music fans who wish to remix, share, or use the music in a variety of ways without having to formally ask permission.
Music search engine, SeeqPod, that has already indexed (but not stored) 12 million songs, has been handed a formal complaint from EMI following a lawsuit from Warner last year. Unlike Pandora and Imeem, the company has not pursued licenses to provide “playable search results” maintaining that they are not responsible for content sources and, therefore, free from any obligation to the copyright holder. Legally questionable, Seeqpod has become very successful and the two major labels are probably going after it to settle on a mutual business model rather than to shut it down. The news prompted me to play with the system a little and I enjoyed learning about their artist-centric advertising progamme that’s highly targeted and cost competitive. Providing 5000 “exposures” (i.e. impressions) a month for $19.95, SeeqPod Echo is a nicely put together search-oriented advertising interface which may very well generate some relevant traffic for artists and music promoters who wish to tap into SeeqPod’s massive music listening community. I’m curious to learn how the conversion rates stack up.
Now here’s a novel idea: SongVest is a bidding platform for music copyrights. Bidders have the opportunity to own a stake in their favorite published songs and, in turn, collect the royalty cheques. The highest bidders also receive a personlised plaque to put up on their wall and show off their claim to music fame. The songwriter or copyright owner retains a majority stake in the song up for auction, therefore, retaining full control of its use. The songwriter also sets the minimum bidding price which, as you would expect, may be in the tens of thousands of dollars for a small piece of a commercially successful song.
SongVest positioned itself as a ‘memorabilia’ offering as opposed to a copyright market. This is a unique approach to tapping into music fans desperate to own a piece of something they love as opposed to a community seeking to capitalize on copyright transfers and administration. Both scenarios are viable, though.
The essence of owning a piece of copyright is to ensure that the copyright is associated with something broadly admired, reputed, and very well known. Indie’s hoping to gain coverage out of this venture are unlikely to succeed. For SongVest, getting A-list songs is paramount and they seem to be on their way having already featured songs made famous by Carrie Underwood, Ozzy Osborne, Cher, Ringo Star, and The Monkees.
Kyte, the San Francisco based company providing turn-key solutions for online and mobile digital content production, distribution and monetization, has announced the launch of custom iPhone and iPod Touch apps as a new means for music fans to access their favourite artists’ music, videos, news, and exclusive content. In a separate affair, 90’s rock group, Presidents of the United States of America, who made a name for themselves with “Lump” and “Peaches”, have just released their own iPhone app along the same lines. For $2.99, fans can stream the band’s entire catalogue over a Wi-Fi or cellular connection, as well as gain access to exclusive content and previously unreleased music. This is exciting music industry news! iPhone apps are hugely popular and provide an unparalleled platform for artists to access their audience and visa versa. It won’t be long before we see more and more artists, from megstars to indies, harnessing this technology to promote themselves, monetize their catalogue, and upsell associated initiatives and assets such as concert tickets and merchandise.
As an artist, getting your ass on stage and performing to as many people as often as possible is key. In the US, SXSW is arguably the largest draw of both music fans and artists, certainly independent artists. Should you get on a SXSW stage? Of course you should. However, assuming that you are not yet well known, playing live at an over-crowded and super competitive event has its limitations. Sometimes, you have to get off the stage in order to truly make an impact and, year after year, I’m seeing more independent artists attending music conferences, on their own behalf, and with their business hat on. Although the largest of the lot, Midem in Cannes and Popkomm in Berlin, also offer a variety of live performance opportunities to acts big and small, the true event value is in the aimless wondering between the booths and random handshakes with industry professionals. I’m not joking. You’ll meet a lot more people on the floor than on stage. If you meet someone who wants to hear you play, both Midem and Popkomm have listening rooms big enough for you to perform acoustically. If nothing else, attending these events will teach you a lot about the current music market and provide you with the confidence to approach prospective partners who may [or may not] invest in your next recording, touring, licensing, or writing initiative. You never know.
Ad-supported music service, Qtrax, hopes to differentiate itself by offering downloads previously only available as bootlegs. This move may position the company atop of 25 million tracks under this category alone, assuming that that copyright clearance hurdles can be overcome. In the mean time, Peter Gabriel’s competing ad-supported music service, We7, has announced a partnership with NME.com. The strategy is geared toward increasing the value of advertising real estate by diverting traffic to the popular British indie music zine which is likely to improve the combined user time spent online and, resultantly, drive more ad revenue. The two music services have been in the works for some time now and have faced great difficulty in both securing all the major catalogues and financing their operations through advertising alone, a model that will meet further challenges during the present economic downturn when advertisers are being particularly frugal.
Guitar Hero is one of the most successful video games ever introduced into the market, developed to provide players with a true guitar playing experience via a guitar shaped peripheral modeled on the Gibson SG. The Guitar Hero series has sold 23 million units to date, earning $1.6 billion at retail. Ranked sixth by Billboard’s “The 100 Best Ways For Your Music To Get Attention”, the music-focused gaming experience has changed the face of the music industry through lucrative licensing deals, uplifts in game-related downloads, and unprecedented exposure for any artist appearing in or in some way associated with the game.
Phenomenal success begets phenomenal marketing and advertising budgets. Guitar Hero is no exception. Here is a personal favourite (for obvious reasons):
Now here’s a novel idea: 
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