12th June 2009

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Industry Digest #4 Latest and Greatest from Around the Web

This week finds us a week post-E3 and the tail end of this weeks Apple WWDC event.  Lots of news coming out of both campus but only some of it pertaining to the music industry.  Trent Reznor leaves the social network scene because of a few rotten apples and Derek Sivers shows us that in order to get help from the industry, you have to show your worth.

As I mentioned in my earlier posts a lot of industry related news came from last weeks Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in LA, with Last.Fm brokering a deal with Microsoft and Activision and Harmonix are making their rounds with new iterations of Rock Band with the Beatles Rock Band (Due 9.9.09, same day as the release of their remastered albums). Green Day announced that they will be releasing new tracks from their latest album Breakdown.  Activision has already spearheaded the “single” band game, having already produced Guitar Hero: Metallica and now working on Guitar Hero: Van Halen, not only are they working on those but also on a new Guitar Hero, Guitar Hero 5.

I keep coming back to The Beatles Rock Band for a few reasons, the main one being that The Beatles have not licensed their music out to ANYONE, not even to iTunes, yet they jump right on the bandwagon of Rock Band, the most popular, Party/Rythm Game for the Xbox 360 and PS3.  So you better believe that the Beatles will see residuals everytime that game is purchased, or when new tracks are available and paid for and downloaded.  This is the new market for music, with placement in games like Rock Band, Guitar Hero, or even licensed out for games like Grand Theft Auto, Fallout 3, or Madden Football, these are the new forms in which artists can capitalize and make a profit on.  If the Music Industry isn’t profitable find something that is.

Yahoo announced this week that they are launching a free Yahoo Music app for the iPhone.  It will provide 150 Yahoo Music streaming stations along with 100 stations from CBS Radio.  And that isn’t the only thing CBS is doing, announced this week as well is that the founders of Last.Fm are resigning.  After acquiring Last.Fm two years ago, CBS is finally taking over the reigns.  Many are curious to see how long it will last, as Last.Fm just grew to 37.3 Million users, which is estimated to grow now since the deal which was brokered between Last.FM and Microsoft to allow users of the Xbox 360 to set up their own accounts, stations, and pages.

And of course my favorite blogger, Derek Sivers, posted an interesting blog on showing success before asking for help.  He discusses how he came across a paper on a collegeues desk at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing that listed the cash advances for the songwriters who submitted songs.  One girl, whos work was always in on time, every week, in the right format, always picked up by famous artists because she had great songs, her advance was $15,000.  The other guy, who was habitually late, submitted songs on reel-to-reel, his songs were horrbile, and only because he was in an 80s Band with a famous artists and had a 1/16th writing credit on an album that sold 20 million copies.  His advance, $500,000.  What this says is that you have to make your own success before getting the help you need.

Thats all for now, articles are linked and below. Also added Comment (via Disqus) section so feel free to leave your thoughts and opinons!

Hilger

Rolling Stone

Green Day Brings new Breakdown Songs to Rock Band

Green Day Bring New “Breakdown” Tracks To “Rock Band”

6/12/09, 12:25 pm EST

Photo: Lauren/WireImage

Green Day and Rock Band are teaming up to bring a trio of tracks off the band’s latest album, the four-star 21st Century Breakdown to the video game. Breakdown’s first single “Know Your Enemy,” plus “21 Guns” and “East Jesus Nowhere” will all be featured in a Rock Band DLC pack being released on July 7th, Rock Band makers MTV Games and Harmonix announced.

“Rock Band is a really cool way for fans of all ages to experience our music,” frontman Billie Joe Armstrong said in a press release that also hints at a future collaboration between the Bay Area punks and the game: “Additional Green Day songs and projects will be announced at a later date.”

Green Day is the latest band to join forces with one of the industry’s biggest video games as the two leaders — Rock Band and Guitar Hero — vie for blockbuster names and exclusives. Activision has already struck a deal with Van Halen for a Guitar Hero game that won’t feature Mike Anthony or Sammy Hagar, and also joined forces with Eminem and Jay-Z for the upcoming DJ Hero. Rock Band, meanwhile, nabbed the Fab Four for September 9th’s The Beatles: Rock Band.

The three songs mark the first time Green Day tunes have been playable in the Rock Band series. The Breakdown trio told the story behind the making of 21st Century Breakdown in a recent Rolling Stone cover story. For photos and interviews from that issue, check out our Green Day hub.

Digital Media Wire

Yahoo Music Debuts Free application on iPhone

Yahoo! Music iPhone App Powered by CBS RADIO

Posted by warmer, June 11, 2009 at 1:13 am, in YMusicBlog General.

We’re proud to announce that you can now get all of your favorite radio stations through a free app for the Apple® iPhone™ and iPod Touch. The amazing team at CBS RADIO crammed a lot of great features into the Yahoo! Music app so that you will never be without your favorite music when you’re on the go. Here are just a few of the great features included:

• Browse through 20+ genres
• Skip up to six songs an hour
• Browse stations by genre or find local stations ‘near you’ utilizing GPS
• Share stations with friends
• Browse your listening history or recently played stations
• Buy albums/songs via iTunes
• Listen to 1010WINS, KROQ, WFAN and more than a hundred other CBS RADIO stations in addition to Yahoo! Music’s 150 music stations
• Add presets for instant access to your favorite stations

We’re extremely excited about the new Yahoo! Music iPhone App and think you will be too. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, download the app from iTunes now.

For more information about the new Yahoo! Music App powered by CBS RADIO, click here.

Stay tuned for more great products and features coming from Yahoo! Music and our friends at CBS RADIO.

Dave Warmerdam
Yahoo! Music

Digital Media Wire (Last.Fm Blog)

Last.FM Founders Resign, Hand Reigns over to CBS Corp.

Founders of CBS-Owned Web Music Service Last.fm Resign

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on June 10, 2009 - 10:57am.

London - The three founders of London-based social music discovery service Last.fm, which was acquired two years ago by CBS (NYSE: CBS) for $280 million, announced on Wednesday in a blog post that they are stepping down from the company.

“After two years running Last.fm within CBS we feel the time is right to begin the process of handing over the reins,” reads the blog post from Felix Miller, Martin Stiksel and Richard Jones.

“This is the latest stage in a long journey for us founders, which began in a living room in East London in 2002, and took us to the headquarters of one of the biggest media companies in the world.”

Stiksel and Miller told PaidContent that CBS Interactive Music president David Goodman will serve as interim general manager at Last.fm while a replacement is sought.

The trio noted that Last.fm’s user base has more than doubled over the past year, to 37.3 million monthly unique visitors.

Derek Sivers Blog

Show Success Before Asking For Help

Show success before asking for help

from Derek Sivers by Derek

From 1990 to 1992 I ran the New York archives at Warner/Chappell Music Publishing.

(The music publishing business gives a cash advance to a songwriter in return for owning half the income generated from their songs. The publisher is betting that the songs will earn at least that much, whether recorded by a famous artist or the songwriter themselves.)

One day, as I walked by someone’s desk, I noticed she had accidently left out the balance sheet showing every songwriter signed to the New York office, their cash advance, and how much they had earned. I quickly took it to the Xerox machine, made a copy, and put it back.

That night, reading it on the subway home, I learned a great lesson by looking at a huge difference between two songwriters:

There was one writer who was wonderful – a publisher’s dream. Her songs were great and easy to pitch to famous artists. She turned in a new song every week, professional and well-recorded. She was signed to Warner/Chappell because one of the managers there heard her and believed in her, even though she hadn’t had any success yet. Her advance: $15,000.

The other writer was horrible. His songs were really bad metal that’d make Spinal Tap cringe. Poorly recorded, terribly performed, sent late, and on reel-to-reel tape that nobody used anymore. (I always had to dust off the reel-to-reel machine twice a year when his new demos would arrive.) But in the 80s he’d been in a band with a major rock star, and had 1/16th of a songwriting credit on one song that was on a record that sold over 20 million copies. His advance: $500,000.

The lesson I never forgot:

You have to make your own success first, before you ask the industry for help.

You have to show that you’re going to be successful with-or-without their help. Show that you have momentum, and if they want to accelerate it or amplify it they can, but it will cost them to ride your coat-tails.

If you don’t do this, then even in the best-case scenario, where someone at the company really believes in you, you’ll have no negotiating leverage, and will get the worst deal possible.

If you’re just starting out, don’t ask the industry for help yet. Make something happen by yourself first, so you have a success story to tell and momentum to show.