If you happen to be in Washington next week the 10th annual Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit is being held with speakers from all over the music industry including Fred Von Lohmann, Senior Copyright Counsel for Google. Another interesting speaker will be Jill Sobule who has been noted in the past for her use of alternative business models. It is being held in conjunction with Washington University and is particularly concerned with the position of artists in the current and emerging digital environment. You can read more about it here. They write:
The 10th Anniversary Future of Music Policy Summit brings together an incredible array of musicians, arts advocates, policymakers, technologists, media representatives and industry figures to discuss issues at the intersection of music, technology, policy and law. Over three days, connections will be made, challenges will be identified, and solutions will be considered. Your participation in these conversations is crucial to the future of music.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Australian Independent Music Awards
The 5th Annual Jagermeister Independent Music Awards are to be held at The Forum Theatre, Melbourne on Friday October 1st, 2010, featuring live performances from British India, Cloud Control, The Amity Affliction, M-Phazes, Sally Seltmann and Joe Chindamo. Doors open at 8:00pm; tickets are $29+BookingFees and available now via Ticketmaster.
Its interesting to read the interview with Space Invadas which is currently on their website where the social norms of file sharing are discussed:
Unlike most major label artists that never really recouped from music sales unless there was a huge volume of sales, it seems the independent labels are hurting because they are only releasing for a small number of artists and traditionally those musicians would have seen some of that income.
Its interesting to read the interview with Space Invadas which is currently on their website where the social norms of file sharing are discussed:
What's the biggest challenge you face as an independent musician?
The age of torrent downloads, which kinda makes it hard to make music full time if no one buys it. So I've felt the last two years it has really made it more difficult. They [torrents] are really socially acceptable now.
Unlike most major label artists that never really recouped from music sales unless there was a huge volume of sales, it seems the independent labels are hurting because they are only releasing for a small number of artists and traditionally those musicians would have seen some of that income.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
Bigsound & Australia Talks
Radio National's recent broadcast of BigSound, the Queensland music conference, is available online here - it was presented on the Australia Talks radio show last week.
It is an interesting program worth a listen and available for free download. In particular new business models including fans directly sponsoring artists and the use of streaming instead of downloads are discussed.
The show starts with the proposition that this is the best time ever to be a new artist with the speakers going on to consider direct connections to fans as one of the best changes to take place in the last 15 years. The difficulties in getting heard given the cacophony of songs that are around is also considered with the clustering of fans through social networks and synching with other forms of media as ways to get through to new audiences.
The Big Sound website is available here and states that the next conference will be held from August 31st to September 2nd 2011.
It is an interesting program worth a listen and available for free download. In particular new business models including fans directly sponsoring artists and the use of streaming instead of downloads are discussed.
The show starts with the proposition that this is the best time ever to be a new artist with the speakers going on to consider direct connections to fans as one of the best changes to take place in the last 15 years. The difficulties in getting heard given the cacophony of songs that are around is also considered with the clustering of fans through social networks and synching with other forms of media as ways to get through to new audiences.
The Big Sound website is available here and states that the next conference will be held from August 31st to September 2nd 2011.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Ping Pong
Social networking has been with us for a number of years with MySpace and Facebook taking the lead in providing instant access to friends and "friends" around the world.
One of the things I look at with these services is the way that musicians use them. Undoubtedly these services provide artists with a way to communicate with fans about a myriad of issues including recent releases, concert dates and every day activities. I am particularly interested in the way artists also use these services to communicate with fans about political issues and advocate participation in campaigns.
The difficulties arise with artists that do not have a strong financial backing who must spend time constantly updating and adding to their profiles - of course as well as MySpace and Facebook other services such as Twitter require ongoing maintenance.
Now days, instead of collecting the names and contact details of fans manually at gigs, these services are available on an opt-in basis for fans to "follow" the activities and events relating to artists.
To add to the mix, this month saw the introduction of another service, this time by iTunes, called Ping. Ping is best described as social networking for music. With access to the iTunes store, the connection between friends and fans is now closely related to song choices.
Released on 1 September 2010 in 23 countries it will be interesting to see how this service is used my both musicians and fans alike.
I have had a quick look around the service and it does seem to work very well with a very simple GUI. The link to Ping is on the left hand side of the iTunes page, listed under the iTunes Store.
It has only been launched this month and so far not many people have signed up to it - the John Butler Trio for example, has nearly 250,000 followers on Facebook but not yet 2,000 on Ping. Similarly Blue King Brown, one of my favorites, is not yet listed on Ping.
Further Reading
wikipedia, iTunes Ping (8 September 2010) < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Ping > at 10 September 2010
Wired, Apple’s ‘Ping’ Social Network Is Already Too Big to Fail (1 September 2010) < http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/apples-ping-social-music-network-is-already-too-big-to-fail/> at 10 September 2010
Apple, iTunes - Ping: Social Network for Music (September 2010) < http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/ > at 10 September 2010
One of the things I look at with these services is the way that musicians use them. Undoubtedly these services provide artists with a way to communicate with fans about a myriad of issues including recent releases, concert dates and every day activities. I am particularly interested in the way artists also use these services to communicate with fans about political issues and advocate participation in campaigns.
The difficulties arise with artists that do not have a strong financial backing who must spend time constantly updating and adding to their profiles - of course as well as MySpace and Facebook other services such as Twitter require ongoing maintenance.
Now days, instead of collecting the names and contact details of fans manually at gigs, these services are available on an opt-in basis for fans to "follow" the activities and events relating to artists.
To add to the mix, this month saw the introduction of another service, this time by iTunes, called Ping. Ping is best described as social networking for music. With access to the iTunes store, the connection between friends and fans is now closely related to song choices.
Released on 1 September 2010 in 23 countries it will be interesting to see how this service is used my both musicians and fans alike.
I have had a quick look around the service and it does seem to work very well with a very simple GUI. The link to Ping is on the left hand side of the iTunes page, listed under the iTunes Store.
It has only been launched this month and so far not many people have signed up to it - the John Butler Trio for example, has nearly 250,000 followers on Facebook but not yet 2,000 on Ping. Similarly Blue King Brown, one of my favorites, is not yet listed on Ping.
Further Reading
wikipedia, iTunes Ping (8 September 2010) < http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ITunes_Ping > at 10 September 2010
Wired, Apple’s ‘Ping’ Social Network Is Already Too Big to Fail (1 September 2010) < http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/apples-ping-social-music-network-is-already-too-big-to-fail/> at 10 September 2010
Apple, iTunes - Ping: Social Network for Music (September 2010) < http://www.apple.com/itunes/ping/ > at 10 September 2010
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