Warner Music Decide Their Future In Free Streaming Services

With Warner Music Group’s CEO Edgar Bronfman’s comments this week about how free streaming music services are “clearly not positive for the industry”, and his stating that in the future Warner will not be embracing such deals, how does this affect WMG’s place in the future music market?

Traditional vs. Digital: Artist Management in 2010

As an observer, something like the yearly MIDEM conference in Cannes is a great way to catch an insight into the current views of those inside the music industry about what is happening right now, and how they see things changing in the future. It is often supported by fantastic panels with often conflicting views. [...]

Meet the Industry twins: 'Record' & 'Music'

Okay, so you can’t turn anywhere online at the moment when looking at the music industry without tripping over coverage and opinion on yesterday’s IFPI Digital Music Report 2010 (I notice the irony in mentioning this as I introduce you to an article of me giving coverage and opinion to the very same topic). While [...]

Fan Inclusion: A Unique Fan Experience

For me, one of the most exciting elements of a transitional music industry in which independent artists are becoming empowered is that bands are free to make their own rules and guide their own stories and careers, without being stuck in a ‘traditional’ release campaign structure.
More and more frequently I’m reading articles covering independent artists [...]

"Deluxe Packages & The Independent Artist": Multi-tier Releases for the Indie Musician

With the success of multi-level priced releases by artists such as Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails showing that true fans are willing to not only spend money on what is also being offered for free, but that in many cases they are willing to spend far greater amounts of money on extra materials than has [...]

Why the difference between D2F & D2C is more than just a letter

As the industry shifts and tries to settle, the opportunities that developments in technology allow for independent artists are well documented. George Howard has written a great article briefly analysing the ‘leveling’ effect that these developments have caused.
When George mentions the changes in distribution and publicity/promotion, two phrases come to my mind, both of which [...]

What will 2010 hold for the music industry?

How better to start a new year of articles than with a look ahead to what may come in the next twelve months?
After reading Nick Crocker’s article on Mashable, I’ll admit I was initially critical of it. I felt that it was a very ’safe’ list of predictions:

“Labels will get smart”
“Physical sales will continue to [...]

New Venture

In the true way that music is always evolving and moving forward so should we. I’m in the process of working through plans for a new music venture and would be very keen to hear from you if you are a songwriter.
The style of music does not matter, I’m open to hear from writers from [...]

Sharing Is Becoming Less Of A Dirty Word

Developments in both the music industry and that of how we interact as a society (through an increased use and reliance on the internet as a means of communication) have gone firmly hand-in-hand over the last twenty years. In fact, it is quite possible to draw correlations between the two through the well-documented ups and [...]

"Name Your Price": The Perfect Artist/Audience Transaction?

With phrases such as “monetise”, “advertising revenue” and “new business models” being batted around left, right and centre as they have been for a while, it is easy to come to the conclusion that all is virtually lost when it comes to people paying for recorded music. While business shifts for the major labels, independent [...]