Download the title track from the Ep "I Know Better Now"

Donna Summer: 1948-2012...

Another member of disco's royalty has passed away; Donna Summer was 63.  Dubbed the 'Queen of Disco,' Summer was a critical ingredient of a 70s hit-machine, and part of a decade defined by billowy hair, extended dance remixes, and extended lines of cocaine.   

And, some of Summer's hits may have decades of legs ahead of them.  That includes "Love to Love You, Baby," "Hot Stuff," "Bad Girls," and "On the Radio."  Summer ultimately succumbed to complications tied to cancer, according to information released by her family.

Regardless of what you think of disco or Summer as an artist, this didn't happen overnight.  Long before Summer became attached to a string of mega-hits, she was struggling to get out of Boston, bumping around Germany, and releasing non-hits.  The multi-orgasmic "Love to Love You, Baby" was the breakthrough, with a 17-minute disco version getting lots of play.  And, plenty of juicy controversy.

Summer's family has now released the following statement.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/WDxBf6XBALY/120517summer

Academic Research Says BitTorrent Is Definitely Not the 'New Radio...'

The Counting Crows think BitTorrent is the new radio, and a far better way to serve fans. But an academic study just released by North Carolina State University flatly debunks that claim, at least as it relates to awareness and resulting sales.  Because it's not that BitTorrent doesn't have some promotional power ― and even the ability to ultimately sell albums ― it's just that traditional radio is far, far more powerful.    

Researcher Robert Hammond compared BitTorrent with other formats, and found stunningly lopsided differences.  "The effect of radio airplay on sales is much larger," Hammond explained.  "Specifically, $8,800 worth of airtime... has been found to generate 4,135 additional [album] sales on average."

 previously: "Counting Crows: 'BitTorrent Is the New Radio...'"

But the interesting wrinkle is that Hammond found that BitTorrent actually does contribute to downstream sales.  Just not very much: on a typical, leaked BitTorrent album, the lift was about 60 extra album sales.

As you might expect, old-school television is also far, far more powerful for the lucky artist.  "More anecdotally, sales are affected by the so-called 'Grammy lift' that follows an artist's appearance on the Grammy Awards show, including 6,000 additional sales for Arcade Fire's The Suburbs, 24,000 additional sales for Mumford  Sons' Sigh No More, and a record-breaking 730,000 additional sales for Adele's 21."

Comparisons aside, Hammond found no connection between BitTorrent piracy and album declines, and instead found these modest sales increases in many cases.  "The question of interest here is whether an individual artist should expect sales to decline given wider pre-release availability of the album in file-sharing networks," Hammond relayed.  

In terms of methodology, Hammond focused on roughly 1,000 albums, all of which had been leaked prior to their official street dates.  And, he zeroed in on a private, music-specific torrent tracker with roughly 150,000 users, with heavy observation between May, 2010 and January, 2011.  "The findings suggest that file-sharing of an album benefits its sales," Hammond also noted.  

Here's the problem with this sort of study: if an album is popular, it's generally popular across paid and free channels concurrently (see, the Beastie Boys).  It's a gigantic chicken-and-egg, and a recipe for spoiled data and half-baked conclusions. Which is why Hammond tried to focus on more contained, pre-release leaks involving a closed community.  Hammond declined to specify the name of this 'Anonymous Private Tracker,' but did narrow it to 'OiNK's closest descendant.'  

The complete study is here.

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  Jeff Robinson
  Thursday, May 17, 2012

  Interesting.  I would like to see a breakdown off the $8,800 of airplay.  I thought payment for airplay was illegal if not disclosed over the air?  Who is getting paid and what is the rate discussed here?  Sounds like it might be time for another Congressional investigation if that aspect is treated so non-chalantly 'as if to be expected' in this study.

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  Visitor
  Thursday, May 17, 2012

  I need to spend more time with the report, but this is what he's really saying:

  piracy effects album sales negatively to the same degree, whether or not the album was leaked pre-release...

  in other words, piracy does damage once a title has been "exposed to exploitation" whenever that is.

  so he's NOT saying that piracy has no effect (or helps sales), in fact he specifically states unequivocally he's not contradicting the Leibowitz report from 2011 in it's conclusions that the decline in recorded music sales since 1999 can be pretty much entirely attributed to piracy.

   

   

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  @DroMUSIC90
  Thursday, May 17, 2012

  BitTorrent is not a replacement for traditional radio by any means.

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  simple maths, really
  Thursday, May 17, 2012

  Torrent setups = money laundering with the cooperation of ad companies like Google (AdSense).

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/5n4olB6O8c0/120517bittorrent

Download the single 'Find You Love" by Kraft Moore

Article source: http://kraftmoore.blisstunes.com/2011/04/06/find-your-love-download/

Good Morning! Chuck Brown, Brauner, String Cheese, EDMbiz, Rock the Bells, WFNX, Vinyl Ad...

The "Godfather of Go-Go" Chuck Brown has just passed away. Brown, who was 75, created a Go-Go subgenre that continues to define Washington, DC culture.

Norah Jones agent Joe Brauner has just shifted from CAA to William Morris Endeavor. Brauner also brings client Amos Lee to WME.

This is getting a lot of attention. Earlier this week, the New York Times profiled an unorthodox effort by String Cheese Incident to claw back Ticketmaster tickets - that is, by directly buying them from Ticketmaster and re-selling them to fans without any fees. "We're scalping our own tickets at no service charge," manager Mike Luba told the Times. "It's ridiculous."

If you're into electronica, dance or variations thereof, you know the acronyms. EDC's the festival, EDMbiz is the executive conference, and Insomniac oversees them both. Ahead of the early June festivities in Vegas, Insomniac has just launched its Discovery Project, a search that puts up-and-coming artists onto the EDC stage. Uploads are happening at edmbiz.com.

The upcoming Rock the Bells trek will feature Nas, Kid Cudi, Wiz Khalifa, Missy Elliott, Bone Thugs n' Harmony, and Method Man, among others.

Indie no more! Clear Channel has just purchased WFNX in Boston.

So, it's part ad, part vinyl, and it just got poured by Budweiser and will.i.am in Brazil. It's the flexi-vinyl insert - part ad, part playable vinyl, and all supporting the latest cut, 'Great Times.'

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/k7CWPK-J-kg/120517latest

What the World Will Look Like After UMG+EMI...

This is why the Senate is holding hearings, and why the FTC is holding this up. It's the latest marketshare breakdowns in the US, as counted by Soundscan for last week and shared with Digital Music News by a top label executive.

If the deal closed right now with all approvals, UMG+EMI would account for more than 40 percent of total recording sales (physical, digital, whatever). Moreover, the top two labels (the new UMG plus Sony) would command roughly 73 percent marketshare.

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  @future_of_music
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Yikes!

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  @shinyribs
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Yikes is right.

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  @madktc
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Truly a super major.

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  @juliomuniz
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Scary.

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  @penas
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Breve, apenas duas grandes gravadoras donas de 73% da Música do planeta.

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  Visitor
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  The Final Countdown.

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  visitor
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Looks like you are assuming they won't have to downsize the company to complete the purchase

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/6oHshYN-GzU/120516umgemi

Think DRM Is Dead? Then You're Dead Wrong...

DRM died when Apple switched to unprotected downloads, right? Utterly wrong: music has never been more inflexible, protected, and non-transferrable. And for proof, here's a rundown of the padlocks installed by the largest music services in the world.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/5_6XdYZwmL8/120516drm

Good Morning! Spotify, Grooveshark, DMN, UMG, WMG, Sony...

More Spotify truthiness?  Facebook now shows nearly 20 million Spotify users, roughly double the advertised active user estimate from Spotify itself.  The running conspiracy theory is that Spotify is actively lowering its active userbase to plump its paid conversion percentages (or something like that.) 

In Grooveshark's push for subpoena against Digital Music News on Tuesday, Los Angeles Superior Court judge Richard Stone declined to quash (ie, toss) the subpoena.  That's an early setback; we'll have full statements and more details to share later.  Separately, Grooveshark seems to have its Facebook app restored after clearing a copyright claim, though Connect is still posing problems.  More ahead on that as well. 

Universal Music Group bumped revenues by 9.1 percent during the recent quarter, according to preliminary stats offered by parent Vivendi.  The tally was 961 million euros ($1.22 billion).

Separately, Warner Music Group's revenues slipped 8 percent to  $628 million  during the same period.

Less CDs, less CD plants.  Sony DADC is now laying off 226 employees from its soon-to-shutter plant in Fishers, Indianapolis.  Production is being picked up by Anderson Merchandisers. 

More ahead!

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  Superanos
  Wednesday, May 16, 2012

  Spotify is going to ultimately show if customers want to tie a paid subscription service into a Facebook account. Spotify has required a FB account since September 22nd 2011 and they don't let users disconnect even if they pay for premium. So any new users' service is in the mercy of Facebook. Are consumers willing to pay for this?

  Currently, a part of my family are Grooveshark subscribers ($9/month GS Anywhere) because Spotify won't let them sign up without Facebook accounts. So I can't really support you in this lawsuit.

  Sony is in trouble. Everything about Sony, except Playstation, is making a loss. Not surprised that they're laying off even more people.

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Article source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/digitalmusicnews/~3/HtCLczSgHZI/120515latest