Marketing statisticians Neilsen have released the results of a new survey concerning the consumption of online media. Asking 27,000 consumers across 52 countries revealed what we already knew; that most people don’t pay for their content online – Nearly eight out of every ten (79%) would no longer use a web site that charges them, presuming they can find the same information at no cost. Respondents were far more united (62%) in their conviction that once they purchase content, it should be theirs to copy or share with whomever they want. Less than 5% of people pay for blogs or radio online, 10% pay for magazine or newspaper content, and less than a third would consider doing so. Music and games do better, with around 15% of people confessing to have bought content online, and slightly more than half saying that they would do so.
Of course, this leaves a whole slew of other options, like buying physical products, or using ad-supported services, but it’s still a fearful prospect for the music industry, as well as othersand it doesn’t take into account the fact that people might not classify themselves as music buyers in any case, – if only half your potential market would consider buying online, and your physical sales are dropping then it’s easy to see why you might start thinking about selling off the family jewels.
EMI (actually it’s parent the Gramophone Company) bought the house atNo. 3 Abbey Road in 1931, at the bargain price of £100,000 (around £20 million in today’s money) and turned it into a custom built studio complex capable of recording a full orchestra. The first of such being Sir Edward Elgar conducting the London Symphony Orchestra in recording sessions of his music. It is one of two that the company own, the other being Capitol Studios in L.A., and is most famous as the namesake of the Beatles album. Now it is beingrumoured that EMI are considering the sale of the studio to help meet the financial targets imposed by the massive loan that their owners Terra Firma took out against the value of the company.
Live Nation are getting a big hold on offline ticket sales by striking a deal that allows them to sell tickets for their events in WalMart stores all over the USA. The programme will open with flagship stores in big cities like Dallas and L.A. before being rolled out nationwide. Live Nation already sells tickets through Blockbuster stores, so the method is tried and tested. WalMart has previously made exclusive deals with bands like Kiss and the Eagles to sell their music through WalMart’s stores only, giving customers a reason to visit. Between them, Live Nation and WalMart have massive marketing power in the states, and globally through their proxies ASDA and Ticketmaster (soon to be absorbed into a merged company with Live Nation), and could orchestrate super-360 deals, controlling every aspect of physical, digital and live sales for an artist.
MySpace CEO Owen Van Natta has resigned his post at the lumbering social site, having only been appointed in April ’09. His co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn will step into the breach, but this can only cause more difficulties for Myspace as it struggles to halt the receding tide of traffic coming to it’s site. The release covering Van Natta’s step-down is reproduced below.
News Corporation today announced that Owen Van Natta will step down from his position as MySpace CEO, effective immediately. Mr. Van Natta will be replaced by newly-elevated co-Presidents Mike Jones and Jason Hirschhorn, who will each report to Jon Miller, Chairman and CEO of Digital Media for News Corporation. All three executives joined MySpace in April 2009, with Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn previously serving as Chief Operating Officer and Chief Product Officer, respectively.
“Owen took on an incredible challenge in working to refocus and revitalize MySpace, and the business has shown very positive signs recently as a result of his dedicated work,” said Jon Miller, News Corporation’s Chairman and CEO of Digital Media. “However, in talking to Owen about his priorities both personally and professionally going forward, we both agreed that it was best for him to step down at this time. I want to thank Owen for all of his efforts.”
Mr. Miller continued, “Mike and Jason have demonstrated true leadership in their operational and product guidance, respectively, and I have the utmost confidence in both of them to lead MySpace into its next chapter.”
In a joint statement, Mr. Jones and Mr. Hirschhorn noted:
“We joined MySpace last April with very a specific set of goals in mind, and are anxious to continue working together to make those goals a reality. This business is now pointed in the right direction, and we have a great team of employees that will continue to push MySpace closer to its potential as the place where people go to be discovered and to discover great content.”
Mr. Van Natta commented:
“MySpace is an incredibly unique place and we’ve made real gains in terms of product focus and user experience. I’m proud of the work we’ve all accomplished together and look forward to watching its continued growth.”
Prior to his role as MySpace COO, Mr. Jones founded and operated several online businesses, including Userplane, a leading provider of tools for online communities such as MySpace. Userplane was acquired in 2006 by AOL, where Jones subsequently served as a senior vice president and focused on social media monetization and also pioneered the distribution of widgets and other technology to Web publishers. He also was founder and CEO of Tsavo Media, an online content and search network developing next-generation publishing platforms and technology services.
Since joining MySpace, Mr. Hirschhorn oversaw all aspects of product development, and previously has led both start-up and established online businesses. He was president of Sling Media, Inc’s Entertainment Group, which created consumer-driven applications and services for the Slingbox device, and was chief digital officer at MTV Networks, where he oversaw the company’s digital media businesses, products and strategies. Hirschhorn joined MTV Networks following the acquisition of his company, Mischief New Media, which provided interactive services to the entertainment industry.
Perorming rights societies. Whose interests do they really represent? As with all big agglomerations, the opinions of the individual member can get somewhat swamped, and as the big societies are used to throwing the weight of their legal department at whatever industry gnats fly into their path they can overstep their bounds and pursue cases that are innapropriate, unpopular or just downright wrong. In the last link, ASCAP are suing a Manhattan venue for playing music without paying them, and name Bruce Springsteen as one of the plaintiffs in their case as one of the artists whose music has been performed without licence. Fair enough, right? Bruce’s music is on their books, and they’ve got a stated schedule of fees that venues are supposed to pay to perform music (not that the venues get any say in defining how much the fees should be). Ummm… no. Bruce Springsteen wasn’t asked about the case, and doesn’t endorse the court case – he in fact his publicists have this to say about it:
In regards to the ASCAP lawsuit against Connolly’s Pub and Restaurant, ASCAP was solely responsible for naming Bruce Springsteen as a plaintiff in the lawsuit. Bruce Springsteen had no knowledge of this lawsuit, was not asked if he would participate as a named plaintiff, and would not have agreed to do so if he had been asked. Upon learning of this lawsuit this morning, Bruce Springsteen’s representatives demanded the immediate removal of his name from the lawsuit.
Techdirt has a very strong anti rights-agency opinion, and has published some informative posts about it – the thrust of their argument being that the various agencies need to be more sensitive to the opinions of the artists they are supposed to be representing, and encouraging growth throughout the music industry, rather than their current punitive profiteering from grass roots venues and minor infringers.
If you haven’t seen the Record Club project that is being run over on Mr. Hansen’s website, it’s worth a look. He’s collecting transient teams of highly talented and professional musicians and jamming out ‘covers’ of classic albums in a day. The tracks thus produced are then breathed on and released weekly in video format through the site. The current slew of tunes is from Skip Spence’s album OAR, and includes some [I think] really interesting stuff. This strange upbeat video is called ‘Lawrence of Euphoria’, reminiscent of some of the punchier stuff from early in Beck’s career, but there are also tracks like “All Come To Meet Her”, which positively reeks of Fleet Foxxes, and “Weighted Down”, which has got Feist’s imprimatur all over it. Lovely stuff.
This collaborative project is bearing fruit from different branches – funk/soul producer Jamie Lidell’s new album will feature both Leslie Feist and Beck, whom he worked with on the Record Club project. Nice to see they’re building stuff together, and that success breeds creativity. All Beck’s videos are available on his Vimeo channel here: http://vimeo.com/videotheque
We blogged about the release of Hot Chip’s new album ‘One Life Stand’, which we thought was pretty cool, and now they’ve been interviewed on London’s X-FM discussing their development of the album and how they work together as a band: you can stream the interviews here, and stream the album here.
Just as consumers are increasingly purchasing their music in digital form, from online music stores like iTunes, Amazon and eMusic (a trend digital music distributors like us rely on for the future of our business), radio audiences are moving online. A study published recently by Bridge Rating, company that:
“provides guidance services to media companies and investment firms seeking immediate and timely behavioral data related to media use.”
covering consumer use of satellite radio, Internet radio, MP3 players, Podcasting and mobile media consumption. They forecast that online ‘radio’ audience will grow to 77m by 2015. Their figures draw from both online only stations like Pandora and Yahoo Music, and simulcast stations (those that also broadcast over the airwaves) – see their graph for comparative growth rates.
So why are users migrating? The cost of a radio is minimal, compared to the cost of a computer, or even to a broadband subscription, and anywhere you can pick up the internet, you can pick up an FM signal. If it were the case that people were just using their computers as a convenient method of accessing the radio content, because their speakers are hooked up to it, signal is poor or they’re out of range, then simulcast stations wouldn’t be seeing a stagnation of or negative growth. Instead it seems likely that users are usign alternative music streaming services becaused of the greater interactivity and enhaned services like forums and playlist sharing that surround the musical core of the online channels, just as they surround music stores like Spotify (which runs it’s own nascent radio platform). If it is this rather than the inherent quality of the radio content itself that is drawing users online, then what does the future hold for premium airwave radio providers like Sirius XM? Will their hold on the car dashboard be enough to save them from their competitors? Not if Pandora have anything to do with it, as their contract with Ford to build in-dash controls to interact with their service shows. The increasing prevalence of smart phones and mobile internet devices also means that anyone with a stereo jack cable can use their existing car stereo to access their own music collection and playlists.
We mentioned that Slash is involved with a competition over at Guitar Centre, in which you can win his participation in a 3 track EP. He’s also recorded a series of interviews for them, talking about song-writing, creating a distinctive style for your act, and some more technical, instrument related matters (they are a guitar shop, after all). Again, his may not be your preferred style (perhaps you can’t carry off a top hat), but success is difficult to ignore.
HMV is increasing it’s investments in the live music business. Having entered into partnership with Luminar to cross promote between live venues and their music store, and having operated a joint venture with MAMA in the same manner for just over a year, they have succeeded in obtaining just over 56% of shares in MAMA, giving them a controlling stake, and another place to promote their own artists and keep an eye on up and coming artists.
