• Digital trade revenue was up 8 percent to $5.2 billion.
• That was the first year the growth rate increased since IFPI records began in 2004. Previously, growth rate of 10 percent in 2009 had sunk to five percent in 2010.
• Globally, digital is now 32 percent of labels’ income, up from 29 percent (that is 52 percent in the U.S. and 71 percent in China). Download volume grew 17 percent to 3.6 billion.
• Adoption of subscription services grew 65 percent to 13.4 million consumers. Remarkably, in Sweden, subscription contributes an impressive 85 percent of digital music revenue generally, thanks to its local hero Spotify.

Related Articles

• IFPI – New Research On Music Buying Habits – November 16, 2009
• iTunes Accounts for 82% of Total Digital Revenues for CD Baby – February 18, 2009
• RouteNote Direct: Create Your Own Customizable Music Store and Sell Direct to Fans – December 14, 2011
• iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Account for 94.4% of Indie Digital Revenues in UK – March 29, 2011
• RouteNote Artist Directory and Download Store is Here – January 19, 2011

# Artists receive 85% of all the earnings from RouteNote Direct sales.
# Earnings go instantly into artists Paypal account
# Real time play stats
# SEO for site and simple URLs
# Ability to customize your own store
# Control your own release and track pricing
# OHHH did I mention its FREE

How to Add your releases to RouteNote Direct:
1. Upload your new release and select RouteNote Direct as a store partner
2. Go to > My Content > select release and edit … then add RouteNote Direct as a store partner

There is a RouteNote Direct tab at the top of all artist accounts. You send your releases live and then you can completely control the store from this location.

Make sure you promote your pages on Facebook, Twitter and to your fan base.

p.s. RouteNote Direct is currently in beta testing, so if you have any suggestion please feel free to drop us an email. Lots of cool features coming very soon!

Example of a RouteNote Direct Store: Among Lights: Influenced By

Users can also sign up to just use RouteNote Direct… you dont need to distribute your music to all of our partners.

Related Articles

• RouteNote Direct Widget Update – January 24, 2012
• RouteNote Direct Widgets: Embeddable Audio Player Widget for Your Website – January 3, 2012
• RouteNote Artist Directory and Download Store is Here – January 19, 2011
• HMV Japan Close Flagship Store: Retail Decline! – June 11, 2010
• Spotify Growing Fast – Product and Territory Expansion Slated – March 19, 2010

AIM (Association of Independent Music) has released their latest digital sales figures for indie labels and bands and it claims that 94.4% of all indie digital revenues is via iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. Everything else is fighting over just 5.6% of the market.

Alison Wenham, head of the UK-based consortium, pointed to a lopsided logjam.  ”There are now a series of monopolies and it is jolly hard for anyone else to get a slice of the market”.

In the US there is still no Spotify presence and it seems as though eMusic is the third largest player, but Im sure they will change when Spotify finally enter the US this year.

Related Articles

• Upload Tool Launched! – December 1, 2009
• Digital Music Stores Compared – February 19, 2009
• Music Executives Dont Understand The Point of Spotify! – January 26, 2011
• How to use iTunes to Promote Your Music and Grow Your iTunes Revenues – May 11, 2010
• Spotify Growing Fast – Product and Territory Expansion Slated – March 19, 2010

Benefits for Artists:

• Artists receive 80% of all royalties
• Full control over pricing and what is available for sale
• Artists can opt-in to sell their music to the public and able to opt-out at any time
• Sales and stats are immediate and can be seen within the artists account
• Spread the word via Facebook and Twitter links on the directory pages

Benefits for Consumers:

• Access to a fast growing list of independent artists
• Affordable pricing
• Mp3 files with no DRM and can be used on any music player or device
• Simple 3 click purchase made via Paypal
• No registration required

Click here to search through the RouteNote Artists Directory.

Bands make sure you login to your RouteNote account and make your albums live for sales! We have many customisation and social networking links coming very soon.

Enjoy!

Related Articles

• How to Edit Track Pricing in RouteNote Artist Directory / Download Store – January 20, 2011
• RouteNote Launches To The Public: Welcome! – April 16, 2008
• RouteNote Direct: Create Your Own Customizable Music Store and Sell Direct to Fans – December 14, 2011
• Free Music Downloads and Merchandise Stores for RouteNote Musicians – April 17, 2010
• 10 Songs You Should Not Play At Your Wedding – September 29, 2009

UK major label EMI this week railed against Apple’s iTunes in the body of its latest annual financial statement.

EMI are unanimous in their praise for Apple’s achievements in online music sales, but resent the huge slice of the music sales market the company has carved out. In other words they want Apple to be a large player in the online music space, but they want to see a few other services step up and compete with them on marketshare. Apple is now the biggest music retailer in the US for both the digital market and the overall music market.

This gives Apple too much control, label bosses feel. Now EMI has found this sufficiently significant to warn that a key risk to the music industry is:

“The substantial dependence on a limited number of online music stores, in particular the iTunes Store, for the online sale of music recordings, and the resultant significant influence that they can exert over the pricing structure for online music stores.”

This warning was included within the company’s most recent financial statement, in which the label confirmed continued decline in CD sales, but said digital revenues now accounted for 8.1 percent of music publishing revenues, up from 7.4 percent in the same period last year.

Related Articles

• EMI Restructuring Coming in a Few Weeks: Expect More Layoffs – July 12, 2010
• Pendulum Claim The Top Spot in UK Sales Charts – May 31, 2010
• Paul McCartney Dumps EMI for Indie Label – April 22, 2010
• EMI In Trouble! Asks For Even More Money To Stay Afloat – April 21, 2010
• Digital Music Stores Compared – February 19, 2009

HMV Japan will be closing their flagship retail store in Tokyo’s Shibuyu district on August 22. This move really shows the collapse of the physical market, not just in Japan but all over the world.

The Shibuya outlet, opened in 1990, was the first HMV store in Japan and, with approximately 6,400 square feet (600 sq m.) of floor space, the largest. HMV Japan shut a Tokyo outlet in the busy Shinjuku district, located in the upscale Takashimaya department store, on Jan. 6, 2010. Forty retail stores will remain for HMV Japan after the August closures.

Related Articles

• RouteNote Direct: Create Your Own Customizable Music Store and Sell Direct to Fans – December 14, 2011
• UK Music Retailer HMV Announced 50% Acquisition in 7Digital an Online Music Store – September 3, 2009
• Music Retail Sales for 2008 Drop 6% – May 21, 2009
• iTunes Accounts for 82% of Total Digital Revenues for CD Baby – February 18, 2009
• Limewire Store Signs The Orchard and Adds 2 Million Tracks To Its Catalog – August 29, 2008

Pendulum has just grabbed their first UK number 1 with Immersion. The Australian drum & bass/rock outfit took the top spot in from of the Rolling Stones’ “Excile on Main St.”.

Warner Music also claimed the week’s second-bestselling album as Michael Bublé’s “Crazy Love” (Reprise), which received additional promotion around his recent arena dates in Britain, rebounded 19-2. The album, which had already sold close to 1.2 million copies by the turn of the year, is now five times platinum for U.K. shipments of 1.5 million.

Related Articles

• EMI Think Apple Has Too Much Control in the Music Industry – August 20, 2010
• How To Get My Music into the UK Top 40 Charts – August 17, 2010
• Official UK Music Charts iPhone Applications – February 7, 2012
• Rhapsody Enter the UK and Germany with Streaming Music Service – January 26, 2012
• IFPI Digital Music Numbers for 2011 – January 23, 2012

With iTunes you really need to promote yourself within the walls of iTunes, and this goes a long way to help you sell and grow your fan based across other sites.

Here is a step by step process on how to promote yourself within iTunes. Please remember that this does take a lot of time, but overall can really get some great results.

Step 1 – Sign up to iTunes and Buy Some Music

The first thing you should do is signup and buy some music (your and your friends), this gets you familiar with the process of buying, plus this will come in handy when you ask your fans to buy your tracks later.

Step 2 – Create at Least 5 profile accounts

Did you know that with each credit card that you register with iTunes you get 5 separate accounts? iTunes designed it this way so families in one household can all use one card.

All profiles are kept completely seperate and not interconnected. One of the profiles will be use by you as your main account, but you can use the other 4 accounts to help promote yourself.

TIP: While you are creating these profiles: Think about your target audience – who are they? Older dudes that like prog rock, or teenagers that like Britney Spears? Create profiles that would fit the types of people who like your music. Choose a name for each profile so they each have an individual personality. Give them distinct personalities and even imagine where they might be from.

Step 3 – Review Other Artists

With each profile – individually begin to review other people’s music. You definitely want to review three or four other artists that have nothing to do with you or your genre so choose some of the artists that have influenced you or artists that you like and create some reviews.

Step 4 – Create iMixes

You will need to create 2 categories of iMixes:

1: iMixes that have nothing to do with you and your music

Examples:

• Best of Madonna
• Great local bands from your hometown
• Best of Bob Marley
• Best of the 1970’s

2. iMixes that INCLUDE YOUR OWN MUSIC

Create mixes that include your own tracks with other complimentary tracks (artists you get compared to and who you are influenced by that sound good when played next to your songs). When you create iMixes think of yourself as a DJ or a curator and piece together thoughtful lists.

TIP: Add some of the top sellers from each week in your genre and style as buyers will already be looking for the top sellers when they come to iTunes.

TIP: You should create an iMix at least one time per week per account.

Step 5 – Vote for iMixes

Make sure you vote on as many iMixes as possible. Vote for your own iMixes using all of your profiles.

COOL: iMixes that begin to pick up votes rise to the top where other buyers will begin to respond to them and purchase your iMixes.

A Note about iMix voting: People who are key users who are also heavily promoting their own music sometimes can be competitive. They may try to vote your iMixes down so that the iMixes that they have created rise to the top.

What my friend says about this: Being malicious on iTunes is awful. Don’t give other people bad reviews. Stay away from this type of negative behavior. Just focus on your own voting and contributions.

Step 6 – Master iMix Sandwiching

When you create an iMix, you want to sandwich yourself between hot chart-toppers in your genre, and add artists that already have five-star reviews.

For each iMix, make it at least 20 songs, but you can go to 40 or 50 songs. To stay on top of the charts for your iMix, you must get the most votes and the most stars.

TIP: Don’t forget to vote for other people’s iMixes so it looks like you are well-rounded.

This is where registering different credit cards and different personalities so you can actually log in and vote for yourself comes in handy.

Step 7 – Remove Unpopular iMixes & Update Them

If your iMix fals below three stars you should take your iMix down from iTunes, add some new tracks to it, and then add it again as an updated iMix.

It will take a few hours for your updated iMix to show back up into the iTunes profiles, but you don’t want to have a poorly rated iMix sitting in the iTunes system with your music in it.

How To Update an iMix: In order to update an I-Mix: Click on the arrow on iTunes. Then click on “update,” and add some new tracks,

TIP: Don’t rename your iMix

iMixes are good for a whole year, so you want to make sure that you start voting, when it goes back up. It takes between 6 to 12 hours for a newly edited or a new iMix to show up.

Here’s The Wrap Up:

For each profile you create: Their iMixes to match their personality:

1. Create then wait for your iMix to show up.

2. Log in as each of your different reviewers and users.

3. Vote five stars from each of the profiles you have created.

4. Start watching your music sell

5. Go in two times per week and create new iMixes.

6. After a while to stay in the most recent, you must continue to make new iMixes. Vote, vote and vote.

7. Remember, you must log in and submit votes for each of the iMixes with each of your separate accounts and many sepearte times. This is the most time consuming part of the process, but if you do this, the rewards and the sales will pay off deeply

8. Log in and vote for: Was this review helpful? And click yes per account. This will help your iMix move up the charts.

9. When you make an iMix, don’t only include the chart toppers, but also include what appeals to you as a listener and what the fans of this iMix might actually like.

10. Remember, you are creating a useful contribution to the iTunes community. The key is make iMixes on Mondays because on Tuesdays the new release schedule will kick in and that’s when your iMixes will show up

Related Articles

• iTunes Growth Is Still On The Rise – Are You Part Of The Movement – August 28, 2008
• Win a $10,000 Gift Certificate at iTunes – February 15, 2010
• US Physical Music Sales Will Continue To Decline until 2013 – June 18, 2009
• Digital Music Distributors Compared – February 24, 2009
• Digital Music Stores Compared – February 19, 2009

“The only act that is showing a major impact from the Grammys is the Black Eyed Peas, but it’s not big enough to make me go out and order more product on them,” the head of purchasing at one large chain says. “The artist I bet my buy on was Lady Antebellum and so far [the band] has had about a 30% jump.”

Most merchants still believe that this week things will increase!

Related Articles

• Winners from 2011 Grammys – February 15, 2011
• IFPI Digital Music Numbers for 2011 – January 23, 2012
• RouteNote Direct: Create Your Own Customizable Music Store and Sell Direct to Fans – December 14, 2011
• iTunes, Spotify and Amazon Account for 94.4% of Indie Digital Revenues in UK – March 29, 2011
• RouteNote Artist Directory and Download Store is Here – January 19, 2011

“In This Light and On This Evening” (Kitchenware), Editors’ third album, entered at the summit, just as “An End Has A Start” did in July 2007. U.K. rapper Chipmunk, who had last week’s No. 1 single with “Oopsy Daisy” (Jive/Sony Music Entertainment), followed up with a No. 2 start for the album “I Am Chipmunk.” With Madonna’s “Celebration” (Warner Bros.) down 2-3, there was also a new entry at No. 4 for Shakira’s “She Wolf” (Epic/Sony Music Entertainment).

Last week’s No. 1, Barbra Streisand’s “Love Is The Answer” (Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment), fell to No. 7. Female pop band the Saturdays opened at No. 9 with “Wordshaker” (Fascination/Polydor/Universal), while British R&B star Taio Cruz, recently No. 1 for three weeks in the singles chart with “Break Your Heart” (4th & Broadway/Universal Island), came in at No. 14 with his second album “Rokstarr.”

On the other hand Alexandra Burke who had the Christmas No. 1 last year with “Hallelujah” only days after winning the 2008 series of “The X Factor”, made it two chart-toppers from two singles as “Bad Boys” (Syco Music/Sony Music Entertainment), featuring Flo Rida, went straight to the chart peak with sales of 185,000 units, according to the Official Charts Company – the biggest weekly sale for a single this year. Burke’s debut album “Overcome” is released in the U.K. today (Oct. 19).

Related Articles

• John Cage 4’33″ Recorded For X-Factor Christmas Release – December 6, 2010
• Auto-Tune X-Factor Shocker!!! – August 23, 2010
• Tom Caulfield – ‘Bare Bones’ (Pure Acoustica) – July 7, 2010
• Klaxons New Album Cover Features a LOLcat – June 22, 2010
• How to use iTunes to Promote Your Music and Grow Your iTunes Revenues – May 11, 2010