Music Sponsorships Top $1.28 Billion in 2013
Brands will spend $1.28 billion in 2013 to sponsor music venues, festivals and tours in North America, a 5.4% increase from 2012, according to IEG Research. That increase puts music on par with the projected 5.5% increase in overall sponsorship spending and leads the 5.1% for the whole entertainment category. Beer, bank and spirits are the ...
Record Store Day Drives Impressive Sales Boost
"Record Store Day is a great way to shine the spotlight on the amazing experience that independent record stores bring to music consumers," David Bakula,SVP at Nielsen Entertainment,said in a statement. “With year-over-year growth, and exclusive packages in a format that consumers value with rich content, Record Store Day will continue to be an event that ...
Here's Why Global Music Revenue Rose for First Time Since 1999
By Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm. According to the latest numbers from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), global music revenue rose 0.3 percent to $16.5 billion in 2013, reversing 12 straight years of declines (.pdf). Apparently, where music is concerned, 13 is a lucky number. “At the beginning of the digital revolution it ...
5 Aspects of the Old Music Industry Being Disrupted and Replaced by Social Media
In a widely noted Billboard interview, Amanda Palmer stated that “Twitter has replaced Google and [music] management." Nobody cared about the Google part but her claim of replacing music management certainly raised a few eyebrows. Of course, like many such claims, it wasn't totally true but it did provide an interesting example of the disruptive power ...
Music Marketing Takeaways from Comscore's 2013 Mobile Future in Focus Report
Leading web and mobile analytics provider Comscore recently released a group of free reports as the “2013 Digital Future in Focus Series." Their mobile report includes some useful takeaways for musicians and music marketers. Yet it's important to remember that one should focus on the mobile activities of one's own audience or intended audience rather than ...
3 Trends Shaping the Future of Product Development
Guest post by Max Engel (@8bitkid) for sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank. Content providers are at a crossroads in the evolution of narratives online. Users are increasingly accessing content in ways that break the conventions of how stories should be told and articles delivered. Social channels are working to help content reach more people ...
From Critics' Words to the Visual Music Review
By freelance music writer Tyler Hayes (@thealbumproject). We're like the classic moth drawn to a flame. As humans we have a hard time resisting a new album review. We have to know whether a publication liked the music or not, whether they think the band has now gone too far away from their roots. We're fickle ...
Apple is Building a Social Music Network
Guest post by Matt Kiser (@Matt_Kiser) for sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank. There's a lot of talk about how Apple is building a whiz-bang, streaming Internet radio app to kill Pandora. In 2013, Internet radio seems really shortsighted for Apple. It can't possibly be the only thing they're up to in the music ...
New Mike Masnick Report Focuses on Europe
Full Midem 2013 coverage by Stuart Dredge of Music Ally. In January 2012, Techdirt founder Mike Masnick published a report called The Sky Is Rising, a survey of the global entertainment industry that took a notably positive approach to growth in the last decade. Now Masnick and co-author Michael Ho have published a new report drilling ...
3D Printing of Vinyl Records Not yet a Threat to Copyright Holders
By Mike Masnick, this first appeared on Techdirt. We've been predicting for a while now that 3D printing is an area of disruption that is going to lead to legal disputes. Our expectations were that as tangible goods makers were disrupted in the same manner as content producers, it was only a matter of time. But what ...
5 Top Emerging Music Tech Trends for 2013
After a busy 2012, music tech companies across the board are set for a big 2013. Streaming music companies will engage in further struggle while tech usage trends affect how music is consumed. I've gathered 5 emerging music tech trends as examples of where things are headed in 2013. Some things we know: Music services like ...
Music Ally's 2013 Survival Panel Looks to the Future of the Music Industry
Music Ally held an end of year gathering discussing what's ahead for the UK music industry in 2013. The gathering included a panel discussion with individuals from such companies and organizations as Universal Music, the Featured Artists Coalition and Seatwave representing multiple sectors of the industry. They shared a variety of insights into the days ahead. ...
Despite Free Streaming, Music Remains Popular Holiday Gift [study]
Despite the rising popularity of Pandora, Spotify, Rhapsody and other options for streaming music, digital music downloads and CD's continue to be a popular gift choice, according to an NPD Group study. This year 12 percent of U.S. consumers reported that music would be on their holiday gift lists. Music gift buyers also intend to increase ...
Data Science and the Music Industry: What Social Media Has to Do with Record Sales
Guest post by Liv Buli and Victor Hu for sidewinder.fm, a music and tech think tank. Buli and Hu work for Next Big Sound, a music analytics company. Twenty years ago, as a music fan, you would hear a song you enjoyed on the radio, head to the record store to buy the album and wait until the ...
