Digital Media Wire - Music

Buzz Watch: Janelle Monae!

Jay Baage — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 21:34:25 -0500

In a digital age when the artist that is getting the most buzz on social networking sites such as MySpace is a crappy Eurotechno artist called Basshunter, it is refreshing to see that the Internet also brings us class acts such as Janelle Monae! Her first single "Violet Stars Happy Hunting" was an almost instant Internet sensation and her album Metropolis "The Chase" was only available through her website and live performances, as well as iTunes and other mp3 download sites. She has since been signed by Sean "Diddy" Combs' label, Bad Boy Records via a joint venture with her own recording label, The Wondaland Arts Society. In four days, August 12, she will release the first physical copy of her album, a special limited edition only pressed in 57,821 copies. It will be interesting to see how it does. My guess is that her 32,000+ friends on MySpace will want to own their fair share of these collectibles. Take a look at her website and her MySpace page, they are good examples of how a unique artist can befriend the web and the people using it. The only thing missing is a few really good videos on YouTube!

Analysis: Top European Music Online in August 2008 - Swedish DJ Basshunter

Robin Goad — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:23:44 -0500

Here are this month’s lists of the top 20 band / artist searches sending traffic to social networking sites (e.g. MySpace, YouTube, Last.fm, etc.) and the most popular music blogs for the 4 weeks ending August 2nd. First up social networks, and the top 2 entries, Basshunter and Biffy Clyro, have both had successful summers in the charts and have been in our top 20 for a number of months. The release of High School Musical 3 has led to a surge on interest in the Disney film / stage show, while Mamma Mia has also helped Abba enter the list at number 19. More evidence of the benefit of cross media promotion is the appearance of Hamfatter, the band that recently secured funding on the BBC show Dragons’ Den, at number 20.

Warner Music Group Total Q3 Revenue Up 5%; Digital Up 39%

Mark Hefflinger — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 13:15:10 -0500

New York - Major record label Warner Music Group (NYSE: WMG) reports that third quarter revenue was up 5% from the same period a year ago, to $848 million, while digital revenues climbed 39%, to $166 million. Warner Music's digital revenues were up 1% from the first quarter of the year, and now account for about 20% of the company's total revenues; in the U.S., digital revenues made up 31.7% of total revenues.

Online Indie Music Retailer CD Baby Acquired by Disc Makers

Mark Hefflinger — Wed, 6 Aug 2008 14:43:32 -0500

Portland, Ore. - CD Baby, an online retailer of CDs for over 242,000 independent artists, has been acquired by CD and DVD manufacturer Disc Makers for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 1997, Portland, Ore.-based CD Baby charges a one-time setup fee of $35 per CD, allows artists to set their own prices, and retains $4 of every sale while paying artists on a weekly basis.

Report: iTunes Top U.S. Music Retailer in First Half of '08

Mark Hefflinger — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 17:36:41 -0500

Port Washington, N.Y. - Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iTunes Store retained its position as the op U.S. music retailer during the first half of 2008, followed by Wal-Mart (NYSE: WMT), Best Buy (NYSE: BBY), Amazon (NASD: AMZN) and Target (NYSE: TGT), according to a report from market research firm NPD Group. Apple overtook Amazon for third place in the first quarter of 2007, then hurdled Best Buy and Target in February of this year before toppling Wal-Mart to enter the lead in April.

Bertelsmann Sells Stake in Sony BMG for $1.2 Billion

Mark Hefflinger — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 15:44:48 -0500

*A clarification has been added to this story.

New York - Sony (NYSE: SNE) announced on Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Bertelsmann's 50% stake in their four-year-old major record label joint venture Sony BMG, in a deal valued at $1.2 billion. "After a careful and thorough review, we made the strategic decision to sell our investment in this joint venture to Sony, a step that we believe will benefit the stakeholders of both our companies," said Bertelsmann chairman and CEO Hartmut Ostrowski.

Analysis: A Gracenote to the Sony-BMG Deal

Paul Sweeting — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 13:30:51 -0500

Sony Corp.'s deal to buy out Bertelsmann's 50% interest in Sony-BMG Music, announced Tuesday, has some numbers crunchers scratching their heads. Apart from the price paid--roughly $1.2 billion once all aspects of the Byzantine deal structure are factored in--there's the basic question of why Sony--or any company for that matter--would pay anything for a record company these days. It's not as if you can point to a lot of good news coming out of the music industry lately. Sony-BMG itself, in fact, just posted a $24 million net loss for the second quarter.

Analysis: Top 20 Web 2.0 Websites

Heather Hopkins — Tue, 5 Aug 2008 12:04:19 -0500

Two weeks ago when I posted an entry about Google's interest in Digg (the deal fell through) I wondered what other big web 2.0 properties remain independent. The following table lists 20 of the top Web 2.0 properties based on share of US Internet visits.

Report: BitTorrent Lays Off 20% of Staff

Mark Hefflinger — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:44:08 -0500

Los Angeles - BitTorrent, the company founded by BitTorrent protocol inventor Bram Cohen to distribute legal entertainment content, has laid off 12 of 55 employees, or about 20% of its staff, ValleyWag reports. The cuts comprise the company's sales and marketing department. ValleyWag cited the failure of the company to sell its Torrent Entertainment Network online store to Best Buy for a rumored $15 million as the immediate cause of the layoffs.

iPhone 3G Coming to 10 More Latin American Countries Aug. 22

Mark Hefflinger — Thu, 7 Aug 2008 17:41:27 -0500

Mexico City - Latin American wireless carrier America Movil (NYSE: AMX) announced on Thursday that it plans to launch Apple's (NASD: AAPL) iPhone 3G in 10 more countries in the region on Aug. 22. The company said it will launch the iPhone 3G in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay. America Movil counts 165.3 million wireless subscribers.