The SF MusicTech Summit XI brings together visionaries in the music/technology space, the best and brightest developers, entrepreneurs, investors, service providers, journalists, musicians and organizations who work with them at the convergence of culture and commerce. Held on October 9th at San Francisco’s Hotel Kabuki, we meet to discuss the evolving music/business/technology ecosystem in a proactive, conducive-to-dealmaking, B2B environment.

Speakers include Theda Sandiford of Universal Republic Records, author Rob Reid of Listen.com, Genevieve Jewell of The Collective, Matt Urmy of Artist Growth, Sahil Lavingia of Gumroad, Colin Brumelle of Twitter, Julie Samuels of the EFF, and more!

For tickets and more information, visit sfmusictech.com and save 10% with the code “NARM”

Click here to read the full post.

To download the whitepaper, click here.

Key findings on black consumers’ online activities as concluded by this Nielsen study, can be found by clicking here.

“Television is becoming more and more important to music discovery, and it was great to get together with all the best minds on the subject and talk things through in a substantive way,” said Bill Wilson, Vice President of Digital Strategy and Development at NARM and digitalmusic.org. “We think this white paper will go a long way toward harnessing TV’s full potential as a music-discovery resource and are excited to share it with the world.”

“Billboard is always working to lead the discussion around the ever-changing music business. We’re pleased to work with top partners like NARM and TAG Strategic to provide the sorts of insights that will continue to help the music business learn and evolve,” said Bill Werde, Billboard’s Editorial Director.

Among the white paper’s many takeaways are:

• Viewers are eight times more likely to buy music at the moment of discovery than at a later time.
• Much discovery has moved from brick-and-mortar stores to digital media.
• Discovery can be as basic as text on a television screen while still being effective.
• The second screen, including mobile phones and tablet devices, has enormous, untapped potential to offer rich, immersive music experiences.
• Connecting music discovery on television with music purchases and subscription services will improve monetization and engagement.
• Stakeholders all along the value chain must band together for metadata, hardware, applications, download stores, and subscription services to maximize music’s potential on television.

The “Music & TV: Enabling Discovery for the Connected Consumer” session, held Wednesday, May 9, included the following speakers:

• Ted Cohen, TAG Strategic
• Russ Crupnick, The NPD Group
• Jay Friedman, Audible Magic
• Daryl Berg, Reveille/Shine America
• Brian McNelis, Lakeshore Entertainment
• Vickie Nauman, 7digital
• Barry Smith, West10
• Chris Woods, TuneSat

The new chart is compiled from data supplied by members of the Entertainment Retailers Association such as Spotify, Deezer and We7 by the Official Charts Company.

The Official Streaming Chart is the first chart which ranks audio streams from both ad-funded and subscription streaming services in the UK, to reflect the growing interest in this new generation of music services.

Era director general Kim Bayley says, “The launch of the Official Streaming Chart from data compiled by Era members marks yet another evolution in the way music fans access the music they love and reflects continuing innovation from the retail sector. Not so long ago our members operated solely out of stores; these days they offer music, video and games in a dizzying variety of formats and services. We are delighted to support the Official Streaming Chart.”

Steve Savoca, Head of Content, Spotify says “This is a defining moment in the evolution of digital music as it shows music consumption as a whole. Streaming is a hugely increasingly important part of both discovery and consumption. Having a chart that reflects this allows the industry and the public to get a much better understanding of the full range of music that people are listening to.”

He added: “Spotify users are discovering a broad range of music, identifying great new emerging artists, such as Labrinth, Emeli Sande, and Gotye, and sharing these discoveries through social networks.”

Napster General Manager (Europe) Thorsten Schliesche says, “We’re delighted to be one of the initial contributors to the Official Streaming Chart. This recognises the importance of streaming services to UK music fans.”

Deezer Managing Director UK & Ireland Mark Foster says, “Deezer is delighted to be a part of the Official Streaming Chart. As licensed streaming services like ourselves grow in popularity in the UK, it’s only right that the millions of streams our users are generating every week will contribute to this exciting chart evolution.”

We7 CEO Steve Purdham says, “”Music streaming is the real heartbeat of music taste and is coming into its own in the UK. The timing for the Official Streaming Chart launch is perfect to showcase what music fans are listening to from millions of songs.”

The Top 10 is as follows:

1. Call Me Maybe Carly Rae Jepsen
2. We Are Young Fun ft Janelle Monae
3. Somebody That I Used To Know Gotye ft Kimbra
4. Too Close Alex Clare
5. Starships Nicki Minaj
6. Drive By Train
7. Titanium David Guetta ft Sia
8. She Doesn’t Mind Sean Paul
9. Primadonna Marina & The Diamonds
10. 212 Azealia Banks ft Lazy Jay

The full Top 100 can be viewed here.

Katy Perry, Lionel Richie, RIAA, Brett Gurewitz honored

May 16, 2012 – Music business association NARM and digitalmusic.org, the virtual home of NARM’s digital initiatives, brought together 1,000 professionals from the commerce and content sectors of the music industry for Music Biz 2012 last week at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza Hotel in Los Angeles. Featuring more than 100 speakers from the highest levels of the music industry, the event provided attendees with all the information they need to harness current trends and increase sales.

The event kicked into full swing with the Opening Session Breakfast, during which Topspin Media CEO Ian Rogers conducted the keynote interview with INgrooves Fontana CEO Robb McDaniels. The conversation was recorded for an upcoming episode of Rogers’ “This Week in Music” web series. Also during the Opening Session, NARM President Jim Donio presented the Presidential Award for Sustained Industry Achievement to the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and announced NARM and digitalmusic.org’s new music industry events alert service. Rachelle Friedman, Chair of the NARM Board of Directors, then awarded the Independent Spirit Award to Epitaph Records Founder/Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz and announced the results of NARM’s Board elections.

NARM and digitalmusic.org also introduced App Alley, a popup demo and exhibit showcase that ran throughout the day on Wednesday, May 9, and featured top music technology companies such as Spotify, Mashery, Microsoft Xbox LIVE, Thefuture.fm, Indaba Music, Bandsintown, and more. To get a taste of how it went, click here to watch a video recap. Other popular events at Music Biz 2012 included the Spotify Developers Meetup, the Record Store Day 2013 Town Hall, and the Urban Music Meetup as well as one-on-one meetings and break-out sessions such as “Apps, Developers, and the Technology of Music” and “Creative Collaboration – Outsourcing in the Digital Age.” The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) also held a roundtable on the International Music Registry (IMR) and Copyright Infrastructure in the Digital Environment, Hypebot presented three special sessions, and more. Click here for pictures from throughout the week.

The event concluded with the Awards Dinner Party on Thursday, May 10, during which global superstar Katy Perry received the Artist of the Year Award, delivering a knock-out speech while sporting a new goth-inspired look, and Lionel Richie was presented with the Chairman’s Award for Sustained Industry Achievement. Click here to watch Katy Perry’s acceptance speech or here for Lionel Richie’s. The gala began with a star-studded red carpet featuring other celebrities such as R&B singer and TV star Brandy, Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz, Rock ‘n Roll royalty Lisa Marie Presley, Mike Shinoda and Dave “Phoenix” Farrell of Linkin Park and American Idol Season 8 Winner Kris Allen. and pop culture maven Perez Hilton, and ended with a dance party hosted by DJ-to-the-stars DJ Cassidy. Click here to see a time-lapse video of the red carpet.

“We couldn’t be happier about the success of Music Biz 2012 and we are already brainstorming for ways we can top ourselves next year,” said Jim Donio, President of NARM and digitalmusic.org. “The past year has given us many reasons to be excited about the future of the music business, and this convention provided the perfect forum for our attendees to see how they can maximize these possibilities in the year ahead.”

“Of course, Music Biz 2012 isn’t the only thing we do all year, and NARM and digitalmusic.org members can look forward to more installments of our Music Start Up Academy, Entertainment & Technology Law Conference, and Online Seminar Series, as well as our continued support of Record Store Day and our best-in-class Product Platform database,” Donio continued. “Our next Music Start Up Academy sessions will take place in Los Angeles on Thursday, June 7, so stay tuned to the NARM and digitalmusic.org websites for more info.”