INDIE NEWS BEAT June 9, 2004 Edition
* Independent Advocacy Group Launches Media Campaign
* Download Sales Top 500,000 Units In UK
* Edwin McCain Lets Out A "Scream and Whisper"
* CD Price Declines are Accelerating
* RRadio Network - Survey 24 Results
* Entertainment Fans Go Global
* Indie Music Magazine Launches!
* Indie PR Solutions - A Musician's Promotional Outlet
* CMRRA to Protect the Rights of Songwriters
* Free CD-Rom Toolkit: Indie-Music.com Exclusive Members Offer
Independent Advocacy Group Launches Media Campaign
As part of its initiative to increase the public's awareness and perception of independently created work, Agent15- a non profit organization- released its first public service announcement yesterday. Recently produced by a small independent media group, the PSA seeks to focus attention back onto the art, specifically the music, while asking individuals to support their local independent communities.
"This first PSA is simple in format and bears a simple message" said Agent15 Co-Founder, Scott McGill. "On the fringes of the commercially driven and monopolistic music industry, there is an alternative, independent means to create and distribute new and challenging work."
The PSA literally contrasts the dialog currently in use by the major record labels with the sound of music, and asks its audience which they'd prefer to listen to. Upon a visit to the organization's website, visitors are informed about some of the many reasons people choose to support independent music. They are also provided with suggestions on how they too can support independents.
Agent15 hopes to reach a young and dedicated audience, one where music plays a part in everyday life, by offering its PSA to College Television and Radio Stations as well as music related websites. The organization is encouraging all content programmers to freely download the PSA for broadcast.
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Download Sales Top 500,000 Units In UK
Figures from the Official UK Chart Company show that yearto- date legal sales of music downloads exceeded 500,000 units this week (week commencing 24 May 2004). This compares with virtually none in the same period last year. The best-selling download in the UK so far this year is 2,000 Miles by Coldplay, just ahead of OutKast's Hey Ya.
This latest milestone for legal downloads is reached just a week after the high profile arrival of the new legal Napster service in the UK and days after Oxfam launched its own charity download site Bignoisemusic.com
Bignoisemusic.com is already contributing data through its distributor OD2 to the Official UK Chart Company. Napster is expected to start doing so shortly.
The OCC - a joint venture between the BPI and the British Association of Record Dealers - is in the final test stages ahead of the launch of the Official UK Download Chart, expected to be later this summer.
BPI chairman Peter Jamieson says, "With 500,000 legal downloads sold already this year, we have hit yet another milestone in the development of this exciting new market for music. Investors are showing confidence in the future of music and putting their money into new download stores, and music consumers are voting with their wallets and buying in their hundreds of thousands. This is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for the music industry."
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Edwin McCain Lets Out A "Scream and Whisper"
Edwin McCain's new album, Scream and Whisper, catches him on a second honeymoon. It's a group of songs that arrived while he was falling in love with music all over again, and thus finds him renewing his vows with his life's passion.
If not lyrically, that's what this album is all about spiritually for McCain. His first proper studio release since the end of a long tenure at Lava/Atlantic Records, Scream and Whisper was created at a time when the Greenville, South Carolina, singer/songwriter was at a crossroads both personally and professionally.
In its positivism and more so in its spirit, Scream and Whisper documents that awakening, that realization. It finds McCain and his longtime bandmates playing with perhaps more conviction than they've displayed in years. I approach the rest of my musical life like it belongs to no one but me and my guys, the guys that committed 10 years of their lives to me," McCain says.
And Scream and Whisper belongs to those guys more than perhaps any of McCain's previous five albums. In addition to tracks penned solely by McCain, the new album includes songs written or co-written by guitarist Larry Chaney and new guitarist Pete Riley (formerly of Treehouse). As a result, the album is a real affirmation of how much of a true band he and his brothers in arms have become, McCain says, noting, "It's so special to be able to share this gift with them."
On album opener "Coming Down," McCain sings about his struggles over the past few years, and about regaining his career and spiritual footing: "I'm just glad to be here/And most of all I'm thankful I'm alive." If you didn't already know, you wouldn't necessarily pick up on exactly what the song is documenting. "Turning Around" also carefully touches on his personal reinvention.
"Shooting Stars" perhaps best captures McCain's mindset at the moment: "And maybe this life is just about love and tenderness/ If all we are are shooting stars/Maybe we can fight all this pain and lonliness if all we are are shooting stars." "Good Enough" is a tribute and a thank you to all the black icons of rock and roll's early days who were forced into segregated hotels and restaurants while touring the American South. The disc ends with a fierce and fun cover of Rod Stewart's "Maggie May."
CD Price Declines are Accelerating
Based on the latest information from The NPD Group's MusicWatch PriceLab, the decline in overall average price for physical full-length CDs appears to be accelerating. CD prices declined nearly four percent in Q1 2004, versus Q1 2003; by comparison, the year over year in Q4 was only 2.5 percent and for Q3 the drop was less than one percent.
The average price of CDs in the U.S. has reached a low of $13.29, versus $13.79 in 2003. A similar pattern was observed for the top 50 sellers in Q1 2004, where the average price was $13.36 nationwide, a drop of 3.1 percent versus year ago.
"There are several reasons for the accelerating decline," according to Russ Crupnick, president of NPD Music. "First and foremost the recording industry has had to deal with a changing market over the past few years, which was fueled in part by file-sharing. But the retail landscape has also changed, and consumers are increasingly exposed to everyday low prices or terrific discount offers. Everyone also recognizes the increasing competition for entertainment dollars, as DVDs and video games are growing at double digit rates. These situational factors are forcing the industry to rethink pricing."
PriceLab also reported the following related metrics:
* The average price of so-called "catalog" CDs, which are comprised of titles that are 18-months old or older, have fallen below the $13 dollar threshold to an average of $12.99 in Q1 2004; however, prices are down on both catalog titles and new releases.
* Universal Music Group's titles declined five percent between Q1 2003 and Q1 2004, which may be a reflection of the company's "Project Jumpstart" initiative to lower prices at retail.
* On a retail channel basis, prices declined the most at mass merchandisers, which include retailers such as Wal-Mart, Meijer, and Target. Prices at the mass channel fell by five percent between 2003 and 2004.
"Record labels are diligently trying to respond to consumer feedback about high CD prices, and to the relative value of music," Crupnick said. "According to a consumer survey conducted earlier this year, one out of three CD buyers report rank the price of CDs Å’important' or Å’very important' in their purchase decision."
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RRadio Network - Survey 24 Results
Radio has always been a background media. That people do other things while listening has never been argued. Figuring out what that "other" is for broadcast is relatively easy, they mostly drive a car. Identifying what they do while listening to online radio has been, at best, a guess until now.
RRadio Network's Survey 24 gave respondents a choice of eight options on what occupies their time while they listen to radio online. Through the answers of 2,039 individuals, we're now fairly certain what their primary item of interest is while they tune to online radio: business.
"____________ is what I do most online, while listening to Internet radio" brought the following response:
30.1% Business
22.1% Misc. surfing
18.1% Just listen
6.1% Chat
5.1% Gaming
3.7% Read news
1.3% Shopping
10.5% reported "other" as their choice.
These stats, and more, are graphed at http://www.audiographics.com/spclreport/survey24.htm
Another question posed to Survey 24 participants was designed to show how deeply online radio cuts into their daily radio listening routine.
When asked to define the percentage of time spent with broadcast radio, against that percentage spent with radio online, the group reported as follows:
12.7% say they listen to broadcast radio 10% of their total radio listening time, while 90% of their time is spent with radio online.
7.45% report broadcast radio takes up 20% of their total time spent listening to radio. The remaining 80% is spent listening to online radio.
8.6% pegged 30% of their radio time-spent-listening is devoted to broadcast, and 70% to online radio.
7% give 40% to broadcast. 60% to online radio.
...and 13.1% say it's 50/50 split between the time they spend listening to broadcast radio and that time spent with radio online.
To complete the list, all of the following spend more time with broadcast than they do with online radio. Their broadcast radio listening percentage is reported on the left. Online radio's percentage on right.
6.3% say it's a 60%-40% split
11.5% listen in a 70%-30% ratio
12.4% divide it 80%-20%
12.1% give their listening pattern as 90% with broadcast radio
and 10% listening to radio online.
An interesting side note is that only 3.9% of online radio listeners are subscribing to satellite radio. Yet, 42.8% of these SatRad subscribers report listening to radio online at least 50% of their total time spent listening.
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Entertainment fans across the globe have discovered a new way to meet friends and share their tastes for music, movies, television, and sports with one another.
"The community is an online geographic and demographic reference point for entertainment fans around the world," says John Patrick, creator of Globaldust.com. The 19-year-old developer envisioned an online hub for music fans over a year and a half ago, but it wasn't until July 2003 that Globaldust began to grow at an astounding rate.
Since its inception, the online entertainment portal has grown to include not only bands and musicians, but actors, actresses, and athletes. Users can login and add themselves to their favorite "fanbases." From there, they can view locations of similar fans worldwide via maps or text. The 30,000 members have used Globaldust for numerous purposes, from finding friends to making dates.
Patrick notes, "Future plans for Globaldust include add-ons for authors, models, politicians, and comedians." Currently, Globaldust is enjoying rapid growth and expanding membership.
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Indie Music Magazine Launches!
Indie Music Magazine - a brand-new, exciting and very sexy online music magazine has just been launched. Located on the web at www.indie-music.info, Indie Music Magazine features only indie music and the artists that make independent music. We have an unusual operating model in that our writers are recruited directly from the indie music community. It's a site about indie music by the people that make it.
We offer an Indie Music Events Calendar, News, Reviews, Artist News, New Releases, Interviews, Editorial and Radio Report sections as well as a downloads section, a discussion forum and more. We are currently recruiting writers and editors for our magazine from the indie music community and working on link-exchanges and search engine optimization to boost our search engine ranking.
Run by the same people who own and operate the Indie record label Koala Bear Studios, we have a fair amount of experience in the independent music business and the founder, Kelly McTiernan, has over twenty years experience in the computer industry and has been involved with the web since the earliest days of the dot-com boom. We are expecting explosive growth for this site.
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Indie PR Solutions - A Musician's Promotional Outlet
Now that Muzik Reviewz has launched a new website, www.indieprsolutions.com , Indie PR Solutions (IPRS) is ready to announce to the world and all musicians, artists, bands, clubs, studios, label companies that they are opening their doors as an Musician's Promotional Outlet. Mary E. Rudy, Pres./Founder states "Our goal is to furnish you the artist and band with the promotional aids, tools, directories to help you promote yourselves to show your talent and potential as an artist and/or band."
For our Artist/Band Online Advertising, we offer our Basic Package - you get one price/ three months, then there is our Premium Packages - where you are advertised on Muzik Reviewz.com and Indie PR Solutions.com for one price - and 6 months. Can't beat that!!!
Our CD Korner Rak is all about CD's, starting with Cuttin' Edge CD's where you place your cd's with your cd information. Online Services/Labels is an directory of companies that will help the artist/band to sell their cds, this is an FREE RESOURCE for our artist/bands. CD Duplicating Services is another FREE RESOURCE for the artist/band.
In our Article Section the artist/band and all visitors to the site will find freelance articles and also article from the MusicDish Network, these will offer a source of information for the artist/band to draw from on their quest of promoting themselves.
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CMRRA to Protect the Rights of Songwriters While Paving the Way for On-line Music Services in Canada
The Canadian Musical Reproduction Rights Agency (CMRRA), which has taken a strong stand in support of the entry of online music services into Canada, announced today that it is taking an equally strong stand to protect the rights of songwriters. In conjunction with the Quebec-based Société du droit de reproduction des auteurs, compositeurs et éditeurs au Canada (SODRAC), CMRRA has filed a joint tariff application with the Copyright Board of Canada to set a fair royalty rate for songwriters and music publishers for on-line music sales.
"To speed the arrival of these services, we took the unprecedented step of issuing on-line licenses before establishing the royalty rate," says David Basskin, President of CMRRA. "It is in everybody's best interest to get the licensed commercial services up and running, and we didn't want to hold up the process. But the reality is that songwriters in this country struggle to make a living from their work, so getting fair rates for songwriters in the on-line domain is absolutely critical. That's what the tariff application is all about."
Stan Meissner, President of the Songwriters Association of Canada, states: "As new technologies and business models continue to emerge, we certainly support any effort to ensure that songwriters receive fair remuneration."
CMRRA has entered into an On-line Licensing Agreement (OLA) with two Canadian-based online companies, Puretracks and Archambault, and two US-based operations, Napster and MusicNet. Under these agreements, CMRRA has cleared tens of thousands of songs for use by the on-line music services. The agreements, which cover the period from October 2003 to December 2004, call for negotiation on the royalty rate or, failing that, arbitration. To date, a rate has yet to be negotiated, and the issue has recently gone to arbitration.
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Free CD-Rom Toolkit: Indie-Music.com Exclusive Members Offer
Indie-Music.com, a destination for independent musicians since 1996, has announced an exclusive offer for new Members. For a limited time, we are GIVING AWAY a free copy of the Musician's Toolkit CD-Rom with new annual Members subscriptions.
Now through July 31, 2004, receive one FREE Musician's Toolkit CD-Rom (retail value $19.95) with any new annual Members subscription. The Musician's Toolkit CD-Rom features: 46 full length articles covering writing, recording, music marketing, radio, and more, written by a respected industry veteran; 90 easy-to-use templates for flyers, letterhead, business cards, special events, press releases, and more; Music Papers - manuscript, tablature, and percussion paper easily printed from your computer; fill-in copyright forms; Cool Musician Software - a selection of 13 freeware and shareware programs just for musicians . . . and much more!
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Provided by the MusicDish Network. Copyright © Tag It 2004 - Republished with Permission
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