RHAPSODY

Here is a famous exemple of a contract-like music distribution. Only available in the U.S, for $10 a month, you can access to all the music Rhapsody has. The down side, and what made the polemic, is that it is not DRM free, which means that you are limited in the use of the tracks you have downloaded. It is a model that needs to be developped and can be promising with the help of technology (c.f Rick Rubin).

Source: RHAPSODY

BUZZDECK

Open to all AWAL clients, it offers acts and labels a variety of real-time analytic tools to help refine and target marketing and promotion campaigns.
It will track the online buzz building globally around an act across social networks and has already been used by Warner acts including Plan B and Sony Music acts including the Hoosiers.
A basic version is available for free to all AWAL clients while a Pro version, with more tools and functionality, requires a monthly subscription.

Source: BUZZDECK

AWAL

The function of AWAL is logical and simple. Large record companies have direct deals with iTunes and other digital stores, however these stores cannot deal directly with the hundreds of thousands of small labels and independent artists who want to sell their music online. Consequently AWAL acts as a conduit, uploading and encoding the music into the stores then accounting to and paying its clients.

Source: AWAL

TUNECORE

If you make music and you have mp3 files that you wish you could distribute via the big digital distributing channels, I am happy to tell you not to wish anymore, because you can! And you want to hear another good thing? They will not ask you for anything. No charge, no rights, no copyrights and no masters... Everything that is sold will get back to you. Interested? Click on the link below.

Source: TUNECORE

REVERBNATION

This is a tool that a lot of people might be interested to use. As you can see it on the website, not only artists and fans are involved, but also record labels, artist management companies and venues. This website is basically a platform for marketing music. The idea is to build a community of music-aficionados and professionals, and to be kind of a help center for the parties mentioned above. The admission is free of charge, so be sure you register yourself too!

Source: REVERBNATION

CD BABY

A solution for independent or unsigned bands to distribute their music. The principle is simple: preview any track, or all of them, of an album, if you like it you can either decide to buy the CD (physical copy), download the whole album in mp3 files, or select which track you want to buy. Anyone can put their music on this distribution channel. CD Baby will take a part of the sale, the rest will go directly to the artist. Every CD will cost you a $35 fee though. But it has never been so easy to distribute music!

Source: CD BABY

GROOVESHARK

For those who don't like downloading a swoftware such as spotify, here is an alternative. Grooveshark is pretty much the same as spotify, but no software needed. Therefore, you can have access to free music where ever you are, as long as you have an internet connection, and you don't need your own computer with the software. The website streams 60 million songs per month.

Source: GROOVESHARK

VISION OF THE FUTURE?

Here is something I found. It is not a company or a business, but just something that Rick Rubin said to a journalist of the New York Times, about the way the music industry could make money:

“You’d pay, say, $19.95 a month, and the music will come anywhere you’d like. In this new world, there will be a virtual library that will be accessible from your car, from your cellphone, from your computer, from your television. Anywhere. The iPod will be obsolete, but there would be a Walkman-like device you could plug into speakers at home. You’ll say, ‘Today I want to listen to … Simon and Garfunkel,’ and there they are. The service can have demos, bootlegs, concerts, whatever context the artist wants to put out. And once that model is put into place, the industry will grow 10 times the size it is now.”

I have to agree with him. I believe that a contract-like is a good solution. But I also think that it will only be profitable once all these things are possible, meaning we will have to wait for the technology to be that performant, and also accessible to anyone, to really take advantage of such a model.

Source: THE NEW YORK TIMES

AFRICA UNSIGNED

Here is another version of a "pay what you want" website. But this time, it is to promote African bands only. The concept is a little different from Magnatune. On Africa unsigned, you give money to artists you like, and once they reached $10,000 of donation, they will go to a good professional studio to record an album. Once the album finished every person who donated money will receive a copy. Nice, right?!

Source: AFRICA UNSIGNED

MAGNATUNE

Magnatune is an online music service which has built much of its business around the “pay what you want” model. Albums carry a low minimum price, with fans able to decide how much more to pay after that. It is an interesting concept that has been used by several websites already, but more on these later, for now enjoy the link.

Source: MAGNATUNE

SPIRALFROG

Launched last month, SpiralFrog lets users download music for free, in return for viewing advertising. In addition to viewing ads while searching for and downloading music, the service requires users to log in to the site and view ads at least once every 30 days, or the downloaded music for the account becomes disabled. SpiralFrog is built on a revenue-sharing agreement with participating labels, and currently offers a catalog of 800,000 songs and 3,500 music videos.

Source: SPIRALFROG

DROPLIFTING

Droplifting is a method of distribution that is interesting for new artists who don't want to wait until they have a record contract or a distribution deal.

It basically means that you go into a large cd retail store and put your own cd's in the racks. Then you wait until someone discovers it and tries to buy it, from then it's not sure what is going to happen...

Source: DROPLIFTING

SPOTIFY

The streaming-music sensation! To recap, via this application, you can listen to music from a very big repertoire, as the music from the four majors are available plus some independents. For free you can download a version of spotify, but you will get advertising, which some of us might think is annoying. A "premium" version is also available for a certain amount of money. With this version, the streaming is faster and you will not be bothered by ads. It is a good solution but probably not the best. Don;t forget, this is streaming, so you can only listen to the music when you have an internet connection!

Source: SPOTIFY

JAMENDO

Another website giving away all the music for free! How's that possible? By using a Creative Commons license. It also generates revenue via ads on the website for the artists who set up a shop. Users can also donate money directly to the artists.

Source: JAMENDO

CREATIVE COMMONS

Creative Commons is a company that offers licensing for music and other creative works. But what is interesting about it is that it offers a good alternative to traditional copyright. Because you have different kind of licenses - the creator/author can choose the kind of license - it doesn't limit creativity of others who might want to use your work. Which is the opposite of an all rights reserved copyright. We can notice that more and more artists are joining Creative Commons and I believe that the company has a very prolific future. To find out more about the licenses and how it works, use the link below.

Source: CREATIVE COMMONS

COMES WITH MUSIC

Even though it has been launched in 2008 already, Nokia's Comes With Music is still relevant as new business model for the music industry. If you have lived in a cave for the past two years and you have just come out of it, the idea behind Nokia's Comes With Music is to give the subscribers free downloadable music for the whole period of the contract, which you can also keep after the end of the contract. This seems like a good idea, but few problems appeared shortly before the launch in the UK about one and a half year ago. Is the service really free? How are the labels gonna be paid? What are the artists getting? I will leave these questions open and direct you to the link below for a detailed recap on the issues that surfaced in 2008.

Source: THE GUARDIAN

DOWNTOWN MUSIC

Another exemple of multi-tasking for independent labels. Less marginal than Third Man Records, Downtown Music is also involved in different sectors of the music industry. The company operates a record label, a music publishing company, a licensing group, a digital label (c.f RCRD LBL) and a recording studio. Anyone see a patern here? I know I do!

Source: DOWNTOWN MUSIC

Third Man Records

Completely on the contrary to last post, this company uses a very old way to put out records. But maybe it is a good way for small independent labels to survive. Everybody knows Jack White from the White Stripes. And maybe you know his own record label Third Man Records. But did you know that this record company includes a record store, a recording studio, a rehearsal stage, a photo studio and a darkroom on the same location? Another interesting thing about Third Man Records is that the primary format they use to release music is vinyl. Yes, vinyl! They're still around and the collectors love them!
Now, to come back to what I said earlier, I see two things that can help independent labels survive. The first one being multi-tasking. Being present on different levels in the music industry is definitely a plus. Overall, you have more control on the product you are putting out. It is also easy to seperate the parts from one another. You might want to do only the recording for a band, or only the pictures for another... This way, you can compensate from the branch that makes more revenue than another and avoid bankruptcy. The second thing would be to focus on rarity. Releasing exclusive products to attract collectors. And with only two retailing stores in the world, Third Man Records has been around for nine years already!

Source: THIRD MAN RECORDS

RCRD LBL

Have you ever wished that you could download music for free, in good quality, without any risk? Well it is possible! RCRD LBL is an online-only record label that puts music from their artists for free. It actually is from 15 different record labels (partners on this one) that the artists come from. And the website doesn't only provide music but other content too such as interview, reviews etc... MOre and more artists are getting on this website, from famous to upcoming and from any genre so anyone can find happiness.

Source: RCRD LBL

22 TRACKS

The first post is about the new website 22 Tracks. The website was first launched on the 22nd of October 2009 and was co-created by radio DJ Vincent Reinders and Gilles de Smit. The idea of the website is to have 22 genres of music, with 22 tracks for each genre. This way they want to give an overview of the latest music and promote new artists. The websie is completely free, with the possibility to buy the tracks via iTunes. The website is very interesting as it permits the user to discover new artists or genres. It is possible to make your own play list. The interface is also very freindly. Each track list is updated regularly. It definitely is a must to check out!

Source: 22 Tracks