Will This Company Be The Last CD Distributor?

The CD is fading away, not as quickly as was predicted, but the long slow decline is occurring nonetheless. Streaming is the root cause, of course, and the decline of the importance of the album too, but for the most part, our attention is now elsewhere instead of on a round piece of plastic. That said, 38 million of the suckers have been purchased this year so far that we can count (who knows how many have been sold at gigs or by churches, for example, that weren’t scanned and therefore counted), so there is a remaining appetite that should continue for a while. That’s why Alliance Entertainment, the largest U.S. wholesaler of physical music, is still optimistic about the future of plastic-based music formats.

NMPA CEO David Israelite Urges Music Modernization Act Passage: 'It May Be Now Or Never'

With just a few weeks before Congress heads home for the midterm elections, the clock is ticking on any legislation that will become law this year and the Music Modernization Act hangs in the balance. While a great deal of headway has been made, those few lonely voices who still oppose paying creators fairly will make a final stand in hopes of killing this bi-partisan and consensus legislation.

How To Get On Spotify's User-Generated Playlists

Playlist doesn't seem to be going away, and while landing on Spotify curated playlists may seem out of reach, their hardly the only option, with user-generated playlists often having hundreds of thousands of followers. Here we look at what artists need to do land spot on one of these coveted lists.

As Google Turns 20, Questions Over Whether It's Too Powerful

Twenty years after Larry Page and Sergey Brin set out to organize all of the internet's information, the search engine they named Google has morphed into a dominating force in smartphones, online video, email, maps and much more. 
That resounding success now has regulators and lawmakers around the world questioning whether the company has become too powerful as its ubiquitous services vacuum up sensitive information about billions of people hooked on its products. 

Radio Aligns With Bars & Restaurants In Copyright Fight.

The radio industry often works with television broadcasters, as well as other ad-supported media on a variety of issues percolating in Washington. But it’s now in a rare alliance with the country’s bars, restaurants, brewers and wine producers when it comes to music copyrights.  A big reason is restaurants, bars, wineries and breweries, and store owners aren’t all that different when it comes to music use. Each is required to license music from the performance rights organizations and they’re similarly worried about the impact of changes to the consent decrees that govern how ASCAP and BMI have operated for decades.

How Streaming is Changing the Shape of Music Itself

The streaming era has arrived in the music business, but the music business has not yet fully arrived in the streaming era. Labels, publishers, artists, songwriters and managers are all feeling – to differing degrees – the revenue impact of a booming streaming sector. However, few of these streaming migrants are fundamentally reinventing their approach to meet the demands of the new world. A new rule book is needed, and for that we need to know which of today’s trends are the markers for the future. This sort of future gazing requires us to avoid the temptation of looking at the player with the ball, but instead look for who the ball is going to be passed to.

How Much Does It Cost To Tour In 2018?

It has been commonly acknowledge that touring is now how artists are making their money in today's music business, but hitting on the road brings with it a host of expenses. Here we break down the various costs of touring into three different tiers: basic, medium, and premium.

Here's how Amazon's and Apple's new smart speakers stack up with consumers

The central question for this new product category is not when they will take off, but which devices will rise to the top. To answer this question, Business Insider Intelligence surveyed our leading-edge consumer panel, gathering exclusive data on Amazon's recently released Echo Show and Echo Look, as well as Apple's HomePod.

Crash Course On Using Spotify And Other Streaming Services - For Independent Acts

The subscription-based music streaming model of Spotify and others – at the moment – makes it extremely unlikely for independent artists to make any significant money from sales of their music directly via those services.

Having your music on these services isn’t essential, but having a presence on them is better than not having a presence on them. They are focussed on consumers more than the artists, and do provide an excellent, convenient, immediate service for music listeners – so are great platforms on which to share and showcase your music, and potentially be discovered by new fans.

CD Baby DIY Musician Conference Moves To Austin, Texas

CD Baby is moving its popular DIY Musician Conference to Austin , Texas in 2019, after several years in Nashville. The gathering is billed as "the only music conference geared specifically towards the needs of independent artists in charge of their own careers ."

Spotify profit payouts: What's the fairest way to recompense artists? - Music Business Worldwide

For the artist and management community, the most controversial element of Spotify’s transition to a publicly traded company was how (and if) the three majors and Merlin-member labels would share the proceeds from sale of their equity holdings. These stakes were agreed as far back as 2008. At the time, music streaming was in the earliest stage of adoption (Spotify gets a mere two mentions in the IFPI’s 2009 Digital Music Report) and, although there were sensible rationale for the largest rights holders to demand equity, a lack of transparency surrounded these arrangements and the basis on which they were agreed.