What started as the first successful online marketplace selling music and related media, has recently been focused on establishing new pop-icons, leveraging their traffic with co-branded promotions. iTunes is still the titan of online media, but while the Apple-run marketplace has been focused on film and television sales, new media technology platforms have been innovating and perfecting music release campaigning. Musicians use sites like Justin.tv and Ustream.com to host CD Release, and private listening parties prior to releasing their albums to market. These and similar techniques have been very successful for artists, generating plenty of social buzz and blog coverage, surrounding their album release….

Thats right, it looks as if Angry Birds and the new movie Rio have teamed up to make a new App, check out the trailer for it.  I dont know if it will be any good or just a gimmick but I do know that i’m buying it. 

I’ve never seen a trailer for an App before.

Anyways just incase you dont know what Rio is check out the trailer for it here.

“At the MobileBeat 2010 conference in San Francisco, Eric Tseng said that Facebook “really sees mobile as the future,” and that we can expect to see Facebook’s “Like” buttons in mobile applications soon.

Tseng used geolocation as an example to illustrate the power of the mobile Open Graph. If you were to walk near a coffee shop and get a location-aware notification that there’s a happy hour going on there, you’ll probably be even more inclined to visit it if the notification comes bundled with recommendations from your Facebook friends.”

Direct-to-Fan (D2F) marketing is essentially creating a relationship with your fans through a marketing outlet, fans help you and in return you help them. D2F marketing is a creative business model that allows artists to eliminate the need for a middle man by delivering music directly to fans.  Which means, artists keep a higher percentage of their own sales, compared to the current business model where major labels, distributors or even iTunes take 30% or more away from the artist! D2F is most easily identified by free content give-aways in exchange for a tweet, Facebook shout-out, or e-mail sign up, reference MattCosta.com.

However, D2F marketing is evolving to include custom storefronts and marketing analytics that enable you to better grasp your audience and sell directly from your website and various social profiles. After researching the following sites; Bandbox, Nimbit and Topspin, I have outlined a detailed explanation of the costs, benefits, similarities, and differences between each platform. 

Read More…

Found something interesting today… an advertisement for the “iTunes Pass.”

Here’s what it is as explained by iTunes:

Now, with the purchase of an iTunes Pass, you can get new music and special bonus content from your favorite artists delivered as soon as it’s available.  Ratitude is the seventh studio album (soon to be known as “the one with the dog on the cover”) from power-rock band and all-around pop geniuses Weezer.  Maybe you’re already dancing in the streets to the strains of first single, “(If You’re Wondering If I Want You To) I Want You To,” but you just wait—there’s plenty more radness to come.  The purchase of this iTunes Pass will give you the group’s upcoming Ratitude album, videos, live tracks, remixes, bonus tracks, and other untold riches.

From the look of the purchase page on iTunes (picture available in “Read More…”), it seems like the pass will currently deliver…

(Please click “Read More…” for full article and what I DON’T like about the iTunes Pass)

Mason Jennings was featured and interviewed on CNN today.

On the interview he reveals a bit about how the new album “Blood Of Man” came about and what inspires him to write.

Effortless melody, dexterous wordplay, tight compositions—they come easy for Jennings, whom Rolling Stone recently dubbed “one of the best songwriters you’ve never heard of.” But his new album, “Blood of Man” (Brushfire), goes deeper than his previous work, which presented a more affable side of the Honolulu-born, Minneapolis-based singer-songwriter.

Read the full article here.

Also don’t forget to check out the website we did for him.

Apple is exploring a new interactive album format code named “Cocktail” that could potentially bring new life to the Album AND the Music Industry. An executive involved in the plan is quoted by the Financial Times as saying it’s “all about re-creating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music.”

That’s all well and good but it seems as though the current state of the music industry has arrived to where it’s at because of a reason - progression. This new format is supposedly all about “re-creating the heyday of the album” but what can we classify this as - progression, nostalgia, retro, all of the above or none of the above?

I realize that this new format is being created to give fans more for their money and encourage them to buy the whole album versus single tracks. However, in order for this “Cocktail” to work it will have to overcome the way of thinking that most music consumers have these days - that albums only have 2 or 3 good songs that are worth the money and the rest is usually filler.  Let’s just dream for a second and imagine if “Cocktail” really takes off.  Perhaps this is what is needed to motivate artists to create albums with less filler. 

Of course, for the die hard fans I think this concept will work. Fans are always willing and wanting to get new content from their favorite artists. The question, though, is what “exclusive content” will be offered and will it be something unique OR will it be something you can find on-line within a few minutes of searching? 

I’m glad to see that the big names in the music industry are working on new ways to entice fans into buying music. It’s a sad, true fact but “just music” isn’t really cutting it these days. I personally think the “Cocktail” is a progression and a good idea, but it needs to be done right.  And who better to lead this initiative than Apple.

Click here to read the article in the New York Times

Click here to read the article in Financial Times