Sellaband has effectively been sold. The Belgian electronic music magazine Side-Line informs that the acquisition of the business is a fact. The new company, called SellaBand GmbH, will be operating out of Munich in Germany. The site however is still closed although it’s written on the index page that they are back online today. Also posted on the page is a message from ‘former’ CEO Johan Vosmeijer who waves goodbye:
Dutch startup Sellaband, which enabled music fans to invest in their favorite bands, last week on Friday requested provisional suspension of payments in their home country. It was promptly granted by an Amsterdam Court, and was this morning changed into full bankruptcy. However, a message that was posted on the Sellaband website claims that an acquisition of the business is imminent, and merely a matter of a “few technicalities” as they call it.
We at Muztec believe however that the concept around Sellaband is not viable on the long run. Already 99% of the bands on Sellaband don’t generate a single sponsored dollar. Also, the biggest bands that might be able to generate revenue via the site are not exactly impressed by the site. Or as one pointed out to Muztec: “Representing ourselves as beggars is not exactly the image we prefer to spread… instead we do earn enough to invest this back into recording an album. If you are relying on Sellaband you are either a very poor musician or a very poor manager of your own business.”
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admin on Wednesday, January 20th, 2010 (EMI, Free All Music)
Next to their deal with Universal Music, the ad-sponsored digital music download service FreeAllMusic.com now also inked a deal with EMI Music to let anyone download music from the record label’s artists. EMI Music’s catalog is being added during FAM’s current private beta period, when users will be offered up to 20 free downloads per month, five per week, starting every New Music Tuesday, based on the usage patterns of a typical “hits-oriented” digital music consumer.
FreeAllMusic.com is a new music service that provides consumers with downloadable high-quality iPod-compatible MP3’s of popular songs that are advertiser-paid, free, legal, and unrestricted (DRM-free). In exchange for watching one brief video commercial per download on the FreeAllMusic.com site, users receive a permanent, high-quality download which they can enjoy anytime, anywhere with no further advertising or restrictions. There is no software required for the service. Users’ music selections and sponsoring brands are then promoted externally through an opt-in, consumer-informed digital advertising network.
eMusic has come to an agreement with Warner Music Group and will soon begin selling tracks from the label’s roster of artists to its U.S. users. The agreement includes material from Atlantic Records, Rhino Records and Warner Bros. Records as well as from independent labels distributed through the Alternative Distribution Alliance (ADA) stable. The deal will make sure that 10,000 catalog (!) albums from artists like REM, Depeche Mode and Aretha Franklin will be available for downloading.
eMusic, which is rumoured to be up for sale, currently offers more than 7.5 million tracks, and claims it has sold more than 350 million music downloads. The company is currently in talks with label partners for new licensing deals that would allow registered users to stream songs. Streaming would be added in 2010, provided rights holders come to terms with the realities of new business models.
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admin on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 (Universal Music)
Universal Music Group is partnering with the new ad-sponsored digital music download service FreeAllMusic.com to let anyone download music from the record label’s artists. Free All Music plans to make money by getting people to watch ads in exchange for track downloads. Thousands of tracks will be offered via Free All Music at a rate of 20 free downloads per month, five per week, starting every Tuesday so Techcrunch says.
FreeAllMusic.com is still in private beta, users watch a video commercial per download on the site. Users’ music selections and sponsoring brands are promoted externally through an opt-in, digital advertising network. To download a free track, users can select a participating brand and then have to watch a video advertisement from that brand. Brands who are participating in the initial launch are Coca-Cola, Warner Bros, Zappos, Lionsgate, LG, and others.
Apple Inc has acquired digital music service Lala. The move is not all that unexpected as the dominant online music retailer explores new models for selling music. Apple confirmed the purchase on Friday. iTunes is the leading music service worldwide with more than 70 percent of all digital music sales. With more than 11 million songs, the iTunes store is also the most complete download store. However, newer music streaming services such as MySpace Music and Spotify have begun to win over music fans in the last year. The move could suggest that Apple does believ that the whole music model migt shift to a streaming one.
Lala allows users to stream from the Internet any tune in its catalog of more than 8 million songs once for free, and then sells unlimited streams for 10 cents per track and MP3 downloads starting at 79 cents. The company has around 100.000 customers and recently partnered with Google to provide users song samples along with links to purchase the music. Lala has also partnered with Facebook to offer music through the social networking site.
Acquiring Lala means iTunes will probably enforce its very own download store or it might want to develop a browser based iTunes download store as well as we pointed out a while back. It could also mean that Apple might have a better idea how to monetize streams, which would be excellent news for the music industry. It’s less good news for Spotify which needs to get a 2nd life in order to survive.
Apple has opened its iTunes LP and Extras file format to all developers and labels just like MuzTec announced would happen. It will be handling all submissions manually until the first quarter of 2010. From that moment on all submissions will be handled like other iTunes uploads. While ITunes LP offers such meta data as lyrics, liner notes, band photos, performance videos, and more, iTunes Extras offers cast interviews, exclusive clips, behind-the-scenes footage, and photo galleries along with the movie/video.
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admin on Friday, November 27th, 2009 (LastFM)
A week ago Xbox Live started integrating Zune, Twitter, Facebook and Last.fm into its gaming platform Xbox 360 via the ‘collectives’ update. Especially the integration of Last.fm is worth checking out as it resulted in one million fans creating custom radio stations on Last.fm. For Last.fm it has been the biggest growth spurt they’ve had since launching back in 2002. It remains to be seen if the growth will be permanent but it looks like it that Last.fm has found new fans where not many other have been looking for them before: inside games.
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admin on Sunday, November 22nd, 2009 (Spotify)
According to a report from Expressen.se Lady Gaga made ‘only’ $167 USD from the STIM (Swedish Performing Rights Society) after her song “Poker Face” was played one million times via Spotify over a 5-month period. Lady Gaga’s track “Poker Face” was one of the most popular tracks during a five month period on Spotify. That means an earning of 0.000167 dollar per streamed track. Add to this that all majors work with a revenue model for artists from downloads that are just a few percents. Indie record labels have a model that is often closer to a 60/40 deal with 40% for the revenue being for the artist. So, if Lady Gaga had be signed to an indie label she’d have to sell 20 to 40 times less via downloads to get the same revenue.
That aside, both artists and labels have casted their doubts about the Spotify service, especially about the service’s ability to turn free users to paid customers. As a result the US launch of the service has been delayed in order to tweak things a bit so is believed.
MySpace is in late stage negotiations to acquire music streaming service iMeem, so Techcrunch says. MySpace acquired that other music service iLike only three months ago. iMeem has financial troubles and has become an easy bird to shoot. If iMeem gets acquired by MySpace it’s pretty sure that the service will become paying as MySpace Music will soon be turning to subscriptions to manage costs.
