On the Beat

Levon Helm and David Byrne

Purity of spirit is one of the greatest ingredients of creative genius. And that's exactly what is captured in the new documentary about Levon Helm, the singer, songwriter and drummer from The Band. The film, titled Ain't in It for My Health, is shot behind the backdrop of drug addiction, bankruptcy and throat cancer. But Levon Helm has no intention of surrendering and there's extraordinary beauty in the determination and acceptance that remains...

Pomplamoose

Three weeks ago, the cable network MTV dropped the phrase, "music television," from their corporate logo. It was a long overdue gesture, indicating that the network had finally acknowledged they were out of the music business and into reality television... Although the logo correction comes late and means little – it does underscore the death of music marketing on the once important network...

OK Go and the Fight for Embeddable Videos

Rock and roll has always been a cheeky business.  People who play it straight rarely capture the attention of the cool and groovy, who shout out to the masses that something is hip.  And nowadays, our memories of music are intermingled with the music videos made for the song. But they're not the MTV videos we loved in the 80's.  Today inexpensive viral videos grab our attention. So an innovative video is definitely the way to build an audience these days...

The Performance Royalties Act

A Washingtonian dog fight is nothing new. Today the radio industry is embroiled in a political argument with the record business. The argument is over performance royalties on terrestrial, or land-based, radio. In the past, the debate on this subject was limited to the music industry and the politicians attached to it...

San Francisco Mixtape Society

Last month in San Francisco, a group of self-proclaimed music geeks got together at a bar in the Mission district. They were fulfilling the time honored tradition of swapping homemade music mixes on CD's, cassettes, and USB's – known collectively as mixtapes. This event was the first of a quarterly gathering called San Francisco Mixtape Society. There are other official and non-official events of similar interest going on around the country...

EMI, Warners and Spotify

Alan Carton

Sometimes, a story creeps up and grabs you. This is the story of Alan Carton. Alan was an avid music fan, diagnosed with soft tissue cancer at the age of 18.   The prognosis was not good.  The cancer was in his lungs...

35-Year Reversion of Copyrights

Just when you thought it couldn't get any tougher for music companies, it does. A little known fact sitting quietly in the copyright laws will soon allow some artists to retrieve the original copyrights to their works. If you're a recording artist who sold your music to a label or publisher in 1978 or thereafter, you can request reversion of your creative copyrights thirty-five years after you originally sold them if you meet certain criteria...

Copyrights around the World

SoundScan and Metadata

For generations, success in the record business has been defined by record sales. And for the last two decades, those record sales have been monitored by a system called SoundScan. The Nielson SoundScan system is the exclusive source for the Billboard Top 200 Album Sales Chart, which is the primary gauge of success or failure in North America. Unfortunately, SoundScan, which is primarily financed by major record labels, is becoming less relevant in the digital age...

Alan Lomax in Haiti

In 1936, ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax stepped off of a Colombian steamship and onto Haitian soil. Only 21 years old, the young Lomax carried 155 pounds of luggage and special recording equipment. He was on a mission to capture the music and cultural sounds specific to that Caribbean Island. It had only been two years since the US had pulled out of Haiti, following a 15-year occupation. Alan Lomax wanted to document the aural experience of the island during this time of transition. The result of his work was over 1,500 recorded items, with more than 50 hours of music and film footage. This valuable resource has been sitting in Library of Congress for over 70 years, unavailable to the public… until now...

Music Business Tool Shed

While major record labels still generate most of the traditional media, consumers are motivated to discover new and different sounds. And musicians are delivering, recording records in their bedrooms and basements.  With only a click of the mouse, they can get their music into the hands of millions – a business concept never before possible...

MOG and Lala

If I can hear something right now, why would I want to wait? Instant gratification is quickly becoming the demand of the digital music culture.  And streaming music may well be the wave of the future. With blessings from the four major label conglomerates, streaming companies offer a comprehensive library of music that connects to consumers instantly....

All Ages

If you are under the age of 21, your options for going out to see live music in a club setting can be pretty limited. If you are under the age of 18, those options are even more remote. There are the nightclubs that bounce between 21 and over, and all ages but those clubs aren't consistent for an under-age crowd.

Music Wars

First it was iTunes: 99¢ bought you a track. Amazon and Walmart went head to head with the Apple site, competing strictly on price. Meanwhile, Rhapsody, Napster and eMusic offered a monthly fee for a buffet of music. Zune, the Microsoft company, tried to serve both masters. They offered both individual track sales and feast options; and Lala built their model on consumers paying pennies to stream and store music...