TORONTO and NEW YORK, April 29, 2008. eMusic (www.emusic.com) the world’s largest retailer of independent music launches its award-winning service in Canada today. With 33,000 of the world’s top independent labels and major audio books publishers, eMusic is unrivalled in catering to adults interested in entertainment outside the commercial mainstream.

…

eMusic offers 50 free bonus music downloads and one free audio book download at sign-up. Its subscription pricing provides music lovers with an inexpensive, low-risk way to discover great new music for as low as 37 cents per track. Canadian monthly pricing plans are as follows:

Music

• eMusic Basic - 30 downloads $11.99
• eMusic Plus - 50 downloads $17.99
• eMusic Premium - 75 downloads $23.99

Audio books

• 1 audio book - $11.99
• 2 audio books - $22.99

Social Media News Release
Outside not even realizing the service was unavailable to Canadians [or forgetting if I did know], the most interesting part of this announcement to me was eMusic’s use of a social media press release format [in addition to a traditional press release]

To me social media focused news releases make so much more sense when posting online I can not understand why all companies have not embraced their use. Evidently there is some resistance from within the industry regarding their use. Check out The Social Press Release: Multimedia, Two-Way, Direct to the Public by Mark Glaser on Mediashift - it is a great primer and contains links to issues related to such releases as well as additional resources for making use of them yourself.

I hope by the end of the summer to have a Social media news release template developed for all future such releases related to the label and any of my other ventures.

If you are interested in finding out more about social media press releases, visit Shift Communications - the company that first introduced the Social Media News Release where you will find plenty of resources:

• PR 2.0 Essentials Guide
• “Social Media Press Release” Version 1.0 template
• “Social Media Press Release” Version 1.5 template
• Shift’s Delicious links related to SMNRs

EDIT: I guess you could access eMusic from Canada already:

eMusic Takes DRM-Free Independence Into Canada

eMusic officially launched itself in Canada this week, a move that brings the action to independent music fans up north. According to an eMusic representative, a small number of Canadians already access the US-based service, though the launch raises the regional profile considerably.

The company carries a catalog of roughly 3.5 million tracks from 33,000 independent labels and audiobook publishers, a number that includes a subset of several thousand songs from Canadian artists. The Canadian launch is focusing on that regional content, a decision that will undoubtedly play well with local audiences.

Additionally, the entrance could boost paid downloads in the region, which are far lower - by total revenue percentage and absolute quantity - than United States levels. eMusic has sold more than 200 million music downloads since November 2003. Via Digital Music News

Go vote over at Wired

Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have been taking turns giving the music industry the finger. The British band made headlines last October for releasing In Rainbows without the support (read: control) of a record label, and Trent Reznor’s group followed suit with last month’s Ghosts I-IV.

The two bands have also been busy one-upping each other with their innovative promotion strategies. We were tempted to let the groups coexist peacefully at the forward edge of digital distribution until Nine Inch Nails’ Trent Reznor accused Radiohead of betraying fans by selling them low-quality files. In light of Reznor’s accusations, we put together a 10-round, voting-enabled smackdown to find out which band is really blazing the trail of innovation.

I think this is important. It may not take off, but the opportunities inherit for USB drives and music is significant in my opinion and certainly worth exploring.

Together they offer a means of tying the digital world to the real world. Tying retail purchases to social networks and fan clubs. They could be used to take fan clubs in new directions - a WillieLive USB bracelet to fan club members could entitle you to free downloads of all future concerts. Or what about VIP access for fans that show up wearing said bracelets?

I should note that all I REALLY care about is the music. I don’t care about the cover art [I have never bought a CD because it had a “cool” cover], I don’t even care so much about the liner notes, although I do miss them at times. But one could easily produce a Digipak like package with an included or even glued in booklet, but instead of a plastic tray to hold a CD in place, there is a tray to hold in a USB drive. And of course the booklet and art would also be included on the drive as high quality PDFs [?] from which the art and liner notes could be synced up with your music player/collection. The ideas/opportunities = endless.

A Few Ideas
While the idea of MP3s and lossless files [and whatever else they wanted to include: videos, websites, pictures etc.] on one format appealed to me initially [USB drives = better MP3/FLAC delivery device vs. CDs IMHO], I was more interested in the potential of USB drives tied to kick start some innovation WITH music.

Many venues/bands/labels have offered USB recordings of live concerts on your way out of the show. That’s a start. But what about coming in? What if having bought a previous live show USB drive, you plug it into a reader on your way in and get a discount on admission [or at the time of ticket purchase] for future shows.

What if when you get home you plug in the drive and it launches a website only accessible to fans with a connected drive in place [almost every idea like this will be hackable – but we are exploring these ideas in a happy-carefree bubble of fake reality]? That site can offer anything the label or artist wants to share.

My biggest plan for USB drives extends that even further and ties it into a fan club, and at the next level an entire social network. What if venues or at least bands with laptops performing at them – have a USB input for members of a shared social network that one ups Facebook’s events – beyond simply stating you intend to be there, show up, plug in briefly and ….well you can get creative here, do they just get (fan) points, some benefits, free music, all the above?

All my potential concerns or fears regarding USB drives and connecting to social networks and fanclubs was erased when I read about a VISA experiment. In Korea, where “digital became dominant years ago” you can now use a USB Credit card. While I certainly do not know the particulars about the set up I am confident that if what they have is good enough for credit card transactions, then a similar set up will handle any security concerns related to any ideas in this post.

I have also seen business proposals for USB based shopping lists: users compile a list using software for such purposes onto a drive, take it to the store and plug it into the shopping cart display unit. Customers then get directions to items in the store they need, are offered coupons, and even recipe suggestions [up selling other products] for items they have on their shopping list. Combine such a service with the VISA USB drive and they can pay with the drive as well at the checkout. What types of related ideas could be used to encourage retail purchases in the music industry?

Delegate Passes/All the Info You Need - for festivals/events – that provide USB drives at registration which you then plug into systems that can update you over the course of the event [and that would of course include music from artists part of the event]. All print materials – focusing on greening aspects important to many festivals/events today, could be regularly updated when plugged into internet connected system w/show/venue changes etc.Take it a step further and develop a weekend command center for festivals into the drive. Twitter control, profile updates, http://sched.org/, maps, all the line-ups and everything else you need. Events could offer deals for fans that use the drives while also saving on costs for some print materials.

NIN used USB drives as a tool in the ARG promotion of Year Zero and I see countless ways to further embrace USB drives in future ARGs and marketing campaigns.

Positives, beyond ongoing use/experiments from bands and labels noted below, for USB drives and music include:

• Manufacturers and software developers increasingly see portable computing in our future. – which means more USB drive devices may be prevalent. There are many ways already to replace the need to carry even a laptop if you know there will be avalable computers where you are going. I have email, Thinking Rock [getting things done software] and a few other programs running off a USB drive now.
• Another key benefit to USB drives is that their ports are on every current computer - and ah, universal.
• Still a ways off but a faster and otherwise improved USB 3.0 is on the horizon
• Drive sales are now counted on the charts: USB music sales hit UK chart

Current Usage
While the format is still mainly in the realm of major level artists, you can find artists, and labels, at all levels exploring their use. Locally the only act I am aware of thus far is Shelter With Thieves.

Some Music USB Drive examples:

• Barenaked Ladies
• Willie Nelson
• Radiohead EMI
• Mars’ Volta
• White Stripes
• And Magnatune was doing it way back in 2005
• There are plenty of USB manufacturers and resellers out there, companies specific to the USB/music industry opportunities include All Access Today and Aderra
• This is one of the more hilarious examples I have seen: Band Sells Music on USB Drives with Character [from Korea].

The biggest downside of USB drives currently is their cost. Other issues not addressed include do fans want countless drives kicking around? Can’t be any worse than the useless CDs I have now can they? At least I could give the drives to friends and they could use them for other purposes, or you keep them in their nice Digibooks until you need them to get a discount to go to a show or need access to a members only section of a site – for which such perks could help such drives retain some value.

Getting back to costs - there is no guarantee such drives will replace CDs, in the coming months and years we should definitely see more labels and artists experimenting though as costs for drives continue to fall. In the end, consumer response will eventually dictate what role USB drives have in the future of music but if those in the music industry can not offer anything worthwhile or interesting….

Quoting this post from TorrentFreak as I have just downloaded the report after seeing it there.
The report in question is the 2008 Digital Entertainment Survey [pdf].
They make so many interesting and note worthy points though:

In total, 70% of those who admitted to piracy agreed that “legal sites just don’t have the range of illegal ones” (try looking for Beatles tracks) whilst almost as many said they would pay for downloads, if what they wanted was available. This is probably also one of the main reasons why half of the BitTorrent downloads are TV-shows.

The fact that one third of the UK citizens can be labeled as a pirate is thus a signal that these customers want something that is not available through other channels. It’s more about availability than the fact that it’s free.

On top of the availability issue, 68% of the respondents who have downloaded copyrighted content indicate that the illegal alternatives are more convenient, because they can get what they want much faster.

In related news here is a video taken from Wired’s Listening Post:

The following video illustrates rather plainly the fact that file sharing is not stealing.

And it’s true, file sharing is not stealing. It’s infringement, which comes with much higher fines (up to $150K per song) and potentially longer jail times than you’d get for stealing a CD.

My initial reaction is to write: Unbelievable. But it is just par for the course in today’s world. so my secondary reaction = Sad.

Go figure. - Ars Technica

The amount of online “chatter” about an upcoming album release directly correlates to higher physical album sales, according to two researchers with New York University’s Stern Business School.

Could $5 a month save the music industry? was posted on the Star’s site Feb 20, 2008 at 4:30 AM.

The issue:

The Songwriters Association of Canada proposes a $5 monthly fee on subscribers’ Internet bills that would make it legal to download music and hopefully save the failing music industry.

We’ll focus on the negatives, the issues they would need to overcome to make it happen.

WHAT ARE THE OBSTACLES?

Internet Service Providers may resist adding $5 to customers’ monthly bills.

The four major record labels, which have traditionally dominated music distribution, oppose all attempts to establish alternatives or competitors.

The federal government, which will have to be convinced of the merit of the changes in the Copyright Act, is reluctant to intervene in the marketplace unless in the public interest.

Songwriters and authors will have to give up their long-established right to approve or disapprove of the use and means of dissemination of their work. The only right they will have is the right to be paid for peer-to-peer downloads.

Internet users who do not download music – paid or otherwise – will balk at paying an extra $5 a month.

Source: David Fewer, staff counsel with the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic at the University of Ottawa, Faculty of Law

Not even 12 hours later, Feb 20, 2008 at 11:47 AM, the Star posted a series of responses to the above article. Here are the first 11 - all against it - as are almost all the rest [there has to be an easy 100 posted]:

If every Internet subscriber pays $5 monthly; then all music downloads should be free and legal. The Music Association of Canada cannot suck and blow at the same time.
David Boyle, Toronto

Already they over charge huge amount to buy their CDs, if only they could be practical in pricing their product, they would not be in this situation.
Steve Moore, Toronto

If that comes to pass, how and what would corporate and business subscribers pay ? Now I wonder if Toronto Star would also ask for a $5 fee since I came across this on the online edition ?
Mukesh Vashi, Brampton

Ridiculous. I have never downloaded music, never will, I’m lucky to have finally accomplished a level of computer savy to do basic tasks. I still have a collection of tapes for heaven’s sake…I don’t want to be bothered replacing them all with CD,s. So why should people like me, and there are plenty of us, pay for a service we will never use?
Jan Pinney, Elora

I object to paying for a service I would never use. If I want music I use a CD or listen to the radio. Why should I pay for some strangers’ habit of pirating music from the internet
Aileen Carter, Toronto

Since we already pay a levy on blank media such as CDs and DVDs, and there is also a proposal to add a similar levy to hard drives and MP3 players, I don’t see why we should have to pay yet another fee to supposedly compensate for downloaded music. Downloading music is already legal in Canada because of these levies, so why should we be slapped with another fee for doing something that is actually legal?
Iris Gray, Victoria

The idea is ridiculous. Should all mortgage payers be surcharged to help those who live beyond their means and default on their payments? Should all credit card users have to pay extra to bail out those who abuse credit? Should all car drivers have to pay an extra tax to subsidise those who evade payment? The truth of the matter is that the music business has brought its ills upon itself by its head-in-the-sand attitude.
Clive Warner, Monterrey, Mexico

What happens to this money that is collected? How can the possibly know how much a musician or song writer should receive?
Randy Drefs, Medicine Hat

Nothing wrong with paying $5 a month provided you WANT it. But I just dont get the thought process behind this ludicrous proposition of making everyone pay even if you never download music. Are we heading towards a communist/socialist internet usage, having to pay up for someone elses losses. I, for one, will not fork it.
Vikas Thusoo, Richmond Hill

$5 a month for music is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard of, even if you are a music downloader. The only music I’ve actually ever downloaded was Radiohead’s newest album, In Rainbows. Radiohead chose to release the music independently and actaully let you set your own price for the online download - a truly novel idea that the music industry should take note of. I have no doubts they’ve still made plenty of money.
Shawn Vickar, Calgary

How arrogant can these people be? First there was a tax on blank CDs, with the working assumption that anyone who burns a CD is ripping off an artist. How do these funds get disubursed? Why should Anne Murray get paid everytime I back up a database on a CD?
Dave Kingston, Toronto

Word is Songwriters Association of Canada has all but accepted the proposal is dead in the water.

And thanks to Coolfer otherwise, I might have missed the responses from readers on that piece

And in the initial article Trent Reznor is noted as a supporter for the ISP music tax when he is on record stating that quote was incorrect.

Photo from Stock.xchng

Title is a comment taken from Digg.com regarding the newest Nine Inch Nails`record

Nine Inch Nails presents Ghosts I - IV, a brand new 36 track instrumental collection available right now. Almost two hours of new music composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last fall, Ghosts I - IV sprawls Nine Inch Nails across a variety of new terrain.

Trent Reznor explains, “I’ve been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn’t have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I’m very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference. I hope you enjoy the first four volumes of Ghosts.”

And if you don`t want to buy it or even download it from the official site, but prefer to get it via your usual torrent site, well it is already on private torrent sites. The best part being how clear it is who put them there.

The site is currently UP, but from another comment, pricing details:

FREE DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I - The first 9 tracks from the Ghosts I-IV collection available as
high-quality DRM-free MP3s (320kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged) including complete 40 page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack - various wallpapers, icons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

$5 DOWNLOAD
Ghosts I-IV - All 36 tracks in a variety of DRM-free digital formats (320
kbps LAME encoded, fully tagged; FLAC Lossless; Apple Lossless) including a 40
page PDF. Also includes the digital extras pack - various wallpapers, icons,
and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.

This version is also available from the Amazon MP3 store.

$10 2XCD SET
Ghosts I-IV - 2 audio CDs in a gatefold digipak package with a 16-page
booklet. To be shipped TBD. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the
entire collection in same choice of formats as $5 Download option. Download
will include the 40 page PDF and the digital extras pack - various wallpapers,
cons, and graphics tools for your computer, website, profile, etc.
This configuration will be released to retail in North America (April 8), Australia (April 5), the UK (April 8), Japan (April 5) and most European territories (April 8).

$75 LIMITED EDITION DELUXE PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV - Hardcover book holding 2 audio CDs, 1 data DVD of all 36
tracks in multi-track format (in .wav files readable by Mac and Windows), and
Blu-ray disc featuring stereo recordings in high-definition 24 bit 96Khz with
exclusive slide show. Includes immediate DRM-free download of the entire
collection in all formats and with all extras mentioned above. Also includes
48-page hardcover of photographs by Phillip Graybill and Rob Sheridan.
Discs and art book both housed in fabric slipcover.

$300 ULTRA-DELUXE LIMITED EDITION PACKAGE
Ghosts I-IV - Contains all elements from deluxe package, along with
exclusive 4XLP 180-gram vinyl set, and two limited edition Giclee prints
available exclusively in this package. Disc book, art book, and prints are
all housed in a fabric slipcover. 4XLP vinyl set comes in its own fabric
slipcover. INCLUDES immediate DRM-free download of the entire collection in
all formats and with all extras mentioned above. LIMITED TO 2500 PIECES,
NUMBERED AND PERSONALLY SIGNED BY TRENT REZNOR.

Lil’ digital piggy is gone to the slaughterhouse. Fuck.
http://oink.cd/

Why Does The RIAA Hate Webcasters? Webcasters Don’t Play Very Much RIAA Music - TechDirt

87% of the music you hear on the radio is from an RIAA-member record label. However, when it comes to music on webcasts, the story is quite different. Jon Healy, at the LA Times, points out that only 44% of music on webcasts are from RIAA labels.

In his post Indie Labels and the Importance of Webcasting, Michael Geist references the above LA Times article but addresses some very important Canadian specific issues:

First, given that independent labels are responsible for nearly 90 percent of new Canadian music, the importance of creating a legal environment that supports webcasting is magnified in Canada. Second, in light of questions about the fairness of copyright collective distribution models for the private copying levy (which may be similarly disporportionately skewed toward the majors and a select few Canadian artists), the reliance on conventional radio sampling and sales may be a very poor proxy for identifying the music that Canadians are listening to and copying. Third, it reinforces the need for policy makers and politicians to reach out beyond CRIA, which represents the majors, and instead pay far more attention to the independent labels (CIRPA) and the artists (CMCC).