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.
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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:
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
Derek Sivers is the founder and CEO of CD BABY which is a popular choice for indie artists to get their music out to the masses. I was skeptical, as I always am of anything new, when I first learned of CDBABY but I have always tried to experiment with how I got my music to people and figured what the hell. Since launching my album with CDBABY a year ago I have actually gotten paid, a few times so my skeptisism was quickly replaced with excitement.
I have since grown to become a fan of Derek’s blog and his insight into the music business. He gives away a tonne of great info on www.cdbaby.net and I recommend all artists take some time to read the advice portion of the website.
I recently stumbled upon Derek’s blog and found this awesome post so I thought I’d share it. The reason this all rings so true to me right now is partly due to the fact that I have recently taken part in the Cape Breton International Drum Festival. It was really inspiring to see world class drummers (seriously famous drummers if you know about drummers) coaching younger people and driving the point home that to “make it” they have to perfect their skills. If bands focused on getting good first instead of getting gigs/recording/money they would get further in the business of music.
I spoke at a conference last weekend, where a woman in the audience was SO mad about piracy that she was physically shaking, red in the face, tears in her eyes, fuming spitting livid, asking how we can stop this rampant piracy.
I didn’t answer her concern well, but I said “More people are killed by pigs than sharks each year, but because shark attacks are more newsworthy, they seem more prevalent. Piracy gets all the attention, but I don’t think most of you in this room have lost more than $30 to piracy.” (I got a big “Booo” from the audience for this.) “Obscurity is your real enemy. Fight obscurity until you’re a household name, then piracy will be more of a problem than obscurity. Until then, worry about pigs, not sharks.”
The woman got so furious about this that she screamed at me with tears in her eyes, “I HATE YOUR POINT OF VIEW, BUDDY!” (and some other angry things I forget.) From her point of view, piracy was Enemy #1 and anybody ignoring this massive threat was hurting us all.
Driving away from the event, of course I figured out what I wish I would have said in that moment:
The thing separating us from where we are and where we need to be is not piracy.
It’s always something more internal, whether writing, communicating, producing, networking, promoting, or taking a wildly different approach to marketing.
Putting so much attention and energy into fighting piracy (as if, when solved, you’ll suddenly start selling 10 times more) - is misguided effort, distracting you from what you really need to be improving.
That’s the real reason I often tell musicians not to worry about piracy. I’m not saying it doesn’t exist. But energy spent worrying about it is energy better spent working on what you know you really need to do.
I am sure somewhere on this site I have commented on my dislike of Flash based websites.
That said I know I have bitched about bands not having a website of their own.
So a Flash based site is definitely the lessor of the two “evils” in my books.
The UK’s Computer Arts magazine has a Projects magazine and the most recent issue was dedicated to design matters for the music industry [last year they also had a music focused issue that came packaged in a vinyl sleeve]. One of the articles in the issue is Create a band website in Flash.
So if you are lacking in the website department there’s something to keep you busy.
Cheers
“Music2.0″ is now available, finally, both as a ‘real’ printed product, as well as a ‘pay what you want’ - pdf. Music2.0 is kind of like a ‘Best of Gerd Leonhard’ compilation (if I may say so myself), 227 pages filled with the best blog posts and juiciest essays from the past 4 years, slightly remixed and tweaked, riffing on that good old subject of the next generation of the music industry. And this may well be my final riff on music, for a while, too - stay tuned*.
Anyway, the book continues and expands on some of the ideas and models we cooked up in my first book “The Future of Music” (co-written with my colleague Dave Kusek). It describes what the next generation of music companies will look and feel like, and gets even deeper into some of my favorite buzz-phrases such as Music Like Water and the Flat Rate for Music, Feels Like Free (FLF), the Usator, Friction is Fiction, and the People Formerly Known As Consumers. Oooops, yes, sorry for the geek-speak!
So I heard about Twitter early last year and was all WTF? Who would use this and why?
Part of the joy of the service was how it allowed you to keep track of your friends, but the mass of users using it were centered in regions far from me so that aspect was lacking (even now very few people on my contact lists use it, less than 15 out of more than a 1000 people - and some of those 15 are complete strangers).
The Problem With All this Fancy New Stuff
I am currently working on a list of sites and software of use to indie bands and labels, and Twitter illustrates a great point when exploring all the current and always coming technology available: unless the tech meets an actual need - there is little point in using it. In fact wasting time on sites or services that do not actually address a real need or problem could do more harm, if for no other reason than wasting your limited time and serving as a distraction.
Solution to the problem = Need
There is nothing different about the service offered by Twitter since I first heard about it. What has changed is that I have identified a need that it can address. Last week I was away, and in the past for other reasons, I have not blogged for extended periods of time. I have been looking for ways to address that lack of posting and in this new light when Twitter was mentioned again it hit me - short simple updates via Twitter could address regular visitors as to why I didn’t have the time to be writing lengthier or more frequent posts.
As another benefit, it will also give readers some additional and different input to who I am and what I do than what may come through regular posts.
All in all I found a reason to use Twitter that addresses I need I had and that at the end of the day leaves me to believe that it will improve this blog.
I have also installed the Twitbinadd-on for Firefox. Twitbin is a browser add-on or extension that allows you to use twitter from anywhere on the web. No comments on that myself yet but if interested in trying out Twitter it may be of interest to you.
$Rockin 4 Dollar$ is an open mic that happens every Monday at Reflections Cabaret.
It is a great time, lots of bands out - you never know who may show up [it can be hit or miss though as a heads up]. It is a great resource though for bands starting out looking to connect with other bands and maybe earn some money towards a demo or upcoming tour.
We provide all the gear, you provide the music. We have the gear for you to simply plug in and go.
Aside from giving away prizes from $200-$1000, in addition to free jam spot time at the Rock Garden. We try to make the experience as fun for the viewer as possible.
On $200 we stick a ping pong table in the middle of the room for the enjoyment of the audience.
On $400 nights we pull down the big screen and have people play N64 and Nintendo Wii.
We appreciate the people who come down every week, as well as the bands who make their way down, and we want to make the night as enjoyable as possible.
Our suggestions:
Start the day with breakfast at Coastal Coffee - it hurts to not say the Ardmore, but Coastal is pretty damn sweet + I really enjoy the few pieces of fruit added to each plate to finish breakfast off with. I also like how the owner/chef brings you your food. Nice touches.
We’ll mimic Joel’s recommendation for used bookstore Last Word around the corner from the Rock Garden on Windsor St. - also our personal fave.
Weather permitting walk downtown, take a ferry ride to Dartmouth, upon your return walk the board walk, continuing at the board walk’s end to Point Pleasant Park and have a picnic or just relax.
For your picnic, either before or after taking the ferry [if it is Saturday] head to the Farmer’s Market downtown as well.
We’ll suggest you end the day by taking a date to a nice dinner at jane’s on the common
Then maybe catch a show at one of the venues noted by Julie, or some live comedy [see a picnicface PSA below], a movie at the Oxford. Plenty to do here. Lots of other places to eat at too. And as you can tell from the suggestions Joi and I like food.
The autoplay feature [on EVERY music site/service] needs to, pardon the language, fuck off. What do you think the odds are that I, music loving fanatic I am, have music playing already as many others would as well? Huge pet peeve with MySpace as well as Radio3 - if there`s a way to turn that off please let me know.
