Smule just recently released “I am T-Pain” a new auto-tuning iphone app. The app has gotten ridiculous traction so far, with more than 300,000 paid downloads (at $2.99 a pop, that’s some serious cash flow).
I haven’t actually tried the app myself, but they are temporarily dropping the price to $0.99 to get more people involved. While auto-tune can be annoying, it can also be a lot of fun to play with.
Check out the full article here. Please share if you have had any fun experiences with this application!
Auto-Tune IPhone App
October 7th, 2009Dora – a New Way to Share Music
September 30th, 2009Techcrunch has a great article about Dora, a new service that allows you to easily tweet about songs you are listening to on music discovery site Pandora.
While its good, I think there are some better ways out there to crowdsource music. We the Hunted is one of them. Nevertheless, the big question with services like Dora and We the Hunted is how they plan to make money. In an economy where advertising sales are down, these services must turn to another business model to monetize their growing popularity.
Music Recommendation
September 23rd, 2009One of the more technical blogs I read is Music Machinery by Paul Lamare, a blog dedicated to music technologies and recommendation engines. Music recommendation is a fascinating space that many companies are tackling in different and unique ways. Companies like Pandora try to categorize songs based on specific attributes, while companies like Amazon and Apple use “similar purchases” to help drive sales. I highly recommend Music Machinery for anyone interested in the topic.
Paul recently wrote an excellent analysis on the major issues in music recommendation. The analysis is based on a talk from the SXSW music conference in March 2009. His analysis begins with a discussion of the “Long Tail” phenomenon that makes music easy to share and find. The next step in improving the user experience is increasing music discovery. Paul’s central thesis is that music recommendation is not currently effective, and in fact tends to drive people to listening to a narrow range of music rather than expanding their musical interests.
I highly recommend this to anyone interested in understanding how music is currently consumed.
Tips for Arranging
September 17th, 2009A lot of people write catchy songs. Why are most of them never heard by the mainstream? I am a big believer in the value of an arrangement in distinguishing your track.
This article cites fourteen great ways to help improve the arrangement of your track. Many of these things are easy to understand, but are often overlooked in the emotional rush.
I believe strongly in the value of variety. Each verse and chorus should sound a little bit different. Not so much that the listener is shellshocked, but enough that it makes the listener want to listen to the song again. A great song is like a great movie: each time, you pick up something new.
Bands In Town – Affiliate Program for Concert Tickets
September 9th, 2009Techcrunch has an article about Bands In Town – a new affiliate program to sell concert tickets directly from your website.
Now, music bloggers and publishers can generate revenue simply by selling tickets to shows that they are already writing about.
Given that music record sales online pay very poor affiliate rates ($0.05 per sale), this could be a substantial new revenue source. It could also boost overall awareness of concerts (and ultimately drive greater revenues to the music business.
Beatles Come to Itunes (Finally!)
September 2nd, 2009Its about time! http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/09/02/why-is-the-beatles-on-itunes-such-a-big-deal/
On another note, I disagree with the author that this isn’t a big deal. Its issues like this that make it tough to sell music online. If one of the most popular artists in history is not on the biggest online retailer in music, how can we expect the industry to grow?
Overall, a great step in the right direction
Can IPhone Music Sales Save Pandora?
August 26th, 2009Can IPhone music sales save Pandora?
I don’t think so. Techcrunch has a recent article about Pandora’s IPhone app rapidly increasing total song downloads. Supposedly, Pandora is selling around 1 million downloads per month. But here’s the problem: Pandora only gets 5% of the total sales revenue (basically just $0.05 per song). So that’s $50,000 per month, or $600,000 per year. This is clearly not enough to sustain a business like Pandora over the long run, even if these numbers do grow.
A better solution is to simply charge for the IPhone app. Sell it for five or ten dollars, and get some money upfront. Many other music streaming sites are suffering. If Pandora starts running out of cash as well, I wouldn’t be surprised if they gave this model a try.
Pandora also recently raised $35 MM to help tide them through tough times. They are definitely positioned for growth now.
MySpace Acquisition of Ilike
August 18th, 2009I’ve been MIA for around 2 months working on other projects, but the Musimuse blog is now back! I’ll be updating about once a week, so please touch base occasionally to see what’s up in the wonderful world of music.
Techcrunch recently reported that MySpace acquired Ilike, the music streaming service. I think there are a few very interesting things to note here:
1) Ilike is immensely popular, yet the acquisition price was reportedly only $20 million or so. Considering that Venture Capitalists put in $16.5 million, this is a really crappy return. So why did they sell….?
2) Why did they sell to Myspace? Facebook is obviously a natural option, given that the platform runs on facebook. I don’t really understand why facebook would continue to support a popular service now owned by one of its biggest competitors.
Something very unusual is going on here. Last.fm sold a few years back for $280 million. Now, I understand these are bad economic times, but this still makes very little sense to me on a number of levels. Would love to hear thoughts.
A Database of Every Concert Ever
June 16th, 2009Techcrunch has a great article about Songkick, an online service focused on concert recommendations. Now SongKick is evidently embarking on an ambitious project to catalog every concert ever performed.
Its actually pretty cool. The site already has more than 1 million concerts. If you have been to a concert, you can log in and say “I’ve been there” which allows your friends to see which shows you’ve been to. It also recommends other concerts you might enjoy based on previous attendances.
I think what could really take this to the next level is some integration with large social networks such as Myspace, Facebook, and Twitter. Partnerships with Imeem, Ilike, Lala, and Pandora could be beneficial as well. They should also consider opportunities with newer services like Mobile Roadie, which I covered earlier.
Seeqpod Saved?
June 13th, 2009Seeqpod, a digital music streaming site, was recently sued by the major labels and forced to shutdown operations. Its too bad, because Seeqpod really did have a pretty great user interface, and was quite popular with the younger crowd.
But Techcrunch recently reported that Seeqpod may be resuscitated. There are some rumors that the company’s assets may be sold to Microsoft. Microsoft’s deep pockets may be just what Seeqpod needs to get back on its feet.
The problem is that the digital music space is in complete chaos right now. Imeem recently had to recapitalize, and Pandora is struggling with its business model as well. I don’t really understand Microsoft’s motivation to explore this mess until the clouds clear a little bit.