Musimuse.com

http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?rn=289004&cl=17211909&src=finance&ch=1316259

Great interviews with musicians, record executives, CEO of ticket-retailer stubhub and others. Really good insights; the single most important is the music has shifted from being a PRODUCT to a SERVICE.

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!

Techcrunch 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.

Techcrunch has a very insightful article about music startups, and their struggle in monetizing their business model. The combined pressures of label lawsuits, overhead costs (employees, servers, office space), and declining advertising revenues are starting to take a toll.

Nevertheless, startups keep on popping up. My friend Sachin Rekhi has a great article on music startups to watch in 2009. Check it out here.

These developments are really exciting. They include Ocarina, which turns your iphone into a music instrument, Songkick, which helps sell tickets to live shows, and TopSpin Media, which creates a platform for bands to promote their music without major label backing.

Its fantastic to see people innovating in the music space even in a time of difficulty for the music industry, not to mention the macreconomic global turmoil.

One of my favorite companies in the digital music space is Amie Street. I was first introduced to Amie Street at a conference two years ago, and have been in love with the concept ever since. Amie Street is the first music site to offer “user-determined” pricing. Each song starts out free; as it receives downloads and positive reviews, the price steadily moves upward. Thus, the price of a song is reflected by its popularity. Amie Street is democratization of music at its finest.

Now, Amie Street is making a bigger move into the crowded ad-supported music space by purchasing streaming service Songza. Techcrunch reports that the deal was kept under wraps, probably because Amie Street has a stealth project in the works. Amie Street is well-funded, with solid cash flow and venture capital backing from amazon.com,  but I’m not sure that their platform is the best for streaming music. The site (and concept) are very much built around downloading, and they will have to deal with a host of competitors.

I think we’re on the verge of seeing some frontrunners in the race for a dominant online music platform. Could Amie Street’s innovative spirit upset the apple cart? Given the struggles within the space, I think they have just as a good a chance as anyone.

As I mentioned last week, I’ll be writing a weekly “Artist or Song of the Week” column in awesomepolis, a collaborative blogging project with some friends from college.

My first post went up yesterday – check it out here.

Techcrunch has a great article  on We the Hunted, a fantastic new service illustrating the top songs listened to on the web. The site compiles data from services such as ilike, itunes, and other music streaming and download sites, and ranks the top 99 songs listened to in the last week, month, and year.

Its a great way to discover new music. While most of the artists displayed are big-name artists, the individual song rankings are far more eclectic. There is some really catchy music on there that hasn’t yet made the traditional billboard charts. Definitely check it out if you’re looking for new stuff to listen to.

So over the last month, a few friends and I have put together a new side project called “Awesomeopolis.” Awesomepolis is a joint blogging site, where each of us will be contributing tidbits on awesome things such as technology, music, sports, science and food.

Check out our first post here.

My contribution to Awesomeopolis will be a weekly column on hot independent artists and their records. Please take a few minutes to check out the site occasionally and tell your friends about it if you find it interesting.

For starters, check out this band. I found them about a month ago, similar stylistically to Gwen Stefani and Paramore. Great stuff.

www.awesomeopolis.com

Last night I went to see Penn Masala, my college a cappella group. It was an amazing show and I’m thrilled to see that the musical quality and dedication has been kept up. Also great to see old friends from college.

The show also marked the release of Masala’s sixth studio album, “On Detours.” The album is themed around the uncertainty that artists often have in their musical direction, and their lives in general. It features three originals (which are also my favorite tracks on the album), and a number of fusion covers.

You can listen to some of the tracks at www.pennmasala.com. Enjoy!

Techcrunch has a good piece on the new and improved myspace music. For those of you who don’t know, MySpace Music is a joint venture between social networking site MySpace and the big four music labels. The site provides unlimited free streaming to any listener and is supported by advertising and song downloads.

I checked out some of the changes and overall the site has become significantly easier to use. The site is also much faster than before. However, I still believe that Imeem and Pandora offer a better interface overall.

MySpace is also looking to launch a music video portal. More on this as things develop.