Techcrunch 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.
Archive for September, 2009
Dora – a New Way to Share Music
Wednesday, September 30th, 2009Music Recommendation
Wednesday, 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
Thursday, 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
Wednesday, 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!)
Wednesday, 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