Industry Connections Abound: A Concise Look at the Online Music Community

This week, I actively explored the Web once again in search of notable, lively resources that will supplement the content I address in my entries as well as provide my readers with additional links of interest pertaining to music industry issues and events. Using the Webby and IMSA criteria for evaluating websites and blogs, I have found what I feel are ten additional outstanding music blogs and magazines, new sites, and organizations based on their content, structure, visual design, functionality, interactivity, depth, and activity. These links have been added to my linkroll (right), but I will also evaluate each of them here. The first two sites I found are related to my last entry on social networking sites’ music platforms and their ability to help “break” new artists into the business. Taxi, self-described as “The World’s Leading Independent A&R Company,” helps unsigned bands and songwriters find record and publishing deals as well as placement in films and television shows. However, despite useful links to resources and industry job listings, Taxi's page comes off a bit like a cheesy infomercial, with a section for success stories and a corny front-page picture of a band huddled around a “What will Taxi do for you?” sign. Another site also deals with new artists, Rolling Stone’s “Breaking” blog. Although frequently updated, with each entry featuring a different emerging artist and encouraging interactivity via YouTube videos and leaving comments, the blog simply describes one band at a time and does not give thorough show critiques nor name any upcoming performances. Following up on my earlier post on digital downloads and songwriter royalties, Broadcast Music, Incorporated is a performing right organization that collects license fees and distributes them as royalties to their songwriters, artists, and publishers. The site is visually appealing and easily navigable, with catchy graphics spread throughout its extensive news feeds, online music magazine, and licensing information. However, it houses personal financial motives, presenting itself as a way to save businesses money and encouraging users to pay to join the service. Pro-Music, on the other hand, presents licensing issues in the digital era in a more balanced manner, outlining both sides of the debate and including artist testimonies with visually aesthetic graphics. Unfortunately, some of the links are slow to load or link to dead pages.

Music Connection Magazine is an all-encompassing industry site and my favorite of this bunch, with thoroughly researched columns such as the A&R Report and entertaining profiles on songwriters and engineers who might not normally receive the attention or gratitude they deserve from the music media. The “tip jar” section also includes interesting tidbits for aspiring artists, although despite the site’s unique layers, I was bothered by the flashy advertisements along the sides and top of each page. Similarly, Digital Music News’ tacky advertisement banners and dreary-looking interface overshadow its more helpful features, such as numerous recent news stories and an extensive job board. One step ahead of Digital Music, the visually attractive though perhaps simplistic news feed on Hits Daily Double’s news page covers all aspects of the industry, from charts to producers to music on television, easy to traverse and encouraging interactivity with a news search, album sales chart archive, and an appropriately witty “rumor mill.” Billboard’s Business page is similarly inclusive, highlighting news from every genre of music as well as the legal, publishing, and global realms, and allowing users to participate in polls and view the most popular and most e-mailed stories. However, the top headline graphics at the forefront of the page may change almost too frequently to stimulate interest in those titles. Downhill Battle, a non-profit organization run by music activists working toward a fairer industry, takes a more progressive and strongly anti-RIAA stance, a well-organized though biased site that includes links to spin-offs such as the RIAA Radar (example pictured, above left), a tool that consumers can use to distinguish whether an album was released by a member of the RIAA. Finally, the Velvet Rope Forums serve as open arenas in which to post thoughts on particular artists, venues, or events in the industry, with a community feel and frequent user activity and conversation, although the information found here must be examined critically given the anonymity and unknown credibility of those posting. Overall, my explorations this week lent me great insight into the music industry and its online cultural manifestations.

Social Networking Sites: The New Music Platform?

In an earlier post, I discussed the cultural shift away from record labels and hard-copy CD sales toward the world of digital downloads. Expanding on this topic, Facebook unveiled a new music section last week, allowing artists to post videos and songs for fans to stream, promote upcoming shows and sell tickets, as well as link fans to the iTunes store to buy their songs (sample Facebook top artists page, below right). Using the site, which is comparable to MySpace Music pages (see logo, left), musicians can create free profiles, and fans can “friend” their favorites on the popular social networking service. While the site is still in its implementation stage with many details yet to be revealed, Facebook Music's representatives are currently in discussions with several major labels to launch its companion, an additional music acquisition service.

However, Facebook is not the first social networking site to propose such a music platform. Record label representatives say that a new MySpace service will likely involve free ad-supported on-demand streaming, similar to popular internet radio sites like Last.fm, with the option of DRM-free downloads as well. It is this downloading option that will set the service apart from current on-demand radio sites, supported heavily by advertising, such that every artist page can become its own music store that sells music from friend to friend. And, since MySpace's overall advertising revenues reached close to $525 million in 2007, the site is in an advantageous position to try such a bold move as an ad-supported music service. Interestingly, however, digital business blogger Bill Houghton notes that were MySpace truly successful in their advertising, according to their number of ad impressions per year, this figure should actually be closer to $4.8 billion. The new platform has the potential to make up for this loss, strengthening and grounding MySpace's ad business as a whole because advertising on the music pages could be tailored to the target audience for each artist or to the personal hobbies, interests, and tastes named on each user's profile. Although this sounds like a feasible and valuable idea, it is important to note that MySpace executives seem, in CNet News blogger Greg Sandoval's words, only to be "taking the record industry's temperature" regarding such a service. Especially since MySpace's parent company NewsCorp still needs to make amends with Universal Music Group, which sued MySpace in 2006 for copyright infringement.

However, if all plays out in MySpace's favor, how well will Facebook be able to handle and counter the competition? Its sixty-six million members cannot easily compare to MySpace's 110 million users and three million registered bands. Then again, Facebook's smaller numbers may actually serve as an advantage, as artists want to go where there is less competition and a greater chance of being heard and discovered. I would expect Facebook to do something clever with the external applications that already dominate their non-music user profiles to create a tightly networked and personalized user experience, perhaps finding top-notch music companies to fund and invest in the new platform. Current applications include a Facebook music player, a MusicShop that allows artists to display their merchandise for fans to purchase, and iCast, a bulletin system that sends artists' multimedia blogs and bulletins across ten networks to engage with their fan bases, although comparable applications are already available on MySpace artist pages. If Facebook hopes to present itself as a worthy player in the digital music-networking world, its executives will have to find new ways to connect its users both with the platform and the artists. One suggestion I have would be to incorporate fans' RSVPs to upcoming shows so that users can see which of their online friends are attending or would like to go to various concerts in their area, something that the application iLike has already initiated.

Nonetheless, having both MySpace and Facebook involved in digital music distribution is an exciting new move that already has a potential 175 million members and will likely attract more. Combined, these networks have made unlimited, free exposure possible for millions of emerging and prominent artists alike, making significant contributions to the ways in which we consume and discover new music and helping guide music culture into its present digital stronghold. Ultimately, the timing is beneficial as the record labels can currently use the help and youthful appeal of social networking sites to win over the growing community of online consumers, in return providing the sites with the labels' support to share and stream the music. As negotiations continue, I am curious to see what the impact of these changes will be on the record companies, artists, and their fans.

Notes from Abroad: Exploring the Web for Music Connections

This week, I ventured out into the internet once again in search of high quality resources that will compliment the content I address in my entries as well as provide you, my reader, with additional links that may prove of interest to you and help further your musical explorations. Using the Webby and IMSA criteria for evaluating websites and blogs, I have compiled a list of what I feel are ten outstanding music blogs, news sites and organizations based on their content, structure, visual design, functionality, interactivity, depth, and activity. These links are available for you in my linkroll (right), but I will also evaluate each of them for you here. The first site two sites I found were inspired by my last entry on digital downloads. The National Musical Publishers' Association (NMPA) is an easily navigable site with visually appealing graphics that includes resourceful links to other recording industry, government, and licensing organizations. Its Press Room section provides links to press releases and events, but I wonder how current these are since the last event listed was in October; also, I am aware that the releases provided are all biased towards the NMPA, solely discussing positive achievements of the organization and not revealing any potential problems or battles. Similarly, the Recording Industry Association of America's site has a wealth of press release links biased in their favor, although a section on tools for parents and educators to teach kids appropriate downloading behaviors is new and innovative, unlike the visually unappealing home page, which features three shades of dreary, washed out gray. A third organization I discovered, Music United, has bias towards siding with protecting artists' music and prohibiting illegal downloads, but nonetheless provides useful information and links regarding music law, as well as accessible live links to educational campaigns on online music and copyright. MusicWeek's news page displays extensive news headlines with major stories displayed at the top with simple and effective graphics; however, the long list of news stories below is not organized or dated in a useful manner, and there is no news archive.

One step ahead of MusicWeek, the visually attractive news feed on National Public Radio Music's news page covers all aspects of the industry, from business to hip hop to classical music, an easily navigable site encouraging interactivity with a news search, “most emailed” section listing popular stories, and a full, well-organized news archive. Last100, dedicated to the digital lifestyle, features an audio section solely devoted to tracking digital music trends and changes. The news content is helpful, but the light blue background and title font look a bit childish. Pitchfork Media ups the visual ante with blog-style news entries and high user interactivity, allowing users to add stories to their favorites, although I wish they also allowed users to comment. The site also highlights daily links to current news stories not addressed in the blog, all the while marketed to a younger, concert-going audience, as evidenced by the bright color scheme and emphasis on artists. Coolfer's blog consolidates useful links to other publications’ news feeds and groups them by the current event they discuss, presenting straight music business simply and clearly and making it easy to subscribe to a reader; the only thing missing for me was a graphic element for greater aesthetic value. New York Magazine's blog (catchy graphic from last Friday's front page pictured, above left) is also aimed at a more youthful demographic, with a highly artistic interface that looks like a page from the magazine itself, living up to its slogan of "devouring culture" by addressing key trends in all fields of entertainment with current user comments. Its biting tone may offend some, but is nonetheless appropriate to the subject matter. Spin Magazine's site has an equally artist-oriented blog with high user interactivity, inviting readers to post photos and participate in polls on the site, also integrating videos and music clips into the mix. However, while the news is current, comments on the entries are low. All in all, an interesting and rewarding search of the web and its music industry and culture connections.