10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals via Digital Music News

File this one under too good not to mention. If you don't already read Digital Music News, you should.  This is the brainchild of Industry pundit Paul Resnikoff.  Established in 2004 (I think) this is one of the places I go for my up-to-date music industry info...  Today's post (excerpted below) is just a taste of the daily fodder.  Also featured daily is a Job Board for all of those looking for a gig.  Overall a pretty great resource and a good excuse to re-post the following:

The 10 Most Disastrous Music Industry Deals

(1) Terra Firma's acquisition of EMI, $4.7 billion (2007)

Even Guy Hands admits he made a colossal mistake on this one.  One of the last super-leveraged buyouts before the bust, EMI has now become a $4.7 billion-plus toxic mess for Terra Firma.

(2) CBS' acquisition of Last.fm, $280 million (2007)

Scrobbling is cool and all - and this is still a very cool site - but few would "recommend" this deal today.  Amidst predictable ad monetization challenges, the company has since switched to pay-only in certain European countries, outsourced full-length videos, and bid adieu to the original founders.

(3) Bertelsmann's investments in Napster, $100 million (2000-onward)

In retrospect, Bertelsmann was the forward-thinking maverick.  But in the moment, that stance created a legal sinkhole for the company, accused of facilitating widespread infringement by keeping the P2P alive.  The in-fighting lasted years before expensive settlements torpedoed Bertelsmann with hundreds of millions in losses.

(4) MP3.com acquisition by Vivendi, $372 million (2001)

Before MySpace was even conceptualized, MP3.com was setting huge records for IPO valuations, label lawsuits, and band profiles.  Problems quickly followed the inflated purchase, and the site was quickly dumped by Vivendi Universal in 2003.

(5) The Robbie Williams 360-Degree Deal, $160 million (2002)

Williams loves being able to walk the streets of Los Angeles without being recognized.  EMI, which structured the pricey deal, is somehow less thrilled by that freedom.

(6) The Sony BMG Joint Venture (2004)

The 50-50 JV was like "tying two sinking rocks together," according to one executive, and this seemed like a dead weight from the beginning.  Bertelsmann walked away, and the combination was ultimately purchased by partner Sony Music Entertainment by 2008.

(7) WMG's Investment in Imeem (2009)

"We do not intend to make more digital venture capital investments," WMG chairman Edgar Bronfman told investors after suffering a $16 million write-off on Imeem in 2009.  MySpace subsequently scooped the property for well under $1 million.

(8) WMG's Purchase of Bulldog Entertainment, $16 million (2007)

Bulldog Entertainment Group was best known for coordinating tony concerts in the Hamptons.  The company eventually cratered with estimated losses of $30 million.

(9) Any Deal Involving PlaysforSure...

This was a mistake that caused endless suffering, for music service (Yahoo Music, MTV Urge, Wal-Mart), player (Sony, SanDisk, Samsung), and consumer alike.  In fact, even Microsoft bailed on its DRM-heavy solution with the launch of Zune.

(10) Best Buy's Exclusive on Chinese Democracy...

Some comebacks are better than others, and Best Buy was left carrying a truckload of Guns N' Roses CDs.  That did little to kill the big box exclusive, however, as plenty of big-name artists have used the concept to shift serious tonnage.

For the complete article and to see others go here.  Also be sure to follow them on Twitter for up to date coverage...

Autotune Is Not So Evil Now

Full disclosure: I have been a longtime hater of Autotune. For years, I have found Autotune to be repulsive... in pop music it makes up for singers' inadequacies and in rap music it creates "music" for those who have no such talent.  This disdain has been only further flamed by artists like T-Pain and Lil Wayne who have built entire careers around this technology (much like Zapp and Roger did on the back of the Talk Box (which at least required the singer to be able to hold a tune)).

Well now it is apparent.  There is a fine use for this technology.  Enter Autotune The News (@autotunethenews on twitter).  I have know about these guys for a while as their antics using news footage of congress, Joe Biden, Barack Obama, and the other list of Washington talking heads have brought about the random office chuckle, but not until now did they get that deep belly laugh... and a bit of entrepreneurial respect.

They recently took a seemingly innocent newscast featuring the near-victims of a home intruder in Alabama and remixed it... furthermore they posted it on iTunes and now it is No. 34 on the download charts!!!!!! That's right folks... this tune beat Ke$ha's "Your Love is my Drug" (like that is hard since she sucks).

Well anyways, here is a tale of witty folks with a cool idea making something of it.  Enjoy the videos below... watch them in order to get the full affect.  Also- be sure to follow these guys on Twitter... for more great parodies through the use of technology...

Subscribe to this... my personal case study

Well, I know I have been a bad bad boy.  My blogging as of late has been a bit lack luster and non-existant.  If you are still reading.  Thank You. I have been in the process of working on my taxes over the past week or so and I had a bit o an epiphany.  You see, when you are relegated to staying in the States while all of the talking heads of the music industry are in Cannes at Midem, you will find yourself enjoying the time you have by filling it up with things like tallying your own personal music tab from the past year for the purposes of writing some of it off (I am in the MUSIC business after all).

Point being... the buzz this year is all about Subscriptions.  Subscriptions are going to save the music industry.  Well- we knew this-  that is why we created the Naxos Music Library years ago.  Subscriptions are a very important part of our business model.  It is good to hear all of this new buzz-  But with the likes of Bob Lefsetz, Donald Passman, and other touting how this really could be the paradigm shift gives it a whole new value in my mind.  The fact that you cant have a talk about digital music without Spotify coming up tells me that this is a move that is coming sooner than later.

Back to my taxes.  I noticed a really interesting fact as I added up my tally from Amazon, , iTunes,  eMusic, Classics Online, etc.  The really interesting thing is I REALLY did spend more money on subscriptions this year than I did on a la carte purchases.  This is a bit freaky to me as I spend a good deal of dough on music.  But it is true.  eMusic got the lion's share of my money.  This could be attributed to a number of things.  1st of all, I use eMusic as a discovery tool and as a catalog builder.  I would never set out to buy Starship's Greatest Hits, Gogol Bordello, or Boston, but eMusic facilitated this for me.  These are what I consider great catalog fillers.  I may not want to put them in queue on my iPod touch, but some time I may wish to hear them again and therefore I bought them...  Move over to my iTunes and Amazon purchase patterns.  The vast majority of music purchased through these outlets last year were singles.  Radio hits.  One Hit Wonders... whathaveyou.  Call it what you want.. the crazy thing is I spent less on these than I did at eMusic.  This tells me that I am either a) wasting too much money on eMusic.. of b) I would rather keep my monthly tab knowing that I can exhaust it on any mundane old albums my heart desires than go looking for those albums to pay for them in real time.  I wonder if the rest of the music buying public would agree with this...?

I dont know if this proves any of the great music business thinkers' concepts as this still neglects the difference between my eMusic subscription and a Spotify subscription.  But it does make one thing evident.  I WILL spend more money on music by the Album than I will by the single and eMusic's model of giving me an allowance each month will continue to feed my album fetish.  This is mostly a behavioral thing I suspect- but I still find it incredibly interesting.

Ok- thats all for now- I will try to be a better blogger in 2010.. Thanks

Oh.. and Happy 2010.. here's a video to celebrate.

Music City Interactive (http://www/musiccityinteractive.com)

I want to tell you about Music City Interactive.  MCI is a site that was dreamed up over some great greek food with my friend Tony Groticelli.  Tony and I were commenting on the fact that there were multiple factions of tech-minded folks in Nashville.. but they were quite scattered.  I mean... we have Barcamp , Podcamp, Geek Breakfast, Digital Nashville, and probably a dozen other gather places for like-minded geeks but there was not one place you could go to find information on all of these... let alone learn about other interesting happenings around music city. We decided that we would try to do something about it.  We would establish a blog aggregator.  A "Mashable" for Nashville's music and technology set.  Hence the brand spanking new blog: Music City Interactive.  This is very young and at this point.. we are still REALLY working out the kinks, but the idea is- we will have multiple bloggers who write on various issues surrounding technology and music contribute via their RSS feeds.  Here in one place- you will be able to find and learn about (hopefully) every facet of the music, social media, technology and where they all intersect.

CHECK IT OUT! More on this later.