Attention digital music consumers! Emusic is now carrying the Universal Music Group catalog. Awesome, right? Well Sort of...
The addition of UMG brings brands such as Island Def Jam, Geffen, Interscope, Verve, Decca, Deutche Grammophon, and Motown to the table allowing emusic subscribers to purchase these with their monthly credits. In addition to bringing on this great content, it also brings on the growing pains of dealing with the largest music company in the World. Growing pains like increased pricing, changes to the entire infrastructure, and fleeing independent cornerstone labels such as Beggars Group, Domino, and Merger.
The addition of UMG has forced emusic to run from their previous points model and adopt hard pricing for Top Line, Mid Line, and Budget items. The overall affect this will have on the end-user amounts basically to the fact that their budget items will be remotely the same value as they were prior to UMG, and all others will up the ante. Less perceived value is the end result. Because of this there has been a mass exodus of subscribers over the past few weeks. I for one am going to hang on for now and see how much it changes my experience. I certainly hope at the end of the day, turning your back on your core consumer/business model in search of an iTunes-like business model doesnt come back to bite emusic in the foot. I really love(d) the old emusic.
ps: I realize that Bowie is a Columbia (Sony) Artist- emusic added some of Sony's catalog last year bringing about pricing changes then...
One of the most iconic pop stars in Japan is named Hatsune Miku. She is quite unique. She doesnt carry the drama and baggage that the US popstars carry. She has no bad habits, no drug addictions, no affairs with has-been rockstars, no drama. She is the perfect pop star. This is because SHE ISN'T REAL!
Hatsune Miku is a bloody holograph. She is a holograph that tours, releases music, and runs to the top of the J-Pop charts. Originally created as a promotional tool to help show off Yamaha's "Vocoloid in a Box", Miku has now become a household name in Japan- playing to thousands of fans. Her name means "future first-sound" in Japanese and I am quite certain that may be a correct moniker for this "girl". The music is reminiscent of late 90's "Happy Hardcore." Listening to it, I expect to see DJ Muppet Fuc#er behind the decks... but am astonished to see this holograph carry the tune to these massive crowds.
So anyone not living under a rock for the past few years has become privy to the internet phenom of the flashmob. A flashmob is typically a highly choreographed, large group of people all participating in what Wikipedia refers to as "an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse." What most folks haven't yet seen or been in the midst of is a musical flash mob. Now, I am not talking about the flash concerts of the mid 2000's whereby the likes of PINK would find a stealthy space to hold a show then text message a few hundred people the location and time and watch human nature take over with populating a few thousand people into an ally for the free show. I'm talking about a flash mob musical event. A crowd of people surrounded by and containing musicians with the intent of creating a random act of music- then moving on.
Below is a prime example of this type of event: "The Sound of Music" flashmob filmed in Antwerp, Germany last year.
This subject was brought up today on NPR's music blog and within a few hours I had received other email links taking me to these and other flash musical events. While these events may not be worth-while in the classic sense of the music business and our revenue-centric approach to music at large, they certainly make for good social media fodder. As some of these groups have absolutely nothing to gain other than the momentary notoriety of a youtube viral sensation, others are going to naturally capitalize on these events as the real marketing tool they are. One such group, the Philadelphia Opera is a prime example of using spectacle to fill seats.
Below is their "Hallelujah" performance at a Philly Macy's-Â talk about generating some online chutzpah.
Another example of a more formalized sit-down flash concert features Music City's own Futureman (of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones) giving a concert of his Black Mozart Ensemble in Louisville.
Now the final act of this three paragraph diatribe is where we discuss the obvious... these are all performing arts-centric uses... will this approach do anything in the realm of popular music? I frankly don't know. Â One example of the Musical Flash Mob for the Rock/Pop set can be found in the LA Band "Imperial Stars." They unveiled their new single "Traffic Jam" on the 101 freeway last month. They were subsequently arrested and definately made the news (perhaps not for all the right reasons). So in the end... for them, was this simply a cheap media stunt? Perhaps. Smart marketing? - well, I bought the single just to see who they were... (btw- save your $0.99)
If anyone has any other examples of this type of Musical Flash Mob, I would love to see videos/hear your comments. I think this is quite the interesting phenomenon. Yet a new way to harness our audiences with interactive entertainment, which just might translate into more album/ticket sales.
By Randall Foster
My last post on albums got me thinking (along with Kanye's rant about his album art) that perhaps it would be good to feature album art in a post. Album art is a bit of a lost art form these days I believe. I'm not sure if it is the diminished size- going from more than a square foot to a measly 6"X6" or if it is simply a representation of our speedy move towards everything digital, quick, and cheap that moved the emphasis away from the artwork in the almighty album. No matter what the cause- I think it is a shame that future generations may not grow up to know and love album art as we have, did and do (for the other vinyl hoarding Luddites* in the crowd). With that I present a list of my TOP 9 Cover Art of all time. **
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* I dont really consider myself a Luddite... just a huge fan of Vinyl
** Ok.. maybe not of all time- but at least some of my favorites... and why 9 you say? Because 10 would not have fit neatly in my post... the 3X3 rows are cathartic
