Digirido to Launch Music Marketing Resource Website

Digirido, a new website aimed at "helping the music industry share and discuss marketing in the digital world" is preparing to launch later this month. For more information, follow Richie Silver or connect with Digirido on Facebook.

Paste Magazine Suspends Print Publication

If you haven't heard, Paste Magazine, the third largest rock magazine in the world, announced yesterday that they have suspended their print publication due to significant decreases in advertising revenue. While it's not clear if they will try and revive their printed magazine at some time in the future, the good news is that they will continue to publish quality content on their website.

5 Ways to Broadcast Live Shows

Quick Post: There are dozens of ways fans can post video segments, or stream live concerts from their mobile phones, but below are 5 sites that can help artists professionally broadcast their live shows (in no particular order):

• Ustream
• Justin.tv
• Livestream
• Stickam
• Kyte

What did I miss? Which service do you recommend?

Influence your Local Music Scene with Gigwish

Gigwish is a webapp that enables music enthusiasts to help influence their local music scene by voting for artists to play in their area, and then sharing their votes with their friends to encourage additional voting. The goal for music fans is to generate enough votes to influence promoters, booking agencies and venues to hire the acts they want to see (might be useful for an artist's street team).

Billboard’s Music App Summit

Just a reminder, the submission deadline for Billboard’s Music App Awards is Friday, August 6th. Finalists will be notified by September 1st, and will be featured in a Billboard article listing the best apps of the year, and have the opportunity to demo their app onstage at The Music App Summit in San Francisco on October 5th, as well as receive free demo space in the exhibit area. Awards will be given in the following categories:

• Best Artist-based App
• Best Music Streaming App
• Best Music Engagement App
• Best Music Creation App
• Best Branded App
• Best Touring App

To submit an app, go here.

Download and Listen to the Entire New Music Seminar

Did you miss the New Music Seminar in New York this week? For only $99, you can stream or downloaded the entire conference (every keynote, panel discussion and presentation).

Note: This is not a re-usable flash drive but an activation key that allows access to this content, and the audio can be transferred to your iPod or other digital music player.

5 Rdio Features for Music Enthusiasts

I've been using Rdio a few weeks now thanks to Glenn Peoples, and I'm impressed with their service. Below are 5 features that make Rdio a great experience for music enthusiasts:

1. select and listen to a specific artist, album and/or a specific track
2. create and share custom playlists, subscribe to your friends' playlists, or collaborate on their playlists
3. effortlessly write a review for a song and/or album (this data could be a great resource for artists, labels, managers and the like)
4. great social interface allowing users to easily see what their friends are listening to (vice-versa), as well as other Rdio users, and who is listening to the music you like (creating new opportunities for music discovery)
5. nice visualization of music collections (i'm assuming they'll add more visualizations)

Rdio will likely influence other music service providers to modify their offering with similar features and design, benefiting all music listeners, but there are a few areas where Rdio can improve:

• increase content, especially from unsigned artists with services like CD Baby and Tunecore
• easier queue creation/management for individual songs and albums (e.g. the drop down to add is cumbersome)
• tighter integration of music recommendations based on a user's listening activity; it's a bit separated from the experience at present

Music Industry Marketing and Millennials

Are you marketing your music, service or music technology to millennials? If yes, than you may want to study this infographic below, created by Flowtown last Friday.

NuMuBu Launches with Social Sharing Sweepstakes

NuMuBu, a new online community for music industry professionals and businesses has officially launched out-of-beta, and to celebrate they're offering a social sharing sweepstakes for spreading the word on Facebook and Twitter, giving participants a chance to win up to $25K, or one of five iPads.

To enter the sweepstakes, go here, and follow their directions; existing NuMuBu members should go here. For more information about their sweepstakes (rules, requirements, etc.), go here.

Below is a brief video about NuMuBu's service:

MidemNet Accepting Applications for 2011 Digital Music Innovation Showcase

MidemNet is now accepting applications for their 2011 digital music innovation showcase during MIDEM. If you have a music tech startup, and meet the criteria, make sure to apply, as MIDEM is one of the music industry's premiere events. So apply now, as like the inaugural showcase this year, competition will be significant, and Music Ally will nominate the finalists. For additional information, see their FAQ.

ReverbNation updates their My Band Facebook App

Yesterday, ReverbNation released the latest version of their already successful My Band Facebook App, based on feedback and suggestions from their users (read their full announcement here). Some of the new features include:

• tour map, show schedule with details, ticket links, sharing
• fan-exclusive downloads
• custom header banner
• aggregated fan count stats (MySpace, Facebook, ReverbNation Mailing list)
• song lyrics
• links to retailers like iTunes and Amazon

Here's a screenshot of how it works (it's their fake band to demonstrate the app) - what do you think of their revisions:


 

MP3tunes Launches Personal Cloud Music Service

MP3tunes launched its personal cloud music service today called, "Buy Anywhere, Listen Everywhere." Essentially, their service makes it possible to buy music from a variety of digital music vendors and play them on a variety of devices. For example, a user can buy a song using their Android and listen to it within minutes on their iPod:


Conversely, songs purchased from iTunes on a PC can be played almost immediately on an Android:



Presently, MP3tunes' Buy Anywhere, Listen Everywhere service works with these digital music stores:

• iTunes
• AmazonMP3
• Napster
• Walmart
• Zune
• 7digital
• Rhapsody
• ShockHound

And their service is compatible with these devices:

• iPhone 4
• iPhone 3GS
• iPhone 3G
• iPod touch
• HTC Aria
• HTC Desire
• HTC Dream
• HTC Hero
• HTC Legend
• HTC Magic
• HTC Tattoo
• HTC Evo 4G
• Google Nexus One
• Motorola Droid
• Motorola Backflip
• Motorola CLIQ
• myTouch 3G Slide
• Droid Incredible
• Logitech Squeezebox
• RCA internet radios
• Reciva internet radios

MP3tunes has also updated their iPhone and Android applications.

G2.fm: an artist booking management system

Based out of Chicago, G2.fm is building a service similar to Sonicbids. According to their website, the founders have built an artist booking management system based on their personal experiences as musicians, promoters, and booking agents. "Our successes, as well as lessons from past frustrations, inspired us to create a solution that would streamline the booking process, save artists time and money, and create new revenue streams for our venue partners."

While I'm not sure what fees G2.fm charges artists and/or venues, if any, here's how it works for musicians and/or artist managers:

1. signup and create a profile for your band (bio, genre, location, etc)
2. upload your media (music, photos, videos, etc.)
3. search venues and apply for gigs - you can then check the status of your application

Here's how G2.fm works for venue owners/managers:

1. signup and create a profile for your venue (venue description, location, size, etc.)
2. create and customize a calendar with your available dates/times
3. browse applications and book desired talent

Merge.fm: where fans and artists share in the songwriting process

Update (see below):
Merge.fm is a new collaboration app that helps artists open-up the creative process and share the songwriting experience with their fans (see video demo below).

The site has a great clean layout with intuitive features, and they are looking for bands and musicians artists to join as they just launched a couple of weeks ago, and it's free for artists, and the first 3 fans artists to email support@merge.fm with the coupon code "indiemusictech" will get one free year's subscription to Merge.fm (a $60 value).

Allowing fans to participate in the evolution of your music, and even provide feedback to the songs you're working on is a great way to develop and strengthen loyalty with your fans.

New Music Seminar, NYC: July 19-21

If you're going to be in or near NYC during the week of July 19th, be sure to attend the New Music Seminar, as the event's program looks to be one of their best. To register, go here.

Below is a brief video overview with highlights from last year's event:

MacForMusicians.com: Video Tutorials on Recording and Promoting Music using a Mac

MacForMusicians is a new website devoted to teaching musicians and bands (through video tutorials) how to use their Mac to record, promote, book and manage their musical careers. According to MacForMusicians, they have a vast library of video tutorials, including over 5 hours of comprehensive video instructions devoted just to GarageBand '09 alone.

To test drive their service, signup here, and you'll get access to one free tutorial. Below is their launch video from a couple of weeks ago describing their service:

Referral Marketing and the Music Industry

There are a number of music related websites that have attempted to reward fans with cash, merchandise and/or other discounts for promoting, reviewing or selling songs for artists, such as Burnlounge, People's Music Store, Slicethepie and Zaploop, among others, but do they work. Do artists support these initiatives? Do music fans use them? What are your thoughts?

The latest is Webceleb:

Friendly Music to Launch June 29

Rumblefish has been leading the music licensing landscape for several years now through innovation and key partnerships, and based on this announcement, it looks like they will launch their latest music licensing creation, Friendly Music this coming Tuesday (June 29), and I'm eager to use their service, as Paul showed me a demo a few months ago at MIDEM, and it's impressive! So, check out this video to learn more:

Top 10 Music-Based Facebook Apps

According to All Facebook, the unofficial Facebook resource, below are the current top 10 music apps on Facebook (based on monthly active users):

Sonicbids Acquires ArtistData

If you haven't heard already, Sonicbids has acquired ArtistData. It's a smart acquisition for both companies, and their combined services will create an even more comprehensive solution for artists, so many congrats guys! For detailed information about the acquisition, please read the story on Hypebot.

Btw, when your company has numbers like these, you will get acquired.