Music+Industry+3

=[MUSIC INDUSTRY: UPDATE #3 ] =

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= = =**SonicAngel using social media for hit songs **= [|Article]

A Belgian music label is tracing songs and bands with Facebook and Twitter. The company SonicAngel is changing the music industry with allowing users to pick the artists and songs that they like the most. A key difference from something such as Myspace or Youtube is that the company is choosing the artists first, and then tracking their popularity on these social sites. SonicAngel also has a separate system online where bands and artists can upload their material and get votes from users.

//Posted by: Melissa Huapaya//




 * Future of music: The law remains the same **

[|Chicago Tribune article] Despite years of technological innovations and frequent transformation in the music industry, the legal field seems almost resilient to change. A two-day Future of Music Summit was held in Washington D.C. to discuss this very dilemma. A common problem found was that current federal copyright laws stifles creativity. As much as musicians want severe legal action taken against copyright infringers, the courts are hesitant. Why the reluctance? Those in the legal arena want the music industry as private sector to come up with their own solutions. Unfortunately, artists are at the losing end of this battle. Big businesses, i.e. record companies have had a historically significant relationship with Congress. The struggles of the "little man" continue...

//Posted by: Christal Bundang//

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= More Storage for More Music = Article The music industry is growing at a rapid pace releasing close to 500 songs per day. Where are we to keep all this music without an overload? Apple has once again thought of a solution. Their upcoming iCloud storage service is being launched on October 12 with features allowing users to download and re-download music or other media onto any device at any time. That means music files, video, photos, apps, ebooks and personal documents are stored in Apple's cloud and can be accessed from any Apple device. ICloud also comes with iTunes Match. The $25-per-year service scans a user's music collection and creates an identical version in the cloud. The service “matches” songs against the high-quality versions in the iTunes store, and uploads only what it does not recognize – hence the name. So are our files now safe? Society has yet to find out.

// Posted by: Brianna Dotson //



=[|Rdio launches free tier] =

The newly U.S. debut of Spotify now has steep competition with Rdio. Rdio, a music streaming site, will be the first to offer free service with no ads. The freemium tier will allow user to download through Facebook or with an email account with no credit card information or downloading additional software. The only catch is that there will be an onscreen meter that will allow you to listen to a limited amount of free music per month. The site has not released how much free music will be available per month. I believe this will start a new trend within the music streaming sites. If this site becomes successful, Spotify and Pandora will be forced to make a change to just compare.

//Posted by: Felicia Keay//

= = = Remembering Steve Jobs = [|LA Times Article]

The story of Steve Jobs’ death by now is not news to anyone with countless mentions on social networks, coverage on the news, the announcement that Westboro Baptist will protest his funeral, and many tributes from journalists and Apple junkies alike. But I feel it would be wrong to write about changes and news in the music industry without remembering all Steve Jobs has done to change it through his work at Apple. Illegal pirating was destroying profits in the music industry and consumers were just over the idea of keeping their music on physical CDs. The creation of the iTunes music store started a “seismic shift” in the music industry, by ditching physical CDs and allowing consumers to purchase single songs for 99 cents people were all of a sudden willing to pay for music again stacking up 1.2 billion downloads in two years. On top of the music store, the iPod quickly became the most popular and streamlined MP3 player on the market giving the user their entire music library in the palm of their hand. The state of music always seems to be in a state of flux recently, but in the last 8 years the only constant has been Apple and the iTunes music store. The music industry owes Steve Jobs a grand thank you, and should hope that someone else will come along one day to make as big of a positive influence as Jobs has done.

-Trevor O'Brien