Archive | Web 2.Oh-no
So even MTV.com isn’t playing music videos anymore? Well, they still are, just not music from the world’s largest label group.
CNet.com is reporting that MTV’s website will no longer be streaming videos from Universal after negotiations with UMG about financial agreements went downhill. “MTV has been unwilling to negotiate a fair syndication deal with Vevo to carry our artists’ videos and consequently our videos will not be shown on their online properties,” A spokesman for UMG revealed to CNet.
In a separate statement, MTV said the following:
“During our recent discussions with Vevo, we were unable to reach a fair and equitable agreement for rights to stream UMG artists’ music video. As a result, UMG has elected to pull their music videos from our Web sites. We are disappointed by this move and sincerely hope that UMG will work with us toward a fair resolution.”
MTV reportedly declined to enter into UMG’s standard financial agreement, which has been signed by other companies such as YouTube. This is a hard loss for the once king of music videos, losing videos from such big artists as U2 and Lady Gaga. The break off, though, also shows labels trying to regain power in a struggling industry. Record companies have long been complaining about the lack of revenue they’ve received from video streaming. In addition, Google (who owns YouTube) is rumored to be in the works of launching their own online music store, allowing labels to regain control from iTunes. Is the industry finding new alternatives to gain leverage?
If so, labels need to move forth carefully. As Hypebot points out, fans can easily steer away from legitimate channels and towards sources who aren’t under their control. This could easily backfire against them, then again it wouldn’t be the first time they let that happen. And as for MTV, I’m sure they aren’t sweating too much. There’s got to be a lot more people streaming Jersey Shore than going to mtv.com to see something as old fashioned as a music video.
After taking jabs at MySpace Music’s alleged subscription service business model last week, we predicted it was probably going to set the struggling site back even more, if not potentially be their death sentence. Whatever MySpace’s fate happens to be, many bands didn’t seem too concerned because of other sites such as Bandcamp offering similar services for no fee – until now. For those of you unfamiliar with Bandcamp, they are a publishing platform for bands, or a self-described “fifth, fully geeked-out Beatle — the one who keeps your very own website humming and lets you get back to making great music and building your fan base.” And since rumors began surfacing about MySpace’s future, this site seemed like one of the best alternatives out there.
The proposed business model is not quite what MySpace is rumored to have in the works, but it will still require artists to pay a percentage of whatever they make selling music and merchandise on the site. According to the Bandcamp’s press release, the new subscription-based business model will require artists to give the site 15% of every sale until they reach $5,000, whereupon it will be lowered to 10%. The site has never been shy about the possibility that the site would one day develop into a subscription-based site, and with over $1 million earned by bands in the first half of 2010, the decision to take a portion of bands’ profits in many ways comes as no surprise. According to the proposed business model: Read more »
It’s been a bad year so far for the site that everyone fell in love with when Facebook and Twitter were still in diapers. In the first half of 2010, MySpace has taken one nosedive after another and fans are leaving in droves. Back in March, Metal Insider reported how the former social network heavyweight was losing fans to YouTube and other sites, resulting in their tanking viewership and thus their floundering advertising potential. How floundering you may ask? The site’s advertising partnership with Google expires soon, and the search engine will be parting ways with the company (with Google taking the contract that in 2006 was worth $900,000,000 elsewhere.) And on top of that, reports are showing that MySpace Music UK has had 50% less viewership in the first half of 2010, and we can’t assume the US site is doing much better.
So what is MySpace planning to do? Well, sources claim the site has come up with a new way of making up for lost ground- creating a sponsorship model for MySpace music. You heard right, rather than fix the issues that fans have been complaining about for years such as layout and an overabundance of spam, MySpace is opting instead to charge people for the privilege of using their music site. What makes MySpace think that they can even entertain such a thought during a time when their key target demographic expects everything for free? That’s a good question that we’re stumped on as well.
The only thing that has been keeping MySpace alive for the last few years has been their music, and at this point in their downward spiral, it’s sad to think an idea like this would stand a chance. It’s tricky creating a subscription site that could feasibly work, because for every Pandora, there are plenty of Spiral Frog’s. Ever since hearing MySpace’s new tactic, we’ve been trying to think of ways that the company could pull itself out and at least break even, but we came up empty handed. Maybe David Fincher could try making a movie about them next?
Remember when people used to pay for music? Neither do consumers, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A Businessweek article claims that Nielsen found that downloads of songs to iPods, computers and other devices have stalled, growing only 0.3% this year. While that’s an increase, it sure isn’t much of one. Market researcher NPD Group reports that the number of people using digital music stores like iTunes and Amazon has leveled off at around 40 million people, with streaming sites like Pandora increasingly becoming where many go to hear music.
The article also claims that another way labels are losing money in the digital space is ringtones, or lack thereof. It’s hard to think that anyone is paying for ringtones these days, but they’ve only fallen 24% since their peak of $714 million in 2007. While it’s hard to feel too much sympathy for an industry that ten years ago was charging $19 for something that cost $1 to make, labels still have way more distribution and marketing than trying to do it yourself, so if you like an artist, download their music legally.
It used to be that you couldn’t be in a band without having a MySpace page. Wait, who are we kidding, you still need a MySpace page if you’re a band. But much like the way Facebook has eclipsed MySpace as a go-to social networking site, MySpace Music is getting significantly less action than it was a few years ago. The main culprit? YouTube.
Media measurement company BigChampagne has released some data showing just how much the two have changed in the past year. In 2008, a typical track streaming on MySpace Music for one day was equal to a week’s spins on YouTube. While it’s not metal, BigChampagne tracked the #4 song across both sites recently, Rihanna’s “Rude Boy,” and found that two years makes quite a difference.
Rihanna, “Rude Boy”
MySpace Music (w/e 5/2)
Rank: 4
732,014 streams
YouTube (w/e 5/2)
Rank: 4
4,282,376 video views
While this speaks to MySpace’s decline, it actually has a lot more to say about the rapid ascent of YouTube. Statistics from comScore show that in March, YouTube’s Google video views reached 13.05 billion, up from 11.95 billion in February, and 42% of all video viewership online. One reason for the quick increase is Vevo, which is YouTube-embedded, and backed by the majors, has become the largest music destination online. In December of ’09, Vevo had 35.4 million unique viewers, which edged the 33.1 million MySpace Music had for the same month.
Mental Floss is a site we visit every now and then when we’re supposed to be working because they’re always good for a fun quiz or two. We’re talking about quick 10 question quizzes like “Catholic Saint or New Orleans Saint?” and “U.S. Military Operation or Brand of Cat Litter?” But the site has outdone themselves with today’s quiz, titled. “Lifetime Movie or Megadeth Song?”
Given their shared preoccupation with kidnapping, family dysfunction and untimely death, it’s sort of surprising that Lifetime and Megadeth don’t share more fans. Can you tell the difference between the titles of Lifetime movies and Megadeth songs?
Granted, anyone that has even a passing familiarity with Megadeth should have no problems acing this one, but it’s still a fun way to kill a minute or two, especially if you’re stuck working on a national holiday like some people we know. And with titles like “Verdict In Blood” and “Foreclosure of a Dream,” maybe there’s not that much of a difference between the two.
It seems like only yesterday, Metallica were bitching about Napster taking their livelihood while rolling around in piles of money, Scrooge McDuck style. It’s taken them about a decade, but they’ve finally caught on to this whole technology thing. Instead of suing their fans, they’ve launched an iPhone app, Live Metallica, that lets fans stream professionally mixed concerts.
While at any given time, the $0.99 app features the band’s latest concert streaming in its entirety, the app points back to the band’s Live Metallica website. The site has been selling concerts from 1982-present, but now users can buy single tracks. App users can stream samples of tracks, from the site, then buy them if they like what they hear.
It’s pretty innovative, in that for once, paid downloads on a iPhone aren’t coming from the Apple store. There aren’t too many other bands that would be able to do this, both from a popularity standpoint and from an innovation standpoint. As much of a punch line as Metallica were for declaring war on their fans and new technology back in the day, it seems like they’re making up for it with this. And as anyone that’s seen the band on the Death Magnetic tour can attest, they can still bring it live.
Last month, MySpace did the music world a favor and disabled autoplay on their profiles, saving the world from crimes against music being commited by bored 16 year-olds that have Garage Band and an Attack Attack! album. Although it hasn’t even been a month, the number of plays on MySpace has dropped dramatically. Media tracking company Big Champagne found that plays in August dropped 20.7 percent from July.
The company canvassed thousands of top artists on MySpace Music, convering the most heavily-tracked names. In July, it showed 1.436 billion plays. In August, it had dropped to 1.138 billion. This is pretty notable, given than they didn’t disable autoplay until around August 18. The bigger picture is that many visitors to a band’s MySpace page might not actually care much about the music, and if anyone has been using number of plays from a band to judge their influence and popularity, they might have to re-examine that.
There’s nothing creepier/funnier than watching Kurt Cobain sing songs that he wouldn’t be caught dead listening to on Guitar Hero 5, where the deceased Nirvana frontman is an unlockable character. However, Courtney Love doesn’t feel the same way. While it was initially reported that she was an active participant in the creation of her ex-husband’s likeness for the game, that must have been while she was on her meds.
In a Twitter rampage, Love unleashed a ton of invective towards lawyers, Dave Grohl, and Activision, among others, stating that she’s going to sue Activision. Unless you can read crazy, I wouldn’t suggest looking at the whole thing, but here’s a few choice tweets:
we have NOTHING to do with this it was presented to me and oi said “show me a better avataR” TO DRAG MY HEELS., never did i intend on
allowing GUITARHERO for me or for Kurt i am NOT yoko fucking Ono no ofense to her, but i am a different person entirely and this is insaneabout 11 hours ago from web
now theyre just LIQUIDATING kurt and IM THE DEVIL? I HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH GUITAR HERO I LOATHE IT AND FIND IT ODIOUS KURT WOULD HAVE TOOabout 12 hours ago from web
FOR THE RECORD I DID NOT APPROVE KURTS AVATAR FOR GUYITARHERO5. i think Kurt would despise this game alone let alone this avatar
yes i allowed malibu to be used on rockband, something in the way on soix geet under discreet usage in moulinrouge and thatsitabout 10 hours ago from web
have fun with your avatars you slimebags, i rant? fuck off i have proof youve simply never bothred to look. so fucking play your videogame.about 11 hours ago from web
and you wonder about Guitar Hero 5 disgusted? welcome to my NIGHTMARE. yeah well sue activision this is disgusting, but theres alot MOREabout 11 hours ago from web
YOU for dismissing me as a LOON, go fucking play guitar hero commit necrophilai KNOW you are raping me and my family
On the one hand, I can understand that she wants her daughter to be taken care of. But even from reading the tweets, it’s apparent that she at least had meetings with Activision. And they wouldn’t put have put Kurt in the game without getting the OK from lawyers. Oh well, whatever, nevermind
While Metal Insider strives to be your go-to place for metal news and industry information, we don’t have the time or patience to sort through every single Twitter that happens from bands, labels and news sites. Now thanks to new site CircleTwitt, you can be caught up with all the latest news that comes out via Twitter. In fact, if you’re one of those metalheads that thinks Twitter is stupid (trust us, there’s a lot of them out there), you don’t even need to have a Twitter account to use the site. However, if you do have an account, and you’re not following us yet, what the hell are you waiting for? There are already more than 150 bands and industry twitterers (or as Stephen Colbert calls them, twatters) on CircleTwitt, with more appearing daily.
So even MTV.com isn’t playing music videos anymore? Well, they still are, just not music from the world’s largest label group.
Posted by Zach Shaw on Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 2:57 pm
Video, Web 2.Oh-no