" Ruim Para A Indústria" Os Artistas Da Spotify Sussurram E Troy Carter Combate a Exclusividades

'Bad for the Industry': Spotify's Artist Whisperer Troy Carter Slams Exclusives, Updates Company's Subscriber Total

Carter is intent on strengthening “the bridge between Spotify and the music community.”

Carter also reveals that Spotify now has 39 million paid subscribers, up from 30 million in March.

In June, when Atom Factory founder/CEO Troy Carter announced he was joining Spotify as global head of creator services, many music executives thought he would be securing his new employer exclusive releases, a la Apple Music's deals for Frank Ocean's Endless and Chance the Rapper's Coloring Book. But on a recent afternoon at the company's New York office in Chelsea, Carter, 43, declares that "exclusives are bad for artists, bad for consumers and bad for the whole industry." 

Instead, he half-jokingly promises "Spotify inclusives."

Since most users will never subscribe to more than one streaming service, he believes that limiting access to music only incentivizes fans to seek it out on pirate sites or YouTube, where it generates less revenue. "I was brought onboard to strengthen the bridge between Spotify and the music community," he says.

Frank Ocean's Album Is the Straw that Broke Universal Music's Back (and It May Get Him Sued)

With Apple and rival Tidal continuing to make exclusive deals and Amazon said to be planning its own music streaming service, Carter will be making his case for wide releases to labels, managers and artists, and he'll have the wind at his back: He tells Billboard that Spotify now has more than 39 million paid subscribers (up from 30 million in March), whereas Apple Music announced 15 million subscribers in June.

That means Spotify -- which is planning to go public in the second half of 2017, according to Bloomberg Businessweek -- is adding subscribers faster than ever. And it increasingly exposes users to new music, provides marketing for artists and helps sell concert tickets.

"That goes beyond distribution," says Carter. "We can become a full-stack solution for artists."

Construa Um Auto falante "Frankenstein" Que Você Sempre Sonhou Com o Sonic Blocks

Build the Frankensteinian speaker you’ve always dreamed of with Sonic Blocks

Enter Sonic Blocks, the product of a father-and-son team recently launched Indiegogo that takes a much more flexible approach to sound. As the name implies, the Sonic Blocks system is modular, allowing the customer to choose between different woofers, tweeters, and midrange drivers in addition to more cosmetic touches like lights.

“Sonic Blocks is a unique new modular approach to audio/music system design that allows users to quickly and easily swap or add individual speakers to meet their individual preferences and needs,” Sonic Blocks co-founder and CEO Scott Wilker told Digital Trends. “The virtually limitless expansion options and future-proof architecture of Sonic Blocks makes other music systems obsolete.”

Whether or not the system is so revolutionary you’ll want to throw out your home stereo or other speakers remains to be seen, the specs do look pretty impressive. Not only is Bluetooth connectivity supported, but Wi-Fi and DTS Play-Fi are as well, while wired connections are available in both analog and digital forms, with S/PDIF, TOUSLING, and USB connectors available.

Actual performance will vary based on the configuration, but the class D amplifier is claimed to be capable of producing over 90 dB SPL at one meter distance, which would mean plenty of volume. The lithium ion battery is described as offering over 15 hours of playback, though again, this could vary based on any number of factors. Light panels not only pulse to the music, but can show Wi-Fi strength, battery power, and more.

Backers can pledge as little as $25, but to actually get your hands on a speaker, you’ll have to pay at least $200, and that’s for the limited edition starter bundle, of which only 50 units are available. Most backers will have to spring for at least the $430 Double Stack, which includes one “brain,” two “exoskeleton” housings, two tweeters, four full-range drivers, three bass drivers, and a total of nine speaker grilles.

For $530, a sound bar kit is available that uses a similar component list for a more home theater-oriented setup. For those looking to spend even more, a $650 twin stereo kit is available as well as a $1,600 kit offering multiroom functionality for up to a total of five rooms. While the kits offer a starting point, users can mix and match components as they wish.

The 30-day campaign is looking to raise a total of $50,000, but this is a flexible funding campaign, so the creators intend to move forward no matter the outcome. If everything goes according to plan, finished units will ship in early 2017, but potential backers should keep in mind that as with all other crowdfunding campaigns, there is a level of risk here. For more information, see the Sonic Blocks campaign page on Indiegogo.

Rádio - Os Erros Que As Bandas "Indie" Fazem

Two Radio Submission Pet-Peeves (Mistakes Indie Artists Make) 

Back in the day, when I started out as a baby radio DJ, artists would send me their brand spanking new music on promo CDs or even white label vinyl, remember those?!

These days it’s all done online. It’s easier to just email an EPK, accompanied with the latest single, EP or album to a radio station, radio show or independent music promoters like myself. But sadly enough, with easiness comes laziness and artists stop thinking things through:

Low Quality MP3s

Great! You’ve just finished recording your awesome new album or EP, picked a single and it’s time to get your ear candy out there, to the masses. And there’s no better way than getting it played on the radio, right?!

So here you are, grabbing your highly paid mastered WAV file, converting it into a 128 or 160 kbps MP3, sending it off with an impressive EPK to radio stations. Finally, you can kick back and relax, it’s just a matter of time before you can hear yourself on the radio, every artist or band’s wet dream!

Wrong! ‘Cause the file you’ve just sent, is like licking a passed down lollipop!

The thing you should know about radio stations, they have a certain broadcast quality to maintain. The audio isn’t allowed to lose the high audio frequencies required for realistic sound reproduction. In other words, your audio must not suck! You won’t listen to a radio station with poor, telephone-ish audio either, right?

Converting your mastered WAV file into 128 or 160 MP3 will cost you your audio quality. It will get so compressed, the full audio sound you’ve paid for at the recording studio will be cut in at least half. And if you’re doing it because of the file size, so emailing it to radio shows or stations becomes easier, don’t! Most only accept WAV files, or if you get real lucky, the highest MP3 quality (320 kbps).

And if you’re still not convinced yet, grab some kid’s lollipop and start licking! Doesn’t taste as good without that full candy flavour, does it…

Dirty Versions

Now I’m not gonna discuss artistic freedom (of speech) here, or the fact some artists throw in profanity just because they feel they can. Personally, I don’t give a doo-doo!

But picture this: you’ve invested a lot of time & money by recording your next hit single and getting it mastered by a professional. It does contains profanity, but hey, ‘this track is the sh*t yo!’ And getting radio airplay would be the bomb, right?!

Wrong! While it’s allowed in some countries to use profanity on radio or TV, like The Netherlands, in most countries it isn’t! If you’re, for example, from the US or UK, you should already know that. So why do you keep sending radio stations your dirty version, while you know it will never ride the airwaves? And radio stations won’t edit a clean version for you, how dope your track might be!

In the end, you’re not only wasting your own time but also of the music director. And trust me, when you do send them a clean version next time around, they probably won’t listen to it because they think it’s contains profanity, just like last time.

So, next time you’re recording a track including profanity, cut a clean version as well. ‘Cause you are creating music to be heard by as many people possible, right? And as bonus tip, why don’t you do the same for your music video…

Google Poderia Ser Maior Em Streaming de Música Do Que Você Pensa

Google could be bigger in streaming music than you think

Google's music streaming apps are a bit of a mystery.

Despite having a robust app in Play Music—in my opinion the best streaming app there is—and a hot new thing in YouTube Music, Google has released zero subscriber data and therefore is often left out in comparisons with Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora, and the rest.

We gathered some outside data for a closer look.

First, a survey of Android users from 7Park Data shows that Play Music is neck-in-neck with Spotify for daily active users in the US:

7Park Data

Meanwhile, YouTube Music's current daily active user rate is a mere 0.2%, according to 7Park Data.

Play Music isn’t doing quite as well among international Android users:

7Park Data

It helps that Google, which makes Android, has started putting Play Music on most devices:

7Park Data

Next, predictive data from Sensor Tower shows that Play Music downloads are growing slow but steady on iOS, while YouTube Music downloads are on fire. That said, Spotify and Pandora are still in the lead.

From top to bottom: Pandora, Spotify, YouTube Music, SoundCloud, iHeartRadio, Play Music, and Tidal. Sensor Tower

Pandora Irá Em Breve Oferecer A Opção De Música Em Streaming.

Pandora Will Roll Out On-Demand Streaming Soon

First of all thanks to Shelby Carpenter  for this article.

Pandora could start to look a lot more like Spotify soon..

The Internet-radio service may offer two new paid tiers with on-demand music as soon as next month, according to the Wall Street Journal. Right now Pandora does not allow users to pick speciffic songs–instead, you tune in to stations that may or may not have exactly what you want to listen to. While the stations can be personalized based on user preference, it’s not the same as being able to load up the latest Justin Bieber hit on Spotify whenever you want.

In the past Pandora has not needed permission from the record labels to play music because it operates like a radio station rather than an on-demand service. However, Pandora is closing in on deals with the labels to offer the on-demand option both in the U.S. and overseas, the Wall Street Journal says.

“We’ve been working hard to bring an expanded listening experience to listeners and are on track to do so later this year,” a Pandora spokesperson told FORBES. The company would not confirm the next-month timeline. However, Pandora CEO Tim Westergren said it planned to debut an on-demand option in the second half of this year during the company’s Q2 earnings call last month.

Beefing up its content options could help Pandora grow its user base, which has been faltering in recent quarters. Pandora had 78.1 million monthly active listeners at the end of Q2 2016, a drop from the 79.4 million it for the same period the previous year. The company’s stock jumped more than 3% following the news on Friday.

Este Post Da Reddit Causou Uma Batalha Legal Com A Atlantic Records Sobre a Trilha de "Esquadrão Suicida"

This is the Reddit post that caused a legal battle with Atlantic Records over the 'Suicide Squad' soundtrack

First of all thanks to James Cook   for this article.

Reddit is currently in the middle of a legal fight with Atlantic Recordsover a leaked track from the soundtrack to the movie "Suicide Squad" that surfaced on the site.

Atlantic Records discovered that the track "Heathens" by Twenty One Pilots from the "Suicide Squad" soundtrack was released months ahead of schedule and uploaded to filesharing site Dropfile.to.

On the same day it was posted on the filesharing site, a Reddit user named "twentyoneheathens" shared the link on Reddit.

Here's the Reddit post from the user, whose only activity on the site was posting the link to download the leaked song:

Reddit

Atlantic Records quickly noticed that the song had been leaked and tried to stop it spreading. Its initial court filing says that "Atlantic attempted to have the illegally distributed copies of 'Heathens' removed from the Internet. Despite expending significant effort and funds in this attempt, the removal efforts were ultimately unsuccessful in curtailing further widespread distribution."

But Atlantic didn't stop the leak, and it was forced to release the song officially the next day. That meant that the music video wasn't finished, and the marketing agreements it had weren't finalised either.

Atlantic Records is asking Reddit to hand over the IP address of the user, but the company is refusing. It says Atlantic can't prove there's a link between the filesharing site and Reddit, and there's no definitive proof that the Reddit user is an Atlantic employee anyway.

Tecnologia Não Matou A Música! Os Fãs Mataram....

Technology Didn’t Kill The Music Industry. The Fans Did..

First of all thanks to Sahpreem A. King for this article.

It is a scary proposition when paying artists for their music has become a voluntary act of kindness, rather than a consumer responsibility.  The free music fans consume like water, cost artists money to create; money they will never recover as long as the artist’s fan base consumes it for free.  Nothing is wrong with giving away an exclusive FREE track every now and again, but that should be the exception and not the rule.

As artists, we must stand our ground and set the expectation.

The ideology behind music freemium has destroyed the working class musician and independent labels.

Everyone thought that Napster was the second coming of Christ—and the beginning of the music revolution; however, in the midst of this transformation, the fans became increasingly desensitized to the fact, that the free music they were consuming was created by artists who have to make a living from their music.   The fallacy that artists/musicians are ultra rich is just that… a myth, nonetheless, perpetuated thanks to over-the-top hip hop videos and MTV Cribs, leading fans to believe that all artists are rich.

This is hardly the case when only 1% of artists are successfully making a living from their music.

Nevertheless, fans have been disillusioned to believe that their enjoyment of the free music obtained from the remaining 99% only affects the major labels, meanwhile most artists are literally starving.

The music industry is a brutal bitch, a beast that chews up artists and shits them out.

What if artists and musicians grew tired of the abuse and decided to stop making music?  What then?  Radio stations would be nothing but dead air between commercials — if all their advertisers don’t abandon them like rats on a sinking ship — and televisions stations that play music videos would be blank screens.  Imagine your favorite movie with no music to set the tone, or going to a school dance minus the dance. Like I said, a scary proposition.

When fans are left the option to pay whatever they’d like for music, they almost always choose zero.

As a content creator of music, why should I have to pass around the collection plate or hold out the tip jar and jingle it to capture your attention?  What if artists told fans that they would have to work at their jobs for free?  Do you think they would go quietly in the night to the land of acceptance?  Hell no, they would be in outrage, so why do they expect artists to just take one for the team?

Greed perhaps, ignorance maybe, but the one thing is for sure is that fans have a lopsided perspective as to what really goes on in the music business.  Artisans should be able to make a living from their work no different from a nurse or auto mechanic.

Sure, the 1% is living the lifestyle of the rich and famous; however, the 99% are one poorly-promoted show away from being homeless.  For God’s sake, something has to give.

I believe the healing will begin when the public is educated on how the music business works sans the VH1 movies and Hollywood imagery.

If fans understood what it takes to make a record — all the time, money, people, and energy — they would have more respect for the art and science of it.  If they could experience, on some part the dedication and sacrifice artists endure, their nonchalant attitudes toward paying artists what they owe would change.  Fans don’t realize that artists of today were fans of yesterday and the cycle is everlasting.

Fans and artists must come to an agreement on how music will be monetized using fair and equitable practices.  According to a recent CNN poll, the average football fan will pay $143 per game, which includes the cost of the ticket, parking, and refreshments, for a one-time event.  For music, a fans have the opportunity to play a CD as many times as they desire; yet they complain about spending $16 for the CD.   In order to set the wheels of change in motion, there must be a catalyst.