Power Field Studio

Power Field Studio

sábado, 6 de maio de 2017

Record Store Day 2017 - Estes Foram Os Albums E Singes Mais Vendidos

These Are the Top-Selling Albums & Singles of Record Store Day 2017, As Vinyl Album Sales Surge 213%


The 10th installment of Record Store Day (April 22) continued to drive big sales of music at independent retailers, according to Nielsen Music. The company reports that in the tracking week ending April 27, album sales at indie stores increased 194 percent compared to the previous week -- the largest weekly gain in the retail sector in the history of Record Store Day.
The annual indie music retailer celebration traditionally offers a robust slate of exclusive and limited-edition vinyl albums and singles, generally only found at indie stores (and in limited quantities). Thus, it’s no surprise to see that vinyl album sales grew 213 percent to 547,000 sold (across all retailers, not just indies). That’s the biggest non-Christmas season week for vinyl albums since Nielsen began electronically tracking point-of-sale music purchases in 1991.
Specifically, at indie retailers, there were 409,000 vinyl albums sold in the week ending April 27 (up 484 percent).
The top-selling Record Store Day-exclusive vinyl album during the week was Grateful Dead’s P.N.E. Garden Auditorium… (see Top RSD Exclusive Albums chart, below). It was followed by The Doors’ Live at the Matrix and The Black Angels’ Deathsong at Nos. 2 and 3, respectively.
Record Store Day exclusives are not limited to vinyl albums, as there were a bevy of vinyl singles that were issued for the event. The top three sellers, according to Nielsen (see Top RSD Exclusive Singles chart, below), were U2’s “Red Hill Mining Town,” The Beatles’ “Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever” and Pink Floyd’s “Interstellar Overdrive.”
Fast facts on Record Store Day 2017 sales & the top-selling RSD-exclusive titles: 
- Vinyl album sales grew 213 percent in the week ending April 27, rising to 547,000 sold. That’s the biggest week for vinyl album sales outside of the Christmas season since Nielsen Music began tracking sales in 1991.
- Total album sales at indie retailers rose 193 percent (to 649,000), while vinyl album sales at indies grew 484 percent (to 409,000). Both increases are the largest weekly gains for the respective formats in the retail sector in Record Store Day’s 10-year history.
- In the week ending April 27, independent record stores’ overall album sales grew 1.4 percent as compared to the week ending April 21, 2016 (reflecting last year’s RSD on April 16, 2016). Sales grew from 640,000 to 649,000. In terms of just vinyl album sales, the format grew 3.8 percent -- rising from 383,000 to 409,000.
- The 649,000 albums sold at indie record stores during the week was the highest non-Christmas season sales week for the retail sector since 2006.
- Independent stores represented 31 percent of the total industry’s physical album sales for the week -- the sector’s highest weekly share ever -- up from 27 percent during RSD week of 2016. Prior to RSD 2017, indie record stores had accounted for 14 percent of all physical album sales in 2017.
Vinyl 12” singles sales grew 4,350 percent to 89,000 for the week -- compared to just 2,000 in the week previous. Of the 89,000 vinyl 12-inch singles sold, nearly all of them (88,000) were sold at indie stores.
Top RSD Exclusive Albums at Independent Record Stores
RankArtistTitle
1Grateful DeadP.N.E. Garden Auditorium…
2The DoorsLive at the Matrix
3The Black AngelsDeathsong
4Jason Isbell and the 400 UnitLive From Welcome to 1979 (EP)
5The CureGreatest Hits
6SantanaWoodstock: Saturday August 16, 1969
7Stevie NicksRarities
8The CureGreatest Hits Acoustic
9RushCygnus X-1 (EP)
10Various ArtistsReally Rock 'Em Right: Sun Records…
11David BowieBowie: Cracked Actor (Live Los Angeles '74)
12VangelisBlade Runner (Soundtrack)
13Fleetwood MacAlternate Mirage
14David BowieBowpromo
15Dave Matthews BandLive at Red Rocks 8.15.95
16Drive-By TruckersElectric Lady Sessions
17Elton John11/17/70
18The Head and the HeartStinson Beach Sessions
19SiaSpotify Sessions (EP)
20Alice in ChainsGet Born 93/99 (EP)
Source: Nielsen Music, for the week ending April 27, 2017.

Top RSD Exclusive Singles at Independent Record Stores
RankArtistTitle
1U2Red Hill Mining Town (2017 Mix)
2BeatlesPenny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever
3Pink FloydInterstellar Overdrive
4Pearl JamState of Love and Trust
5The SmithsThe Boy with the Thorn in his Side
6John WilliamsMain Title - Star Wars: A New Hope
7Jimmy Page & Black CrowesMisty Mountain Hop (Live at Jones Beach)
8PrinceLittle Red Corvette/1999
9Patti SmithHey Joe
10PrincePartyman
11Def LeppardRide Into the Sun (The Def Leppard EP)
12The LumineersAngela (Song Seeds)
13Jane's AddictionBeen Caught Stealing
14Sharon Jones/E.L. Fields Gospel WondersHeaven Bound
15Deee-LiteGroove Is In the Heart
16Frank ZappaRollo
17The War on DrugsThinking of a Place
18SpoonHot Thoughts
19PrinceSign 'O' the Times
20Against Me!Stabitha Christie
Source: Nielsen Music, for the week ending April 27, 2017.

Warner Music Group Extende O Acordo Com O YouTube

Warner Music Group Extends Deal With YouTube



Renews deal without hope of 'free-market' negotiation. 

Warner Music Group has extended its recorded music and publishing deals with YouTube, according to  the video platform and a memo from WMG CEO Stephen Cooper obtained by Billboard.
While the memo didn't go into the exact terms of the deal, it did say that following "months of tough negotiations" the music corporation has come to terms with YouTube for both its Warner Music record labels and Warner/Chappell music publishing divisions.
The memo said WMG was able to secure "the best possible deals under very difficult circumstances" and that term for the deal is shorter so to allow for "more options in the future."
At the same time the memo expressed frustration with YouTube, deriding the Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 and its "safe-harbor" provisions which allow digital services leeway in hosting and taking down unlicensed content.
Cooper wrote: "There’s no getting around the fact that, even if YouTube doesn’t have licenses, our music will still be available but not monetized at all," he wrote. "Under those circumstances, there can be no free-market ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ negotiation."
Neither of Warner's major competitors, Universal Music Group or Sony Music Entertainment, have reached new deals with YouTube and are still operating on a month-to-month basis, sources say.
YouTube said in a statement that it was "pleased" to have renewed the deal, which it said paves the way for it to expand its YouTube Red subscription service overseas, and noted the platform paid the music industry more than $1 billion between December 2015 and December 2016.
News of the deal was disappointing to some music-industry executives, many of whom have been concerned about the declining rates YouTube pays when calculated on a per-stream basis. Record labels and artists have been lobbying lawmakers in Washington to reform the copyright law that protects sites such as YouTube from liability when their users upload content without permission from rights holders. That protection has given YouTube more leverage in licensing negotiations, label executives say.
According to the IFPI's latest Global Music Business Report 2017, user-uploaded video streaming services operating under safe harbor legislation returned $553 million to rights holders in 2016 from a global audience of over 900 million users. The disparity between that return and the $3.9 billion that rights holders received globally from streaming services in the same 12 month period is enormous-- especially considering that streaming has far lower user base of around 200 million.
The memo said these latest negotiations were "proof positive of the acute need to clarify ‘safe harbor’ provisions under US and EU copyright legislation. That’s the only way to conclusively close the gap between the revenue YouTube generates and what songwriters, artists, publishers and labels make in return."
The deal is the first struck with a major label since Lyor Cohen, the former CEO and president of recorded music at Warner Music Group, was named YouTube's head of global music last September. But Cohen hasn't been leading the licensing negotiations, sources say. Instead he is focused on helping record labels and artists use YouTube more effectively as a marketing tool.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 Músicas de Fleetwood Mac, ELO... E David Hasselhoff?

Inside 'Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2' Music: Fleetwood Mac, ELO... and David Hasselhoff?


Music plays a starring role in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2., as it did with its predecessor. Ahead of the sequel’s May 5 release, music supervisor Tyler Batesbreaks down writer-director James Gunn’s orbit of influences for the soundtrack, from Fleetwood Mac to... David Hasselhoff?
Family
Like Star-Lord (Chris Pratt), Bates lost his mother, who “was the No. 1 proponent of my dream to become a musician,” when he was a teen. That loss inspired “Dad,” a sweeping theme on which Bates’ 15-year-old daughter Lola plays piano.
Father & Son
The Cat Stevens 1970 hit plays during a tear-jerking sequence. “Even though I’d worked on the music, I was very emotional [when the song played] at the premiere,” says Bates.

Vintage Tech
Microsoft’s short-lived answer to the iPod, the Zune (2006-2011), makes a cameo in Vol. 2, while Star-Lord’s Walkman from the first movie -- a gift from his departed mother -- once again gets a featured role.
Awesome Mixes 
Two decades ago, Bates’ now-wife made him two cassettes “labeled, I swear to God, Awesome Mix Volume 1 and Awesome Mix Volume 2,” he says. The first soundtrack, titled Awesome Mix Vol. 1, has sold 1.8 million copies since 2014, according to Nielsen Music.
The 1970s
The Feel Good Decade once again powers the franchise, with ELO’s “Mr. Blue Sky” and Cheap Trick’s “Surrender” featured. “The depth and the craft of songwriting from the ‘70s is the best it ever was in pop music,” says Bates.
The Chain
The Fleetwood Mac 1977 classic is used multiple times in Vol. 2; Bates notes it has long influenced his own work. “It’s my favorite song on the soundtrack,” he says.

The Hoff
The actor and German pop-music sensation plays small but key roles in the movie and on its soundtrack -- he handles vocals on “Guardians Inferno.” Says Bates: “David seems like he’s enjoying every day of his life.”
Meco
Gunn wanted a disco-fied Guardians theme -- akin to Meco’s 1977 version of the Star Wars theme -- and though Bates wasn’t familiar with the producer’s work, he says that he synthesized “the cheese factor” and knocked out the music in a day.

Higher Power
Although Bates says that Gunn is “not a religious person,” the director has expressed interest in Hindu mythology and wanted to explore its deeper meanings within the character of Ego.
My Sweet Lord 
The director paired George Harrison’s 1970 homage to the Hindu god Krishna with the origin story of Ego, Star-Lord’s father, who is “essentially a god,” says Bates.

terça-feira, 2 de maio de 2017

Como O Streaming De Música Está Crescendo: Dê Uma Olhada Na SongCast

How The Music Streaming Boom Is Growing: Outlook From SongCast


As the music streaming industry grows, one player is set to show it can overcome major hurdles to make it boom even faster. Distribution platform SongCast says it is making streaming easier for consumers while championing independent music, paying 100% royalties and avoiding clunky paywalls.

The company’s founder and chief executive Mike Wright is sure his model, with no subscription for consumers and no advertising, is the simplest and best way to grow.
His comments come as distribution companies try different methods to monetise the success of streaming kings and queens - from Justin Bieber to Drake, Ed Sheehan to Adele. 

Indie artists are also growing as streaming consolidates its position as the driver of music sales. It is now responsible for nearly 60% of all digital revenues, according to the Global Music Report released by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
SongCast has recently launched its own app alongside its longer-standing distribution partnerships with iTunes, Pandora , Spotify, Apple AAPL +0.63% Music, Google GOOGL +0.36% Play, AmazonMP3, Rhapsody, eMusic and MediaNet.

SongCast on a phone
SongCast
SongCast on a phone


Wright, speaking in an interview, points to the huge potential after ruling out any idea of a paywall for consumers: “That was a big challenge for me in resisting that model. Once you have put up a paywall, you follow with a sign-up form and that slows you down quite a bit.”
Wright also flags up the rise of voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa. “We have seen a huge boom in their streaming because of that. It is evolving to the point where you can say what you want to hear and that song will be played.”

The industry has not yet said much about voice control revenues, but streams may well boom as users try it too with Google’s Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft ’s Cortana or Samsung’s developing Bixby.

Wright, 43, moved into technology after being lead guitarist in progressive band Sustain, whose hard rock was compared to Rush and Yes. Wright was initially rejected when he tried to get the group’s albums Through The Void and Breaking Free onto existing digital services. “They basically said ‘you have to go through a distributor, we just don’t work with independent artists ourselves.’ That left me in the position of becoming a distributor or label myself. I started aggressively seeking other artists. I approached iTunes a few months later with 50 bands. They accepted us, and it just snowballed from there, and now we have 20,000 artists.” Ohio-based SongCast has been going for about 10 years. “We have paid out approximately $24 million in artist royalties from music services such as Spotify and ITunes, with roughly a billion streams and more than 100 million downloads.”

There are of course other distribution services with different models, such as CD Baby and The Orchard, so why should artists go to SongCast to get material on the virtual shelves of Web stores?

Wright replies that with his platform, artists can be on major services within a few days. The first content and month is free. “I cannot see anyone else doing that.” As long the artist is paying a monthly fee of $9.99, there is no annual renewal fee on the album, whereas his competitors will charge both this and a percentage of sales. Therefore an artist can release some 10 products over a year for $120 as opposed to the $600 elsewhere.

SongCast is already working with some familiar names: soft rock band Player; Florida broadcaster Bubba The Love Sponge; and country-rock star Shooter Jennings, son of Waylon Jennings. SongCast may not have true household names yet on the roster, but it hopes to soon. Many of its tracks are by emerging acts looking to be signed to a conventional record company, though some are making enough to live off digital distribution alone.

In December 2016, SongCast added its own curated streaming app, which now boasts some 10,000 users who have streamed more than 300,000 songs. The listeners do not have to pay. They can also listen to artist interviews, check tour dates, send messages to artists and even vote to like or dislike tracks. Users will discover music not heard before, like Tinder for music, with algorithms suggesting something new on every tap of the app. Streaming services are increasingly linking with Internet radio and, in the case of SongCast, $7.99 a month gets a song into radio rotation.

Mike Wright
SongCast
Mike Wright
As the industry grows, there will obviously be consolidations and changes both with distributors and platforms. In the last month, Spotify acquired the team behind block chain company Mediachain Labs, signed a licensing deal with Universal and another with indie labels via Merlin.

Wright is making no predictions. To the question of whether SongCast may be bought at some stage, he says he isn’t entertaining any offers: “maintaining integrity for independent artists is our priority, not just a sell-out to make a few bucks.” It would however consider partnering with any consumer brand that has a passion for independent music or possibly a mobile phone provider.

Competition within the wider distribution industry is potentially good news for both consumers and creators, because each distributor has different strengths. This distribution is certainly more lucrative for artists per click than the small returns from some of the sharing websites.

sábado, 29 de abril de 2017

O Surgimento Do Streaming Não Matou A Pirataria

The rise of music streaming services hasn’t killed music piracy


There’s no doubt that streaming services have helped combat the music industry’s piracy problems. Apps like Spotify and Apple Music made the Napsters and Limewires of the world less relevant through sheer convenience — just listen to a couple ads (or pay $10 a month), and you can get all the songs you want, faster and in higher quality.
But as this chart from Statista shows, piracy hasn’t just upped and vanished, even as on-demand streaming has become the norm. According to a late 2016 study by recording industry group IFPI — which commissioned research firm Ipsos Connect to survey more than 12,600 internet users in 13 countries — more than one-third of those surveyed still said they’ve accessed copyright-infringing music over a recent six-month span.
Of note here is the shift in how people are pirating. Old-fashioned illegal downloads are still popular, but the most prevalent method today is known as “stream ripping.” This is when someone takes a song or music video from a streaming service and turns it into a permanent download. It may not feel as underhanded as digging through The Pirate Bay — you just take a link, plug it into one of the many illegal tools online, and hit "convert" — but it’s still giving artists and record labels major headaches.
It’s a pain for Google's parent company Alphabet, too. It’s probably no coincidence that the IFPI’s report mentions the popularity of YouTube just before getting into the stream ripping dilemma — the survey says 82% of YouTube users use the site for music, and given its status as the most popular free on-demand streaming site, it’s likely the most “stream ripped” site as well.
COTD_4.17

sexta-feira, 28 de abril de 2017

Brad Paisley's Love And War - Novo Album Com Menos!

Brad Paisley's Love And War Visual Album A Not-So-Costly Labor Of Love

First of all thanks to Chris Talbott  for this article.

There has been much public hand wringing over the negative changes brought to the music industry by technology. Less gets written about the benefits – such as greater artistic freedom through better economics.

Take country star Brad Paisley’s new visual album for his latest release, Love and War. Billed as the first of its kind in the genre, the 62-minute film would not have been possible five or 10 years ago in traditionally thrifty Nashville. The project would have cost millions of dollars and required dozens of people.

Today, Paisley did it in large part with friends, staff members and close colleagues for a fraction of the cost, producing a vivid, emotionally engaging collection of 16 videos and intersticials that enhance Love and War, which debuted last week. The film was released Friday and is an Apple Music exclusive for the week.

“I don’t think you could have done this back then,” Paisley said at a preview showing of the film at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum’s CMA Theater this week. “And also, think what the helicopter shots would have cost before drones. I think the ‘Remind Me’ video with Carrie Underwood, which was a helicopter in the desert. … That was a $300,000 video just for that: just walking through the desert. And that was the year before drones. It went from $300,000 to $15,000 in a year.”

Compiled from archival footage and a combination of high-end cameras and handheld phones, the film looks professionally done. But elements were completed by nonprofessionals. For instance, Paisley edited a few of the videos himself, as did a touring staff member who shared his computer skills with the singer-guitarist while on the road.
Paisley said he proposed the idea to Sony Music Nashville executives, who responded with an emphatic, “Yeah, right.”

“And they have no idea how right they were because this should not have worked,” Paisley said. “A lot of this was done in the last month with me riding around Franklin like an idiot in the back of a truck.”