Universal Music Group Dissolves Island Def Jam
By Ruben Lone Sometimes a whole record label isn’t quite as great as the sum of its parts. Case in point for Island Def Jam, the Universal Music Group subsidiary comprising the Island, Def Jam, and Motown record labels. The layers of sublabels belonging to the various companies are deep, but Island Def Jam’s daughter
ASCAP, BMI, and SOCAN Unify Publisher Registration as MusicMark
By Kira Grunenberg This is no April Fool’s joke. Today marks the first full day of activity for newly launched collaborative endeavor, MusicMark. But what is MusicMark and why would someone possibly think of its existence as a prank? It might have something to do with the idea that multiple performing rights organizations (PROs) are
BandPage Is on Its Way to Being the Largest Musician’s Platform
BandPage, the online presence management platform for musicians, has announced another successful investment series. Now up to $28 million in funding, BandPage will use the capital to continue fostering relationships with the foremost music services, while creating and solidifying new revenue streams for musicians. BandPage is used by more than 500,000 musicians to reach billions
Billboard and Twitter Join Forces
By Jason Epstein Billboard and Twitter have joined forces to create “Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts.” The ranking system will join Billboard’s 200+ Official Billboard Charts to track the top Tweeted songs and artists. Though there’s no solid release date, the charts are due to launch within the coming weeks on Billboard.com. Twitter’s blog announcement provides
Apply Now: MIDI HACK at Spotify Stockholm
By Ruben Lone. A new music technology hackathon is headed to Stockholm, Sweden in May. MIDI HACK, a day-long, 24 hour hackathon, will bring together a community of industry leaders, start-ups, software developers, hardware fanatics and musicians to celebrate the protocols and technologies at the foundation of analog and digital music creation. The event will focus primarily
Can Pono Change the Face of Mainstream Audio Quality?
By Jason Epstein “WE’RE NOT CHANGING MUSIC. WE’RE LETTING MUSIC CHANGE YOU”, is the message emblazoned across Pono’s landing page. PonoMusic promises to take artist-approved master recordings and put them in the listener’s hands, with fidelity anywhere from 6 to 30 times that of a regular MP3 file. This is Neil Young’s (a man who is