What great news! But why just those sites? Why now? And how is it possible to control all of these facets and potentially create leverage in the sinking ship world of the recording industry? Questions a-plenty…Well, to start off, the stream counts will attribute to only a small percentage of the overall chart accumultors so as to make sure that any purchase of the music is worth more than the sum of its streamed alternative. A valid call for the recording industry and if they had backed down on that then it’s an obvious shot in their own proverbial foot.

Potentially, though, the chart world may be getting ahead of the game with proposed subscription services for the likes of Spotify, who now intend to stream ‘CD quality music’ for a fee, as well as offer an ad-free service with that fee. This fee based subscription could cover any issues with PRS/Publishers/Royalties etc. and could really harness a level of control in terms of the internet and streaming. It’s also applied to the forthcoming Digital TV Music services to be offered by Sky and Virgin Media as well as Nokia and others. With this in mind, hopefully major labels and others would be able to alleviate any alternative policing of ISP’s and fines for downloaders.

This also ties in with the recent news of the chart upheaval of its 30 year lock down on the independent sector in relation to chart placement. There will now be a seperate chart for those companies that are not involved with major labels, meaning that labels that are 50  or more percent owned by an independent company (ie NOT the four majors) will be eligible for these ‘Official Independent Charts’. With these new chart available to bands, there will be new competition amongst the independent labels who cannot compete with the power of the majors. The charts, with the aforementioned new addition techniques, will only help to aid the bands and their independent processes.

Let’s not devalue, however, how all of this chart business furthers the idea of the post-download music world thriving and being able to combine with traditional elements of the current industry without hindering it’s all important income. It is nice for those of us involved of course as it goes to show how traditional elements of the industry can be altered; bending the rules and not breaking them. Illegal downloading will still exist but, as some recent studies have shown, these downloads have actually benefitted material sales of the music downloaded. Those who have downloaded from torrents, file sharing sites (see The Pirate Bay – you won’t be able to much longer!) still tend to buy the album as proof of their dedication to the album and artist. That is in no way meant to condone illegal downloads, but it merely shows how the butting head worlds of major label greed and public lust for accessibility may be able to find some bridge to peace.                                                                                       

But how will the artists react knowing that these accumulative figures have to be manipulated in such a way that their part in the process of their own music is, still, relatively diminished? Even the idea of streams being involved in the chart doesn’t help ‘up and coming’ bands as the avenues of their music entering the charts are made so complicated anyway. Not to say that it can’t be done, but it does leave the recording industry exclusively bracketed in regard to the charts. A band can still make it in the charts through their own avenues now without a label needing to back them, especially in the digital world where distribution is that much simpler.

Maybe the ‘Radiohead effect’ will truely kick in (that being the pay what you want self release route), maybe the charts may eventually become redundant despite enveloping this new forward thinking…still with the rhetorical questioning? Maybe that’s the way charts are going to be for a long time to come…

Last night (15th June), we held our first live event prior to the launch of the site (which, for those impatient few) will be very soon…In association with Bugbear, the night featured five fantastic musical acts from the player on our site and all went down an absoloute storm!

Kicking the night off with a heady mix of ingeniuty and eccentricity was The Amazing Rolo. Kid iD followed up brilliantly with their brand of orchestral folk goodness, China Red (two members short) kicked off the first true boogy of the evening and Our Lost Infantrymade us swoon with their lush alternative stylings. The night was rounded off perfectly with Hella Cholla, our first featured artist, who put in a fantastic performance of new material, and even threw in a little Britney to emphasise their greatness! Keep an eye out people…

Massive thanks have to go out to Dublin Castle peeps and Bugbear Promotions who helped us put this great night together, and of course to those of you who came along and made it a really great launch for the site! We hope you had as good a time as we did!

Also, photos and other ‘tidbits’ are constantly being uploaded onto our Twitter feed, and also soon on the site as well, so watch out for those.

It certainly won’t be the last night we put together so keep uploading those tracks of yours as we’ll be back very soon with another win on the live music stakes!

Thanks and love

The MY-UM Team xxx

What a fun few days we have had in the myUM camp! Our first ever myum vodcast was a huge success. It was a crazy day with people playing, rehearsing, learning lines and drinking in all corners of the beautiful Dean Street studios. Thank you so much to Jazz and Ben for allowing us to basically have an enormous party to celebrate our launch. Big thank you’s must also go to Marsha Shandur and Pete Donaldson for presenting so wonderfully, making the whole thing run so smoothly and for abandoning Radio for the night and interviewing our artists on camera!

It all kicked off with Hella Cholla giving a stomping version of their new song ‘Battle Cries’ and finished with Hope and Social getting a very merry audience to play cazoos along to a their anthem ‘Buzzer Goes’. The whole night decended into a lot of singing round the piano-all fuelled by Rory’s potent cocktails-thank you Rory.

Thanks as well to Tristan and his Elegant Production team for holding things together and we can’t wait to see the aesthetic wonder of it all on our site, which will be coming very soon! And of course, thanks to those of you who came with merriment to this wonderful thing and we hope to see you at the next one!

Much Love

The my-um Team xxx

So one of the key elements of my-um.com (as we hope you all know by now!) is going to be a vodcast featuring my-um artists. It will be presented by some fantastic, established hosts and will also feature interviews with the bands and industry figureheads that we have attending.

We have just confirmed the brilliant Marsha Shandur as host as well! Her work with XFM is well reputed, with her knowledge and lust for new music driving her work. Anyone interested in Marsha can subscribe to her mailer here – http://www.marshashandur.com/lists/?p=subscribe

And so to name and by no means shame our first featured artists for the vodcast…

HELLA CHOLLA – www.myspace.com/hellacholla

and

HOPE AND SOCIAL – www.myspace.com/hopeandsocial

Both bands will play a couple of songs in the intimate surroundings of Dean Street Studios to a number of very influential folk, as well as, obviously, to all visitors of my-um.com.

As well as all this goodness, we will have a special interview with Darren Henderson, head of Compass Management and former Senior Vice President of Sony BMG. We’ll be discussing the launch of the site woith him, which is now posted in for early July, and talking about the industry in general and how the site will aim to benefit new artists in finding their way aroound said industry.

We’ll be filming all of this in the next couple of weeks and it will be available for viewing with the launch of the site!

Exciting times indeed!

Remember to come and support us at the Dublin Castle show on June 15th, featuring our featured artist Hella Cholla with China Red, Kid Id and Our Lost Infantry

Hello all!

First things first…a big THANK YOU to all those of you who have signed up to our MY-UM holding page and to all the bands that have uploaded their tracks onto our player. We have a great amount of different music to listen to, and from all this amazing music we have compiled the line up for our launch night!

As you can probably see from the beautiful poster above, the first bands to play our MY-UM night in association with Bugbear are…

HELLA CHOLLA

CHINA RED

KID ID

OUR LOST INFANTRY

PLUS SPECIAL GUEST – THE AMAZING ROLO

We’re really chuffed with the line up and congratulations to those bands who were chosen. For those who weren’t, don’t worry there’s much more to come from MY-UM that is going to be very handy for you all!

Info packs and all things MY-UM will be available on the night with some little gifts thrown in.

Doors are at 8pm, 15th June of course and the door price is £6

For discounted entrance print out this e-flyer and bring along with you to The Dublin Castle on the night.

For Industry and Press guestlist please contact faye@underdogsonline.com.

We really hope to see you all there!
Cheers

The My-Um Team
xxx

We have had a couple of queries in the last week or so from a few cautious souls about the safety of uploading their tracks to the My-Player.

We would like to assure you that by uploading a track you are committing to nothing, no-one can download it or remove it from the site, you retain 100% ownership, we won’t exploit it etc etc etc.

None of your data is shared with anyone outside of the UM administration team and all of your rights are protected.

The purpose of the holding page is simply to create a great little community of bands and music lovers, a lovely player full of great tunes for people to listen to and enjoy, and a bit of banter via Twitter and the WordPress blogs.

When we are ready to launch the full site you will all get an email with full information about the site, asking if you want to get involved.  We can assure you that absolutely nothing will happen without your permission.

It would be great to see you on here plus get your tracks up by 15th May 2009 and you could be playing at the official my-UM launch party in London town.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you have any other queries.

Bye for now.

The my-UM Team xx

Under the  monicker of ‘Make Online Music Play’, the conference will hold discussions on how ISP’s can help the industry (predominantly the fight against piracy), as well as show examples of prominent digital industries based online and how to exploit social media channels based on the internet.

With Feargal Sharkey at the helm, it should be almost guaranteed that the feeling of community and communication between all factions should take precedence. Having fronted legendary Irish punk band the Undertones, he may not have held the most friendly of demeanors, but his efforts within the industry since the bands dissolution have been vital to its inclusive nature.

Now heading UK Music (an organisation representing the collective interests of the UK’s commercial music industry), Sharkey has become a prominent figure in the rights of the UK Music Industry. He recently took public evidence to the Culture, Media and Sport Committee regarding discrimination within the proposed Form 696, a risk assessment to be carried out by venues in the London boroughs which had to include private information regarding not only the artists’ personal details but a description of the sort of attendance and ethnicity that the demographic of the artist consists of.

From a personal point of view, and I’m sure for any of you reading this here blog, Form 696 seemed to be an abhorrent characterisation of different areas and groups within the industry, whether they be artist or fan. So, for that alone, Sharkey should be championed in making the community point known and adhered to.

But online music is a completely different beast. Record companies have been suffering from the profligacy of illegal download sites (as you can read about in Bob Leftsetz’s brilliant blog on the site….read that as well!), and for them to survive, adaptation is absolutely essential. Not only that, but the recording industry’s collapse could be of massive benefit to a number of uprising music sources (*cough* *cough*), and that in itself will only further the community feeling and formation of unions within the industry, and help it to prosper.

And people shout out Obama for being a socialist…tut tut…

We are looking for new, up and coming animators, film makers, producers and broadcasters to create short pieces for our broadcasting platform.

Based on the ideals or concept of the MY-UM project itself, using MY-UM as any kind of starting point, or creating Music based documentaries, radio shows, music videos or interviews, we would love to see and hear what you are up to and what you are passionate about.

As well as using your content in the broadcasting launch of our site in July, we are also working on our own Vodcasts and Podcasts presented by established radio and TV presenters, starting with Marsha Shandur from XFM.
Including a live performance and interview from Dean Street Studios our team are offering a unique opportunity for YOU to come and join in the production, filming and broadcasting of these shows.

For your chance to get involved, send us your pieces at the email below.
Send links, files or info of your MY-UM project and we’ll get back to you about programming opportunities and finalists!

If you need to post work, send to our studio at the address below.

Thanks and we can’t wait to see your work!

hello@my-um.com

Dean St Studios

Dean Street

London

W1d 6AN

www.deanst.com

So let me get this straight.  The Pirate Bay shuts down and suddenly all its users go legit, stop trading and start buying the wares of the entertainment companies.  What did Roger Daltrey sing in the Who’s “Naked Eye”?  IT DON’T REALLY HAPPEN THAT WAY AT ALL?

I sympathize with the rights holders.  Their wares are being stolen.  But didn’t they sue Napster ten years ago?  Did that help record sales?  We’ve learned how this works, you shut down one service and then a bunch of new ones crop up, and the RIAA is bad at playing Whack-A-Mole.

I get it, it’s the legal theory/precedent.  But wasn’t that the rationale behind the Napster suits?  Establishing the law?  So now we’ve established the law in Sweden.  Where next, Afghanistan?  Cuba?  North Korea?  You can put a server anywhere.  And the Pirate Bay is appealing and shows no willingness to shut down.

No, the only solution is new services that people want.  But this requires a change in headspace.  The rights holders must realize that the old business they used to love is kaput.  There won’t be diamond selling superstars, but a bunch of niches.  Kill the Pirate Bay and suddenly U2 doesn’t sell 10 million copies of their new album, Eminem doesn’t dominate like he did a decade ago.  You probably don’t even grow any new revenue.  So until you realize that you’re living in a changed landscape, you can’t strategize for the future.

The game of charging a high price of admission is working about as well as MySpace Music.  iMeem is failing, burdened by payments to rights holders, and MySpace has got a user interface akin to Windows 3.0.  If you can find what you’re looking for on MySpace Music, you’re a better surfer than me.

As a matter of fact, the Pirate Bay verdict isn’t even the biggest story this week.

Actually, there are three big stories this week.  Amazon, Domino’s and Susan Boyle.

Amazon’s flaws, keeping gay books out of the search results, became a raging story on Twitter.  As did the Domino’s employees mucking up the company’s food.  And then Susan Boyle went on to become the biggest superstar in music today.

The lunatics are running the asylum.  It’s no longer a top-down world.  If you want to succeed, you have to realize you’re in PARTNERSHIP with your audience/consumers.  It’s the only way out.  There are a million cops, looking to bust you for the heinous policies you used to employ every day.  And these same teeming masses decide who is a star, not radio or other traditional gatekeepers.

How long would it take for radio to go on Susan Boyle?  You’d need SET-UP!  The record would have to be tested!  But none of this interference is run on the Web.  You can get an instant spike on YouTube.

Sure, Susan Boyle sprang from the platform of “Britain’s Got Talent”, but they don’t air that show in the U.S. and my inbox was burning up moments after she appeared on the show.  That’s how fast you can make a star today.

Will she last?

Well, she’s got the requisite CV of a star.  She’s an outsider, a virgin who’s never been kissed.  She was dissed by her schoolmates.  She’s not a Barbie.  The same people suing the Pirate Bay are the ones who are foisting unreasonable “stars” on the public, less and less successfully.  The public knows it’s cookie-cutter, that you’ve got to be beautiful and have true desire.  Talent?  The handlers will take care of that.

The public saw something in Susan Boyle.  The same thing they see in James Hetfield.  Somebody who’s not playing by the rules, who believes in himself.

For all the bullshit about the end of civilization, the death of record companies and newspapers, those of us not employed by these entities, sans the blinders, view this as the most exciting period of our lives.  Suddenly, the Davids have power.  Our lone voice now means something.  Truth holds sway in a way it has not previously.  It’s no longer who you know, but how good you are.  Anybody can be a reporter, he just has to show up at the city council meeting and write down what happened.  Meanwhile, the newspaper has cut that staffer and TV news doesn’t do any reporting anyway.

The public is hungry for music.  That’s what all that trading on the Pirate Bay is about.  The key is to figure out how to satiate this desire, not combat it.

The TV companies came up with Hulu.  Spotify’s pretty damn good.

Bring Spotify to the U.S.  License others with innovative distribution systems.  Don’t try to get back to where you once belonged, but perceive that the past is truly history, and that if you want to survive, you’re going to have to morph your company and yourself.

Selling at Wal-Mart was a start.  But CDs are dying.  Trent Reznor is innovating outside the major label system.  Same deal with Josh Freese.  Metric may have sold bupkes, but the band made a lot of money.  And isn’t that what the labels care about, money?

There’s a ton of money to be made.  Not by driving people to the past, but living in their neighborhood and realizing, just like parallel computing, the collective consciousness is smarter than the individual.  Universal Music can’t beat the Pirate Bay, can’t beat the public, it’s IMPOSSIBLE!  Universal can only try to join the fray, reinventing itself along the way.

We’re not building stars, we’re building careers.  That’s where the money has always been.  Maybe right now the percentage of revenue is higher in tour grosses and merch, but don’t fight this, know that gas stations used to be full serve, you sent a letter, not an e-mail, you bought an album and played it to death because you couldn’t AFFORD more music!  We’re not going back to the days of scarcity.  Stop trying to jawbone the public into the past.  Stop laying your album-length opuses on people who don’t care.  Give us more Susan Boyles, who don’t have a fake bone in their body, who own their identity, who follow their path so independently, that we follow them. 

Susan Boyle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY

Metric: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ct-music16-2009apr16,0,7581416.story

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