901am

New Media News Every Morning

A cleaner music download site?

By Leave a Comment

PositiveMusicandDownloads.com, a web site devoted to positive, values-based music, has launched to fill a void in the music industry. Patterned after iTunes, songs can be downloaded to MP3 players or shipped through mail. Individual songs sell for 99 cents. CDs are priced between $8 and $16.95 and albums at $9.99.

“The site will have broad appeal to those who don’t like negotiating a landmine of questionable material on the typical download sites,” said Rust. “Too often the industry has dictated what type of music we should be listening too. Artists who have a more positive message can’t always get past music industry gatekeepers,” Gaylen Rust, founder of PositiveMusicandDownloads.com said.

Artists associated with major record labels as well as independent and emerging musicians are represented.

Originally posted on December 1, 2008 @ 6:00 am

UMG, Meebo bring real-time social interaction to music videos

By Leave a Comment

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Meebo have entered into an agreement to provide Meebo users with ad-supported videos from many of the most popular chart-topping artists in the world. The agreement will kick off by Meebo featuring artists Kanye West, Ludacris and The Killers at Meebo.com, where users will be able to view videos from the artists to promote their new albums. To augment the promotions, UMG will embed Meebo Rooms on official artist pages to enable real-time social interactions among fans.

The agreement with UMG creates opportunities for Meebo users to enjoy premium content and gives UMG access to premium promotional space to create significant online buzz for their artists. In addition to featuring new, hit videos on Meebo.com, UMG will utilize Meebo Rooms to enable real-time social interaction for fans visiting UMG artists’ official web properties. In the past, UMG has used Meebo Rooms to power a number of popular events, including an online listening party for Kanye West’s Graduation album and a live chat with hip-hop icon LL Cool J.

Originally posted on November 25, 2008 @ 7:27 am

Microsoft announces new subscription model for Zune

By Leave a Comment

Microsoft’s digital and entertainment music service Zune has forged agreements with major and independent music labels to bring new value to the subscription music model. The Zune Pass subscription service currently gives consumers on-demand access to millions of tracks for $14.99 per month. Starting today subscribers will also get to select 10 tracks per month to keep and add them to their permanent collection (an estimated $10 value).

Agreements have been signed between Microsoft and EMI Music, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group (UMG) and Warner Music Group, as well as independent distributors INgrooves, Independent Online Distribution Alliance and The Orchard. The Orchard delivers digital music, video and brand services globally, and represents labels including Barsuk Records (Nada Surf) and Fania Records (Hector Lavoe, Celia Cruz). IODA represents labels including Arts & Crafts (Broken Social Scene, The Stills) and Ghostly International (Matthew Dear, School of Seven Bells). The new enhanced subscription model came about as a result of close collaboration with all of these companies.

Zune Pass subscribers will have the added benefit of retaining digital rights management (DRM)-free MP3 tracks from Sony BMG and UMG, in addition to MP3 tracks from EMI Music, Warner Music Group and a large portion of the independent music labels. With the addition of tracks from UMG and Sony BMG, Zune will soon offer over 90 percent of its music in the MP3 format.

Originally posted on November 10, 2008 @ 4:41 pm

Dell, Universal Music Group to jump-start digital libraries with pre-loaded MP2 music

By Leave a Comment

Dell and Universal Music Group (UMG) teamed to provide a simple, economical way to jump-start a digital music library by pre-loading MP3 bundles on select new systems purchased on Dell.com. For the first time, individuals will now be able to select a variety of optional music bundles to be pre-installed on their new PC, creating highly personalized music collections right out of the box.

As part of this unique offering, Dell and UMG have created 50 and 100-song music bundles starting at $25, each of which includes a curated selection of MP3s for approximately half of current standard per track pricing.

Originally posted on October 24, 2008 @ 7:43 pm

IODA partners with MySpace Music

By 1 Comment

MySpace Music announced that IODA, one of the foremost digital distribution companies for the global independent music community, will provide its catalog of music to the recently launched MySpace Music. The addition of IODA will inject over one million new songs into MySpace Music’s growing indie catalogue.

Through this partnership, the MySpace Music community will be able to stream and purchase music from IODA’s rapidly expanding catalog of more than one million tracks from a diverse array of artists around the globe, ranging from established classics to modern up-and-comers. The IODA roster includes thousands of quality labels from over 50 countries, including leading names like Arts & Crafts, Ace Records, Nacional Records, Ghostly International, Bonnier Amigo, Cherry Red Records, Cooking Vinyl, Demon Music Group, Fat Cat Records, Kanine Records, Light in the Attic, Naïve, Premium Latin Music, Relapse and Rounder Records. MySpace Music will provide IODA labels and artists with access to powerful monetization opportunities for new untapped revenue streams while continuing to intimately connect with their fans.

Originally posted on October 25, 2008 @ 9:23 pm