Professional Amplifier Cabinet Restoration Services Continue to be Offered By Mojo Musical Supply™ For those with cherished amplifier cabinets that have seen better days, Mojo Musical Supply™’s restoration services can bring their cabinets back to life.

Indie Labels Are Now Heavily Dependent on Major Label Distribution…Digital Music News – Report: Indie Labels Are Now Heavily Dependent on Major Label Distribution…

Why SoundExchange Will Soon be Forced to Play Fair… Digital Music News – Why SoundExchange Will Soon be Forced to Play Fair…

* Just a numbers game? SoundExchange is now trumpeting cumulative artist and label payouts of $1 billion, a hefty number indeed.  That includes a current quarterly payout rate of more than $100 million, but how much is still sitting in SoundExchange’s bank account, unmatched or otherwise unpaid?  The New York Times says $132 million in unpaid cash was floating on the books as of 2010; IRS forms suggest more than $305 million for that year.  When we asked for up-to-date figures, SoundExchange president Michael Huppe said ‘thank you for your interest’ (seriously) before dumping us onto a press person.  Who then told us we’d get the information later…

* Are you connected?  We’ve been testing Qualcomm Atheros’ Skifta system over the past few days with some frustrating results.  The mobile- and app-based entertainment control system unifies PCs, Sonos, and IPTVs into one uber-app interface, though the theoretical niceties quickly crash into practical roadblocks.  We’ll keep testing; an updated version is on the way.

* Speaking of Sonos, the company has just landed a monstrous, $135 million funding round.  KKR, Redpoint Ventures and Elevation Partners are leading, with $45 million earmarked for product development and $90 million apparently designated for various executives and stakeholders to cash out their positions.  Separately, the company is showcasing its latest zone peripheral, the SUB, at its LA-based ‘Sonos Studio’ on La Brea in Los Angeles.

* But wait: this is some fly hi-fi hardware, but are you getting walled in with your Sonos?  AOL defined the early ‘walled garden’ of the internet, but it seems like a similar situation is emerging with networked stereo and entertainment systems. A lingering gripe about the svelte WiFi-connected Sonos system is that it refuses to amplify your own laptop speakers – which means that the vast range of audio coming from the interwebs can’t be ported throughout those home ‘zones’.

* Spotify is now layering a free, new-and-improved radio experience into its iPhone and iPad apps.  That includes very Pandora-like thumbs up and thumbs down functionality; we’re awaiting word on whether this is still the Echo Nest powering.

* Oh, there’s another ‘billion’ floating around, this time for Eventbrite.  The ticketing disruptor has now sold one billion tickets since inception, according to details shared today.

* Sean Parker was a no-show for New Music Seminar (#NMS2012) in New York on Monday, though big names like Lyor Cohen, Bob Pittman, and John Sykes made the gig.  Cohen urged labels to support one another, defended the 360-degree deal, and pointed to the CD as a format that kept executives ‘sleepy and retarded’…

* A few hundred miles south, the Library of Congress is now ingesting a massive ‘treasure trove’ of artist and industry executive interviews.  The voluminous audio collection of over 200 interviews, compiled by retired music executive Joe Smith, includes chit-chats with Artie Shaw, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Barbra Streisand, Little Richard, Bob Dylan, Paul McCartney… you get the idea.

* Blame electronica?  Electric Daisy Carnival is now on the defensive after two Carnivalers died in Vegas last week.  But both happened outside of the event walls itself: one involved a drunken run-in with a truck (guess who won); the other an ecstacy-inspired freefall from the 27th floor of a Strip hotel.  Separately, Pasquale Rotella, head of EDC promoter Insomniac, faces a raft of charges in Los Angeles loosely related to the overdose of a teenage attendee.

* Songza is enjoying quite the moment, but will it last?  The well-curated playlister scored a million iOS installations in just 10 days; now the media is starting to gush over their newfound upstart.  Actually, these are some pretty good playlists, hype-bubbles a

Country Music Legend Mickey Gilley Talks up New Book “Unconquered” Country Music Legend and the Original “Urban Cowboy” Mickey Gilley Talks up new book “Unconquered: The Saga of Cousins Jerry Lee Lewis, Jimmy Swaggart, and Mickey Gilley” with author J.D. Davis. Publishers Weekly calls “Unconquered” an “entertaining and epic story of perseverance and the power of family ties.

ey kids: circumvention doesn’t pay! And with that, YouTube video-to-download upstart clip.dj is now toast.  This looks like a self-imposed shutdown, though the quickly-rising circumvention tool is now supremely inoperable.  And, this may have been prompted by a YouTube nastygram and general clampdown on the circumvention space.  Earlier this week, Torrentfreak reported that Google was threatening to take action against popular video-to-mp3 conversion site youtube-mp3.org.

* Face it, you’re getting acquired.  It’s unclear whether the acquisition spree will continue, though Facebook has just acquired Face.com for a reported $100 million.  Face.com powers some creepy/controversial facial recognition features for Facebook; the company indicated that the buyout was largely a talent and technology grab (just like pre-IPO old times).

* Felony charges are now being levied against one-time Curtis Management chief financial officer Rickey Charles Goodrich.  That’s Pearl Jam’s management group; Goodrich is charged with bilking the group of nearly $400,000, according to local reports.

* Beatport has just launched Beatport Mixes, a service that allows DJs to upload their mixes while paying associated rightsholders.  Sounds ambitious and simultaneously unenviable; Beatport is also promising 10 percent back to the mixing DJ.

Norton and Noteflight to Offer Online Music Theory Workbook W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. partners with Noteflight to offer interactive student workbook for its college text “Musician’s Guide to Theory and Analysis, 2nd Edition.”

* Senate deliberations over the proposed UMG+EMI marriage begin tomorrow.  The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights will be chit-chatting with the likes of Lucian Grainge, Irving Azoff, and Edgar Bronfman, Jr., the webcast starts at 1:30 pm EST.

* Separately, Universal has received a formal Statement of Objections from the European Competition Commission.  That could prompt more concessions; UMG indicated that a detailed response is being prepared.

* There’s more on VEVO, including a curious plunge in traffic as reported by comScore.  Year-over-year uniques slipped 20.1 percent to 48.3 million in May, from 60.4 million in May of last year; time spent watching has also nearly halved over that period.  Other measurements, including compete.com, tell a different story.

* Karaoke is heading towards the cloud, like everyone else.  And to discuss that we have the upcoming Karaoke Cloud Music City Summit in Nashville, slated for Friday.

More at karaokesummit.wordpress.com

* Is internet radio merely a feature, not a product? Such is the conjecture of abrasive BTIG analyst Richard Greenfield, who pointed to Spotify’s recently-retooled, app-ready radio relaunch as a major competitive threat to Pandora.  Spotify is now spinning radio as a free app, though major differences in how songs are selected – as well as total catalog – are worth noticing.

ArtistWorks Debuts Online Classical Guitar School with Virtuoso Jason Vieaux Revolutionary online “Classical Guitar School” provides everyday players unprecedented access to world renowned teacher

Beamz Interactive, Inc. Announces New Beamz Music Site Company Introduces New Site for Beamz Music and Content

The single, most important selling tool is your web site. Crafting your web site should be priority one in today’s economy. You are a musician. You make your living with music. Doesn’t it make common sense for you to find someone that understands the music world and the Internet?

Unfortunately, web sites are the most overlooked tool independent musician possess. Your web site represents you and your music, yet it is not the answer to all your problems. The amount of information on the Internet is beyond imagination. Your web site will add to that information. Your job is to make sure you are found. Once found it’s also your job to entice your possible super fan to stay for a while. Long enough to get to know you and hopefully fall in love with you.

You want your web site to be attractive and purposeful. Your purpose is to sell your music. You want them to revisit often to sell them more music. Sounds simple enough. Right?

The majority of web sites:

• load slowly

• have a navigation system almost impossible to figure out

• have yellow text on black background or some other awful color scheme

• have links taking your fan to another site

• welcome you with terrible background music

• ask for your e-mail address before they let you in

And the list goes on.

It doesn’t matter if you play country, rockabilly, heavy metal, French folk tunes, or anything else. Your web site has to be carefully organized, structured, and presented. In future posts I will help steer you in the right direction to accomplish this task. That’s why you are reading this. Right?

Back in the day music folks like Clive Davis and Ahmet Ertegün ran major record labels. They were music fans and loved music. They were not accountants. To me these were the golden days of music industry.

Well, times have changed. These days, beverage companies own major record labels. The industry is not so much about music any more. It’s about cloning. Major labels want you to believe that if you don’t sound exactly like the guy on Billboard Hot 100, you don’t have the slightest chance.

Yet with all their resources, they didn’t see the Internet affecting them until it did. This is the point where the playing field got level. They were in control on the street. They controlled distribution and publicity. They controlled what customers got to choose from in record stores.

In my opinion, the Internet is God’s gift to independent musicians. There are millions of people on the Internet looking for new music and ready to buy your music if they like it. While promoting music on the Internet may have been in the caboose ten years ago, it’s now driving the train. The best thing about the Internet is that you’re able to sell your music regardless of geography. You don’t have to live in New York in order to sell your music on 5th Avenue.

While these things are true. Fact is over ninety percent of music web sites fail to achieve the goal of selling music. The average web site sells less than 10 units a year, whether CD’s or downloads.

Is building a web site worth the effort? Emphatically, yes! Absolutely. Another fact: You have to know what you are doing. My partners and I have crafted quite a few web sites that are selling a stable 5-10 units a day! Our best-selling web site shipped over 3000 units last year.

We’ve discovered through years of research, experimenting and hard work. Yes, it took us a lot of trial and error. Nevertheless, it comes down to good old common sense.

Stop wasting your time! If you really want to make a living out of your music, quit dreaming of getting signed to EMI. Start selling your music on your own! You will not earn millions of dollars. But if you combine Internet marketing that works with touring and merchandising, you should make a decent living as an independent musician.

Good read: Want More People to Care About Your Music? Then Charge for It…  http://digitalmusicnews.com/permalink/2012/120526charge

Antigone Rising to Perform in Birmingham, AL at The Nick on Thursday, June 14 All female Country/Rock band Antigone Rising, recently returned from Israel and The West Bank, set to tour the Southeast with a stop in Birmingham, AL at The Nick on June 14. Special guests A Fragile Tomorrow will tour with them.

Spotify is spreading into multiple continents, but not the Middle East (at least not yet).  Which is where Anghami steps in.  The on-demand, mobile-leaning service is targeting Middle Eastern countries and audiences, with a blend of Western and local music.

Opt-ins, T&Cs, free trials, and other dangerous internet weaponry.  In response to lingering consumer complaints in Washington, former Rhapsody owner RealNetworks has now created a $2 million compensation fund to settle user complaints of unfair and deceptive charges.  ”Deceptive pre-checked boxes and fine print obligated consumers to not-so-free trials for subscription services they didn’t want in the first place,” Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna told Reuters.

Point, censorship.  Lady Gaga has now cancelled dates in Indonesia, based on stepped-up threats from Islamic extremists.  That follows word from Gaga manager Troy Carter that the show wouldn’t be toned down.  ”With threats if the concert goes ahead, Lady Gaga’s side is calling off the concert,” Minola Sebayang, an attorney for promoter Big Daddy told the Associated Press.

Amanda Palmer‘s hyper-successful Kickstarter campaign now kicking towards $1 million, easily a record-smashing result.  The question now is, can this be done again – and again – and again…?

Music-focused advertising group ToneMedia has just named Cliff Paulson as its new EVP of Sales and Marketing.  The ToneMedia ad platform contains more than 100 online music content and lyric publishers.

Annie, the remake? Emma Thompson is now writing the updated film version, with Jay-Z fittingly overseeing the music and contributing original tracks.  Willow Smith will play the lead, with Will Sr. producing.

Facebook is redoubling its efforts at creating a smartphone, according to a weekend report in the New York Times.  Engineering teams are being assembled, and a release by next year is planned, according to various sources.