Facebook Moves Into Music

Posted by the clay faces on 29 February 2008 at 11:09am in Unsigned Groups on the web

music on the web continues to get even more confusing - while the industry and web corps jostle for power, is there a danger that artists and bands will just get pissed off with the resulting fragmentation? this is where i see social networks like our cosy little unsigned chart family 'cleaning up'!

Facebook Moves Into Music

Facebook has now stepped up its music ambitions, though its biggest competitor may not be MySpace. On Thursday, the Palo Alto-based Facebook revealed its music section, which allows artists to create specialized profile pages. The pages include a collection of elements, including streamed content, paid downloads through iTunes, and merchandise sales through Musictoday.

That offers a direct challenge to longtime heavyweight MySpace, which hosts more than 8 million band pages. But Facebook users are already accustomed to viewing and interacting with their favorite artists, thanks to quickly-growing iLike. The made-for-Facebook application iLike currently houses half-a-million bands and nearly 22 million users, according to figures shared this week.

For many artists, that spells redundant profile pages, and potentially confusing situations. For Facebook, it spells overlapping business objectives, and potentially confusing pitches to artists. In a chit-chat with Digital Music News this week, iLike chief executive Ali Partovi acknowledged the issue, though like Facebook, Partovi's competitive focus is clearly MySpace. Meanwhile, bands may be uneasy about creating yet-another profile page, especially within the same network.

Article first published by Digital Music News.

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Keith Davis on 29 February 2008 at 12:38pm: Yes I read about FaceBook moving into music the other week, confusing, perhaps.
I wonder though where the outcome will lead us, where do people who want music go, with so many sites to trawl through to find what your looking for!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Dave Coroner on 1 March 2008 at 1:46pm: I have talked to loads of people about this for years, the idea that "the music industry" is losing its grip on up & coming talent because it didn't figure out quickly enough how to use the internet to its advantage.

However, the same thing that empowered musicians and producers (the freedom to distribute to a worldwide market through the internet) now stands a chance of being undermined by its self. As soon as web services such as facebook start turning their attention to the web based music market to try and cash in on the business without really looking into why its doing it, it will take traffic away from the sites which genuinley wish to promote up and coming talent.

Another perspective someone once put to me was, when all the social networking sites first started supporting music uploads, it gave listeners access to some great new music, but that there is a danger now that the listeners could start turning away from trawling through literally thousands of social networking sites which house millions of unsigned bands and artists because all of us can now produce and upload pretty much from the day we write our first songs, so there is no filter for music which doesn't yet make the grade... These listeners could land on my page, dislike what they hear, then go to 200 other pages and dislike what they hear and just think "sod this, I'll just go back to listening to the top 40 and let them tell me what to buy"

For all these reasons, I think places like facebook "cashing in" on the music traffic is a bad thing. Dedicated sites like this one are set up purely for the promotion of music, and every page you click on is a musician page, a discussion about music or an article about music, so people will always know why they're coming here and what they're going to get.

And finally, now this could really cheapen everything i have just sat typing for the last 20 minutes...

I hate face book, Its crap and irritating to use!!!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Keith Davis on 1 March 2008 at 2:19pm: "For all these reasons, I think places like facebook "cashing in" on the music traffic is a bad thing. Dedicated sites like this one are set up purely for the promotion of music, and every page you click on is a musician page, a discussion about music or an article about music, so people will always know why they're coming here and what they're going to get."

Your so right with this, people will start to wonder just where to go for music and it could all become so difficult to get your band and music found on the web.
We are building this site on the basis that it will highlight the top music and or band for that week and with the dynamics of changing stats will provide a good variety in the top 10 each week. At the same time we are going to be bringing on features which we will be looking at bands we think are doing well, or have released a track or two, that people are responding to so even if a band are not in the chart we will be bringing them to the fore with these features.

I spoke earlier this week with a member on here who is a music jounalist and she will be joining us and running features also on the chart bands, so hopefully apart from the chart itself people visiting this site will be able to see a great selection of music and so we can grab their attention, especially when we get people who simply think the "mainstream" chart is where the best music is and suddenly they see that unsigned bands on here are where the music is at.

Basically you have behind you in the unisgned chart a group of people who are very passionate about your music and also the live scene and who listen to 1000's of bands every year and actually scream about how good the music is to everyone they meet.

We know we have a huge task ahead to make this site work and there are a number of people hoping we go away silently..... I don't think so, we are independant, have no sponsors, no demographics we need to achieve in playing the music we think is great, this is the real thing, we are as much an "unsigned" music site as you'll get!

All the artists on here have proven how hard they work at getting their music across and it really gives me the hugest smile ever when I see a new song up and listen to it.... so please, please keep em coming :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Robert Watson on 2 March 2008 at 1:21pm: You're on target, Kevin.

The music business is in a terrible deep hole right now. Record companies are signing more fly by night people because of their looks instead of talent. Plus, record companies are afraid of the internet. Peace.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by the clay faces on 5 March 2008 at 11:30am: just following on a similar theme, there's a lot of talk amongst the new movers and shakers in the industry about "360 degree models" in terms of the next generation of the "record deal". basically i guess it means a more flexible contract taking into account things like merchandise, personal appearances, endorsements etc. yadda yadda yadda. it's all gonna end up at the same point, the companies will bleed the money out of the contract, the artist will be kept on a creative treadmill and the end user will still be force fed the same old same old...

and then there's the instances where the artist takes the bull by the horns and goes down the path of friendly lo-cost/no-cost independant digital sales; radiohead of course being the prime example at the moment. [incidentally, with regard to radioheads bust-up with the record company - it's testament to how clueless these new industry heads are that, in retaliation to the bands decision of how to handle sales of the new album, the petulant marketing dicks at the company quickly threw together a back catalogue boxset as competition to the album - and their retail partner/outlet of choice? next menswear! oh dear oh dear oh dear]

but i'll get to my point - anyone hear about trent reznor's idea for selling the latest nine inch nails album? for those who don't know, he basically set-up a website from where fans could download unmixed individual instrument tracks/takes in .wav format, whereby fans can produce/engineer/mix their own nine inch nails songs. pretty clever huh.
their is obviously a lawsuit going on with the record company disputing some copyright issues, however, the demand has been so huge for this d-i-y concept that reznor has made millions, practically overnight.

the following article courtesy of Digital Music News:

How To Make $750,000 Overnight

Trent Reznor is already counting his money from an online, direct-channel sales initiative. Reznor started selling the latest Nine Inch Nails album, Ghosts I-IV, online for a mix of free and paid. And according to the page, sales of the high-end, $300 premium packages are already sold out. The high-end option was limited to 2,500 copies. "We have SOLD OUT of the 2500 Limited Edition Packages," the site declared in bold red.

The development is a surprising twist to a quickly-unfolding, do-it-yourself sales experiment, one initially spearheaded by Radiohead. Radiohead also offered a high-end option, albeit at a far cheaper rate.

Meanwhile, Reznor has not disclosed early-stage results on other aspects of the initiative, though the artist businessman has been fairly open with results in the past. If the Radiohead experiment is a guide, Reznor will experience a high volume of free downloads, though paid transactions are already sending serious paychecks to the artist.

Article first published by Digital Music News.

food for thought, and an interesting up-yours to the so-called "360 deal"; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by the clay faces on 7 March 2008 at 11:13am: just can't leave this one alone can i? ah well, i talk to myself enough in real life, no reason why i shouldnt do it here!

anyway, i'm aware that folks are getting bored with my current love-hate obsession with a particular website by the name of slicethepie.com so, i'll spare you my opinions for once and just c&p this bulletin from the good folks at kerascene - please have a butchers, as it does make some very interesting points:

Slicethepie Releases First Album

Based on the concept that the wisdom of the crowd is greater than that of a handful of struggling record executives, Slicethepie. com releases its first project Monday, UK indie-rockers The Alps. Completely fan-funded yet professionally recorded and released, The Alps' 'Something I Might Regret' is positioned to compete in what the site calls "a climate of poor major label hit-rates and roster downsizing". Dave Allen (The Cure, Depeche Mode) produced and album that Slicethepie hopes "offers proof that great music and innovative business models can offer real hope for this troubled industry".

Saving the music industry is a lofty goal for a web site that serves as a financial intermediary between fans and bands. And while this may be the first fan funded full album release by Slicethepie, the band has already released two singles one dating back to 2006 with only limited success.

Unwilling or unable - we'll never know the truth - to garner a real label deal, The Alps are bankrolling this latest project via $10 "Backstage Passes" and other Slicethepie fan funding schemes. And despite taking a cut to broker the deal, Slicethepie offers artists a much higher royalty rate than traditional label deals and 100% ownership of their masters.

Fundamentally, Slicethepie believes it offers "proof that Radiohead's hugely successful self-release experiment can be replicated even by smaller artists, just so long as they have an established and dedicated fanbase." But how do they get that fan base? It's true that by connecting artists directly to fans, Slicethepie cuts out much of the value chain and give artists higher returns.

Even with cash in hand, can a band without infrastructure actually break through the clutter to reach any level of success? And while the wisdom of the crowd would seem greater than that found in the boardroom, its unclear that voting by PayPal is a better measure of fan commitment than fists in the air at a live performance.

Bands have been self funding for years - its called going on tour.

For decades bands have been selling tickets plus CD's and merch and in the process getting closer to fans than Slicethepie's crafty digital courtship. Sadly for The Alps, with Slicethepie, the story the world hears is the funding model and not the music. They didn't even bother to put the band's web site in the press release.

Article first published by Hypebot.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Keith Davis on 7 March 2008 at 11:21am: I think that made its own point very well, no Artist link!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by the clay faces on 19 March 2008 at 12:55pm: Pre-Loaded iPods?

Is Apple considering the sale of a pre-loaded iPod, similar to bundled concepts already in motion by Nokia and Omniphone in Europe? According to a Financial Times story surfacing this morning, preliminary discussions are underway. The report, which cites "executives familiar with the negotiations," pointed to a possible per-device payment to labels and rights owners. That fits into the broader umbrella of Total Music, a pre-packaged concept being spearheaded by Universal Music Group.

A successful negotiation could put Universal and other majors back into the digital music game, though per-device payouts present a sticking point. The Financial Times notes that Nokia ponies $80 (51 euros) to industry partners for each pre-packaged device, though Apple is offering just $20 (13 euros).

Whether Apple is seriously considering the concept remains highly questionable, and the leaks appear to be coming from the label side. The report noted that "detailed market research has shown strong appetite among consumers for deals bundling music with the cost of the device, or in exchange for a monthly subscription," recognizable major label talking points.

Article first published by Digital Music News.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by The Levings on 3 April 2008 at 12:40pm: We have a Facebook page which is generated automatically when you set up an ilike.com account. I have stuck a link to it on our myspace page and created a bulletin to let people know, however it has generated the sum total of F all. Waste of time really. Facebook are not set up to promote music so should have left it to those who are.; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Keith Davis on 3 April 2008 at 12:51pm: :); ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Peachy Beechy on 3 April 2008 at 12:56pm: I set up a page for the Clay Faces, we've got about 50 odd friends... and all of a sudden, it won't let me add any more?

Raaaabish!; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Lisa Gilman on 9 April 2008 at 1:39am: Jumping on this a bit late but new to the site and share some of the same feelings as you regarding Facebook. I set up a business page and I have found it utterly useless. They touted themselves as "business" because of some of the flack Myspace got but in truth, I find it not "right" for promoting music. I think Myspace has been in many respects, a great addition. Personally I have discovered a ton of artists that I likely wouldn't have heard. That said, the big downside is it's just sometimes too big, and as someone hear pointed out, you can go through a ton of pages before frustration sets in and you're back to what you always listen to or what might be more easily available. Meanwhile, Myspace has just signed a deal with three of the four remaining major labels to partner up online record labels after the majors realised it's do that or sink faster than the Titanic.

What they're missing and what I think a site like this so greatly benefits from is the fact it's managed by someone and streamlined. There is promotion involved and such. Myspace has the exposure potential but without people working it to make themselves known not just in the cyber world, but press, retail, radio, television etc., you do run the risk of being one of millions.

Will be interesting to see where things will lead in the future.; ▶ Reply to This