Put whatever corporate Natta-isms you want on the message (“to transform and refine our international growth strategy”), cutting 66% of its international staff and closing four of its international offices means that MySpace has to finally confront its inability to be a leader in social networking and not skirt the issue by placing blame on [...]
Move over Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, EMI and Sony Music Entertainment. If you are making it tough for indie artists to get exposure in the charts, there’s a new sandbox for them to play in.
Two new charts will launch this month geared toward rising artists affiliated with indie labels. Indie labels in England [...]
The Swedish court removed all concerns that Pirate Bay trial judge Norstrom was biased because of his affiliations with pro-copyright organizations, a charge the defendants made against him in their request for a retrial. The Swedish court, led by Judge Eka (who does not preside over copyright-related trials), was emphatically unanimous, basing their decision on [...]
Pending what could be a lengthy appeal, at least the recent guilty verdict issued in the Pirate Bay case by a Swedish court is a sign that action is being taken against P2P piracy, including precedent-setting jail time (the longest levied under Swedish copyright law) for the administrators of the site. If France can get [...]
Neilsen SoundScan data presented at NARM was distressing, to say the least: of the 105,575 albums released last year, less than a thousand sold more that 25,000 copies. And, sales of new releases dropped 18%. The 50,000 digital-only albums racked up less than 2% of all the newly-released album sales.
Indie artists tallying up their recording, [...]
Over 400 folks will lose their jobs at MySpace in a 30% reduction in employees positioned by Van Natta as a restructuring across divisions to create innovation and efficiency.
Let me extend my heartfelt empathy to anyone who’s lost their job in this souring economy. It’s tough to be out of work when the bills come [...]
Hi and welcome to my Music Quench blog! I’m looking forward to the opportunity to converse with you about the latest developments in the music industry and to find out what you’re up to with your own music.
We created Music Quench as a new online home for indie artists where you can connect with our [...]