Monsters And Pirates

April 30, 2012 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services

The one-year-old band Monster Cat has decided to put their new album Mannequins up for free downloading on The Pirate Bay.

“You downloaded our album off Pirate Bay? Did it work? We hope it did,” asked RJ (going by the pseudonym Psycho Cat) – the alternative folk-rock outfit’s guitarist and vocalist. Monster Cat had posted the link to The Pirate Bay on their official Monster Cat site.

LOUD’s download made the band happy. The five tracks album – a mix of folk-rock tracks – is free for download. The album includes original wallpaper artwork, a 15% discount to their merchandise and a well-packaged CD.

The following question comes to mind: why a self-funded album of original music (that costs each member of the band a four-figure sum) is available on what Los Angeles Times called “the world’s largest facilitator of illegal downloading”?

“As artistes, it’s worse not to get heard. This is a chance for us to get heard by an international audience,” said guitarist and lead vocalist Wang (aka Hentai Cat), who added that the band sold 450 CDs and 150 digital downloads before linking up with the site.

“The Pirate Bay has a promotional mechanism called The Promo Bay (you can read more about it here). They open it up to anyone and everyone who wants to promote their film or music,” he said.

“So the band wrote in”, said bassist Syai (aka Copy Cat), and the site asked its own Facebook group what they thought of Monster Cat.

After getting a positive response, the band’s album photo took the front page on PirateBay’s for three days. It is yet considered an unconventional solution, but many of us believe this is the future of entertaining; the band feels that this kind of advertising has worked out so far. In addition, Wang said that the traffic to their official site went up – 150.000 hits over the three days since their launch on TPB.

While the band members have no business background thus far, they agree that a business boost is essential since digital downloading is changing the patterns of music distribution, ownership and purchasing.

“As musicians, I think we should always take note of digital culture and how it’s always changing and shaping consumer habits. To us, file sharing is one of those things that is part of reality and we have to learn how to cope with it and see the opportunities…,” said RJ.

“…and co-exist with it,” said Wang, completing his sentence.

If you like the band, go to www.monstercat.net to obtain more information, and also you can check out www.loud.sg for their newly released music video – Underwater.

Tags: digital music, file sharing sites, file-sharing, The Pirate Bay

FileQu: A Steppingstone for Freelancers, Artists and Small Businesses

April 7, 2012 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, File-Sharing Programs, Networks & Services

FileQu is a newly launched web based file-sharing slash storage platform that’s decided to build a communications bridge between freelancers, artists, and small businesses and everyone else using the internet.

Developed by Bonheur Media, the platform is a fully customizable file-sharing system which allows its users to easily and securely upload, store, and share files with anyone. And by fully customizable, we mean that you can add your company’s logo, chose colors and themes, everything to make your small business look the way you want it to.

FileQu is using an improved method of sharing files, and not only that, but you don’t have to install a program on your computer to view or upload files, as everything is done through your account.

That’s not all!

“We have incorporated an easy-to-use e-mail sharing system which allows you to invite and share files with a user outside of your account sending a secure link to that person via e-mail for instant file downloads” said Bonheur Medias’s CEO and FileQu founder Ignacio Garcia-Huidobro.

“This system even allows you to set an expiration date on the invitations you send out! When the invitation expires the invitation will no longer be valid and the invited user will no longer be allowed to view the file. We believe you will be completely satisfied!”

If you sign-up now, FileQu is offering a discount – $4.99 a month, 100GB storage limit and 2GB upload limit, Unlimited User and Client Accounts, and Personal Image Branding.

Tags: digital music, file sharing service, file sharing sites, file-sharing

Turntable.fm Turns the Tables in its Favor: Signs Contract With 4 Major Labels

March 20, 2012 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry

On Tuesday, at the SXSW festival Turntable.fm made the big announcement through co-founders Billy Chasen and Seth Goldstein: the company has signed licensing deals with all four major labels during a panel called “Turntable.FM: The Future Of Music Is Social”

If your dream is to be a DJ, Turntable.fm may be the place to start as it offers a chance to a handful of users to mix up for more than 200 listeners in virtual rooms, each having its own musical theme. Besides that, DJs can choose from a catalog provided by MediaNet, or even upload their own work, whether it’s something they’ve recorded or a bespoke remix.

As such, due to the nature of these services the licensing process was complicated. Before having any licenses signed, the service obtained $7.5 million in funding from Union Square Ventures and a positive feedback from both the press and the public. However, signing with the record labels was mandatory, if the service should survive the rough and unpredictable cyberspace.

“We went into it without being worried about [licensing]. I didn’t, and still don’t know what the DMCA [Digital Millennium Copyright Act] stands for,” said Goldstein.

“We didn’t know about the restrictions, the per-play rates, international [licensing differences], and the publishers, and the PROs [Performing Rights Organizations] — it was all gobbledegook … Intellectually, it [was] a huge challenge to navigate through a lot of these partnerships and label negotiations.”

Aided by digital music lawyer Debbie Newman, Goldstein and Chasen turned Turntable into a legitimate and hopefully profitable business. The service has already launched a mobile application for iPhone and iPad, so that you can listen to your favorite DJs wherever you go.

Tags: digital music, music industry

Garbage’s New Single in 7 Years Released for Free Download

March 18, 2012 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Downloads, Entertainment Industry, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games

Back in January, Garbage, the female-fronted alternative rock band that took the charts by storm in 1995 with the release of their self-titled debut album, announced the launch of their record label, Stunvolume under which they planned to put out their fifth studio album.

Titled ‘Not Your Kind of People’ the band’s highly anticipated album will be released May 15, seven years after their last release ‘Bleed Like Me’.

There’s also a little treat for Garbage fans – the band has made their new single ‘Blood for Poppies’ from the upcoming album available as a free download on the their official website – www.garbage.com. The single will be also released as a vinyl limited edition.

Tags: digital music, free downloads, free music downloads

Last.fm And Musicmetric Shake Hands to Offer Artist Analytics Integration

March 16, 2012 by Yonah · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games

UK’s Last.fm has recently announced its intentions to do business with data and analytics platform Musicmetric, integrating the latter into the Last.fm Music Manager.

Also located in Great Britain, Musicmetric offers tools for a better perspective on consumer behaviour to the people working for the music industry. It does that by drawing its power from p2p networks, review websites, comments and social networks, gathering data from as many sources as possible.

On the 13th this month Last.fm announced the integration at the SXSW Festival in Austin, Texas. Having Musicmetric merged with Last.fm’s platform will let artists track fans, plays and views across several online music and social platforms, including Last.fm, SoundCloud, Twitter and so on, and integrate third party analytics from Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and soon to be added YouTube Insight. Furthermore, artists will have the chance to upgrade to Musicmetric’s Premium version for $5,99/month.

Last.fm was founded in 2002 and acquired by CBS in 2007. Currently it has about 40 million users spread across 200 countries. It offers new music and personalised radio and concerts to its users, while keeping a record of your listening behaviour from over 600 music players.

“By integrating Musicmetric’s analytics dashboard into Last.fm’s Music Manager, we’re now able to offer artists and labels access to improved data and information surrounding their fans social media presence and listening habits across the Web,” said Tom Lisack, Vice President, Content & Artist Relations, CBS Interactive Music Group.

“Last.fm’s purpose is to help emerging artists and this integration gives them unprecedented access to the tools they need to succeed online.”

Through Last.fm Music Manager, artists can promote their work by uploading tracks to Last.fm, access a record about who’s listening to their music, manage their profile and offer free track downloads. As for Musicmetric, they’ve launched a Musicmetric Pro version, featuring sentiment analysis and TV-appearance tracking.

“This integration is our first step into opening access for emerging artists to the kind of analytics previously only available to major companies,” said Gregory Mead, Musicmetric’s CEO.

“Having an idea of where fans are engaging with music by an artist, and where they can grow their level of visibility both online and offline is so essential to new or unsigned bands trying to cut through the noise today.”

Tags: digital music, last.fm, music industry