Morning Music Notes – Ringtones Will Save The Music Industry
Bye Bye Death Grips – Label Drops Them
I guess releasing music for free online and pissing off your record company is not the way to establish a career-long partnership. Epic Record have dropped Death Grips, noting “Epic Records is a music first company that breaks new artists. That is our mission and our mandate. Unfortunately, when marketing and publicity stunts trump the actual music, we must remind ourselves of our core values. To that end, effective immediately, we are working to dissolve our relationship with Death Grips. We wish them well” (via Pitchfork).
The band also shared (private) emails from the label on their Facebook page, adding to the lovely friendship established. The last time I shared private emails on my Facebook, Britney Spears freaked out and shaved her head.
Ringtones are Really Fucking Popular
People still purchase ringtones? I don’t know about Android devices, but you can easily make your own ringtones on the iPhone. If you were a big music geek, you could also assign bands based on your friends’ first names, which is what I did but who on Earth would do that? Anyway, if you think ringtones are soooo 2004 in terms of money making, you’re wrong.
Although not as popular in North America or Europe, ringtones are massively popular in both Africa and Asia. Speaking in Seoul on Wednesday, Midem CEO Bruno Corlot told an audience at MU:CON, “These ringtone revenues are still four times the revenues of these well-known streaming revenues. Of course we hear more about Rhapsody, Pandora, and Spotify than ringtone services, but at the end of the day, today, the business is still split with all kinds of products” (via Digital Music News).
Worldwide online music revenue in 2011 shows that 57.3% came from download services, 34.3% came from personalization services (aka ringtones), and only 8.4% came from subscription services, like your Spotify or Pandora. My ringtone is still Crazy Frog’s Axel F – that never gets annoying.
Kim Dotcom Puts Up a Splash Page, and Causes Website to Crash
Kim Dotcom’s Mega download site is going to launch in January – we already know this. However, a splash page has been set up in advance of the launch, and despite there being nothing there to see, the page became overloaded and crashed (via Slash Gear). Kim Dotcom is quite happy that the site is getting so many hits, despite not even being a proper site. He has also commented that FBI agents are visiting his site, as he tweeted “All FBI Agents pressing reload hahaha….. We see their IP addresses. LOL!!!”
LOL indeed. Kim’s new website will be hosted outside of the USA, and will also use an encryption service that they claim will not make them liable “if” people are uploading illegal material. Why else use Mega?!
Watch! Ben Gibbard – Teardrop Windows
You’ve already heard Teardrop Windows from the Death Cab for Cutie frontman. Apparently, Ben Gibbard thought an visual accompaniment would be nice, too. So here you go.
We get an intro very similar to when Will Sasso was the record exec and Sum 41 were the guys that he didn’t recognize, and tried to change their image. Okay, it’s exactly the same idea, except in this one, Ben is told to be a tough guy. Hello Jack Daniels! Start off your morning like Ben and I did, and grab a JD, and watch this video.
Ben Gibbard – Teardrop Windows
