Music Business Blog

Birth of the Cool: 20 Black Style Pioneers Style: GQ.com

The record industry fights its corner in the download age Far from facing extinction, the record industry is still a vital cog in the music-making machine, claims a report. But will the working relationship between artist and label ever be the same? (2) Tweet this (15) Comments ( 18 ) A time for reflection … major labels such as EMI insist they still have a role to play in the internet era. Photograph: Martin Argles Record labels have been on the receiving end of much criticism lately. They've been criticised for heavily lobbying those involved in passing the digital economy bill , accused of greediness, of being dinosaurs, of being unwilling to embrace the internet, of treating artists unfairly – even of being obsolete. Now they're fighting back in an attempt to justify their existence. A report published this week by IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry), claims that record companies invest $5bn (£3.3bn) a year worldwide in art...

Ok Go Singer Explains How Lack Of Embedding Videos Hurts Everyone from the embed-me dept As he's done before , Ok Go's lead singer Damian Kulash has taken to the NY Times Op-Ed pages to discuss the fact that his own record label seems a bit clueless . Basically, he's repeating what he said a few weeks ago on the band's website, claiming that YouTube only pays royalties on videos streamed on site, rather than embeds (someone from YouTube told me this is untrue, but when asked for specific confirmation I got no response). However, what is interesting, is that Kulash highlights two things: Their original video (the treadmills one) was made entirely on their own outside of EMI's influence, and the success of that video has helped make EMI and the band a lot of money : In 2006 we made a video of us dancing on treadmills for our song "Here It Goes Again." We shot it at my sister's house without telling EMI, our record company, and posted it on the fledgli...

More Charts The Record Labels Don't Want You To See: Swedish Musicians Making More Money from the artists-are-doing-better-than-ever dept We've already discussed the research on the UK music industry that shows both that live revenue is more than making up the decline in recorded revenue and that musicians themselves are making more revenue than ever before. Some people have suggested that this is a UK-only phenomenon, but a worldwide study found the same thing as well. And, now it looks like the same is being found in Sweden as well -- home of The Pirate Bay, which we keep being told is destroying the industry. Swedish indie record label owner Martin sends in the news on data from the Swedish music industry, which looks quite similar to the UK data . First, it shows that while there was a tiny dip in overall revenue, it's back up to being close to it's high, mostly because of a big growth in live music: Chart by Daniel Johansson Basically, recorded r...

Sky Hi Studios is Renting Its Greenscreen Film Studio for $50 An Hour There is a revolution taking place in South Florida’s film industry. Sky Hi Studios, the little studio that could, is offering its full green screen chroma key film studio to the film and production community for as little as $50 per hour, including lights. This ridiculously low price is virtually unheard of in the film industry. Typically film studios rent for upwards of $1,000 per day and more and that does not include lights. Additionally you have to pay extra for the green backdrop. This revolutionary offering has already made a big difference for many production companies and aspiring filmmakers in South Florida over the past year. Sky Hi also rents professional HD cameras for as little as $50 a day, which is less than one fourth the cost of a typical camera rental house. Sky Hi Studios has played host to Power 96’s DJ Laz and their 411-Pain client. ...

Perry's greatest accomplishment has nothing to do with business By Andy Segal CNN ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Tyler Perry is known today as the first African-American to own a major film and TV studio. He's a pioneer whose own life story is a rags-to-riches tale that reads like a screenplay. Tyler Perry is the first African-American to own a major film and TV studio. Now a writer, actor, director and producer -- Perry's success grew out of a troubled home in a poor neighborhoo...

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- Boris Kodjoe owns a mansion in Atlanta. But when he goes to answer his door, the black actor knows what it's like to be an outcast. ...