Indie Labels Join MySpace Generation

Independent music companies, who produce artists including Arctic Monkeys and the White Stripes, agreed to start a licensing agency to generate sales from new media outlets such as MySpace and YouTube.

The London-based agency, called Merlin, will facilitate licensing new releases through a single point of contact, Charles Caldas, chief executive officer of Australia's Shock Records, said Saturday.

Advertising-supported Web sites and social-networking sites are providing the music industry with potential revenue streams as piracy and declining CD sales damage the industry's traditional business models.

Networking sites are an opportunity as they reach a huge community of music fans and offer new ways of marketing and selling, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said recently.

"Merlin will enable independents around the world to participate in new licensing and revenue models on competitive terms and give new services more direct access to their repertoire," said Caldas, who was at a music-industry conference in Cannes, France.

The number of tracks available online has doubled to more than 4 million in the past year, the federation said.

Comments

[electric7]

hmm...sounds revolutionizing. i wonder how it will turn out?

[beeboshain]

myspace was the worst thing to happen to music just a short cut to fame, you used to have to play live and get noticed and really shine but now thats gone

[mp3stalin]

beeboshain wrote:

myspace was the worst thing to happen to music just a short cut to fame, you used to have to play live and get noticed and really shine but now thats gone

umm so how is that bad? it's making it easier for good bands to get noticed... instead of being at the "right place right time" they just haveto get alot of hits on the internet to get popular

[funkynasoo]

yeh myspace helps my band out a tonne. http://myspace.com/furyuk

[Covin]

Myspace is like the 666 of our generation. Everyone has one. lol

[howrylak1]

Its good for small bands, bad for big ones.

[beeboshain]

mp3stalin wrote:

beeboshain wrote:

myspace was the worst thing to happen to music just a short cut to fame, you used to have to play live and get noticed and really shine but now thats gone

umm so how is that bad? it's making it easier for good bands to get noticed... instead of being at the "right place right time" they just haveto get alot of hits on the internet to get popular

nah its just thier not working for what they want, they just get it handed to em, and ive yet to see a band making it from myspace that appeals to me.

[mulletman500]

Myspace is good and bad. Good, for bands like the Arctic Monkeys (who I don't particularly like, but are deserving of at least some of the hype), but bad for promoting artists like Lily Allen and Sandi Thom who are completely overpublicised.

[chillie pepper]

^AMEN

[SonOfOsiris]

myspace is good, but myspace has killed the music industry

[Sappy Old Age]

beeboshain wrote:

myspace was the worst thing to happen to music just a short cut to fame, you used to have to play live and get noticed and really shine but now thats gone

Wall said

[TheNthDimension]

beeboshain wrote:

myspace was the worst thing to happen to music just a short cut to fame, you used to have to play live and get noticed and really shine but now thats gone

That's bad? I'm not a fan of some of the "indie" bands that have made themselves famous through Myspace but I'm always in support of a tool for spreading the music. People just have to learn to ignore the hype and listen to the damn songs sometimes...

[Slashrulz]

thanks to myspace i got to know really good bads, like explosions in the sky, dragonforce, behemonth, mogwai, sigur ros and tons of Ska and reggue bands... so it's not bad at all it's like saying internet is bad cuz instead of reading encyclopidias im searching in google and sticking with the definition i like most.
so it's good, whats your point or your opinion saying that it's bad?? i want to know...

[Stevie B]

funkynasoo wrote:

yeh myspace helps my band out a tonne. http://myspace.com/furyuk

Hey i know Fury UK! You guys kick ass.

[masterohumans]

myspace is good in some ways and bad in others. I like it because i check out new bands and remember their name but really crappy bands, somehow mostly pop punk, become famous.

And people who download music off the internet are idiots. What if something happends to their computer and you save more money with c.ds. Not now but later on you can sell the c.d on amazon and get lots of money.

[any14doomsday]

They are always looking for new ways to sell me something arnt they ?

[TheGuitarDreams]

any14doomsday wrote:

They are always looking for new ways to sell me something arnt they ?

looks like it mate.

[nohandboy]

Radiohead don't have one.
To many shit bands emerge.
Enough said.

SonOfOsiris wrote:

myspace is good, but myspace has killed the music industry

i dont see music as an 'industry' as such anyway.

myspace, if anything, is guilty of oversaturation, but its format is user-friendly and allows bands somewhere to host mp3s and to present their work. its hard to see how its surge in popularity could not have happened given both of those facts.

Just read about this on a different site. I can't remember the program it uses (sno something), but it's been available for unsigned bands for a while and is definitely a good way for it to be done. I'm against sharing easily available material, but I'm also against the DRM thing (and the fact that you now pay for downloads), but at least this way feels slightly more direct.

[nextfoolmartyr]

howrylak1 wrote:

Its good for small bands, bad for big ones.

[justinforrest]

why the **** are you guys arguing over this?who cares? lol

[liledman_76]

justinforrest wrote:

why the **** are you guys arguing over this?who cares? lol

lol too right...it looks like myspace is here to stay anyway...

[mya/shmoosh]

i dont see why everyone ahs such a problem with myspace really

[Panny180]

masterohumans wrote:
And people who download music off the internet are idiots. What if something happends to their computer and you save more money with c.ds. Not now but later on you can sell the c.d on amazon and get lots of money.

What a tenuous argument. Do you really believe that?
I think myspace has opened up the music industry quite nicely and allowed awsome bands like Fury Uk to get noticed.

[caucasian_ninja]

Myspace is kind of a double-edged sword.

Still, it's not going anywhere, so arguing about whether or not it 'ruined the music industry' isn't really going to do anything for you, is it?