Monkeybars wants to reward fans for buying content online
Music is arguably one of the most popular things in the world (who doesn't listen to music), but it isn't exactly easy being a musician. That's particularly true for indie artists who don't have huge audiences and major record label backing.
The pains of the music industry, coupled with its overall sexiness as a business, have made the music space one of the most popular for startups.
Facebook rolls out 'Listen With' for socially-driven music sharing
As Facebook continues the charge towards its rumoured-but-practically-confirmed IPO this year, its next trick is a feature called 'Listen With'.
Announced last night, this allows groups of people to listen to the same song at the same time via the social network’s music service.
Music sales milestone: digital surpasses physical
It's been more than a decade since Napster sent the music industry into a
tailspin, and record labels are still adapting to the digital reality they find themselves in.
For better or worse, the future of music is not the CD, and a huge recent milestone confirms what we have known for a long time: that it's largely digital.
Apple launches 'season pass' option for TV shows
iTunes is perhaps the best friend of countless music fans. It's easy to forget about the days in which you had to purchase an entire CD just to get one song, now thanks to Apple's service, millions of consumers today buy their music à la carte.
That's not to say that Apple and its record label partners don't want consumers to purchase albums.
To that end, Apple has for some time offered a 'Complete My Album' option that allows iTunes users that have purchased an individual track from an album to purchase the entirealbum at a discounted price.
Spotify wants to become the Facebook of music
One of Facebook's biggest assets is the open platform it has built which
enables developers to build apps that Facebook users can install and
use while logged in to the social network.
Today, that platform not only helps Facebook generate billions in revenue, it has served as the foundation for other billion-dollar businesses, like social gaming giant Zynga.
So it's no surprise that another prominent consumer internet upstart, Spotify, is looking to Facebook and launching its own platform.
Google finally launches Google Music
After what seems like years of rumors and speculation, Google finally launched a digital music service yesterday.
Dubbed Google Music, the service can be accessed through a mobile app and the Android Market website. Through deals with EMI, Universal, Sony and a multitude of indie labels, Google says that it's today offering upwards of 8m songs, with millions more coming soon.
Spotify's new freemium: a little less 'free'
The internet has popularized the freemium model like no other channel, but building a successful business on this model can be quite a challenge.
One company that has succeeded: Spotify, the Swedish company that has become Europe's most popular music streaming service.
MySpace can partner with brands. Without users, it doesn't matter.
MySpace may not have as many users as Facebook, but the company is trying to reposition itself (again) as a place where brands can find traction online.
The trouble is, brands usually follow users. Can MySpace flip that equation on its head and use great brand partnerships to attract users?
MySpace executives hope so.
Five tips for promoting brands on Spotify
Spotify has resources, a huge (and growing) entrenched audience and some great opportunities to create long lasting, effective brand positioning and positive sentiment, making it a great marketing platform.
Here’s a few quick tips to get your marketing push started on the music streaming service.
Google adding music to search
Google pretty much has its bases covered. Looking for an image? There's Google Images. Looking for a video? Video results appear in search. As do products.
But one thing has been noticeably absent: music. Which is not an insignificant fact given that two of the top 10 search queries in the United States are music-related. But Google being Google, it has a plan for music.
