The usual suspects were in the news again this past month. At this point, it’s a game of rumour and speculation, so there isn’t any “real” news until we hear formal announcements coming from Google about their rumouredmusic service or when Spotify launches their service in the US.

One notable thing this past month has been the huge influx of new music web services which I’m jokingly guessing is because all the computer science college kids, now out on summer break and with time on their hands, are hacking and dabbling away. Some are interesting but generally, we are seeing the same ideas rehashed. Some are building very good standalone features, but nothing that can you classify as a viable business, at least not as this time in their development. You can take a look for yourself below and decide.

Other than that, investment activity was very quiet, which isn’t unusual considering we are in the heart of summer, and a lot of people are taking holidays.

With that said, let’s jump right into July’s music+tech recap.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions

Billboard has written up their mid-year music startup investment analysisand there were 30 deals (down from 45) for the first six months of 2010. Most deals were small investments and acquisitions, involving music download or streaming sites such MOG, Veoh, Jamendo, Vringo and Slacker and services for consumers, artists or labels such as Hello Music, Swaptree, Jelli and ArtistData. Overall, investment totals are down compared to last year.

Total 2010 Investments as of July 31st, 2010

Q1/10: $99.6m

Q2/10: $104.25m

Q3/10 (to-date): $1.97m

2010 total to-date: $205.97m

• Mediazoic receives funding from Slaight Communications, a major Canadian media investor.
• SeatGeek Lands $1 Million for Predictive Sports and Concert Ticket Pricing
• Citizen Groove, a digital portfolio/network for music students, receives $250k in Series A funding.
• GigsWiz, developers of analytics/ services for artists, agents & promoters, receives €$150k ($197kUS) in seed funding.

If you are a music startup and want a chance to pitch at MidemNet next January 23-25, 2011, now is your chance to signup at MidemNet Lab. Deadline for applications is October 31, 2010.

As I mention each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps

Google Music takes a step closer to reality- Google’s plan to challenge Apple’s dominance in the music marketplace is advancing more rapidly than expected. P2Pnet has a critical take that is worth considering.

Ready…set…discover more music on YouTube- A few months back, Vision Critical’s Radio Futures reportindicated that YouTube is the most popular web radio/music service in Canada (Spotify and Pandora are not available and our options are limited) and third most popular in the UK (after Spotify and LastFM). I was initially shocked but now understand why because I’m finding myself using YouTube more and more to listen to music. Eric Garland, of Big Champagne noted that YouTube has become the biggest name in music. I can definitely believe that.

Ultimate Chart- An aggregation of timely, relevant metrics from Amazon, iTunes, YouTube, Pandora, MySpace, Facebook and many others. The top 20+ is fairly predictable and really isn’t for anyone into non-charting, indie bands. No longer driven by sales figures, it is an impressive use of real-time technology that gauges the buzz in the different online channels that music consumers inhabit.

MOG Mobile Music App Now Available for iPhone and Android – I’m hearing from some subscriber’s that this is quite an impressive app and are quite happy with it.

MP3tunes and Roku Partner To Bring Personal iTunes Music Collection To TVs – Media consumption now the blurs the lines between devices, services and media type. People will pay for media convergence that is convenient, personalized and extremely easy to setup. One other announcement last month shows that MP3Tunes is on quite a roll having also launched their “Buy Anywhere, Listen Everywhere”wireless synching initiative.

Flyer – A Desktop Adobe Air app (PC and Mac) that utilizes the Bandsintown APIand ties into your iTunes library to display upcoming concert dates from bands in your music library.

Lyric Discovery – This site helps connect professional and aspiring songwriters with musicians and music industry professionals.

Playlost?- View your entire music collection as a randomized hexagonal grid and make playlists by long, snaking chains.

Mixest- In talking to one of the founders of this service, he told me that “Mixest began as a satirical website for hipsters who found Pandora too mainstream”. Built using HTML5, you can stream music on your iPhone/iPad (works in the background on my iPad) and the selection of curated indie music is actually quite good. I also conducted a Q&A that you might want to check out.

Tunited- Ultravox frontman Midge Ure launches Tunited, a “fairly traded” music site for indie/unsigned artists.

Cloud Music – Very clever beating Google to the punch, for now. The Cloud Music iPhone App Streams Tracks Uploaded to Google Docs.

Xumanii- This service lets you stream your own live shows (concerts, TV, talk shows, special events) built around social networking features that is pretty much Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, uStream, Reverbnation and YouTube rolled into one.

Clear Channel’s Free Mobile Radio Apps Are A Money-Maker – 8 million downloads, average user listens to 3.5 hours and visits an average of four stations a week. Radio station’s overall audience up 15 percent when combining both apps and online, thus creating additional opportunities for ads.

AudioBox.fm- Certainly no shortage of cloud based music streaming services, as Audiobox.fm launches their new iPhone app letting you access your music from anywhere.

Who’s Who In The New Music Gold Rush- PaidContent has put together this extensive matrixcomparing music services like Spotify, MOG, We7 and many others.

The Indie is music cross platform application that uses social influence to help in the discovery, promotion and distribution of music created and owned by unsigned artists, indie artists, and indie labels.

Foot Pedal Turns Sheet Music Hands-Free On The iPad- AirTurn will be launching a Bluetooth page turner foot pedal for the iPad and other Bluetooth-equipped systems that will allow musicians to turn their sheet music pages by foot.

117 Audio Apps for Apple Lovers- Great round of music apps for the Mac, iPhone/iPod Touch and iPad.

IOUMusic – Had a chance to speak with Rob MacArthur, a fellow Canadian from the East Coast, who just launched this patronage/donation platform for fans and artists. Working in the music business for a number of years, he understands the challenges bands face and put together this platform to help facilitate fan funding of their favourite bands.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis

The Service-To-Device Journey: The Key To Success For Digital Music Product Strategy – Music product strategists need to consider that filling a music offering with benefits counts for naught if the barriers of poor integration and implementation render a music experience inert.

Movie, tech giants prep universal online media store – 55 technology companies, content publishers and content distributors have banded together to promote the format under the brand name Ultraviolet. This is all about content control, centralization and standardization. This is an attempt by all the major media companies to retain their power over the consumer by converging their media. Will it fly?

The New Media Content Revolution – “There are many new opportunities cropping up for new media. It is important to understand one thing more than anything else – the consumer.”

Suddenly, I Don’t Think I Want To Own Music Anymore – A personal piece by Brendan Mulligan, and one that I’m hearing more and more from music fans. People want access, everywhere, on any device. I’m also starting to feel this way. The overhead involved with either physical objects or the worry and hassle of downloading and backing up your music collection is turning people off given new lightweight music access options.

On File-Sharing: Are You Smarter Than A 12th Grader?- A thought provoking essay by Kyle Bylin over at Hypebot. Worth taking the time to read both the essay and comments.

The New Music Seminar was held in New York City on July 19-21st, 2010 and there was a lot of coverage by Hypebot, Digital Music News, Billboard, NYSBAand Ryan Van Etten at VirtualMusic has a great photoset. If you are inclined, check out the Twitter stream for #nms and New Music Seminar.

As Always, Mobile Music Faces Uncertain Future – ” Operators who deliver content over their networks want a piece of the pie, but margins in the subscription-music business are already razor-thin.”

The State of Internet Music on YouTube, Pandora, iTunes, and Facebook – There is such an overzealous obsession with metrics in particular the big three: friends, fans, and followers (or FFF). That’s what happens when the bean counters are let loose; music is nothing more than a product to be shifted and sold. Rinse and repeat.

Last.fm: Breaking the US, with 1,000 scrobbles per second- US audience has risen from 3.5 million monthly uniques 12 months ago to 8 million now, and has exceeded revenue targets. 30-40m pieces of listening data is generated every day – equivalent to 1,000 scrobbles per second.

Using an iPad in the Music Industry – The Daily Rind has run an informative three part article on how artists can take advantage of the iPad. Part 1: Artist Assets, Part 2: In the Studio, On the Road, Part 3: Merch, Marketing and Managing.

BlackBerry aims for music industry domination- In a Q&A session with Research in Motion’s director of consumer alliances Alex McCallum talks about why it’s really Blackberry that makes mobile music tick.

The Future of Music Coalition put together a great weekly recap of music+tech+policy+law that is always worth keeping an eye out for.

Upcoming Music + Tech Events

• 2010 En Sound Music Awards & Conference – Houston, TX – August 6th – 8th, 2010
• North Park Music Thing (NPMT) – San Diego, CA – August 13th – 14th, 2010
• Indiegrrl Music Conference – Nashville, TN – August 19th – 22nd, 2010 Bandwidth Conference – San Francisco, CA – August 19th and 20th, 2010
• Cutting Edge Music Business & Roots Music Gathering – New Orleans, LA – August 25th – 29th, 2010
• iNTune Music Conference – Darwin, Australia – August 27th – 28th, 2010
• Coast 2 Coast New Music Industry Convention – Miami, FL – August 27th – 29th, 2010

If you have an upcoming event you want us to post in next month’s music + tech recap, please get in touch with me.

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. He currently advises a couple of music startups, including Mediazoic, a real-time social DJ platform and co-founded the Toronto edition of OpenMusicMedia which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, media and culture.

"Have fun, make art."

Art For Art’s Sake

The constant talk of the need to monetise music is somewhat confusing to me. Just because you make art, doesn’t mean that you deserve to make money out of it.

art –noun

1. the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. (Dictionary.com)

Re-read that again then just for yourself “… what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance”. That’s what should be both the motivation and the payoff for musicians, to make something beautiful and significant.

Whats more, great art is rarely spawned by the singular desire to make money. (I’m sure many would argue that the two things are mutually exclusive) why did Bowie make “Changes”? Why did Lennon and McCartney write “A Day In The Life”? For me, if you want to make money, become an accountant. If you want to make art and make music, then get on with it. Making art is not the precursor to making money from your art (if you make an axe, it doesn’t mean someone should by rights buy that axe from you).

Do you make and perform music? Why did you start to play? Why did you join a band or do your first performance? Think back, what was your motivation?

For me, I can trace my lineage directly back to seeing my Dad playing rock ‘n’ roll to friends and strangers at locked door/closed curtains drinking sessions held outside of licensed pub hours. He performing for the entertainment of others, for no charge. His payment; the lit up faces and smiles of people sharing in the experience. In essence, my Dad is a Fun-Pusher.

This is why I’m proud to say, “I’m in Hope and Social, and I sell fun“. Now while it may not be the trendiest or coolest product (it’s not sex, it’s not good looks, the right hair or skinny jeans), it is a currency all of our own. We have our own particular brand of fun – it involves fans and new friends alike, and it goes with us to every show. We create an experience and something different happens at each and every show. What’s more, unlike a CD/a record/an mp3, it’s not copyable; you can’t put it on a disc or a hard-drive and play it on your mp3 player.

Why we don’t deserve to earn from music

Firstly, your art may not be to the liking of many people; hell, it could be rubbish. Furthermore, people may not want to give their money to you. That’s right, people may be making their decisions based not on how good your stuff/product/music/package is, but on how much they want you to have their money. There are many and varied reasons why people may choose not to buy your wares, what we can do however is give people good reasons to buy (On a similar subject and for some further reading, here’s a great post by John Sheldrick on Music Think Tank about the many reasons Why You Should Pay For Music).

While I don’t think anyone deserves to make money from their music by right, I do believe that artists deserve the opportunity to make their music making sustainable, and then hopefully profitable. Part of that is minimising costs; making sure it’s not costing you to say put on a show , or perhaps press your CDs, taking advantage of social media, digital distribution and the new, free ways of connecting with people. This is why I urge people daily to sell their music as a PayWhatYouWant download (and physical CD if you’ve got the stones to do so). PWYW gives people the opportunity to not only pay what they want, but also who they want. It is with this in mind that musicians need to push forward now, with a desire to make art, to do great things and to move people to want to part with their money, and put it into your bank account.

So, Why Make Music? Why Make Art?

I am driven to make music, I’m in part defined by it. I must do this, I cannot function without music being a central and vital part of my life. If you don’t feel that way, then maybe its’ worth thinking about other ways of making your living? Music is such a powerful and attractive force that non-musicians also seek to work in music; PR’s for example will work, often for far less money than they would in say retail PR just because they want top work in music, the same must surely go double for the musician.

I remember when I first started writing music, it was my hope that one day someone would come up to me and tell me that something I’d made had moved them, in the same way that music has moved me. If someone tells you that your music is the soundtrack to their getting ready for a Friday night, that it helped them through a difficult time, or that it’s inspired them to make art, then there’s your musician’s wage right there. I believe, should be the pre-cursor to your musical career; this has to be the drive that makes you write, rehearse and perform.

The “hopefully inspirational”, but probably actually just a little bit self congratulatory bit

Through PWYW, through special events and through peddling fun like I saw my Dad do for free twenty years ago I’m now in the band I’ve always wanted to be in. Hope and Social have grown into an old-style, good-time show band. Like a Yorkshire E-Street Band, we’re a spectacle, an event. We’re certainly not just a gig (though if that was the case, we’d be a damn good gig). What we do is economically sustainable, it pays for itself and sometimes a bit extra for us all to live on, but mostly, it is the reward in itself. Furthermore, by adopting and embracing new opportunities to connect and share with people, we’re now at a point when we’re far more viable than anytime when we’ve invested thousands of pounds on advertising, PR, pluggers. Sustainability first, then profitability.

Just as important as taking advantage of all the new opportunities we have today though, let’s not waste our lives, time and energy complaining that everyone gets their music for free and start giving people damn good reasons to put their money where your singer’s mouth is.

The world may be better off without the Rockstar persona...

By Jon Ostrow

Jon is the co-founder of MicControl, a music blogging network based on a social networking platform. For guest blogging opportunities or to simply reach out to Jon, he can be found on Twitter and Facebook.

In a time where reality TV has become the most popular form of programing – everyone from the famous (or infamous) celebrity drug addicts, to the not-so-famous, money-desperate “reality show” competitors have been cashing in on transparency as a way to connect with an audience and build a brand.

Would the sudden death of Corey Haim, the 80′s child-star who seemingly fell off the face of the earth around the same time as acid wash jeans, have made as big of a splash if his addiction hadn’t been documented on the A&E series, The Two Coreys? Probably not.

It seems that Reality TV has created a wave of transparency that everyone wants to ride. Even MTV, a MUSIC video driven channel, has since officially removed music television from their name in order to focus on following pop culture in its own element.

Beyond reality TV is the internet, and the continued development of social networking, blogging and microblogging, which has been giving musicians all around the world the ability to be as little or as overly transparent as they would like. So this brings up a very important question: Is transparency a good thing for musicians to take part in?

The real answer is that it is sort of a grey area. Yes and no. While the internet has made it easier for artists to connect with their fans on a real-time basis, successfully knocking down barriers between the fan and artist relationship, it also has the potential to remove the mystique of a musician’s image.

In a world where transparency reigns supreme, the David Bowies (or rather Ziggy Stardust’s), Marilyn Mansons and Kiss(s) of the world would never stand a chance. Fans expect and even require far too much access into the everyday world of a musicians, and would not stand for being kept in the dark about the private world hidden behind the veil of their public and staged image.

However, with the exception of the very few artists still attempting to create a brand based on image alone, transparency can be a very good. Just like anything else, it must be used in moderation in order to be effective in helping artists.

The following are a few ways to help you to achieve the level of transparency that is desired by your fans meanwhile avoiding the harmful side-effects.

The Good Kind of Transparency:

1. Your Agenda: Make people aware of your purpose, your goals and your mission. No one likes a hidden agenda. Be honest with your fans about what drives you and you are passionate about, and you will find that many will extend their own support in whatever capacity they can, solely because they know you are genuine.

2. Your Sound: While no one (well, mostly no one) wants to hear music that is just plain noise pollution, you should consider the transparency of your recorded sound. Make it real and easy to connect with.

As Seth Godin says, in the age of Slick where autotune and protools allow everyone to have that professional shine, you should have the guts to be transparent and be real.

You’ll be amazed how many people find the grittier tones of a ‘real’ recording (as opposed to an over-produced, glossy recording) to give the sound its character and originality. Go listen to The Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street, more specifically Sweet Virgina and notice not just the gritty, lo-fi characteristics of the recording, but the true depth of emotion in the music. That is the sort of transparency that made Exile one of the greatest rock n’ roll albums of all time.

3. Your Accessibility/ Acknowledgment of Fans: Make it easy for your fans to reach out to you. In a world where everything is accessible via the internet and the internet is accessible from virtually anywhere, fans will crave the ability to reach out to you.

More importantly, the internet gives fans a sounding board for opinions and feedback to be heard. Don’t be the artist that ignores their fans. You don’t have to act upon the feedback from fans, but acknowledging feedback in one form or another can be a good way to let your fans know that you hear them, that you care and that you took the time to digest what they had to say.

The Bad Kind Of Transparency:

1. Your Financial Situation: Don’t be that artist who tweets about how broke you are. Part of the mystique and romanticism of being an emerging artist (or a ‘starving artist’) is the fact that you are doing anything and everything for the love of your craft. If you go on to Twitter, Facebook or on your personal blog and bitch and moan about how life sucks because you don’t have any money, the ‘burning passion’ will have been all but stripped away.

2. Your Creative Process: This could really go either way, as some will argue that it is a great way to receive feedback from fans. I find that this will do more harm than good.

There is nothing wrong with sharing demos with select fans or giving a group of people the opportunity to supply feedback when you ask for it about an upcoming song or album, but giving fans the opportunity to watch you in the creative process, every step of the way, takes way the excitement of the overall finished product. It is the same reason why authors don’t let you read a book chapter by chapter as it is being written or a why a director doesn’t let you watch scene by scene as a film is being made. It hurts the integrity of the piece as a whole.

3. Your Unwarranted Political Opinions: If your music is deeply rooted in a specific political movement, then this most likely won’t effect you. For those of you who avoid the topic of politics throughout your music, do your self a favor and avoid announcing your strong opinions on political matters in public ways. If your fans run the gamut of all walks of life, you may find many walking away when you announce that you are pro-life, pro-choice, anti-immigration or don’t think that gay marriage is okay. Leave that aspect of your personal life out of your music.

In the end, your use of transparency is just like everything else- it should be consistent with the rest of your brand. Though it may create new obstacles for musicians who prefer to maintain a private life, it does give fans the opportunity to connect with artists as real people putting the focus back onto their music, and less on the nature of their look or their actions.

Is transparency a fad that will end with reality TV or is it a necessary part of the modern day artist/fan bond?

Image credit: http://blog.pennlive.com

Help delete irritating internet marketing tactics.

Last week, Hypebot asked me to contribute a brief post for their ‘Social Media Day’ feature. You can find it here. The exercise got me thinking, and I’ve decided to expand on the topic a bit here on Creative Deconstruction.

If I were to create a poll to find out the average internet user’s feelings toward internet marketers, how many people do you think would respond positively?

… And how many of that number would be internet marketers themselves?

Next to perhaps lawyers, the internet marketer probably has the worst reputation in Western business. In may cases, this reputation is largely deserved. Like the telemarketers of old, internet marketers make it their business to interrupt peoples’ days with unsolicited messages, brazen advertisements, and questionable ideals.

It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to act like a tool to make money online.

Human Beings vs. Internet Marketers

The way I see it, there are two ways to approach business online. You can sell like a human, or you can sell like an internet marketer. The question is: which are you?

What is the difference between a human being and an Internet Marketing professional? I’ve taken the liberty of creating a handy list to help shed some light on the disparity:

1. Humans have real conversations. Internet Marketers have agendas.

2. Humans are interested in helping others. Internet Marketers are interested in monetizing each and every interaction.

3. Humans are passionate about creating interesting and valuable content. Internet Marketers are passionate about SEO.

4. Humans value connections with other humans. Internet marketers value leads. (Which do you think is more valuable?)

5. Humans develop mutually beneficial relationships. Internet Marketers develop human sales funnels.

The irony is that the human activities listed above have so much more potential with regard to building a valuable – yes, even revenue generating – network of connections, supporters, customers and fans. The other activities are shallow and transparent. Very few people are fooled by these tactics anymore anyway – so is it really worth trading in your personal credibility?

How Then Shall We Sell?

Selling like a human, to other humans, is not easy. Humans are notoriously unpredictable and difficult to please. That’s why so many turn to the soulless side of internet marketing. There’s a much lower threshold to entry. It also takes much less emotional energy to manage textbook marketing activities, than it does to truly seek to add value to human relationships – whether with customers, fans, clients or other connections.

The answers to selling like a human lie in what makes us human in the first place. Human beings need to connect with one another in meaningful ways. We need to belong to a diverse community of like-minded people. Sometimes we need others to help us, other times we need to share what we have with others. We need to learn, and even at times to be entertained.

If you can help meet these needs in other people, you will be successful in business – and life, for that matter. The other side of that coin is that if you can’t figure out how to contribute to at least one of these needs you will likely struggle.

What does this have to do with you?

Like the internet marketer, modern artists are often out there on there own.  There are precious few label deals to go around, and the ones going around may be a gamble, at best. So artists are left to promote themselves and their music lacking key resources and often without any kind of real training. So who do you turn to for direction?

When you’re out here on the internet, especially on social networks, pay attention to how you are going about your business. Are you interrupting peoples’ day with unsolicited messages, brazen advertisements and questionable ideals? (“Check out my MySpace page, fan me on Facebook and make sure you RETWEET!!” – What value does this add to the reader?) Or are you treating people like humans and helping to meet their needs?

People want good music, clearly, but I would even argue that people need good music. What we don’t need is to have artists trying to sell us that music by mimicking the tactics of shameless internet marketers.

Instead, take the time to think about your audience. Who are they? What do they want, and what do they need? How can you meet those needs and desires? Sometimes it’s as simple as giving them something to laugh about, or finding a way to connect like-minded people within your niche. That’s how you’re going to find an entry point into their day.

And that is how you are going to find new fans.

When I first saw these pieces by Jordan Puopolo, I stopped everything else I was doing. It seemed appropriate to just sit there, looking at them. You know how some things just feel right? Well, I hope so. Because it’s a great moment, and one I found in this concept. Vibrant colors fuse with an aged beauty, seeming to illustrate an idea that withstood the test of time. I don’t care how young or old you are, there’s a magical quality to flight. It remains a beautiful, striking thing, regardless of how often you experience a takeoff or look out at the clouds. I see this reflected in the powerful streaks of color. They can’t be contained, nor should they be.

I thoroughly enjoy imagining and inventing possible stories behind this and that. But it’s also cool to get to know the minds behind a creative work. While I don’t know Jordan, he seems like the kind of guy I’d get along with. In our brief emails, he came across as an upbeat, friendly guy. I can’t help but think this played into the whimsical character of the project.

Created as a school project, the reasons behind Jordan’s conceptual and aesthetic decisions were pretty straight forward.

“We had to make an annual report and the company and themes and all that was up to us. My solution came about for a few reasons. First of, I was (and still am) really into vintage design and illustration, so I went in hoping to go in that direction. And I decided to do an airline because there is so much great imagery that can come from there. That year happened to be the 70th anniversary of Air Canada, so I was able to justify the aging and the retro style by celebrating the history of the company. The idea was that someone could pick it up and they would immediately start to think about Air Canada’s place in history.”

“Visually, I got my inspiration by doing a lot of research into old airline ads and travel posters. For example the rainbow plane was inspired by an old El Al ad. The other plane illustrations (the cover/inside cover) obviously are meant to emphasize the historical theme again because one is current, and the other is old. And for those I just wanted to do real sparse and simple illustrations.”

And this is the part that really made me smile:

“Basically, it was an opportunity to try and create the kind of design that I love and spend hours each day looking for, and I don’t find that those kind of opportunities come up all that often, so I went for it.”

I’ve spent a lot of time doing things for that very reason. And you know what? It’s always been worthwhile. That being said, I want to leave a few questions for you to ponder.

First, when was the last time you did something just because you love it? My hope is that, on a consistent basis, you either find or create these opportunities.

Second, if it’s been a while, what’s stopping you?

I’m guilty of making excuses. No question there. But when I find that I’m lacking a sense of love for what I create, it becomes a priority. If I can’t get excited about something, I need to create something that excites me. The times that I follow through with this have always been memorable, and always worthwhile.

Meet Matt.

Hey there. My name is Matt, and I like finding the beauty in things. So much, in fact, that I’ve grown to look for them in any situation I can. This has led to a career in design, a hobby of illustration, and more recently, an offer from Refe.

Refe thought that with all the talk about business around here, it might be a good idea to have a regular series that focuses on art. So, he asked me to share some of these beautiful, inspiring things that get me all excited.

I agreed.

While I’m a visual communicator primarily, inspiration comes from much more than graphic design. Music hugely inspires and informs my process, as do video games (believe it, friend) and film. This means we’ll be exploring a variety of media and content in these posts. As the art and business of music grows ever closer to these (and other) disciplines, my hope is that, together, we can share in an excitement and passion for exploring creativity in many forms.

This whole thing will be a process. Bear with me.

If you’d like to submit a piece of art, video, or design, that you’d like to see discussed here, I’d love to hear about it. Toss an email to msauter [at] gmail [dot] com, or drop me a line on twitter. Hopefully we’ll have so much in the queue that I have to disappoint some of you. But that’s okay, it’s not personal. We can still be friends.

Most of the music technology scene I cover is US based with a little bit out of Europe, mainly the UK thrown into the mix. From my perch here in Toronto, I can tell you that we have a thriving music scene across our great country of Canada. We are graced with some of the world’s best artists, producers, sound engineers and as an overall economy, we are loaded with a lot of top flight tech talent across different industries.

We are starting to see smart, innovate people meld the two together to establish Canadian music technology companies who are determined to create world class products/services.  We aren’t just good at hockey and throwing snowballs in the dead of winter! We love our music, our artists and many of us are early tech adopters, as evidenced by the young and fledgling music + tech start-up scene developing in cities like Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver. Just off the top of my head and by no means is this an exhaustive list, we have the likes of Backfed, Mediazoic, IOUMusic, LyricFind, Fanteraction, Zunior, OpenMicScene, Ecoutez and Bandzoogle doing some amazing stuff. And the latest, YouPhonics, which just launched at NXNEi last month.

Fresh out of the gates after being heads down developing a new music creation/collaboration tool, Aidan Nulman threw open the digital doors by hosting a launch party which brought together more than 100+ people passionate about music, technology, arts and culture. Right now the service is invite only but if you keep an eye out on the YouPhonics and Aidan Nulman’s Twitter stream, you should be able to get your hands on an invite. Or, leave a comment and I can hook you up as well.

On top of growing his start-up, Aidan is chronicling life as a first-time digital music entrepreneur. His posts are very engaging, witty and is sharing his experiences in open and honest detail. Anyone who is currently working on their start-up will likely share a lot of the ups and downs facing every new, young company. A must read in my opinion.

The Canadians are coming, with a few cases of beer in hand! Keep an eye out for us! You will be seeing and hearing more about music+tech innovations coming out of Canada!

The other industry event I attended was the PriceWaterhouseCoopers launch of the annual Global Entertainment and Media Outlook: 2010-2014.  The study covers the global market for music, video games, movies, newspapers, magazines, radio and advertising.  Following a year of decline in 2009, the global entertainment and media market is forecasted to grow by 5% compounded annually over the next five years,  reaching US$1.7 trillion, up from US$1.3 trillion in 2009. Latin America and Asia Pacific are the fastest growing regions, while growth in the world’s biggest media market, North America, will be much slower. Consumer spending is expected to be strongest in the video game, TV subscriptions and movie markets. Forecasted music spending is near the bottom of the list, which is probably not a surprise to many people. Glenn Peoples at Billboard.biz provides his analysis on PwC’s music (physical/digital) forecasts.

Some of the major themes explored in the report include:

• The rising power of mobility and devices and the growing dominance of the Internet experience which is being driven by consumers.
• Media consumption has become a collective social experience.
• Testing the limits of paid content and a move from ad-supported to hybrid revenue models. There is a lot of experimentation with business models trying to find the right mix.
• Increasing engagement by going “hyperlocal” and consumer readiness to pay for content driven by improved consumption experiences and convenience.

You can download a copy of the presentation here (PDF) which provides global stats by various market segments and insights into what is yet to come. Combine this report with Morgan Stanley’s internet trends and mobile technology research and you have yourself a pretty good base of “free” market forecasts and intelligence to work with.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions

The first few months of the year started off strong and by the end of the second quarter, investment activity slowed down, with a lot more takeovers and acquisitions this past month. It’s still a pretty challenging environment for any digital music startup looking to raise money.

Total 2010 Investments as of June 30th, 2010

Q1/10: $99.6m
Q2/10: $104.25
2010 total to-date: $204m

• Sonicbids Acquires ArtistData, Terms not Disclosed. Will we see more music service consolidations?
• HP buys streaming music firm Melodeo for between $30m-35m
• Ticketfly buys music event site Gigbot to gain ground on Ticketmaster
• Triton Digital Media Acquires StreamTheWorld
• Pandora Raises an Undisclosed Fifth Funding Round Financing
• Inspired Instruments Raises $1.25M, Lets You Rock Out On A Digital Guitar
• BuzzMedia Adds Music Blogs Gorilla vs Bear and PureVolume, Partners with Hype Machine, RCRD LBL, PopMatters
• AudioBoo Lands Funding, Partners, Radio Deals
• Guardian Media Group Buys UBC’s MXR, Takes Its iTunes Tagging Service

As I mention each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps

Seven45 Studios to pump new life into music games – Looking to revive a once hot gaming category by introducing a new kind of faux guitar and a unique kind of drum set.

LimeWire Planning A Serious, Cloud-Based Comeback – A diversionary tactic or a legitimate attempt to square things up with the labels? Are they looking to capitalize on whatever brand power they may have left to launch a service that will attract paying consumers, fast? And if they do successfully relaunch, will anyone really care given all the ticks and fleas that LimeWire may never shake-off?

Sound Around – Another in the growing line-up of DIY iPhone app development targeted at bands.  Ryan at Virtualmusic.tv does a great job covering the backstory of this new music startup.

UK supermarket Tesco is preparing for to launch of a digital locker service for music and movies -  “The way it would work practically is that when you buy a disc in store or online, that title would be put up into your Digital Locker which would immediately be accessible from devices registered to that locker.”

mSpot Opens Up Freemium Cloud Music Service in a Bid to Pre-empt Apple and Google; In-Depth Q&A with CEO Daren Tsui – First 2GB are free with plans running up to 100GB per month. Only works on Android phones for now and what differentiates mSpot from other locker services is the way they are navigating around the licensing issue by not having a master copy of a song that is served out to listeners, but will keep individual copies for each user who uploads it, which they believe is in keeping within fair use laws and therefore doesn’t require any additional royalty payments.

GarageBand Online Music Community Shuts Up Shop – Being in operation for ten years, especially a digital music business, is quite the feat. Garageband spawned social music discovery service iLike, now owned by MySpace. The general consensus around the web is that the service won’t be missed very much, having lost its lustre over the past few years.

Mixlr: Share Live Music On The Web – A new platform for DJs, bands to share live music straight to the web. You can broadcast live or upload prerecorded sets.

Tastebuds.fm – This LastFM powered music dating service helps you connect with other single people who share the same love of music. Very slick interface and easy to use.

Fanit – This new service builds on the “true fan” concept. It’s built around a gaming theme where you have to take certain actions (for example: promote on social networks, buy badges with the money going directly to the artist) within a 60 days period to prove you are a true fan. If you don’t achieve this status, you start again.

Aviary Launches Music Creator – New in-browser music creation web app lets users access free and Creative Commons instruments/loops to create music and beats for commercial and non-commercial purposes.

Slacker Radio Announces iPhone, iPad and iPod touch Station Caching for Listening Everywhere – This new feature seems like a first for internet radio. I think it’s kind of cool, especially when you don’t have the time or even know what you want to listen to. Pick a station and download programmed music for offline listening.

HomePipe now streams your iTunes to Android, other files too – Another service that lets you access all your local files (music, photos, video, files) from your iPhone and now Android.

Thumbplay Releases Subscription Music For iPhone – Thumbplay, once a dominant ringtone provider, is switching gears to leverage the smartphone boom, and is placing its bets on full-track subscription music services.

Koitunes – Currently in private beta, this new music service is a Twitter overlay app which helps you discover music that your Twitter followers are posting or talking about. The service supports LastFM, Pandora, Blip, theSixtyOne, Spotify, as well as a handful more.

Buzzdeck – UK-based digital distributors AWAL launch a new real-time analytics tool designed to help enable labels and managers to better track and respond to any buzz growing for their artists or releases online.

Aupeo – Personal streaming internet radio. Based on a recommendation engine and mood station that are powered by the latest innovations from the Fraunhofer Institute, inventors of the MP3.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis

Google Needs To Decide Which Side Of The Music Industry Fence It Is On – “The labels and Google need their relationships to be as amicable and as fruitful as they can be. The experience of Apple shows that antagonizing a key channel partner just wastes energies for both parties and does little or nothing to help the competition and does nothing to help the fight against free.”

A Guide To The Cultural Battle That Is Reshaping The Media Business – “The challenge for big media companies is not just financial. They have to find a way to embrace the power of their users and change their thought process and attitude towards their customers, while not alienating the creator-centric model that currently pays the bills.”

The Music Radio Solution – “Consumers are dictating what devices they prefer, how they want to listen (in shorter segments), where (on their mobile devices) and with whom (their social networks).”

Hidden in plain view: Google Music’s stealth infrastructure – “It’s called YouTube AudioSwap, and it’s really quite clever. When you upload a video to YouTube with a music soundtrack, you can opt for your low bitrate version to be replaced by a superior quality master recording from Google’s own extensive collection of master recordings. What’s that, you ask – you’re saying that Google has an extensive collection of master recordings already? Indeed it does. Fully licensed, with publishing information.”

We Need Digital Lockers More Than Ever – “We now live in a world where we have multiple devices on which we want to consume various forms of media: TVs, desktop PCs, laptops, smartphones, tablets, eBook readers, and more coming. We need a locker. We need an open, authenticated location in the cloud where we can store, access, receive, organize, and share our digital media. Media is too fragmented online.”

Getting into the digital groove: The top five of music 2.0 – Five new digital music projects using crowd-sourcing, cool coding and collaboration to help the music industry rock out in the digital age.

C’est Lala Vie: Does A “Stream Any Song Once” Model Make Sense for Apple’s iTunes? – “And the problem with free, ad-supported streams is that ad rates simply aren’t high enough to allow the streaming services to offer reasonable payments to labels for each stream, let alone generate enough profit to support and grow the company.”

You, the D.J. Online music moves to the cloud – “The anonymous programmers who write the algorithms that control the series of songs in these streaming services may end up having a huge effect on the way that people think of musical narrative—what follows what, and who sounds best with whom. Sometimes we will be the DJs, and sometimes the machines will be, and we may be surprised by which we prefer”

Upcoming Music + Tech Events

• OpenMusicMedia NYC – New York City, NY – July 7th, 2010
• Social Media and Direct 2 Fan Music Marketing – Toronto, ON – July 7th – July 8th
• Latin Alternative Music Conference – New York City, NY – July 6th – July 10th
• Medieval and Renaissance Music Conference – London, UK – July 5th – July 8th
• Music 4.5 Goes Practical – How to use local, social and cultural content and grow globally – London, UK – July 7th, 2010
• Vinyl Music Festival – Sarisota, FL – July 15th.
• Beirut Music Conference – Beirut, Lebanon – July 14th – July 18th
• The Conclave Learning Conference for Radio Broadcasters – Minneapolis, MN – July 15th – July 17th
• The New Music Seminar – New York City, NY – July 19th – July 21st

If you have an upcoming event you want us to post in next month’s music + tech recap, please get in touch with me.

Gabriel Nijmeh is a software business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. He currently advises a couple of music startups, including Mediazoic, a real-time social DJ platform and co-founded the Toronto edition of OpenMusicMedia which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, media and culture.

“That would never work in the real world.” You hear it all the time when you tell people about a fresh idea.

This real world sounds like an awfully depressing place to live. It’s a place where new ideas, unfamiliar approaches, and foreign concepts always lose. The only things that win are what people already know and do, even if those things are flawed and inefficient.

Scratch the surface and you’ll find that these “real world” inhabitants are filled with pessimism and despair. They expect fresh concepts to fail. They assume society isn’t ready for or capable of change.

Don’t believe them. That world may be real for them, but it doesn’t mean you have to live in it.

That’s an excerpt from the first chapter of Rework by the founders of 37signals. The message hits close to home for me right now, so I thought I’d share it with all of you.

I’m currently in the process of starting up a new business. In the real world, neither my partner nor I are in a great place to be risking it all on a new venture. Erik runs a music discovery service, and works as an internet marketer by day. I have two young kids, a full-time job as a headhunter and a music industry blog to generate quality content for each day. We’re busy, we’re already over-committed, and resources are scarce.

In the real world, we should both be heads-down at a cubicle somewhere trying to ‘focus on our careers.’ Instead, we’re seizing every spare minute to pour our time, energy and our best ideas into this project.

Why am I telling you this? Because I believe that my experiences starting a new business are not too far removed from many of your experiences starting a career in music. Our venture also  depends on many of the same factors that your careers depend on – namely that listeners and consumers will continue to value the music experience.

I’m going to try to blog the start up process from beginning to end, and well beyond. Everything I learn, you’ll learn. Every mistake I make will be one you won’t have to. My hope is that there will be something for everybody to take a way and apply to your own endeavors.

The first installment is simple: if you have a vision for your life and your career, don’t wait for permission. Get started now. Keep your day job, but make time to work towards your goal every single day. If I can do it in my situation – and I suppose only time will tell – anybody can do it.

Erik and I have the advantage of an idea that we truly believe in. We’ve discovered a real need in the music industry that no one is currently meeting with any kind of success, and we plan to fill it. We even have a few ideas on how we’re gong to do it.

But that’s outside the scope of this first post. For now, I’ll leave you with another short excerpt from Rework:

The real world isn’t a place, it’s an excuse. It’s a justification for not trying. It has nothing to do with you.

Does this resonate with any of you? Are any of you in a similar place? I’d love to get your feedback.

Recording Industry sales sink to a new low.

I’ve compiled a selection of some of the most important music industry news of the past week, along with a few of my own thoughts. Let me know in the comments section if you think I’ve missed anything notable.

Music News from Around the Web

Album sales at lowest point in decades

The good news just keeps rolling in!

For the week ending May 30, the U.S. music industry sold a total of 4,984,000 albums, according to Nielsen Soundscan. This figure, which includes new and catalog releases, represents the fewest number of albums sold in one week since Soundscan began compiling this data in 1994.

By comparison, album sales for the week ending May 31, 2009, totaled 5.76 million. The highest one-week tally recorded during the Soundscan era is 45.4 million albums, in late December, 2000.

Let’s not kid ourselves here, this is grim stuff. However, as anyone who has been reading this blog for a while knows, this is not the whole story.

Record sales continue to decline – rapidly – but the music industry as a whole continues to grow and show incredible potential. So, independent musicians take heart. These numbers are only one piece of the puzzle that continues to add new pieces each day. That means that it is growing more complex, but also more diversified. Which is good news, especially when we are watching the flagship go belly up into the water. Read the full report at Billboard.

ArtistData acquired by Sonic Bids

ArtistData acquired by Sonic Bids

Sonicbids has acquired ArtistData, a popular platform that many musicians and labels use to simultaneously update their content across the web. The move signals an expansion for Sonicbids beyond its popular electronic press kits and gig opportunities to also helping artists promote their shows after they’ve been booked. ArtistData founder Brenden Mulligan has been named Vice President of Strategic Development for Sonicbids.

This came as a bit of a surprise to me, only because last year I met with ArtistData founder Brenden Mulligan near his home-base in Chicago, and he seemed pretty excited about other plans he had for the service. It sounded at the time that his play would be data analytics, and perhaps that’s part of what made ArtistData so attractive to buyers. Sonic Bids was not the first suitor to approach Mulligan, but it looks like he was finally made an offer he couldn’t refuse. Read more at Hypebot.

Social works for Spotify.

Spotify goes social and watches premium subscriptions double

More evidence that the power of the social graph in music discovery:

The daily number of people signing up for Spotify’s paid Premium service has doubled since the update to its desktop client in late April that added Facebook-fuelled social features and the ability to play a user’s locally-stored music.

That’s according to Spotify’s UK managing director Paul Brown, in an interview for the latest Music Ally Report. “As we put Social and Local out there, Premium subscriptions doubled on a daily rate,” he says. “For us, it’s increased consumption, it’s brilliant for discovery, and we’re getting a net positive increase in people stepping up the ladder to pay.”

Read more at Music Ally.

MySpace Co-President latest to walk out the revolving door

In a shocking turn of events, MySpace has confirmed that Co-President Jason Hirschhorn has left the company a mere four months after accepting his co-leadership role with Mike Jones. Who would have thought when MySpace announced it was appointing Co-Presidents that it would end badly? Read more at Billboard.

Reports claim AOL to sell Bebo

…and the world asks, “What’s Bebo?”

In the scale of huge corporate mistakes, AOL’s acquisition of Bebo in 2008 ranks pretty highly. AOL paid $850 million for the social network, then watched it fade into mediocrity as Facebook left it for dust. Now a series of reports have suggested that AOL has agreed a deal to sell Bebo to a private investment group for a mere $10 million. Ouch.

Read more at Music Ally.

More Music Industry News:

Record sales for week ending 6/13/10 at the Lefsetz Letter.
Music publishers file suit to shut down LimeWire – HypeBot.

Congratulations! Your MySpace page will no longer have to look like this...

Announcing the winners of the MySpace Redesign contest, plus a special rate for the first 10 Creative Deconstruction readers to sign up for an account. Details below.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the ‘Transform your MySpace Page into Something that Doesn’t Suck’ contest! If you don’t know what I’m talking about, click here. In order to enter, readers had to tweet their best music business advice and tag it with the hashtag #CD140. As promised, today I have picked the winners. You can find all the entries by searching #CD140 on Twitter. I know I said I would only pick 5, but I made the executive decision to pick 6 instead. They’re my rules, after all.

The winners, in no particular order:

1. @LunaChicaRecord Fans are worth more than what they pay for your music. Online stores know all the info on who buys it, but do you?

2. @edhombre Make really incredible unique music. Make every gig & every artifact as amazing as you can. Repeat.

3. @radionowhere How to make it as indie band?As @tywhite sez, “quality is hyperefficient”. No point tweeting until music smokes.

4. @jensjolund DIY artists: engage authentically in all aspects of your career. Focus on what you have to give.

5. @Dezmund You cant do everything yourself. Write rehearse and perform. Enlist some quality help for all of the other stuff.

6. @richmondmike Advice for bands? Get a proper job, it’s much less trouble in the long run.

If you’re on this list make sure you are following me on Twitter so that I can send you a direct message with the access code to your new free account with MySpace 360 Wizard. Congratulations!

Important note for those who didn’t win:

If you are interested in optimizing your band’s MySpace page with the MySpace 360 Wizard but didn’t win, I have good news for you. Dave and Cara have given me 10 accounts to offer to you at 30% off the normal retail price. This is the best deal you are going to get anywhere on this tool, but you’ll have to act quickly because these discounted accounts are on a first come, first serve basis.

The first 10 people to use the coupon code ‘CD140′ will receive the discount. Click here to order.