Musicians Win Web Royalties
Thanks to an agreement reached in October, musicians, rather than their record labels, will receive royalty payments for the use of recordings distributed over the Internet or broadcast over cable and satellite systems. Royalty collection agency SoundExchangehttp://www.soundexchange.com">SoundExchange; will distribute payments directly to performers, regardless of their contracts with the record companies, according to a statement issued the second week of November.
Musicians' Site Signs Beatles Producer George Martin
The man who signed the Beatles to their first recording contract has joined garageband.comhttp://www.garageband.com/">garageband.com;, an online venture for musicians. On October 21, the San Francisco-based website announced that Sir George Martin has assumed the position of chairman of its advisory board. The board's membership includes some of the music industry's best-known professional and creative talent, according to garageband.com co-founders Tom Zito and Jerry Harrison.
Musicland Stores Take Retailing Online
Wednesday, June 23, was an auspicious day for Musicland">http://www.musicland.com/">Musicland Stores Corporation. That day the Minneapolis, Minnesota-based music and video retailer took its sales online. Four websites, each mirroring one of Musicland's four divisions, went live simultaneously with a promotional contest offering customers the chance to win daily and weekly prizes and a $10,000 grand prize---including a Sony home entertainment system. Participants can also win a trip for two to the World">http://www.wwf.com/">World Wrestling Federation Summer Slam in Minneapolis on August 22.
MusicNet, Pressplay Tunes Won't Travel
While audiophiles obsess about extracting another iota of resolution from our already high-rez systems and recordings, the rest of the world is going crazy for portable music.
MusicNow Launches
No one knows what online music services may ultimately look like, but new models continue to pop up for consumers to test-drive.
Must-Hear Music TV: Country Music and Now Hear This
Under the category of "abundance of musical riches," there are two fantastic series about music airing on PBS right now. You probably already know about one of them, but another, which many readers will like even better, is getting far less press.
MyCD Latest Entry in Custom-disc Biz
Remember when you weren't too busy to make your own cassette tapes to play in the car? How you could link one song to the next by genre or theme or beat or musical key? Remember how much more satisfying it was to listen to those tapes than it was to listen to the radio? No commercials, no announcers, no filler---and you liked every tune.
Mytek to Support MQA
Exciting news greeted the posse of press who headed to the Marriott Denver Tech Center's Atrium Saturday October 3 for a press conference entitled "MQA and Mytek Present: From Studio to Home." Both Bob Stuart of MQA, Ltd. (above right) and Michal Jurewicz of Mytek Digital (above center) were present, as well as Pål Bråtelund, Strategic Partnership Manager for Tidal (above left), and, for MQA partner AudioQuest, AQ VP Steve Silberman.
N2K's Website, Tribute, Scholarship Fund Honor Miles Davis
On May 26, http://www.N2K.com"> N2K's http://www.JazzCentralStation.com"> JazzCentralStation launched the first officially sanctioned Miles Davis StarSite, http://www.MilesDavis.com"> MilesDavis.com. An all-star musical and multimedia tribute was held that evening at New York City's Birdland, hosted by Dr. Billy Taylor and recorded by Phil Ramone and Michael Cuscuna for a September release on N2K Encoded Music. May 26 would have been Davis' 72nd birthday.
NAB 2000: No Accord on Digital Radio Standards
A single standard for terrestrial digital radio is still somewhere over the rainbow. Despite pressure from broadcasters to form an industry alliance, leading developers of the new technology are intent on pursuing their own courses, attendees learned at the 2000 National">http://www.nab.org/">National Association of Broadcasters convention in Las Vegas in mid-April. Executives from USA">http://www.usadr.com/">USA Digital Radio and Lucent">http://www.lucentdigitalradio.com/">Lucent Digital Radio, the two biggest players in the sector, told NAB members that their design and testing programs are still in early stages of development, too soon for accord.