Music Biz Academy Digest - Issue #16 - August 2nd, 2001
An update from http://www.musicbizacademy.com.

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THE MUSIC BIZ ACADEMY
http://www.musicbizacademy.com

FEATURING:
Musician's Online Directory:
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http://www.musicbizacademy.com/articles

The Bookstore
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore

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WELCOME....
Welcome to the August 2nd edition of the Music Biz Academy
digest! There have been a lot of very interesting developments
in the news during the last two weeks. The recording industry is
beginning to wake up to the financial prospects of the internet,
and now that the internet has their full attention, they are
taking measures to turn a profit. While the powers-that-be at BMG
invest in copy-protected CD technology, the major record labels
are backing pay-for-music subscription services in the works from
Yahoo, AOL, RealNetworks and MSN. Within a few short months,
you'll be pay for music anywhere you go online.

Meanwhile, MP3.com continues to mutate, with plans to integrate
pressplay's (aka Sony and Universal) subscription-based music
service into it's network. “This is an exciting announcement for
music fans around the world,” said Robin Richards, president of
MP3.com. “The marriage of our infrastructure to pressplay’s music
programming content will further demonstrate our strong
technology, and importantly, will offer music fans access to an
even more compelling music experience at MP3.com.” Um. Yea, OK.

Finally, Napster got a new CEO - and that's about the biggest
news from this one-time file-sharing giant. Napster is still
'finalizing' it's 'exciting new service.' In the meantime,
previous Napster loyalists are flocking to competing services.
Napster is offering selected visitors the opportunity to beta
test the new service. See Napster.com if you're interested.

In summary, the recording industry wants a piece of the internet,
and they're creating partnerships with established web portals to
make that happen. The question is, will the public buy into it? I
guess we'll have to wait and see.


SUPPORT YOUR HOST!
MusicBizAcademy.com is free, the articles and directory are free,
but please show your support by trying out our music and support
the work of you host, David Nevue: http://www.mp3.com/davidnevue


THE GUERRILLA MUSIC MARKETING HANDBOOK
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/guerrillamusic.htm
This guide to independent music success features over 175 ways to
thrive and prosper with your own band or record label. The PDF
version of this great book is now only $29.95! Buy it now at the
Music Biz Academy!


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Recent Additions/Updates to the Musician's Directory....
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/directory
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CD BABY
http://www.cdbaby.com/
CD Baby is an online CD store dedicated solely to independent
music. They've been generating buzz in indie music circles for
years and there's good reason for it. CD Baby has created a
wonderful vehicle for indie musicians to get their music on the
web easily without the usual headaches. For a set up fee of $35,
CD Baby will create a page for you that includes sound clips,
reviews, and images. You'll be able to sell your CDs right from
CD Baby, and customers will be able to purchase via credit card.
CD Baby takes $4 for every CD sold. Did we mention that CD Baby
gets over 150,000 visitors per day? Of all the music hosting
services here, CD Baby is one of the biggest and with the most
buzz. That being said, if you're looking for someone to host your
music site, CD Baby should be a strong candidate.


CD DIGITAL CARD
http://www.cddigitalcard.com/
Forget that bulky, inconvenient mess of a press kit you have, how
about putting your music, multimedia, and press kit on a 'CD
Digital Card?' CDDC offers CD and DVD Cards in a number of
amazing shapes and sizes that will play in any CD-Rom drive. And
once your CDDC is made, it can be wrapped in any number of
attractive packaging solutions. You simply *must* check out the
huge variety of CD Templates available, which include a guitar
pick and a guitar.. There's some very cool stuff here for
musicians looking for creative ways to deliver press kits or
other information to those they want to impress.


FOURFRONT MEDIA AND MUSIC
http://www.knab.com/
Christopher Knab, music consultant extraordinaire, has dedicated
his time and talents to maintaining this superb web site full of
useful articles for the struggling musician. Mr. Knab is not just
another "working musician" offering advice, he's a well known
(and requested) speaker who participates in music and radio
industry conferences. Mr. Knab is also the founder of 415
Records, a label who brought us such bands such as Romeo Void,
Translator, Wire Train, and the Red Rockers to name a few.
Currently, he is a music industry consultant who's door is open
to anyone who's interested. The FourFront Media site just oozes
with great information separated into four main components;
Product Development, Promotion, Publicity, and Performance. Every
section has useful articles (navigate with the links in the left
bar), some of which we've not seen elsewhere. FourFront is a must
see.


SHOWGIGS.COM
http://www.showgigs.com/
ShowGigs.com combines the benefits of having both a
talent/booking agent and a web site designed and marketed to
promote your music. Not only does ShowGigs.com host your 'digital
press kit' (a 15 page web site built for you), but they
personally contact event planners, program directors and PR
companies to promote your music. Their initial goal is to get you
radio airplay, which they do by directly contacting music
directors in your genre. Then they get you the gigs. Check out
the artist showcase for examples of their classy designs.


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Articles From Around The Net....
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DON'T BE A VICTIM OF MUSIC BUSINESS SCAMS AND SHAMS
http://members.aol.com/shockvaluemedia/jul01.html#FOCUS
We recently sent out an e-mail reminder with an important warning
attached concerning a MUSICAL SCAM. They are absolutely
everywhere and some have been in existance since Billy Holiday
first hit the stage... Article by C.J. Cauley


INTERVIEW WITH DAVID UOSIKKINEN OF THE HOOTERS
http://msg.mp3.com/artistforums/liststory/?topic_id=52302&month=200107&category_\
id=3008
How does a band go about landing a major label deal? MP3.com's
David Uosikkinen, a founding member of the platinum-selling band
the Hooters, relates how he managed to land that elusive record
contract with a major label, become an MTV star and tour the
world in support of a massively successful album.


TAKING YOUR VITAMINIC
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27874,00.html
There are few more puzzling stories in the world of digital music
than the continued sunny fortunes of Italy's Vitaminic. Largely
unknown in the United States, Vitaminic is Europe's largest
digital music company. Unlike U.S. forerunners Launch and
MP3.com, the firm seems to be employing a cunning strategy to
avoid being squashed by the major music labels: It is starting to
act like one.


MP3 SUMMIT - THE END
http://www.dmusic.com/news/news.php?id=5242
One thing I noticed at the conference was a lot of reminiscing
about past years. Everyone seemed to agree these annual summits
serve as marks on the timeline of digital music. With the
significant drop in attendance this year, many people wonder if
this spells the end of these conferences and perhaps even the end
of the excitement surrounding digital music itself.


HOW TO KEEP SHARING MP3S WHILE NAPSTER FACES THE MUSIC
http://www.zdnet.com/anchordesk/stories/story/0,10738,2784935,00.html
Once again a judge has put the kibosh on Napster. Face it,
music-sharing fans--no matter what the courts ultimately rule,
Napster as we knew it is as dead as the eight-track tape.
That doesn't mean that you can't share music any more. Far from
it.


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Featured Music Industry News
http://www.musicbizacademy.com
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BMG TO TEST COPY-PROTECTED CDS
http://www.betanews.com/article.php3?sid=996535831
The fight to Napster-proof audio CDs has entered the next round
of development. Record industry giant BMG Entertainment is set to
begin testing a technology which it hopes will thwart the illegal
creation of compact discs. Partnering with SunnComm Incorporated,
BMG will deploy its own in-house copyright protection measures
along side SunComm's MediaC1_Q Digital Cloaking Technology.
SunComm refused to disclose details on the inner-workings of the
protection.


INTERNET RADIO LISTENING NEARLY DOUBLES SINCE JANUARY
http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=25612
MeasureCast, Inc., the first company to provide on-line radio
broadcasters with next-day audience size and demographics
reports, today announced that total time spent listening (TTSL)
to Internet radio stations measured by MeasureCast has almost do


MUSIC INDUSTRY WILL OFFER SONGS ONLINE
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A46401-2001Jul25.html
In an attempt to fill the void left by the demise of Napster, the
music industry's corporate giants are gearing up services this
fall that will give computer users nearly instant access to
catalogues of songs in exchange for monthly fees.


NAPSTER NAMES NEW CEO
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,28179,00.html
The file-sharing service appoints a Bertelsmann executive to take
the helm ahead of the launch of its new subscription service.
File-sharing service Napster named Konrad Hilbers, a former
senior executive at Bertelsmann AG, as its new chief executive
officer (CEO) on Tuesday.


NAPSTER USE PLUMMETS BUT COMPETITORS GAIN
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=45731
The recording industry has managed to virtually squash Napster
like a bug, but free swapping of music continues to thrive on
alternative web services that are potentially harder to restrain,
according to a report issued by research firm Jupiter Media
Metrix.


RECORD LABELS PREPARE THEIR ONLINE ASSAULT
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-000060022jul23.story?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dbu\
siness
The recording industry's legal assault has floored Napster Inc.,
once the king of the Internet's song-swapping services.
Now the major record labels are gearing up for Round 2, as the
fight moves to the marketplace. Within the next few months, Net
powerhouses America Online, Yahoo, MSN and RealNetworks are
expected to launch subscription music services that are either
backed or owned by the labels.


PRESSPLAY TAPS MP3.COM FOR BACK-END TECHNOLOGY
http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=25202
MP3.com, Inc. and pressplay, the online music service company,
today announced that MP3.com would provide pressplay’s back-end
infrastructure technology, as well as become an affiliate of the
pressplay online music subscription service. pressplay plans to
use MP3.com’s content delivery and subscription management
technology for its service which is set to launch later this
summer.


NAPSTER TO TEST NEW SERVICE SOON
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/07/18/napster.update.reut/index.html
"The Beta version of the new Napster will be available before the
new service launches, and we'll be looking for your feedback on
our new features, the ease of use, and of course, identifying the
inevitable bugs," the company said in an e-mail to users who have
signed up to participate in the test of Napster's soon-to-launch
subscription service.


NAPSTER GETS GO-AHEAD TO RESUME SONG-SWAPPING SERVICE
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/internet/07/19/napster.offline.ap/index.html
Napster Inc. says it is uncertain whether it will resume its free
online song-swapping service despite getting the green light from
a federal appeals court. On Wednesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court
of Appeals overturned a federal judge's ruling ordering the
company to remain offline until it can fully comply with an
injunction to remove all copyright music.


NAPSTER TO DITCH MP3 FOR PROPRIETARY FORMAT
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/6/20428.html
Napster is going to ditch the MP3 format altogether and run
instead with a proprietaryformat, .nap, that will include a
digital rights aspect and keep music companies off its back.
Yep, in what is the final nail in the coffin of what Napster once
stood for, the company has done a deal with PlayMedia Systems to
develop the new .nap format. PlayMedia will work on encryption
and playback and Bertlesmann will tie it in with a digital rights
system so files can't be swapped without people paying for them.


MP3.COM SUMMIT MORE LIKE A WAKE
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5094127,00.html
On a sunny university plaza here, a band played punk rock songs
for a dwindling lunchtime crowd of businesspeople, code writers
and copyright lawyers. The music fit the event, the fourth--and
probably last--annual MP3.com Summit, or what used to be one of
the chief gatherings of online music's revolutionaries.


NAPSTER ASKS APPEALS COURT TO DELAY SHUTDOWN ORDER
http://www.sonicnet.com/news/story.jhtml?id=1445181
In a last-ditch effort to stay open while it works on a
long-promised fee-based service, Napster asked a federal appeals
court Thursday to postpone a shutdown order it received last
week. Claiming that U.S. District Court Judge Marilyn Patel
overstepped her authority by demanding that Napster's filters be
100 percent effective, the file-sharing service called Patel's
order "draconian" and said that its latest technology will catch
more than 99 percent of unauthorized files.


MUSICMATCH SETTLES WITH RIAA
http://www.zdnet.com/zdnn/stories/news/0,4586,5094148,00.html?chkpt=zdnn_nbs_hl
MusicMatch on Sunday said it struck a licensing deal with the
recording industry to broadcast musical performances on its Web
radio service, paving the way for both parties to drop lawsuits
against each other.


ABOUT.COM CHOOSES RADIOCENTRAL FOR MUSIC RADIO NETWORK
http://mi2n.com/press.php3?press_nb=24842
RadioCentral, Inc., a network radio company that provides custom
interactive radio programming for commerce and content Web sites,
and About.com, the Internet’s most complete targeted environment
for users and marketers, today announce the launch of the About
Radio Network at www.about.com .


SAD SONGS SUNG AT MP3.COM SUMMIT
http://www.thestandard.com/article/0,1902,27894,00.html
Speakers show no signs of optimism only a year after Napster took
the digital music world by storm. The digital music services the
major record labels plan to launch this summer will fall on deaf
ears, and once-hyped wireless music services won't be taking off
anytime soon. The muted forecasts, a stark contrast to
expectations for online music just a year ago, were among the
opinions offered by speakers at the fourth-annual MP3.com Summit
at the University of California at San Diego on Thursday.


METALLICA, DR. DRE SETTLE LEGAL DISPUTE WITH NAPSTER
http://digitalmass.boston.com/news/wire_story.html?uri=/dailynews/193/economy/Me\
tallica_Dr_Dre_settle_legal_:.shtml
Heavy metal rockers Metallica and rap artist Dr. Dre have settled
their copyright suits against Napster. Financial terms were not
disclosed, but as part of the agreement, Metallica will allow
some of the band's songs to be traded on Napster's song swap
system once ia legal business model has been launched later this
summer, both sides said Thursday.


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Recommended Resources
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HOW TO PROMOTE YOUR MUSIC SUCCESSFULLY ON THE INTERNET
Spring 2001 Edition!
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/htpromotemusic.htm
If you want to sell your music on the net in any form, this book
will teach you how to design and market a web site that will SELL
YOUR MUSIC and bring in that extra income you need to boost and
financially support your music career! The author is currently
making over $4000 a month selling music related products and
advertising on the internet. 'How to Promote Your Music
Successfully on the Internet' shows you exactly how he did it,
step by step! Download Version Available!


THE MUSICIAN'S ATLAS - 2001 Edition
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/musiciansatlas.htm
Created by The Music Resource Group, this 368-page volume
provides access to over 15,000 music businesses and key industry
contacts in more than 25 categories. Current names, phone and fax
numbers, e-mail and website addresses, detailed submission
policies and the styles of music preferred is just some of the
information you'll find on every page of The Atlas.


THE INDIE CONTACT BIBLE
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/indiecontactbible.htm
Need to create some BUZZ about your music? Looking for reviewers?
Radio station contacts? Promotion services? Then grab The Indie
Contact Bible. This fantastic new musicians 'black book' contains
350 pages filled with contacts with publications and radio
programmers all over the world. These are people who actively
look for music to review! Download Version Available!


THE GUERRILLA MUSIC MARKETING HANDBOOK
http://www.musicbizacademy.com/bookstore/guerrillamusic.htm
This guide to independent music success features over 175 ways to
thrive and prosper with your own band or record label. Download
Version Available!


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ABOUT THE MUSIC BIZ ACADEMY
The Music Biz Academy is brought to you by Midnight Rain
Productions (http://www.rainmusic.com) . It is a resource
designed for musicians promoting or selling music on the
internet. Each week we feature news, articles, and reviews
related to the art of online music promotion and music related
product sales.

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