A2IM Announces 12th Annual Indie Music Week June 5-9, 2017

The indie music community will come together again on June 5-9, 2017 in New York City for American Association of Independent Music’s (A2IM) 12th Annual Indie Week, an international conference and networking event aimed at maximizing the global impact of independent music. ____________________________________ A2IM’s 2017’s Indie Week in 6.5.9, 2017…

Donald Trumps Own Viral ‘Freedom Kids’ Now Plan Lawsuit Against Trump Campaign

Some may recall the Trump campaign’s singing/dancing ‘Freedom Kids’ from earlier this year. Now it looks as though the group’s organizer will be suing the campaign after its violation of their verbal agreement and repeated failure to properly compensate the performance group. _______________________________ Guest Post by Mike Masnick on Techdirt…

Facebook Branded Content Now Enabled For All Verified Pages

An option which was formerly only available to media companies and major celebrities, Facebook has recently made branded content (aka any content which directly mentions or features a third party product/brand) available to all verified pages, which could be good news for artists. ___________________________ Guest Post by Emma Hawkins of…

UPDATE: $9 Million Later, Music Dealers Abruptly Shutters Sync Licensing Service, Musicians Go Unpaid

UPDATE: A music tech startup going out of business is often just another sad story. But Music Dealers raised big money and cut big deals. Now it’s founder has moved on to a glitzy new startup co-founded with a former exec of the defunct synch licensing site’s top former clients….

Why Artists Need To Embrace The New 360 Model [Cortney Harding]

As 2016 shapes up to be a landmark year for VR technology, it’s time for artists to begin embracing 360 video technology. The cost of creating such content continues to drop, but the returns continue to increase, as the ways in which fans interact with live content continues to shift….

How I Sold $66,000 In Tickets in Less Than 2 Hours with 1 Text

Here we explore an alternative method of advertising tickets to fans. Rather than using email or social media, this piece looks at how one band was able to use a mass of fan phone numbers in order to sell tickets via text, with incredible success. ________________________________ Guest Post by Nathan…

International Bluegrass Music Awards 2016 Nominations Announced

Bluegrass, in all its permutations from traditional to newgrass, has a much larger audience than most believe. This week, the International Bluegrass Music Association named its 2016 Awards nominees. _____________________________________________ The Earls of Leicester lead in nominations for the 2016 International Bluegrass Music Awards. The IBMA also revealed its newest…

SFX Considers Legal Action Against Founder Sillerman, Top Execs

The fall of controversial SFX founder and former CEO Robert "FX" Sillerman has been as dramatic as his rise. The next chapter in his demise is likely to include a gaggle of lawyers, as the new group in control of SFX signals legal action against him. _____________________________________________ New documents filed…

Universal Music Opens Vaults To Launch uDiscover Online Store

Catalog sales contribute a great deal to the bottom line of most labels, and online commerce provide a unique opportunity to leverage the long tale of fan interest well after mainstream media stops caring. Sony Legacy is a prime example. Now, Universal Music is mining its massive vaults and selling…

WED BRIEF: Facebook Growth Continues • Music Pubs Battle Sony • Eventbrite Adds Music Vets • Twitter Adds Stickers • More

THURSDAY 7.28.16 Music Business News From Around The Web It’s hard to imagine that Facebook could get any bigger, but it just did. Updated continuously under our More News tab