Who uses bbc mytracks professional#

Read the entire years ago, Chris DeWolfe, the co-founder and chief executive of MySpace, was talking about international expansion with Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation bought the social networking site in 2005. So where do artists fit into this changing landscape? We find new options, new models. But that's all they represent now: capital.' The only idea they have is that they can give you a big advance - which is still attractive to a lot of young bands just starting out. 'And they're entirely on the defensive now. 'Structurally, they're much too large,' Eno said. In a recent conversation I had with Brian Eno (who is producing the next Coldplay album and writing with U2), he was enthusiastic about I Think Music - an online network of indie bands, fans, and stores - and pessimistic about the future of traditional labels. lang, and others have sold more here than when they were at so-called major labels,' Bob Hurwitz, president of Nonesuch, told me, 'even during a time of decline.'īut some labels will disappear, as the roles they used to play get chopped up and delivered by more thrifty services. Nonesuch, where I've done several albums, has thrived under Warner Music Group ownership by operating with a lean staff of 12 and staying focused on talent.

So with all these changes, what happens to the labels? Some will survive. And for those who can do it, it's a way to make a living. Performing is a thing in itself, a distinct skill, different from making recordings. Bands would go into debt in order to tour, anticipating that they'd recover their losses later through increased record sales. Live performances used to be seen as essentially a way to publicize a new release - a means to an end, not an end in itself. It's no cheaper per unit to distribute a million copies than a hundred. No more: Digital distribution is pretty much free. It paid - in fact, it was essential - to sell in volume, because that's how many of those costs got amortized. With LPs and CDs, there were base manufacturing costs, printing costs, shipping, and so on. There used to be a break-even point below which it was impractical to distribute a recording. Manufacturing and distribution costs are approaching zero. Now an album can be made on the same laptop you use to check email. For many artists - maybe even most - this is no longer the case.

Who uses bbc mytracks professional#

Most simply didn't have the $15,000 (minimum) necessary to rent a professional studio and pay an engineer and a producer.

Artists used to need the labels to bankroll their recordings. Read the entire costs have declined to almost zero. It also said it would launch in several countries-in keeping with its 'global' moniker-but wouldn't say exactly where. For instance, the service does place some limitations on music downloaded from it, but the company has not outlined what those are. But on Monday the site shows it is only a beta launch, something the company didn't mention in its press build-up.Īdditionally, there are several important details about the service Qtrax officials have failed to make public. The company's press release and pre-briefings with reporters all pointed to the 'live' launch of the Qtrax service. The inconsistencies with its music licensing status is just one of several missteps that may make Qtrax one of most bungled service launches in the history of digital music. Qtrax did at one time have licensing deals in place, but the term of the deals either expired or were for a different iteration of the service than what went live. A source from UMG says it expects to finalize the deal 'within the next few weeks,' and the company is in talks to finalize agreements with the others as well. Sources at EMI Music Group, Sony BMG and Universal Music Group all confirmed to Billboard that they too did not yet have deals with the company. However Warner Music Group issued a statement saying the service was definitely not authorized to distribute its catalog, as no licensing deals were yet signed. It then officially unveiled the service at the MIDEM music conference in Cannes-complete with a host of celebrities including James Blunt, the Sugerhill Gang and Morris Hayes.

The company briefed reporters on the new service last week in preparation for Monday's launch, claiming it had a catalog of 30 million tracks from the four major and independent labels. The company claimed it had licensing agreements with all four major record labels, when in fact it has none. Qtrax-the free, ad-supported, 'legal' P2P service that launched at MIDEM today-apparently isn't as ready for prime time as it claims.