WHITECROWE / blog.

A media critique by Wayne Friedman

The NFL’s blackout rule is not in effect in the Rose Bowl this Sunday. There is no need for it — no one is playing football.

The event is a music concert by U2, and the popular Irish band has sold out all of the Rose Bowl’s 96,000 seats.  With that in mind, the band will stream an entire concert live on YouTube this weekend — free.

NFL has a TV blackout rule for its football teams when they can’t sell out their home stadiums. So far big musical acts haven’t figured out how to incorporate this into their business models.

But musicians may be way ahead in this area — giving away lots of their content (either voluntarily or otherwise), all with different degrees of sales performance results. Some bands, such as  Rage Against the Machine, have left it in the hands of fans to decide what to pay for a new album.

Wired Magazine:

Willie Nelson has tossed the satellite dish off the back of his corn-powered tour bus in favor of a little box that fuses wireless data cards from a variety of networks into a single connection.

Which is to say Willie is on the net again, seeing things he may never see again.

Satellite connections can be made anywhere, but they are expensive and have strict usage caps. Network data cards offer all-you-can eat broadband plans, but any given company’s — AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint — doesn’t work everywhere. The solution? Use an array of network data cards from several companies. What Nelson has done is to tie four wireless USB cards into a Mushroom Networks PortaBella 141, which makes them into a single, fast and robust connection that can power a roving or remote network.

Bloomberg
Radio station owners such as CBS Corp. would have to pay new fees to play music on the air under legislation just approved by the Senate Judiciary Committee.

The measure would establish a royalty to be split between recording artists and labels. (Satellite and Internet radio already pay such fees.) Broadcasters making less than $50,000 can pay a flat annual fee of $100, and stations making less than $1.25 million can also pay a flat fee, per the proposal. Similar legislation passed the House Judiciary Committee in May.

Music labels, including Warner Music Group, Vivendi, and Sony Music Entertainment, say their artists deserve to be compensated for the value their songs bring to radio stations. However, broadcast companies including CBS, Clear Channel Communications, Cumulus Media and Citadel Broadcasting oppose the legislation, saying that radio play promotes music and should remain free.  Click for more here

What Competition Means To Our Industry At The Development Level

Competition is necessary for our industry – with the exception of a few sectors, the music industry is primarily service based. Which means, for the most part, clients come and they go (and sometimes they come back again) and you can’t feel bad about that. It can be a revolving door at this discovery level as artist’s find the team that is best for them.

Once and awhile, you might find a gem that stands the test of time, but at the development level especially, more times than not, the artist is just starting to think about how they want their business to be run and, for better or worse, they feel they need to explore their options. They all ask themselves: Maybe someone else can do it better? Maybe someone else has better connections? It’s human nature.

Networking Within The Texas Music Industry – Why it’s Important

Most everyone I talk to in Austin agrees, Austin’s Music Industry community is fragmented, to the point of being ineffective.

Relationships within the Texas Music Industry in general, are tough. Most are working way too many hours to keep their ship afloat, and have little time left over to devote to building work relationships. Some are afraid of the competition. Most, I believe just don’t know how, to find each other. However it’s vital to our industry’s growth, to get to know one another, and to encourage partnerships throughout our industry.

There is strength in numbers and the future of our music industry relies on strong relationships within our own unique music community.

A few things you can do to improve relations and find the people you are looking for:

Austin City Music Office To Be Announced

Austin enjoys a ton of privileges when it comes to supporting music. Not only does it support such great causes like HAAM and Austin Music Foundation, it’s also gaining some national industry support from organizations such as NARAS (The Grammy’s) and globally known brands such as Gibson. In fact, if you take a good look, you’ll see we have more pieces in place to build a strong music industry, than anyone probably realizes.

I heard through the grapevine the City of Austin will create an official Music Office, which means both the State of Texas and the City of Austin recognize the potential of creating a real music industry hub here.

These are two very important components to our industry’s growth – and it shows both government entities believe that not only can we can build an industry that can compete with other nationally recognized Music Industry cities, but  also recognizes on a City and State level that the Music Industry is a realistic source of  economic development and growth.