Up here at IMNZ we like to keep an eye on music industry things happening out there around the world. We figure it might also be useful and interesting to  provide regular international and local updates relevant to record labels and artists…so below is a selected summary – something we hope to do on a regular basis.

APRA Professional Development Awards

The applications for the 2011 APRA NZ Professional Development Awards (PDA) close on December 3.  The PDAs are for New Zealand songwriters who can demonstrate that they possess outstanding potential in their field.  Three professional songwriters and composers will receive Awards, covering three genres: Pop/Contemporary, Classical & Film/TV.Assistance will be provided in the form of $12,000 towards: overseas travel to enable recipients to further their careers by attending music education courses; participating in co-writing activities; song writing workshops; composer seminars or other relevant opportunities.  The Awards are not intended to fund recording or touring activities. More info over at the APRA website

APRA/AMCOS also elected a new board including a new writer member Don McGlashan…full details of the election can be found here

NZ Music Commission Offers Benefits to NZ Delegates at MIDEM 2011

MIDEM runs annually over 5 days in Cannes, France. MIDEM is the largest business-to-business music conference in the world with 78 countries involved and over 7000 delegates from 3000 companies attending. MIDEM and MidemNet bring together the music industry’s influencers and decision-makers from across the globe. MidemNet provides insightful analysis into the mobile and digital music markets.
 MIDEM, now in it’s 45th year, has been a key yearly event for the music business to license and discover music, find solutions, make deals, keep abreast of industry trends and to meet the people that could transform their business; a concentration of ideas and opportunities on a global scale.

The NZ Music Commission will again host the New Zealand stand at MIDEM 2011 and we encourage all delegates to register through us in order to receive the special discounted rate and other benefits.
 Contact the NZ Music Commission for more details

Napier City Showcase Next Weekend

Don’t forget the city showcase next weekend in Napier, based on the London City showcase and featuring 40 local artists. There will also be a series of Workshops at Kazba, Hastings Street, during Friday and Saturday. These are designed as a tool for anyone interested in breaking into, or furthering their careers in, the music industry. Visit the website here. Read these stories on City Showcase on Stuff and the NZ Herald

eMusic Signs Major Labels and Loses Some Independents from Catalog.

This week music subscription website eMusic ("no.1 site for independent music") announced that it had signed up the remaining major record labels to it’s catalog (Universal, Warners and Sony). Previously eMusic was the second largest music download website (after iTunes) it managed to achieve this with only catalog from independent record labels.

The move to include the major labels (including 250,000 tracks from Universal) has been controversial and has resulted in three of the largest independents leaving. These are Merge (Arcade Fire, Spoon etc), Domino (Dirty Projectors, Franz Ferdinand) and the Beggars Group (which includes 4AD, Matador, XL and others). Beggars have issued a statement outlining why it chose to leave eMusic.

Many subscribers also appear to be unhappy about the change, which also includes variable pricing. Previously you paid a set monthly fee that would allow a certain number of downloads per month.

Merlin Signs Deal with Audiotube

Global indie music rights agency Merlin has signed a worldwide licensing deal with online music video platform Audiotube. 

Billed as the "home of independent music," Audiotube underwent a re-launch in September this year and recently inked a deal with mobile phone manufacturer Nokia, which will see the digital platform become the choice music video application on Nokia handsets. Full story on Billboard and Merlin over here

Billboard also reports on the ongoing RIAA battle with Limewire here

What is the Latest with Warner Music and EMI?

The Guardian newspaper reports the latest development in the ongoing story of EMI’s financial problems is that Warner Music is planning to make a $750 million bid to buy EMI’s recorded music division. Terra Firma boss Guy Hands bought EMI three years ago for 2.8 million pounds, using funds borrowed from the Citigroup bank.

Neither Guy Hands nor EMI CEO Roger Faxton wants to sell EMI (the latter circulating this memo to staff) but despite this it is possible they may be forced to sell by Citigroup. A more detailed article outlining the story can be read on the Guardian website

Warner music reported revenue of quarterly revenue of $752 million, which was down 13% on the last quarter, however digital music sales wre up by 7%.
Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr also made some interesting comments on Spotify, Google but not on EMI

iTunes and the Beatles

Apple’s iTunes have announced they have added the Beatles to their catalog. There was much speculation about the announcement, many thinking it might be about a rumored cloud based service. Here is a bit of a back story on the Beatles acquisition.

This is a list of the top six bands still not yet on iTunes

Music, the Industry and the Internet: This is an IMNZ weekly round up of local and international music industry and internet news. We hope the articles are useful to NZ Independent labels and artists.

WATCH The National on a CNN feature talk about some of the things they think contributed to their success, including synchronisation licenses, fans sharing their music and other things...it sounds like they also name check The Clean.

READ an article on Music Think Tank about how Myspace continues to rule in Google search results, particularly ahead of Facebook and Twitter.

READ about the new Myspace re-design where they are hoping to position itself as a 'social entertainment' service

READ on Hypebot about how a US judge has ordered Limewire to shut down

READ a useful article on on Mashable on optomizing your Social Media Strategy

Future of Music Coalition 10th Anniversary Policy Summit takes place at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. this week (from October 3-5, 2010). The conference brings together musicians, technologists, policymakers, arts advocates, academics, legal professionals, industry reps and media mavens together for cutting-edge conversations about creative content in the digital age.

The celebrated three-day conference also features cocktail parties, a film screening and live concert.

They are also streaming it live on the interweb if you want to check it out

I have seen the future of rock and roll, and it’s merch. Of course, band-branded merchandise has been a major part of the music business, big and small, for years. The Ramones sold more T-shirts than albums (and you can buy a T-shirt that says so). And box sets for superfans have become increasingly elaborate and pricey artlike objects. But merchandise is gaining momentum, and it’s not hard to imagine a time when a fan buys a sculpture, home décor item or other tangible good and gets the music as a kind of free soundtrack accompaniment.

Read more on the New York Times website...

"Why must artists not just be artists—aloof and solely creative nature? Why must they embrace not only new technologies, but the techniques of online promotion and participation that go along with them"

Kevin Breuner: There are two main shifts in the industry that I think makes the online promotion a must for those who want to pursue music on a professional level. 1. Technology has killed the gatekeepers and now allows anyone to make a decent sounding album for relatively little money.  The result has been more recorded music than the fan community knows what to do with (or can support financially).  It’s overwhelming.  Music fans are inundated with music everywhere they go and it all just starts to run together.  Most of it is of decent quality, and it’s harder to make that true connection with the fan just based on the music existing.  There needs to be more for the fan to grab onto....

...Read more over at Hypebot

Almost two months ago, Bandcamp switched from a free to paid service. Some of their users were less happy than others, but, from my understanding, a number of them loved the company so much that they didn’t mind helping them diversify their revenue streams and stay afloat. This new announcement could prove to be slightly more dicey:

Read this article on Hypebot outlining how it all works...