Blog: Hypebot

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm . In our exclusive interview with Grooveshark CEO and co-founder Sam Tarantino a couple of weeks ago, he listed no fewer than eight reasons why music should be free - and why his company should be the one to make it that way. For now, despite lawsuits from all four major labels, Grooveshark continues to distribute free music without permission by obeying the part of the copyright law the DMCA that says everything's okay so [...]

RIAA Tries To Downplay Its Role In The Feds' Unjustifiable Censorship Of Urban Music Site Dajaz1 ( techdirt ) Shakira to Sign $30 Million Deal With Live Nation, Sony (HTR) "Mad Men" Paid $250,000 - A Record Price for Possible First Ever of Beatles Song for TV ( Forbes ) Gumroad raises $7M to make selling online dead simple ( GigAOm ) MORE: CEO Robb McDaniels of INgrooves dishes on the state of digital music [...]

Just got this email and wanted to pass it along to Hypebot readers: Survey Center Fo cus, a market research company based in Chicago, is currently doing research with mu sicians about audio equipment. We are looking for vocalists, guitar players, and bass players that currently use a wireless microphone syste m to test a new product, on behalf of a well-known audio equipment company. If you qualify to participate, [...]

Guest post by Tyler Hayes, founder of Liisten.com , an independent music discovery site. Don't label songs "Demo", "Rough Mix", "Unmastered" or anything in that vein. Even if it is one of those, but you think it sounds good enough to share and you can't wait, don't tell people it's a "demo". Back in the days of actual 4 track tape recorders and tape hiss, a demo was something that wasn't meant to be heard outside the band or for business reasons. Let's keep it that way. [...]

Total users and engagement : 125,000 M Friendships 2,000 M Likes per day 1,000 M Comments posted per day 901 M Monthly active users 526 M Daily Active users 488 M Monthly active mobile users 302 M Photos uploaded each day User penetration: 85% Chile, Turkey, and Venezuela 60% India, the [...]

Amanda Palmer continues to raise the bar at Kickstarter after breaking the record for crowdfunding music. Palmer's always been open about how she does things, it's part of her approach to both art and business, and last week she shared her insights on Kickstarter crowdfunding with both the O Music Awards Blog and Techdirt. Plus, her behind-the-scenes helper Sean Francis shares his view from the trenches. As I work on this post early Monday morning Amanda Palmer: The new RECORD, ART BOOK, and TOUR , her awkwardly titled but extraordinarily [...]

When you talk about sponsorships, the main thing surrounding the talk is money. On Music Think Tank , Simon Tam talks about changing your thinking on sponsorships and looking at it as a partnership. Read on for more about sponsorships and important factors to consider. "All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends. All things being not so equal, people still want to do business with their friends." [...]

This morning Google flipped the switch on a major expansion of Google Hangouts that makes possible new opportunities for artists to interact directly with fans. Now anyone can now stream their Google+ Hangouts live video chats to an unlimited number of viewers. Google Hangout video chats had been limited to 10 people with only select "celebrity" users pre-approved to stream their Hangouts to a bigger group of viewers. Now these Hangouts On Air are available to all users. How Artists Can Use Hangouts On Air [...]

Beastie Boys band member Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) hit the net on Sunday night to express his gratitude for the outpouring of support and love following the untimely death of bandmate Adam Yauch: as you can imagine, shit is just fkd up right now. but i wanna say thank you to all our friends and family (which are kinda one in the same) for all the love and support. i'm glad to know that all the love that Yauch has put out into the world [...]

In a case that combines the concepts of "guilty until proven innocent" and "government capture," a recent release of court documents reveals that the seizure of Dajaz1.com by Federal authorities, which shut down the business for 13 months, was based on claims by the RIAA that were never supported by evidence sufficient to result in a trial. Though this blatant abuse of due process by the U.S. government in concert with private industry is being addressed to some degree by the media and civil rights organizations, with Wired and the Electronic Frontier Foundation [...]

Guest post by Eliot Van Buskirk of Evolver.fm . Yes, it's true: I flew about 25 hours each way from New York to attend Music Hack Day Sydney last weekend, and have written up just about every app and hack to emerge from it over the course of the week. These Aussies and the occasional New Zealander or Englishman produced some really great hacks, and I say that as someone who has attended my fair share of these events. [...]

NARM's Music Biz 2012 opens today in LA. Are you attending? Don't miss our NARM Hypebot Sessions on Wednesdday afternoon. Details here . The New York Times profiles TuneCore's Jeff Price "Out to Shake Up Music, Often With Sharp Words" ( NYT ) Amanda Palmer 's Kickstarter campaign is over $573,000 with 24 days left. She explains how: "Connecting Each And Every Day, Person By Person" ( techdirt ) [...]

Kyle Bylin : 3 Insights Into Future Of Geosocial Music Robin Davey : What The Music Industry Can Learn From Glen Bell - Founder of Taco Bell Tyler Hayes : It's Time For iRecords, The Apple Record Label

GETTING IT DONE Sign Up Now For Our Next Free Webinar: How To Use ReverbNation To Promote Your Music Amanda Palmer Raises $489,620 In 4 Days, Shatters Kickstarter Music Record Who's The Pirate Now? How One Band Generated $83,000 In Revenue On The High Seas How To Offer Free Music Downloads And Press Kits Via Dropbox & Wordpress MORE: [...]

Where The Music Industry Thinks Out Loud Corey Crossfield : Why Mobile Apps Matter For Music Frank Woodworth : How to Begin a Career in the Music Industry: Advice to the graduating class of 2012 Ariel [...]

Spotify launched their much anticipated iPad app . (Here's a review .) There was also an upgrade for the Spotify iPhone App Amanda Palmer Raises $489,620 In 4 Days, Shatters Kickstarter Music Record Game Changer: Toma.hk Embeds Music from Spotify, SoundCloud, Last.fm , More NARM's Hypebot Sessions Next Week In LA MORE: [...]

We're proud to co-sponsor the second in a series free direct-to-fan music marketing webinars hosted by Brian Thompson and Michael Brandvold from The Music Biz Weekly podcast. On Tuesday May 8th, "How To Use ReverbNation to Promote Your Music", will include special guest Nick Sehn , Product Manager at ReverbNation. At 3PM Pacfic on May 8th, this 60 minute webinar into the world of ReverbNation, followed by a 30 minute Q&A, is free and is open to the [...]

After his first US #1 with Somebody That I Used To Know , Australian artist Gotye leads the nominations for APRA Song Of The Year . New Zealand chanteuse Kimbra, who also features on the smash hit, this week topped the International Songwriting Competition with her song Cameo Love. MORE: The record industry is back on the war front with radio broadcasters . Unlike music publishers, record labels are paid no performance right from [...]

Musicians often need to provide free music downloads for press purposes or to spread the word to fans. Recently Dropbox unveiled a feature that allows you to share with a link. Like Wordpress.com blogs, Dropbox limits free storage and charges for extra storage but doesn't bill based on bandwidth used. This option is also useful for sharing press kits with media outlets and music supervisors. While you may prefer using one of a number of services that allow you to require an email address for a free download, Dropbox offers [...]

In addition to launching its pretty darn awesome iPad app this week, Spotify has upgraded it's iPhone app with some new features. The new version is available in the iTunes app store with changes including: New higher res cover art Gapless and Crossfade which has not been available on the phone Bugs relating to losing offline synced tracks are fixed. MORE: A Deep Dive Into Spotify's iPad App [REVIEW]