Musicadium Blog

“First and foremost, you don’t sign a huge record contract that strips you of all your digital rights, so that when you do sell something on iTunes you get absolutely zero. That would be the first priority. If you’re an emerging artist, it must be frightening at the moment. Then again, I don’t see a downside at all to big record companies not having access to new artists, because they have no idea what to do with them now anyway.”

Enter Musicadium - giving artists 100% of royalties and all rights to their music.  If you’re an emerging artist, things aren’t so frightening after all.

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After Musicadium’s massive launch party in Brisbane - we were chuffed to get a call from Billboard magazine proposing a profile on us.

You can read the profile here:

If you’ve read or seen something about Musicadium in the press - be sure to drop us a line!

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Musicadium – Australia’s dedicated digital distributor – officially launched this week.

More than 150 people turned up to see Musicadium favourites The Westminsters, The Frankie Band and Brisbane supergroup Ranger take the stage.

With the signing of Asutralian supergroup Ranger - featuring singer songwriter Cameron McKenzie, bass player Adele Pickvance (The Go-Betweens) and Martin Lee (ex-Regurgitator) - Musicadium is assisting an exciting new band to access to benefits of the digital age.

“It used to be that bands would spend thousands of bucks to press and distribute a few hundred albums locally. Digital is a whole different ball game. With digital, you can get unlimited international distribution for the cost of a round of drinks. It’s never been easier for artists to get their music out there,” said Musicadium Business Manager Nick Crocker.

“We are the only distributor in Australia that returns 100% of royalties to our artists. It was a decision we made early on in the process,” Mr Crocker said.

“Obviously, short term, it would be a smarter financial choice for us to take a cut of our artists’ royalties. But, in the long run, we want to be recognised as a true supporter of independent artists worldwide. To do that we have foregone short term profit and developed a business model that works by giving back to our artists all the royalties they make.”

It’s a revolutionary business model, one that would have been inconceivable even a few short years ago. But with the digital music market growing each month, Musicadium is set to capitalise on the changing face of the music business and, in the process, put the artist in the driving seat.

For more information:

Contact Nick Crocker
Phone: +61 7 3252 9962
Email: nick@musicadium.com
www.musicadium.com

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The Musicadium launch party took place at The Zoo on Wednesday, February 13.

More than 150 people turned up to see Musicadium favourites The Westminsters, The Frankie Band and Brisbane supergroup Ranger take the stage.

Frankie Kimpton from The Frankie Band

With rain buffetting down outside, punters revelled in The Zoo’s familiar surrounds.

In attendance were representatives from the cream of Brisbane’s music scene including QMusic, APRA, Dew Process, Secret Service Management, 4zzz, Aus Music Biz, The Courier Mail, Powderfinger, Brispop, Scene Magazine and Newcity Entertainment as well many Musicadium friends and artists.

Happy revellers: (from left to right) Tracy Redhead (Music NSW), Pat Whyte (Courier Mail), Deb Suckling (QMusic), Nick Crocker (Musicadium), Graham Ashton (Dew Process), Scott Maughan (Secret Service) 

Musicadium - Australia’s dedicated digital distributor - is growing exponentially having doubled the size of its artist roster in the last four months.

With the signing of Brisbane supergroup Ranger - featuring singer songwriter Cameron McKenzie, bass player Adele Pickvance (The Go-Betweens) and Martin Lee (ex-Regurgitator) - Musicadium is assisting an exciting new band to access to benefits of the digital age.

Cam McKenzie from Ranger

Musicadium is a revolutionary business model, one that would have been inconceivable even a few short years ago. But with the digital music market growing each month, Musicadium is set to capitalise on the changing face of the music business and, in the process, put the artist in the driving seat.

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1. Readable text

You can’t read what you can’t see. So many myspace pages are destroyed by putting hard to read text over an incompatible background photo. Make sure your text is easily readable, easily accessible and logically set out.

2. Strategically placed Top Friends

This is the same principle as the one that worked in high school. Hang with the cool kids and you’re likely to be slapped with the ‘cool’ tag, regardless of your actual status. Make sure your top friends include bands that you, and your fans, love. It’s ok to have a few real friends scattered in there but strangers to your site aren’t interested in meeting your best mates Macker and Sheree, they want to know what bands you sound like, love and associate yourselves with.

3. Optional Music

MAKE THE MUSIC OPTIONAL! Myspace sites that blare music the second they are loaded make the blood boil and will result 9 times out of 10 in your page being closed. Let people choose if they want to hear your music.

4. A good band photo/logo

Don’t try and be quirky with this one. Have a decent band photo or a well designed logo as your profile pic. Loaves of bread, photoshopped movie posters and Paris Hilton pics are all no-nos.

5. Links to your stuff

If you have merch, music on iTunes or a physical CD to sell, make sure you have nice, clear links for people to purchase. If they are on your page, you have their attention. Now you need to make it seamless for them to purchase your creations.

On this point, here are two myspace pages that work:

http://www.myspace.com/thequills
http://www.myspace.com/scottedgarandtheuniverse

And two that don’t work quite so well:

http://www.myspace.com/jimmbay1
http://www.myspace.com/cowboy007b

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The biggest news from this year’s Midem Conference in Cannes was the ‘launch’ of QTrax.

For those who missed it, Qtrax announced they had deals with all the major labels to release their catalogues. Then the major labels denied it. And so the launch wasn’t really a launch at all.

On more than just a few websites, the QTrax debacle is being dubbed as the worst launch ever. Others have been more kind, outlining that the QTrax launch hit ‘licensing snags’. That’s a bit like saying the Titanic hit an iceberg snag, but regardless, QTrax is now finding itself in a bit of hot water.

Qtrax was intended to launch as a fully legal, ad-backed download which would pay copyright holders for any songs distributed on the network.

Despite the fumbled launch, QTrax CEO Allan Klepfisz is still right on the money in terms of his intentions.

“You can’t change the attitudes and habits of what is now probably amounting to two generations who believe that music ought to be free on the internet,” said Klepfisz. “Those people are not going to be discouraged by Supreme Court decisions, they’re not going to be discouraged by technological interference. Ultimately, what will discourage them is a demonstratively better service.”

Indeed. It’s just a pity Qtrax jumped the gun so awkwardly. The thousands of people waiting to download music through their user accounts aren’t likely to be thrilled by the site fact they can’t actually get any music.

It will be interesting to see if Klepfisz and QTrax can dust themselves off and give music labels and consumers alike exactly what they want.

We are already almost two weeks on and still QTrax users are met by ‘technical issues’ messages when they hit the site.

Watch this space.

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“For 50 years the major labels have thought of themselves as guardians of the music industry; in fact they’ve been its bouncers. Getting into the club used to be highly desirable. Now it doesn’t matter any more.

For artists and managers, this is the moment to take things into their own hands. Artists no longer need to be held for 10 years and they no longer need to sign away ownership of their recorded copyrights. These days, an artist working closely with his manager can ensure that everything is done in the artist’s best interest. Majors have never done that. And never will.”

Simon Napier-Bell is most famous for his management of bands like The Yardbirds and Wham! but his article here makes for fascinating reading.

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Digital Music Sales are predicted to increase by 280% over the next five years as revealed by technology research and consulting firm Yankee Group.

The study predicts that US sales will rise from $1.9 billion in 2007 to $5.34 billion by 2012. 

As physical CD sales decline, the balance of power between recording artists, record labels and consumers is shifting. 

Bands are now seeking to retain greater ownership of their music thus marginalising the role of the record label. 

The trend in the digital music sphere is towards greater revenues returning to the original artist.  Increases in digital music revenues are therefore not all good news for record labels.

For recording artists, things have never been easier. 

The cost of recording and distributing music is a fraction of what it once was and with the Idol phenomenon embedded worldwide, now everyone wants to be a star.

Brisbane-based digital distributor Musicadium is one company positioned to harness the power of the digital music revolution.

Unlike in traditional distribution models, Musicadium returns 100% of royalties to its artists and charges just a once-off upload fee of $39 for worldwide distribution.

The fusion of technological advances and booming online retailers like iTunes mean that it’s now easier than ever for artists to get their music to the world.

Director of Musicadium, Kley McPherson said they get emails everyday from artists all over the world who want to distribute their music digitally.

“As digital sales increase, it’s only going to be more vital for artists to start embracing the digital music revolution,” he said.  

Indeed, the days of artists spending thousands to press just a few hundred CDs may soon be a distant memory. 

“Physical sales still have their place, definitely, but the ease, cost effectiveness and rapid growth of digital distribution makes it hard too hard to ignore,” Mr McPherson said.

Media Contact:
Nick Crocker  
Phone 07 3252 9962
Email: nick@musicadium.com  
Web: www.musicadium.com

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Today is kids’ day on the Musicadium blog.

First up - The Tiny Masters of Today. Hailing from Brooklyn the Tiny Masters of Today duo consists of 13 year old Ivan and 11 year old Ada. Most kids at that age are grazing their knees and sucking on wizz-fizz. Ivan and Ada are kicking it with the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion and packing out New York’s Webster Hall.

Check out their clip for the track ‘Hologram World’ directed by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Karen O.

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All the way from Chicago and Detroit, comes The Cool Kids who have already blown up in the US being featured on hit TV show Entourage and being included in Rolling Stone’s ‘Ten Artists To Watch in 2008′.

While the music is minimal hip-hop, the hype on the Cool Kids is anything but. The clip for the track ‘Black Mags’ reminds me of the Lupe Fiasco ‘Kick Push’ clip. At least, it’s the first time I ever thought of the BMX as a ghetto transporter.

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