Twitter Users Purchase More

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npd-logoA recent NPD Group study suggests that Twitter users purchased 77% more digital music downloads than non-tweeting Web users.

“NPD’s latest music-acquisition study shows that there are segments of consumers who are more actively integrating Twitter as a key tool for communicating and networking,” said Russ Crupnick, entertainment industry analyst for NPD. “Based on their music-purchasing history, active Twitter users are simply worth more to record labels and music retailers than those who are not using Twitter.”

Twitter awareness increased during the first quarter 2009 to 52% among U.S. Internet-users from 22% in fourth quarter 2008. NPD’s consumer tracking shows that 33% of Twitter users reported purchasing a CD in the prior three months and 34% purchased a digital download. Twitter users actually purchased 77% more digital downloads than those not using the 140 character per tweet social network. Twitter users were also twice as likely than average Web users to visit MySpace Music and Pandora.

“Twitter has the potential to help foster the discovery of new music, and improve targeted marketing of music to groups of highly-involved and technologically savvy consumers, but it has to be done right,” Crupnick said. “There must be a careful balance struck between entertainment and direct conversation on one hand, and marketing on the other. Used properly Twitter has the power to entertain—and to motivate music fans to purchase more new albums, downloads, merchandise, and concert tickets.”
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GAC Forms Partnership To Release New Music

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lane-turnerGreat American Country (GAC) has entered a partnership with Original Signal Recordings to release Lane Turner’s new album, a self-titled EP made available to digital outlets on June 9. Under terms of the joint venture, GAC will promote Turner’s music and music videos on its television and radio programs, while Original Signal will spearhead the marketing and distribution efforts.

Turner’s traditional heritage and blue-collar roots made him a fan favorite as runner-up on 2008’s The Next GAC Star.  The storytelling and simplicity-of-life found in classic country songs always resonated with Lane, who counts Conway Twitty and Waylon Jennings as influences.

iTunes will distribute 50,000 free download cards featuring Turner’s lead single “Where’s a Sunset” at two country music festival events this summer. He will also be on the road, including a recent performance at CMA Music Fest, and a July 4th show at the Wild Adventures Theme Park in Valdosta, GA.

CMT Awards Are Channel’s Most-Watched Show of Year

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Capitol Nashville’s Emily West and American Idol judge Randy Jackson at the CMT Music Awards.

Capitol Nashville’s Emily West and American Idol judge Randy Jackson at the CMT Music Awards.

More than 9.6 million viewers cumulative* tuned in for the premiere and encore telecasts of the 2009 CMT Music Awards on Tuesday, June 16 on CMT. This makes it the network’s most-watched telecast of the year, and ranks it third in the history of the awards. Increased fan interaction online led CMT.com to a record 7.5 million votes for this year’s Awards, up 45% from last year’s 5 million. The entire show can be viewed at CMT.com.

Fans also flocked to CMT.com after the show, where the site hit an all-time high with over 1 million single-day streams on Wednesday, June 17. Taylor Swift and T-Pain’s “Thug Story” became the most-streamed video for the day and now holds the record for best video premiere ever on CMT.com. Sugarland’s “Love Shack” featuring the B-52s is the No. 2 streaming performance from the show, with Kellie Pickler’s “Best Days Of Your Life” ranking No. 3.

Immediately following the live awards show telecast, CMT’s new series The Singing Bee became the channel’s highest-rated series debut of all time. Also on CMT is the new season of Can You Duet, which premiered Sat., June 20 with judges Naomi Judd, Big Kenny, and Big Machine Records President and CEO Scott Borchetta.

*Nielsen Media Research (cume P 2+ / 1 minute qualifier); includes live 2009 CMT Music Awards telecast which aired at 8 p.m. ET, along with the retelecast at 11:30 p.m ET.

Bryan Adams will share the stage with country rocker, Jason Aldean, when the pair team up for CMT CROSSROADS. CMT CROSSROADS: BRYAN ADAMS AND JASON ALDEAN taped before an invitation only audience at the Factory (Frankin, Tenn.) in May and premieres Friday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT on CMT. Margaret Comeaux-Executive Producer, CMT; Brian Philips-President, CMT; Bryan Adams; Jason Aldean; John Hamlin-Senior VP, Production and Development, CMT; Bill Flanagan-EVP Editorial Director, MTVN; and Tom Forrest, Executive Producer, Taillight TV. Photo: John Russell

Bryan Adams will share the stage with country rocker, Jason Aldean, when the pair team up for CMT CROSSROADS. CMT CROSSROADS: BRYAN ADAMS AND JASON ALDEAN taped before an invitation only audience at the Factory (Frankin, Tenn.) in May and premieres Friday, June 26 at 9:00 p.m., ET/PT on CMT. Margaret Comeaux-Executive Producer, CMT; Brian Philips-President, CMT; Bryan Adams; Jason Aldean; John Hamlin-Senior VP, Production and Development, CMT; Bill Flanagan-EVP Editorial Director, MTVN; and Tom Forrest, Executive Producer, Taillight TV. Photo: John Russell

Sugarland Set For Network Primetime Special

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slSugarland is getting its first network television special. Sugarland: Live on the Inside will air on ABC, Mon., Aug. 3 at 7 PM/CT, the night before the duo’s new Wal-Mart exclusive CD/DVD pack of the same name hits shelves.

Producer/director Shaun Silva taped the one-hour special at Rupp Arena in Lexington, Kentucky using 20 cameras. It features the reigning CMA Vocal Duo of the Year performing their  biggest hits such as “Settlin,’” “Stay,” “All I Want To Do” and “Something More.”

Sugarland: Live on the Inside is executive-produced by band members Jennifer Nettles and Kristian Bush, with UMGN Sr. VP Jason Owen. The special is a Tacklebox Films production.

The Grammy winning duo exploded onto the music scene in 2004 and are nearing the 7 million albums sold mark. They are headlining a U.S. tour that runs through the fall.

“Television music specials and performances become iconic. Who hasn’t seen replays of the Beatles on Ed Sullivan or Elvis’s TV special wearing his jump suit and giving away his scarf?” says Nettles. “Even performances that I can remember as a child, like ‘Live Aid’ for example, really made such an impact. We are so excited to have our show on ABC and hope that it will be a moment that people will enjoy and remember.”

“We have overheard fans for years say, ‘I brought my friend to see the show, this is their first Sugarland experience’ with so much pride and excitement on their faces. It’s as if they can’t wait to share what they have discovered,” Bush adds. “This special is their new ticket that they can give to a friend. That is the most exciting part of this, imagining how far it will reach.”

Storysource To Fill Growing Content Need

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storysourceFormer Fox 17 news vets, anchor Laura Faber and entertainment reporter Miranda Cohen have formed Storysource, LLC an independent content creation company. The new venture explains itself simply; we write, shoot, edit and deliver the final story.

“After long, successful careers, we looked at today’s media environment and concluded that there is a need for a company like Storysource,” said Laura Faber, a multiple Emmy and Associated Press award winner. “Many news outlets have lost staff in this economy, but the need for content has not diminished. Storysource is designed to help bridge the gap.”

“We also produce high-quality video content for business clients for use in a variety of ways,” said Emmy-nominated Miranda Cohen. “From corporate meetings to efficiently producing and telling their stories on the web, we are a one-stop shop offering a full range of services.”

Storysource has signed distribution agreements that allow the company to feed content to tens of thousands of websites around the world.

Faber adds, “Fifteen years ago, few companies or organizations even had websites. Now, the world is web-based, and we see video content on every website as the next evolution. Storysource is an efficient and economical way to fill that growing need.” The new firm can be reached at www.storysource.biz; laura@storysource.biz or miranda@storysource.biz.

Gulf Between Country Haves & Have-Nots Widens

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The sales gulf between country’s “haves” and “have-nots” continues to widen. For the week ended 6/14/09 the Top 10 on country’s Top 75 Current Album chart accounted for 58.5% of the week’s charted sales, a total 404,523 units. In fact, the Top 6 titles rack up 45%! This means that sales are extremely concentrated among a small number of projects and artists.

Highest sales by a single artist is Taylor Swift, with two Top 10 titles represented at 35,000 and 12,169, respectively. The Hannah Montana soundtrack, whose inclusion in the country chart still hackles some Nashville record execs, sold 46,100 remaining in the chart’s Top position.

Daryl Worley (3,187) and Tracy Lawrence (2,270) had new CD debuts this week. Debuting with less than a 1,000 units were John Anderson (965), Justin Moore (964; digital only) and Trailer Choir (952).

In the male solo artist division Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits (31,607), now in its fourth week fell back one position to No. 3. Jason Aldean stayed steady at No. 6 (19,140) and Keith Urban slid back two spots to No. 9 (13,920).

Overview: Most metrics are little changed. Overall industry sales are down 14% YTD and country sales are now down 4%. Digital country album sales account for 11.5% of total country album sales.

Tech Tidbits: MySpace, Twitter, Godin

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MySpace has announced layoffs of approximately 30% of its staff totaling about 420 workers. After the cuts, the social networking site, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, will retain a staff of almost 1,000. “Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” stated Chief Executive Owen Van Natta. “I understand these changes are painful for many. They are also necessary for the long-term health and culture of MySpace. Our intent is to return to an environment of innovation that is centered on our user and our product.”
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In yet another sign of the increasing role of social networks in the global culture and everyday life, the U.S. State department asked Twitter (6/15) to delay its scheduled maintenance. The shutdown would have stopped service to Iran and kept its citizens from issuing news to the outside world about unfolding events related to the recent election unrest. Twitter rescheduled the work to Tuesday afternoon (U.S.A.), 1:30 a.m. in Tehran. Iranian officials are blocking text messaging, but have been unable to quell tweets. “We’ve been struck by the amount of video and eyewitness testimony,” said Jon Williams, the BBC World News editor. “The days when regimes can control the flow of information are over.” According to the New York Times, “The episode demonstrates the extent to which the administration views social networking as a new arrow in its diplomatic quiver.”
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Country Radio Broadcasters, Inc.® has posted video clips online of marketing expert Seth Godin’s keynote address from this year’s CRS-40. Visit www.CRB.org and log in at the CRB Vision page to view the address. Online registration for CRS-41, to be held Feb. 24-26, 2010 is now also available in installment payments.
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A recent blog on TheAtlantic.com says that Nashville is the only city in the U.S. that has attracted musicians and music industry population growth since the 1970’s. The blogger says “my research team and I charted the geographic centers of the music industry from 1970 and 2004 using a metric called a location quotient, Nashville was the only city that registered positive growth.”

Nashville On The Web: Marci Cardwell, Lefsetz on Barry Beckett

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Read music biz blogger Bob Lefsetz’s memorial tribute to the late Barry Beckett here. You can also read reactions to the article, including a note from Kenny Chesney here.

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Elsewhere online, MAC Presents owner Marci Cardwell is the subject of an extensive article and interview here.

RIAA Under Fire, Beaming Up Bonnaroo, World Copyright Summit

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Minnesota lawyer Kiwi Camara and Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson have signaled their intention to file a class action lawsuit against the recording industry demanding the return over $100 million that the RIAA supposedly has collected as penalties from file-sharing cases with consumers. Camara is also in a high-profile Minnesota RIAA case later this month. According to Arstechnica.com, Camara will seek to disallow evidence from MediaSentry which tracks IP addresses of file-sharers on the basis that it is not licensed as a private investigator in Minnesota. There is also an issue regarding certified copyright registrations which the RIAA admits, “will be difficult and expensive to obtain in time for the trial.” Arstechnica says that the “Nesson/Camara tag team have a couple more eyepoppers to make: P2P file-sharing of copyrighted material is fair use and huge statutory damage awards against noncommercial users are unconstitutional.”

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Verizon Wireless technicians have deployed two COLTS (Cell On Light Trucks) for Bonnaroo Music Festival to ensure that the 80,000+ music fans can make and receive calls, send messages and stay connected during the festivities from June 11-14. COLTS have the same call capacity as a freestanding cell site and can handle both voice and wireless data service, allowing music fans and residents to rely on their phones before, during, and after the festival.
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CISAC (International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers) today continues the World Copyright Summit: New Frontiers for Creators in the Marketplace. The second day of the program focuses on finding common ground and new revenue streams on which to build the future of creative industries. Today’s activities opened with Senator Patrick Leahy, Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, with other segments featuring legendary singer and songwriter from the Bee Gees and President of CISAC, Robin Gibb; National Music Publishers Association President and CEO David Israelite; and chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publishing, Roger Faxon.

Country Sales Outpace Overall Industry

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SoundScan’s inner numerics held few surprises this week as sales on Country’s Current Top 75 remained flat (-2% to be precise). For the week ended 6/7/09 country sales are down 3.3% Y/Y which continues to compare favorably with the industry overall now down 14%. Lost Highway’s Ryan Bingham debuts on the country list at No. 17, scanning 7,710 units. Dave Matthews’ debut easily captured the No. 1 position on the Top 200 chart with 424,089 units sold (31.61% digital).

Jason Aldean and Keith Urban are fighting it out sales wise. Urban debuted one week before Aldean and is currently 105,308 units ahead of the Broken Bow newcomer. However, Aldean’s CD is gaining ground on the Aussie guitar master. This week Aldean moved 18,222 units and Urban sold 14,974. (Urban’s album sales are 17.75% digital; Aldean’s are 7.35%.)

Top 10 iTunes country track sales include No. 1 Kenny Chesney “Out Last Night” (71k); No. 5 Billy Currington “People Are Crazy” (30k); and No. 10 Jason Aldean “She’s Country” (25k).

New artists with a debut album in the Country Top 30 this week include Zac Brown Band (23,178 units this week), Lady Antebellum (13,533), and Universal South artists Randy Houser (3,062) and Eli Young Band (2,606).