4 MusicWeek 20.07.12 NEWS NEWS IN BRIEF
VEVO: The man widely acknowledged as the head of VEVO UK, Jonathan Lewis, has left the online music video company due to restructuring. Lewis, MD (sales & operations) at the company, departs VEVO UK alongside commercial director Jonathan Lewen. Nic Jones, VEVO’s SVP of international, now becomes responsible for all operations in the UK alongside his current role. The UK office will now report into Jones. DEAD OCEANS: Former A&R director at XL, Hannah Overton, has been appointed general manager of a new UK and Europe division of indie label group Dead Oceans / Jagjaguwar / Secretly Canadian. PRS:Westbury Music and Mute Song are the latest publishers to sign up to PRS for Music’s Independent Music Publishers’ European Licensing (IMPEL) initiative. REBECCA FERGUSON: The RCA- signed act has announced over Twitter that she has sacked her management company Modest – and that she will “see [them] in court”. KICKSTARTER: US-based crowdfunding website Kickstarter will launch in the UK this autumn. British creators and entrepreneurs will be able to raise funding through premium pre-sale opportunities directed at fans via the service. ECHO NEST: The online platform has received $17.3 million in additional funding as it plans to move beyond music data and into new areas including social discovery. The company has said it will use the extra cash to boost continued sales growth and international expansion as well as new product development. DEEP PURPLE: Jon Lord, keyboard player and co-founder of Deep Purple, passed away this week (July 16) after a long battle with pancreatic cancer. He was 71. iTUNES FESTIVAL: Scottish band Biffy Clyro has joined the iTunes Festival line-up with support from Frightened Rabbit. Biffy will play the last date of the free Festival, held at the Roundhouse in Camden, on September 22. SOUNDEXCHANGE: The digital service has appointed three new members to its board of directors: Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, Ray Hair and Paul Robinson.
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.com INDIES SAY VIDEO PLATFORM PAYS BIG BUT BPI’S TAYLOR IS NOT SO SURE
BPI and AIM debate YouTube contributions
DIGITAL BY TOM PAKINKIS
B
PI chief executive Geoff Taylor and AIM chief executive Alison Wenham
aired conflicting views about YouTube’s revenue contribution to the music industry during a panel session at a Westminster Media Forum last week. When asked about the
effectiveness of the video platform as a source of income for the music industry, Taylor told attendees at the forum – covering copyright, business models and the Live Music Act - that he felt YouTube should be contributing more to the music economy. “If you look at the figures
from last year, all advertising supported services, which include YouTube, we7 and the like generated £10 million for the entire recorded music sector. When you look at the billions upon billions of plays, particularly on YouTube, it’s difficult to
understand how that could be the case,” said Taylor. “The whole point of Spotify
is that it’s a freemium service where they’re bringing people in through their free service with the possibility of them upgrading to a paid service. “So if you look at the
economics in the round, arguably they make sense and I’m a big supporter of Spotify,” he added. “YouTube does not have a
premium tier and it has also integrated things like play-listing functions, which make it an audio player as well as a video
Alison Wenham
“The economics need looking at because if there’s that much consumption going on then YouTube has to contribute more back into the music economy” GEOFF TAYLOR, BPI
player. So I personally think that the economics do need looking at because, if there’s that much consumption going on then it has to contribute more back into the music economy.” But Alison Wenham argued
that the feedback she was getting from indie labels about YouTube’s contributions was positive. “I represent small companies
from bedroom labels to the Beggars Group, so it’s a very broad range. They all report to me that YouTube revenue is becoming significant,” she said. “Whether it’s enough or
whether the business model needs to be tweaked, the fact is that YouTube is delivering a decent cheque to these companies and that’s what really matters to them.” She also suggested that
YouTube looks to be increasing its involvement with the music industry, hopefully creating more opportunities: “I think YouTube will start to
invest in original content and that will be the breakthrough moment for artists who are part of that original content programme.”
Right: See our YouTube feature on pages 16–17
www.musicweek.com
16MusicWeek 20.07.12 TUTORIALYOUTUBE TIPS
YouTube is asking labels, publishers and others to join its Partner programme - which offers special tools for traffic analysis and monestisation of content. But once you’ve signed up, what exactly should you be doing?
www.musicweek.com
YOUTUBE BY NUMBERS
There may still be disagreement on YouTube’s credentials as an effective revenue source, but the platform’s audience can’t be disputed. In case you were in any doubt:
72 Views in 2011
Hours of video uploaded every minute
70 Will Sony streaming service go big in Japan?
Percent of YouTube traffic comes from outside the US
3billion 1trillion
Hours of video watched every month
Sony’s Music Unlimited subscription service has arrived in Japan for the first time and Jeff Hughes (right), CEO of Omniphone – the licensee of the platform – says the launch marks what will be an “explosive growth period in subscription music services” for the country. Despite being the second
largest music market, lagging only behind the US, the introduction has been a long time coming for the service which has already rolled out in 16 other countries since starting under the name Qriocity in the UK and Ireland in 2010. Hughes explains that getting
all of the rights holders and publishing collective societies on board has been a tough call. He said: “The industry has done well a la carte and they want to make
Jeff Hughes
and US artists an opportunity to monetise content in Japan in a new way, he explained: “I think certainly that there will be a lot more focus on the market, the more distributions channels for that content to be available the better.” Sony is the first global music
sure that when they license a subscription service, they deal with the right brand that has the reach to make it a success.” Previously, Sony fans in the
company’s native country could only buy songs from Sony online through other services, including iTunes, meaning the label giant had to split the revenue with those providers. Hughes expects the opening up in streaming services to give UK
service with a local repertoire that has launched in the country and one which Hughes hopes will “reap rewards for western artists who’ve been trying to crack Japan” as well as for the local artists, a service which will “give a wider demographic access to music on an unlimited basis.” It is the first subscription-
based music service in Japan since Napster tried their luck in 2006 (folding in 2010) and the first such venture to have the backing of all the major labels in
700 500
Tweets containing YouTube links every minute
Years of video watched via
Facebook every day
Japan. Hughes explains: “It’s a complicated territory, there’s a lot of competing interest there. When you launch a music service in a country, you have to make sure you can bring global repertoire as well as the local repertoire. “We’ve seen some services
attempt to launch either with only American catalogue or with just local catalogue and I think both of those things are important because you need a service that all different types of people like.” Music Unlimited will cost
users 1,480 yen (circa $18.60) per month and will be available on PS3, PSP, Bravia TV, Blu-ray players and home entertainment systems, VAIO, Android, iPhone, as well as any PC or Mac.
SPOOFING STARS
ABOVE Partner perks: Creators who upload a lot of content to YouTube should consider the platform’s Partner Programme. It provides tools and opportunities to build larger audiences and earn more money. And it’s free..
YouTube’s senior strategist for Partner Operations, Zofia Bajokowska (pictured), tells established artists and labels to embrace silly spoofs and quirky covers of their work and suggests that emerging acts shouldn’t underestimate viral opportunities: “Gotye’s Somebody that I Used To Know
received 30 million views in its first six months on YouTube, even though he was an unknown artist at the time. “Around six months later –when most artists and
labels would be thinking about bringing out the next single and video – a viral cover of the track by a band called Walk Off The Earth emerged. It’s a really clever take on the song in which the entire band performs on one guitar at the same time. It brought a whole new life to the original. “When the video was released in 2012 the search
numbers for Gotye’s original track skyrocketed. He went from having 30 million views in six months to averaging 35 million views a month on the exact same track. “Meanwhile, Walk Off The Earth – a band that
nobody had heard of - has amassed 125 million views thanks to their cover video and is planning a tour and releasing an album.”
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