industry news

Leading metalcore/punk label RISE RECORDS signed a multi-million dollar acquisition deal that gives ownership to BMG, the Berlin-based music company once associated with Sony Music and a global private equity firm, now a wholly owned subsidiary of international media giant Bertelsmann. In the past few years alone, BMG has acquired Chrysalis, Sanctuary, Mute, Bug, Virgin, […]

According to Billboard (via Digital Music News), after nine months, not a single artist’s album has hit one million units sold in 2014 (in the U.S.). By far, Disney’s Frozen soundtrack is the year’s bestseller, hitting 3.12 million units. So far, the bestselling artist albums of 2014 are Beyoncé’s self-titled (776,000) and Lorde’s Pure Heroine […]

Urban Outfitters chief administrative officer Calvin Hollinger confirmed to Buzzfeed recently that the company is the world's biggest seller of vinyl records. “Music is very, very important to the Urban customer… in fact, we are the world’s number one vinyl seller,” he said. Hollinger credited the company’s vinyl success to a system that lets them […]

The music industry is considering a new global release day that may see all countries releasing new albums on Fridays (instead of the traditional Tuesdays). The change will likely be implemented around July 2015. According to Billboard, the main reason for the change is to combat music piracy. Billboard reports: “While some sources say its […]

Twitter and Billboard are announcing today a deal to create the Billboard Twitter Real-Time Charts: an ever-changing and updated chart/list of music that’s being talked about and shared by Twitter users. The charts, which should begin tracking in May, will be published on Billboard.com as well as the official Billboard Twitter feed. In-tweet charts and […]

New regulations in Canada, enacted July 31, stand to make it significantly harder for international artists to perform in the country. While dedicated venues are exempt, establishments with a primary business other than music (restaurants, bars, coffee shops) will face dramatically increased fees when booking non-Canadian talent. Previously, the Labour Market Opinion performance application fee […]

A newly posted essay (taken from a graduation speech at Syracuse University) outlines how to begin a career in the music industry in 2012. Via Glacial Concepts: “So the big day is fast approaching. You are leaving the ivory tower of college in a few weeks and are about to enter the work force. Most […]

Discmakers has an interesting report culled from a series of sources that indicates album sales were up in 2011 by 1.3%. While that growth is incremental by nearly any measurement, it's notable because it's the first increase in album sales since 2004: “Sourcing this info from multiple reports, the numbers don’t add up precisely, but […]

An interesting new essay from Scott Honsberger (chief blogger at Your Band’s Best Friend, Founder & President of the Toronto Music Industry Association) talks about the pricing practices at local shows in small venues, and makes a case that the oft-default door price of five dollars is too low: “Five bucks, in my mind, is WAY […]

Digital Music News reports on a new study by The Future of Music Coalition, who interviewed thousands of bands and artists about the makeup of their teams and found that attorneys and accountants were overwhelmingly the highest-paid members of said teams, outranking label executives, publicists, tour managers and everyone else: “The Future of Music Coalition recently […]