Unless you’ve been under a rock you probably heard that MySpace launched today a new music site to much broohaha. The new joint venture with a bunch of major labels will feature (drum roll…) streaming music, song downloads, ringtones, and the ability to make playlists. I mean, has anyone over there heard of iTunes? Rhapsody? Napster? Last.fm? Imeem? Pandora? Yahoo Music? Amazon.com? Does the world really need another major-label backed music download initiative?

I spent some time on the site and I just don’t get the fuss – or the use to the average emerging artist that already has their music distributed online through CD Baby or Tunecore. My feeling is, unless you feel that you can do something significantly better than what’s  already out there (e.g. what Apple did with the iPhone or the iPod), why bother?

I am not anti-major label and I always felt that the music universe has enough space both for them and the artistic middle class movement to co-exist. But I’ve seen this script before (major labels backing a co-venture with someone) and I’ve never seen it lead to anything innovative or beneficial to the artist or the consumer.

Really, I had to pinch myself to make sure that this was 2008 and not 2001. If the majors and MySpace want to jump start their business models and show to the world that they know how to innovate and serve their constituencies, this is not the way to go.

MySpace seems to be following the career trajectory of Sting (who admittedly I still dig). Edgy, mysterious, dangerous and pioneering in the beginning; polished, adult-contemporary, and yeah, boring and predictable after all the money came in.

Panos

P.S. Not surprisingly, there’s been a CEO search going on for months for the new venture, but so far there are no takers.

As long as there’s been art, there have been wealthy patrons that have sponsored artists. Many of the world’s biggest masterpieces would have never seen the light of day had it not been for some rich individual who funded its creation (Van Gogh, Mozart, Da Vinci, all had wealthy backers).

In the modern music business, these patrons were once major record labels that plucked artists from obscurity and made them into mass consumed mega stars. They funded their time in the studio (production), paid money to distribute their records in retail stores (distribution), paid money for promotion through outlets like radio and TV (promotion) and hired managers, agents and publishers to help maximize each artist’s income potential (professional connections). In return, they kept the lion share of each artist’s income and held the keys to the kingdom called “viable music career”.

With the advent of the Internet and the shift of consumer tastes from mass to niche, labels have experienced a steady erosion of their incomes over the past eight years and consequently they have ceased playing the traditional role of art patron for up and coming musical artists. (And artists have used the Internet to replace labels’ production, distribution, promotion and professional connections roles with Apple laptops, and sites like CD Baby, MySpace and Sonicbids respectively).

In their place — as both art patrons as well as popular taste curators – have stepped in major (and niche) consumer brands who have figured out that music can help them sell whatever product they produce (coffee, electronics, carbonated beverages, clothing, video games, hand bags, financial services, insurance, etc.) This year it is estimated that in the US alone, total sponsorship spending by consumer brands for music festivals, tours and other campaigns will exceed $2 billion.

Even more promising for independent (read: empowered) artists, recent years have seen a steady shift of this sponsorship money towards more “niche” artists who do not yet have an entrenched public image like say, 50 Cent or (gulp) Celine Dion. Why? Because more and more companies are realizing that coveted young consumers, coming of age today, demand authenticity from the brands they will endorse – a trait most associated with independent, non-major label artists.

In the past couple of years on Sonicbids, we have seen large consumer brands ranging from Coke, Burger King, Converse, Jeep and Fisher-Price, to more niche ones like Harpoon Beer, Zippo, Jagermeister, and JanSport, all post gig listings looking to connect with and sponsor in one way or another independent bands.

So, why look for a record label contract when so much money out there is being invested by consumer brands that are not even looking for a share of your future income and rights to your first-born?

My advice is that if Sony Records comes knocking, ask them to speak with Sony PlayStation instead. It’ll take you much farther and with less trade-offs.

Panos

I know most of you are watching the MTV Video Music Awards tonight to see whether Britney Spears is going to pull it off or have another train wreck of a performance like last year. But, while you’re at it, check out the two Sonicbids artists that are having their songs played during the show. The Revellz from Ireland, and Kovas from Brooklyn both got selected for tonight’s broadcast using Sonicbids. The songs are “The Dance” and “Grape Drank” respectively.

Panos

On Tuesday of this week I had a fantastic dinner with nine of our members from the Seattle area. Kimberly (my wife) and I hosted the dinner as usual at a local Greek restaurant, this one called Zeitoon. If you love Mediterranean food, check it out (it turned out to be more Persian than Greek but hey, the food’s pretty similar).

I mentioned before that I love these dinners and I will continue hosting them around the country and everywhere I travel (next one: Berlin). They give me a great sense of what’s on the mind of our community and you know what? Even though local scenes have their distinct flavor, artist issues and concerns are the same no matter where you are.

I had the chance to show to the folks that attended a mock of our new gig listings and I got some great feedback. In the new listings we are showing some good info about each promoter which is really a by-product of all the feedback I’ve been getting from these dinners. Some features I previewed in the mock:

• Feedback from fellow members who’ve applied, performed or attended a particular event that’s listed on Sonicbids;
• Important submission information such as range of submissions that a gig listing gets and percentage of acceptances;
• Practical information about each venue like sound, backline, etc;
• Historical information such as who’s played the gig before, how long a promoter’s been a member, and more;

Again, everyone that attended gave me invaluable input which I have already shared with our product team. Expect new gig listings to be up shortly (sorry, I can’t commit to a date yet as feedback keeps coming about what we need to have in there and I want us to get as much as possible right).

Thanks to everyone who came to the dinner. Awesome photos above.

Panos

Just back from Seattle and Bumbershoot. I love that festival, definitely a top five in the US for me. The sound was great, all the stages were very easily accessible, excellent programming, good amenities, I love the whole blending-of-music-with-arts-thing, and the setting (right below the Seattle Space Needle) just made it unforgettable. If you play music, or if you are just a fan of music, definitely add Bumbershoot to your must-play, must-attend list.

From a Sonicbids standpoint there were 15 bands that the programmers booked using our site and I caught the sets of many of them including the awesome Ian Moore on the Starbucks stage, Barcelona (who played the Rock Star Energy Drink Stage), Marlee Sioux, and the Tripwires who played on the Sonicbids-sponsored EMP stage (this is the Experience Music Project museum that Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen financed and was designed by the architect Frank Gehry to resemble a mangled Hendrix guitar. If you are in Seatlle, you should definitely go).

We’ve been sponsoring Bumbershoot for three years now and this is the first time that I had the chance to attend. I think Chris Porter who books the festival and the other folks from Bumbershoot did a great job with the booking of the Sonicbids bands because they were not confined to just one stage which sometimes can result in low attendances as festival goers tend to go to see shows of large names. If you want new music to be heard, then you have to put it on the same main stages as better-known names and that’s what Chris did. Every single show that I went to (and I caught dozens over three days) was very, very well attended and the sound was fantastic.

I’m adding Bumbershoot to my list of regular festivals that I attend every year. You should too.

Panos

P.S. I missed Beck but I saw Death Cab For Cutie at the main stadium play in front of 30,000 people. Amazing.

Nike has this $50 wristband called Nike + Sport Band, which enables you to record your distance and time while your run. You can then upload all this info on the Nike Plus site, keep a log of your runs, set goals and milestones and also participate in an online community for runners (you can monitor the progress of your buddies, challenge fellow runners to a virtual running competition, talk trash etc.)

The idea for the Nike Human Race was to see how many people from around the world would do a 10,000-meter (6.2 mile) race, all starting at the same time. All you had to do was sign up online, show up the day of the race with your wristband at a designated Nike location in 26 cities (many at Nike Towns), record the run and upload it.

I don’t know how exactly many runners they ended up getting (they say “millions”) but they logged about 3,000,000 miles worldwide and a heck of a lot of buzz. Nike managed to build even more brand equity (Nike = Challenge the Status Quo), bring runners together under the Nike banner, get many new runners join in for their first 10K ever, drive traffic to stores worldwide, sell more Nike Sport Bands, sell Human Race gear, raise money for charity, create a book around the “Day The World Stopped to Run” and get people like me to blog about it.

I love fresh ideas and we need more of them in our business. If you want to think outside the box about your marketing, look outside the music business and borrow (steal) ideas for groundbreaking marketers like Nike.

Panos