Digital Digest – August 29, 2013
Deezer sends Spender Music to 48 countries
Music streaming service Deezer gave Melbourne multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Spender a tremendous boost for his debut EP Modern Pest. Deezer’s global editors chose the record to be promoted in 48 countries. Deezer has also given him a “digital map”, which told him which countries streamed him the most (Mexico, Russia and UK). The act, from Northcote, has Gotye, Clairy Browne and Mama Kin guesting on Modern Pest. -CE
Charlie Leahy to head new Boom Natives division
Social video company Boom Video launched its own content creation division for brands and celebrities, Boom Natives, and appointed Charlie Leahy as its creative director. He was head of content for Sydney’s Ensemble Branded Entertainment. Boom is Australia’s first multi-channel YouTube network, with 300 channels and three million subscribers in Australia and New Zealand. – CE
Steve Aoki caught using pirated software
The ever-vigilant Reddit community posted screenshots of a Linkin Park video, which shows Steve Aoki using a pirated version of Sylenth, a plug-in manufactured by Lennar Digital. Aoki has ‘fessed up to the crime, but also claims he has a properly licensed version. In a statement posted to his website last week, Aoki wrote:
“It’s recently come to my attention that some fans on Reddit caught a screenshot of a pirated software plug-in from a recent Youtube clip I did with Linkin Park. To clear the air, I have owned the properly registered plug-in, Sylenth, for over 4 years now on my studio computer. I’ve included both the receipt and a screenshot of the actual plug-in below, purchased by my faithful assistant Jacob Lee. This is the computer I do all of my production on, including “A Light That Never Comes” with Linkin Park.
“However, the honest truth is that screenshot is in fact of my road laptop (the laptop I DJ with). I go through 5 or 6 of them a year, usually purchasing them while on the road. After my last purchase, I had asked my road team to help me load in my production software and apparently they didn’t ask Jacob for the authorization code for Sylenth and installed a pirated version.
“So my apologies go out to the good people at Lennar Digital and a big thank you to my fans that caught the mistake which has since been rectified.” – NJ
Godrich clarifies Spotify remarks
In an interview with The Guardian last week, Radiohead (and Pavement!) producer Nigel Godrich clarified remarks he made about streaming service Spotify.
Godrich stands by his claims that shareholders benefit more from Spotify than new artists, however admits the access to music is “an amazing thing”.
“I think it’s very of the time and it shows a feeling in society. Everybody is very greedy. And all this is about is the emergence of a universal access to music, which I think is an amazing thing. I’m not a dinosaur, I know what streaming is, I know how it works more than anybody I’ve met. And believe me I’ve done an awful lot of research about it the last few weeks. What we’re prepared to accept, and what could become the norm, is trying to be cemented here. Some people have been greedy and it doesn’t have to be [like that].”
He also claims that Spotify bully artists into believing they need to have their music available on the service.
“Spotify will tell you that if you don’t put your albums on, then your albums won’t sell,” he says. “They’re being divisive. These people are very clever. They’re cleverer than me and there’s more of them than me. And they have a lot more money and time than me. I’m not claiming to have an answer or that I’m going to start my own streaming [service]. Just come up with something better and it will work better for you in the long term. It can be amazing. It can be a genuine technical revolution that allows people to access everything.”
Pandora cuts mobile streaming cap as it gears up for iTunes Radio.
In February, Pandora enforced a mobile listening cap, in order to quell the flow of royalties that accounted for 59.8% of their revenue being passed onto copyright holders.
Not surprisingly, while this helped cut this percentage to 52% of their revenue, it also caused a 12% drop in users by April. The company have now removed this cap, no doubt gearing up for the invasion of iTunes Radio this September (although CFO Mike Herring credits “the continued strong growth in our advertising revenue”), implementing other cost-saving techniques in its place.
While the service had allowed six ‘skips’ per hour (in compliance with non-interactive webcasters), Pandora now only allows 12 such skips in any 24-hour period. It has also brought in the ‘sleep-timer’ which automatically shuts off the service after being left dormant for an as-yet-unspecified period of time.