Association Updates
Adele’s ’21′ Continues To Top Charts, Chart Stacked With Seven New Releases
The upper echelon of the chart has seven new releases, the most in eight months, including Tim McGraw, Lamb Of God, 2012 Grammy Nominees, Ingrid Michaelson, Kellie Pickler, Seal, and Kari Jobe. Since January has been a traditionally tough month for sales in the past several years, it's extremely welcome news that overall sales volume has climbed, with a 2% increase over 2011. Digital track sales are up even more at 6% compared to last year. More...
Epitaph Records Founder To Receive 2012 Independent Spirit Award
"Brett Gurewitz personifies the independent spirit, inspiring countless punk and indie bands through his work in Bad Religion and helping many of them reach their full potential at Epitaph Records ... His creative entrepreneurship and commitment to thinking outside the box make him a strong player in today’s music industry." Gurewitz will receive the award on May 9 during Music Biz 2012. More...
Music Sales Update: A Strong Start To The New Year
After scoring the best-selling album and digital single of 2011, Adele continues to perform strongly in 2012, recording her 16th week atop the Billboard/Soundscan charts with her album "21" ... Overall album sales were up 6% compared to the same week in 2011, and up 5% compared to the year-to-date total in 2011. Digital track sales were also up 4% compared to this week last year and up 7% compared to the year-to-date total in 2011. More...
digitalmusic.org’s Music Start Up Academy Comes to San Francisco
Aspiring music entrepreneurs can learn some important lessons about music industry labels, publishing, content acquisition, business development, and operations at digitalmusic.org’s upcoming Music Start Up Academy sessions in San Francisco on Feb. 14 at the Rdio Headquarters. More...
President’s Message
NARM President Jim Donio highlights some of the Association's accomplishments of the past 12 months and encourages members to "continue to engage on every level possible to help make your association work for you." More...
SOPA, Antitrust & More To Be Debated At 3/1 CLE
From SOPA to bankruptcy and copyright assets to licensing to antitrust ... all of the industry's most pressing legal issues will be the center of discussion at our first Entertainment & Technology Law Conference of 2012. Register by February 10 to save $50. More...
President Jim Donio Comments on 2011 Music Sales
“Now that the final numbers are in, it’s official that the music industry has a significantly positive year in the record books for the first time in seven years! Album sales volume actually increased by +1.3%, a turnaround that is even more noteworthy since it comes after 2009/2010’s year-over-year decline of nearly -13%. And that’s just a part of the story. Both digital track (1.3 billion) and digital album (103 million) volume each reached new highs, with year-over-year jumps of +8.5% (up from just +1%) and +19.5% (up from +13%) respectively." More...
Buble Proving To Be A Big Holiday Hit, Overall Sales Volume Actually Up 4%
While album sales volume was down 5% from the same week last year, overall album sales volume remains up 2% from 2010, with digital albums particularly up approaching 20%. With digital track sales increasing 6% over the same week in 2010, total digital track sales volume is up a strong 9% over last year. When factoring in all albums and track equivalents, overall sales volume is actually up by 4%. We'll certainly be keeping a close watch on sales as the holiday shopping frenzy reaches its peak over the next 12 days.” More...
digitalmusic.org Adds Nine Affiliate Partners
A2IM, AFTRA, BMI, HFA, ng Connect, The Recording Academy®, RIAA, SESAC, SoundExchange sign on to evolving hub for digital commerce. Affiliate Partnership affords organizations that are not directly engaged in music commerce the chance to play an active role and have a seat at the table in digitalmusic.org work groups, programs, and initiatives, creating a collaborative environment that will allow members to discuss and solve the complex problems currently facing the digital music industry. More...
Jim Donio Discusses Retail And NARM on This Week In Music
Jim Donio joins Ian Rogers via Skype to talk about how music retail has changed over the past 20 years. Since 1958, NARM has represented retailers, wholesalers, and now technology companies in selling recorded music. Jim and Ian speak about the evolution of that process over the past decades, as well as NARM’s future initiatives in working with new technologies. More...
Michael Bublé Kicks Off Give The Gift Of Music’s Holiday Campaign
Michael Bublé joined the ranks of more than 50 top musicians currently supporting the industry’s “Give The Gift Of Music” (GTGOM) initiative. In his video, Bublé recalls how during the holidays, Christmas music – especially Bing Crosby’s – was a huge part of his life. The GTGOM campaign today launched a contest asking fans to share a poignant, humorous or otherwise memorable story about a meaningful music gift that they have received for the Christmas, Hanukkah or Kwanza holidays. More...
New Product Platform Offers Simple Web Interface and Normalized Metadata
NARM has completed Phase 1 of its NARM Product Platform, an updated version of the organization’s 15-year-old Distributor Database for physical commerce partners. Starting today, the product database will feature a new, streamlined web interface that allows for simpler queries and improved search options while providing uniform metadata that will allow retailers to more accurately populate their backend systems. Phase 2, which will expand the database to include digital and mobile product data from all four major labels and leading indie aggregators, will be launched in early 2012. More...
NARM and NPD Unveil Results of Research on Consumers, Music Discovery
NARM and leading market research company The NPD Group today released findings of a joint study that examined the ways consumers discover new music. The report indicates that while music discovery is still vital to the industry, it applies differently to various consumer groups, and it has changed significantly since the organizations last studied the topic in 2007, as television and social media and other digital services have emerged as major influencers. More...
Justin Bieber Tops The Tally And Makes Chart History
"...It's the first-ever Christmas set by a male artist to reach the summit in its debut week, not to mention that Justin's also the first solo artist to snag three #1s ... all before celebrating his 18th birthday! Overall album sales volume last week was up 14% from the same week in 2010 ..." More...
NARM and digitalmusic.org Welcome Six Digital Music Companies As Members
NARM and digitalmusic.org are happy to announce that six digital music companies, representing everything from subscription-based streaming services to internet radio stations to online DJ communities, have signed on as the association’s newest members. More...
EMI’s Iscove Named Chair of DMO’s Apps, Music & Gaming Work Group
digitalmusic.org announced that David Iscove has been named Chair of its Apps, Music & Gaming Work Group, which engages gaming companies and app developers to create better systems for including music in their products and to facilitate relationships for advance content licensing. Iscove is the Director of EMI North America’s Works Hub Initiative, the company’s archival digitization strategy for both catalog and frontline assets. He previously worked at Activision Publishing as Senior Audio Assets Specialist for the Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, and Band Hero video game franchises. More...
digitalmusic.org’s “Music Start Up Academy” Coming to SXSW 2012
digitalmusic.org will present several sessions from its “Music Start Up Academy” curriculum to the 2012 SXSW Music Conference, in conjunction with the SXSW Accelerator program. SXSW Music and Platinum badge holders will be able to participate in the Music Start Up Academy, which will be held on Wed., March 14. More...
Music Biz 2012 Set for May 7-10 in Los Angeles
The only annual gathering that brings together the entire music content and commerce business has a new name to express its singular focus: Music Biz 2012 presented by NARM and digitalmusic.org. Now that NARM has created digitalmusic.org, ‘Music Biz’ is a clearer expression of what the event is about. It’s a forum where everyone that is serious about bringing music to consumers, no matter what the medium, can come together to discuss the current issues that will drive both their business and the entire industry forward. More...
Submit Your Program Ideas For Music Biz 2012
NARM and digitalmusic.org invite all music and entertainment business professionals to submit program ideas for Music Biz 2012. Submissions for product and service presentations, educational/research offerings, issue/trend discussions, and best practices overviews will be considered to fill programming slots on the afternoons of Wed., May 9 and Thurs., May 10. More...
Jim Donio Talks NARM, digitalmusic.org And More With All Access
"Our membership is about 45% digital and 55% physical - it really reflects the marketplace," said Donio as he talked about NARM's important role in helping stakeholders navigate the changing music industry during an insightful interview with All Access. More...
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