Posted by simone harris on May 10th, 2010
by Simone Harris 
New media does not depend on the traditional means of communication; rather, it includes the use of the Internet, mobile devices, electronic games, RSS feeds, social networks, blogs and podcasting. While traditional media is still utilized, statistical reports on the growth of new media usage reflects an astounding increase in popularity and preference. New media has introduced affordability, simplicity, convenience and availability, attributes that drive consumer demand in today’s music industry.
Popularity: 5% [?]
Posted by simone harris on September 22nd, 2009
If you are a music lover like I am, I’m sure you’ve heard of iTunes™, Spotify, LaLa, Pandora, Jango and eMusic but you may not have heard about PUKSHOP, the newest addition to the list of software based online digital media stores.
PUKSHOP, “a Caribbean rhythmic website for music lovers” (according to the website) went live on September 11, 2009 and is being described as a one-stop-shop that streams videos, podcasts, live events and music via its download site or jukebox application while allowing music fans (using either Mac, PC, mobile handsets and IPTV) to:
• search for and legally download songs either as singles or entire albums;
• purchase CDs
• download ringtones;
• store downloaded songs on their computer hard drives;
• purchase event e-tickets
• purchase Caribbean and Latin American carnival costumes and merchandise
• Caribbean-themed books
Popularity: 4% [?]
Posted by simone harris on July 13th, 2009
Music 2.0 has resulted in a burgeoning class of musicians around the world who are now being referred to as the ‘Musical Middle class’ – artists who now have the power to create and distribute their product across various niche markets that were previously largely controlled by media corporations and record labels. These artists are able to produce music without the help of a major record label.
Popularity: 2% [?]
Posted by simone harris on April 25th, 2009
Despite the current economic crisis, and the resulting chaos in the music industry, President of Myspace Music, Courtney Holt remains “cautiously optimistic” that they will remain successful in building an “innovative online business.”
In a recent interview, Holt told Billboard Mag that since he accepted the presidency at Myspace Music, they have:
- made tweaks to Myspace Music’s search engine
- added new playlist features
- improved the music player
These tweaks have contributed to:
- 40% spike in search engine traffic
- the creation of 105 million active playlists by Myspace Music users
- more than 5.3 billion average aggregate minutes spent listening to music in January alone
- new advertising partnerships with companies like, Toyota, Visa, McDonalds, Kmart and Adidas
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted by simone harris on April 14th, 2009
Earlier this year, when I ventured off to LA for the Econ Music Conference, the first business card that I received was from a gentleman by the name of Caleb Pate. Very cool dude, he was the Music/Media Strategist for a company called Seeqpod. Execs from 3Jane and other companies were more than familiar with Seeqpod – it was very new to me. So after chatting with Caleb for a while I took a look at their site…..and thought “wow, niffty!” One site that can bring all the data on the internet (videos, reviews, photos, etc) to one flash player on any artist I like! Cool!
Kasian Franks, Raf Podowski, and Shekhar Lodha founded SeeqPod back in 2005 and in less than 2 years, managed to create a unique, easy-to-use search and discovery engines that has appealed to millions.
Popularity: 1% [?]
Posted by simone harris on February 12th, 2009
Apple recently navigated the turbulent and murky waters of the music industry to arrive at an agreement, which should give the big players a sort of “checkmate” in their chess game against piracy and the free movement of music. But what does DRM-free mean?
Popularity: 7% [?]
Posted by simone harris on February 9th, 2009
On Feb 5th, I entered the Globe Lobby of the Los Angeles Times Building in downtown Los Angeles as the only Caribbean representative at the 2nd annual EconMusic Conference, organized by UK based ContentNext Media. This year’s conference focused on the key strategic issues surrounding the economics of the digital music industry.
By the end of the first panel discussion which featured Courtney Holt (President, Myspace Music), David Ring (EVP, eLabs, Universal Music Group), Cory Ondrejka (SVP, Digital Strategy, EMI Music), Michael Spiegelman (Head of Yahoo! Music) and Chris Stephenson (GM, Global Marketing, Entertainment Business, Microsoft) I had to wonder whether Jamaica and by extension the Caribbean region was ready for the technologically driven strategies that industry players are implementing in order to remain competitive in the global music industry.
Popularity: 6% [?]
