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Radar Music Videos hopes to simplify the process of making promotional videos by acting as the middleman between labels/artists and filmmakers. Directors are charged $5.99/month for access to posts by labels looking to create a video. The directors then pitch their ideas for the label’s consideration. Labels pay $29.99/month for the ability to post their needs to potential directors. As of now the site has 2,800 filmmakers and 800 labels/artists registered.

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Publishing revenue, also known as performance value, has been increasing in all the music genres, causing a trend of free-for-all, meaning artists, labels and even managers are trying to get a portion of the publishing royalties from income participation, songwriter credits and publishing copyrights. This practice isn’t new and previously, established artists and producers had already insisted on having their share in the songwriter’s income. The problem has become worse now that non-writers who are not in the studio during the writing process are asking for songwriting credits and even to have a slice of the songwriter’s income. Some songwriters and publishers are willing to share the income with artists though the artist’s contribution is just being in the studio. However, matters have escalated and artists are asking for writer’s share when songs have not even been written. In some circumstances, established songwriters usually refuse to give up the acknowledgment of their contribution, but for some songwriters, they are willing to give up their credit just to have their song be heard. Insisting artists be present at times when songs are being written is the least that publishers and writers could do if artists want a slice of the income. It is understandable that performance royalties are sometimes shared with labels. But it is not right when writers have to move their publishing rights to a publisher that has contact with the labels. It is also not right for people to get credit without doing anything.

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Never in the three decades Bob Donnelly has worked as an artist attorney has he ever received a call from a record company exec. saying, “Hey, Bob, we just ha a phenomenally profitable year, and therefore we are sending your client a big bonus check to show our appreciation for making the label lots of money”. It just doesn’t work that day, and now with the wavering economy record companies are complaining that they can’t make enough money on record sales alone. Enter the 360 deal where record companies can take income from revenue sources that have always belonged exclusively to the artist, including touring, publishing, endorsements and merch sales. The fine print indicates that they want a piece of books artists may write, movies they may star in and fan clubs they might create; basically they want a piece of EVERYTHING, for what in return? These deals also specify that the record company will receive earnings out of gross revenue. Artists and managers don’t get paid on gross, so why should the record companies? The record companies really love the ability to cross-collateralize between income sources too, to turn one positive income into money to pay off a debt coming from a different source. Essentially labels are delaying when the artist will actually receive any cash flow for all of their hard work. These deals spell profit for record companies without doing any more work for the artist, and not only delay artist payment from any revenue source, but significantly reduce the artist’s overall payment. The only real way 360 deals seem to work out for everyone is when a label takes an unknown artist and provides a financial commitment to developing their career through promotion and marketing. If record companies really want to invest in the career of an artist a 360 makes sense, but if they don’t, then artists should really do a 180 on 360 deals.

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With the rapid success of digital music, artist, labels and publishers have been suffering because of lack of reliable digital music royalty reporting, leading to performance rights organizations being unable to distribute rightful royalties to the appropriate parties. SoundExchange, a NPO tasked to distribute digital performance rights royalties for satellite radio and internet music streams ended 2008 with $40 million in royalties that couldn’t be distributed due to lack of data and other $39 million in escrow for artists and labels who neglected to register with SoundExchange. There are ways to improve reporting, but there are many steps that the industry must take now. Artists and copyright holders should first register with SoundExchange, and also another PRO such as ASCAP, BMI or SESAC. Copyright holders must include all relevant meta-data on digitally released tracks, including at the very least artist, copyright holder or label, and track and album titles. Music services also need to take responsibility for accurate reporting. Copyright holders must register their works to make tracking data easier, and finally the music community must promote the exchange of data and payments by standardizing reporting. The bottom line is everyone can do more to ensure that performance royalties are being paid to the appropriate people.

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The power of mobile platforms in music is expected to reach new heights this year, spelling a big change when it comes to approaching A&R. In order to improve music sales artists and labels need to think about offering digital bundling of artists' work. Sharing music, which as always seemed like an industry threat, may be a big key to future sales as social networking tools become a big part of how people share and talk about music they like. The mobile music experience has been in development for the past few years, including mobile music in automobiles, which if executed correctly may become the main way consumers access and purchase new music. A&R needs to step up and change with the times because content delivery is becoming more and more cross-platform. Artists also need to be sure to have a team behind them that is not only technologically savvy, but understands both old and new media and how to optimize traditional media into a mobile format. New companies popping up everywhere are showing they understand the benefits of cross-platform media. One of these, Tunewiki, has shown that exploiting lyrics through their "Lyrics Legend" is a way to grow revenue. The music and management companies that most quickly understand how to make innovated bundled content will reap the rewards that cross-platform mobile content promises for the future of the music business.

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This year the twitter from twitter lovers and haters alike has been plenty. Although the online platform has been growing exponentially since it’s creation, twitter has seen a vast majority of new users cancel accounts, including artists like Miley Cyrus and Lily Allen. This doesn’t have to mean the end of Twitter though, just the start of perhaps a better future for both Twitter and the artists who use it. With the hype winding down it’s time for artists to focus on reaching out to their fans through the service. The key is treating Twitter as the intimate medium that it is, and having artists actually updating their own accounts instead of having proxies tweet for them. Twitter accounts that only exist to send business updates should be clear that it’s an artist’s organization behind the account, rather than the actual artist. It’s shown that the most followed artists on Twitter are the ones who give their fans an actual dialogue, tweeting about their everyday life. This means that when a business update comes along, fans are more likely to be alert. Artists must maintain a delicate balance between business and personal, to preserve their followers as well as protect their own privacy. These are a few key strategies to making Twitter a more relevant communication tool, and with the company moving towards generating revenue instead of building its user base, there will likely be a lot of new changes. “Twitter is like a microphone—a tool that’s used for being heard. How effective a tool depends entirely on the artist.

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Singer/Songwriter Coffey Anderson knows a thing or two about the importance of direct-to-consumer sales. After playing on the streets of Santa Monica everyday and selling lots of albums, but becoming very hoarse, he decided he needed a new way to connect to more people at once. After starting with posting videos online and working with Ustream to hold live video chats with fans he realized that he needed a way for his fans to buy his songs—instantly. His discovery of Audiolife, a direct-to-consumer sales tool was just what he needed. It allowed him to sell songs instantly from his own website. As independent artists and labels progress in their careers, being able to sell their products and receive information about their customers is extremely important, and not something that is obtainable when music is sold through Amazon or iTunes. With direct-to-consumer programs artists or labels get more demographic data, more money and retain control of price and availability. The key to sustaining direct-to-consumer sales is ease of usability. If everything is on one page, straightforward like iTunes and a painless process than people will be more likely to spend the money.

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Hasidic reggae star Matisyahu recently spoke with Pollstar about his complete comfort with the digital age. He prominently discussed and praised the social networking site , Twitter where he is now connected to over 1 millions fans through. Sure 1 million fans get his tweets, but the artist also spoke about Twitter being a platform that was helpful in making real life connections between artists and their fans. He noted that the simplicity and brevity of the Twitter system is what makes it so attractive, it’s nice to have a 140-character limit. People don’t want to read your life story, they just want snippets of what’s pertinent. With his video, camera and internet all on his phone, it makes it easy to tweet about anything from anywhere. He also said that he reads “all of the comments [on his tweets] pretty much daily”. He shared stories of helpful fans he has met while touring because of his tweeting, helping break the façade between him and is audience and letting the fans know that artists are people too and that they need to know where to eat and what to do in an unfamiliar city. He explains how in this modern age it makes it so much simpler for fans to meet artists and explains that he once tweeted his hotel’s location while on tour, and a dozen or so fans showed up and just hung out. He wants to be clear though that he monitors his activity so he doesn’t get carried away: Twitter helps him run his life, but it doesn’t rule it.

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Damages paid by P2P website services has so far gone only to the record companies. Artists and managers are looking for their share of the monies paid in settlements. At the moment, artists are being paid an average of $45.05 for every $1000 pirated. The proposed method of payment by artists and managers would entitle them to $315.50 for every $1000 pirated.