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Emails went out a few days ago letting you know how to import your imeem playlists into myspace (Myspace Music acquired certain Imeem assets a few months ago).

Nice to see that myspace retained all the user and song info, and one of the first mass example of the portability of the playlist as a format:

Access your playlist by clicking here:
www.myspace.com/music/import-playlists.
You will need to be logged into MySpace.
Log in or sign up for MySpace.

2.
Enter your imeem e-mail address.

3.
Click import and we will retrieve your playlists.

4.
Upon completion, your playlists will be stored in
“My Music,” our playlist management tool. All
playlists can be identified by the name
“import_[yourplaylistname]”

If you have questions visit http://faq.myspace.com/app/home.

Pros: It worked for me with no issues and no import lag time. All of my imeem playlists showed up as private in my myspace playlist dashboard.

Cons: A few songs seem to be missing, due to rights issues, and of course I miss the embedability of imeem! I also have not gone back and replaced my imeem embeds with new links to myspace and I doubt I ever will have the time to do that. That’s an important piece of the playlist transfer they missed.

Will LALA go through a similar process when they are fully integrate into apple?

Checkout a few examples of my old imeem playlists imported into myspace:

New Urban Music 2009

2008 new music sampler

LInks to some past playlist related posts:

Imeem vs Lala Update

New Music Playlist 2009

Imeem vs Lala

Im lucky enough to work with 4 Artists on their way to the top. Watch for them to blow up in 2010.

http://www.jasonderulo.com
http://www.guccimaneonline.com/
http://www.iyazmusic.com/
http://www.thenewboyz.com

Here’s a new playlist of songs from some of my favorite Artists and Albums of 2009. I mixed a few different genres together including some of the best new music, and A+ efforts from some established Artists. Indie, quirky, and mainstream tracks, all living happily together!

After picking the tracks, I tailored it for each of the major streaming music services (a challange I will cover in next post..) and threw in an itunes imix for downloaders. Enjoy your way:

LALA: Playlist represented in full:

MYSPACE:
They don’t give a great option for embedding in blogs (the “share to wordpress” button does not work!). Also Tom Petty live “breakdown was” not in there so I replaced with “nightwatchmen” live, and Taylor Swift Breathe was not there so I replaced with the karoke version! (log in required)

http://music.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=music.singleplaylist&friendid=417774986&plid=1085432
(log in required)

MOG:
Found every track here as well, but this is a paid service:

http://mog.com/playlists/35440

Itunes Imix:
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewIMix?id=348700889

As with any “Best Of” list, there’s alot missing – no urban or hip hop in this mix – thats next. Happy New Year!

What a way to end the year! I spent my last week in the office bringing the first Warner Bros Artist to HULU. It was a a lot of hard work by the folks at HULU and Warner to get the deal done, and all of the content ingested and ready to launch in synch with MUSE’s SNL appearance! Enjoy their live DVD right here, right now, and check out the rest on the official MUSE HULU channel!

http://www.hulu.com/muse

New stats have facebook in the top 3 for video sites. As consumers become more comfortable watching videos on facebook (most likely through embeds of other sources like you tube and hulu), Artists can effectively build their own video views in existing communities. While you tube has community features via their channels, I like the idea of facebook communities becoming another visual hub.

Facebook Ranks In Top 3 Video Sites:
The view from Y-pulse, and how this may effect hulu and myspace
New Tee Vee’s take, along with the rest of the top 10 players

So now build your community and get your video directly to them. Building a facebook community around video offers some benefits you cant get with your you tube commuity (who’s channels have limited community functionality), and allows video to become a part of the conversation already taking place.

Shakira’s Stats Don’t Lie: Facebook/Ustream Music Video Debut Is A Hit

More options! Make your own video premier – Shakira, facebook and ustream create something exciting, direct to fans, in an environment that makes it easy to pass along.

Earlier this year I helped set up a live broadcast with Ashley TIsdale on her facebook page that over 100k simultaneous viewers. Clearly facebook, with the help of established video partners like ustream, is starting to unlock the potential for Artsits’s facebook communities to become a destination for music videos, and visual interaction.

I love reading the New Tee Vee blog every day and video is an increasingly important aspect of the music business. Think about it – the majority of music is listened to on a device with a screen! I think I was the only music exec at New Tee Vee Live, but it was worth the trip – although the question “is the tv business going the way of the record business?” and the “we wont make the same mistakes as the music biz” quotes were slightly annoying.

So what are the broader trends and how do they apply to music? Here are a few quotes from some of the speakers, and some of the interesting things I heard during the panels.

Erik Flannigan
EVP of Digital Media,
MTVN Entertainment Group  

Hits are Hits. Eric explained that hit tv shows have big video numbers online, and shows with lower ratings have lower views. It’s a one to one relationship, and he said there seems to be no erosion in the ratings of popular shows by having them streaming online.

“Don’t underestimate the mass of passive”

Great point and a classic quote. People don’t want to spend tons of time looking around to watch what they want on you tube, torrents and other on demands sites. It’s more that programming for the mass doesn’t meet their needs anymore. If possible, most consumers would rather lean back and just get great programming that was relevant to them, instead of having to seek it out.

Now think of the long tail, radio, and music. Applying Eric’s comment to the much hyped long tail I agree its probably not the “solution”. It’s really about better music, engaging artists, and better programming.

Laura Goldberg
General Manager of NFL Online,
National Football League  

The internet turned the niche activity of fantasy football into a main stream pastime, and as a result, grew the audience for the NFL. Laura explained how fantasy football drives demand – now you need to watch all the games! Very clever. The advantage is football is a closed network – to watch all the games in real time you have to pay!

Chuck Seiber
VP Marketing,
Roku  

The Roku video player is an on demand video box with over 50,000 titles. Now they are opening their platform to anyone who wants to make a “channel” on their box. Their install base seems low, but is this a chance for someone to make a new type of music service? Seems like the infrastructure and hardware is in place.

Jason Seiken
SVP, Interactive,
PBS  

Nothing music related here, but I had no idea pbs launched the coolest video sites of all the networks!

http://video.pbs.org/

Gary Cohen
SVP of Marketing and Customer Experience,
Redbox  

Redbox offers kiosks in retails stores that rent dvd’s for a dollar. The talk was that some of the studios were upset about the impact of “substitutionally” of redbox rentals on dvd sales.

Substitution for purchase is something we talk about a lot in the music biz, with you tube, piracy, and streaming services such as myspace. Gary denied those claims, and said redbox did research to show there was less that 1% substitution for purchase (of course they did!)

However I loved his quote – “People who buy, buy, people who rent, rent”

Or as we sometimes say “people who buy buy, people who steal steal”

Great day – see you next year!

VIDEO
Great content, and nice technique for success:
How IKEA’s ‘Easy to Assemble’ Broke 1.9M Views (Without Cheating)

MOBILE
New product idea from the people:
World’s First Multimedia SF Novel on a QR Code T-shirt.
Buy it via ebay!

MUSIC
Devo is Back – I was there!
These guys are still unbeliveable!

“one of the few truly original rock acts of the last 40 years.”

San Jose Mercury news

http://blogs.mercurynews.com/aei/2009/11/07/devo-fans-find-satisfaction/?

The Superhighway Tour is a brand new online music product developed by the Tom Petty team here at WBR, and Tom Petty himself!. It’s a direct to fan digital configuration of the upcoming The Live Anthology, with the bonus content on demand from the cloud!

48 digital tracks for $24.98, mp3 AND FLAC! The digital tracks are presented within a dedicated web site and delivered with truly compelling additional material. No DRM – just real value in an on-line experience actually worth paying for. The multimedia around each song gives context, depth and understanding to what is already a career-defining live music anthology. nd them.

The site includes streaming audio commentary from Tom and the band on the songs that are included in the Anthology, historic photos and videos, show reviews, recreated vintage merch, and areas for fans to share their experiences and photos from Tom Petty shows.

http://www.youtube.com/tompetty

And you get 24 tracks before “traditional street date”! The first 24 tracks, which make up the body of the Superhighway Tour are delivered over an 8 week period that leads to street date (11/23/09). The remaining 24 tracks will be delivered collectively on street date.

You can get a free live track without even signing up!

Head there now! http://www.tompettysuperhighway.com

Rumor hit earlier this week on the google music service:

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/21/google-music-service-the-screenshots/
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/10/22/google.music/index.html

Google already has some experience with music in CHINA

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123841495337969485.html

Google and LALA? Readers of my blog already know I am a fan of lala (like this guy!)
http://changingway.org/2009/10/21/singing-lala-about-google-music/, and i’ve done a lot of great work with ilike and lala…so this looks interesting!

But this all got me thinking about the CD as a music format. There were benefits of this old technology, benefits of a clear standard from the player, to the audio format to the physical medium. You showed up at your friends house and it worked.

With Google entering the scene, we’re moving beyond the physical/file, to online experiences and services. It made me think – what role does compatibility and standards have with services? Is Google the mechanism for compatibility?

Is there a “service” standard where music can be monetized more effectively? You can move from different subscription vendors with ease and keep all of your preferences? If services and experiences had some way to know your preferences, and transfer them seamlessly, google could become a “front end” to an exciting music experience

I’d bet this is not something Google is going to build, but Google’s involvement (whatever it may be), starts making online music services and experiences Interesting. Looking forward, you see google becoming a frictioness traffic driver to all sorts of music products and you dont start over every time you try a new one.

Let me know your thoughts as this story unfolds throughout the week, and Ill post updates as I learn more.

I participated in a fun panel last Wednesday entitled “Music Power Shift: Artist, Label, Technology, Management” at LOWES Santa Monica for Digital Hollywood 2009.

Digital music panels are no longer the hot and heated arguments between old and new that they used to be! Everyone seems to get along and agree on most of the issues.

I elaborated on three main points throughout the panel and I think most panelist agreed with these main concepts

CONNECTED
They key to 360 rights holders is connecting them effectively. From a fans perspective, all of an Artists projects are connected. You need the best team in each area, and if they can all be on one team, you can generate real results. Data collected from a download of the new single, is used to make touring decisions, and update merch lines. Art from a new shirt in the web store keeps the fans active, and bridges gaps between songs. When they all work together, behind an artist’s vision, the sum is much greater than each piece and it ends a great fan experience. 360 is not just about getting more rights, it’s about the ability to connect them together effectively.

PATIENCE
Make the right decisions, then give them chance to work. Allow new ecosystems need time to develop. Direct to fan campaigns that rely on commerce generate maximum results after the’ve been optimized, and correctly run for a few project cycles. Invest in the time of running things correctly to truly reach your potential. Trent Rezonr’s direct to fan approach and success didn’t happen overnight or begin with that one piece of product everyone wrote about!

CREATIVITY
My closing point was about Artists that are learning to create art 2.0 – this is when a musical artist makes great music and inherently knows how to tell their story, and vision in a multi media art/message – across you tube, iphone aps, twitter etc. When the vision is there, these 2.0 tools and networks become more than communication channels, more than new ways to sell direct. They combine and connect to form true extensions of the music experience. The Artists who truly understand this will drive the exponential evolution of music into completely new forms!

Thanks to the other great panelists!

Christopher Allen, COO, Napster
Michael Spiegelman, Head of Music, Yahoo!
Phil Sandhaus, MemBrain LLC
Jeremy Welt, SVP New Media, Warner Bros Records
Sam Wick, SVP of Monetization and Strategy, MySpace Music
Gary Brotman, Sr. Director, Marketing & Artist Services, Topspin
Kelli Richards, President, The All Access Group,