“Where words fail, music speaks”

Here's the mid-summer edition of the Music+Tech Recap where two companies (Spotify and Turntable.FM) dominated the blog/news spotlight for most of the past month. A lot of words have been written about both companies, so there really isn't much more to add or share. However, there is lots of other stuff happening in the world of music technology which I spotlight below.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

2011 Investment/Acquisition Activity (US$) as of June 30th, 2011

Q1/11: $141,205,700m

Q2/11: $270,535,000m

Q3/11: $14,500,000m

2011 total to-date: $426,240,700m

Latest investment activity: Turntable.FM, Dubset, Soundout, Scratch Music, CHNL

• Turntable.fm Raises $7.5 Million From Union Square Ventures, Valued at $37.5 Million
• Music Startup Dubset raises $500,000 To Bring DJ Mixes Online
• Music insight provider SoundOut secures $2 million funding
• DJ Solutions Company Scratch Music Group Raises $3.3 Million
• Direct-To-Fan CHNL Grabs $1.2 Million Investment

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Most-Wanted Music Apps - Evolver.fm is running a series of polls called Untapped Apps where people have been submitting new music app ideas. Interesting ideas... some quite useful sounding and others, well... a bit silly (Charlie Brown voice?).

Digster - Universal Music Group backed Spotify curated playlist service lets you pick a genre, mood or situation.

Tunecrank - This web based service finds, ranks and streams independent music as submitted by artists. Ranking is based on song votes and number of plays.

OneSheet - Onesheet allows musicians to set up a web presence using content from other websites/social networks they're already updating.

Twusic - Twitter generated radio station powered by #nowplaying hashtag.

Songpier - A content & media management system for musicians that lets you build, manage and distribute an HTML5 universal mobile Web App.

AudioSocket - launches Music as a Service (MaaS) giving content producers across vertical markets a way to search, discover and icense music from Audiosocket’s catalog of over 33,000 songs.

Breakoutband - Online social music game that lets you create original music, share with friends and acquire fans.

Gobbler - A backup, transfer, and organizational tool for managing audio project files and assets. Integrates with most DAWs and SoundCloud.

38 Amazingly Awesome Music Sites... from 2008 - Some like Pandora, LastFM, Hype MAchine are still alive and kicking while many others have bit the dust.

TableTop Audio Mixer - new iPad app iPad featuring audio devices that users can mix and match. With fifteen available devices, including instruments, effects, mixers, and controllers. Users can build complex musical compositions from scratch or expand one of the existing demo songs and templates.

HypeMachine Fast Forward - Similar to Shuffler.FM where you can listen quickly through music blogs tracked by Hype Machine. It's an interesting concept but in an already hyperactive, digital world, this moves much too fast for me, especially when it comes to listening to music.

Trushuffle - You need a Spotify and a LastFM account, scrobbling needs to be enabled and Trushuffle helps find similar music that is added to a personal Spotify playlist.

Turntable.fm Extended - Google Chrome extension that adds desktop notifications, suggested tracks, last.fm scrobbling, song playlist export and more.

Spotify playlist to XSPF - If you ever need to export your carefully crafted Spotify playlists, here is a tool that converts them into an XML Shareable Playlist Format (XSPF).

Play by AOL - This is surprisingly a pretty impressive iOS and Android social music app. Powered by partner Rdio, interfaces with your iTunes collection, SHOUTcast radio and other AOL Music properties, like CD Listening Party and MP3 of the day.

Console.FM - An automated radio station that gathers the top electronica music across the web for each electronic genre and puts it into a group style radio chat room.

Windows Phone 7.5 quietly enables music streaming from SkyDrive - The latest WP7 update introduces smoother integration with Microsoft's cloud storage service that lets users access any compatible sound file that will start playing the tune in the music app.

Rumblefish Opens Music API, Issues 4 Million Licenses - New API makes it easy for third parties to integrate licensed music into their online products.

Rebakery - A social, creative site where musicians can remix each other’s work.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

Co-Creator of Legendary Bloom App Discusses Music Apps Past, Present and Future - Peter Chilvers, who co-created Bloom with experimental music luminary Brian Eno, says the key principle of generative music apps is that they must be egalitarian.

Digital Music Thinkers Discuss Music Apps, More - EvolverFM interviews eight different music biz players to find out what apps they’re using or which apps they’ve made.

Experiential Rights- "Value in the music business though is an odd thing: the more value added to the music by the fan directly, the less influence the rights holders have over it, and the more influence the creators of representational systems (i.e., turntable.fm) and rights creators have (i.e., artists going directly on turntable.fm with stuff that their labels don’t own). And rights holders do not like being taken out of the value equation."

eMusic CEO: Forget Spotify, Our Business Is Going To Be Huge Thanks To Music Nerds - eMusic serves a special type of music fan: 90% actively seek out new music, 95% consider their musical tastes to be different from mainstream popular culture, and only 7% enjoy popular music on the radio.

Roger McNamee: Thoughts on the new music business, investing in technology, Apple, Google, Facebook and more - "Creativity enables differentiation. Differentiation can be monetized. Huge differentiation can be monetized hugely."

Jane's Addiction on the confluence of music and technology (Q&A) - "In the live setting, we used to play to a couple thousand of faces at night, and now we play to a couple of thousand phones held up in the air. It's a little bizarre."

Who can we rely upon in the Music Industry to get us out of this mess? - "What we can deduce, is with years of what could be seen as ‘bumbling around’ with no clear digital strategy that has worked to any great degree (negatively affecting physical revenues whilst failing to maximize digital business models) we can no longer cry over spilt milk."

Where Are All The Musicians Going To Go Now That Myspace Is Dead? - Interview with Howard Han, CEO of GigMaven where he provides his take on the future of social music.

Interview with Tim Heineke, Shuffler.fm: Simplicity is key for bootstrapping a music startup - "You should be able to make something simple with not a lot of money." The idea is to get something developed early without worrying about including all the features you could imagine. Early user feedback will help you see if you have something viable and which direction you should take.

Interested in looking back at previous monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.

Here is the latest round-up of music technology related news, analysis, new music services/apps and investments for June 2011.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

2011 Investment/Acquisition Activity (US$) as of June 30th, 2011

Q1/11: $141,205,700m

Q2/11: $270,535,000m

2011 total to-date: $411,740,700m

Latest investment activity: VibeDeck, Hitlantis, Shazam, Spotify, SoundCloud, Earbits, Batanga

• VibeDeck Raises $2 Million For Direct-To-Fan eCommerce Platform For Musicians
• Finland-based indie music discovery service, Hitlantis Closes $1.5M Angel Funding
• Spotify has closed $100m funding round at $1bn valuation
• Shazam Announces $32m Investmentby Top-Tier Venture Capital Firms and Accelerated Growth
• Mobile Music Firm Shazam Buys Lyrics Provider Tunezee
• Pandora IPO Prices At $16; Valued At $2.56 Billion
• Myspace Sold to Specific Media for $35 Million
• SoundCloud Receives Investment from Ashton Kutcher's A-Grade Fund, Terms Undisclosed
• Earbits Snags $605K From Y Combinator, Charles River Ventures And Others
• Batanga, Latin Digital Music Provider, Adds $15 Million Venture Capital Investment

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Playmysong - a Finnish start-up that lets concert goers choose songs to be played in venues.

Turntable.FM - Big hype and excitement about this social DJing platform which launched this past month. Between music economics and shiny toy syndrome, it will be fascinating to see where this service goes. Lots of coverage here, here and here. And BTW, Listening Room, amongst others, is a similar group listening site you may also want to explore.

EchoPrint - When do these guys sleep? EchoNest launches a open source music fingerprint and identification service to rival the likes of Shazam, Gracenote and SoundHound. The fact it is license free and open source should encourage developers to share data and help grow a deep reference database.

Musicpage - Online community for people who work in the music business. Features thousands of music industry profiles from 40+ categories.

BandCamp - Now out with their own API. Let's see what will spring from the minds of developers...

MP3.Com - CBS relaunches MP3.com to showcase new and unsigned artists.

Notefi.me - A new music release notification service which integrates with your LastFM profile and keeps track of upcoming releases from your favorite bands.

Wheels of Steel - An Ode To Turntables - A nice design/UI write-up about building a Technics-inspired turntable using HTML/CSS/Javascript.

Hubcast - A private beta with scant few details. Describe themselves "as an audio engine".

Radical.FM - Personal internet radio that combines user tailored music like Pandora with on-demand like Rdio. Also includes a social networking layer and the ability to live broadcast personal music streams.

Cyllus - A music business online game which lets you create a fantasy record label, sign artists, and compete with other labels based on the success of the artists on your roster.

Music With Me - Music discovery and sharing platform for Android phones. The developers are calling it "Instagram" for music.

Google's Les Paul doodle rocks the Web - In honour of Les Paul, Google created an interactive logo that lets you play and record tunes. A handy chord formation was put together to help you play and over 4000 people posted videos on YouTube "showcasing" their inner Jimmy Page.

Ex.FM - This great Internet music library/MP3 bookmarking service debuts their iPhone app this past month.

SoundCloud apps: Moontoast Impulse and DIY Music Marketplace - One key component not baked into SoundCloud is the ability for artists to sell direct to fans. DIY Media and Moontoast are the latest companies to release social commerce platforms built on top of SoundCloud and integrated into social networks like Facebook.

Raditaz - Location aware, social radio. Users can choose from curated playlists, create a station based on a favorite artist and tag and share stations based on location. Available for iPhone and Android devices.

MiniMash - iOS app ($1.99) that lets you create mashups and DJ sets from your music in iTunes.

Cantio - A YouTube powered music player that has the look and feel of Grooveshark. Also features a radio mode that automatically creates a playlist for you based on a seed song/artists.

10 Great Last.fm Apps, Hacks and Mashups - Last.fm may not be the disruptive upstart of a startup it once was, but it’s still a force to be reckoned with in the online music space. Here are ten mashups, apps and hacks built using the service’s API.

MusicBrainz Summer of Code - Three projects being led by three different students: 1) Embeddable MusicBrainz Widgets, 2) MusicBrainz Data Visualizations and 3) Updating MusicBrainz Picard (Tagging Software) to support a new schema.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

White Paper: Mobile apps’ new business opportunities for music (Registration Req.) - Report looks at the growth of music apps, highlighting examples of successful music apps and presenting stats on number of users and revenues generated from those apps. Also provides market data and projections on the growth of mobile music sales in the next five years.

What if tech companies ran the music business? - And while they are at it, why not the movie industry, publishing and food processing, because tech companies can run anything.

Spotify Reportedly Launching in Mid-July -- Will Americans Care? - I don't... I'm a happy fan of Rdio!

Cloud Music Comparison: What’s the Best Service for Streaming Your Library Everywhere? - Detailed comparison of iCloud, Google Music, Amazon Cloud Player, Rdio and mSpot, Subsonic, Grooveshark and Spotify,

FM Radio Is Slowly Learning From the Internet - With a nod to Toronto based Supernova Interactive, who are using their interactive listener technology to power terrestrial radio on the Corus radio network. There is room for a lot of exciting developments as traditional and IP based radio start hooking up.

8 Reasons Why Vinyl Is Cleaner Than the Cloud - "Think digital is actually good for the environment? Less CDs, plastic, paper inserts, and physical shipping are all positive developments, but digital (and its hyped-up cloud) comes with heavy environmental baggage."

iTunes now costs $1.3 billion/year to run - Economic analysis by Asymco into the costs and operating margins of iTunes.

Every Business is a ‘Music Business’ - "Every business is becoming a music business; more accurately, an entertainment business... It’s no mere coincidence that other industries try to model the way the entertainment industry is organized."

Squaring the Consumption Circle – Why and How the Model Needs Fixing - "More people are listening to more music, across more devices than ever before. That is a fantastic foundation stone for future growth, but the challenge can only be met with consumption-era business and service innovation."

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences

• Latin Alternative Music Conference - New York City, NY - July 6th - 9th, 2011
• Ticket Summit - Las Vegas, NV - July 13th - 15th, 2011
• Summe NAMM - Nashville, TN - July 21st - 23rd, 2011
• International Computer Music Conference - University of Huddersfield, England - July 31st - August 5th, 2011

Interested in looking back at previous monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.

Here's a look back at what happened in the world of music and technology during the month of May. The action is heating up as we approach the mid-year mark and it's only going to get a lot more interesting when Apple officially announces their iCloud initiative early next week. The reactions, criticisms and commentary will as usual be a lot more entertaining/interesting than the announcement itself.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

2011 Investment/Acquisition Activity (US$) as of May 31st, 2011

Q1/11: $141,205,700m

Q2/11: $119,385,000

2011 total to-date: $260,590,700m

Latest investment activity: Music MasterMind, TuneSat, Simfy, OfficialFM, musiXmatch

• Music Mastermind Gets $10.8 Million for Online Creation Platform
• TuneSat Gets $6 Million for Audio Fingerprinting Service
• German Streaming Radio Service Simfy Lands $14 Million
• Official.FM raise $8m in funding
• musiXmatch Lyrics Provider Lands $3.7 Million Funding

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Last.fm is to be deeply integrated into MP3.com - Both services will exist and be run as standalone services and brands but will feed into each other in a more structured and cross-promotional fashion.

Behind The Scenes: Making Spotify More Convenient Than Piracy - Technical insights about the development methodology and system infrastructure powering Spotify.

Pioneer unveils its AppRadio, integrates iOS into your automobile - Specs: 800 x 400 6.1-inch multitouch display, Bluetooth connectivity, external mic, GPS antenna, full iPod music control, Google Maps integration, and specially formatted apps from Rdio and Pandora.

5 Great Non-Commercial Music Radio Apps - Human-driven music discovery apps developed by universities or public radio stations with minimal to no advertising.

Turntable.FM - Social music service that lets you pop into (or create) various listening rooms where people can vote and chat.

Outloud.FM - Create rooms where you can chat and listen to music with your friends with a real time collaborative playlist. Similar concept to Turntable.FM.

SoundRain - Sell songs hosted on SoundCloud using micropayment platform BuySimple.

HypeMachine iOS App - It took a bit longer than expected but MP3 blog aggregator HypeMachine is finally out with their iOS app. Similar in feature set to website, the app is well designed and developed.

Music Beta by Google - And now Google has thrown their hat into the crowded cloud-based music ring. Available in the US only, users can upload music, listen anywhere and sync on their Android device. Apple, you're next up!

VivaLaPlaylist - Powered by Youtube and Facebook, users create stations and invite friends to listen together at the same time. Users can add songs, vote and chat.

WiMP allows playlist importing from other services - With no agreed upon playlist standard (what's wrong with using XSPF?), users of various music streaming services have playlists they can't be easily ported between services. WiMP, available in Denmark, Norway and Sweden, is hoping to woo new customers from other services with the introduction of this playlist import functionality.

The National Jukebox - Library of Congress, in conjunction with Sony Music launches a national jukebox. The site will stream some 10,000 sound recordings from several historic music collections.

Patronism - Combining crowdfunding and fan clubs to create a platform for ongoing artist support. Fans can pledge a certain dollar amount of ongoing support for accesss to music and creative content from their favorite artist(s).

Bluebrain - The world’s first location aware musical album app called the National Mall that changes its rhythms and beats as the user walks around The National Mall in Washington, D.C.

MusicMetric - Professional music analytics service releases an API allowing third-parties to utilize musical sentiment data that it has harvested over the past two years.

Recco.ME - A social music network for fans that lets them kisten, recommend, like and comment on songs.

Cull.TV - Inspired by the MTV music generation, the developers of this service have created a streamlined TV-like interface that lets you collect and view music videos from across the web.

Switchr.net - A really handy and free online audio file converter.

CoWrite - A soon to launch social songwriting app that lets you capture ideas, collaborate and solicit feedback from other songwriters.

Nogeno - A music platform for artists to post songs, tour dates and other related information (bio, pictures, videos etc.) A mix of MySpace, BandCamp, Reverbnation but much simpler and straightforward. It's also similar to personal profile services like About.Me or Flavors.Me.

SuperSonic - Built using the ever expanding and deep EchoNest API, this new iOS app makes recommendations based on music you already have loaded up on your iOS device. If you want a deeper insight into recommendation engines, Paul Lamere of EchoNext has put together a comprehensive review (aka the WTF test) of Google's Instant Mix, EchoNest and iTunes Genius playlisting engines.

VibeDeck - There are certainly no shortages of DIY tools for artists. Vibedeck is free service, similiar to BandCamp that lets artists sell songs direct to fans and accept money directly to their PayPal account.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

Will record labels and streaming services ever agree? - Former BPI chariman Tony Wadsworth discusses the difficulties involved in securing streaming rights from major labels

Music Hack Day - Two hackdays were held this past month in San Francisco and Berlin. Take a look at 55 San Francisco Hacks and 49 Berlin Hacks. Other coverage here, here and here.

How digital music startups are thriving at London’s Silicon Roundabout - Background information about this hi-tech area of London, its benefits and challenges for digital music companies.

Music Discovery Success Depends On Scale, Not Being First - Is being more social the only hope the record labels have at the moment?

Indie Music Fans More Likely to Pay for Digital Streams - when it comes to who's paying for the premium (i.e., "paid") level of these services, a new study by Merlin show that it's often indie music fans who are footing the bill.

How The Music Industry Is Killing Music And Blaming The Fans - "The battle to prevent filesharing has been lost, rightly or wrongly, but there are still plenty of honest folk out there willing to exchange cash for music in one form or another, and it's not that they don't want to recognise its value. It's that record labels no longer know how to earn their money, and can't decide how to let them pay for it anyway."

Radio’s destiny is a hybrid future - A combination of traditional broadcasting, digital, and other platforms will blend to offer music fans a better and interactive experience.

Think of Your Digital Platform as a Relationship Engine - Citing Zambiq has an example of a platform for consumers to interact with a radio stations, entertainers, celebrates, and advertisers, companies have to stop thinking of digital platforms as simply a destination and think of it more as a relationship engine.

The Music Industry Is Desperate For A Few Good Technologists - Talented, driven people with a head full of creative ideas is one thing, being cooperative and possessing a generally good attitude is another. There is too much disrespect and bad mouthing coming from both sides that makes it much too difficult for anyone to trust each other enough to want to work together as true partners.

Will digital audio ultimately cause the music business' demise? - Putting aside the silly headline, digital audio is not leading any sort of music business demise. Business will evolve and adapt to new technological and cultural realities. It certainly will look much different than anyone can imagine. Music is not the horse and buggy being replaced by the car. Music is innate in every single one of us. It is a key form of human communication and if you took away our technology and instruments, we will still find a way to create using whatever we can find around us.

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences

• Billboard Country Music Summit - Nashville, TN - June 6th - 7th, 2011
• California Music Industry Summit - Oakland, CA - June 10th - 11th, 2011
• North by Northeast (NXNE) - Toronto, ON - June 13th - 19th, 2011
• Digital Media Conference - Washington, DC - June 17th, 2011
• C/O Pop Music Convention and Festival - Cologne, Germany - June 22nd - June 23rd, 2011
• Vancouver Island Music Business Conference - Comox Valley, BC - June 22nd - 26th, 2011

Interested in looking back at previous monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.

Before jumping right into this past month's music+tech recap, I want to recommend a great new book by music-loving friend, Eric Garland who is a futurist/intelligence expert and managing partner of Competitive Futures.

How to Predict the Future…and WIN!!! takes a satirical and funny look at forecasting, trends analysis and decision making using 25 anti-techniques. Each one gets flipped on its head to help better understand how individuals and organizations using common sense and critical thinking can gain a better understanding of our past and present world, and how we can get a better handle on the future as it unfolds. A lot of what he covers is what most disrupted and struggling industries haven't done a very good job doing. A thought provoking and highly recommended read. Sample a free chapter (pdf) and buy your own copy.

Interested in looking back at previous monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

2011 Investment Activity (US$) as of April 30th, 2011

Q1/11: $141,205,700m

Q2/11: $76,885,000m

2011 total to-date: $218,090,700m

Latest investment activity: BlueHaze, ExFM, JamLegend, Dada.it, Redigi, PushLife, Beyond Oblivion

• Simon Fuller's XIX Acquires music app developer BlueHaze, Terms not Disclosed
• Exfm Lands $750k for Music Discovery Chrome Extension
• Music Gaming Startup, JamLegend Acquired by Zynga, Terms not Disclosed
• Mobile Entertainment Firm Buongiorno Buys Music Streaming Company Dada.net for $40.6M
• Redigi Raises $535k for "Used" Digital Music Store
• Google Buys Mobile Music Service PushLife for $25 Million -
• Beyond Oblivion received $10M in Series B funding

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Musichunter - Another music discovery app powered by We Are Hunted, Echonest and 7 Digital.

UMPlayer - If you aren't happy with your current multimedia player, check out the open-source, cross platform Universal Multimedia Player, which handles over 270 audio and video codecs and can play Audio CDs, DVDs, (S)VCDs, TV / Radio cards, YouTube and SHOUTcast streams.

30 new music apps for iPhone, Android and iPad - Here's a list of apps that have launched in the past few months, from big stars and startup developers alike. It offers a glimpse at the trends and technologies that make apps as potentially habit-changing for music fans as they are for gamers and TV viewers.

Castroller - I can't say I have ever got hooked on podcasts. I download a bunch, hoping to listen to them and 6 months pass when I delete them, unheard. But, if you are into discovering and sharing podcasts, take a look at Castroller.

RandomCloud - A music discovery iPhone app that allows you to listen to streamed music hosted on SoundCloud.

Spreaker - An audio platform that allows anyone to create, broadcast and share a personal radio show.

DropTunes - Sync music to your Dropbox account and you directly stream your tunes using this web-based app. Very simple!

Foursquare Pushing Into the Music Business - An interview with Jonathan Crowley, Director of Business Development for Media and Entertainment talks about some of the artists/labels they are working with and product features they are looking to build.

Spofm - A Spotify/LastFM mash-up that hooks into your LastFM account to help make new music release recommendations based on your LastFM history and loved tracks.

Loudie - An iPhone app developed by a concert industry veteran which creates a separate Twitter-like feeds for shows at each of hundreds of thousands of venues. Users can earn rewards redeemable for concert tickets, downloads, merchandise discounts and other prizes.

8tracks - Mixtape services releases a new and free iPhone app. A simple, yet elegant design makes it easy to listen to streams (no offline listening though), follow people and like your favorite mixes.

Sprint Music Plus - Here's Sprint homegrown music app for Android/Blackberry smartphones, powered by RealNetworks. The usual set of features: playlists, downloads (MP3s and ringtones), and music discovery. All purchases are rolled into your Sprint bill.

VinylLove - This app turns your iPad into a digital record player. Music stored on your iPad is displayed as records in a crate. Choose the album you want to listen to, pick-up the needle and drop it on a track. Comes complete with the sound of vinyl crackling.

Pandora now “built in” to all 2011 BMWs - "...Once you bring Pandora to your car via your mobile device, the user experience is integrated with the one you are already familiar with. No awkward iPhone manipulations required. And that moves it even closer to an easy dash-driven radio-like experience."

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

Fred Wilson: Some Thoughts On The Music Business - "I'd advise the record companies to partner with the innovators in the digital music sector, something that they have largely been unwilling to do as long as physical distribution pays the bills. But the end is near for CDs and iTunes isn't going to replace physical at the rate it is growing. So it is high time to invest to build the streaming market. And for the record companies, that investment means subsidies and attractive license terms so that innovators can profitably build the services of the future. You have to invest in new businesses to grow them. That's what I do all day long. And I'd love to see the music industry do the same"

Life Is But A Stream - "The trend towards cloud-based, on-demand digital media shifts the locus of control from the producer to the consumer. Having grown up immersed in digital media, Gen Y will lead this shift. Producers of entertainment (as well as all those who advertise, sponsor or otherwise participate in the entertainment ecosystem) should begin their transition strategies with Gen Y at the center of their digital universe, studying their preferences and behaviors and developing services that align with, rather than buck how, where and why they want to consume."

Rethink Music Conference Wrap-up - A collection of videos from the music business, tech sector and political arena who gathered to discuss the music business’ future.

Once Again, Just What IS The Future Of Music? - Another summary about the Rethink Music Conference held in April.

Challenges and Opportunities for In-Car Streaming Radio - Is in-car streaming the "next frontier" for radio? KnowDigital has put together this report (pdf) and presentation explaining their research findings.

The Silver Bullet for Music Business Success? - "The silver bullet: Collaboration with emerging/aspiring industry people. “Emerging” being the key word. Stop lusting after the “somebodies” and pay some attention to the “nobodies” around you."

Music streaming subscriptions are the way forward - "It seems clear that there's a lot of work to be done in terms of contract law between the labels and their artists in order to catch up with the new digital landscape of the music industry. So, what can services like Spotify actually do to make things fairer for the musicians?"

Music Lockers vs. Subscriptions: Music Ownership in the Cloud Era - "That is really what the cloud represents: a different concept of ownership."

The Real Story Behind The Legal Dangers Of Clouds And Music - "Media companies use courts as a hammer to smash anything they view as a competitive threat."

Spotify vs. Amazon Cloud Drive - This analysis is really more of a comparison between cloud music services and streaming music services, using Amazon and Spotify as examples. Information for the average/passive music consumer to consider. Nothing new for the rest of us in the know.

The Unbundling of Media - "It was havoc because the labels had not prepared a business model or cost-structure for the unbundling of the record. They had grown accustomed to higher-margin and higher unit-priced albums. We started to witness the unbundling of media." Additional perspective from TopSpin.

The Echo Nest is ready to fly - A detailed write-up about Echo Nest, its founders and head turning technology that is going to power a lot of big name media companies and emergent music businesses.

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences

With so many conferences and meetups scheduled throughout the course of the year, how do you know which one is worth your time and budget? Here are 19 ranked music conferences to help you out.

• SF Music Tech Summit - San Francisco, CA - May 9th, 2011
• SF Music Hack Day - San Francisco, CA - May 7th - 8th, 2011
• Music Industries Association of Canada Tradeshow - Toronto, ON - May 15th - 16th, 2011
• International Music Summit - Ibiza, Spain - May 25th - 27th, 2011

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a network of carefully crafted internet radio stations and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.

March was a full month as the Mediazoic team was busy at Canadian Music Week where we moderated a great panel: "Where’s The Beef? – How Various Stakeholders Are Monetizing Music" featuring Alan Cross (Corus/ExploreMusic), Jake Gold (Management Trust), Terry McBride (Nettwerk), Jeremy Fisher (Singer/Songwriter). It was a lively and spirited panel with a lot funny stories, experiences, insights and valuable sharing of ideas. You can take a listen to the audio recording and a video will be posted shortly.

We were also heads down, putting the final touches for the Mediazoic launch and party we held on March 31st. So much to do, many great ideas and never enough time or people to get it all done. Nonetheless, the evening was a success and the turn-out was fantastic. Lots of great product ideas from some of our guests, current and future partners who will help us grow the platform. We also had a great line-up of local bands who played including Courage My Love, Dave Borins, The Ruby Spirit, Jumple and Glory Hound. Check out our uStream page to see some of the live action and also check out these awesome photos here and here.

So, after a very busy month, this recap will just as much help me catch up on the news from the past month as it will for many others who have been busy and may have missed a few days. I hope you enjoy! 

Lastly, anyone interested in looking back at previous monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

Total 2011 Investments (US$) as of March 31st, 2011

Q1/11: $141,205,700m

2011 total to-date: $141,205,700m

Latest investment activity: The Filter, RootMusic, Beyond Olivion, Mood Media, Nimbit, Slacker, TuneBag

• Music Streaming Service MOG Looking to Raising $25-$30 Million
• Content Recommendation Engine, The Filter Secures $1.3m in New Funding
• RootMusic Raises $800k, Hires New Head of Business Development
• Beyond Oblivion Secures $77m in Additional Funding For Launch Of “Liberated Music” Marketplace
• Toronto based Mood Media to Acquire Muzak for $345 Million
• DIY Music Management Platform Nimbit Raises $1.25 million
• Slacker Raises $3 Million To Equip More Phones, Cars With Personal Radio Service (From Feb 2011)
• tunesBag raises €250k, hooks up with Dropbox for music streaming

Note: If you add the Mood Media acquisition of Muzak, Q1 investments and acquisitions hits $486,205,700.00. But, keeping the focus on startups, I have backed out this acquisition figure from the Q1 total.

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Tune Viper - Enter your favorite artists and receive email notifications of new release and concert dates.

Shapemix - An intuitive music mixing application for the iPad that turns it into a music studio, enabling aspiring DJs, musicians, and music fans alike to remix, create and share original mixes with friends.

Stereolizer - An iPad app featuring an 80s inspired stereo design that gives you access to 6000+ radios streams from around the world.

Forage - Enter your Twitter name, choose a genre and Forage will use Hunch to create a personalized playlist. A no-frills interface, showcasing the Hunch API.

BlasterFM - Built on top of LastFM and Grooveshark, so all the heavy lifting is already done, especially if you scrobble your music. I think this is one of the better implementations/mash-ups out there that lets you share, listen and comment on music posted by other people. Essentially, this is Twitter for music, and you would agree once you take a look at the design and layout of this site.

Bandorium - Another attempt at a music social network that connects artists with venues that support live music, and fans that enjoy them.

SoundOut - A market research and audience insight tool for new music that guarantees accurate and objective insight into any track by any artist.

Vupas - Another YouTube front-end that lets you search, queue and stream music.

My Stream - Device-to-device mobile audio broadcasting app which provides users with the ability to synchronously and wirelessly listen to music together.

SoundTracking - Life is a check-in! This new iPhone app is Instagram for music where you can share songs you are listening to, along with photos and personal comments. By the time you check-in with Foursquare, take a photo and post with Instagram and then with Color to see who else is around and then finally post and comment on the song you are currently listening to, the event you are attending will probably be over.

Amazon Cloud Player - So Amazon sneaks in out of nowhere to launch a music cloud service, beating much anticipated offerings from Google and Apple. Lots of criticism, analysis and many blog posts. I share my thoughts here... the more that music fragments, the more we need music unification! See Tomahawk below for more on that idea.

Rdio has officially launched their API and affiliate program giving developers an incentive to build apps that lets users search, access and play all of the artists, songs, albums, playlists, and top charts in Rdio’s catalog. TweetLouder, Grab and PlaybyAOL are the first to incorporate the API into their service.

A Cavalcade of Open Source Music Tools - "Digital music is now a part of almost everyone's lives, and continues to change the model for how music is distributed and enjoyed. Open source has steadily kept pace with the sea changes."

The Echo Nest Makes Pandora Look Like a Transistor Radio - "More cowbell! Everyone from Christopher Walken enthusiasts to major record labels to Columbia University is excited about The Echo Nest. The many uses, frivolous and non-, of Echo Nest's massive 30-million-song dataset."

Radioplayer - UK radio aggregation service goes live, offering streams from 157 UK radio stations, with another 71 due to be added soon. Not all are available to listeners outside of the UK, but many are.

ROBA Interactive - Bringing the LP experience to tablets, this new company wants fans to be immersed in an interactive, multimedia experience where artists can layer and weave photos, videos, lyrics and music. Take a look at this demo video, the design is actually pretty good.

Tomahawk - I love this app! Had a bit of trouble getting it going at first, but wow, for a early beta software, there is huge potential. We are in such desperate need for a unified music dashboard. Music services are fragmented and so hard to corral and any sort of tool to help keep it together will be helpful. This is based on Playdar, which I've written about before, which is a music multi-source content resolver. It doesn't matter where the music is located, the tool will help you find it and play it.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

The Hyper-Fragmented World of Music (PDF) - Nielsen Music and MIDEM have published the fourth in a series of papers surveying consumers across the globe regarding digital music consumption, music apps and streaming, and their willingness to pay.

The Location-Based Mobile Music App Explosion, A Survey - "Adding location awareness to music apps is fast becoming a major mobile trend, as is evident by a rash of new mobile music apps hitting app stores of late."

Death to the Shiny Disc - "Consider for a moment the amount of supply chain management, staffing and processes in place just to produce a CD and get it out to third party retail. And consider the CD itself: a 74 minute bit conveyance mechanism that is pretty much disposable. They are often used just once: to rip the bits."

Breaking the Digital Oligopoly - "When you dig into the realities of the digital business, and the necessity to embrace them for monetizing Futurehits, it’s not that black and white. There is not one solution to this problem, and we need a reality check."

Are Consumers Really Screaming for Better Music Discovery? - "The music discovery space has always been like crack for brainiac PhD entrepreneurs. It seems like there's always another startup concocting algorithms and space-age formulas to create the perfect discovery engine. But are music fans screaming for better discovery, or are they happy with the music they have?"

Transforming Music Through Social Design - "The next frontier belongs to people building music experiences and apps that begin, not end, with "social."

Music industry dances to technology's tune - "In fact, the interactive element of SXSW is now arguably bigger than the music side of the event. The development of the digital world over the last 10 to 15 years means SXSW's role as a showcase for new musical talent has been superseded; you no longer need an annual event to introduce you to a new act because you've probably already heard their music online. That overlapping of music and technology has transformed the very way musicians conceive their careers."

Mobile Cloud-Based Music Streaming Services Will Be Mainstream by 2016 - "Mass consumption of recorded music continues to evolve, as ownership continues to diminish in importance. A new study from ABI Research forecasts that by 2016 streaming (cloud-based) services will become a more important form of access to music than owning albums, songs or tracks. This shift will primarily be driven by the growing use of mobile handsets, especially smartphones, as listening devices."

Music Hack Day: Cracking the Code in New York - Thirty-six hours, five hundred cans of Red Bull, 200 bags of pop chips and (maybe) the next great music app -- a New York Music Hack Day diary. Next Music Hack Day is scheduled for May 7th and 8th in San Fan

The Clash of Cultures: The disconnect continues between rights owners and tech companies - "So if music technology companies need content as part of their business and the music business needs to keep in line with the ways that their music is delivered to the consumer, I ask, why can’t we all just get along?"

Music Apps Get Social; Streaming Battle Continues - "After years and years of people jumping onto the next big thing in hopes it would "save the industry," we are finally seeing the maturation of essential product and service verticals. Best-of-breed platforms across all categories are solidifying, with growing (and reasonably stable) companies providing analytics, on-demand and streaming content, direct-to-fan marketing and sales tools, smart phone technologies, and integrating social sharing into almost every type of engagement. "

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences

• Florida Music Conference - Orlando, FL - April 7th - 9th, 2011
• RAIN Summit West - Las Vegas, NV - April 11th, 2011
• National Association of Broadcasters - Las Vegas, NV - April 9th - 14th, 2011
• East Coast Music Week - Charlottetown, PEI - April 14th - 17th, 2011
• Launch Music Conference - Lancaster, PA - April 21st - 24th, 2011
• Rethink Music - Boston, MA - April 25th - 27th, 2011
• World Wide Radio Summit - Hollywood, CA - April 29th - 30th, 2011

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.

The lid finally comes off! Mediazoic launches to the public and there is no better way than to do it with an evening of great music.

Performances by:

• Courage My Love
• Dave Borins
• Jumple
• The Ruby Spirit

Plus, some rock and roll special guests!

If you are in the Toronto area and love music, it will be an awesome night! You can RSVP here or just show up at the door and be ready to rock!

Here are the full details:

Date: Thursday, March 31 at 9:00pm

Location: Revival Bar (map) 783 College St. West Toronto, ON

Tickets: $10 (at the door)

Additional details/RSVP: http://mzoic.com/the-zoic-awards

Twitter: @mediazoic

What is Mediazoic you ask? Simply: it's a network of carefully-curated internet radio stations. You create, customize & deejay your radio station(s). Whether you are a noted celebrity (DJ, musician, actor), brand or individual tastemaker in your social circle, your listeners know that you have filtered and curated what you believe is the best music out there. The focus is on restoring musical trust and influence to cut through the clutter of a blip culture. Please spread the word!

We all know how relentless the news cycle is. Announcement after announcement, rumours, and speculation, as the days blur and the newshounds chasing their tails. What I like about compiling this monthly recap is that I get a chance to research, review and reflect on some of the activity that has occurred over the past month. I don't need to feel rushed or worry about being the first to cover another "news" story and I can keep my focus on some of the month's productive achievements. Watching the creative builders putting their hearts and deep conviction into action is inspiring.

Two things during February had me feeling excited, the first was the amazing number of hacks (72!) at the NYC edition Music Hack Day. You fill a room with a bunch of "music geek hackers" and their laptops and you will witness pure, raw talent and intellectual horsepower. You know that a handful of those "hacks" will be commercialized because they'll help music fans experience music in new and innovative ways. Which ties in well with the news that Universal/Def Jam and Echonest have signed a licensing pact which finally brings together the business and tech communities. Combining the expertise and business acumen of the music business folks with the technical prowess of today's leading and upcoming tech developers can only lead to good things. For anyone who thinks technology is the enemy, it isn't. And just as equally, not everyone on the music business side is clueless and hopeless. Relationships will be interdependent which is why I'm happy this collaboration happening. It's a sign that amidst the chaos, upended business models and uncertainty, maturity and level headedness is settling in. Baby steps but very promising ones. I say dive right in and go for it. Whatever happens, it can't be worse than the status quo.

Lastly, I was asked by a couple of people about previous recap editions, so for those of who are interested in taking a peek at past monthly music+tech recaps, you can find them here.

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

Total 2011 Investments (US$) as of February 28th, 2011

Q1/11: $57.55m
2011 total to-date: $57.55m

Latest investment activity: Catch Media, TuneUp, SongKing, Slack, AudioMicro, Rdio

• Motorola invests in cloud music firm Catch Media, Amount Not Disclosed.
• Clear Channel Radio Acquires Cloud Music Service Thumbplay
• Exclaim Mobility Acquires Mobile Music Streaming Business of Didiom
• Music player plug-in developer TuneUp adds another $2M to clean up your music
• Songkick Raises $1.9 Million for Online Concert Listings
• Pandora Files Registration Statement for Proposed $100m IPO
• Slacker Radio Raises $3 Million, Plans to Launch On-Demand Near SXSW
• Stock Photo Company Fotolia Pumps $750,000 Into Stock Music Site AudioMicro
• Social Music Startup Rdio Raises $17.5 Million, Adds Rob Cavallo To Board

As mentioned each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

Gobbler - Cloud-based, secure backup and collaboration service for the pro audio community.

SndChck - Built during Music Hack Day, the developers describe this new service as a "Hashable and Instapaper for music". The concept is simple, tweet "band name" @sndchck, sign in to Sndchck and a playlist is created for you around that band.

DAR.fm - Michael Robertson (MP3.com and MP3Tunes.com) is at it again with the release of an online service that lets you record internet radio streams. DAR is built on top of the MP3Tunes platform which is used to store recorded audio. It might be useful to record talk shows or exclusive content but I can't imagine myself recording music when there are so many services (Hypem, Rdio, Spotify, Pandora etc) and higher quality options.

Mougg - Another launch of a music in the cloud service... free 1GB or US$2.99/month unlimited storage and access. Once Google/Apple or other major media company offers this service, how many of these small scale services will be able to make a real, profitable go at it?

Tweetlouder - Connect your listening history (iTunes/Pandora/LastFM) to Twitter and find/follow your favorite bands who are on Twitter.

Spins.FM - A new service that lets fans post song requests to their favorite radio stations Facebook or Twitter accounts.

Musicsesh - Music lesson service for artists and musicians to educate and teach fans, aspiring musicians and music enthusiasts how to play and read music.

Tourbinder - Formally launching at this year's SXSW, Tourbinder helps bands optimizing tour plans by utilizing data provided by Big Champagne Media Measurement.

SXSW Announces 2011 Music Technology Finalists - Four hundred submissions have been whittled down to ten which includes the likes of: ExFM, Herd.fm, Roqbot and Shuffler.fm

Dubset - Dubset, an internet radio curated by the world's top DJs, is relaunching with a whole new set of features. What caught my eye was their music fingerprinting technology called MIXScan that will be used to identify multiple songs in a mix and accurately report to music licensing companies to pay royalties.

Pocket Hipster - A music discovery app built by We Are Hunted using Echo Nest's tools that makes fun of your taste in music.

ReDigi - A new service described as a "Recycled Digital Music Marketplace". Is there really a demand to recycle "digital" media? Seems like such an abstract idea.

Island Def Jam, Echo Nest Launch Groundbreaking Music Licensing Pact For Apps - Finally! What took so long? I'm excited about this development and really hope that this is just the start of collaborative relationships between the tech and music sectors.

Music Hack Day NYC - One weekend, 72 apps. Lots of coverage worth checking out: Observer, Create Digital Music, Indie Music Tech, Evolver.FM, NYC 2011 Mucic Hacks

Echonest Developer Newsletter - Notes & dispatches from the talented team at The Echo Nest! Keep an eye on these guys... lots more greatness to come!

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

4 Insights on the Future of the Music Industry - 1) No single product defines the industry, 2) Don't believe the hype, 3) It's all about the music, after all and 4) New opportunities for artists at every level.

Everything you need to know about Radio in the new iPhone 5 - Apple has filed a patent that will integrate AM/FM/Satellite radio in a future iPhone device which may also feature a radio station mapping function. I would love to see this integration because I firmly believe radio is still an important medium. It is a proven technology that works with little effort on the part of the listener. What is broadcast over the radio waves is a whole different discussion.

Bandcamp's VC: Investing In Music Is "a Little Like Vietnam..." -- Lots of money is flowing back into the music startup sector (Rdio, Spotify, Slacker etc). Is this "smart money" working behind the scenes who believe returns this time around will be positive? I really hope so...

Peter Guber: “The Idea That the Music Industry is Dead is Ludicrous” - It may not look like the high flying days of past but as long as music is created, there will be an industry around it. In the eyes of builders and creatives, the future is exciting and full of new opportunities waiting to be explored.

Inside Pandora’s Evolving Strategy - "Once a media company becomes a media giant it is not written in stone that it remain a one-trick pony, no matter how compelling the one trick may be."

Technology, Music & Morality — Completely Dependent Imbeciles? - "For me, it’s pretty clear. I think technology is amazing. It has made my musical experiences richer, my career more interesting, yet it wreaks havoc every day with any preconceptions I have about what might happen next."

MIDEM White Papers and Presentations - If you haven't visited this section of the MIDEM site, it's worth checking out a few of the new presentations they have posted online post-MIDEM.

Can streaming revive the digital music space? - A new report by Strategy Eye (pdf) covering the most important news, deals and data relating to music streaming platforms over the last six months.

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences:

• Winter Music Conference - Miami Beach, FL - March 8th - 12th, 2011
• Canadian Music Week - Toronto, ON - March 9th - 13th, 2011
• Music 4.5 - Content & Music Licensing - London, UK - March 9th, 2011
• International Live Music Conference - London, UK - March 11th - 13th, 2011
• SXSW Interactive - Austin, TX - March 11th - 15th, 2011
• Juno Awards - Toronto, ON - March 21st - 27th, 2011
• Southeast Independent Artist Summit - Atlanta, GA - March 25th - 27th, 2011

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology. You can find me on Twitter, LastFM and Tumblr.

A new year starts off with a bang as 2011 kicks off in similar style to 2010 where a flurry of music investment activity has been announced and new software, hardware and music apps continue to roll out of creative minds around the world. This year will be another year of inch-by-aching-inch progress on the music business side but the amount of innovation and creative will continue to flourish on the technology side.

The battle will continue to rage between pushing forward with innovative thinking and hanging on to a status quo that is long past its expiry date where some will continue to be so focused on turning back the hands of time to their glory days. Ultimately, innovation always wins not just the battle but the war.

For a really good take on business innovation, The Phoenix Principal blog by Adam Hartung is a must read. Adam does a great job comparing innovative companies against companies run by short-term "caretakers" who focus on efficiency and quarterly earnings results. Sound familiar?

Investments and Mergers/Acquisitions:

Total 2011 Investments (US$) as of January 311st, 2011

Q1/11: $32.3m

2011 total to-date: $32.3m

Latest investment activity: Rdio, SoundCloud, FanBridge, TargetSpot, Khush, trueAnthem, X5, RootMusic

• Skype Founders’ Music Venture Rdio Gets Funded By Mangrove Capital, Terms not Disclosed
• Union Square, Index Ventures Back Audio Streamer SoundCloud with a $10m investment
• FanBridge Acquires Damntheradio, and Closes Series A Financing TargetSpot Closes $8 Million in Equity Financing to Grow Technology and Sales Khush Lands Funding To Help Wannabe Singers Create Music On The Go
• trueAnthem receives $2.9M in funding for ad-supported music service
• Spotifys principal owner Northzone Ventures is investing 7 million Euro in X5 Music group
• RootMusic Gets $2.3 Million to Create Facebook Band Pages

As I mention each month, this isn’t a comprehensive list and the numbers (where disclosed) have been pulled from public sources but it still gives us a sense of general investment activity in the music tech space. If I missed any deals, please don’t hesitate to comment below.

Music Services and Apps:

New Social Commerce Tool Moontoast Impulse Gives Music Artists New Selling Options on Facebook - New music application lets fans listen, share, and buy without leaving Facebook. Is it just a matter of time before Facebook becomes the "premiere" music destination, fully replacing MySpace?

Music Storage Locker Service BlueTunes to Shut Down - Online music locker service has shut down effective January 31st, 2011. Users will have their accounts migrated to the MiMedia service.

Slacker Debuts Premium Tier, iPad App, Free Radio in Canada - Slacker has a new iPad app on the way, plus it will be entering the Canadian market. We've been shut out of services like Pandora and others, so it's good to see Slacker join Rdio in servicing Canadian music consumers.

Discovr Delivers A World of Music to iPad - A well presented music map for the iPad that also pulls in bios, videos, which can be viewed with other relevant artist information. Feature wise, it's nothing really new but the presentation is nice and does make for a useful music discovery tool.

Earbits - Music Discovery & Radio Where Artists Bid for Airtime & Gain Support from Listeners

MusicMaven - A Music Blog Player/Reader for the iPhone/iPad. It's kind of like a mobile version of Ex.FM.

BlogFinder - Ex.FM presents The Super Awesome Music Blog Finder Thing. Enter your LastFM user ID and based on what you have been listening to, will present a bunch of relevant music blogs you probably have never heard of.

Fanity - A new service that lets you keep tabs on your favorite artists. Tweets, blog posts, photos and pretty much anything else that remotely associate with the band you a tracking will be consolidated and displayed.

StageIt - A virtual backstage platform where artists sell access to an online, intimate & interactive show with fans.

uWall.tv - Listen to a Wall of Music, By Genre

MidemNet Lab winners: Jammbox, Next Big Sound & Shuffler.fm - I personally love using Shuffler.fm to discover new music blogs and music. Highly recommended and a worthy Midem Lab winner.

Music Radar's lists the best iPad music making apps - Amazing how in less than a year, developers have been creating an endless array of useful iPad apps across so many different industries. This list of music apps is quite impressive.

TuneTug - Having a party? Why not open up control over the playlist but allowing your guests a chance to influence what songs are played. Available for the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Jammit - a play-along software that gives you access to the original multi-track recordings. You can isolate instruments, slow the song down, loop and record. Here's a demo of The Ramones - I Wanna be Sedated.

Midem Music Hack Day - Here's a list of music hacks conjured up during the Midem edition of Music Hack Day. Not as extensive a list of hacks but always good nonetheless. The upcoming NYC Music Hack Day will feature many, many more. Stay tuned!

Know Your Genre - The database of music genres from around the world.

Disrupt.FM - A viral Facebook app that lets artists release music to their fans on Facebook, who in turn share the songs with their Facebook friends.

Viinyl - A simple pitch: 1 Song. 1 Site. 1 URL. It's the digital version of the 45 single. Each site comes with lyrics, artwork, videos, notes, various download options, promotional tools and analytics.

Latest Internet radio gadget news - Radio and Internet Newsletter (RAIN) is keeping close tabs on the internet radio gadget market and covers news from hardware makers Sonos, Pioneer and Grace Digital.

Opinions, Insights and Analysis:

2011: A Compiled List of Music Industry Predictions, Premonitions, Hopes and Wishes - Here's a list of predictions for 2011 that I put together. It will be interesting to see how different 2011 will be from 2010, 2009, 2008... will it be another groundhog year?

Entertainment And Media Deals Lead 2010 Mergers and Acquisitions - More deals were announced, up 8%, but total deal value dropped from $37.2b to $33.5b.

The State of Music Monetization - A look at various music services and their subscriber base, subscription costs and royalty payouts. Covers companies like Spotify, Rhapsody, Pandora, Napster, Rdio, Slacker, eMusic and others.

App Me Up, Call Me Mashup—Music Trends 2010–2011 - This is a great post by Ryan Van Etten... a full-featured editorial on the most notable digital music trends in 2010 and predictions for 2011.

Peter Jenner: On Locker Services - The International Music Managers Forum's emeritus president muses on the implications of cloud-based music storage services.

The New Era of Music Apps: Subscription Services - Subscription music services like MOG and Rdio are getting more attention, especially as they partner with car and hardware makers like Sonos and others. Radio works for a reason: you dial in, sit back and listen to whatever has been programmed for you. Providing access to an endless music catalog is the easy part, the challenge will be how to help consumers navigate an infinite music universe. In the face of overwhelming choice, these services will need to find ways to make listening to music effortless. Pandora is by far the leader on this front, as they strike deals with car companies like BMW and Hyundai.

How Understanding Choice Will Bring Music Streaming To The Masses - "A music streaming service for the masses will awaken our love of music, and allow us to interact with it in a way not possible with radio as it currently is. We don’t want to buy CD’s anymore, that’s obvious, but we will pay for music to be delivered to us exactly as we want it."

2011: A progressive agenda for the music industry - A five point blueprint for a new architecture for the music industry.

Digging into Pandora's Music Genome with musicologist Nolan Gasser - An extensive interview with the architect of Pandora's Music Genome project.

It's a Wrap: Midem 2011 Full Coverage - The yearly global music conference held in Cannes, France is over for another year and here is a great summary of what went on.

Digital Natives: The Generation That Music Product Strategy Forgot - "But Digital Natives don’t have that analog-era baggage. All they’ve known is digital. Online video and mobile are their killer apps. These Digital Natives see music as the pervasive soundtrack to their interactive, immersive, social environments. Ownership matters less. Place of origin matters less. Context and experience is everything."

The CD is Totally Dead!: Seven Battles Royale That Killed Music Formats in the Past (Who Will Vanquish the MP3?) - A historial look back at the various formats... remember the cylinder phonograph? Or the gramophone? Changing formats is a good thing, it follows the natural flow of innovation and improvement in light of current day technologies and culture.

How and Why Every Song Can Be an App - New app creation tools make it easy for artists to share their MP3s with much more detail like bio, tour dates etc. Songpier is the latest company that makes it dead simple to "wrap a song in an app" and distribute it on smartphones that support HTML5. This approach bypasses app stores in the process and allows artists to retain full fan access such as capturing emails and analytics.

Upcoming Music Events and Conferences

• Pollstar Live - Los Angeles, CA - February 4th - 5th, 2011
• TECHnically Music Conference - Fort Lauderdale, FL - February 4th - 7th, 2011
• transmission : Global Summit 2011 - Victoria, BC - February 9th - 11th, 2011
• Music Hack Day NYC - New York City, NYC - February 12th - 13th, 2011
• New Music Seminar - Los Angeles, CA - February 14th - 16th, 2011
• By:Larm - Oslo, Norway - February 17th - 19th, 2011
• Digital Music Forum East - New York City, NYC - February 24th, 2011

Gabriel Nijmeh is a business analyst, passionate music lover and guitar player. Currently building Mediazoic, a real-time personal broadcasting platform and co-organizer of OpenMusicMedia Toronto, which brings people together to openly discuss the intersection of digital music, culture and technology.