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Topic History of: Universal taking the first steps in creating an affordable and credible "service oriented" label for indies ?
Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)

Author	Message
BR	Universal are such a massive company sometimes it is hard to actually find the person responsible. Many releases by bands via Universal have got lost in their ever expanding catologue. So the danger here is that this could happen. Tunecore seem to be announcing it as just a distribution type of deal. This new model is one that I think should be the future with the Majors offering themselves as the marketing arm to labels and therefore becoming more profitable. I first wrote about this about 5 years ago when I took my label off Universal. I will certainly look into this in detail for future projects so thank you for flagging it up for all of us. It is important but its success will determine whether it is a totally real idea or just window dressing.
Michael	I might be interested in some specialist marketing from one of Universal's niche labels. It's an academic debate at this stage, but it is something that I would consider.
DJones	UMG " will be opening up their manufacturing, studio, marketing and licensing departments to Tunecore." Ok. But who need these services from UMG? There are enough small players. And does the press release say anything about the terms and conditions for the independents? From my point of view, this side of the UMG/Tunecore-deal is only about getting more product into the (much too big) pipes of Universal.
DJKZ	Not according to Tunecore. Sure Universal will be using Tunecore to distribute but also they will be opening up their manufacturing, studio, marketing and licensing departments to Tunecore. They are already offering mastering at an affordable price and each of their labels will be opening up their departments to Tunecore users. Read the press release as it is all there. My only fear is that it is all smoke and mirrors and if Universal don't give as much as is being promised in the press release. As for where I have been, I have been around but not really posting as been very busy.
DJones	As far as I understand the deal, UMG isn't creating "an affordable and credible service oriented label for indies". It is the other way round: Universal will use Tunecore as an digital distributor for its labels/artists. The biggest music company in the world wasn't able to build its own digital distribution system. So they invested in Ingrooves (2006) and now they have to use Tunecore. In the long run, deals like this one and the one between Sony music and eMusic are bad for independent labels: The (one or two) majors will dominate digital distribution.