On April 22-24, 2012, a conference aptly named Rethink Music was organized by the Berklee College of Music in Boston. They basically brought together professionals from all over the music industry – from media, from the music labels, from artist management, and even from technology companies like Youtube, Rhapsody and Echo Nest (you can look at the whole speaker roster here). But one of the most interesting things announced and discussed at Rethink Music, in my opinion, is OpenEMI.

The basic concept of OpenEMI is to provide access to startups who want to create music applications and services based on EMI’s music library – and if the app is interesting enough, EMI may partner with the startup to develop it further. You can either request for a access to a wide range of songs, or request deeper access to single artists with more audio, video and other content. This developer-friendly system is supported by Echo Nest, the company that also has a wider-range API for music applications that power services like Spotify’s Radio feature.

Continue reading [Music Monday] Taking OpenEMI’s Torch And Taking It Further

spotify - daniel_ek_and_martin_lorentzon-3 — Spotify founders Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek

This is a guest post by Ario Tamat. Ario worked in the digital music industry in Indonesia since 2003, and currently works in the movie and TV industry in Vietnam. Keep up with him on Twitter at @barijoe or his blog on http://barijoe.wordpress.com

Recently, Spotify announced that it will be expanding into Asia and appointing Dan Brody, an ex-Googler who has lived and worked in Asia for 10 years, as the General Manager for Asia-Pacific. Dan Brody himself, according to his LinkedIn profile, has held a number of high-level positions in China, the latest being CEO of the Koolanoo Group, which owns and operates several websites in China.

Spotify has enjoyed success in some EU countries, and has had a lot of success with its US launch, especially since the integration with Facebook. It enjoys partnerships with all four major labels, which are Universal Music Group International, EMI Music International, Warner Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment; and also partner with The Orchard and Merlin Networks, which are essentially aggregators for independent musicians and labels.

Continue reading Spotify’s Asia Expansion: What Really Needs To Be Done