Spinitron Chart Dec 29 2013

Blood Orange's Cupid Deluxe tops the chart, followed by Arcade Fire, Neil Young, Billie Joe + Norah and Tennis.

Spinitron Chart Dec 22 2013

This week we only list the first 20, there were far too many Christmas and really old releases clogging the chart. First is still Arcade Fire's Reflektor, then Neil Young, Billie Joe + Norah, Blood Orange and Nick Lowe.

Spinitron Chart Dec 15 2013

Arcade Fire's Reflektor still tops the chart, followed by Blood Orange, Billie Joe + Norah, Tennis and The Head And The Heart.

Spinitron Chart Dec 8 2013

Arcade Fire's Reflektor tops the chart again (109 spins), followed by Blood Orange, Polica, The Head and the Heart and Arctic Monkeys.

Spinitron Chart Dec 1 2013

Arcade Fire's Reflektor still tops the chart (82 spins), followed by Blood Orange, The Head and the Heart, Arctic Monkeys and Cate Le Bon.

Spinitron Chart Nov 24 2013

Third week in a row Arcade Fire's Reflektor tops the chart, this time with 125 spins, followed by Blood Orange, The Head and the Heart, La Luz and Polica.

Spinitron Chart Nov 17 2013

Arcade Fire's Reflektor tops the chart again with 169 spins, followed by The Head and the Heart, Polica, Blood Orange and Dr. Dog.

Spinitron Chart Nov 10 2013

Arcade Fire's Reflector tops the chart with 169 spins, followed by Arctic Monkeys, The Head and the Heart, Polica and Dr. Dog.

Spinitron Chart Nov 3 2013

Lou Reed and The Velvet Underground take the first 5 places on the chart following the passing of Lou Reed. Nice tribute! As they take several other positions on the chart, we put together a top 40 this week. Arcade Fire's Reflektor is the first non-tribute album with 82 spins.

Spinitron Chart Oct 27 2013

The Head and the Heart's Let's Be Still tops the chart with 84 spins, followed by Arctic Monkeys, Dr. Dog, CHVRCHES and Fuzz.

Spinitron Chart Oct 20 2013

Arctic Monkeys's AM tops the chart again with 78 spins, followed by CHVRCHES, Neko Case, Dr. Dog and The Head and the Heart.

Spinitron Chart Oct 13 2013

Arctic Monkeys's AM tops the chart with 78 spins, followed by CHVRCHES, Dr. Dog, Fuzz and Neko Case.

New: a Now Playing JavaScript Widget

Recent spins on KQAL

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Webmasters can now try out a new feature we're testing at Spinitron.

It is a couple of lines of markup that you can add to a web page that displays most recent spins. Then style it however you like.

We wrote a demo page that also documents how to use the widget, the source for which is in BitBucket.

Try it out. Let us know what you think: @spinitron.

Spinitron Chart Oct 6 2013

CHVRCHES's The Bones of What You Believe tops the chart with 93 spins, followed by Arctic Monkeys, Neko Case, King Krule and Dr. Dog.

Spinitron Chart Sep 29 2013

Still leading the chart is Neko Case's The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You with 87 spins, followed by CHVRCHES, Arctic Monkeys, Washed Out and Bill Callahan.

Spinitron Chart Sep 22 2013

Neko Case's The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You tops the chart again with 97 spins. Also in the top 5 are Arctic Monkeys, Volcano Choir, Washed Out and Ty Segall.

Spinitron Chart Sep 15 2013

Neko Case's The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You tops the chart again with 89 spins. Among the top 5 are Ty Segall, King Khan & the Shrines, Washed Out and No Age.

Spinitron Chart Sep 8 2013

Neko Case's The Worse Things Get, the Harder I Fight, the Harder I Fight, the More I Love You tops the chart with 99 spins, closely followed by Washed out. Ty Segall, Deer Tick and Volcano Choir are within the top 5.

Spinitron Chart Sep 1 2013

Washed Out's Paracosm Reaimns #1. Ty Segall, No Age and Superchunk reshuffle within the top 5. Deer Tick's Negativity enter the chart at #5. Crocodiles are also new at #6.

Spinitron Chart Aug 25 2013

Washed Out's Paracosm again tops the Chart. Superchunk swaps places with Hunx & His Punx. No Age makes a strong entry at No. 4 with "An Object".

Spinitron Chart Aug 18 2013

Washed Out's Paracosm again tops the Chart, this time with 80 spins.

Spinitron Chart Aug 11 2013

Washed Out's Paracosm tops the Chart with 65 spins.

Spinitron Chart Aug 4 2013

J.J. Cale's Naturally tops the Chart with 59 spins. What a great tribute!

Spinitron Chart July 28 2013

Ten weeks in a row Daft Punk's Random Access Memories remains at the top of the Spinitron Chart, this week with 66 spins.

Spinitron Chart July 21 2013

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories remains at the top of the Spinitron Chart for the ninth week, this week with 72 spins.

Spinitron Chart July 14 2013

How long can Daft Punk keep up this winning stretch? Random Access Memories has now topped the Spinitron Chart for 8 straight weeks, this week with 93 spins.

Spinitron Chart July 7 2013

Sorry, no surprises for you, it's Daft Punk again this week. Their Random Access Memories leads with 97 spins.

Spinitron Chart June 30 2013

So far Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is the longest running #1 on the Spinitron charts, again it leads with 103 spins.

Spinitron Chart June 23 2013

Again, for the fifth week, Daft Punk's Random Access Memories leads the chart with 108 spins.

Spinitron Chart June 16 2013

Four weeks in a row, Daft Punk's Random Access Memories still tops the chart with 117 spins.

Spinitron Chart June 9 2013

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories is still leading the chart with 122 spins.

Copyright Review Under the Microscope at World Creators Summit | Billboard

Copyright Review Under the Microscope at World Creators Summit | Billboard

While U.S. register of copyright Marie Pallente called for Congress to perform a comprehensive review of copyright at the World Creators Summit held today in Washington, DC, other speakers during the day questioned if a surgical rewriting would be more practical to accomplish.

Pallente noted that the U.S. Copyright Office is involved in copyright policy and administration on a daily business and interacts with all stakeholders on all sides of the issue, which gives it a special vantage point.

"We tend to see concerns that are similar rather than unique, and provisions that are related rather than isolated," she said according to a copy of her speech provided to Billboard. "In looking across genres and business models, we view everything in relation to the statute as a whole. But we also understand that at the center of the equation is the well-being of authors and the health of the creative industries that support them quite simply because this is essential to the success for any system of copyright law.  Authors matter and they should be provided with incentives to continue to create work and protecting their rights."

But she also acknowledged that the Internet has changed so much and that any 21st century copyright system has to consider that access to creative works are essential to "our culture, commerce and progress as people."

Consequently, the exclusive rights of the authors must evolve to reflect the ways in which creators make their works available, which means that the control of copyright owners should not be absolute, she said.

Moving beyond the dichotomy between content owners and technology companies, she said another pressing priority is to enact a "more complete public performance right for sound recordings, something that record labels and artists have long sought." She called for a level playing field between webcasters, who pay performance royalties to artist and labels and terrestrial as well as publishers and songwriters, and radio broadcasters, who do not pay artists and labels and only compensate songwriters and publishers.

Revision must also address orphan works, which are a frustration, a liability risk and a major cause of gridlock in the digital marketplace, she said.

Further, she encouraged a diversity of licensing regimes, including direct; collective opt-in models; and as necessary, opt-out models. "Collective management of rights is good copyright practice," but how to reconcile it with protections against price-fixing and other anti-competitive behavior should be a government priority.

Also, she said there should be enforcement provision that explore a range of interlocking solutions between corporate sectors and between countries, particularly in the criminal context, while upholding due process.

She said a holistic approach will ensure that related issues are reviewed together like the public performance right in sound recordings, modernization of section 115, webcasting rates and streaming remedies; or library exceptions, mass digitalization, and orphan works.

The last time the U.S. Congress looked at copyright law it took 20 years to negotiate the 1976 reform law. The needs today are too pressing so the review needs to be more nimble since the groundwork has been laid for many of the issues through hearings, debates and numerous Copyright Office studies.

Finally, she noted that there is much public confusion over copyright, and reminded that we now live in a world where consumers inteact with copyright law directly and daily.

That is a lesson Congress has already learned from SOPA, the Stop Online Piracy Act, when a grass roots revolt had authors of the law pulling their names from it in droves, noted California Congressman Anna G. Eshoo.

This time out in copyright revision, don't expect Congress to go down the same path to achieve copyright protection, said chairman of the Virginian Congressman Bob Goodlatte, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, which contains the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet. Goodlatte will lead the Congressional discussion on copyright review. He said copyright protection can be achieved through other routes, but he expected voluntary agreements between different sectors to be one of the tools.

Yet earlier in the day, Songwriters Guild of America president Rick Carnes asked how copyright protection can be ignored when U.S. governement data showa that the songwriting industry lost 45% of its participants between 2002 and 2012.

Carnes also pointed out that during that time, Google's profit has grown by 58,000%. "I may be a conspiry theorist, but I think [those two statistics] are related," he said.

Moreover, if advertisers on the Internet can figure out what kind and size of underwear people are ordering, how come they can't figure out who is downloading illegal music and from where, asked Directors Guild Of America sixth VP and television director Vincent Misiano.

On the other end of the spectrum, Public Knowledge president and CEO Gigi Sohn said that while comprehensive copyright reform would be nice, it's not going to happen in today's political environment where one party will always move to stop what the other party does.

Instead, she urged surgical cuts to copyright law, and said Congress should look at things like orphan works and why DMCA prevents consumers from unlocking their phone, which they should be allowed to do if they want to use a different provider.

SGA's Carnes also felt a surgical approach should be taken, and says he has two chief concerns he hopes should be addressed in the upcoming copyright review. He ponders if the creative community should carry the burden of policing the entire Internet and if some of the burden shouldn't fall to the technology companies.

RIAA senior executive VP Mitch Glazier complained under the way law is currently written, his organization had just served the 20th million takedown notice on one copyright and knows that as soon as that digital service provider complies and removes it, it will be back up a few seconds later.

Spinitron Chart June 2 2013

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories continues to top the chart with 131 spins.

Spinitron Chart May 26 2013

Daft Punk's Random Access Memories tops the chart with 96 spins.

Spinitron Chart May 19 2013

Deerhunter's Monomania tops the chart with 94 spins.

Spinitron Chart May 12 2013

Kurt Vile's Wakin On a Pretty Daze is still holding the top position on the chart with 77 spins.

Spinitron Chart May 5 2013

Kurt Vile's Wakin On a Pretty Daze tops the chart again with 103 spins.

Spinitron Chart Apr 28 2013

Kurt Vile's Wakin On a Pretty Daze tops the chart again with 111 spins.

Spinitron Chart Apr 21 2013

Kurt Vile's Wakin On a Pretty Daze tops the chart with 104 spins.

Spinitron Chart Apr 14 2013

James Blake's Overgrown tops the chart with 90 spins.

UCRN Conference at KZSC, Santa Cruz, CA

I had the pleasure to participate at the University of California Radio Network spring conference on April 6th. I enjoyed the hospitality of the host station, KZSC and was very happy to meet station members from KCSB, KSPC, KSJS, KCPR, KFJC and from many others. Radio Survivor's Jennifer Waits wrote a fine summary of the events and there are a few more pictures on Spinitron's FB page.

Spinitron Chart Apr 7 2013

Devendra Banhart's Mala tops the chart with 75 spins.

Spinitron Chart Mar 31 2013

Atoms for Peace's Amok tops the chart with 83 spins.

Spinitron Chart Mar 24 2013

Devendra Banhart's Mala tops the chart with 82 spins.

Spinitron Chart Mar 17 2013

Youth Lagoon's Wondrous Bughouse tops the chart again with 91 spins.

Spinitron Chart Mar 10 2013

Youth Lagoon's Wondrous Bughouse tops the chart with 87 spins.

Spinitron Chart Mar 3 2013

Unknown Mortal Orchestra's II tops the chart with 87 spins.

Spinitron Chart Feb 24 2013

Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic tops the chart with 95 spins.

Music Video Strategies

Music Video Strategies For Promotion And Monetization:

By Caroline Bottomley of Radar Music Videos (@radarmusicvideo).
Caroline Bottomley from Radar Music Videos recently chaired a panel at the legendary music industry conference Midem. Top industry professionals discussed strategies for promoting and making money from your videos and here are some of the top tips they shared.



The importance of YouTube
Having your video on YouTube is essential for musicians:

availability (YouTube is the primary search tool for music).
shareability (it’s easy to share and embed from YouTube).
monetisable streams (YouTube LOVE music videos and encourage partnerships with labels and artists).
statistics (radio decisions re playlisting are commonly based on YouTube stats).

How to become a YouTube partner

YouTube are making it increasingly easy to become a partner, which means you can earn money from your video views. (YouTube Partners)
Partnership also improves search rankings for videos in your channel.
There’s a myth you need to have over 100,000 views to become eligible - not true.
YouTube want more quality music content in the partnership scheme, so get registered.

A YouTube Don’t

Don’t split views. Upload the video to the artist channel and favourite in the label channel. Favouriting means the video will show up on the label channel, but the views all aggregate on the artist’ copy.

Pros and Cons of Monetised Ads

You earn money, versus monetised videos can be less viral - artists and sometimes fans hate ads. Sharing is often the most important metric for a video, above and beyond monetisation.
Two kinds of ad: 30 sec pre-roll, very intrusive but high earning and 5 sec skippable banners.
Infectious Music don’t run ads for the first two weeks of a new artist’s campaign - they consider ads can be THAT off-putting to fans of new acts.
Monetised videos become unavailable to German and Chinese fans, due to lack of licensing agreements in those territories.

The Pros of VEVO

The biggest global network dedicated to music visuals.
Improved recommendation to viewers - who stay longer and watch more.
Higher earnings for partners.
They will do special promotion projects with the right partners.
They like independent artists, there are many ways for independent artists to get onto VEVO, eg via The Orchard.

The Cons of VEVO

You have to upload a new master file, so you’re splitting views across YouTube and VEVO.
The ads are the more intrusive type ads.
You can’t opt out of ad type, eg you can’t opt out of alcohol ads.
VEVO works better for some kinds of artists than others.

Packshot and Lyric Videos

It’s useful to have all your tracks on YouTube - if you don’t then someone else will.
Packshot videos are quickest and cheapest way to do this. If quality content is important, lyric videos are a good solution.
Always service a video when you’re going to radio.

UGC User Generated Content

Various responses exist for YouTube partners; Don’t allow, which serves up a stern looking message. Allow but monetise, which takes away some creative control.

Video for Promotion and Discovery

Channels such as Balcony TV can deliver an audience, but don’t yet deliver monetisation. Very useful for new artists, where growing a fan base is more relevant than monetising views.

Buying Ads for Promotion and Discovery

Link your Google adwords account to your YouTube channel and buy retargeting ads. This allows you to serve relevant ads to people who have already visited your channel. It can be a highly effective way to build views and channel subscribers.
Subscribers are extremely valuable - every time you serve a new video you can send a bespoke message to subscribers’ inboxes.

The Top Industry Professionals on the panel are:
Eric McKay, Business Development VEVO
Connie Meade, Label Manager, Infectious Music
Stephen O'Regan, Founder, Balcony TV
Patrick Ross, Label Services, Kobalt
Caroline Bottomley is Managing Director of the Radar Music Videos network.

Full Midem Panel video here.

Feeling inspired? Then you need compelling music video content.
May we suggest you commission your next music video through Radar? Post your brief here.
Do you use these strategies? Do you have more tips to share? Comments welcome.

Spinitron Chart Feb 17 2013

Foxygen's We Are the 21st Century Ambassadors of Peace & Magic and Unknown Mortal Orchestra's II are sharing the first place on the chart with 77 spins each.