Spotify, last week, finally got round to opening their services up to music lovers across America. And now we have the chance to stream full albums for free, download the songs we like and sync our spotify accounts with Facebook, Twitter and iDevices.

This recent release comes as Spotify passed the 1 million subscriber milestone across Europe and continues to grow. To celebrate Spotify’s landmark achievement the guys over at Spotify HQ have offered Point Blank a limited number invitions for users to use the service for free.

To get your hands on the streaming service, all you have to do is head over to Point Blank’s Facebook page, ‘like’ it and send your name and email address to james@pointblanklondon.com. You will then be contacted with a link to download Spotify and create and account. Remember there are only a limited number of invitations, so they will be distributed on a first come first serve basis.

Point Blank is an online college for Music Production and has lots of great classes geared towards Electronic Dance Music taught by some of the biggest names in the business. They also offer some free Tutorials on various aspects of production, check it out.

To find out more about Spotify, and it’s recent US launch, check out the video below.

Visit:
Spotify
Point Blank College

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How much time do you usually waste to dig up a record or a composition you love? How often do songs you download turn out to be of bad quality? Ever wanted to preview an entire song before you buy it beyond the 30 second previews some online retailers give you? Wouldn’t you like to listen to any tracks, from Deadmau5 to Avicii, and find out interesting facts about bands and artists, from Armin van Buuren to Fatboy Slim, all on one site?

Visit ListenMusic.FM to find and listen to music and related content that fits “Your Sound”. The library of ListenMusic.FM embraces thousands of tracks and albums, info about artists and descriptions of genres.

If you prefer not to download music, but don’t want to look for the record when you want to listen to it then Register on ListenMusic.FM for free and:

* Score your fancied compositions and bands
* Vote for songs and artists in the charts
* Arrange your private playlists
* Listen to music online without downloading anything
* Find music that fits a mood
* Easily discover new bands similar to songs you like
* Add content links to songs you like
* Embed tracks on your social networking profile
* Find others with similar tastes, add them as friends, and vote for their playlists
* Recommend compositions you like to your friends
* Find out interesting facts about singers and print the lyrics of songs
* Choose sites from which to download music
* Listen to music for fun and for FREE

Register on ListenMusic.FM and have fun!

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AudioJelly is celelbrating their 5th Anniversary this year and to celebrate they are giving away 50 free tracks when you make a minimal purchase. I’ve used AudioJelly’s website from time to time when I’m looking for certain tracks that just don’t seem to make it onto Beatport. They have a nice site and an extensive selection of Trance. Because I live in the US, it tends to be cheaper to just go with a company in the US but sometimes you just gotta shell out to that track you really need. But this seems like a pretty good promotion.

From AudioJelly:

To mark the 5th anniversary of their dance music download launch, www.audiojelly.com is now offering a new 50 free downloads special.

If you visit the promotions page www.audiojelly.com/promo.cfm, you see that users only need spend £5, to enable the receipt of the 50 track voucher in their account. The tracks are all from one imprint each selected by the labels themselves. The majority are tracks released within the past 12 months.

Labels participating include Armada Music, Toolroom Records, Baroque, Coldharbour, Stoney Boy Music, Mondo, Wildchild, Discover, Boz Boz and Aurium.

Audiojelly was founded in 2004 by songwriters and producers Ricky Simmonds and Stephen Jones. Together, they are the driving force behind major acts such as Lustral, The Space Brothers, Chakra, The Realm, Oxygen, Kaleidoscope and Ascension.

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Seven UK dance music download stores have joined together to create the Dance Download Alliance (DDA). The seven members, 3Beat Digital, Audiojelly, DJdownload, Juno Download, TrackitDown, Trax2Burn and Xpressbeats, have joined together to counteract a proposal offered to dance labels and distributors by Beatport who offers an exclusivity arrangement, as an option, on all new releases from labels if they chose to participate.


Is exclusivity the Dance Download Alliance focus? Or is it something more?
The DDA has been quoted as saying that “we believe that the short and long term effects of such a proposal will damage the dance music industry as a whole. Consequences for labels, artists and distributors, as well as download retailers and ultimately customers, could be severe.”The DDA is threatening to dump labels who “join a blanket exclusivity arrangement” since it “would not be economically viable for us to continue to stock repertoire from labels” who [accept said arrangement].” The letter to participating labels also goes on to warn: “The loss of the support and promotion of seven major UK online dance retailers (as well as our many affiliate stores) will undoubtedly have a major impact on your label’s and artists’ profiles across the web, as well as your ability to maximise additional revenue streams such as compilations and licensing. Leaving customers without the choice of where to buy your music could also increase the chances of your music being traded through P2P networks stimulating a rise in dance music piracy.”

Banding together the UK’s leading online retailers to fight Beatport is a savvy move for this new coalition since their combined power far outweighs individual efforts. Having access to up-to-the-minute releases from labels is the lifeblood of Dance music-oriented retailers, both online and offline. The seven retailers are determined to not let this new exclustivity option succeed, which would significantly harm their businesses, and may have taken a page out of the recent online royalty rate hike battle that found instant strength in numbers. “The Dance Download Alliance believes that fair competition and consumer choice are foundations for a healthy and flourishing dance download market,” claims the DDA. However, if you read between the lines, you can smell the desperation. The alliance is painting Beatport as a company who’s following Apple’s cutthroat tactics in order to solidify their top position, and to gain the upper hand against their competitors. Leveraging market position has allowed iTunes to not only dominate the market, but also to control pricing. In addition, prominent positioning on the retailer’s site often makes a significant impact on the fiscal results of a new release, so many labels are forced to play ball. However, this isn’t the case in terms of Beatport.

FutureMusic has learned that Beatport’s exclusivity on new releases is simply one of three tiers that the retailer offers labels. The labels can choose to participate, and are not being strongarmed into a “blanket exclusivity arrangement” as the UK Dance Download Alliance has alleged. In addition, labels who chose not to participate in the exclusive option are not being punished by Beatport, as some have also suggested. The Future: The DDA’s retailers also provide the backend for the Ministry Of Sound, M8, Judgemusic and DJ Magazine’s online stores, which adds some juice to their position, but also unveils some behind the scenes politics. The exclusivity option that the DDA is spinning does have a small chance of hurting the US download concern, but since they are so far ahead of their competitors in both customers and technology, it may not make a difference to dance record labels who want to give their releases the best possible chance for economic success in this over-saturated market.

What’s even more hypocritical is that many of the labels that make up the DDA, beg popular labels for exclusive tracks, which undermines their argument and position. So what’s the real story?
Another take is that the Alliance was formed, not so much as to combat exclusivity, but for survival. Beatport is annihilating most of their competitors in the Dance music download space, and gaining ground all the time. New record labels want to be on Beatport, and are joining the other online retailers just for a little icing on the cake. Now that these UK retailers are finding themselves insignificant, they may be doing whatever it takes to stay afloat.

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As a former buyer for a record store that has gone out of business because of the high cost of staying competitive with online stores and digital download sites I felt the effects and witnessed a record store that was once the largest in the state dwindle down to nothing.  Many other record stores around the country are bound to really start feeling the effects if they haven’t already.  Expect to see lots of local record shops closing their doors in 2007 as more and more DJs switch to the digital medium.  With distributors closing, it initiates a ripple effect that will surely change the face of the dance music community and the underground culture worldwide. 

When I first got into ”Rave” music at the time the place to hang out was at the record stores, it was where you could meet and talk to the DJ you saw playing the night before, where you could learn about DJing or Electronic Music in general, a place to pick up flyers and find out about other events.  The local record shop was the cornerstone of the Dance Music scene.  With this gone it leaves a new generation of Dance Music lovers with nowhere local to call their own.  It’s a reality that is happening right now before our eyes, but it would have been foolish to think things would always stay the same.

One thing I know right now is that all of those DJs out there that always insisted, “oh I’ll never stop playing vinyl” are hoping right now that nobody will remember them saying that.

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