The Corporate Music Industry is Shrinking...

Lots of stories out today about music biz organizations really struggling financially.

I blogged a couple days ago about Sirius XM being over 1 billion dollars in debt and struggling to stay afloat. One of it's (minor) competitors WorldSpace has filed for bankruptcy and has been delisted by Nasdaq. See http://tinyurl.com/68fwea for info on that.

eMusic just laid off more people - 10% of it's staff - to try to strengthen it's financial situation in this economic downturn. See http://tinyurl.com/6zjy4d.

And quarterly losses have widened significantly for SonyBMG, who lost 57 MILLION this last quarter! Earlier this week, EMI posted a 1.2 billion loss for the year. Holy smoke. See http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/102908sony for details on that.

Which all goes to show why it's good to be indepedent. Who needs a record company. Seriously. Do it yourself! You might want to review my recent post on making a living doing just music at http://musicbizacademy.blogspot.com/2008/08/making-living-from-just-your-music.html

David Nevue
The Music Biz Academy
http://www.musicbizacademy.com
http://www.twitter.com/davidnevue

Will Sirius XM Survive?

A billion dollars in debt and shares trading at lower than .30 cents. Will Sirius survive?

From Digital Music News...

"After a long, painful merger approval process, Sirius Satellite Radio finally joined forces with XM Satellite Radio this summer. The marriage was largely motivated by difficult finances, as both companies were swimming in baths of debt.

Fast-forward a few months, and a serious debt overhang threatens to submerge the freshly-merged Sirius XM Radio. The company is staring down at least $1 billion in short term refinancing obligations, a situation that comes against a bone-dry lending terrain. That situation, coupled with a serious financial downturn, has pushed shares of SIRI below 30-cents in recent trading.

It has also raised questions on whether Sirius can survive the financial storm."

More at http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/102608sirius

David Nevue
The Music Biz Academy
http://www.musicbizacademy.com
http://www.davidnevue.com
http://www.twitter.com/davidnevue

Sivers Sold CD Baby for 22 Million

Hey readers. I've been touring most of the fall, which is why I haven't been posting here too much. Will continue touring through November. After which, I'll get a bit of a break. At least, theoretically.

Anyway, for those interested.... Derek Sivers solo CD Baby for 22 million... but he didn't see the dime of the money, instead having the funds put directly into a trust that will go to musicians when he passes away...

Here's the text of the post where this is reported on Digital Music News....

"Derek Sivers earned $22 million from the sale of CD Baby, according to an interview surfacing Thursday. Sivers sold the company to Disc Makers in early August after a seven-month closing process. "I knew that was about the right price," Sivers disclosed to Venture Voice. "We actually didn't bicker or negotiate over the price one bit, I just set a price and they said okay."

According to Sivers, CD Baby pulled annual, top-line revenues of roughly $100 million at the beginning of this year, a fourfold increase over a three-year period. The company employed 85 people at that point, though Sivers rarely visited the office. "I really started letting go in 2002," Sivers shared.

The acquisition sounds like a windfall, though Sivers actually channeled the money into a charitable trust. Sivers is now drawing interest from his Independent Musician's Charitable Trust, though the principal goes to artist-related causes when Sivers passes away. Currently, Sivers is investing his efforts in Muckwork, a company that aims to offer an "army of assistants" to musicians struggling to promote and distribute themselves. "

And for more details on the trust, which is interesting, see
http://blog.wired.com/music/2008/10/derek-sivers-so.html

David Nevue
The Music Biz Academy
http://www.musicbizacademy.com
http://www.davidnevue.com
http://www.twitter.com/davidnevue