JDub Records just sent out this email:

Dear Friends, Fans, and Supporters,

I have to share some unfortunate news. After almost 9 years in operation, JDub's Board of Directors has decided to wind down the organization.

The decision to close was entirely financial, as the challenges facing our business model are too great to overcome. We were never a normal record label, nor were we ever just a record company. We always knew that in order to discover, curate, and promote unique, proud Jewish voices and role models in the mainstream we would need to rely, at least in part, on philanthropic support. In addition to buying our albums, sharing the music with your friends, and attending our concerts and events, so many of you supported us as donors, talent scouts, and stream teamers. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

Continue reading "JDub Records, RIP"

Matchbox Twenty...has been with Warner Music Group's Atlantic Records for ten years. The band gets tons of radio play and has sold some 28 million albums. When I asked Livia Tortella, Atlantic's general manager and executive vice president of marketing and creative media, how her team is promoting Exile on Mainstream, she shot over a 41-page, "phase I" marketing plan.

It's packed with -- dates on Jay Leno and elsewhere, scheduled radio interviews and so on --... Fans who pre-ordered the entire album on Apple's iTunes got the single, "How Far We've Come," at the time of purchase, plus a bonus track. There were bundled offerings on iTunes that included extra songs if you chose the non a la carte option. Wal-Mart shoppers got exclusive video. A deal with Viacom's VH1.com gave that channel an exclusive stream of the album a week prior to the in-store release date...Atlantic also landed a featured spot for the band's video on Google's YouTube, and it premiered some content on News Corp.'s MySpace. Then there are mobile deals, such as the one with AT&T Mobility, where customers had access to exclusive live audio and streaming video as part of the launch of its over-the-air download store. Matchbox Twenty was featured on the screen that mobile users first see when hunting for music......

...."How else do you break through all the noise?" says Donald Passman, author of "All You Need to Know About the Music Business," and Radiohead's attorney. Even Radiohead, held out in the press as the rebels of the industry, is negotiating to once again sign with a label. [CNN likes major labels]