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TECHNOLOGY A23
Monday 2 November 2015
R&B star Akon to debut new albums on his own ‘Stadium’ app
RYAN NAKASHIM ing while streaming is surg- In this Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015 photo, Akon poses for a portrait in Los Angeles. When Akon re-
AP Business Writer ing. Services like Pandora leases his first albums in seven years, he’ll largely bypass the music labels and ask fans to down-
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Akon, and Spotify argue that they load an app to their phone for exclusive access.
an R&B star who’s collabo- give out the majority of
rated with everyone from their revenue to artists and Associated Press
Eminem to Andy Samberg, labels and the amount will
is about to release his first only grow as more people ward for the first time in four Music Group’s Atlantic Re- what consumers have tra-
albums in seven years — stream. years. (Nielsen counts 1,500 cords, Akon said. ditionally paid for music.
but you won’t find them in Artists’ own apps, however, song streams as equivalent Warner said it was too early “Until we meet consumers
stores or on streaming ser- can garner them a greater to an album sale.) Stream- to comment on its plans. where they are, at a price
vices like Spotify. Instead, slice of ad revenue, while ing is “a huge piece of the Vickie Nauman, a Los An- point they’re willing to pay,
he plans to release four al- also scooping up data on business,” said David Baku- geles-based digital music and a user experience that
bums through a new app, which songs fans like most la, senior vice president of consultant, says more art- has value, we won’t have
making him the latest artist and where they live. Musi- analytics at Nielsen. ists should experiment with mass adoption of stream-
to experiment with bypass- cians can use them to sell Akon’s first four albums for offerings like Stadium. Ma- ing,” Nauman said.
ing big record labels and concert tickets, backstage the Stadium app will each jor streaming platforms, she The Stadium app was
traditional music distribu- passes and T-shirts and oth- hew to a different genre: says, are often incredibly developed by EscapeX,
tion altogether. er merchandise. world, house, urban and cluttered, given that they a New York startup that
The new app, called Sta- By appifying himself and reggae. The last album, in can offer 30 million or more launched in July. It has
dium, will let fans stream going independent, Akon the pop genre, will be re- tracks. She argues that made white-label apps for
Akon songs for free, al- aims to super-serve his 60 leased sometime before streaming is also too ex- artists such as Karmin and
though they’ll have to put million-plus fans on social March next year, likely in pensive, since the $10-per- plans to also release new
up with ads. But interacting media. standard formats on mul- month on-demand plans music in new apps for the
with the app by clicking the He said that roughly tiple digital and physical like Spotify and Apple Mu- estate of Bob Marley and
ads or sharing with friends 200,000 people have al- channels through Warner sic are roughly double DJ Armin Van Buuren.q
on Facebook will earn us- ready registered to receive
ers credits they can use to the Stadium app when it’s
“buy” digital goods such as released in the next couple
ringtones, wallpapers and of weeks.
Akon-styled emoji. And, Other artists have gone
of course, to unlock more down a similar road. Ra-
songs and unreleased vid- diohead released “In Rain-
eos. “It’s going to definitely bows” as a pay-what-you-
regenerate the music busi- want album download in
ness,” Akon said in an ex- 2007. Lady Gaga debuted
clusive interview with The songs from “Born This Way”
Associated Press, calling on a special version of the
his app “the answer” to the video game “FarmVille”
music industry’s problems. in 2011, and last year U2
“It’s going to take some- released “Songs of Inno-
one like me to take the cence” as a free album to
chance on it.” iTunes users, sponsored by
It’s not a bad deal for Akon Apple. Some acts — like
junkies; it lets them stream Macklemore, Nine Inch
otherwise unavailable new Nails and The White Stripes
music legally from their — have foregone tradition-
smartphones. al record-label deals and
For artists like Akon, this thrived.
kind of independent digi- But none of these efforts
tal route offers other ma- have yet yielded a broadly
jor advantages — among viable way of getting music
them, sidestepping Spotify, into the hands of fans while
Pandora and their ilk. Many paying artists what they
musicians resent those ser- think they deserve.
vices for offering what art- Streaming music, mean-
ists consider a tiny cut of while, is exploding. It’s on
streaming revenue. pace to double this year,
That’s a big issue in the mu- according to Nielsen Music
sic industry, where sales of data, gains that would pro-
downloaded music are fall- pel U.S. “album” sales up-
