Sony Music Breaks Into The Web's Top 10

Major label Sony Music recently became one of the Web’s top 10 entertainment music destinations, according to the independent comScore Media Metrix. This latest ranking now puts it alongside perennial music stalwarts like AOL, Yahoo!, MySpace Music, MTV Networks, Last.fm and imeem.

Sony Music’s network of artist websites attracted more than 33 million visits and almost 20 million unique visitors during June, an impressive amount for any website. So why the increased traffic?

Sony now employs a few new capabilities that have had a positive impact on the site's visitors and artist's fans. Their site now offers:

• a globalization ability so that fans can automatically view their favorite artist's site in their local language, interact with nearby fans, and receive regional music news.

• a rewards system for fans who visit frequently.

• a recommendations engine in the form of an on-demand audio player that suggests new tracks based on songs the user has already selected, as well as an integrated lyrics function.

While you wouldn't expect a major label to be so forward thinking in digital matters, Sony Music has shown that not only can it think for itself, but be successful at it too. Many other labels have good ideas as well but their implementation usually leaves something to be desired. This time, Sony has pulled it off.

Sony Starts It's Own Touring Division Down Under

Sony Music Entertainment's Australian affiliate quietly launched a new touring division called Day 1 Entertainment intended to support the upcoming Simon and Garfunkel tour down under.

This is a particularly interesting step that seems to support the "360 deal" idea where a record label would be the sole supplier for everything that an act would ever need, from management to booking to tour support and merchandise.

For a label to warrant a piece of the action of all the revenue streams that an artist receives, it has to provide value in return. Day 1 Entertainment is a way to get into the business away from the media of the US in case of any problems. The fact that they'd begin with such a high-profile act is dubious, but if they should fall on their face we're a lot less likely to hear about it.

I doubt that a high profile act like S&G are paying a premium for this service, but you can bet that any newly signed act to Sony will if the business is a success.