Galante eyes Angel role

Joe Galante, who led RCA/Sony on the Row for decades, is looking at some Angel investing opps, read it here.

BMI hearts Qriocity

BMI is streaming music via Sony's Qriocity platform, release here.

Qriocity music-streaming in US in 2011

Sony's Qriocity entertainment division launched music streaming in Europe a month ago, and the service will debut in the US in 2011. The AP reports via the CA.

Nth Track: Digital Music

Universal Music Group Distribution partners with TuneCore for release of artists' music. The release is out today. Also released this week, SONY Music Entertainment and EpicTilt's TapStar, a rythmn music game for iPhone users. See also our recent story on Bandbox and PassAlong Networks, and our earlier blurb on local iPhone app efforts. Love Don Tate's art at left (Austin American-Statesman).

SONY-IODA could crowd NVdigital startups

No sooner had the electrons dried on our story about Bandbox and PassAlong Networks, than we discovered today's release about the SONY-IODA alliance to create a new distribution and services network for the "independent label community." This move could create a bigger crowd, sooner than many might have expected. Here's the IODA release. Here's our story about the life-and-death cycle of a couple of local digital music startups, Bandbox and a new venture by former PassAlong CEO Dave Jaworski.

Accelerating the Nashville brand

Students in the bootcamp-like summer Accelerator program at VU's Owen Graduate School of Management are tackling a half-dozen marketing and related assignments. (VU release is here.) Among them: Today, the students receive the groundrules for developing a new branding campaign that will leverage Nashville's 'Music City' identity, expanding the Nashville brand to convey the city's entrepreneurism. The resultant campaign may be used to lure technology and other high-growth companies, and is expected to be integrated into a new Virtual Entrepreneurship Center. Other Accelerator clients include Arlington Vineyards, Sony Music, Cisco, Coca-Cola Enterprises, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee (the latter, a challenge to create a new social network for BCBST and its subsidiary, Gordian). Judges for the 'Music City' branding exercise include Janet Miller of the Chamber; Tod Fetherling of Nashville Technology Council; Butch Spyridon of the Convention and Visitors Bureau; entrepreneur Mike Shmerling; and, Mike Edwards of First Tennessee. Our story on the '08 Accelerator, here. The Chamber has been exploring and developing the Entrepreneurship Center since fall 2006. The virtual presence is likely to materialize along with a recoverying economy, in 2010. Noted: The CVB maintains a listing of companies that have integrated the existing Music City brand into their businesses.