10/20, 4:05pm
EU deal for Euro-wide music licensing
The European Commission today reached a roundtable agreement with several music stores and labels to ensure more widely distributed music for the continent. Apple, Amazon, BEUC, EMI, Nokia, PRS for Music, SACEM, STIM, and Universal now say they will work with the Commission to desegregate music licensing in European Union countries and have labels produce licenses that work across multiple if not all member states. They will also more freely exchange information so that companies can get rights outside of a musician's home country.
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08/18, 4:45pm
Qtrax outs music downloads
Qtrax recently announced that its free and legal music download service will soon launch, naming October 28th as the launch date in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and New Zealand. A launch in the US, Canada and the UK will happen before year's end, Qtrax informs, while the rest of the world will get the service within the first half of 2010. The reason for the initial Asia launch is because of the region's record Internet user growth and specifically the ratio of Internet users downloading music, which is more than double that of the US.
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08/11, 8:25am
CMX Album Music Format
Major music labels are developing their own whole-album music file format after being rebuffed by Apple, a source for a UK newspaper says. Created by EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner, a file format known as CMX would contain both the songs as well as liner notes, attached videos and mobile content. Much like a DVD, it would have its own "launch page" that appears after launching a given file.
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07/27, 10:55am
Apple expands record deals
Apple is planning to expand the content buyers receive when shopping for iTunes music, writes the Financial Times. The company is currently said to be in negotiations with the four major record labels -- EMI, Sony, Warner and Universal -- regarding a project called "Cocktail," aimed at boosting music sales by supplying interactive material with albums. At the core of the concept is a new booklet, which can mix photos, lyrics and liner notes.
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05/08, 2:05pm
MS May Have Bought Seeqpod
Seeqpod has been providing clues that suggest it may have been acquired by Microsoft. After entering bankruptcy and suffering repeated site shutdowns, the music-playing search site has come back with a notice that it's undergoing a "metamorphosis" and links to Microsoft's Live Search site instead. Seeqpod chief Kasian Franks has previously acknowledged that his company was in later-stage talks with a major media firm and, when combined with the new front end change, may have acknowledged a completed deal.
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04/21, 2:30pm
Study on Piracy and Music
Despite a common perception that pirating music decreases sales, a new study published by Norway's Aftenposten this week suggests an opposite effect. Conducted by the BI Norwegian School of Management, the research finds that those between who frequently download music through file sharing services are 10 times more likely to buy music than those that cling only to legal purchases. It also notes that those between the ages of 15 and 20 are more likely to buy songs through download stores like iTunes than CDs.
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04/07, 11:45am
Beatles Remastered CDs
The Beatles on Tuesday confirmed plans to launch remastered CD versions of their catalog in time with their first digital-only video game release through the Rock Band series. The reworkings are claimed to be the best quality since the originals and each include a QuickTime video documentary about the making of their given albums. A separate collection will include the original mono mixes where they existed.
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03/30, 11:35am
Google offers free songs
report maintains that compared to Baidu, Google has not offered high quality legal music downloads, which hurt its popularity. Google will share its advertising revenue with the music labels to make downloads legal and keep artists happy. The brand-new service so far offers 350,000 tracks from Chinese and foreign artists, although this is expected to jump to 1.1 million songs over the next few months.
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01/02, 1:25pm
CD Sales Drop 20 Percent
By Jeff Valvano
Media tracking agency Nielsen SoundScan this week
noted that physical album sales in the US have dropped a significant 20 percent between 2007 and 2008 to just 360.6 million copies. The drop marks the seventh decline in eight years and is credited partly to both a shift towards online-only music sales as well as illegal file trading. Nielsen warns in particular that the steepest drop came in the fall, when music labels normally depend on an increase due to holiday gifts.
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12/29, 3:05pm
Hulu to host music videos?
A new video-sharing website may be in the works, as the four major music labels -- Universal, Warner, EMI and Sony BMG -- are in preliminary talks for creating their own web portal, according to a weekend Financial Times report. Early last week, news came of the four labels planning to band together to create a site devoted to music videos and related content. More recently word has leaked of the three options the labels are considering, due to unhappiness with the ad revenue derived from the Google-owned YouTube. Under consideration is a premium service on YouTube, a totally new site, or a partnership with Hulu, the film and TV site jointly owned by News Corp. and NBC Universal.
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12/22, 2:45pm
Music Label Hulu Rival
The four major music labels are in the midst of negotiations that could result in a new, company-indendent service for music videos, an alleged source tipping Alley Insider says. EMI, Sony, Universal and Warner are said considering a joint venture that would put all their music videos in a central location. The effort would let them tighten their control over ads and potentially generate more revenue than YouTube as well as separate its content from amateur videos that happen to share similar music.
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11/26, 3:45pm
Atlantic Digital Trumps CD
Warner Music sub-label Atlantic Records today said it became the first major music company whose digital sales outpaced its conventional CDs. The group's sales of full songs, ringtones, and other content online now accounts for 51 percent of Atlantic's revenue. The label, which represents artists like Kid Rock and T.I., credits the change to spreading out where and how users can get music rather than depending heavily on a single source.
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11/19, 3:40pm
iTunes Plus Talk Rumors
Apple is discussing deals with the three major music labels yet to sign on to iTunes Plus to remove the locks on their music as well, alleged sources tell CNET. Two reported contacts describe "preliminary" negotiations that would expand Apple's deal for music without copy protection beyond EMI and independents to include Sony, Warner and Universal. The talks are said to have been spread over the past several months for at least two labels and aren't certain to result in a favorable income.
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10/21, 3:20pm
Lala Music Service
Lala today introduced a music service it claims will escape some of the limitations of conventional music stores. The self-titled service functions as a regular online service with unprotected MP3 songs downloadable at a minimum 89 cents per track but also grants customers immediate access to their collections over the web by scanning users' existing music collections in iTunes or other apps, including FairPlay-protected iTunes Store purchases.
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10/08, 2:05pm
EMI Launching Own Store
EMI is planning to launch an online music store of its own rather than just depend on outside stores, a claim from the Financial Times says [registration required]. The record label began developing the store earlier this year and will let users buy music and videos directly from EMI's site. Formats, pricing and a launch date are still unknown, though at least a small amount of content will be free. EMI was also one of the first major labels to accept unprotected formats.
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10/02, 4:30pm
EMI case dismissed
MP3Tunes announced on Thursday that the Recording Industry Association of America’s copyright infringement lawsuit against its CEO, Michael Robertson, was dismissed by New York District Judge William H. Pauley III. The lawsuit against MP3Tunes will proceed as planned, however. The lawsuit, headed up by EMI Music and 14 other music RIAA-supporting labels alleges that MP3Tunes infringed on copyrights as it offers an online music storage service, allowing users to upload their music collections and access them from virtually anywhere.
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10/02, 2:10pm
Nokia CWM Phone Launch
As a companion to news of the 5800 XpressMusic touchscreen phone, Nokia today also kicked off the formal launch details of its Comes With Music service. The company now plans to ship the inaugural, modified 5310 XpressMusic on October 16th and will sell it exclusively through Carphone Warehouse for 130 pounds ($230). As promised, the handset will come with one year of unlimited access to music and will let owners keep any downloaded tracks if they choose not to renew the subscription. Pricing for a renewal still isn't available.
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09/22, 7:45am
SanDisk slotMusic
The major music labels and SanDisk today tried to revive physical music with slotMusic. The concept is aimed at music phone users who want quick access to music as though it were a CD, but also to users who prefer to have a physical backup of digital music: each 1GB microSD card comes with an album's worth of music in 320Kbps MP3 files, enabling the music to be played right away or transferred to any computer through a bundled USB adapter. The extra space allows special features such as videos and can be used as storage space of its own.
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09/09, 12:30pm
Sony Ericsson UL Music
Sony Ericsson may follow in the steps of Nokia's Comes With Music and run its own unlimited music service, the Financial Times claims. Without referring to sources, the newspaper asserts that Sony Ericsson is negotiating with multiple major labels to offer music downloads for its own phones. It's unknown whether the cellphone designer would follow a similar pattern of tying a subscription to the price of certain phones or if it would be strictly optional for phone owners.
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07/25, 12:25pm
Amazon May Back MySpace
The upcoming MySpace Music service may ultimately be run by another major online music store, say alleged sources for TechCrunch. The social networking site is described as most likely picking Amazon MP3 to handle the commerce behind the store but is also said to be entertaining offers from other companies, including Apple and RealNetworks. No commitments have yet been made.
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06/30, 10:45pm
Warner on Comes With Music
Nokia tonight signed on Warner Music Group to its Comes With Music unlimited subscription service, joining founding partner Universal and recent entrant Sony BMG in offering its back catalog. The deal lets users buy phones with a Comes With Music premium attached and download an unlimited amount of Warner's music (or of any other label) for a year; all tracks downloaded during that time are the user's to keep, addressing a common complaint regarding most subscription plans.
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06/09, 5:25pm
EMI Music hires new VP
EMI Music's newest SVP of Digital Strategy, Cory Ondrejka, on his blog today revealed his frustrations with buying, accessing and listening to music purchased via the web. While Ondrejka's frustrations with DRM music are shared by many, he is in a position to do something about it, as he pledges to work on making digital music experience better for fans and artists alike.
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04/28, 4:20pm
Project Playlist lawsuit
The music site Project Playlist has been hit with a lawsuit filed by the record industry, Reuters reports. Some nine labels, including companies owned by Warner, EMI and Universal, have filed suit in the US District Court of Manhattan, accusing the site of numerous copyright infringements. The site lets users search for songs and create streaming playlists, in a much more targeted fashion than services such Pandora or Last.fm; the site does not, however, have a license for any of the content it offers, even though it makes money on advertising.
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04/08, 1:20pm
Slacker signs music labels
Slacker, the creator of its namesake Portable Radio Player, has announced a deal for the support of all four major record labels: Warner, Universal, EMI and Sony BMG. The Portable is an unusual "radio" device in that it does not stream live music, but rather syncs with the Slacker service via USB or Wi-Fi, and copies up to 40 "stations" for listening offline as well as on. As music plays listeners can rate their tracks, and ban ones they do not want to hear again.
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04/03, 12:40pm
MySpace Music site
MySpace and three major record labels -- Warner, Universal and Sony BMG -- have confirmed earlier reports by announcing the creation of MySpace Music, a new online store. Visitors will have at least two options in visiting: streaming music for free, with the costs covered by advertising, or paid downloads, making MySpace the latest rival to outlets such as Amazon or Apple's iTunes Store. Also possible may be some form of subscription service, but this is still under consideration. No launch date has been announced.
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04/03, 11:00am
MySpace Music Today
MySpace's frequently rumored music download store could launch as early as today, according to a rumor put forward by CNET. The publication claims to know sources who say that an initial announcement is planned that will expand the site's currently hands-off music section into a service that offers a combination of downloads and streams. Mirroring past stories, the feature would allegedly let users either pay to download full MP3 songs and ringtones or else stream songs for free on the web. Users could also buy their concert tickets directly from the site.
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04/03, 9:30am
iTunes Tops Wal-Mart
iTunes for at least a short while has been single largest outlet for music sales in the US, according to new data collected by The NPD Group's MusicWatch Survey conducted in January. The digital store at the time accounted for 19 percent of all music bought in the country versus 15 percent for Wal-Mart's combined in-store and online sales. Best Buy managed 13 percent, while Amazon sat further back at 6 percent despite offering the second-largest digital store in the US. RealNetworks' Rhapsody was the second digital-only store in the market but commands just 1 percent of the US marketplace.
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03/19, 3:35pm
EMI Talks for Nokia CWM
EMI is eager to join Nokia's controversial Comes With Music service, the music label said today in a press conference. The company has revealed that discussions are underway which would add EMI's catalog to the current offerings, which are limited to tracks from Universal. Without detailing the progress of talks, EMI's Finland head Wemppa Koivumaki said he hoped his firm's music would be in place for the official Comes With Music launch in the latter half of 2008.
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02/18, 1:20pm
Musical 'Hulu' on MySpace?
News Corporation is planning a musical equivalent of its Hulu video venture with NBC, a new report claims. News is allegedly after a deal with the four major music labels -- EMI, Warner, Universal and Sony BMG -- who would each provide equity for a new opeartion. It would be carried and controlled by News' MySpace division, but the intent is to create a shared portal, where people would be able to listen to DRM-free music in exchange for subjecting themselves to advertising.
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01/31, 11:30am
Pirate Bay Charged
Well-known pirated material site The Pirate Bay has been charged with its first clear copyright infringement case, according to reports. A combination of major movie labels and music studios, including EMI, Fox, Sony BMG, and Universal, accuse the Swedish-run site of profiting from linking to BitTorrents from pages with advertising; as much as $4 million US a year is generated through normal traffic, according to the Swedish prosecutor in the case, Hakan Roswall. Labels involved with the suit are demanding as much as a $188,000 fine for each of the four principal site operators and that computers they own be confiscated.
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01/29, 11:50pm
EMI, NY Daily giveaway
Following in the spirit of Radiohead's "pay-what-you-want" offer, EMI is flat out giving away music tracks to subscribers of the New York Daily News. CNET writes that the voucher is good for three song downloads from the labels collection of over 120,000 tracks, including an unreleased track, "It's Love", by Ringo Starr. EMI's promotion will run on this coming Sunday, as well as the one that follows.
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01/28, 10:45am
Qtrax in Doubt
Peer-to-peer service Qtrax is raising controversy by failing to make its intended Monday release date and offer what it claims would be some of the first free, legal peer-to-peer downloads from all four major music labels, says a report from Silicon Alley Insider. Although Qtrax has claimed that it would launch today with music from EMI, Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner, a challenge by the Bay Area publication reveals that most of the deals are either incomplete or unknown. Both EMI and Warner have denied authorizing music altogether; Universal is in talks with Qtrax while Sony BMG has not responded at all, according to the report.
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01/15, 11:00am
EMI Cuts 2000 Jobs
Major music label EMI will slash as many as 2,000 jobs in a bid to sustain itself, company chief Guy Hands revealed today. Although the firm's music contains only about 4,500 workers, at least one third (1,500) and as many as 2,000 will be let go to reduce the beleaguered label's costs by as much as $393 million per year. This will also come with a consolidation that brings normally separate distribution, marketing, and sales into a more efficient single group. It should also allow sub-labels such as Capitol or Parlophone more freedom to find and sign new musicians, according to EMI. The seemingly drastic move has largely been credited to the struggle to adapt to downloadable music,
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01/11, 3:20pm
EMI threatens IFPI, RIAA
Major label EMI may be leaving the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), reports say. Its executives are further said to be engaged in talks with Warner, Universal and Sony BMG, in an attempt to alter the priorities and structure are several trade groups, including the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). EMI sent a letter to IFPI officials for that very reason, claiming that it would abandon its membership unless the organization conformed to EMI's interests. Funding to the IFPI could be cut off by March 31st.
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12/31, 10:55am
Music Sales Free-Fall
Music sales during the holidays have dropped by a dramatic extent in 2007, Variety magazine writes. Although a handful of titles such as Josh Groban's Noel have fared well, the overall number of albums sold has dropped from 105.3 to 83.9 million between 2006 and 2007 for the peak holiday shopping period following US Thanksgiving -- a drop of about 21 percent, the publication says. Sales during the last week hit a predicted spike and jumped 42 percent but were still 18 percent down from the year before.
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11/29, 3:45pm
Warner Music Profit Drop
Warner Music Group on Thursday reported a major drop in profits for its last financial quarter that it largely attributes to online music. Although the company noted that its purely download-based music income increased by 25 percent to $130 million, the company's overall profit dropped about 58 percent and resulted in just $5 million versus $12 million the year before. This income would have been worse still had the company not taken advantage of a settlement with Bertelsmann over a Napster legal dispute.
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11/29, 11:40am
EMI Scaling Back RIAA
Music label EMI could weaken the anti-piracy campaigns of both the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in the near future by reducing its financial help with both organizations, claims an anonymous insider speaking to Reuters. A recent acquisition of EMI by the private equity firm Terra Firma is known to have triggered a financial review that would reduce the millions of dollars that the label supplies to both groups.
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