NBC BLOG

Changes to come iTunes Store

2009-01-11T21:41:00.002+01:00

Veranderingen in de iTunes Store op komst
donderdag 8 januari 2009
Apple kondigt met genoegen aan dat de vier grote muziekmaatschappijen, Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group en EMI, hun muziek in de iTunes Store voortaan aanbieden in iTunes Plus, de rechtenvrije structuur van Apple voor een hoogwaardige geluidskwaliteit die nauwelijks is te onderscheiden van de oorspronkelijke opname. Klanten van iTunes kunnen er bovendien voor kiezen om nummers uit de grootste muziekcatalogus ter wereld rechtstreeks naar hun iPhone 3G te downloaden via hun 3G-netwerk, op dezelfde manier als ze momenteel via Wi-Fi doen. De prijs per nummer blijft hetzelfde. Lees verder: apple.com/nl/itunes

Vanessa

Apple iTunes DRM Free and iPhone 3G Download @ MacWorld 2009

2009-01-11T21:28:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

Technology Today

2009-01-07T23:21:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

The Evolution of Album Sales in the Music Industry

2009-01-07T23:16:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

Is There a Future for the Music Industry

2009-01-07T23:15:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

Can Creative Commons Revolutionize Copyright Protections?

2009-01-07T23:13:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

SoundExchange, Regulation, and the Future of Internet Radio

2009-01-07T23:12:00.002+01:00

Vanessa

Why Do Record Companies Favor Digital Rights Management?

2009-01-07T23:09:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

The Future of Branded Music

2009-01-07T23:00:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

How the iPod Revolutionized the Music Industry

2009-01-07T22:58:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

Lawrence Lessig - Is Digital Rights Management a Solution or a Problem?

2009-01-07T22:56:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

About Digital Rights Management and Copyright Law

2009-01-07T22:54:00.002+01:00

Vanessa

Jimmy Iovine on Making New Music Distribution Models Work

2009-01-07T22:49:00.001+01:00

Vanessa

Record Deals and The Future of Music with Don Passman

2009-01-07T22:21:00.004+01:00

Vanessa

2009?

2009-01-06T10:07:00.001+01:00

What will or might happen during the year 2009? What should be taken into consideration?

I found this link at Gerd Leonhard's blog.

2009 - 5 Trends That Will Change Media

Elisa

18 Things I'd Love to Pay Musicians For

2008-12-17T16:21:00.001+01:00

I don't think there's anything that new on the following list but there it is anyways:

18 Things I'd Love to Pay Musicians For

Elisa

"Mix, Listen, Share"

2008-12-15T17:15:00.003+01:00

This sounds like fun!!!

Mixaloo is a service that rewards music fans for creating digital mix tapes which will be shared and embedded in blogs and social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook using one of many available Mixaloo widgets. The site is free and users earn half the profits from every mix sold while sharing their favorite music across the Web.

The site is updated continuously and has an extensive music library of over three million songs in which every major label and numerous indie artists can be found.
(http://www.crunchbase.com/company/mixaloo)

Mixaloo

I guess profit-sharing is one of the key terms at the moment. And Mixaloo (and also imeem -playlists etc) makes music interactive, fun and dynamic, as it should be.

Elisa

4 steps to take to market yourself as an independent artist

2008-12-14T14:54:00.003+01:00

Martine

Three Major Record Labels Join the 'Choruss'

2008-12-14T14:46:00.001+01:00

Three Major Record Labels Join the 'Choruss'

"U.S. universities are getting a glimpse at a plan that would build a small music-royalty fee into the tuition payments they receive from students. If successful, the model — proposed by digital music strategist Jim Griffin on behalf of Warner Music Group — could be expanded to make ISPs the collector of such micropayments, eliminating some of the most irksome and contentious issues dividing the music industry and its customers......A Wired.com poll showed that approximately 70 percent of readers would pay $10/month for legal access to all of the music on the internet, and we understand that Choruss would call for a significantly lower fees than that. Its detractors might be underestimating the consumer appeal of an inexpensive, unlimited and unrestricted music network."http://blog.wired.com/business/2008/...-music-gr.html"Is The RIAA Afraid to Sue Harvard Students?The RIAA sued its way into the new year, issuing 407 pre-litigation letters to students at 18 colleges and universities, including Bowdoin, Duke, MIT, Stanford, UC Berkeley, UConn, and UCLA......Those professors are just way too sharp. They say things like, "there are seven parts of the answer to your question; I'm going to take the fourth part first -- here's why."......And pretty much across the board, they supported online innovation while continually questioning the utility of copyright. Many of them see today's copyright laws as a far cry from what the founding fathers intended when they set the term to expire after 14 years (today's copyright term lasts 95 years after a work's publication by a corporation).

Martine

Pure Problem for Record Labels

2008-12-14T14:42:00.004+01:00

Everyone seems to have it in for Puretunes these days. From unknown to industry pariah in less than a week, this little-known Spanish company is on everyone's lips these days.

Rather than giving away music files, like peer-to-peer services do, Puretunes has been selling them –- and that's got the major record labels all fired up. Arista Records, BMG Music, Capitol Records and Sony Music are suing the company, seeking up to $150,000 per song, along with other damages.

Even though the site is based in Madrid, Spain, the server hosting it is actually in Washington, DC. That's how a suit was filed in the US, earlier in July.

Although Puretunes opened for business in May and closed in mid-June, it made a major impact on the already volatile world on online music retailing. The site offered music from almost every major artist, including some not available from any legitimate online music retailer. Puretunes charged $3.99 for eight hours of unlimited music downloads and $24.99 for a month.

How could a supposedly legitimate company set up shop like this? According to Puretunes parent company, Sakfield Holding Co., they had obtained licenses from Spanish music publishing companies to sell the music under Spanish copyright law. The fact that people from other companies could also access the site was secondary –- according to them.

Javier Siguenza, a Madrid-based lawyer representing Puretunes, told Reuters in May that the new company abided by Spanish copyright laws. The company even said it was collecting royalties for artists and would distribute them.

The record labels weren't buying it, and part of the lawsuit they filede states, "At all times, defendants knew that they were not authorized by the copyright owners, or by law, to distribute, copy or in any way exploit," these songs.

Martine

The Record Industry's Decline

2008-12-14T14:27:00.009+01:00

Record sales are tanking, and there's no hope in sight: How it all went wrong
By: Brian Hiatt and Evan Serpick

Sales figures courtesy of Nielsen SoundScan

This is the first part of a two-part series on the decline of the record industry. Today we're including Brian Hiatt and Evan Serpick's report on where the music business went wrong, from the current issue of Rolling Stone, as well as an interactive graphic illustrating the industry's slide. Tomorrow, check back with
RollingStone.com for interviews with industry leaders on the future of the music business.

For the music industry, it was a rare bit of good news: Linkin Park's new album sold 623,000 copies in its first week this May -- the strongest debut of the year. But it wasn't nearly enough. That same month, the band's record company, Warner Music Group, announced that it would lay off 400 people, and its stock price lingered at fifty-eight percent of its peak from last June.
Overall CD sales have plummeted sixteen percent for the year so far -- and that's after seven years of near-constant erosion. In the face of widespread piracy, consumers' growing preference for low-profit-margin digital singles over albums, and other woes, the record business has plunged into a historic decline.
The major labels are struggling to reinvent their business models, even as some wonder whether it's too late. "The record business is over," says music attorney Peter Paterno, who represents Metallica and Dr. Dre. "The labels have wonderful assets -- they just can't make any money off them." One senior music-industry source who requested anonymity went further: "Here we have a business that's dying. There won't be any major labels pretty soon."
In 2000, U.S. consumers bought 785.1 million albums; last year, they bought 588.2 million (a figure that includes both CDs and downloaded albums), according to Nielsen SoundScan. In 2000, the ten top-selling albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top ten sold just 25 million. Digital sales are growing -- fans bought 582 million digital singles last year, up sixty-five percent from 2005, and purchased $600 million worth of ringtones -- but the new revenue sources aren't making up for the shortfall.
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More than 5,000 record-company employees have been laid off since 2000. The number of major labels dropped from five to four when Sony Music Entertainment and BMG Entertainment merged in 2004 -- and two of the remaining companies, EMI and Warner, have flirted with their own merger for years.
About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003, according to the research group Almighty Institute of Music Retail. Last year the eighty-nine-store Tower Records chain, which represented 2.5 percent of overall retail sales, went out of business, and Musicland, which operated more than 800 stores under the Sam Goody brand, among others, filed for bankruptcy. Around sixty-five percent of all music sales now take place in big-box stores such as Wal-Mart and Best Buy, which carry fewer titles than specialty stores and put less effort behind promoting new artists.
Just a few years ago, many industry executives thought their problems could be solved by bigger hits. "There wasn't anything a good hit couldn't fix for these guys," says a source who worked closely with top executives earlier this decade. "They felt like things were bad and getting worse, but I'm not sure they had the bandwidth to figure out how to fix it. Now, very few of those people are still heads of the companies."
More record executives now seem to understand that their problems are structural: The Internet appears to be the most consequential technological shift for the business of selling music since the 1920s, when phonograph records replaced sheet music as the industry's profit center. "We have to collectively understand that times have changed," says Lyor Cohen, CEO of Warner Music Group USA. In June, Warner announced a deal with the Web site Lala.com that will allow consumers to stream much of its catalog for free, in hopes that they will then pay for downloads. It's the latest of recent major-label moves that would have been unthinkable a few years back:
In May, one of the four majors, EMI, began allowing the iTunes Music Store to sell its catalog without the copy protection that labels have insisted upon for years.
When YouTube started showing music videos without permission, all four of the labels made licensing deals instead of suing for copyright violations.
To the dismay of some artists and managers, labels are insisting on deals for many artists in which the companies get a portion of touring, merchandising, product sponsorships and other non-recorded-music sources of income.
So who killed the record industry as we knew it? "The record companies have created this situation themselves," says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. While there are factors outside of the labels' control -- from the rise of the Internet to the popularity of video games and DVDs -- many in the industry see the last seven years as a series of botched opportunities. And among the biggest, they say, was the labels' failure to address online piracy at the beginning by making peace with the first file-sharing service, Napster. "They left billions and billions of dollars on the table by suing Napster -- that was the moment that the labels killed themselves," says Jeff Kwatinetz, CEO of management company the Firm. "The record business had an unbelievable opportunity there. They were all using the same service. It was as if everybody was listening to the same radio station. Then Napster shut down, and all those 30 or 40 million people went to other [file-sharing services]."
It all could have been different: Seven years ago, the music industry's top executives gathered for secret talks with Napster CEO Hank Barry. At a July 15th, 2000, meeting, the execs -- including the CEO of Universal's parent company, Edgar Bronfman Jr.; Sony Corp. head Nobuyuki Idei; and Bertelsmann chief Thomas Middelhof -- sat in a hotel in Sun Valley, Idaho, with Barry and told him that they wanted to strike licensing deals with Napster. "Mr. Idei started the meeting," recalls Barry, now a director in the law firm Howard Rice. "He was talking about how Napster was something the customers wanted."
The idea was to let Napster's 38 million users keep downloading for a monthly subscription fee -- roughly $10 -- with revenues split between the service and the labels. But ultimately, despite a public offer of $1 billion from Napster, the companies never reached a settlement. "The record companies needed to jump off a cliff, and they couldn't bring themselves to jump," says Hilary Rosen, who was then CEO of the Recording Industry Association of America. "A lot of people say, 'The labels were dinosaurs and idiots, and what was the matter with them?' But they had retailers telling them, 'You better not sell anything online cheaper than in a store,' and they had artists saying, 'Don't screw up my Wal-Mart sales.' " Adds Jim Guerinot, who manages Nine Inch Nails and Gwen Stefani, "Innovation meant cannibalizing their core business."
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Even worse, the record companies waited almost two years after Napster's July 2nd, 2001, shutdown before licensing a user-friendly legal alternative to unauthorized file-sharing services: Apple's iTunes Music Store, which launched in the spring of 2003. Before that, labels started their own subscription services: PressPlay, which initially offered only Sony, Universal and EMI music, and MusicNet, which had only EMI, Warner and BMG music. The services failed. They were expensive, allowed little or no CD burning and didn't work with many MP3 players then on the market.
Rosen and others see that 2001-03 period as disastrous for the business. "That's when we lost the users," Rosen says. "Peer-to-peer took hold. That's when we went from music having real value in people's minds to music having no economic value, just emotional value."
In the fall of 2003, the RIAA filed its first copyright-infringement lawsuits against file sharers. They've since sued more than 20,000 music fans. The RIAA maintains that the lawsuits are meant to spread the word that unauthorized downloading can have consequences. "It isn't being done on a punitive basis," says RIAA CEO Mitch Bainwol. But file-sharing isn't going away -- there was a 4.4 percent increase in the number of peer-to-peer users in 2006, with about a billion tracks downloaded illegally per month, according to research group BigChampagne.
Despite the industry's woes, people are listening to at least as much music as ever. Consumers have bought more than 100 million iPods since their November 2001 introduction, and the touring business is thriving, earning a record $437 million last year. And according to research organization NPD Group, listenership to recorded music -- whether from CDs, downloads, video games, satellite radio, terrestrial radio, online streams or other sources -- has increased since 2002. The problem the business faces is how to turn that interest into money. "How is it that the people that make the product of music are going bankrupt, while the use of the product is skyrocketing?" asks the Firm's Kwatinetz. "The model is wrong."
Kwatinetz sees other, leaner kinds of companies -- from management firms like his own, which now doubles as a record label, to outsiders such as Starbucks -- stepping in. Paul McCartney recently abandoned his longtime relationship with EMI Records to sign with Starbucks' fledgling Hear Music. Video-game giant Electronic Arts also started a label, exploiting the promotional value of its games, and the newly revived CBS Records will sell music featured in CBS TV shows.
Licensing music to video games, movies, TV shows and online subscription services is becoming an increasing source of revenue."We expect to be a brand licensing organization," says Cohen of Warner, which in May started a new division, Den of Thieves, devoted to producing TV shows and other video content from its music properties. And the record companies are looking to increase their takes in the booming music publishing business, which collects songwriting royalties from radio play and other sources. The performance-rights organization ASCAP reported a record $785 million in revenue in 2006, a five percent increase from 2005. Revenues are up "across the board," according to Martin Bandier, CEO of Sony/ATV Music Publishing, which controls the Beatles' publishing. "Music publishing will become a more important part of the business," he says. "If I worked for a record company, I'd be pulling my hair out. The recorded-music business is in total confusion, looking for a way out."
Nearly every corner of the record industry is feeling the pain. "A great American sector has been damaged enormously," says the RIAA's Bainwol, who blames piracy, "from songwriters to backup musicians to people who work at labels. The number of bands signed to labels has been compromised in a pretty severe fashion, roughly a third."
Times are hard for record-company employees. "People feel threatened," says Rosen. "Their friends are getting laid off left and right." Adam Shore, general manager of the then-Atlantic Records-affiliated Vice Records, told Rolling Stone in January that his colleagues are having an "existential crisis." "We have great records, but we're less sure than ever that people are going to buy them," he says. "There's a sense around here of losing faith."
Additional reporting by Steve Knopper and Nicole Frehsée

Martine

Thoughts on music

2008-12-14T14:24:00.001+01:00

Steve Jobs
February 6, 2007

With the stunning global success of Apple’s iPod music player and iTunes online music store, some have called for Apple to “open” the digital rights management (DRM) system that Apple uses to protect its music against theft, so that music purchased from iTunes can be played on digital devices purchased from other companies, and protected music purchased from other online music stores can play on iPods. Let’s examine the current situation and how we got here, then look at three possible alternatives for the future.

To begin, it is useful to remember that all iPods play music that is free of any DRM and encoded in “open” licensable formats such as MP3 and AAC. iPod users can and do acquire their music from many sources, including CDs they own. Music on CDs can be easily imported into the freely-downloadable iTunes jukebox software which runs on both Macs and Windows PCs, and is automatically encoded into the open AAC or MP3 formats without any DRM. This music can be played on iPods or any other music players that play these open formats.

The rub comes from the music Apple sells on its online iTunes Store. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music from others, primarily the “big four” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI. These four companies control the distribution of over 70% of the world’s music. When Apple approached these companies to license their music to distribute legally over the Internet, they were extremely cautious and required Apple to protect their music from being illegally copied. The solution was to create a DRM system, which envelopes each song purchased from the iTunes store in special and secret software so that it cannot be played on unauthorized devices.

Apple was able to negotiate landmark usage rights at the time, which include allowing users to play their DRM protected music on up to 5 computers and on an unlimited number of iPods. Obtaining such rights from the music companies was unprecedented at the time, and even today is unmatched by most other digital music services. However, a key provision of our agreements with the music companies is that if our DRM system is compromised and their music becomes playable on unauthorized devices, we have only a small number of weeks to fix the problem or they can withdraw their entire music catalog from our iTunes store.

To prevent illegal copies, DRM systems must allow only authorized devices to play the protected music. If a copy of a DRM protected song is posted on the Internet, it should not be able to play on a downloader’s computer or portable music device. To achieve this, a DRM system employs secrets. There is no theory of protecting content other than keeping secrets. In other words, even if one uses the most sophisticated cryptographic locks to protect the actual music, one must still “hide” the keys which unlock the music on the user’s computer or portable music player. No one has ever implemented a DRM system that does not depend on such secrets for its operation.

The problem, of course, is that there are many smart people in the world, some with a lot of time on their hands, who love to discover such secrets and publish a way for everyone to get free (and stolen) music. They are often successful in doing just that, so any company trying to protect content using a DRM must frequently update it with new and harder to discover secrets. It is a cat-and-mouse game. Apple’s DRM system is called FairPlay. While we have had a few breaches in FairPlay, we have been able to successfully repair them through updating the iTunes store software, the iTunes jukebox software and software in the iPods themselves. So far we have met our commitments to the music companies to protect their music, and we have given users the most liberal usage rights available in the industry for legally downloaded music.

With this background, let’s now explore three different alternatives for the future.

The first alternative is to continue on the current course, with each manufacturer competing freely with their own “top to bottom” proprietary systems for selling, playing and protecting music. It is a very competitive market, with major global companies making large investments to develop new music players and online music stores. Apple, Microsoft and Sony all compete with proprietary systems. Music purchased from Microsoft’s Zune store will only play on Zune players; music purchased from Sony’s Connect store will only play on Sony’s players; and music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store will only play on iPods. This is the current state of affairs in the industry, and customers are being well served with a continuing stream of innovative products and a wide variety of choices.

Some have argued that once a consumer purchases a body of music from one of the proprietary music stores, they are forever locked into only using music players from that one company. Or, if they buy a specific player, they are locked into buying music only from that company’s music store. Is this true? Let’s look at the data for iPods and the iTunes store – they are the industry’s most popular products and we have accurate data for them. Through the end of 2006, customers purchased a total of 90 million iPods and 2 billion songs from the iTunes store. On average, that’s 22 songs purchased from the iTunes store for each iPod ever sold.

Today’s most popular iPod holds 1000 songs, and research tells us that the average iPod is nearly full. This means that only 22 out of 1000 songs, or under 3% of the music on the average iPod, is purchased from the iTunes store and protected with a DRM. The remaining 97% of the music is unprotected and playable on any player that can play the open formats. It’s hard to believe that just 3% of the music on the average iPod is enough to lock users into buying only iPods in the future. And since 97% of the music on the average iPod was not purchased from the iTunes store, iPod users are clearly not locked into the iTunes store to acquire their music.

The second alternative is for Apple to license its FairPlay DRM technology to current and future competitors with the goal of achieving interoperability between different company’s players and music stores. On the surface, this seems like a good idea since it might offer customers increased choice now and in the future. And Apple might benefit by charging a small licensing fee for its FairPlay DRM. However, when we look a bit deeper, problems begin to emerge. The most serious problem is that licensing a DRM involves disclosing some of its secrets to many people in many companies, and history tells us that inevitably these secrets will leak. The Internet has made such leaks far more damaging, since a single leak can be spread worldwide in less than a minute. Such leaks can rapidly result in software programs available as free downloads on the Internet which will disable the DRM protection so that formerly protected songs can be played on unauthorized players.

An equally serious problem is how to quickly repair the damage caused by such a leak. A successful repair will likely involve enhancing the music store software, the music jukebox software, and the software in the players with new secrets, then transferring this updated software into the tens (or hundreds) of millions of Macs, Windows PCs and players already in use. This must all be done quickly and in a very coordinated way. Such an undertaking is very difficult when just one company controls all of the pieces. It is near impossible if multiple companies control separate pieces of the puzzle, and all of them must quickly act in concert to repair the damage from a leak.

Apple has concluded that if it licenses FairPlay to others, it can no longer guarantee to protect the music it licenses from the big four music companies. Perhaps this same conclusion contributed to Microsoft’s recent decision to switch their emphasis from an “open” model of licensing their DRM to others to a “closed” model of offering a proprietary music store, proprietary jukebox software and proprietary players.

The third alternative is to abolish DRMs entirely. Imagine a world where every online store sells DRM-free music encoded in open licensable formats. In such a world, any player can play music purchased from any store, and any store can sell music which is playable on all players. This is clearly the best alternative for consumers, and Apple would embrace it in a heartbeat. If the big four music companies would license Apple their music without the requirement that it be protected with a DRM, we would switch to selling only DRM-free music on our iTunes store. Every iPod ever made will play this DRM-free music.

Why would the big four music companies agree to let Apple and others distribute their music without using DRM systems to protect it? The simplest answer is because DRMs haven’t worked, and may never work, to halt music piracy. Though the big four music companies require that all their music sold online be protected with DRMs, these same music companies continue to sell billions of CDs a year which contain completely unprotected music. That’s right! No DRM system was ever developed for the CD, so all the music distributed on CDs can be easily uploaded to the Internet, then (illegally) downloaded and played on any computer or player.

In 2006, under 2 billion DRM-protected songs were sold worldwide by online stores, while over 20 billion songs were sold completely DRM-free and unprotected on CDs by the music companies themselves. The music companies sell the vast majority of their music DRM-free, and show no signs of changing this behavior, since the overwhelming majority of their revenues depend on selling CDs which must play in CD players that support no DRM system.

So if the music companies are selling over 90 percent of their music DRM-free, what benefits do they get from selling the remaining small percentage of their music encumbered with a DRM system? There appear to be none. If anything, the technical expertise and overhead required to create, operate and update a DRM system has limited the number of participants selling DRM protected music. If such requirements were removed, the music industry might experience an influx of new companies willing to invest in innovative new stores and players. This can only be seen as a positive by the music companies.

Much of the concern over DRM systems has arisen in European countries. Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free. For Europeans, two and a half of the big four music companies are located right in their backyard. The largest, Universal, is 100% owned by Vivendi, a French company. EMI is a British company, and Sony BMG is 50% owned by Bertelsmann, a German company. Convincing them to license their music to Apple and others DRM-free will create a truly interoperable music marketplace. Apple will embrace this wholeheartedly.

Martine

Nice new business model

2008-12-13T16:27:00.002+01:00

This experiment sounds interesting. It will be implemented next year.

TuneCore Taps Brands For Free Downloads

Elisa

Adidas ads feature musicians but not their music

2008-12-13T01:55:00.002+01:00

Adidas ads feature musicians but not their music

Wed Dec 3, 2008 6:46pm EST
By Kamau High

NEW YORK (Billboard)

- In the summer of 1986, hip-hop pioneers Run-D.M.C. played a show at Madison Square Garden in New York, riding high on the success of their single "My Adidas" and their third album, "Raising Hell."

Daryl "D.M.C." McDaniels remembers it well.

"I would take off my sneaker and hold it up and say, 'Myyyy Adidas,' and then people would do it back," he says, adding that "the people at Adidas couldn't understand why the sales of shell toes were going through the roof."

An Adidas marketing executive was in the audience at the Garden show, so it wasn't long before the company signed the group to a $1.5 million endorsement deal, its first with a music act.

Two decades after its initial foray into music marketing, Adidas has launched a new global ad campaign for its Adidas Originals line of footwear and apparel that features 11 recording stars, including McDaniels.

Regardless of what one might think of the new Adidas Originals campaign, the company's marketing executives clearly have been doing something right.

Through the years, Adidas has long been a brand of enduring appeal among performers, which have name-checked it in dozens of songs, such as House of Pain's 1992 song "Put on Your S--t Kickers" ("I got the shell-toed Adidas, with the fat strings"), Gang Starr's 1994 track "Suckas Need Bodyguards ("Since the days of Adidas, I've been a true master") and Lady Sovereign's 2005 single "Hoodies" ("Fling on an Adidas hoodie and just boogie woogie with me").

For the last three years, Missy Elliott has had her own line of Adidas shoes, as well as an Adidas apparel line called Respect M.E. She mentioned her favorite sneaker brand in her 2005 song "On and On" ("I brang fever rockin' classic Adidas").

Reuters/Billboard

VANESSA

The campaign, created by the agency Sid Lee in Montreal, depicts music acts like Katy Perry, Estelle, Missy Elliott and the Ting Tings dancing and laughing at a house party in Adidas gear. Besides starring in the TV spots, the musicians will appear online and in print ads.

In an unusual move, none of the TV ads uses any of the featured artists' music. Instead, the spots are accompanied by Pilooski's remix of Frankie Valli & the 4 Seasons' "Beggin'."

Licensing songs from the artists featured in the ad campaign would have proved expensive. But Adidas spokesman Jeff Weinstein insists that financial considerations weren't a factor in the company's decision not to use the artists' songs.

"We didn't want to single out one musician," Weinstein says. "We wanted to keep it neutral and focus on celebrating the musicians' style and originality ... It was purely a creative decision."

CHANGING RELATIONSHIP?

Does it make sense to feature musicians in an ad campaign without featuring their music?

Cyrus Vantoch-Wood, creative director at digital ad agency Atmosphere BBDO in New York, thinks that, in this case, it does.

"It's (using Pilooski) as a way to connect a whole set of musicians under one anthem," he says. "You couldn't exactly do a mash-up of all of them."

Tina Wells, CEO of Buzz Marketing Group in Voorhees, New Jersey, says Adidas' decision to use musicians without their music suggests that the company is getting more out of the campaign than the stars.

"It's great for Adidas and bad for musicians because it shows who has the power in the relationship," Wells says. "It used to be that any time musicians were integrated into advertising, it was another avenue for them to promote their music. Being in the campaign this way puts a lot of power in the ad agencies' and brands' hands."

Regardless of what one might think of the new Adidas Originals campaign, the company's marketing executives clearly have been doing something right.

Through the years, Adidas has long been a brand of enduring appeal among performers, which have name-checked it in dozens of songs, such as House of Pain's 1992 song "Put on Your S--t Kickers" ("I got the shell-toed Adidas, with the fat strings"), Gang Starr's 1994 track "Suckas Need Bodyguards ("Since the days of Adidas, I've been a true master") and Lady Sovereign's 2005 single "Hoodies" ("Fling on an Adidas hoodie and just boogie woogie with me").

For the last three years, Missy Elliott has had her own line of Adidas shoes, as well as an Adidas apparel line called Respect M.E. She mentioned her favorite sneaker brand in her 2005 song "On and On" ("I brang fever rockin' classic Adidas").

Reuters/Billboard

VANESSA

EMI seeks deal with rivals to distribute recordings

2008-12-13T01:50:00.002+01:00

EMI seeks deal with rivals to distribute recordings

By Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson in New York

Published: December 5 2008 02:00 | Last updated: December 5 2008 02:00

EMI is in talks with rivals over a US distribution deal that could bring in tens of millions of dollars for the indebted company - after earlier discussions about selling some of its labels stalled.

Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music had each been approached by Terra Firma, which bought EMI for £4bn ($5.9bn) in 2007, several people familiar with the talks said.

Rivals value the contract to take over EMI's warehouses and distribution network at $20m to $30m although Guy Hands' private equity group has pushed for a higher price.

Terra Firma initially discussed getting out of the distribution of compact discs and digital music in the US altogether, according to several people familiar with the negotiations. Talks now focus on physical distribution only, excluding sales and marketing.

Universal, Sony BMG and Warner each outsource parts of the physical distribution chain to third-party specialists such as Entertainment Distribution, Sony DADX and Cinram.

By negotiating with rival music companies rather than third parties, EMI is more likely to secure an upfront payment, people familiar with the talks said, as its rivals could find savings from consolidating its distribution with that of EMI. "Terra Firma is looking for a cheque," one said.

One issue discussed has been the potential competition issue of allowing a rival access to details of EMI's wholesale pricing.

The talks were led by Chris Roling, one of the Terra Firma executives now leaving EMI as their chances of large bonuses or rapid returns on their personal investments decline.

The discussions over the recorded music business do not affect the more profitable music publishing division, which owns the rights to songs from Amy Winehouse and Simply Red.

VANESSA

Mail On Sunday to launch own record label

2008-12-13T01:47:00.000+01:00

NME News
Mail On Sunday to launch own record label

Tabloid says it wants to sign 'original talent' and 'bag Christmas Number One'
Dec 9, 2008

Tabloid newspaper The Mail On Sunday has launched its own record label.

Called Mail On Sunday Sounds, editor Peter Wright says he wants the label to "put something back" into the music industry, adding that he is keen to sign up original talent.

He told Music Week: "I think that if we can move into original content in the long run that will be more exciting. It is closer to what we do in the newspaper - we don't publish other people's stories. We are original content providers. If we can move into that area with music, it is very exciting."

Previously, The Mail On Sunday has given away copies of Prince's 'Planet Earth' album and McFly's 'Radio:Active'.

The first release on the newly-established record label is ACM Gospel Choir's cover of 'Holy Night', released yesterday (December 8).

Wright says he hopes the album will be a contender for Christmas Number One.

VANESSA

EMI releases CD of music from Guinness commercials

2008-12-13T01:44:00.000+01:00

EMI releases CD of music from Guinness commercials
by Gemma Charles, Marketing 09-Dec-08, 14:35

LONDON - EMI Music and Diageo Ireland have teamed up as part of a move to develop global music-based projects in a licensing first for the drinks company.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the signing of the lease by Arthur Guinness on St James's Gate Brewery, EMI Music and the Guinness owner are releasing Guinness 250 - Music from the TV ads, a commemorative album featuring 17 of the most memorable tracks used to advertise the stout brand. Artists featured on the album range from Dusty Springfield, Dionne Warwick and Al Jolson to the Jesus and Mary Chain, Leftfield and Future Sound of London.

The release next year marks the start of a new partnership between EMI Music and Diageo Global Licensing through which the two parties will develop new music-based projects across Diageo's brands in Europe and North America. This is the first time Diageo's licensing group has struck such a partnership with a music company.

VANESSA

US music festivals now offering payment plans for tickets

2008-12-13T01:41:00.000+01:00

NME News
US music festivals now offering payment plans for tickets

Bonnaroo and Langerado come up with recession solution for music fans
Dec 9, 2008

The Bonnaroo and Langerado music festivals have responded to the economic crisis in the US by offering payment plans on weekend tickets to the festivals in 2009.

Langerado, which takes place in Miami, FL in March and features performances by Death Cab For Cutie, The Pogues, Snoop Dogg and Ryan Adams And The Cardinals among others, will be offering a layaway plan for purchasers of weekend passes, with three payments spread out over three months. Tickets start at $120 for weekend passes.

Meanwhile, Bonnaroo is offering specially-priced pre-sale tickets for the festival until December 31. During this period, tickets will be available for five payments of $50.00 plus applicable fees through the festival's payment plan.

Bonnaroo 2009 will run from June 11-14 next year on a 700-acre farm 60 miles southeast of Nashville, TN. The line-up has yet to be announced.

VANESSA

HMV posts loss in weakening market

2008-12-13T01:36:00.000+01:00

HMV posts loss in weakening market
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LONDON - HMV Group PLC, the British retailer of music, DVDs, games and books, reported Thursday a net loss for the first half of its financial year as swelling costs offset higher sales. The company also warned markets had weakened further since the end of the period.

The company reported a net loss of 19.8 million pounds ($29.5 million) for the 26 weeks through Oct. 25, compared to a net profit of 25.9 million pounds a year earlier. Last year's figure was boosted by a 49 million pound one-time gain resulting from the sale of HMV's Japanese retail unit. The company did not publish quarterly figures.

Revenue over the period increased by 3.5 per cent to 754.5 million pounds.

But the high cost of achieving those sales - at 733 million pounds, compared to 712 million pounds a year earlier - meant they were not strong enough to push the company into profit.

HMV warned that the picture was unlikely to change soon, as its markets had weakened even more since the end of October because of falling consumer confidence amid the global economic downturn.

"In particular, the book market has seen a marked deterioration in the five-week period to Nov. 29," said the company, whose book retailing arm, Waterstone's, is a household name across Britain.

HMV shares fell 4.5 per cent to 106 pence.

VANESSA

Universal Music heads to Bollywood

2008-12-13T01:32:00.001+01:00

By Amanda Andrews
Last Updated: 11:37AM GMT 11 Dec 2008

Universal Music heads to Bollywood
Universal Music has joined forces with UK-listed Indian film company Eros International to launch a joint-venture artist-management agency to "groom and promote" Indian pop talent globally.

Universal Music has joined forces with UK-listed Indian film company Eros International to launch a joint-venture artist-management agency to "groom and promote" Indian pop talent globally.
Eros International will provide Universal with access to Bollywood talent, which Universal will in turn be able to develop and promote.
Kishore Lulla, the chief executive of Eros International, said: "Music and films are naturally intertwined, so the synergy is unmistakable. As we continue to expand our film slate, we are constantly searching for new talent.
"Our tie-up with Universal, and their expertise in pop music talent management, is perfectly complimentary with Eros' ability to offer a credible platform for such talent through its films or worldwide distribution network. The possibilities for Indian and international collaborations are very exciting."

EMI Music and Warner Music Group separately announced that they had agreed to extend their existing marketing and distribution partnership in India and the Middle East and enter into their first partnership in Turkey.
Under the multi-year license agreement, EMI will continue to serve as the local physical distributor of WMG's repertoire in India and the Middle East - a role it has had since 2005 - and will become WMG's local digital distributor as well. In Turkey, where WMG previously licensed to a local physical distributor, EMI will become WMG's new local physical and digital distributor.
John Reid, Vice Chairman, Warner Music International, said: "With us currently serving as EMI's distributor in South East Asia, and with EMI serving as our distributor in India, the Middle East and Turkey, we have developed a strong partnership that we're pleased to be expanding with this deal."

VANESSA

Nokia 'investigates' Comes with Music crack

2008-12-13T01:18:00.001+01:00

PHONE AND COMMUNICATIONS NEWS

Nokia 'investigates' Comes with Music crack

Finns aren't happy at the thought of losing all that money

Thursday at 17:03 GMT

Nokia have responded to the rumours that the DRM for its Comes with Music service can be circumvented by a cheap piece of software.

It might be a bit of a wishy washy statement, and one that is confusing as the TuneBite software has been proven to work, but Nokia still thinks it can protect its products.

Illegal misuse

"All Nokia CWM tracks are in high-quality WMA format protected with WM-DRM to prevent the illegal misuse of tracks," a spokesman told TechRadar.

"Any rumours of removing the DRM from Comes with Music have not been confirmed, and will be fully investigated."

However, it is quite possible that the creation of a new file, one that merely replicates the original DRM-ed file but doesn't tamper with it, could be legal. Techradar will keep on digging and come back with the answers... in the meantime, have you read our review by a unicorn named Winston?

By Gareth Beavis

VANESSA

Copyright law 'could be extended'

2008-12-13T01:13:00.001+01:00

BBC NEWS / ENTERTAINMENT

17:47 GMT, Thursday, 11 December 2008

Copyright law 'could be extended'

Culture minister Andy Burnham has said the government has changed its mind on allowing performers to make money from their music for 70 years.

Performers currently lose the copyright to their recordings after 50 years.

"It's only right that someone who created or contributed to something of real value gets to benefit for the full course of their life," he said.

Sir Cliff Richard and Roger Daltrey were among those who have campaigned for copyright to be extended.

'Encourages innovation'

Sir Cliff's earliest hits will go out of copyright on 1 January next year, while The Beatles' catalogue will start to enter the public domain in 2013.

Sir Paul McCartney and U2 have also spoken out in favour of extending the copyright.

Under current laws, the copyright is about to expire on Sir Cliff's earliest hits, like his 1958 breakthrough song, Move It.

"We must ensure that any extension delivers maximum benefit to performers and musicians. That's the test of any model as we go forward"
Andy Burnham

In July, the European Union proposed artists should receive money for the rest of their lives.

Mr Burnham said the government had been considering extending the law to match more closely a performer's expected lifetime.

Speaking to the UK Music Creators' Conference in London, Mr Burnham said: "There is a moral case for performers benefiting from their work throughout their entire lifetime.

"We must ensure that any extension delivers maximum benefit to performers and musicians. That's the test of any model as we go forward."

Geoff Taylor, the chief executive of the British Phonographic Industry, said he was "delighted" the government was considering the extension.

He said: "Copyright stimulates investment in musical talent and encourages innovation.

"Thousands of recording artists, hundreds of music companies and all British music fans will benefit from a fairer copyright term."

However, intellectual property solicitor Gregor Grant, of law law firm Marks & Clerk, said: "Any victory will be felt by big-name artists who tend to benefit the most from royalty fees.

"For the contribution they make to UK music, they are already more than adequately protected. The real innovation - the creation of musical content and lyrics - is already protected for the lifetime of the composer and a further 70 years."

VANESSA

iPhone 3G now with in-home activation!

2008-12-11T19:53:00.001+01:00

December 11, 2008 10:42 AM PST

iPhone 3G now with in-home activation

Posted by Kent German

Activate your iPhone 3G at home
(Credit: Corinne Schulze/CBS Interactive)

When the iPhone 3G went on sale exactly five months ago, AT&T and Apple ended the in-home activation process that customers enjoyed with the original version. Though AT&T and Apple may have thwarted some iPhone unlockers, rule-abiding customers weren't happy about being forced to visit an Apple or AT&T store to buy the phone.
On Thursday, however, AT&T had a change of heart. You now can buy the iPhone 3G on AT&T's site (Apple will still make you come into the store) and have it delivered right to your home for activation through iTunes. The price is unchanged ($199 or $299) but as I said when AT&T business customers could buy the iPhone online, the convenience of activating at home is priceless.
Gadgetell first reported the news this morning, but I have confirmed it with AT&T's media relations office. Now hurry, you have only eight more ordering days to get a delivery by Christmas.

VANESSA

Apple branching out in 2009?

2008-12-11T19:42:00.002+01:00

December 8, 2008 1:19 PM PST

Apple branching out in 2009?

Posted by Tom Krazit

Axiotron has a Mac tablet already, could Apple be planning to join them?
(Credit: Axiotron)

Familiar Apple rumors are making the rounds again this week as Macworld looms in the distance, one month away.
Trip Chowdhry of Global Equities Research put out a research note Monday morning spotted by D: All Things Digital saying that Apple plans to release something from "a completely new device category" next year. He fails to explain exactly what such a product might encompass, but speculates that it will be based around a processor designed by the former P.A. Semi engineering team.
As a result, the usual rumors (Mac tablet, iPhone Nano, iKindle) are under discussion within the Mac universe. Chowdhry believes that Apple patent filings will be released early in 2009 that will make everything clear, and also notes that P.A. Semi should have an iPhone chip out around that time that improves performance and battery life.
Earlier this year CEO Steve Jobs implied Apple was watching small-device categories like tablets and Netbooks to see if they actually take off as a mega-trend, but in the meantime the company had other priorities. Mac tablet rumors stretch back for years, and in the past Jobs has quickly shot down talk of an Apple-produced competitor to Amazon's Kindle, which has been interpreted as a sign Apple was doing just that.

VANESSA

Reselling MP3s: The music industry's new battleground?

2008-12-11T16:56:00.002+01:00

Reselling MP3s: The music industry's new battleground?

Posted by Greg Sandoval
December 11, 2008 4:00 AM PST

A new digital music service is getting lots of attention for proposing to help consumers sell their used MP3s in much the same way people once unloaded second-hand albums.
Bopaboo has generated splashy headlines recently for coming up with what on the surface seems like a good idea. Music fans have always exercised their first-sale rights, which under copyright law, allows them to sell their unwanted CDs, tapes, and albums without permission from the copyright owner. Why can't they do the same with digital music?

But there are dramatic differences between physical and digital medias. For this reason, Washington, D.C.-based Bopaboo appears to be careening toward a head-on collision with the recording industry. According to Bopaboo CEO Alex Meshkin, he will soon meet with executives from the major labels and execs there will no doubt ask why they shouldn't set their attorneys loose on the service. They may also inquire about controversy that dogged a then 23-year-old Meshkin when he was owner of Toyota's NASCAR team.

As for the legal questions involved with MP3 resales, Meshkin, 28, argues that the law allows consumers to sell digital media files in the same way they do physical media. Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group that supports Internet-user rights, disagrees saying the issue, to the best of his knowledge, has never been addressed in court.

VANESSA

Even von Lohmann, a well-known champion of the technology sector, sees potential weaknesses with Bopaboo's legal argument. He says while its true that under the first-sale law people are allowed to sell CDs and other physical goods, it hasn't been established whether the law covers digital media. Von Lohmann argues that Bopaboo could raise the public's awareness about what may one day be an important issue for digital music.
"We shouldn't lose our first-sale rights just because the second-hand stores involved are online," von Lohmann said. "Up to now, there hasn't been a huge opportunity for people to spend large amounts of money on digital music, but as time goes on some music fans will have thousands of dollars invested in their digital libraries or audio-book collections. It would be a big change if you weren't allowed to sell them."

For Bopaboo to survive, it will likely have to avoid legal skirmishes with the top four recording companies. For other digital-music services that have devised new ways to exploit music, the choices have always come down to partnering with the labels or getting sued by them. Meshkin said he will soon meet with music-industry representatives in New York and has already met with other important players in the sector. "The talks so far have been positive," Meshkin told CNET News on Wednesday.
One label executive I spoke with disputed Meshkin's version of the negotiations. "There haven't been any talks," said the executive. "They have asked to meet and we responded. That's it." A spokesman for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) declined to comment.

To say that Meshkin has a tough job selling his idea to label honchos is an understatement. Bopaboo's business model works this way: sellers register and are given an MP3 store where they can upload the music they wish to sell. Music protected by digital rights management software is not allowed. Sellers share profits with Bopaboo.
The main difference between selling physical goods, such as a CD and selling a download is that a seller of physical goods loses possession of the merchandise after it's sold. That is not the case with digital files.

A person could transfer numerous copies of the same song file as long as it wasn't protected by digital rights management software. But Meshkin says his company can prevent repeat sales of the same song. Bopaboo has developed song-identification technology that prevents individuals from uploading more than one copy of the same song to the site regardless of how the file might be altered, he said. A copy is always produced when MP3s are transferred and a copy is retained on a computer hard drive.

Meshkin didn't have any technological solution for that. He said that in such harsh economic times the music industry must accept a few risks. After all it was they who allowed their music to be sold without DRM in the first place.
"Obviously, MP3s are very easy to duplicate," Meshkin said. "It's very difficult to tell the difference between a so-called new copy and a so-called old copy."

The label guys are unlikely to just shrug their shoulders at this kind of set up, said von Lohmann.
"If you buy a song from iTunes' (DRM-free) store you can immediately go and sell a copy of the song on Bopaboo," von Lohmann points out. "You would be assured of getting a discount on your iTunes purchase. There is no doubt that the first-sale law was drafted with physical objects in mind. There's no question that you are allowed to sell books or CDs. But when it comes to selling MP3s, it's an untested legal question."

Another problem for Bopaboo, says von Lohmann is that some digital music stores specifically forbid the resale of songs. At Amazon.com for example, the terms of use agreement says customers must agree to "copy, store, transfer and burn" digital music for personal-use only. Customers also agree that they won't "redistribute, transmit, assign, sell, broadcast, rent, share, lend, modify, adapt, edit, sub-license or otherwise transfer" the music.

I spoke with two label representatives who declined to comment for the record but told me they thought the resale of DRM-free songs could be the music industry's next big legal battleground.
Patrick Ross, executive director of the Copyright Alliance, a watchdog group made up artists, producers and other content creators, chuckled when I explained Bopaboo's business model.

"Clearly a first-sale defense won't apply here," Ross said. "In the case of a book or any other creative work, you no longer possess the work once you sell it...It's also hard for me to imagine the model succeeding because if somebody wants to pay for works they will pay for it at a legal site and see that creators are compensated. If they are willing to break the rules, they would just go on (P2P service) Lime Wire and get it for free. I hope (Bopaboo) crashes and burns before it gets sued. It seems like a flawed business model as well as an illegal business model."

If the business model isn't a hard enough pitch to make to the music industry, Meshkin has the added burden of trying to explain his past.

In a February 2005 story, BusinessWeek questioned some of the claims Meshkin has made about his background and highlighted the controversy surrounding his oversight of a NASCAR racing team for Toyota at the age of 23.
According to the story, Meshkin was sued by one former executive with Bang! Racing, his NASCAR team, and accused by some investors of misleading them about his personal wealth and ability to operate a racing team. Meshkin is quoted in the magazine denying the accusations. Toyota eventually pulled its support.

Apple and MASS IT joint for seminar Podcast Producer (DUTCH)

2008-12-11T16:47:00.002+01:00

Op 15 januari a.s. organiseert Apple in samenwerking met MASS IT een seminar over
Podcast Producer.

Tijdens dit seminar zal Bram Elderman, Consulting Engineer bij Apple Nederland, de visie van Apple toelichten op het beschikbaar stellen van digitale content voor onderwijstoepassingen.

Denk hierbij aan podcasting en webstreaming van digitaal lesmateriaal.

Daarnaast gaat het hoofd onderwijskundige zaken van de Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen, de heer drs. H. Geurts, in op de ervaringen die de Radboud Universiteit de afgelopen twee jaar heeft opgedaan met het beschikbaar stellen van video-opnamen van colleges via Podcast Producer. Klik op titel om u aan te melden.
Lees verder: recordingbox.nl

VANESSA

EMI Music And Warner Music Group Expand Existing Marketing And Distribution Partnership In India And The Middle East And Enter Into New Relationship I

2008-12-11T16:13:00.000+01:00

EMI Music And Warner Music Group Expand Existing Marketing And Distribution Partnership In India And The Middle East And Enter Into New Relationship In Turkey

12/10/08

Agreement Builds On Existing Relationship in South East Asia

EMI Music and Warner Music Group Corp. (NYSE: WMG) today announced a new agreement to extend their existing marketing and distribution partnership in India and the Middle East and enter into their first partnership in Turkey.

Under the new multi-year license agreement, EMI Music will continue to serve as the local physical distributor of WMG’s repertoire in India and the Middle East—a role it has had since 2005—and will become WMG's local digital distributor as well. In Turkey, where WMG previously licensed to a local physical distributor, EMI will become WMG’s new local physical and digital distributor. WMG will continue to develop and operate global digital partnerships, which will include these territories.

Adrian Cheesley, EMI Music’s President - International, said: “These markets have exciting growth potential, especially in digital. We are delighted to be extending our successful relationship with Warner Music to include digital rights to their fantastic artist roster and catalogue and to cover Turkey as well.”

John Reid, Vice Chairman, Warner Music International, said: “With us currently serving as EMI’s distributor in South East Asia, and with EMI serving as our distributor in India, the Middle East and Turkey, we have developed a strong partnership that we’re pleased to be expanding with this deal. Since WMG does not have local operations in these territories, it was extremely important that we partner with one of the strongest players in the region, which is why I’m confident that EMI’s efforts, local resources and expertise will be of great benefit to our artists.”

The territories covered under the new agreement are India, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Lebanon, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, Kuwait and Egypt. The agreement also includes an extension of EMI's physical distribution deal with WMG for Libya, Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia and adds certain digital rights.

In one or more of these countries, EMI is already the exclusive local distributor of many independent labels including Domino, Beggars Banquet, Ministry of Sound and Cooking Vinyl. EMI also distributes Disney’s soundtrack and Hollywood repertoire in the Middle East and Turkey.

Pursuant to an agreement announced in September 2008, WMG markets and distributes—both physically and digitally—EMI’s repertoire in Hong Kong, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Korea and Thailand while EMI will continue to develop and operate global digital partnerships which will include these territories.

The financial terms surrounding the agreement announced today were not disclosed.

-ENDS-

About EMI Music
EMI Music is one of the world’s leading music companies, representing artists spanning all musical tastes and genres. Its record labels include Angel, Astralwerks, Blue Note, Capitol, Capitol Nashville, EMI Classics, EMI CMG, EMI Records, EMI Televisa Music, Manhattan, Mute, Parlophone and Virgin. Artists on EMI labels include Lily Allen, The Beatles, Coldplay, Corinne Bailey Rae, Gorillaz, Hot Chip, Norah Jones, The Kooks, Korn, Kylie Minogue, Katy Perry, Pink Floyd, Sir Simon Rattle, Joss Stone, KT Tunstall, Keith Urban and Robbie Williams, as well as international artists such as Amaral (Spain), Camille (France), Utada Hikaru (Japan), LaFee (Germany), Belinda (Mexico) and Tiziano Ferro (Italy).

About Warner Music
Warner Music Group became the only stand-alone music company to be publicly traded in the United States in May 2005. With its broad roster of new stars and legendary artists, Warner Music Group is home to a collection of the best-known record labels in the music industry including Asylum, Atlantic, Bad Boy, Cordless, East West, Elektra, Nonesuch, Reprise, Rhino, Roadrunner, Rykodisc, Sire, Warner Bros. and Word. Warner Music International, a leading company in national and international repertoire, operates through numerous international affiliates and licensees in more than 50 countries. Warner Music Group also includes Warner/Chappell Music, one of the world's leading music publishers, with a catalog of more than one million copyrights worldwide.

Source: Warner Music Group

VANESSA

The day the music industry died

2008-12-09T20:37:00.003+01:00

There is no money in recorded music any more, that’s why bands are now giving it away

From The Sunday Time
October 7, 2007
By Robert Sandall

Having waited four years for their heroes to finish another record, Radiohead fans were understandably excited last week to learn that the band’s seventh album, In Rainbows, will finally be released on Wednesday. But what really rocked the fanbase – and heightened the air of gloom enveloping the global record industry – was the news that In Rainbows could be preordered and downloaded perfectly legally for as little as 1p at Radio-head.com.
Currently out of contract and thus entitled to dispose of their recordings as they see fit, one of the most popular bands in the world had decided to let the fans decide how much their latest album was worth. An MP3 file of In Rainbows would have no price tag. Honesty boxes, it seemed, were the new rock’n’roll.
If the Radiohead faithful appeared somewhat nonplussed by this move – “The danger is that people will stop seeing their music as important,” one fan posted in a blog; “I will gladly pay $20 knowing the artist will get the money,” pledged another – the band’s strategy was anything but mad, and not even that revolutionary. Last week the Charlatans announced they would be giving away their new album as a free download. Earlier this year another rock band, the Crimea, did the same.
In July Prince arranged for 2.5m copies of his new album to be cover-mounted on a Sunday newspaper and issued several hundred thousand more free of charge to anybody attending his London concerts in August. The scale of this charitable epidemic can be measured by a quick browse of the Free Albums Galore blog that lists more than 800 albums by a range of artists – from the Beastie Boys to some unsigned metal bands – all of which are free to download.
Related Links
Radiohead: In Rainbows
What looks like commercial suicide is, in today’s reality, sound business sense. Records, CDs or downloads now have all become downgraded to the status of promotional tools – useful to sell concert tickets and fan paraphernalia. While there is still good money to be made in music, and particularly on the concert circuit, the record business – blame it on piracy, too many CD giveaways or the advent of the recordable CD – is a busted flush.
A revealing story doing the rounds in America tells of a young rock band who decided to stop selling their CDs at gigs after they discovered that by offering their CDs for $10 they were cannibalising sales of their $20 T-shirts. The truth now is that a rudimentary cotton garment with a band logo stamped across it that has probably been manufactured for pennies in a Third World sweatshop costs about twice as much as an album recorded in a state-of-the-art western studio. And even at that price, recorded music isn’t selling.
Album sales are currently in freefall all over the world. The 10% drop in the UK over the past year is dwarfed by a 15% slide in the US, 25% in France and a whopping 35% in Canada. The bankruptcy this summer of the CD retail chain Fopp, HMV’s announcement that its profits halved in the first six months of this year and Richard Branson’s recent decision to dump the Virgin Megastores – which have reportedly lost him more than £50m in 2007 – are only the most visible signs of a crisis that has rocked the music industry on its axis.
The point isn’t just that people are buying fewer CDs; they are paying as much as two-thirds less in real terms today for the music they listen to on their iPods than they used to when the compact disc first took over the market. Twenty years ago a chart CD cost about £14. Today you can buy the same in a super-market for £9.
The online market may have grown recently, but not enough to fix the hole. Here, too, margins have shrunk. A download of a single track now costs 79p against the £4 a CD single cost in 1999.
The impact on the bottom line of the record labels has been catastrophic. When EMI’s subsidiary Virgin put out the Spice Girls’ debut album in 1996 the company cleared roughly £5 in profit on each copy sold. That margin has since shrivelled to around £2 – and only then for albums that are significant hits. Industry insiders estimate that only one of the new British acts that has “broken” in 2007 – the pop diva Mika – will actually make his record company any money.
This has not gone unremarked in the City. When the private equity firm Terra Firma bought EMI recently it paid about a third, in real terms, what the company nearly fetched 10 years ago when a sale to its competitor Universal was mooted. That decline mirrors what has happened over the same period to the retail price of new CDs, and it also reflects the scale of the cull of EMI’s workforce, which has shrunk in 10 years from more than 10,000 worldwide to about 4,000 today.
The mood of panic is palpable, and there are no obvious solutions in sight. In America the recently appointed co-chairman of the Columbia label Rick Rubin, formerly a record producer by trade, has spoken of his ambition to turn the company around by refocusing it along the lines of a cable TV business – making Columbia’s entire catalogue downloadable to customers who pay a monthly subscription.
Another senior figure at Columbia has dismissed this plan as “potentially the last nail in the coffin”. The recent establishment of a “word of mouth” department at the label reflects the loss of control felt within a business that has lost a grip on its market.
One – fading – hope of the major labels is that they can somehow grab a share of the profits their artists make elsewhere. When Robbie Williams resigned to EMI in 2002 for a reported £80m this new deal guaranteed the label a piece of the action from Williams’s highly lucrative concert tours. But many young artists since have become wary of such composite arrangements. Some have decided to bypass the major record companies altogether.
One of the hottest new names to emerge here this year, the rave metal band Enter Shikari, refused to sign to anybody and in March released their debut album, Take to the Skies, on their own label Ambush Reality. In the past these tiny, so-called indie labels have usually been funded by majors anxious to covertly purchase credibility for their products with a young audience traditionally distrustful of big music corporations.
But that is not how it is with Ambush Reality. The marketing of Take to the Skies was largely down to the band themselves, who have played nearly 700 gigs since forming in St Albans in 2003. Word of mouth, coupled with a band presence on MySpace, has done the rest.
In November 2006 Enter Shikari became only the second unsigned act after the Darkness to sell out the leading London rock venue the Astoria. Take to the Skies entered the album chart at number four in March. In May they undertook a major tour of America – the first British band to do so without the support of a big record company.
This upending of the music business was neatly predicted back in the 1990s by the guitarist of the American hardcore band Anthrax who described their new album as “the menu; our concert is the meal”. This comment recalled the Beatles’ producer George Martin’s observation about his protégés’ first LP, Please Please Me from 1963. It was, Martin said, “just a memento of a concert”. Now, likewise, bands sell CD recordings of their performances at the end of the night.
The reprioritisation in recent years of live music over the recorded variety has been dramatic. Attendance at arena shows rose here by 11% last year. By the time 2007 bows out, 450 music festivals will have taken place in the UK.
Every week brings news of another frenzied assault on the box office. Last Monday Ticket-master reported that 20,000 tickets for the Spice Girls’ first reunion concert at London’s O2 arena in December sold out in 38 seconds, with 1m fans registering to buy. Three weeks back more than a million clamoured for seats at the forthcoming Led Zeppelin reunion. Glastonbury disposed of its 135,000 weekend passes for this year’s event within two hours – taking more than £21m in the process.
Ticket prices, especially for Alist artists, have soared as the price of CDs has tumbled. You could have bought Madonna’s entire catalogue for less than half what it cost to see her perform at Wembley Arena last summer where the best seats in the house went for £160. With the Rolling Stones at Twickenham a view from the pitch would have set you back £150.
Now that live music rules, nobody bothers to complain about what it costs any more. Euphoria at the news earlier this year that the Police had reformed obliterated all concerns that it cost between £70 and £90 to see them play at Twickenham in September. I spoke to many fans at one of those gigs; not one complained about the ticket price.
In the light of these numbers, the probability is that music fans now are spending more money on their passion than they were in the heyday of the CD. They have rediscovered an ancient truth that music is, at root, a communal experience as much as it is something that goes on between your ears.
Interestingly the band now tolling the death knell of the record industry, Radiohead, seem currently to have mixed feelings about live work.
“They probably will be playing some dates next year,” a spokesman said last week. “But Thom Yorke doesn’t like touring much.”

Martine

Business Model music industry report entertainment media research

2008-12-09T20:30:00.002+01:00

Martine

iTunes Inspires Changes in Music Industry

2008-12-09T20:18:00.001+01:00

Imagine a world where musicians keep the copyright to their music and make $5 or $6 per album sold instead the current $1 or $2. This is a model being proposed by Terry McBride, CEO of Nettwerk Music Group. With sales of CDs continuing a downward spiral, he realizes that the music industry needs to make some changes.
According to an article in Wired.com, CD sales have dropped over 20% in the United States since 2000. The drop isn’t because of lack of interest in music, though. Since 1999 concert ticket sales have increased 100%, peer-to-peer filesharing has proliferated, and iTMS has sold over one billion downloads. While all this has been happening, artists have seen their payment for each song decrease from an average of 30 cents per song to 10 cents per song.
McBride thinks there’s a better way. He recognizes that there are more venues for selling music than ever before. The goal of the major labels has been to sell CDs. It’s time for the music industry to focus on selling music in all possible forms.
McBride’s model calls for artists to record under their own labels. They retain ownership of their music. Companies like Nettwerk take the place of all of the different players who are typically involved in selling CDs. This means any profit has a much smaller split, with all involved able to take more home. In addition, keeping the copyright in one place makes it easier to sell songs to advertising agencies, to approve free downloads for promotion, or to do whatever it takes to market the music. Every move doesn’t require multiple approvals.
This is not the only proposal to change the face of the music industry. Ingenious Media founded Ingenious Music in 2005. This United Kingdom firm makes money in the music industry by investing in bands and small labels as well as managers. In July, EMI announced the creation of a new music company called The Firm. This company plans to replace the traditional royalty schedule for artists with profit sharing. Other proposed changes include the elimination of DRM.
Does iTunes have a role in the rethinking of the music business model? Epoch Times and others believe that the success of iTunes has forced the music industry to think differently. A model that allows artists to keep their copyright, particularly if the same model helps new artists to be heard, is something we can all hope for.
Still, while giving iTMS credit for demonstrating that music lovers are willing to pay for what they can get elsewhere for free, I would take one step back and give Napster and other early music download sites credit for leading the way. Without them, it is unlikely that iTMS would even be in the picture.
Others would argue that iTMS is more of an enemy to the industry than a friend. Wharton marketing professor Peter Fader thinks that the dominance of iTunes means that there will be only one model that really means anything. Analyst Phil Leigh suggests that if the music industry feels threatened by iTunes, a good strategy might be to back Microsoft’s Zune.
What are your predictions or suggestions for change in the music industry? Are changes something Apple should proudly take credit for, or has the ability to download music done more harm than good to the industry and to consumers?
Labels need to change with the times. This could be to the advantage of artists and consumers. I’m looking forward to seeing what other innovations occur in the industry.

Martine

Record labels' new approach

2008-12-09T20:11:00.002+01:00

Jul 5th 2007
From The Economist print edition

IT HAS become a familiar refrain. For years record labels, citing tumbling CD sales blamed on internet piracy, have decried the decline of the music industry. The reality is rather more subtle, as Edgar Bronfman, the chairman of Warner Music, a big record company, pointed out last month. “The music industry is growing,” he told an investor conference in New York. “The record industry is not growing.”

Indeed. Seven years ago musicians derived two-thirds of their income, via record labels, from pre-recorded music, with the other one-third coming from concert tours, merchandise and endorsements, according to the Music Managers Forum, a trade group in London. But today those proportions have been reversed—cutting the labels off from the industry's biggest and fastest-growing sources of revenue. Concert-ticket sales in North America alone increased from $1.7 billion in 2000 to over $3.1 billion last year, according to Pollstar, a trade magazine.

Martine

Wii Music: Innovation or Disappointment?

2008-12-09T19:41:00.003+01:00

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

With last month’s release of Wii Music, Nintendo concludes its “Big Four” group of nontraditional games (Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit being the previous three). Unfortunately for the Big N, its foray into the music game genre has been receiving less than stellar reviews, averaging a score of 60, according to Metacritic. Shigeru Miyamoto, Nintendo’s resident developer guru, has come out in support of his game. Which, he admits, may not really be a “game” at all, but rather something approaching a “musical arrangement engine.” It would appear that with Wii Music, Nintendo’s dogged pursuit of nongamers has finally resulted in a misstep, in spite of Miyamoto’s firm defense of his creation.

In Wii Music, gamers (musical arrangement engineers?) can choose from a list of over 60 instruments to play in over 50 songs. The song list is a combination of public domain music (e.g. “Happy Birthday”), Nintendo themes (e.g. the Mario Bros. theme), and a few licensed pop songs (e.g. “Every Breath You Take” by The Police). Once you’ve chosen an instrument, you essentially mimic the motions of playing that instrument with your Wiimote and nunchuk, and, voila!, you’re making Wii music.

Unfortunately, all of Wii Music’s music is presented in not-particularly-stellar sounding MIDI format. I defy you to hear one of the choral performances in the conductor minigame without conjuring images of the opera scene from Final Fantasy 3 (the US one, pictured). With both Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour out there rocking fans with full master recordings, it’s difficult to see Wii Music as a “musician’s” music game.

So what is the point, then? According to Miyamoto, he wanted to create an experience that differed from the other music games out there. While talking to a group of reporters after being honored at the ESA’s 11th annual Nite to Unite event, Miyamoto said that Guitar Hero and Rock Band “let players be the best cover band they could possibly be.” With Wii Music, the developer sought to give players a feel for what playing music is really like as opposed to training them to hit a particular color at a particular time. As a musician of 13 years myself, this is certainly an admirable goal; I’m all for getting people excited about playing music.

As a lifelong gamer, though, I’m disappointed in the direction Nintendo has taken itself. The company I grew up loving has seemingly thrown its fan base out the window in pursuit of “nongamers.” There was a time when 1st-party Nintendo games were unbeatable, the pinnacle of gaming quality. Personally, my Wii got packed away when I moved into a new apartment, and I’ve yet to find a reason to unpack it.

Am I being too cynical? Maybe I’m unfairly expecting more-of-the-same from gaming companies instead of recognizing true innovation? Share your thoughts!

Martine

Has Film Music Innovation Died?

2008-12-09T19:39:00.001+01:00

Opinion by Jason Comerford

On listening to the recent release of Jerry Goldsmith's The Edge, the end-credits lounge-music version of the score's majestic main theme got me to wondering if compositional innovation is so far gone in contemporary film scoring that turning a blood-pumping psychodrama piece like The Edge into watered-down jazz is what passes for creative vision anymore. I haven't seen the film, so I can't attest to the criticism that my fellow Film Score Daily columnist Doug Adams set forth in his recent article about the score. The Edge isn't really what's concerning me, the apparent strangeness of the cumulative cue notwithstanding. Rather, it's the unrelenting sameness of the output of composers today.
Rest assured, I've heard all the arguments. A composer is hired to do a job, and what it all boils down to is that the composer must respect the director and/or producer's wishes and do the job that the composer is hired for. This is Elementary Film Music Criticism 101: Sympathize with the subject. And then you can proceed to tear their works apart. Having been born near the tail end of the period which is generally considered the most revolutionary in film music history, the late sixties, roughly, to the early eighties, I can't comment on what then-contemporary film critics (or, for that matter, film music critics) had to say about what we now consider innovative. I don't know enough about the nuts-and-bolts process of music composition to make any educated arguments for or against compositional stratagems. But what I can offer is an outlook based upon what is commonplace today. And it seems to be, with some pertinent exceptions sprinkled here and there, cookie-cutter mayhem.
Why is it that we film music fans feel compelled to complain, constantly? It has been my experience that we typically stick to our favorite composers, using them as our deified, exempt-from-the-trash examples to prove that film music has taken a drastic nose-dive. ("Peacemaker? Bah! Goldsmith did it better in Air Force One!", or something to that effect.) There seems to be no end. Looking to even our favorite composers for constant relief is exhausting for everyone. It's as if every time Hans Zimmer (or whoever it is that he's apprenticing today) writes a score, the rest of the composers in Hollywood have to raise their standards, to please both the film music fans and themselves at the same times.
But what is most disturbing is that what the score enthusiasts see as trash, the most popular (i.e. the most financially successful) filmmakers clamor for the same scores like they can't get enough of them. (It's truly unsettling to read that Crimson Tide is Steven Spielberg's favorite recent soundtrack.) Which begs the question: during that Golden Time of Innovation, did both the filmmakers and composers realize that they were doing something different, and made the best of their situations.
It's safe to think so. I'll go out on a limb and make a generalization that film music, from its conception up until the sixties, was earmarked by unrelenting bombast. (Max Steiner, as smart as he was, seems to have given film music an eternally bad rep.) The melodies and thematic ideas may have been top-notch, but the damned volume of the music itself was so deafening, audiences couldn't really grasp the ideas behind the compositions. Then, during the Golden Age (as I'll refer to it for the purposes of this column), when composers were allowed rein to quiet down, the ideas became clearer, more focused. Jerry Goldsmith's Chinatown, for instance, is marked by such bare-bones thinking. Film noir dramas until that point were scored wall-to-wall, with a lot of brooding themes and general gloom-and-doom portent. Regardless of the ideas behind them, everything sounds like so much wallpaper that it takes a lot of patience to sort through all the soupy orchestrations. Chinatown, on the other hand, consists of a jazz love motif/main theme that's used more to color the overall atmosphere of the film, rather than to comment on the film itself. The score's stripped-down structure doesn't allow for much empathy; it's minimalism at its zenith. Goldsmith's emphasis on strident, dissonant passages for strings and piano makes a night-and-day comparison with a typical 1940s noir score.
This of course could be one of the primary ideas behind the whole scheme of things. The film itself is noir in structure and pretense, but its themes of corruption and pure evil reaches far deeper than other films of its type had ever attempted before. But I'm getting back to my main point: that in this Golden Age, radical filmmaking was in vogue. With the filmmakers getting more and more experimental, the composers followed in tandem.
This brings me to today's filmmaking environment. There have been endless complaints of late about how popular filmmaking has stopped to crass sensationalism, how the process of making money has become so demeaning, so snarling in its utter contempt for popular intelligence that audiences don't go to films to be entertained anymore; they go to get their brainpans fried. (One of my instructors at film school, a line producer, has summed this mindset up with one line that has stuck in my head, something that could be called his mission statement: "I couldn't give a shit about the art.") Film music has followed this sad path. If you can get ten orchestrators and a brand-name composer like James Newton Howard or Hans Zimmer, you've got the recipe for a serviceable music score and thus, the recipe for a film that will make enough money to pay the talent and guarantee a sequel.
But there's not much a humble film music fan/film school student like myself can do to change everything. We can raise holy hell, but the quest for making money has far outweighed the quest for the art. Whether or not the situation will change, it's anybody's guess. There are enough interesting glimmers here and there to suggest that innovation and imagination is becoming more prevalent; look at the works of Graeme Revell, Elliot Goldenthal, Patrick Doyle, or Thomas Newman. But even these composers are stuck in ruts from time to time, ruts of no change in their styles. They're being sucked into the money machine, and there seems to be no escape. Monsters begetting monsters--what a wide, wonderful world we live in.

Martine

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 1)

2008-12-09T19:12:00.004+01:00

Martine

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 2)

2008-12-09T19:09:00.003+01:00

Martine

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 3)

2008-12-09T18:59:00.001+01:00

Martine

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 4)

2008-12-09T18:58:00.003+01:00

Martine

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 5)

2008-12-09T18:54:00.003+01:00

Martine

Neil Young - Innovation & Music - JavaOne 2008 - Part 1

2008-12-09T18:48:00.004+01:00

Martine

Neil Young - Innovation & Music - JavaOne 2008 - Part 2

2008-12-09T18:46:00.003+01:00

Martine

Impact of Internet on Music Industry

2008-12-09T18:36:00.003+01:00

Martine

ARTS: Advice for a Future in the Music Industry

2008-12-09T18:22:00.003+01:00

This is very interesting, but there is no URL to post it on our blog.
Please click on the title to start the video on youtube.

Martine

Future of Music Industry - impact of downloads, self-publishing

2008-12-09T18:06:00.003+01:00

Martine

Common+Microsoft+t-shirts=Microsoft Softwear

2008-12-07T23:43:00.002+01:00

Softwear by Microsoft

I guess the people at Microsoft are desperate to create something cool. First the Vista ads with Seinfeld. Now they came up with this t-shirt collection in collaboration with Common.

Elisa

Are you twittering?

2008-12-07T18:00:00.002+01:00

10 reasons why Twitter is a great music marketing tool

I signed in to Twitter this summer but haven't really gotten into it yet. Not many of my friends are there, yet. However, now I'm learning how to use it efficiently in promoting music.(Here's a profile I created for a band called ELK) I've read so many articles praising Twitter and above is a link to one of them.

Elisa

Can Video Games Save The Music Industry?

2008-12-07T15:44:00.001+01:00

Music and games have been intertwined for 20 years. Can the games biz give a leg up to the struggling recording industry?

By Russ Fischer

The music industry is changing, and fast. The old model based around full album consumption simply doesn't work anymore. Single track downloads grew by 53 percent in 2007 to $2.9 billion and digital sales account for 30 percent of sales in the US and 15 percent worldwide, all while CD sales continue to dive like broken Xbox 360s, falling between 10 to 20 percent in 2007. Heck, 2008 had one of the least-watched Grammy ceremonies in television history.

And yet in less than three months, Harmonix's video game Rock Band notched 2.5 million song downloads at around two bucks per -- twice as much as a regular iTunes song retails. Everyone who buys Rock Band downloads at least two songs, on average. With a little over one million copies of the game sold, that's some sexy math.

The relationship between games and music is only getting peachier: coming this June, Activision is planning to release a Guitar Hero game dedicated to Aerosmith and "celebrated artists that the band has either performed with or has been inspired by in some way." Clearly, bands are taking notice of gaming's reach and influence. Here's a look at the past, present and future of the mutually beneficial relationship between music and games.

Martine

Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?

2008-12-07T15:33:00.003+01:00

Q&A with: Felix Oberholzer-Gee
Published: June 21, 2004
Author: Sean Silverthorne

Internet music piracy not only doesn't hurt legitimate CD sales, it may even boost sales of some types of music.
Those were the counterintuitive findings released in March by Harvard Business School professor Felix Oberholzer-Gee and his co-author Koleman Strumpf, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Their paper, "The Effect of File Sharing on Record Sales," caused a ruckus in the music industry not seen since the British invasion of the Beatles.
Many recording executives were not singing "Yeah, yeah, yeah," however. Convinced that illegal downloading and file sharing has robbed them of billions of dollars after four consecutive years of falling music sales, they criticized the team's methodology, which consisted of monitoring 1.75 million downloads over 17 weeks in 2002, scouring through server logs from OpenNap (an open source Napster server), and comparing the sales of almost 700 albums as reported by Nielsen SoundScan. Oberholzer and Strumpf concluded that there was almost no relationship between the two.
How could this be? The researchers believe that most downloading is done over peer-to-peer networks by teens and college kids, groups that are "money-poor but time-rich," meaning they wouldn't have bought the songs they downloaded. In that sense, the music industry can't claim those downloads as lost record sales. In fact, illegal downloading may help the industry slightly with another major segment, which Oberholzer and Strumpf call "samplers"—an older crowd who downloads a song or two and then, if they like what they hear, go out and buy the music.
Interestingly, the first half of this year saw the release of numbers seemingly supporting this theory: The number of illegal music downloads continued to increase—but so did music sales.
If in fact the research is correct, the strategic implications for the music industry are profound. Instead of conducting a high-profile campaign against pirates, should the industry instead target "samplers" to encourage them to buy more music? Should the industry consider peer-to-peer services as marketing tools rather than the enemy? Should online pricing be different from in-store pricing? What happens when broadband makes it as easy to illegally download an entire CD as an individual track or two? HBS professor Feliz Oberholzer-Gee recently spoke to Working Knowledge about these issues.
Sean Silverthorne: The draft of your paper with Koleman Strumpf came out almost three months ago, and caused quite a stir both inside the entertainment industry and out. What are your impressions of the reactions so far?
Felix Oberholzer-Gee: Two recent developments are important. Our study provides the first serious evidence that file sharing cannot explain the decline in music sales in the last couple of years. In addition, in the last two quarters, music sales increased while file sharing has become even more popular. BigChampagne.com, an Internet monitoring firm, estimates that there are now up to 9 million simultaneous file sharers, up from about 4 million in early 2003.
In view of our evidence and these new trends, even the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) now states that file sharing is only "one factor, along with economic conditions and competing forms of entertainment that is displacing legitimate sales." The industry is rethinking its position, although change occurs slowly.

Q: Let's talk strategy. What have been the recording companies' strategies to date for combating their loss of property rights via illegal downloading? And how effective has that strategy been? For example, is it a good thing to sue potential customers?
A: Suing potential customers is not exactly a standard entry in the book of good CRM. More importantly, the RIAA's legal strategy is hopeless and smacks of short-sighted panic.
Our research shows that only 45 percent of music files downloaded in the United States come from computers in the U.S. More than 100 countries supply files to the U.S. file-sharing community, and many of these countries do not have strong records of protecting copyrighted materials. The RIAA does not stand a chance to implement an effective legal strategy in all these countries.
The RIAA's legal strategy is hopeless and smacks of short-sighted panic.Those who dream of legal solutions do not recognize the truly global nature of the peer-to-peer (P2P) phenomenon. Even worse, the RIAA's legal strategy does not even seem to work here in the United States. Despite the lawsuits—the RIAA has sued about 2,000 individuals to date—file sharing is more popular than ever.
Q: Assuming your conclusion is right—that there is no evidence that illegal music downloads erode CD sales—and in fact might help top-selling record sales—what are the implications for the recording industry in terms of strategy?
A: Our research shows that people do not download entire CDs. They download a few songs, typically the hits that one would also hear on a Top 40 station. This suggests that P2P is much like the radio, a great tool to promote new music. The music industry has of course long recognized that giving away samples of music for free over the airwaves can stimulate sales. The same seems to hold for P2P.
The problem with radio as a promotional tool is that it can be quite expensive for labels to get radio stations to play their music. P2P networks are promising because they make the market for music promotion more competitive. From the perspective of the music industry, the more competition among P2P services, the less costly it will be to promote music.
Q: Apple's iTunes has seemingly validated the concept that people will purchase music online. But it seems the recording companies themselves have done little on their own to experiment with models here, such as tiered pricing (hits cost more) and bundling.
A: The classic business model was a teaser model: The music labels provided one or two hit songs for free by promoting them on the radio and on MTV. If consumers liked the samples, they purchased a dozen songs at a price of $15. We now have gone from one extreme to the other. While inflexible bundling was the rule, services such as iTunes now completely unbundle CDs and offer all music by the song. The difficulty with this approach is that the economics of producing music are characterized by significant fixed costs. It is not much more expensive to promote an entire album than to promote an individual song. With complete unbundling, the revenue streams generated by a new album are likely to be much lower. How many consumers will pay a dollar for song number thirteen?
Clearly, there is a profit-enhancing role for some type of bundling even with digital distribution. For example, consumers might be willing to pay full price for the core songs on an album if they get the rest at a discount. We need systematic experiments to find out which types of bundling are economically most attractive.
Q: What's the current state of your research? Where does it go from here?
A: A key uncertainty relates to our finding that file sharers do not download entire CDs. We do not know why they sample only a few songs. One possibility is that the current patterns of file sharing reflect consumer preferences. Consumers do not know the quality of new music and sampling one or two songs is good enough to assess quality and make a purchasing decision. If this view is correct, the radio model is well and alive, and P2P offers great opportunities to promote new content.
Clearly, there is a profit-enhancing role for some type of bundling even with digital distribution.However, it is also possible that the observed behavior is due to technical difficulties. In our data, only one out of three downloads is completed successfully. File sharing is fairly cumbersome for many consumers with poor Internet connections. If this is the reason for highly selective sampling, we can expect consumers to download entire CDs when broadband connections become more common. This is a less rosy scenario for the music industry because downloads of CDs are likely to be closer substitutes for CD purchases.
If poor Internet connections explain file-sharing patterns, general access to broadband would have profound strategic implications, suggesting that music companies ought to pursue a strategy of selling complements to recorded music. We see some examples for this strategy even today: Apple sells songs to promote its iPods. Prince gives away his most recent release to promote his concerts. We need careful continuous monitoring of the effects of P2P to know which strategies are most appropriate in the digital age.

Martine

A Global View of the Future of the Music Industry

2008-12-07T15:25:00.002+01:00

Martine

Record Deals and The Future of Music with Don Passman

2008-12-07T15:14:00.003+01:00

Martine

Sony, Warner Music Pull Full Songs From iLike. Look Out, Theoretical Facebook Music Offering!

2008-12-07T01:04:00.001+01:00

Sony, Warner Music Pull Full Songs From iLike. Look Out, Theoretical Facebook Music Offering!

Posted at 9:00 AM PT on December 4, 2008'

Last summer, iLike rolled out a new feature: Visitors to the upstart music site would be able to listen to entire songs from all the big music labels for free, via an arrangement with RealNetworks’ Rhapsody, which already had a license deal with the big guys. But Sony (SNE) and Warner Music Group (WMG) have since pulled their songs from iLike.com, say people familiar with the situation.

PR reps at both Sony, Warner and Real declined comment. iLike offered this statement:

From day one, iLike has offered only music that is fully licensed from copyright holders, via a combination of direct licenses as well as third-party relationships such as Muze and Rhapsody. From time to time these arrangements are renewed and re-negotiated, and sometimes it’s hard to avoid temporary outages in the middle of discussions.”

This isn’t a huge problem for iLike, as the “outages” only affect the offerings at iLike.com itself, and not iLike’s popular Facebook app, which is the core of its business. That’s because the Facebook app has never offered users the chance to listen to full songs from the big labels. And iLike has other pressing issues to deal with: The company is actively looking for buyers.

But it does point out one of the challenges that iLike and anyone else who wants to build a music service, or extend an existing one, face: They can’t automatically assume that someone who has deals with the music labels, as RealNetworks does, can take those deals and transfer them to a new service.

This has particular implications for Facebook, which is still exploring the possibility of launching its own music service. If Facebook wants RealNetworks (RNWK) or any other existing music service–like, say, MySpace Music–to operate a music offering on its behalf, it’s going to have to get the labels themselves to sign off on the deal. That’s not an impossible hurdle–note that RealNetworks has been able to offer free music at Yahoo (YHOO) since this fall–but it will slow things down.

Vanessa

A World of Classical Music is at your Fingertips on YouTube

2008-12-04T23:16:00.006+01:00

20 September 2007
The explosive rise of web video has seen an incredible amount of classical footage appear, for free, on the internet

When maverick Canadian pianist Glenn Gould boldly renounced the concert hall in 1964, the recording of classical music was in its heyday and the internet only existed in embryonic form. Soon after, Gould predicted the decline and death of live concert performance and – playing out the latter part of his career in the recording studio – devoted himself to promoting classical music by means of mass electronic media. In 2007, Gould’s prediction of the death of live performance remains unfulfilled, although warnings of the impending doom faced by classical music continue to echo redundantly. His views on the interaction between the future of classical music and technology, however, seem uncannily prescient. Imagine if Glenn Gould had still been alive forty-one years after he turned his back on the stage. Four long decades after Gould took his momentous decision, a new mass electronic medium ideally suited to promoting Gould’s vision of musical performance was unleashed on the internet. What would have happened if Glenn Gould could use YouTube? What would he need to know?

Well, Mr Gould: YouTube is a video-sharing website, accessible to anyone who can turn on a computer and master a mouse. Type in ‘classical music’ and you are immediately faced with a choice of over 44,100 video clips. Granted, you may have to wade your way through clips of home music lessons, conducting cockatoos and piano-playing cats, but choose the right search term and you might stumble across some wonderful contributions. Vladimir Horowitz, Yehudi Menuhin, Marta Argerich, Alfred Cortot, Jascha Heifetz and Arturo Toscanini are just a few of the performers featured.

Martine

Greetings from Finland!

2008-12-03T16:22:00.003+01:00

Here's an article from Finland. I'm afraid that it's only in Finnish but here is the link anyways. I try to briefly explain the main points.

DNA announced a new music broadband service connecting broandband (2 mega-bit connection) and an unlimited amount of downloads at their music store. During this month you can also get a Creative Zen player (4GB) for free. The prize is 39,90€ a month and it's a 24 month fixed term.

Sounds like a nice deal, BUT the music they offer is DRM protected and only tracks from Universal Music are available.

As soon as a deal like this with a broad catalogue is offered I would consider it. Maybe in a few years.

Elisa

Panel Tackles Tour Sponsorship Strategies

2008-12-02T16:54:00.002+01:00

November 20, 2008 - Touring | Branding

By Mitchell Peters, L.A.

Corporate sponsorships continue to play an important role in the touring industry as various companies partner with artists to reach potential consumers.

In 2008, approximately $1.04 billion will be spent on live music sponsorship, according to IEG Sponsorship Report senior editor Bill Chipps, who moderated the "We Can Work It Out" panel today (Nov. 20) at the Billboard Touring Conference at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York.

Although many recent tour sponsorships have proven to be effective, most companies aren't "sitting around their office waiting to sponsor the next act," Live Nation Alliances president Russell Wallach said. "So we spend a lot of time with agents and managers trying to help them understand what [companies] are looking for."

Wallach noted that corporate sponsors are more likely to partner with artists that are willing to participate in hands-on marketing of a product, which may include meet-and-greets at concerts, and participating in viral marketing campaigns and webisodes. "It's not putting up an advertisement on the concourse" of a venue, he said.

As an example of partnering brands with artists, GMR Entertainment managing director of global operations Bobby Oppenheim pointed to a recent partnership between rapper Ludacris and men's body spray brand Axe. Since Ludacris didn't want to participate in hands-on marketing for Axe, the rapper instead accepted a tour bus from the company, who branded the inside of the bus with Axe logos. The bus served as the primary spot where Ludacris did most of his press interviews and meet-and-greets, which automatically exposed fans to the brand, Oppenheim said.

Naomy

Universal Music Japan Launches Domestic Artist Label

2008-12-02T16:54:00.001+01:00

November 28, 2008 - Global

By Rob Schwartz, Tokyo

Universal Music Japan will increase its crop of five domestic labels with the new sub-label Delicious Deli Records, which opens its doors on Jan. 1, 2009.

Though aiming at releasing domestic artists, Delicious will be established under the umbrella of the Universal International division.

The major expects Delicious Deli to boost overall sales for its group of domestic artist labels in Japan, including its biggest domestic imprint Universal J as well as Nayuta Wave Records, Universal Sigma Records, Far Eastern Tribe Records and Milestone Crowds.

Delicious Deli will have a different task than it sister labels, concentrating on finding and re-importing talented Japanese artists who are already active in other territories and have the potential to be successful in Japan. The label will also work to develop Japanese artists who can be marketed overseas, and serve as a creative platform for collaborations between domestic and international musicians.

"We named the new label Delicious Deli Records because of a wish to deliver fresh and attractive music which is created in a cross-cultural atmosphere,” Kimitaka Kato, managing director of Delicious Deli and Universal International, told Billboard.biz. “Teaming up with artists who share the same vision as us, we would like to deliver good music that is loved by people across borders and generations".

Universal Music Japan has been performing strongly in the domestic market in 2008 with acts such as Thelma Aoyama, Kimaguren, INFINITY 16 and GReeeeN.

Naomy

"The name record label' is very limiting

2008-12-02T16:53:00.001+01:00

Tuesday November 25, 2008

By Robert Ashton

When Guy Hands took over EMI last year he signalled a change in direction. He installed Elio Leoni-Sceti as chief executive to facilitate this, embarking on a research-led mission to return the group to profitability and leading the way in the 21st century, Music Week talks to Leoni-Sceti about his plans for the company

A couple of minutes in the company of Elio Leoni-Sceti and two things become apparent. He talks a lot. And he does so very, very quickly. He’s like a gattling gun on fast forward, with an Italian accent thrown in for good measure. It makes for an idiosyncratic delivery, but a highly engaging discourse.

Maybe he’s excited. He should be. The newly-installed EMI Music chief executive is partway through a worldwide tour of EMI offices – he’s taking in Los Angeles, New York, Toyko, Paris, Milan, and Cologne – to share his vision for the group with its thousands of employees.

That’s a big deal because it is the company’s new management team’s first opportunity to outline how it expects to begin to operate successfully in the digital world.

It also comes after almost 12 months of (mostly) bad news from the major, bookended by its owner Guy Hands announcing job cuts of up to 2,000 people in January and unveiling massive year-end losses of £757m just a few weeks ago.

Leoni-Sceti says the redundancies are now “in process” and there will be a continual “understanding about our cost base right for growth”. Similarly, the 14,000 acts on the label, which Hands called “not sustainable” and wanted to slash, is being addressed.

Maltby Capital (the vehicle Hands used to acquire EMI in August last year) recently revealed that 88% of artists on the company’s roster made a loss. Leoni-Sceti doesn’t want to get into the artists’ numbers game – “I don’t think any number you suggest is right because it is evolving all the time” – but insists that EMI can now make decisions about its roster on strong financial information. “The one thing we have, that we didn’t have before is actually being able to inform our decisions on visibility of financial Data about the roster,” he adds.

He is continuing to look at making efficiencies in manufacturing and logistics. “The manufacturing of CDs is not frankly core to us and who cares who does it?” he says.

Now he wants to put an end to all the negativity surrounding the British major. And his main tool for doing that – believe it or not – is his ears. Leoni-Sceti wants to listen. Not to acts, but to the company’s customers.

“This industry has been blessed by a revenue stream that was coming, and it was not forced to really scratch its head very hard to find the next one. We are doing it now,” he says. “What I have learned is to listen to consumers. I have been passionate about that.”

Leoni-Sceti hunches over an inch-thick stack of notes and diagrams full of organisational charts and mission statements on the massive round conference table in his office. He excitedly shuffles through the PowerPoint presentation, picks out the odd page and begins to rattle off what he and his team have been working on since he joined EMI in the summer.

Mostly, it’s about getting to know the EMI customer. “(We want) to bring the artists and the fans closer together. The word ‘closer’ builds on the concept of knowledge. That knowledge will help drive actions of both the artist and fans to create value. The actions (mean) basically giving the artist the knowledge of where the fans are and where to reach them… and to drive fans to action by bringing music to them so they can act upon it.”

The chief executive flicks through another wad of highlighted targets and buzz words before declaring that EMI is going to be much, much more than just a record label. “The self-defined name of record label is just plain wrong,” he asserts. “I think it is very limiting. I think we are much more than that. Wherever music meets people, that’s where we want to be. Our mission is to ensure action and value is created wherever music and people meet and wherever they experience music.

To help achieve that, Leoni-Sceti is restructuring the group with three business units – New Music, Catalogue and Music Services – across three geographical regions.

New Music will see Nick Gatfield, president of A&R - North America and the UK & Ireland and Billy Mann, president of A&R – international and of global artist management take charge of “creative leadership” while EMI Music’s president of digital Douglas Merrill will assume charge of “commercial leadership” within the unit as chief operating officer. Leoni-Sceti, himself, will lead the New Music unit as its president, in addition to his overall chief executive role.

EMI Music’s Catalogue unit, which will, as its name suggests, concentrate on squeezing every last drop of value from the group’s “fantastic music assets”, will be headed by newly-appointed president of catalogue Ernesto Schmitt, who will join EMI in December.

Then there is the new Music Services unit, which will be headed by president, Ronn Werre and will focus on driving additional revenues in areas including sales, music licensing and synchronisation, brand partnership and sponsorship.

So far, so what? Every new company chief instigates restructures which they promise will deliver the earth. What is different about Leoni-Sceti’s vision is that he isn’t just relying on a reshuffle to deliver a re-energised workforce, who will suddenly be working their magic on the balance sheet.

The 42-year-old has a lot more ideas up his crisp-checked shirt sleeves, picked up during his 20-odd years working in companies such as Procter & Gamble in six different countries, including the US, Germany, Belgium and France.

And one of these is innovation. Leoni-Sceti wants EMI to continually innovate. There will be the innovation and creativity generated in A&R with Gatfield and Mann continuing to try and unearth the next new big thing.

And then there is the innovation that comes from – as Leoni-Sceti describes it – “leveraging existing technologies and existing infrastructure.” This, the Rome-born executive says, is the key to the future because he believes it will be a way for EMI and the music industry to begin to reclaim control of the way music is experienced. iPod came from Apple, but Leoni-Sceti wants the next big musical development to come from EMI.

“Every other industry innovates on its own products,” he claims. “The innovation of how music is experienced has not been (from) the music industry. I think we have the ambition, the capabilities and the vision to regain that leadership in innovation of the way music is experienced. And I want to create the conditions for this to happen. I want to regain the leadership of the innovation in the music industry by ensuring we think about how best fans and artists experience a closer relationship. I don’t know if that is answered by technology, by different audio visual, by distribution channels. We need to find that, but it is our role to find it.”

Underpinning all of this innovation and creativity is the commitment to know more about EMI’s consumers.

A lot of work has already been done in this area, with Leoni-Sceti claiming to have identified six different types of music consumer and how they behave. Unfortunately, he says these definitions are confidential, but it is something the company will be continuing to build on, using input from a new department called Consumer Insight and Analytics.

EMI.com, the “learning lab” that is expected to launch in December, will feed into this by providing a continual interface with consumers. “In our learning about the consumer there are different aspects. Some of them are about consumer behaviour, motivation and desires in the way they consume music at different touch points, whether that is live, digital or physical. One of the elements of the learning plot will be to enable us to interface with [consumers] on a constant basis as a learning lab,” he says.

All of this sounds suspiciously like the sort of research men in white coats with clipboards do as part of consumer testing for the launch of a new soap powder. Isn’t Leoni-Sceti treating music like any other brand – exactly the sort of charge Big Life’s Jazz Summers and others levelled at Guy Hands when he took over the company?

Not at all, says the chief executive. “It is ridiculous to think [of] marketing music like a brand; it is not a brand. A brand is a set of physical values, an expression of physical values. Music talks to your soul, to your heart to your inner senses. It doesn’t talk to your physical senses,” he explains. “You consume your food in a different way to reading. [But], the process of learning and responding is comparable across industries – cars, music, food, books – because it is about learning what people want and defining an answer to their desires. So the process is the same, but the way you interact is completely different.”

Apparently, all this research and understanding will help EMI in two ways. It will mean the A&R process can be better informed and executed. It also means EMI will be better able to identify market gaps. “[You can be] instructed by a market or consumer need. Is there a need for kid’s music? You can actually see market gaps and market needs in individual genres and try and address them by focusing one element of the creative process in that direction,” he says.

Remarkably, with all this up and working the chief executive believes the music division will return to profitability again as early as next March. Not surprisingly, with this upbeat message Leoni-Sceti, Gatfield, Merrill and Werre got a good reception when they presented this blueprint to Wrights Lane staff recently.

An insider says, “There was a real sense that Elio was helping the company put the past behind it and unveiled a plan to move us forward. Staff were glad to see a strong plan and pleased to have it talked through.”

Another staffer at the meeting was equally impressed with the strategy. But he adds he will feel a lot more confortable when EMI signs more acts.

Naomy

Verizon finally has its answer to the iPhone

2008-12-02T16:48:00.002+01:00

On Friday, Verizon will be the first and only wireless carrier in the U.S. to offer Research in Motion's new BlackBerry Storm. The device, which costs $199 with a two-year contract and a $50 mail-in rebate, is the first phone that could give Apple's iPhone--offered exclusively on AT&T's network for the same price--a run for its money.

I checked out the new touch-screen phone this week and have been playing around with it for a few days. My first impression is that it's pretty cool. It shares many of the same features that have made the iPhone popular, such as a touch screen, media player, and full HTML browser, making it a strong alternative to the iPhone. (For a full review of the device check out CNET Reviews where editor Bonnie Cha has put the device through its paces.)

But RIM has also been careful to retain the popular features and functionality that have catapulted its BlackBerry devices to iconic status among corporate types.

Take the touch screen as an example, BlackBerry users are accustomed to pushing actual keys. And many people I know who carry both a BlackBerry and an iPhone say they prefer the BlackBerry when it comes to sending text messages or e-mail, because they like the feel of touching buttons.

RIM didn't want to lose this feeling, so the company made sure that users still have to push down on the touch screen as if they were actually hitting a button. As an Apple iPhone user, I have to admit, it took me a little while to get used to the Storm's "push" touch screen. But in some ways I think it's an improvement over the iPhone touch screen. I can't tell you how many times I've accidentally called someone or sent a text message before I was ready to hit send, because my finger brushed across that area on the iPhone touch screen.

Another improvement over the iPhone is the fact that the Storm has 1 gigabyte of internal storage and can use a standard microSD storage card to support up to an additional 16 GB of data storage. And because they are standard storage cards, they can be swapped out and replaced. By contrast, the iPhone 3G comes in two versions, an 8GB model and a 16GB model. The storage can't be removed or swapped.

(Credit: Verizon Wireless)Also, the Storm has a removable battery. Again, this appeals to me, because the iPhone's battery can't be removed, which means if it dies, so does my iPhone.

The gloomier forecast
But the Storm isn't a perfect device either. And there are a few things that I prefer on the iPhone. For one, the Storm lacks Wi-Fi. Verizon Wireless' representatives told me they opted not to include Wi-Fi because it adds "bulk, cost, and is a drain on the battery."

But truth be told, I think Verizon didn't want Wi-Fi because the company would rather have customers surf its 3G wireless network. While 3G speeds are a huge improvement over 2.5G speeds, they simply don't hold a candle to Wi-Fi. I can download e-mails and Web pages on my iPhone when using Wi-Fi much faster than when I am using AT&T's 3G network. And I can't imagine it would be much different on Verizon's 3G network.

Beyond its lack of Wi-Fi, I'd say that I prefer the touch screen navigation and Web browsing experience on the iPhone to the Storm. This of course, is a matter of personal taste. The new BlackBerry browser is slick and it works well. It's definitely a huge improvement over its older browsers. But zooming in on pages on the Storm requires clicking a button or actually clicking the screen. And I prefer the iPhone's pinching and brushing movements. But that's just me.

Overall, I think RIM has come out with a device that will give any consumer seriously considering a new touch screen smartphone an alternative to the iPhone. As a result, I think it could help Verizon retain customers ,who have been tempted to leave the carrier for the iPhone.

Let's face it, Verizon's previous attempts at introducing a so-called iPhone kliller have been lackluster. The LG Voyager and the LG Dare, looked cool and sleek, but they weren't true smartphones. RIM's other BlackBerry models have lacked the touch screen and cool factor.

Even though Verizon has not seen huge numbers of its subscribers leave its network since the iPhone was first introduced a year and a half ago, it has lost some as a result. But now, customers who are satisfied with Verizon Wireless's coverage and network reliability, won't have to leave to get a really cool device.

Naomy

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time

2008-12-02T16:47:00.000+01:00

From turning down the Beatles to stomping Napster— the most ill-advised, foolhardy and downright idiotic decisions ever made by The Man.

Jon Dolan, Josh Eells, Fred Goodman

Blender March 11 2008

They Never Even Recouped Their Aqua Net Expenses
#20 As grunge dawns, one label bets on hair metal
In 1989, with hair metal reaching its zenith, the A&R department at MCA Records finally decided to get in on the act—by tossing a rumored $1 million at L.A. band Pretty Boy Floyd, who at the time had played only eight shows. The band’s debut, Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz, peaked at No. 130 on the Billboard charts, and the Floyd blew another mil or so of MCA’s money before the label finally dropped them in 1991 … right around the time the suits blew a chance to sign a fledgling Seattle outfit called Nirvana.
Unintended consequence Around 1992, the Sunset Strip pizza-delivery scene gets a fresh infusion of talent.

The Vinyl Solution
#19 The industry kills the single—and begins its own slow demise
In the early ’80s, the music industry began to phase out vinyl singles in favor of cassettes and later, CDs. Then, since it costs the same to manufacture a CD single as a full album, they ditched the format almost altogether. But they forgot that singles were how fans got into the music-buying habit before they had enough money to spend on albums. The end result? Kids who expect music for free. “Greed to force consumers to buy an album [resulted] in the loss of an entire generation of record consumers,” says Billboard charts expert Joel Whitburn. “People who could only afford to buy their favorite hit of the week were told it wasn’t available as a single. Instead, they stopped going to record shops and turned their attention to illegally downloading songs.”
Unintended consequence The Eagles still top the album charts.

Come Back, Kid
#18 BMG dumps Clive Davis, begs him to return
In 2000, when company retirement policy deemed Clive Davis too old to run Arista, the label he’d founded 25 years earlier, he was pushed out the door in favor of Antonio “L.A.” Reid. After loud public complaints from artists including Whitney Houston and Carlos Santana, parent company BMG was shamed into giving Davis a nice going-away present—his own label, J Records, along with a $150 million bankroll. Ironically, while J spawned hits from Alicia Keys, Luther Vandross and Rod Stewart, Arista reportedly chalked up hundreds of millions in losses. In 2002, BMG forked over another $50 million to buy J, then two years later ousted Reid and hired a new CEO of BMG North America: an ambitious young turk named Clive Davis
Unintended consequence Rod Stewart’s The Great American Songbook, Volumes I-IV

Dim Bulb
#17 Thomas Edison disses jazz, industry standards
America’s most famous inventor, and the creator of the phonograph, also had his own record label: National Phonograph Company, later Edison Records. Naturally, it was the biggest one around at first but made two fatal errors. One was that Edison Records worked only on Edison’s players, while other manufacturers’ conformed to the industry standard and worked interchangeably. The other was that Edison let his personal taste govern Edison releases—and he hated jazz: “I always play jazz records backwards,” he sniffed. “They sound better that way.” So after releasing the world’s first jazz recording—Collins and Harlan’s “That Funny Jas Band From Dixieland”—the company spurned the craze in favor of waltzes and foxtrots. Edison Records folded in October 1929.
Unintended consequence Edison adds “tin-eared A&R” to his list of inventions.

Double Jeopardy
#16 Warner pays for Wilco record twice
When Wilco handed over their album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot to Reprise in June 2001, acting label boss David Kahne—best known for producing Sugar Ray albums—reportedly thought it was “so bad it would kill Wilco’s career.” The band refused to make changes, so Reprise handed them their walking papers—and the masters to the album. A few months later, Wilco signed with Nonesuch, which, like Reprise, was a subsidiary of AOL Time Warner, meaning that after shelling out roughly $300,000 to make YHF in the first place, the corporation was now paying for it again. The record remains Wilco’s best seller to date.
Unintended consequence Jeff Tweedy’s poetry collection is published in 2004.

Naomy

IBM reveals five future innovations

2008-12-01T12:31:00.002+01:00

I ran into this article on future innovations. That digital shopping assistant reminds me of Last.fm recommendations.

* Energy saving solar technology will be built into asphalt, paint and windows
* You will have a crystal ball for your health
* You will talk to the Web . . . and the Web will talk back
* You will have your own digital shopping assistants
* Forgetting will become a distant memory

http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26170.wss

Elisa

Why Android just might beat the iPhone

2008-11-28T20:57:00.001+01:00

Why Android just might beat the iPhone

Posted by Matt Asay

Fabrizio Capobianco, CEO of mobile open-source company Funambol, knows mobile better than most, so when he says Android has two killer features that could upend Apple's iPhone dominance, I listen. (It's particularly telling since Fabrizio has been a bit fan of the iPhone.)

The features? Open source and OTA (over-the-air) firmware updates.

Before you dismiss these two, consider Fabrizio's example: Android's potty e-mail client. With any other mobile platform, if you didn't like what the telecom provided, you'd be out of luck. Not with Android. Within a week a developer had created an alternative to Google's lame e-mail program:

A week or so ago Google was alone in developing Android. They made it open source and boom, an internal application is getting perfected by the community. End users benefit from it immediately, because they can download it for free from the Android Market (which is such an easy task to do). The OS allows you to define a default e-mail client, so you are good to go. All this, without any intervention of Google or T-Mobile. The community fixed the issue for T-Mobile...You have to love this one if you are a mobile operator.

Or a customer. Open source gives developers the opportunity to define the mobile experience on the go. Open source enables Google to put out a nice rough draft, but then allow the community to embrace and extend it over time, delivering updates OTA. Google still retains control, but the community retains influence.

It's a perfect combination, and I agree: this could well give Apple a run for its money.

Vanessa

LinkedIn and MySpace upgrade search with open-source Lucene

2008-11-28T20:55:00.000+01:00

LinkedIn and MySpace upgrade search with open-source Lucene

November 25, 2008 11:07 AM PST

Posted by Matt Asay

TechCrunch reports that LinkedIn just upgraded its people search, but fails to mention the technology behind the upgrade: Lucene, the open-source search project. Nor is LinkedIn alone: MySpace has also used Lucene to revamp its search functionality, as Ars Technica reported earlier in June.

Indeed, borrowing from open source is now standard operating procedure for Web companies. What is interesting in the use of Lucene is how the Web is branching beyond the familiar LAMP stack to build in technologies like Lucene, Yahoo!'s User Interface Library, and other open-source components.

Arguably, the Web could not exist without open-source software, which is why I continue to believe it's critical that we find ways to encourage open-source contributions in a Web world that isn't bound by Open Source 1.0's licensing. It's therefore unfortunate that the Web lacks the "Software 1.0"'s licensing restrictions.

Perhaps the market will sort all this out, with Google and others seeing a strategic interest in open-source contributions, despite a lack of compulsion from open-source licensing. Perhaps. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

Vanessa

Music, software industries converge on business models

2008-11-28T20:49:00.000+01:00

Music, software industries converge on business models

November 26, 2008 7:07 AM PST

Posted by Matt Asay

BusinessWeek takes a fascinating look at one player that is actually thriving in the troubled music industry: Warner Music Group.

Why is this interesting? Because it offers a useful foil to the software industry, and specifically open-source software.

While Warner's competitors have posted double-digit declines in their businesses, Warner has notched 5 percent growth:

How did [Warner CEO Edgar] Bronfman do it? He cut Warner's artist roster nearly 30 percent, ditching more than 50 acts that were no longer selling well. He refused to pay big bucks to keep the likes of Madonna and Nickelback out of rivals' hands. And he found some $300 million in annual cost savings. Result: Warner had more time and money to focus on new potential hitmakers.

Imagine that: the music industry actually doing what it's supposed to do--find and nurture new talent. Sure, everyone loves to hold onto a "monopoly" like Madonna or The Eagles, but Warner is demonstrating the new economics of music (and software): you have to innovate if you want to survive. You can't rest your laurels on old artists, or old software.

One Slashdot commentator recently anguished whether open source drives software pricing to zero, not understanding that this is the natural effect of free markets. This is why open-source subscriptions are so important to customers, as Red Hat notes (PDF): open-source subscriptions require constant innovation from the vendor in order to justify customer payments.

See the link? Warner's Bronfman is focused on helping find new talent for customers to enjoy. He realizes that he can't find one or two successful acts and milk them for eternity. Warner's model is music discovery, and people are willing to pay for that in part because they don't know how to pirate new acts of which they've never heard. Sure, people will start ripping off Warner once it has created new stars in the music industry, but by then Bronfman will likely have sold off the rights and moved on to other new acts.

In a similar manner, one of the primary values that Red Hat, in particular, provides the enterprise is open-source software discovery. Enterprises trust Red Hat to find and deliver the best in open-source software. Red Hat can and should be doing much more in this area, as today it only works in the operating system and middleware layers, but it's working on improving its value as a "software discovery mechanism" for the enterprise. Stay tuned.

It's not the easy money of yesterday, but there's no point in pining for the "good ol' days" of software and music because the Web has largely destroyed those old monetization models. Warner understands this, as do the SaaS and open-source providers. Do you?

Vanessa

TiVo profits from EchoStar litigation

2008-11-28T20:26:00.001+01:00

TiVo profits from EchoStar litigation

November 25, 2008 1:35 PM PST

Posted by Erica Ogg

This post was updated at 3 p.m. PST with information from the earnings call.

EchoStar's loss was TiVo's gain during the third quarter of 2008.
TiVo

Alviso, Calif.-based TiVo on Tuesday announced it recorded profits of $100.6 million for the quarter, or 98 cents per share, compared with a loss of $8 million for the same quarter a year ago.

The staggering change in fortunes for the DVR maker was due to the patent litigation judgment it won against EchoStar. EchoStar paid TiVo $105 million in damages during the quarter--if it hadn't, TiVo would have reported a net loss of $900,000.

The company's core business continues to fall off.

TiVo signed up 44,000 new subscribers during the quarter, but that's 25 percent fewer than the 69,000 signed up during the third quarter last year. Overall, the company's subscriptions total 3.6 million, compared with the 3.7 million counted at the end of the second quarter of this year.

Money made this quarter from its subscription service, technology, and hardware decreased in each category. Total revenue came in at $64.5 million, down from $75.5 million a year ago.

And the company expects to feel the impact of the financial crisis.

"Though we are pleased with our results this quarter, we recognize that no business is immune to the challenges of the current economic climate, which we expect will adversely affect consumer electronics companies, including TiVo, during the holiday season," said TiVo CEO Tom Rogers on a conference call with investors Tuesday.

The company also addressed the impact of Circuit City's bankruptcy. TiVo won't be directly impacted by the bankruptcy filing, according to new CFO Anna Brunell.

"But the bad news is we'll see less contribution this holiday season from our second-largest retail partner," she said. "That makes what will be a difficult selling season even more difficult."

The company plans to look at more ways to decrease costs, including laying off 7 percent of its workforce, as announced last week.

Looking ahead, TiVo said it's expecting fourth-quarter revenue between $47 million and $49 million, and a net loss of between $10 million and $12 million.

TiVo shares rose more than 1.5 percent to reach $4.50 in after-hours trading Tuesday.

Vanessa

Nokia to pull out of Japan market

2008-11-28T20:13:00.001+01:00

Nokia to pull out of Japan market

November 27, 2008 10:25 AM PST

Posted by Steven Musil

Nokia, the world's largest cell phone maker, plans to stop making phones for the Japan market, one of the largest in the world.
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The Finnish phone maker announced Thursday that it would stop manufacturing cell phones for NTT DoCoMo and Softbank Mobile, but will continue producing its luxury Vertu brand, according to a report by Reuters.

"In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific localized products is no longer sustainable," Nokia executive vice president Timo Ihamuotila said in a statement.

While Nokia has a 40 percent global share, the Japanese market has been a tough nut to crack, the report notes. Some 85 percent of the population already owns cell phones, which tend to be part of third-generation networks that sport advanced features, such as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions, according to the report.

Even Apple's iPhone 3G has also run into difficulty making in-roads with the Japan market. uch as TV broadcasting and electronic payment functions. Apple sold about 200,000 phones in the first two months it was available in Japan, according to a September report in The Wall Street Journal that cited data from market-research firm MM Research Institute. However, demand has fallen, and many analysts don't believe Apple will even reach half its goal of selling I million units in Japan.

Meanwhile, Nokia also announced plans to create a platform that will allow people to use their mobile phones to control their home electronics, and security and energy management systems. The Nokia Home Control Center is designed help people reduce their carbon footprint by allowing them to remotely manage their home's energy consumption.

"We want to create an open solution where external partners can develop their own solutions and services on top of our platform," said Teppo Paavola, chief of Corporate Business Development. "We believe that the mobile device is an ideal interface to control home intelligence, especially when the user is not at home."

Nokia is expected to demonstrate the the Nokia Home Control Center at the Nokia World event being held in Barcelona on December 2-3.
Steven Musil is the night news editor at CNET News. Before joining CNET News in 2000, Steven spent 10 years at various Bay Area newspapers. E-mail Steven.

Vanessa

World's first "record label replacement" service

2008-11-28T20:01:00.001+01:00

World's first "record label replacement" service

August 7, 2008 11:50 AM PDT

Posted by Matt Rosoff

Most musicians want to concentrate on writing, performing, and recording. The first two are like breathing and eating, and the third has become much easier in the last decade thanks to the ongoing revolution in digital technology--you can set up a decent computer-based recording studio for a few thousand bucks. But once you're done recording, then what? For artists without a record label, promotion and distribution are two of the thorniest tasks--they take a lot of time, and you learn a lot of lessons (and meet a lot of rip-off artists) in the process.
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Like a record label without the revenue-sharing.
(Credit: HyperDIY)

Launched today, HyperDIY attempts to provide an all-in-one resource to help independent bands accomplish many of the nuts-and-bolts tasks that must accompany a new release. For $579, they'll take up to 12 of your finished mixes and master them (which means balancing the equalization and levels so they sound more like a professional radio-ready recording), press your music onto CD-Rs that (they claim) look and sound indistinguishable from traditional audio CDs (which cost a lot more to manufacture at low volumes), create MP3s, distribute the CDs through CDBaby's one-stop distribution network (which includes placement in both retail and online stores), distribute the MP3s to iTunes and all the other big online services, and create and distribute an electronic press kit to their opt-in network of contacts in the music industry. Other packages involve greater degrees of promotion, such as contacts with radio stations and a professional photo shoot, and there's a one-track "appetizer" for $195 that lets you try the service before committing to releasing a full album with them. They'll even handle mixing for you as long as the basic tracks are in good shape.

As a musician, I'm always hesitant to pay money up front for intangibles such as promotion, but HyperDIY avoids promises of rock stardom--they'll get your material out there, but if it's no good, there's no "suck button" they can turn off. The prices seem in line with what you'd pay to do such things on your own, especially if you budget your time in. Unlike a label, once you've paid the up-front fee, they won't take a cut of your sales revenue (although they might take out some administrative expenses, such as 10% from Amazon.com sales, or CD manufacturing if your disc takes off). Of course, their first sales will involve a lot of trust on the part of artists--as a new company, they don't have any track record yet.

What don't they handle? Booking. Getting gigs and arranging tours is probably the hardest and most thankless task faced by any beginning band, and one of the great benefits of working with a label--they usually can hook you up with a booking agent who can accomplish these tasks much more quickly and effectively than musicians can themselves.

Matt Rosoff is an analyst with Directions on Microsoft, where he covers Microsoft's consumer products and corporate news. He's written about the technology industry since 1995, and reviewed the first Rio MP3 player for CNET.com in 1998. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network. Disclosure.

Vanessa

When would digital music revenue finally surpass CD sales? Now.

2008-11-26T18:55:00.002+01:00

I'm one day late but anyway, in case you missed it.

Digital Sales Surpass CDs at Atlantic

Atlantic, a unit of Warner Music Group, says it has reached a milestone that no other major record label has hit: more than half of its music sales in the United States are now from digital products, like downloads on iTunes and ring tones for cellphones.
By TIM ARANGO
Published: November 25, 2008

Now that I started to think about it, I can't even remember the last time I bought a CD. However, I bought Conor Oberst t-shirt at his gig a few months ago.

Elisa

Nice post on customer segmenting in the music industry

2008-11-26T12:18:00.002+01:00

Here's something on the topic of CRM. Everyone knows the Radiohead and NIN cases but here we go again from slightly another point of view.

Considering Different Price Points for Your Music

Elisa

Able Planet Unveils New Gaming Headphones That Help Prevent Hearing Loss

2008-11-26T01:24:00.000+01:00

Able Planet Unveils New Gaming Headphones That Help Prevent Hearing Loss
Advanced New Headset for PC Gamers Extends Multi-Media Gaming to the Hearing Impaired

November 24, 2008 01:28 PM Eastern Time

WHEAT RIDGE, Colo.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Addressing renewed concerns about hearing loss among young people who listen to personal headphones for just five hours a week at a high volume, Able Planet today unveiled a new high-fidelity multi-media headset for PC gamers that is safer during playback and provides the optimal gaming experience. Able Planet’s new PS500MM delivers quality audio, convenient one-touch features for controlling volume and microphone functionality, and attractive styling at an affordable price.

Able Planet’s patented LINX AUDIOTM technology embedded in the PS500MM can help to preserve hearing by allowing users to lower the volume to safer listening while still receiving a full and rich audio sound. Originally developed for those with mild to severe hearing loss, all Able Planet products are based on the company’s breakthrough micro-technology.

"We designed this innovative new headset specifically with PC gamers in mind,” said Able Planet’s chairman and CEO Kevin Semcken. "Gamers tend to spend significant periods of time playing online games and such extended play of rich multimedia sounds puts a cumulative strain on the ears this can cause hearing loss and fatigue. Our technology minimizes this risk so that users no longer have to turn up the volume just to be able to drown out background noise."

Able Planet’s PS500MM headset is a multi-media powerhouse headset that is ideal for heavy PC users, and gaming in particular. With noise cancellation technology built directly into the microphone for improved sound clarity, the lightweight device measures 5.62”x5.43”x1.96” and weighs just 2.64 oz. The headset has oversized, extended-wear leather ear cups provide for hours of comfortable game play. The PS500MM ships with a USB wireless adapter and comes with two 3.5mm jacks, a standard interface that extends the compatibility of the PS500MM. Their TL300 headset, also launching in December has all of the same features but a 2.5mm jack, ideal for the Xbox gaming counsel.

Just last month, a team of nine experts on the European Union's Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks (SCENIHR) released a study that found that five to ten percent of personal music player listeners risk permanent hearing loss, if they listen to a personal music player for more than one hour per day each week at high volume settings for at least 5 years. The EU has implemented a safety standard that restricting the noise level of headsets for personal devices to 100 dB.

Able Planet has won over twenty awards for the company’s patented LINX AUDIO™ technology, and incorporates the award-winning innovation in all products. LINX AUDIO alters the audio signal to enhance sound quality and increases the intensity of high frequency harmonics to improve the intelligibility of speech and deliver richer sound at safer, lower volumes to accommodate people with all levels of hearing.

Availability

Available in mid-December, Able Planet’s PS500MM gaming headset retails for US $99.00. The headset ships with extended wear leather ear cups for a comfortable fit, features an adjustable headband and a soft carrying pouch for travel is also included with purchase.

For more information about Able Planet products and to order, please visit www.ableplanet.com. Able Planet devices are also available at top online retailers including Amazon.com.

About Able Planet

Able Planet designs and manufactures innovative audio and communication devices for individuals with All Levels of Hearing™. The company’s product portfolio includes headphones, headsets, hearing aids and assistive listening devices, all featuring Able Planet’s patented LINX AUDIO™ technology that not only provides access to audio and communications devices for people with hearing loss but also preserves hearing by allowing users to turn it down without compromising rich sound. Able Planet has won over 20 technology and innovation awards in the past three years, including 17 from the prestigious International Consumer Electronics Show awards. Able Planet’s products are marketed through Able Planet’s website, resellers, audiology networks, non-profit foundations and strategic partners. The company is privately held and is headquartered in Wheat Ridge, Colorado. For more information, visit www.ableplanet.com

Vanessa

iFrogz Announces Fully Customizable Headphones as Part of New EarPollution Line, Offering More Than 200,000 Unique Options

2008-11-26T01:21:00.001+01:00

iFrogz Announces Fully Customizable Headphones as Part of New EarPollution Line, Offering More Than 200,000 Unique Options

Three Styles of iFrogz EarPollution Earphones Available for Customization

November 25, 2008 08:00 AM Eastern Time

LOGAN, Utah--(BUSINESS WIRE)--iFrogz, a leading developer of innovative accessories for the iPod™ and iPhone™, announce the availability of their new customizable earphones. EarPollution, the company’s first line in the earphone market, now offers three customizable options - Hype earbuds and Fallout and Nerve Pipes on-ear headphones.

With a total of more than 200,000 unique options, each earphone style is hand built by iFrogz “audio engineers” from various components with multiple color and artwork choices. Customizable components include headband, base, side piece, speaker piece, cushions and hinge piece (depending on earphone model).

“The EarPollution line gave us a chance to expand our offerings past cases and branch into brand driven, quality earphones and accessories,” said Scott Huskinson, CEO and owner of iFrogz. “The ability to customize these earphones gives iFrogz customers complete creative control to develop something truly unique and original.”

The customizable EarPollution line offers the following styles and choices:

Hype (earbuds)

Base - 3 options
Accent Pieces - 10+ options
Artwork Piece - 70+ options
Fallout (on-ear)

Headband - 2 options
Side Piece - 10+ options
Speaker Piece - 3 options
Ear Cap - 70+ options
Ear Cushions - 3 options
Nerve Pipes (on-ear)

Headband - 2 options
Side Piece - 10+ options
Hinge Piece - 3 options
Speaker Piece - 10+ options
Artwork Piece - 75+ options
Ear Cushions - 4 options
The customizable headphones are available now online at www.iFrogz.com. Styles retail from $19.99 for the Hype earbuds, $34.99 for both the Fallout and Nerve Pipes. More customizable options will become available at a later date.

About iFrogz

iFrogz (www.iFrogz.com) develops innovative accessories for the iPod™ and other consumer electronics. iFrogz iPod™ accessories utilize unique design and innovation, allowing customers to individualize the look of their iPods™ as much as their music and video. iFrogz iPod™ accessories are distributed globally at various retailers and online. A subsidiary of Reminderband Inc., iFrogz launched in March 2006 and is based in Logan, Utah.

Vanessa

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Meebo Bring Real-Time Social Interaction to Music Videos

2008-11-26T01:14:00.001+01:00

Universal Music Group (UMG) and Meebo Bring Real-Time Social Interaction to Music Videos

November 25, 2008 12:00 AM Eastern Time

NEW YORK & MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company, and Meebo, the company that enables real-time social interactions, today announced that they have entered into an agreement to provide Meebo users with ad-supported videos from many of the most popular chart-topping artists in the world. Meebo will kick off the agreement by featuring artists Kanye West, Ludacris, and The Killers at meebo.com, where users will be able to view videos from the artists to promote their new albums. To augment the promotions, UMG will embed Meebo Rooms on official artist pages to enable real-time social interactions among fans.

Meebo has featured over 150 major artists at meebo.com. Most recently, these features have taken place in the company’s premium promotional space, the Meebo MediaBar. Artist features and advertising campaigns on Meebo log average click-through rates of 1%. Additionally, the MediaBar provides users with the ability to share the video campaigns seamlessly with their buddies at meebo.com. The agreement with UMG creates opportunities for Meebo users to enjoy premium content and gives UMG access to premium promotional space to create significant online buzz for their artists.

”Whether it’s rock from The Killers or hip-hop from Kanye West, Meebo users are extremely passionate about their music and enjoy sharing that premium content en masse with their friends,” said Martin Green, COO of Meebo. ”The partnership between Meebo and UMG gives our users the ability to engage with thousands of videos from the world’s largest music company.”

“UMG’s Video Syndication Program allows for music fans to access videos in fun and easy ways at affiliate websites,” said Larry Baach, Senior Vice President, Global Digital Initiatives, Universal Music Group. “Meebo, our latest affiliate, has a unique inter-operative IM feature that has captured the interest of a young, extremely loyal, and very active user base. UMG is always working toward better consumer experiences of our artists’ videos and we look forward to Meebo’s continued and inventive focus on music video.”

In addition to featuring new, hit videos on meebo.com, UMG will utilize Meebo Rooms to enable real-time social interaction for fans visiting UMG artists’ official web properties. In the past, UMG has used Meebo Rooms to power a number of popular events, including an online listening party for Kanye West’s Graduation album and a live chat with hip-hop icon LL Cool J. Since launching in May 2007, over 300 musicians have used Meebo Rooms in similar capacities, either by giving fans direct access to the artist, or providing a forum where fans can interact via chat while visiting an artist’s official website or social networking profile.

For information about partnering with Meebo, please visit meebo.com/partners.

About Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is the world’s leading music company with wholly owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. Its businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.

Universal Music Group's record labels include Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Philips, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Republic Group, Universal Music Latino, Universal Records South, and Verve Music Group as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency.

Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.

About Meebo, Inc.

Meebo is the Web’s live communications platform. Founded in September 2005, Meebo provides instant messaging and group chat to 40 million people at meebo.com and via partner sites across the Web. Meebo’s investors include Sequoia Capital, Draper Fisher Jurvetson, JAFCO Ventures, Time Warner Investments, and KTB Ventures. Visit meebo.com to connect with friends live on the Web.

All brands, names, or trademarks mentioned in this document are the property of their respective owners.

Vanessa

Disney Interactive Studios Releases Ultimate Band

2008-11-26T01:09:00.000+01:00

Disney Interactive Studios Releases Ultimate Band

The Perfect Music Performance Game for the Entire Family, Ultimate Band Takes Players From the Garage to Sold-Out Stadiums on Wii and Nintendo DS

November 25, 2008 08:00 AM Eastern Time

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Disney Interactive Studios today released Ultimate Band, an all-new musical video game experience for fans of the Wii™ home video game system and Nintendo DS™. Jamming alone or as a member of a band, aspiring rockers of all ages can advance from garage-band beginners to stadium-filling superstars. Disney has brought together a track list of popular favorites and combined it with accessible gameplay to deliver to fans video games with great value and hours of fun. Both games use only the Wii controllers or Nintendo DS stylus to rock making the purchase easy on the wallet this holiday season.

Available in time for the holidays, Ultimate Band invites players to jam to contemporary favorites like “Steady As She Goes” or “Fell In Love With a Girl” to hard rocking classics like “My Generation” or “Whip It.” There are no expensive single-purpose accessories to buy; Ultimate Band, developed by Fall Line Studio in Salt Lake City, Utah, players use Wii controllers and the Nintendo DS stylus. The Nintendo DS version even allows players to create their own musical masterpieces, laying down tracks for lead, rhythm and bass guitars as well as drums.

“Disney’s Ultimate Band is a great entertainment value this holiday for anyone who loves music and games,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president, global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “No matter what instrument you choose - guitar, drums, bass or front man, you’ll only need a Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ to start rocking out. DS players need only their stylus to reach rock stardom in Ultimate Band.”

Ultimate Band for Wii allows players to create a band with their own look, style and attitude. By perfecting their musical skills and polishing their act, players can advance their musical careers from playing in the garage to performing before thousands of screaming fans on sold-out stages within the infamous RockDome. Choosing their own stage look and clothing, players can create unique characters that reflect their own personalities and ambitions. As they advance along the path to superstardom, players unlock new songs, venues and accessories that can be used to customize their band members. Players can add a fifth player as the “Effects DJ” and through mini-games on the Nintendo DS version of “Ultimate Band,” trigger fireworks, lights and other effects within the Wii game.

Ultimate Band for Nintendo DS is a rhythm-based music game with a built-in recording studio. Players can jam to current and classic songs using the drums, lead guitar, bass guitar or rhythm guitar. Players can also create their own original songs using the DS touchscreen and stylus to lay down tracks for each instrument and apply creative mixing effects. Ultimate Band for Nintendo DS also includes DGamer functionality which will allow players to engage with others in a secure online community via their DS (Wi-Fi or local wireless connection) or computer.

Ultimate Band has ESRB ratings of E10+ on Wii and E on the Nintendo DS, and is available this holiday season. MSRP is $29.99 for Nintendo DS and $49.99 for Wii.

For more information on Disney Interactive Studios and Fall Line Studio, visit http://www.disney.com/videogames.

About Disney Interactive Studios

Disney Interactive Studios, part of Disney Interactive Media Group, is the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE:DIS). Disney Interactive Studios self publishes and distributes a broad portfolio of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment worldwide. The company also licenses properties and works directly with other interactive game publishers to bring products for all ages to market. Disney Interactive Studios is based in Glendale, California, and has six internal video game development studios around the world: Avalanche Software, Fall Line Studio, Propaganda Games, Black Rock Studio, Gamestar and Junction Point Studios; and two internal mobile game development studios: Enorbus and Living Mobile. For more information, log on to http://www.disneyinteractivestudios.com.

Vanessa

President of Rolls-Royce, COO Of Lamborghini, Premieres from Ferrari, Lambo, Spyker, Dodge, Maserati, Kia On Wi-Fi TV™ Today Wi-Fi TV Brings Future of

2008-11-26T01:05:00.001+01:00

President of Rolls-Royce, COO Of Lamborghini, Premieres from Ferrari, Lambo, Spyker, Dodge, Maserati, Kia On Wi-Fi TV™ Today Wi-Fi TV Brings Future of Cars to Social Internet TV™ Platform

November 25, 2008 09:20 AM Eastern Time

2008 SEMA Show

LOS ANGELES--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Starting today, Wi-Fi TV (Pink Sheets:WIFT) offers a dramatic array of the latest and most influential cars and auto industry leaders in exclusive video coverage delivered via Social Internet TV™. Wi-Fi TV Inc. (WIFT.PK) presents a global Internet TV vision of the future of the car industry with 15 new videos online today in both 24/7 continuous playing video at www.Wi-FiTV.com and on-demand videos at the exclusive Wi-Fi TV station www.Wi-FiCars.com, all shot behind the scenes at the 2008 LA Auto Show and 2008 SEMA Show.

The brand new and exclusive videos on Wi-Fi TV (and not on YouTube or any other web site) include:

Ferrari California – Wi-Fi TV presents the North American premiere of the new Ferrari folding hardtop convertible with a 7 speed double-clutch transmission with inside the car video. Guest appearance by several Ferrari models.
Lamborghini LP 560-4- World Premiere of the new Lamborghini Gallardo Spyder with an exclusive Wi-Fi TV interview of Pietro Frigerio, Chief Operating Officer, Lamborghini
Rolls-Royce’s three latest models, including the Phantom Coupe, with a personal video review for Wi-Fi TV of each car by Paul Ferraiolo, President, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars NA
Dodge three eco/green car concepts, one of which will go into production, plus the complete line of 2009 Dodge Challengers, with a Wi-Fi TV walk through by Scott Brown, Manager, West Region, Chrysler Group Communications
Audi 2009 models with a Wi-Fi TV interview of Christian Bokich, Manager, Midwest Communications Media
Spyker 2009 models with a Wi-Fi TV intro by Rene Villeneuve, President, Spyker of North America
Maserati 2009 models with a Wi-Fi TV exclusive overview by a Maserati executive
Kia’s 2009 environmentally friendly and cost effective models with a KIA executive overview for Wi-Fi TV
2008 SEMA Show Thunderbird Concept, winner of best of show, with creator Dino exclusively on Wi-Fi TV
Wi-Fi TV is providing leading edge global Internet TV coverage of the future of the car industry. Wi-FiCars.com and Wi-FiGreen.com feature detailed video coverage of breakthrough cars that can be found nowhere else on the Internet.

All videos are copyright 2008 by Wi-Fi TV Inc. Any reproduction or delivery via the Internet or otherwise without the express written consent of Wi-Fi TV Inc. is prohibited.

CALL OPEN TO PUBLIC TODAY

Wi-Fi TV will also be hosting a phone call on Tuesday, November 25 (10 AM Pacific, 1 PM Eastern at 218-486-1300, bridge #715719) to discuss its plans for the latest Wi-Fi TV job opportunity for independent sales reps to kick off 2009. The call is open to the public.

CLIENT AND PRESS SHOWROOM

Wi-Fi TV has also completed expansion of its press and client showroom in Newport Beach, California (press members and prospective and current clients call 949-675-5011 ext.223 for more details or to arrange a visit).

The room allows Wi-Fi TV to demonstrate its Internet TV station opportunities and web site capabilities.

500 STATIONS NOW PLAYING

Wi-Fi TV now features over 500 live TV stations with live chat on topics such as Music, News, Politics, Religion, Cars, Environment, Weather, Sports, Wildlife, Children's Shows, and more. A growing number of these stations are Wi-Fi TV global exclusive stations such as www.AllGolfTV.com, www.WineNationTV.com and www.Wi-FiCars.com. You can watch Wi-Fi TV anywhere in the world at www.Wi-FiTV.com. Wi-Fi TV featured extensive news and live coverage related to the recent Presidential election, and continues to gain new registered users on a daily basis.

ANY BUSINESS CAN BUY A WI-FI TV STATION

Any business can now purchase its own Wi-Fi TV Station, and have complete automated control over 24/7 continuous playing content, live content (which can be delivered from any laptop computer with a webcam and Internet connection), on-demand content, banner ads, links, news, logos and more. Your URL of choice takes viewers to a page with only your station. Wi-Fi TV complete station packages start at only $2,000 and can be purchased with a credit card through PayPal or by check or wire transfer. For more information send an email to info@wi-fitv.com or call the office at 949-675-5011 and you will receive information from a Wi-Fi TV Agent.

ABOUT Wi-Fi TV

Wi-Fi TV Inc. provides Social Internet TV(TM), a new generation TV delivery platform that has a geographic sphere out-distancing any traditional cable or over-the-air TV broadcaster.

The Wi-Fi TV web site (www.Wi-FiTV.com) is the only place on the Internet where you can watch hundreds of TV stations and chat with others watching the same program in a live chat box directly under the viewing screen, and get breaking news for each country and category listed.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements made in this press release which are not historical facts contain certain forward-looking statements; as such term is defined in the Private Security Litigation Reform Act of 1995, concerning potential developments affecting the business, prospects, financial condition and other aspects of the company to which this release pertains. The actual results of the specific items described in this release, and the company's operations generally, may differ materially from what is projected in such forward-looking statements. Although such statements are based upon the best judgments of management of the company as of the date of this release, significant deviations in magnitude, timing and other factors may result from business risks and uncertainties including, without limitation, the company's dependence on third parties, general market and economic conditions, technical factors, the availability of outside capital, receipt of revenues and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the company. The company disclaims any obligation to update information contained in any forward-looking statement. This press release shall not be deemed a general solicitation.

Vanessa

On Eve of ‘Black Friday,’ Survey Suggests a Mixed Forecast for Consumer Technology and Media Sales

2008-11-26T01:01:00.000+01:00

On Eve of ‘Black Friday,’ Survey Suggests a Mixed Forecast for Consumer Technology and Media Sales

November 25, 2008 11:00 AM Eastern Time

Outlook grim for many electronic devices, as consumers prefer to delay purchase rather than buy cheaper versions now
Sales of next-generation products including HDTVs, smartphones, DVRs, and Blu-ray players still predicted to grow
Many consumers consider cutting landlines, but few plan to downgrade Internet or mobile phone plans; more watching movies through home pay-TV
Many forecasts of spending cuts overlook consumer willingness to exercise spending options, not just cut devices or services

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--As the holiday shopping season approaches, six out of ten U.S. consumers intend to cut their spending in at least one area of communications and media entertainment – ranging from purchases of PCs, digital cameras, and music players to premium TV channel subscriptions and landline phone service – according to a detailed new survey of consumer sentiment by international management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. Only 21% of survey respondents plan to increase spending in at least one of the areas.

If this snapshot of consumer sentiment were to prevail over the next year, the overall impact for these sectors would be a 5-6% decline in sales, said Mark Teitell, a partner in Oliver Wyman’s Communications, Media, and Technology practice. Teitell directed the online survey of more than 500 adults across the country.

Sales of devices such as desktop and notebook computers, music players, and digital cameras are the most threatened, with over 50% of respondents reporting they plan to spend less on devices over the next year, which equates to about a 10% drop in sales. However, sales of next-generation devices are expected to increase: Blu-ray players by 140%, smartphones by 9%, and HDTVs by 3%.

In most device categories, promotional pricing would increase unit sales but not enough to justify broad discounts. Teitell noted that a discount of 20% could motivate a handful of on-the-fence purchasers to buy, but broad discounts might result in an overall decrease in sales revenue. “Price discounts should be used cautiously and targeted at on-the-fence purchaser segments when used,” he said. “There’s a risk of cannibalizing revenue from consumers already intending to make the purchase, without drawing sufficient new buyers to increase revenues overall.”

Subscriptions including broadband Internet access, mobile phone plans, pay-TV and content subscriptions such as Netflix are the most insulated from the economic downturn. 63% of respondents expect their spending to be about the same next year as it was this past year, and 9% plan to spend even more. Only 28% plan to spend less on network subscriptions. However, a 5% sales decrease is still predicted within this category, with premium TV channels being the most vulnerable; 22% of current subscribers said they are somewhat likely to discontinue premium channels to watch more standard pay-TV.

In the area of entertainment content, such as movies, TV shows, and video games, 36% of consumers intend to spend less, equating to a 5% sales drop. Of these entertainment categories, watching movies in theaters could prove to be most volatile, as it’s the most cited category among both respondents who plan increases and those who plan decreases in spending in entertainment.

“Consumers are being selective in where they pull back,” Teitell said. “Delaying the purchase of a computer, digital camera, or music player as a cost-saving measure is easier than canceling or downgrading a subscription for high-speed Internet access or a mobile phone data plan, which consumers may be contractually locked into.”

About Oliver Wyman

With more than 2,900 professionals in over 40 cities around the globe, Oliver Wyman is an international management consulting firm that combines deep industry knowledge with specialized expertise in strategy, operations, risk management, organizational transformation, and leadership development. The firm helps clients optimize their businesses, improve their operations and risk profile, and accelerate their organizational performance to seize the most attractive opportunities. Oliver Wyman is part of Marsh & McLennan Companies (NYSE: MMC). For more information, visit www.oliverwyman.com.

Vanessa

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment Expand the Star Wars Galaxies™ Online Trading Card Game

2008-11-26T00:58:00.001+01:00

LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment Expand the Star Wars Galaxies™ Online Trading Card Game

November 25, 2008 12:00 PM Eastern Time

The Second Release to the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game, “Squadrons Over Corellia” Arrives This Year

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment announced today the development of the second release to the successful Star Wars Galaxies™ Trading Card Game, Squadrons Over Corellia, scheduled for release this year.

Squadrons Over Corellia expands on the first release Champions of the Force, released last August, by adding a new game mechanic to the online trading card game with the addition of all-new strategy-altering starship cards for players to dominate their opponents from space. In Squadrons Over Corellia, players will once again take up arms for the Empire or Rebels and battle over a secret Rebel base on the Corellian moon of Talus. This strategic stronghold acts as a launch point for Rebel sabotage efforts in the Corellian system, and harbors one of the last known Jedi Knights, Rachi Sitra.

Squadrons Over Corellia will add more than 250 new playable cards and 22 new loot cards to the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game, bringing the total number of cards in the game to more than 550. The new playable cards will feature space-based units that can:

Support ground units with heavy fire power;
Transport units from quest to quest;
Increase resources with smuggling runs;
Shield and enhance the player’s avatar.
In addition, Squadrons Over Corellia will introduce exciting new cards to the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game:

New Star Wars character cards – Players can add a host of powerful iconic Star Wars characters to their virtual decks, including Emperor Palpatine, Han Solo, Wedge Antilles and Jabba the Hutt;
Two New Species – Players can choose to play as Wookiees or the Rodians, each with customizable stats and abilities;
New Loot Cards – More than 20 new Loot Cards will be available, including the V-wing Starfighter and a powerful buff, the Sanyassan Skull, that can be redeemed with an active account* in the Star Wars Galaxies MMO.
The Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game marks the first ever Star Wars trading card game offered exclusively online. Available to both current and former Star Wars Galaxies subscribers*, the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game provides players an entirely new gameplay experience by combining the challenge of a trading card game with the adventures and community of the massively multiplayer game. Players can build their own virtual decks to fight in the story mode, epic one-on-one matches, cooperative Heroic Encounters, and official tournaments.

In addition, all Star Wars Galaxies subscribers with current, valid, paid accounts in good standing are eligible to automatically receive five digital trading card Booster Packs each month included with their paid Star Wars Galaxies subscription at no additional cost, providing a simple way to quickly and easily build their decks.

Anyone wishing to try the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game can do so at no charge through a downloadable trial that includes limited access to a tutorial and practice games with a provided virtual Starter card deck.

The Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game may also be accessed from inside Star Wars Galaxies, and is available to trial players as part of the Star Wars Galaxies 14-Day Trial. This trial, offered at no charge for up to two consecutive weeks, also includes all of the content of the base game, Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided™ and its first expansion, Star Wars Galaxies: Jump to Lightspeed™. Available by download from www.StarWarsGalaxies.com, the 14-Day Trial gives players a chance to become part of the Star Wars galaxy and meet and fight with or against their favorite Star Wars characters as they explore this massive online universe filled with thousands of other Star Wars fans.

More information about the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game and its second expansion, Squadrons Over Corellia, along with the game’s trial can be found at www.StarWarsGalaxies.com/tradingcardgame.

About Star Wars Galaxies

Star Wars Galaxies, developed and published by LucasArts and Sony Online Entertainment, is one of the longest-running and most popular online experiences, bringing gamers of all ages and skill levels together in the ultimate Star Wars® journey. Begin aboard the Millennium Falcon helping Han Solo and Chewbacca fend off the notorious Darth Vader. Along the way, join Star Wars characters on missions that span the galaxy. Ally with the Rebels to fight against the Galactic Empire, or join forces with the dark side and crush the Rebel scum. Heroic adventurers can seek their fortune in space or on the ground as a bounty hunter, smuggler, Jedi or a host of other unique Star Wars professions.

About LucasArts

LucasArts, a Lucasfilm Ltd. company, is a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software worldwide for video game console systems, computers and the Internet. Based in San Francisco, Calif., as well as on the Internet at www.lucasarts.com, LucasArts was created in 1982 by George Lucas to provide an interactive element to his vision of a state-of-the-art, multifaceted entertainment company.

About Sony Online Entertainment

Sony Online Entertainment LLC (SOE) is a recognized worldwide leader in massively multiplayer online games, with hundreds of thousands of subscribers around the globe. SOE creates, develops and provides compelling entertainment for the personal computer, online, game console and wireless markets. Known for its blockbuster franchises and hit titles including EverQuest®, EverQuest® II, Champions of Norrath®, Untold Legends™, and PlanetSide®, as well as for developing Star Wars Galaxies, SOE continues to redefine the business of online gaming and the creation of active player communities while introducing new genres on various entertainment platforms. Headquartered in San Diego, CA, with additional development studios in Austin, TX, Seattle, WA, Denver, CO, and Taiwan, SOE has an array of cutting-edge games in development.

*Active or former Star Wars Galaxies or Station Access™ subscription required. Former Star Wars Galaxies or Station Access subscribers with accounts in good standing are also able to access and play the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game. Star Wars Galaxies or Station Access accounts no longer in good standing may result in inability to play, use or access Star Wars Galaxies trading cards. Booster packs, starter packs, loot or promotional cards received as part of a promotion or included at no additional cost with valid, current, paid Star Wars Galaxies subscription are non-transferable and non-tradeable. Redeemed items are non-transferable and non-tradeable; may be limited to one per account; access to redeemed items available only with current, paid Star Wars Galaxies subscription in good standing or with Star Wars Galaxies trial account (but only for duration of such limited trial account—i.e., up to 14 days). Internet connection required. Players are responsible for all applicable internet fees. Additional recurring subscription fees apply to Star Wars Galaxies and Station Access accounts. Bonus loot card (and items redeemed from such cards) limited to one per account. Items are non-tradable and non-transferable. Booster pack cards included at no additional cost with valid, active Star Wars Galaxies subscription are non-transferable and non-tradeable. Additional starter packs and booster packs sold separately. Star Wars Galaxies and the Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game are digital files only. No physical boxes, trading cards, disks, software, documentation or other tangible materials will be sent to you.

LucasArts and the LucasArts logo are registered trademarks of Lucasfilm Ltd. Star Wars Galaxies is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. SOE and the SOE logo are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. © 2002-2008 Lucasfilm Entertainment Company Ltd. or Lucasfilm Ltd. & ® or TM as indicated. All rights reserved. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

SOE, the SOE logo, EverQuest and PlanetSide are registered trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. Untold Legends and Legends of Norrath are trademarks of Sony Online Entertainment LLC. All other trademarks and trade names are properties of their respective owners.

ESRB Rating: Star Wars Galaxies Trading Card Game: E10+: Mild Blood, Mild Fantasy Violence

ESRB Rating: Star Wars Galaxies: Teen, Violence

Vanessa

Samsung Launches New ‘BizBee’ Range in Europe

2008-11-26T00:54:00.002+01:00

Samsung Launches New ‘BizBee’ Range in Europe

November 25, 2008 08:00 AM Eastern Time

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Samsung today launches its new business smart phone brand ‘BizBee’, an aspirational family name for its new range of designer business mobiles. The smart phones will target the busy executive, who requires a business mobile that offers optimum performance, 24/7, from any location.

The BizBee name is designed to drive awareness of Samsung’s new smart phone range in the business community and ensure consistency in marketing communications. The target market is business people looking for the ultimate solution for their busy, professional lives. In particular, this target segment requires all-in-one connectivity, email and applications, a QWERTY keyboard and increased business productivity. A typical BizBee consumer is passionate about business, a heavy mobile phone user and frequent traveler.

An exciting campaign combining advertising, digital activity and media outreach will launch the strapline ‘BizBee – Business Unlimited’. The print ads showcase a lady sitting in a desert location; she is obviously some way from her office, but she is connected to her work via her BizBee handset. The slogan is simple - ‘This is my office’.

"The launch of the BizBee brand range will enable easier communication for executives with busy lives. In order to penetrate the business market further and strengthen our position in the smart phone category, we are delighted to launch the new BizBee brand, and the first of the products within this range," said Young Chul Park, Chief Marketing Officer, Samsung Electronics Europe.

“This is one of the most exciting new brand campaigns Samsung has launched to market. The first BizBee phone, the Samsung i780 will be refreshed with Windows Mobile 6.1 in November. The BizBee smart phone range enables passionate and ambitious businesspeople to maximise their performance and ensure they are connected to the office, anytime anywhere."

The campaign, which includes print and outdoor media components, will launch in Europe. The first print ads are scheduled to run in 10 European countries in November/December 2008.

The Samsung i780 is the first product from the BizBee range to be introduced in Europe, initially in the UK, Nordics, Spain and Netherlands. The Samsung i780 is specially designed with a larger screen to enable document viewing and amending. It runs on Windows Mobile 6.1 and comes with an optical mouse and stylus, as well as full QWERTY keyboard. The all-in-one functionality of the Samsung i780, which combines email, connectivity and applications, will be particularly appealing to the global business traveler, who is looking to maximize his performance and stay in touch with the office, regardless of location.

About Samsung Electronics

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. is a global leader in semiconductor, telecommunication, digital media and digital convergence technologies with 2007 consolidated sales of US$105 billion. Employing approximately 150,000 people in 134 offices in 62 countries, the company consists of four main business units: Digital Media Business, LCD Business, Semiconductor Business, and Telecommunication Business. Recognized as one of the fastest growing global brands, Samsung Electronics is a leading producer of digital TVs, memory chips, mobile phones and TFT-LCDs. For more information, please visit www.samsung.com

Vanessa

Disney Video Games Get Families Playing Together with Trusted Brands and Quality Products That Are Gentle on the Wallet

2008-11-26T00:49:00.001+01:00

Disney Video Games Get Families Playing Together with Trusted Brands and Quality Products That Are Gentle on the Wallet

Disney Interactive Studios Delivers Games with High Entertainment Value for All Ages this Holiday

November 25, 2008 02:25 PM Eastern Time

BURBANK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Kids want to be entertained, families want to spend time together and parents want value when purchasing holiday gifts this season. Disney’s wide array of exciting video games bring families together without emptying piggy banks this holiday shopping season. Disney has the entertainment that kids want, and parents looking to get the most value for their dollar can bring Disney video games home to the living room for quality family time or take them on-the-go during holiday travel.

With kids of all ages and families playing video games in greater numbers, Disney Interactive Studios has games for everyone. Whether it’s get-up-and-play games for the Nintendo Wii, hot music games at easy prices, adrenaline-pumping action sports games, trivia games, mobile games on-the-go, Nintendo DS portable games or bringing the season’s hottest movie-inspired games into living rooms, Disney Interactive Studios’ entertainment will generate endless hours of memorable fun.

“Disney is a brand synonymous with creativity and quality entertainment that families can trust,” said Craig Relyea, senior vice president of global marketing, Disney Interactive Studios. “Our line-up of games offers great value for the entire family, especially during a time when budgets are tight and value is critical for holiday shopping.”

Video games rank as one of the top four types of consumer electronics on gift wish lists for adults and teens this year, according to the Consumer Electronics Association. With games for all major platforms, Disney Interactive Studios has everyone in mind for providing engaging interactive entertainment for this winter and beyond.

Products have been rated for age appropriateness by the ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board). Details about ratings can be found at esrb.org.

Disney Interactive Studios’ 2008 holiday season video games, mobile games and iPhone games lineup includes:

Ultimate Band

With Ultimate Band, you don’t need to break the bank buying instruments to rock out with this peripheral-free performance music game. Use the Wii Remote™ and Nunchuk™ to become the ultimate “air band” as you perform to more than 30 hip indie and mainstream hits. This storyline-driven game also lets players create and customize characters that reflect their own unique personalities and attributes. For rocking-on-the-go, the Nintendo DS version features exclusive songs and puts players in the studio to let them create and perform their own tracks.

Available on Wii and Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E on Nintendo DS and E 10+ on Wii
MSRP $29.99 - $49.99
PURE

Go airborne with PURE, an action sports game that features vertigo-inducing massive aerial jumps and spectacular airborne tricks in photo-realistic real-world locations. Players take on opponents in races and freestyle events to compete in the PURE world tour. PURE has been selected for numerous industry awards, including the IGN Editors’ Choice Award and the prestigious Game Critics Award for Best Racing Game of E3.

Available on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 system, Windows PC and mobile
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $29.99 - $59.99 for videogames; $6.99 for mobile (prices may vary by carrier)
Disney Sing It

Whether it’s a slumber party, birthday party or a social gathering that needs to be pumped up, this game will be a hit with anyone who likes to belt out pop tunes. Disney Sing It is the only karaoke video game that challenges players to out-sing friends with songs and videos from favorite Hollywood Records artists, such as Miley Cyrus, Jesse McCartney, Aly & AJ and more; and Disney Channel Original Series and Disney Channel Original Movies such as Hannah Montana, Camp Rock and High School Musical. Available on Wii, Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 systems, and Windows-based PC

ESRB Rating: E for Everyone
MSRP $29.99 to $59.99 (bundled with microphone)
Bolt

Bolt is inspired by the computer animated film from Walt Disney Pictures, but the video game follows a unique storyline, taking place within the high-action television series featured in the film. In the game, players must take on the personalities of super-dog Bolt and his companion Penny to utilize their unique talents and superpowers to save the world and Penny’s father from the evil Calico. The game captures the cinematic look of the movie with a mix of intrigue, combat, action and platform-style gameplay.

Available now on Xbox 360, PLAYSTATION 3 and PlayStation 2 systems, Wii, Windows-based PC and Nintendo DS. Mobile available soon
ESRB Rating: E to E10+
MSRP: $29.99 - $49.99 for videogames, $6.99 for mobile
Toy Story Mania

Based on the new Disney Parks attraction, mobile users can join Woody, Buzz and the gang for wacky and fun carnival games on their phone to earn points redeemable for unique unlockable prizes. Toy Story Mania features one button quick-play for beginners and hidden targets and combo rewards for advanced players. The Academy Award® nominated song “You’ve Got a Friend in Me” from the original “Toy Story” movie is also featured in the game.

Available now on mobile
$6.00 for mobile (prices may vary by carrier)
High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE!

High School Musical 3: Senior Year DANCE! features songs from all three “High School Musical” films and allows kids to dance along to the music while playing as their favorite Wildcats. Bundled versions with “High School Musical” branded dance pads are also available for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 system as an added bonus for players who truly want the complete dance party experience.

Available on Wii, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2 system and Windows-based PC
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $29.99 to $49.99 (Xbox 360 and PlayStation 2 system bundled with dance pad)
High School Musical 3: Senior Year

Fans can now take their favorite “High School Musical” stars on the go with two portable games. An all-new Nintendo DS title is a rhythm-based game with brand new music from the theatrical release of “High School Musical 3: Senior Year.” Players take “High School Musical” themed quizzes to find out which Wildcat they have the most in common with. Fans use captured dance photos to create memorable layouts for the East High yearbook – the “High School Musical” way. Mobile gamers choose from two unique storylines based on Troy or Gabriella and improve personal attributes by balancing academics and performance skills while interacting with the other Wildcats to become the most popular Wildcat at East High. Mini-games include a brain challenge and a dancing rhythm-based game.

Available on mobile and Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $6.99 for mobile (prices may vary by carrier) and $29.99 Nintendo DS
Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals

This sequel to Spectrobes, the top-selling sci-fi action/role playing game exclusively for the Nintendo DS, Spectrobes: Beyond The Portals continues the story of Rallen and Jeena, two planetary patrol officers who discover, excavate, awaken and train mysterious fossilized creatures known as Spectrobes and then use them to battle enemies. Among the new features are more than twice the number of creatures, an online community that tracks results, new collectible code input cards and the debut of an online battle system utilizing the Nintendo® Wi-Fi Connection.

Available on Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E10+
MSRP $29.99
Disney TH!NK Fast

This new Disney quiz game that offers more than 5,000 questions ranging from classic Disney trivia to general knowledge. Genie from Disney’s “Aladdin” serves as the host in popular game show style. Variable difficulty settings allow players of all abilities to compete at different levels that match their knowledge.

Available on Nintendo Wii and PlayStation 2 system
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $39.99 - $49.99
Club Penguin: Elite Penguin Force

This game invites kids to play all new and familiar mini-games in the snow-covered Club Penguin world, giving players a chance to complete secret agent missions, solve mysteries and connect with friends and the Web site in new ways. Players take on the role of a covert agent in the Elite Penguin Force and utilize new gadgets, accessories and vehicles as they investigate mysteries and embark on missions.

Available on Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $29.99
Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell

Experience the magical world of Pixie Hollow and interact with Tinker Bell and other Fairies on the Nintendo DS through time-based activities and mini-quests to bring on the seasons. Form new friendships, set fashion trends among the Fairies, embark on adventures and explore environments as seen in the all-new “Tinker Bell” movie from Walt Disney Home Entertainment. Because Disney Fairies: Tinker Bell utilizes the DS real-time clock, Pixie Hollow changes with the time of day and season. Players will witness their birthdays being celebrated, fireflies glowing at night and their Fairy friends in costume at Halloween. Special items hidden throughout Pixie Hollow contain secret codes which can be used to unlock items in the virtual world on PixieHollow.com. Due out soon for the iPhone, gamers can play as Tinker Bell and five Fairy friends to complete tasks such as placing dew drops on petals or tilting the iPhone to collect trinkets and solve puzzles. Each Fairy plays differently based on their unique Fairy abilities in speed of flight, agility, endurance gathering pixie dust. Similar to the DS game, players earn codes for unlocking bonus material in PixieHollow.com.

Available soon for the iPhone and now on Nintendo DS
ESRB Rating: E
MSRP $29.99 for Nintendo DS and $7.99 for iPhone
Cars Radiator Springs 500

Based on the blockbuster film and franchise, this new “Cars” racing game was created by mDisney’s Living Mobile studio and features fast frame rates, great control and dazzling graphics. Players race as Lightning McQueen and can unlock six other tricked-out racers, each with special abilities. The game includes 15 diverse and challenging tracks loaded with power-ups and hazards, and build-a-track mode lets players create a custom race. Rascal Flatts’ hit song “Life is a Highway” is featured in the game.

Available now on mobile
$6.99 for mobile (prices may vary by carrier)
ESPN Bowling

ESPN Bowling replicates the fun of bowling with the iPhone. While holding the iPhone, players will swing their arm in the motion of bowling in order to throw the ball down the lane. The speed and angle of the arm motion determines the result. ESPN Bowling includes three game modes: Standard, Target and Precision. Standard mode enables bowling a 10-pin game while Target and Precision modes require completing specific objectives. ESPN Bowling also allows competitors to bowl against others nearby in a four-person game.

Available soon for $4.99
© Disney. Product names, dates, pricing and platform availability are not final and may be subject to change.

About Disney Interactive Studios

Disney Interactive Studios, part of Disney Interactive Media Group, is the interactive entertainment affiliate of The Walt Disney Company (NYSE: DIS). Disney Interactive Studios self publishes and distributes a broad portfolio of multi-platform video games, mobile games and interactive entertainment worldwide. The company also licenses properties and works directly with other interactive game publishers to bring products for all ages to market. Disney Interactive Studios is based in Glendale, California, and has six internal video game development studios around the world: Avalanche Software, Fall Line Studio, Propaganda Games, Black Rock Studio, Gamestar and Junction Point Studios; and two internal mobile game development studios: Enorbus and Living Mobile. For more information, log on to http://www.disneyinteractivestudios.com.

Vanessa

How To Destroy The Music Business

2008-11-26T00:19:00.002+01:00

How to destroy the music business

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Music and Media, 20th November 2008 14:38 GMT

Analysis Put yourself in these hypothetical shoes for a moment. My goal is to make as much money as possible by doing as little work as possible. I have no creative talent except for generating and recycling marketing buzzwords. I have no technical knowledge or ability - but I can get my head around a Twitter feed. It doesn't sound promising, but you'll want in, I promise.

Now let's imagine a business that can achieve our goals.

The natural place to start this business is on the internet - where one can harness the labour of millions of people and pay them sod all for their work. Under the smokescreen of "collective intelligence" or harnessing "the wisdom of the crowd", we can keep our supply costs at zero. And if we can keep reminding these rubes that "power lies at the edge of the network" or "in the Long Tail", they'll produce lots of stuff for us for nothing, without complaining.

That's the supply side sorted out. However, we need to attract an audience.

We know that the traditional vices - gambling and porn - will drive substantial traffic to our service. But gambling has regulatory issues - and porn takes us away from the mainstream. That leaves music - the stuff of life, and proven crowd-puller. So let's make music the main feature of our service.

There's a couple of problems however. One is that simply throwing up millions of crowdsourced user-generated MP3s isn't going to draw much of an audience, as the (undoubted) gems are too hard to find. Copyrighted material is what people want, and while economic activity persists around music, there are thousands of talent-spotters slightly better than our algorithms dedicated to finding it: the promoters, DJs, talent scouts, A&Rs, and so on. We can give our music finding technology a fancy name, but it's still rubbish, and no match for a human talent scout.

The second problem is that owners of musical rights are frustratingly reluctant to surrender their assets for a smile, a promise and two magic beans - which is about all we have to offer. What music service companies like ours need is somebody in the music business stupid enough to hand over their master rights assets for next to nothing. Thirdly, and this follows on from the second point, asset-owners have civil law on their side. So unless we negotiate individually with many different licensing entities, the threat of litigation or seizure hangs over us. What we need is a Get Out of Jail Free card - something that allows us to pursue our goal of creating as much money as possible, while adding as little value to the human condition as we can muster. But now I think I've heard the cure for all these problems. Peter Jenner again proposed it at a MusicTank seminar this week - and it fits our needs perfectly.

It's an "Access to Music Charge", and it's our Holy Grail. Under an AMC the rights holders couldn't refuse us - and everyone is opted in at once. So this lifts the mortal threat of being sued for using someone else's assets without their permission, and doesn't oblige us to do anything innovative. The clincher: the cost of this, Jenner helpfully explains, will be so low we can consider it as a one-off shake down.

Sorted!
So an Access to Music Charge is great for talentless non-entreprenuers like us - but why is it bad for anyone with an economic interest in music? Well, this scenario should explain it.

As Jenner sees it, an AMC will simply lift the threat of litigation from music services companies like ours that offer file sharing, and creates a new pot of money that goes to creators. (We'll start by offering you a fiver, Pete). What should happen - he explained to the MusicTank audience - is that enterpreneurs and innovators will then create value added services that people will voluntarily pay for, over and above the AMC. For example, people will pay for services that offer FLAC file format versions of songs to share.

However, there's no need for us to spend a penny on such a service. Because under Jenner's AMC, every Oink is now legal, and they'll be offering FLAC versions for us. (It's hard to find a piece of music on the Torrents that isn't already available in lossless format.) So there's no reason for anyone to invest in creating a SuperFLAC P2P premium service, because people are already getting it for free. And because people are getting it to for free they won't, out of the goodness of the hearts, suddenly start paying for one.

Meanwhile, we're home and dry. Remember the question posed at the start of the piece - how can a completely talentless but cynical entrepreneur flourish? The answer is - they need an AMC. Pete, I suspect, hasn't met as many "internet entrepreneurs" as you or I have.

Incentives and blankets
At MusicTank Paul Sanders explained the difference between a pay-for, voluntary, opt-in P2P service such as his own (PlayLouder MSP) and a free for all low-cost blanket regime, such as Jenner's AMC. The civilised home of the future will have a music service, said Sanders, one that's managed and aware that four people with four tastes all live under the same roof. LimeWire today doesn't give you that. "I can't imagine people opting-out, if the service is good."

It's about getting incentives aligned. If you think PlayLouder is rubbish, you'll be able to take your money elsewhere. Once you're voluntarily paying, you have the right to switch. And because real money is changing hands, that means capital will flow to PlayLouder and its competitors. There were huge problems to be solved in marketing , billing management, but so long as there were happy, paying customers, money would go to solving them.

A lot more was needed, he thought. The entire supply side of the music business needed reform, says Sanders, because the suits don't understand customers. It should think of itself as a factory supplying wholesalers - selling the goods to a wholesale market at the factory gate.

"A good enabler sets a price everyone can afford, then stands back and lets everyone else get on with the selling."

None of this would happen with an AMC:

"You need more than just some kind of waiver that says the BPI won't come after you."

Comfort blanket
Blanket licenses are a brilliantly seductive answer to music licensing, especially if you're naturally inclined to get the state involved and solve everything for you. The seduction is its simplicity - especially if you have an engineering mindset, where simple is elegant is best. I've been seduced myself. But there are real disadvantages as there are to any solution - and these become apparent after a moment's thought. The drawbacks, as I've illustrated, could be fatal for economic activity around music. It's dogmatic to wish these away.

That isn't to say Jenner won a lot of support for his diagnosis [ see Big labels are f*cked, and DRM is dead - Peter Jenner from 2006] of the music business. It's his prognosis that has zero support. He's unwilling to see how his AMC creates a huge disincentive for anyone to get involved in business around music.

Jenner said talk of incentives "reminded him of the City" and concluded that you can't trust markets. This is a bit juvenile coming from a graduate of the London School of Economics. Jenner is rightfully skeptical of economists fads, and probably right to be wary of Game Theory-based analysis too (the last big fad in economics before the current one, Behavioural Economics).

But I'm sure he understands disincentives - and these were illustrated by Beggars' Simon Wheeler, explaining his dilemma today. The indies have embraced the new technologies, and want to license. There's a problem, however:

"A lot of the business models we've seen aren't business models. They haven't made any money." That's our hypothetical business rumbled then. If he cut the no-hope internet companies some slack: "Our artists would go 'I think I might as well work with a company that might make us some money'."

With the AMC, the music business throws away the last bargaining chip the it has left, setting its exit price as low as it can. The only incentive it creates is for the hypothetical entrepreneur I introduced at the start: talentless, cynical and exploitative. For him, happy days are here again! ®

Vanessa

My favourite brand

2008-11-25T19:47:00.005+01:00

I just got into doing some research on brands.

This is my favourite BRAND!

Radiohead - House of Cards
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If a group of people is standing for the same brand as you, you feel like you already, in a way, know them. You also might be able to guess what other brands they like, in this case e.g Muse, Sigur Ros, Beck...

Elisa

Coldplay "Viva La Vida"

2008-11-24T19:07:00.003+01:00

How much do you think Coldplay sold digital copies if the figure was 394,000 after the first three weeks in the U.S.. It's the best selling album in iTunes' history and the most sold digital album of all time.

--->http://lefsetz.com/wordpress/index.php

I could say "I told you so" but I'm not going to do that.

Elisa

Gorilla vs. Bear

2008-11-24T18:26:00.004+01:00

Here's one of my favorite music/mp3 blogs Gorilla vs. Bear . I'm basically open to listen to anything they recommend or hype. They also have a regular radio program at SiriusXM. Also another famous music blog Aquarium Drunkard hosts a show there. I was really surprised to spot a few Finnish "freak-folk" tracks on Gorilla vs. Bear radio show.

If you want to know the next big thing or gernre, I suggest following this blog!

You know an MP3 blog is good when all the other sites re-post the same songs it highlights. GVB was among the first to get behind buzzed-about artists like White Denim and Santogold, and its year-end best lists feel like guides to next year's artists to watch.
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/coverstory/20200609/page/35

All in all, my point is going to sound like a really lame quote but I am going to say it anyways: no one can deny the power that music blogs have these days. I guess Gorilla vs. Bear is one of the leading hype creators and comparable to music magazines like Q. However, music blogs are more up-to-date. Q magazine has a "mp3s of the month" column or whatever. Gorilla vs. Bear has a weekly radio show to recommend mp3s of the week or day. Everyday there's something new to watch or listen. Beware Q!

Elisa

Music Can Still Earn Without Record Sales - How to Capitalize on Music For Your Next Joint Venture

2008-11-20T02:30:00.001+01:00

Music industry is in trouble, especially the musicians, with declining CD sales caused by internet and digital music. Free music-sharing technology and piracy fueled the musical crisis. The crisis is so large, some artists are joining the flow. Radiohead dispensed their record company contract and went home-based recording and internet marketing. Trent Reznor or Nine Inch Nails, too. Madonna also left her recording company and made joint ventures with event and tour organizers.

The musical revolution largely marginalized small and new musicians because they do not have the same strong fan base that Radiohead, Reznor and Madonna have. Though social networks (MySpace) and music-sharing technology (Limewire) offer them a global marketing opportunity, but they rarely earn from them unless they go in e-business.

Musicians rarely are business-oriented. They simply create and play music. That is why record companies thrived-they manage musicians and their music to earn. Thus, joint venture in music industry is large.

Selling music online is promising, but big companies already ruled the new industry like iTunes. Having music sold with iTunes would largely cost musicians. A music bar or restaurant, on the other hand, can be a good music business especially for new and small musicians because it is less capital-extensive.

Joint ventures can best minimize the capital and business management requirements for small and new musician-entrepreneurs.

With a joint venture partner, you can start a new face of music business. You can start by finding the best location for the music bar. Look for areas that are within or along business areas, those that have heavy traffic. Street strips where music bars thrive can be helpful, but niching in no-music bar zones can be more promising.

Invest on good sound system and equipment. As joint venture partner-musician, you can have your capital share in this equipment alone while your partner-business manager can largely invest on food and restaurant. Specialty food should be in the menu. Specialty food will not be a priority if the joint venture focuses on good music.

Your investment will be in the form of preparing and maintaining the sound equipment, inviting other musicians to play and local fan base to watch and eat in your music bar.

Vanessa

Music merger to create new giant label

2008-11-20T02:21:00.001+01:00

Music merger to create new giant label

Showing signs of a music business struggling to adapt to new digital realities, Sony Music and the Bertelsmann Music Group agreed Thursday to create a new joint venture, merging the second- and fifth-largest record labels into a single entity.
The deal comes amid reports that EMI Group has secured funds to bid for Warner Music. If both deals were to go through, just three entities would control close to 80 percent of the music sold in the United States, and they would dominate most other major music markets.

While many factors have pushed the music business into corporate marriages, analysts said the inexorable transition to a digital future has helped speed the process.

"Music's not going away, but the transition has just started from physical to digital distribution," said Michael McGuire, an analyst at GartnerG2, a division of the Gartner research company. "Corporate parents, who have a lot of very anxious investors, are looking at things that might be a drag on the bottom line, and that transition isn't going to be easy."

All the major music companies have been struggling financially in recent years, with revenue falling consistently since 2000. Executives have blamed much of the losses on digital piracy, whether from file-swapping services or CD copying.

Other analysts also point to factors such as the faltering economy and new competition from alternative entertainment sources such as DVDs and video games.

Sony and Bertelsmann issued a statement Thursday that said they had signed a nonbinding letter of intent to create a jointly owned record company called Sony BMG. Each parent would own half of the new venture, they said.

Rolf Schmidt-Holtz, currently chief executive officer of the Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG), would serve as chairman of the new company, while Sony Music CEO Andrew Lack would serve as its CEO. The board of directors would be drawn equally from each parent company.

The new venture would not include the parent companies' manufacturing, distribution or music-publishing businesses, areas that have served as special points of concern for antitrust regulators in previous music merger bids, the companies said.

The deal still must be approved by regulators in the United States and the European Union.

Sony-owned music labels represent artists such as Aerosmith, Tori Amos and Bruce Springsteen. BMG artists include Norah Jones, Elvis Presley, Beyonce and Lenny Kravitz.

Sony and BMG have had different strategies in dealing with online music.

Sony's strategy has been particularly murky, torn by the potentially conflicting goals of its consumer electronics, computer and content businesses. The result has often been content-protected music or music devices with content protection technology built in--neither of which has proved popular with consumers over time.

Sony has announced plans to create its own online music store, similar to Apple Computer's iTunes but likely tied closely to Sony hardware.

Over the objections of BMG executives, parent company Bertelsmann was for a time the only major-label backer of the original Napster, but that support wasn't enough to save the start-up. Current executives at BMG and its parent company have been more conservative, following the broader trend of licensing their music to online services such as iTunes and RealNetworks' Rhapsody.

If both major mergers go through, they would leave Universal Music Group--currently the largest of the major music labels--as the only music giant without a new deal. However, its parent company, Vivendi Universal, has reportedly been looking for buyers as well.

No financial details on the Sony-BMG transaction were available.

Vanessa

MySpace unveils new music site

2008-11-20T01:51:00.001+01:00

MySpace unveils new music site

News Corp's MySpace, the world's largest social networking site, have unveiled a long-expected joint venture with all four major music companies in a bid to compete with Apple's market-leading iTunes store.

MySpace Music is designed to win fans with a mix of unlimited free music, comprehensive music catalogs, concert tickets, merchandising and other entertainment features.

The launch of the new service had been dogged by speculation about the start date and the ongoing search for a chief executive.

But the biggest challenge for the new venture was signing a deal with the fourth-largest music company EMI Music, which had held out until just hours before the announcement of the service's launch.

MySpace Music also signed late licensing deals with The Orchard, a large distributor of independent music from hundreds of small labels and music publisher Sony/ATV, a joint venture between Sony Corp and pop star Michael Jackson.

In April, MySpace confirmed it agreed to create a joint venture with Vivendi's Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group

The majors agreed to take small equity stakes in the new business at a ratio which approximately reflects their respective market shares. This would mean Universal would have the largest stake and EMI the smallest.

The labels, who are struggling with shrinking recorded-music sales, are keen to benefit from the overall diversified revenues of MySpace Music - making money from premium advertising, music download sales via Amazon.com, ringtones and eventually concert tickets and merchandising.

MySpace itself sees driving premium advertising through its service by understanding users' interests and has signed major advertising deals with McDonald's, Toyota and State Farm Insurance.

"We see ourselves as a social port where we filter information based on what's of interest to you," MySpace COO Amit Kapur told Reuters in an interview.

The music industry has become frustrated with the dominance of Apple in the music business through both iTunes and popular iPod music player.

Music executives have said the refusal of iTunes to agree to variable pricing, rather than pricing every song at 99 cents or selling all albums as individual songs, has harmed sales and their bottomline.

One executive, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the labels will try strategies such as giving exclusive album releases first to MySpace to help support the new service in which they now all have a vested interest in helping to succeed.

"MySpace Music gives fans a reason to buy music on somewhere other than iTunes," said the executive. "ITunes is a very static proposition and doesn't aid discovery of new music like a MySpace community."

Since its beginning, music has been one of the strongest attractions of MySpace, particularly for up and coming artists. In the last few years, major name artists have also taken to promoting their songs and albums through the site's artist pages.

But until the creation of MySpace Music, there had been few avenues for artists to sell their songs or other related music services.

Vanessa

Looks like a bracelet, plays like an iPod

2008-11-20T01:40:00.002+01:00

Looks like a bracelet, plays like an iPod

Apple fanboys (and girls) are determined not to let the iPod fade away into obscurity and let Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak's prophecy come true where he predicts the music player's death.

With the sleekness and sexiness of most recent iPods, or the extreme portability of the old minis, Indian designer Gopinath Prasan, creator of the iBangle, must've wondered how to go about turning it up a notch and make the iPod a wearable fashion accessory as well as a functional one.

Don't let its loose look fool you; the iBangle is a thin piece of aluminum with a multitouch track pad that won't easily slip off. That tiny blue button seen in the illustration somehow inflates the blue cushion inside the bracelet with air for a snug fit on the wrist.

The "voice interface"--where you hear what track you're "scrolling" through--is supposed to help offset the fact that there is no visual interface on the bracelet/MP3 player. Also, instead of being tethered to the standard earbuds or headphones, audio is transmitted wirelessly via Bluetooth.

The multitouch interface is a good idea until it brushes up against you and changes your song.

Now, if only it had a way to play video files. Perhaps a screen could be put on it, and the iBangle could pass for a watch--go, go gadget! However cool the concept is, there's no mention of how you would charge the device--dock, dongle, adapter? Also, is it gender neutral? Well, being as this is only a concept from the designer, we'll cut it some slack. There is definitely something here to work with.

So, my question to you is: if Apple co-opted the designer along with the idea and started mass production on this, would you buy it?

Vanessa

Sony BMG joins Nokia's unlimited music service

2008-11-20T01:37:00.001+01:00

Sony BMG joins Nokia's unlimited music service

Comes With Music customers will have total access to the music of Alicia Keys as well as every other Sony BMG artist free for a full year.

The concept behind Nokia's new music service "Comes with Music" is starting to catch on with the major music labels.

Sony BMG, one of the four top recording companies, announced Tuesday that it has partnered with Nokia to make its music catalog available on select Nokia devices. After buying one of the devices, users will get unlimited free access to the music of Alicia Keys, the Foo Fighters or any Sony BMG artist for a full year.

During the 12 months of the offer, users will be able to transfer their Comes With Music library to a PC as well as to a new Nokia handheld, but they won't be able to transfer it to iPods or other non-compatible devices. At the end of the year, Nokia users will have the choice of acquiring new music by either purchasing downloads from the Nokia Music store or joining its subscription service.

Nokia is expected to launch the Comes With Music service in the second half of the year.

What is groundbreaking about these deals--Universal Music Group was first among the labels to join the service--is that Nokia users can download any song from Sony BMG and keep the music for the rest of their lives. There is no ceiling on the number of songs and the music doesn't disappear at the end of the year.

This is believed to be the labels' deepest foray into free music, and is reflective of the industry's attempt to find new business models that can compete with piracy, shrinking CD sales, and iTunes.

"We think this business model will encourage users to sample a wide range of material, expand their musical tastes, and listen to more music than ever before," said Thomas Hesse, Sony BMG's President of Global Digital Business.

Sources told CNET News.com last month that Apple has discussed a similar offer with the music labels, adding that the concept behind Comes With Music is not exclusive to Nokia.

Should the concept of supplying year-long all-you-can-eat music catch on, other device makers wishing to gain access to music may be forced to adopt similar services.

Vanessa

Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs

2008-11-20T01:23:00.001+01:00

Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs

A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.

The talks are still preliminary and no deals have been finalized, but one source said one of the major labels is close to a final agreement. Rumors have been swirling on the Internet for a week that Sony would soon be offering music without the controversial digital rights management software. My sources could not confirm this.

Spokespeople for Apple and the major labels declined to comment.

Should the deals get done, the songs offered by Apple's iTunes would no longer be restricted to playing on Apple devices, such as the iPhone or iPod. This has been one of the main criticisms of iTunes music for a long time. Apple says it's the music labels that force Apple to adopt DRM. Music insiders say Apple has long dragged its feet about getting unprotected music. Right now, Apple uses it's own proprietary DRM scheme, FairPlay, to lock down its music.

Universal Music is expected to soon announce that it is licensing MP3s to Microsoft for Zune.Talks with at least two of the labels have taken place on and off for several months, said the sources. They cautioned that there's no guarantee Apple and the labels can close the deals. But if iTunes is successful in acquiring the rights to sell unprotected music from Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, and Sony BMG, it could help bolster iTunes' dominant position in digital music, as well as send competitors scrambling to find something new to differentiate themselves.

In the past year, the four top recording companies have been moving away from DRM--at least with other music services. In that time, companies such as Amazon, MySpace Music, and Napster have all begun selling open MP3s. MP3s are the format used to compress music files. Universal Music is expected to soon announce that it is licensing MP3s to Microsoft for Zune. EMI and Warner already have DRM-free deals with Microsoft for the Zune.

The marketing efforts of these Apple rivals have played up the idea that their music is unencumbered with DRM.

Also in the past year, technological shortcomings of copy-protection software have generated a lot of public scrutiny. As some iTunes competitors have exited the market, they have taken their DRM music with them.

This year, MSN, Yahoo, and Wal-Mart outraged some customers and consumer groups by announcing they would stop issuing keys for their DRM-protected songs. This meant the music would be prevented from being transferred to an owner's other devices.

Eventually, all three music services reversed their decisions, but it convinced DRM critics that DRM software never truly surrenders control of music to a buyer. While it's inconceivable to think that Apple would ever stop issuing DRM keys, it's absolutely possible.

Vanessa

Wal-Mart to carry iPhone after holidays?

2008-11-20T01:07:00.002+01:00

Wal-Mart to carry iPhone after holidays?
Apple could soon have another distribution channel for the iPhone: Wal-Mart.

The largest retailer in the world could be getting the iPhone.

Wal-Mart won't have the iPhone at every location come the end of December, if a report from the Boy Genius Report is accurate. But Apple will have iPhones in 2,500 stores in the U.S. and an additional 69 Sam's Club warehouse stores on December 28, according to the report.

It's not clear what price will be charged for the iPhone inside Wal-Mart, but it would be hard to imagine Apple embracing the idea of significant discounts even though CEO Steve Jobs has talked of needing to stay aware of lower-priced competitors. Wal-Mart also offers T-Mobile's Android G1 phone, and though CNNMoney.com had reported that the famously low-price retailer would be offering the G1 for a $30 discount, a Wal-Mart store in San Leandro, Calif., was selling the G1 for the standard $179 on Wednesday morning.

Apple has shown a willingness to embrace the big-box types over the past few years. iPods can be found at retail stores across the country, and electronics behemoth Best Buy devotes significant space for all of Apple's major products inside many of its stores.

But what's surprising about this report is the timing, however: three days after Christmas? Perhaps Wal-Mart wouldn't have been able to get ready or train their staff in time for the holiday season, but with iPhone sales expected to decline slightly off last quarter's totals, you'd think Apple would have wanted a major distribution channel on line during the holiday rush.

Vanessa

Change Bound To Come

2008-11-19T21:59:00.000+01:00

Vanessa

"Do most fans really want anything from you other than your music?"

2008-11-19T19:35:00.002+01:00

Here's an interesting discussion on the topic of fans and their role. The following post was published a few weeks ago but I decided to post it here anyway. So there you go!

Do most fans really want anything from you other than your music?
AUTHOR: AuthorBruce Warila | DateNovember 4, 2008 | Comment34 Comments

I think this is one of the most important questions that we can ask ourselves. Do most fans just want your music, or do most fans want something else from you beyond your music?

Why is this question so important? In a world where music is generating less and less revenue, it’s important to understand what fans truly want; especially if you plan to sell them something other than your music.

The following quote is from Ariel Hyatt’s last post about Twitter.
"People want personality. They want authenticity. They want a genuine look at the person behind the music."

Personality, authenticity, a look at the person behind the music… I am trying to understand who, why, when, what, how and how-many fans (what percentage) would trouble about anything but your music, tickets or t-shirts.

Do fans want to have a packaged, semi-authentic, digital relationship with bands? Can anyone quickly describe how the effort required to maintain these ambient relationships could generate a measurable return on investment? Is this stuff just for kids, or can adults find the time to participate also?

I am asking, in a rather provocative way, because I am looking for clues as to what the next generation of digital music products might do for you and your fans. What's missing? What do you need to capitalize on your efforts to sell be more than your music?

I read every comment. Thanks for your input.

Read the comments on this question raised from here

Elisa

Gerd Leonhard on the future of broadcasting

2008-11-18T15:20:00.000+01:00

The Future of Broadcasting: My presentation at the Dutch Broadcasting Convention (NPOX 2008) in Hilversum

Omroep It's always a great pleasure to be in Holland where people are usually very open to Change and... where 88.4% of the population is online ;) I was invited by the Dutch Broadcasting Organization (OMROEP) to speak about The End of Control, the People formerly known as Consumers and the Future of Broadcasting (Radio and TV), at their annual gathering and conference, NPOX.

Here is the DutcPicture_11h description of the session: "Gerd Leonhard (Swi) is Media Futurist. Volgens hem zijn we slechts 1 a 2 jaar verwijderd van een generatie die ´af en toe online´ is, naar een generatie die ´nooit meer off-line´ is. In zijn verhaal ‘the end of control and the people formerly known as Consumers’, laat hij zien wat de gevolgen zijn van deze verschuiving op het gebied van economie, cultuur en media en wat de trends en uitdagingen zijn voor de toekomst" Google translates this in true web-way here.

So, as usual, here is the PDF (4MB, ~50 pages)

The Future of Broadcasting, Gerd Leonhard

http://www.mediafuturist.com/index.html

Elisa

Tribes Q&A

2008-11-18T14:31:00.002+01:00

I ran into to this book by Seth Godin. I just quickly browsed it through but I think it might give our group some inspiration when thinking about the report since the social aspect was the the most important point to consider. There you go!

http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/files/TribesQA2.pdf

Elisa

NBC BLOG

Changes to come iTunes Store

Veranderingen in de iTunes Store op komst

Apple iTunes DRM Free and iPhone 3G Download @ MacWorld 2009

Technology Today

The Evolution of Album Sales in the Music Industry

Is There a Future for the Music Industry

Can Creative Commons Revolutionize Copyright Protections?

SoundExchange, Regulation, and the Future of Internet Radio

Why Do Record Companies Favor Digital Rights Management?

The Future of Branded Music

How the iPod Revolutionized the Music Industry

Lawrence Lessig - Is Digital Rights Management a Solution or a Problem?

About Digital Rights Management and Copyright Law

Jimmy Iovine on Making New Music Distribution Models Work

Record Deals and The Future of Music with Don Passman

2009?

18 Things I'd Love to Pay Musicians For

"Mix, Listen, Share"

4 steps to take to market yourself as an independent artist

Three Major Record Labels Join the 'Choruss'

Pure Problem for Record Labels

The Record Industry's Decline

Thoughts on music

Nice new business model

Adidas ads feature musicians but not their music

EMI seeks deal with rivals to distribute recordings

Mail On Sunday to launch own record label

EMI releases CD of music from Guinness commercials

US music festivals now offering payment plans for tickets

HMV posts loss in weakening market

Universal Music heads to Bollywood

Nokia 'investigates' Comes with Music crack

Copyright law 'could be extended'

iPhone 3G now with in-home activation!

Apple branching out in 2009?

Reselling MP3s: The music industry's new battleground?

Apple and MASS IT joint for seminar Podcast Producer (DUTCH)

EMI Music And Warner Music Group Expand Existing Marketing And Distribution Partnership In India And The Middle East And Enter Into New Relationship I

The day the music industry died

Business Model music industry report entertainment media research

iTunes Inspires Changes in Music Industry

Record labels' new approach

Wii Music: Innovation or Disappointment?

Has Film Music Innovation Died?

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 1)

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 2)

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 3)

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 4)

Rob Hubbard - Golden Days of Computer Game Music (Part 5)

Neil Young - Innovation & Music - JavaOne 2008 - Part 1

Neil Young - Innovation & Music - JavaOne 2008 - Part 2

Impact of Internet on Music Industry

ARTS: Advice for a Future in the Music Industry

Future of Music Industry - impact of downloads, self-publishing

Common+Microsoft+t-shirts=Microsoft Softwear

Are you twittering?

Can Video Games Save The Music Industry?

Music Downloads: Pirates—or Customers?

A Global View of the Future of the Music Industry

Record Deals and The Future of Music with Don Passman

Sony, Warner Music Pull Full Songs From iLike. Look Out, Theoretical Facebook Music Offering!

A World of Classical Music is at your Fingertips on YouTube

Greetings from Finland!

Panel Tackles Tour Sponsorship Strategies

Universal Music Japan Launches Domestic Artist Label

"The name record label' is very limiting

Verizon finally has its answer to the iPhone

20 Biggest Record Company Screw-Ups of All Time

IBM reveals five future innovations

Why Android just might beat the iPhone

LinkedIn and MySpace upgrade search with open-source Lucene

Music, software industries converge on business models

TiVo profits from EchoStar litigation

Nokia to pull out of Japan market

World's first "record label replacement" service

When would digital music revenue finally surpass CD sales? Now.

Nice post on customer segmenting in the music industry

Able Planet Unveils New Gaming Headphones That Help Prevent Hearing Loss

iFrogz Announces Fully Customizable Headphones as Part of New EarPollution Line, Offering More Than 200,000 Unique Options