Label:Life

Two recent studies, one from NPD Intellect and the other from PricewaterhouseCoopers, show that the music industy is too busy catering to teenagers. In the meantime, adult customers are being ignored.

The NPD study also states that the college and teenage population is not expected to grow over the next 5 years, meaning the record companies may lose some of their core target audience. In order to survive, they will need to change their strategy and focus on older customers. This, of course, would require the record companies to sign some good quality artists rather than the fluff that has dominated in recent years. www.curlio.com

Bands come and go from record labels in a revolving door of euphoria and dejection, so when the news came out that Pearl Jam had fulfilled its contract and was leaving Epic after 12 years, many in the industry shrugged and went back to their Mocha Malt Frappucinos.

This is more than just another band leaving just another label.
This is one institution leaving another, one of the most popular and important American rock bands of the 90’s voluntarily rejecting the grandest label heritage – the longtime home of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Santana, Miles Davis and Tony Bennett – because the band may no long require the services of a major label. www.msnbc.com

If technology firms like Sony and Microsoft have their way, songs and movies will expire after a single play – unless you pay the copyright holder their due.

The technology that makes this possible, known as digital rights management or DRM, will forever change the way we consume media and software, experts believe. cnn.com

The market for compressed audio players, or “MP3 players,” has been one of the bright spots in consumer electronics since their introduction in the late 1990’s.

According to a comprehensive new forecast from IDC, broad consumer acceptance and a diversity of form factors will combine to drive the worldwide compressed audio player market to nearly $44 billion in revenues by 2007, representing a five-year compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30%. mi2n.com

Don’t blame file sharing alone for declining CD sales, analyst group warns record companies.

Boring music, not file swapping alone, is causing falling sales of music CDs, according to research from NPD Group.
The analyst group warned record companies that unless they address this factor they will not reverse market decline.

The music industry has been waging a long-running series of legal battles against peer-to-peer sites, which it blames for the slump in music CD sales.

Last year, sales in the US fell by 13 per cent, and were down another nine per cent in the first quarter of 2003.

The year-long study from NPD into the buying habits of internet users showed that, even though 60 per cent of music buyers had never downloaded free music, CD sales for this group had still declined by seven per cent. vnunet.com

Our first pick of the week is Bonobo’s ‘Pick – up’ on Ninja Tunes, presumably so-titled as that’s exactly what it does to you! Summery, optimistic and funky (bit like me…Ed), You’d have to be dead to be unmoved by this track. Flute-laden funk, without being obvious, this is simply a great piece of music.

This track and others by Bonobo are available on Ninja Tune. You can have a listen here and brighten up your day!

Artists and Labels: Remember that Label:Life is recieved by over 1400 music execs and related industry bods (T.V., Advertising, Etc.)and ‘YR’s Pick Of The Week’ is a good way to get your track straight onto their desktops (providing of course that it gets through the ‘Crap-Filter’, Pat.Pending).

Submit releases to the Addresses below.
Thanks, and have a good week all.

Andrew Wilkinson, founder and Chief Executive of Kingstreet Group plc, tour producers for Robbie Williams, Phil Collins, Sting and the Spice Girls, founder of Music3w and former partner at Rolling Stones’ management , Rupert Loewenstein Ltd, has joined Bob Geldof on the board of Recordstore .co.uk, one of the UK’s most successful music e-tailers.

The company, which operates online shops for over 200 UK bands and labels including Robbie Williams, Craig David, Moby, The Darkness and Ministry of Sound, has now been appointed official e-commerce partner to Universal and Sanctuary, and contracted to launch a string of online shops for Sony Music. The companies will benefit from sales from their artists’ web sites directly counting towards chart position, which has never before been possible.
www.mi2n.com

Tower Records, known as the authoritative voice in packaged entertainment retail, announced the launch this month of its emerging artist marketing program dedicated to bands the retailer believes will be the next big thing.

For over forty years Tower Records has played a key role in launching the careers of thousands of bands, and is recognized as a retail force when it comes to breaking new artists. Today, Tower Records’ Product Experts filter through the morass of synthetic produced pop to find quality bands, which they believe will be the artists of the future. Tower Records is again leading the way with this savvy new marketing program.
www.mi2n.com

Although more than half of lost music sales can be attributed to file sharing, the music industry and retailers need to look beyond file sharing for other important root causes of ongoing music sales declines – especially among mature music buyers.

That’s the conclusion of a recent consumer-tracking survey from NPD MusicWatch, an info service from NPD Music that reports on what consumers buy, as well as where and why. musicdish.com