Label:Life

Any LL readers out there know any good RnB/Hip Hop DJs,
Producers or Rappers? Its for a new night at Sound, Leicester
Sq called ‘The Jump Off’. Running since Mon 11th Aug it features Producer, DJ and MC rap battles, aswell as live PA’s by up and coming artists. Contact Harold Anthony +44(0)795 658 3221 mobile

Microsoft Corp. and a British digital music provider teamed on Thursday to launch the first pan-European service selling songs over the Internet on a pay-as-you-go basis.

The move follows the success of Apple’s iTunes Music Store and other services in the United States.

London-based On Demand Distribution, or OD2, has the largest catalogue of legal digital music in Europe – more than 200,000 tracks from 8,500 artists on all five major labels plus a slew of independents.

Europeans will be able to download songs starting at 99 cents each , without subscription fees , through the MSN Music Club or Tiscali Music Club using Microsoft’s Windows Media Player 9 technology.[more @ www.globetechnology.com]

YR would like to thank all those kind people at Popkomm who helped make it such a success for us. Big thanks to the guys at AIM and the BPI for all their help and support and for working so hard day and night (& early morning) making sure that it was fun and worthwhile for all their members. Oh, and if anyone knows the real reason why Seth from YR missed his plane home please feel free to email us liam@yourrelease.com

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Criticism of the recording industry’s anti-piracy campaign increased on Monday as a high-tech trade association said it was worried that its members could be forced to police the Internet for illegal song copying.

NetCoalition, which represents hundreds of small Internet providers as well as larger firms such as Yahoo Inc. YHOO.O and DoubleClick Inc.DCLK.O , sent a letter to the Recording Industry Association of America asking pointed questions about its campaign to track down and sue thousands of Internet users who copy songs without permission.

The letter comes as the RIAA faces a mounting backlash from those who worry that the industry is overreaching in its efforts to stop the trading of its copyrighted songs over “peer to peer” networks like Kazaa.[more @ asia.reuters.com]

The Internationally Acclaimed Band, The String Cheese Incident, Along With Representatives of Its Ticketing Company, SCI Ticketing, and Others, Explained How Ticketmaster Has Monopolized the U.S. Concert Ticketing Industry.

Members of the rock band The String Cheese Incident joined representatives of their ticketing company, SCI Ticketing, and others at a news conference in New York City to explain the details of a lawsuit filed in the U. S. Federal Court in Denver, Colorado last week.

SCI Ticketing filed the lawsuit claiming that ticketing giant Ticketmaster has monopolized the ticketing industry, using its immense market power to prevent competition for the sale of concert tickets. SCI Ticketing is the first artist-centered ticketing company to sue Ticketmaster in federal court.[more @ biz.yahoo.com]

Sales of mobile phone ringtones are set to overtake CD singles, according to new figures – providing a much-needed “shot in the arm” for the music industry.

Sales of ringtones – which are more profitable to record companies than singles – are expected to rise 60% this year, said the Mobile Data Association (MDA).

An estimated #70m of ringtones will be sold in 2003 – up from #40m in 2002 – according to the MDA, a non-profit trade group.[more @ news.bbc.co.uk]

The winner of the new Pop Idol series, may well find fame and fortune but someone else will really hit the jackpot.

This year’s Pop Idol has plunged into the licensing and merchandising market with the same raw enthusiasm as one of the show’s aspiring stars. Whereas last year fans could buy a few obvious add-ons such as an official T-shirt, the book, the video and the mobile-phone cover, series two will offer all that and much more. The Idol brand will adorn everything from makeup (including a hair gel), and a full range of clothing, to a songbook, a PlayStation 2 game, an electronic dance mat, a karaoke interactive recording studio and even a perfume. There will also be a whole swathe of interactive services using mobile phones, from classic text-message voting to song downloads.

Just how big it will be is not something many in the TV industry are willing to speculate about though, but the entire licensing business is big and growing. In the UK alone the retail sales generated by licensed products was worth #3bn in 2002, while worldwide the licensing business generated $178bn (#110bn) in retail sales last year, according to the Licensing Industry Merchandisers Association.[more @ media.guardian.co.uk]

Beggars Group and XL Recordings are extending their profile online with a series of digital releases throughout August and September starting with Matadors’ Pretty Girls Make Graves on August 11th, continuing through the next 6 weeks with brand new material by XL Recordings acts Peaches and Lemon Jelly, Beggars Banquetos Biffy Clyro and Oceansize, 4AD’s Mojave 3, Too Pures The French and Matador act Wisdom of Harry.

Rather than delivering just a digital file, these releases will be the first true digital singles with b-sides, fully downloadable artwork for booklet and CD label and exclusive video footage (where available). This will deliver added value to the fans, developing new revenue streams to the artists and writers and helping to stimulate interest in the flagging single format.

As in the physical world, these releases will be backed by print advertising and will be serviced to all media. Vital Distribution are working to involve the retail to help drive more sales of the artists commercially available releases. In some cases, these digital releases could actually become a second or third format alongside CD and vinyl.[more @ www.mi2n.com]

The European Commission has cleared a set of bilateral agreements establishing the worldwide Philips/Sony CD Disc Licensing Program. The Commission also cleared a standard joint licence agreement – modified following discussions with the Commission in order to render it fully compliant with EU competition rules (the 2003 SLA). The 2003 SLA covers only patents held by either Philips or Sony and which are essential to manufacture several standard types of pre-recorded CD discs (CD Audio, CD ROM, CD TEXT and CD Extra discs). The Commission found that the 2003 SLA, by which Philips and Sony offer access to their patents for any one or more of the different CD disc types, whilst each retaining the right to license their patents separately, does not restrict competition.

This clearance marks the end of the Commission’s investigation into the Philips/Sony CD disc Licensing Program. The inquiry was launched after the Commission received several complaints by CD disc manufacturers alleging that both the bilateral agreements between Philips and Sony and the different versions in use of the standard joint licence agreement ran counter to Articles 81 and 82 EC Treaty.[more @ www.mi2n.com]

LIMESTONE, Maine—Phish, the jam band whose open-taping policy made it one of the America’s biggest live acts, again is sidestepping the record industry to cash in on the online music revolution.

Livephish.com offers a rare service: soundboard-quality downloads of performances within two days of the concert. Fans pay $9.95 for MP3s or $12.95 for a computer file format in which no sound quality is lost during compression.

In the first four months after the site’s launch on New Year’s Eve 2002, the service generated $1 million, said Brad Serling, whose company runs the site as a joint venture with the band.

“It’s beyond our expectations,” Serling said. “It’s been profitable from day one.”[more @ www.statesman.com]