Label:Life

YR’s unique C:LIVE platform which allows labels to distribute and sell mobile content such as ringtones and images has extended its coverage to include Europe.

The introduction of reverse billed SMS and PayPal into the existing payment system now means that labels who use C:LIVE can sell their content into all major European countries. Ninja Tune look to be the first to take up the new payment system offering content to France, Germany, Spain and Portugal.

Labels currently using C:LIVE for both promotional and revenue generating purposes include Beggars/XL, Ninja Tune, Wall of Sound and Skint.

For more details on C:LIVE please contact : seth@yrmedia.com.

New EU legislation coming into force next week could turn such innocuous activities as downloading files and playing CDs into a criminal offence.

For years, we have taken the freedoms of the internet for granted – watching the latest movie before it hits cinemas or downloading our favourite music or books. If you live in Europe, it is unlikely that you either paid for these experiences or worried unduly about the legality of them. From the end of this month, however, new European copyright laws will limit your access to some online material and make downloading or copying certain things – even if they are solely for your personal use – a criminal offence.

The Orwellian-sounding European Union Copyright Directive (EUCD) is designed to update copyright protection for the internet age and harmonise laws across Europe.

Its wording is long and complex, but the thrust of its main proposals is simple: devices that allow you to play legitimately acquired, but copy-protected, CDs or DVDs on your PC will be illegal, and file sharers could face an unlimited fine or a jail term of up to two years. [more @ www.media.guardian.co.uk]

With last week’s release of Streetcore, the final chapter in Joe Strummer’s legacy ended. Or did it?

Push aside all the rumours of live records, tapes dredged out of the bowels of Strummer’s home and the lingering nostalgia that’s kept the edges of Joe’s memory raw for the past 10 months. If there’s one thing we should have learned, it’s that some things are bigger than music, bigger than records and bigger even than the defective ticker that cut his life short. While his final album captures unfinished business in The Mescaleros final trip into the studio, it’s far from over: There’s more to the Strummer legend than flesh and blood or the noises he made by plucking guitar strings. [more @ www.aversion.com]
[Thought I’d include this piece as a belated tribute to a childhood hero. Sob..sniff. Let’s hope it’s not too long before someone else with as much to say takes the stage.- ED]

White Stripes, Stereophonics, Soulwax, Coldcut and Dizzee Rascal join file-sharing revolution

PlayLouder, one of the UK’s leading digital music companies, has today unveiled a new venture, PlayLouder MSP, a world first, and a groundbreaking innovation which will have dramatic ramifications for the besieged record industry, suffering severely from illegal file-sharing.

PlayLouder MSP (Music Service Provider) is the world’s first ISP network to license from music companies the right for its subscribers to download and stream music from other subscribers. For a monthly subscription PlayLouder MSP will provide a broadband internet connection bundled with high quality music services, whilst paying royalties to rights owners, songwriters and publishers allowing subscribers to freely exchange licensed music. Previously internet users have been sharing music illegally using P2P applications such as KaZaA and the music industry has not received any revenues from this unlicensed activity. PlayLouder MSP has already secured backing and music from leading independent record labels XL Recordings, Beggars Group of labels, V2 Music, PIAS Recordings and Ninja Tune. Technical trials commence on 1 November and full commercial launch is scheduled for Q1 2004. [more @ www.playloudermsp.com]

Pick of the week this week comes from Carribean label Dancebeat. This is the Garage mix of a track called ‘All About Me’ by Asha. I’m not sure if this is a demo or not as it sounds a little unfinished on the production side to me but it has a massive chorus. I mean..like..really huge. Tough enough for the clubs and with a smooth R&B chorus for radio..is nice! [The YR crew would love to do a mix of this..It’s that good -ED.] Check it out HERE and contact info@dancebeat.net for more information.

Apple’s online music store for Windows has got off to a flying start.
Music fans have bought more than a million songs since the service for Windows users was launched on Thursday.

The service lets people legally download songs from the internet for 99 cents (60p), but had previously only been available to Apple computer users.

“We’re off to a great start, and our competition isn’t even out of the starting gates yet,” said Apple boss Steve Jobs.

Apple has another cause to celebrate. More than a million copies of the Windows version of its iTunes music software have been downloaded in the past three days.

The program offers PC users the same services, prices and catalogue of songs, which Apple hopes to increase to 400,000 by the end of October. [more @ www.bbc.co.uk]

Apple Computer’s iTunes Music Store for Windows appears to be off to a grand start, but no matter how successful it may be, the online store will never, ever have the slightest impact on the file-sharing networks, experts say.

Launched last week, Apple’s iTunes jukebox software and associated online store had attracted a million Windows users in just over three days, Apple said Monday
“This has been the birth of legal downloading,” Jobs declared at last week’s flashy launch event. He added, “We’re going to fight illegal downloading by competing with it. We’re not going to sue it. We’re not going to ignore it. We’re going to compete with it.”

But to Eric Garland, CEO of BigChampagne, a Beverly Hills, California-based research firm that tracks file-sharing networks, 100 million songs is the teeniest, weeniest drop in the bucket.

“100 million songs in a year sounds like a lot of songs,” he said. “But it’s a tenth of all the songs available at any time on Kazaa. It represents a tiny fingernail, a sliver of a fraction of the downloads from Kazaa.” [more @ www.wired.com]

A drop-off in business these days seems to produce one inevitable consequence: a cutback in jobs.
On Wednesday, October 15, Universal Music Group (UMG) officially joined the downsizing trend with an announcement that it had cut 550 employees from its ranks this year, 200 of them in the US. Approximately 800 more will receive pink slips within the first quarter of 2004, according to reports in The Financial Times, The Wall Street Journal, and elsewhere.

The news is especially sobering. UMG is the world’s largest music label and the only company among the music industry’s “Big Five” to post profitable results in the past two years. Operating income in 2001 was reported at $841 million on revenue of $7.7 billion; in 2002, operating income was reported at $650 million on revenue of $7.4 billion. For the first half of 2003, however, UMG’s business slid to an operating loss of $49 million. [more @ www.stereophile.com]

There will be stricter security over the announcement of nominees for next year’s Brit Awards following media leaks over this year’s event.

Details of shortlisted artists will not be given to record companies in advance for fear the news will leak out early to the press.

Brits bosses acted after some acts’ names appeared in a national newspaper in the run-up to the 2003 ceremony.

Next year’s show will take place at Earls Court in London on 17 February. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

Audible Magic Corporation, a leading provider of content management and anti-piracy solutions, today announced the CopySense™ Network Appliance, the first product to give network administrators comprehensive control over P2P file trading. The product provides the broadest range of options for managing P2P usage, including:
- Block only P2P transfers of copyrighted materials.
- Block all 2P transfers.
- Identify and log P2P usage.
- Limit P2P traffic to a specified amount of bandwidth.
- Establish specific rules for downloads or uploads from the network.
The CopySense Network Appliance installs quickly and easily with no effect on network performance, providing an ideal, easy-to-use solution for any business or organization concerned about bandwidth, security, and legal issues resulting from P2P software usage. [more @ www.biz.yahoo.com]