Label:Life

Investors are piling into EMI on new evidence that the global music industry is on the comeback trail, but some analysts fear the rally could be a one-hit wonder.

On Friday, Goldman Sachs and UBS Warburg both raised their ratings on EMI, the world’s largest publicly traded stand-alone music company, in a rare vote of confidence for the downtrodden sector.

EMI’s stock climbed more than nine percent to 232 pence by 1523 GMT, and has soared more than 40 percent since the beginning of the year, bolstered by a report that discounted CD prices pushed UK album sales up 7.6 percent in 2003.

“We believe there is a chance MP3 players, as a new format, along with litigation to attack privacy, can help drive growth again for the industry,” Goldman Sachs said in its research note. [more @ www.reuters.com]

Europeans purchased more than three million song downloads in 2003 from the continent’s primary online music store, On Demand Distribution, or OD2, raising faint hopes that the lackluster music industry is on the road to recovery.

A few million downloads is not going to immediately turn around an industry bracing for its fourth straight year of declining CD sales. But the emerging download market offers a glimmer of hope for record label executives, who have struggled for years to thwart free file-sharing services like Kazaa.

“I have to believe electronic distribution of music will be an increasingly important part of the business for record labels, but unfortunately, I don’t think this is an instant cure,” Charles Grimsdale, chief executive of Britain’s OD2, told Reuters Tuesday.

“The market is growing fast for sure, but new markets take time,” said Grimsdale, who co-founded the company with rocker Peter Gabriel.

Still, the volume of downloads is growing 25 percent month on month, Grimsdale said, which would mean that download sales should grow more than threefold in 2004. [more @ www.news.com]

The soft drinks giant Coca-Cola has promised to revolutionise the British music industry by selling albums online for as little as £6.40.

The brand yesterday announced a bid to become the dominant player in the music download market. Coca-Cola’s move is a challenge to Apple’s iTunes music store, which has sold 30 million tracks at 99c (54p) each to American fans. Apple is expected to announce a version for European customers next week. [more @ www.timesonline.co.uk]

The number of people illegally downloading copyrighted tracks from the internet has risen after a six-month slump, analysts in the US have said.

The number of US households downloading tracks from sites rose 6% in October and 7% in November, market researchers the NPD Group said on Thursday.

November’s figure of 11 million downloaders was up one million compared to September’s figures. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

Coca-Cola’s much-heralded foray into the world of online music sales got off to a bad start today when its website failed to launch. Users who visited mycokemusic.com expecting to access its 250,000 tracks were left disappointed.

The site still carries the banner “mycokemusic.com goes live on Monday 19th January” flashing across the screen. Technical glitches were blamed for the failure.

A spokeswoman for the site said: “We have been experiencing some minor technical problems. We are confident it will be up and running by tonight”.

“People who have entered their details will be emailed a link to the site as soon as it goes live.

“We just want to get everything perfect – although obviously we had hoped to get it done before the launch day.” [Stick to selling drinks I’d say – Ed.] [more @ www.scotsman.com]

The music industry is finally coming to terms with the digital age, with plans to produce a new chart of songs purchased over the internet.

Traditionally at odds with the internet over illegal song-swapping services such as the original version of Napster, and more recently, Kazaa, the industry has struggled with the concept of legitimising online music sales.

But the advent of legal music download services has changed that, and the Australian Recording Industry Association is planning to produce a chart of the most popular songs sold by internet retailers.

ARIA chief executive Stephen Peach was not available to comment yesterday, but Australian IT understands the industry body is considering how to compile such a chart, and examining similar attempts by its counterparts overseas. [more @ www.news.com.au]

Pick of the week comes from NY underground stalwarts Oneida. Having become a big part of the Brooklyn nderground scene since their formation in 1997, they release their first album for Rough Trade, entitled ‘Secret Wars’ on Jan 26th.

This track, ‘Wild Horses’ is perhaps the most accessible of the set and shows the mellower side of the band. Their press release describes them as “A fascinating and frighteningly intense band..” and they’re not wrong!

The album is well worth a listen, providing a welcome slab of gritty, adventurous rock music. Check it out HERE and contact Ben Ayres@Rough Trade for more info.

It’s all about Ecards this week. Here’s a little YR production for the oh so perfect Mellow. Listen to the tracks and download the free exclusive MP3 HERE

Take a look at this YR Ecard for Positions, from Trash Palace; the surreal love child of Dimitri Tikovoi, Asia Argento, Alison Shaw, Brian Molko and John Cale.

The Metric System

[Same E-cards, different Videos.]

Album sales in the UK hit a record high in 2003 after increasing by 7.6%.

An industry report said the rise was fuelled by falling CD prices – in spite of piracy fears.

Almost 121 million artist albums, which exclude compilations, were sold – according to Official UK Charts Company figures quoted in Music Week magazine. [more @ www.ananova.com]