Music Industry 2.0
Apple’s highly rated iPod falls behind competitors in a detailed PC Pro labs test of MP3 players.
In the Labs test of 18 portable MP3 players – published in the July issue on sale 20th May – PC Pro found Apple’s popular iPod lacking in comparison to cheaper, more feature-rich alternatives. [more @ www.pcpro.co.uk]
A market-research company has published a report predicting the online music market opportunities, strategies, and forecasts from now until 2009.
It says that traditional retail outlets have failed to address the changes brought by the Internet, and predicts that “virtually all music will be downloaded by the end of the 2009”. [more @ www.macworld.co.uk] and [www.businesswire.com].
When the Chin family opened VP Records here [NYC] 25 years ago, it was simply a record store designed to bring the reggae music of their native Jamaica to the Jamaica neighborhood of Queens.
Today, that same record store remains. But VP grew from a hit-seller into a one of reggae’s premier hit-makers years ago, making mainstream stars out of Sean Paul, Beenie Man and others. [more @ www.chron.com]
Warner Music U.K. is scrapping promotional CDs of pre-release music in favor of Internet distribution.
The company is using the secure Share! system developed by telco Interoute, which claims to be the first not to require recipients to install special equipment. All one needs is an Internet connection, user name and password to access his account. [more @ www.variety.com]
Are elements of the music industry starting to realise just how much trouble they’re in with the music buying public?
At a time when the Big Five record labels routinely victimize innocent men, women and children such as Brianna LaHara for ‘violating’ copyrights by sharing music online, one of the companies – Sony – decided to go easy on a school which burned copyrighted songs onto 500 CDs and then distributed them so students could remember their prom night.
[more @ www.p2pnet.net]
When Sam Moore considered retiring in the early ‘90s, he had 30 sweaty years of show business behind him, starting with such ‘60s Sam & Dave hits as Soul Man and Hold On! I’m Comin’. After selling millions of records for Atlantic Records, a Warner Bros. label, Moore expected a comfortable nest egg. He found barely a goose egg.
“Sam was told his pension would be $63.67 a month,” says Joyce Moore, his wife and manager. “It should have been $8,000. It’s wrong, and it all ties back to royalties. From 1965 to 1992, Atlantic contributed not one penny to Sam’s pension. The whole problem is accounting and accountability. We know the labels don’t know how to count except when it comes to their own money.” [more @ www.usatoday.com]
UK entrant James Fox has blamed political voting for the final placings at this year’s Eurovision.
Fox, who finished 16th out of 24, pointed an accusing finger at the way some countries voted for their neighbours.
[more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]
A House of Representatives subcommittee this week considered the proposed Digital Media Consumers’ Rights Act which would remove some restrictions on bypassing the security that prevents illegal duplication of DVDs, some CDs and software.
The proposal, which is being supported by liberal consumer groups and some technology companies, seeks to amend the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. That Act imposes restrictions on the circumvention of copy-protection and has attracted extensive criticism since it came into force in 1998. But major record labels and the Business Software Association are among those who bitterly oppose the amendments. [more @ www.out-law.com]
Nineteen years ago, Quincy Jones produced charity hit We Are The World to help raise money for Ethiopian famine victims.
On Sunday he is doing it again, this time in Rome, which will be the setting for a huge star-studded concert.
Stars such as Alicia Keys, Norah Jones, Naomi Campbell and Angelina Jolie will be there to launch Jones’ new project We Are The Future. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]
New software that lets anyone create unique cellular phone rings for free has some record labels worried it will kill the cash cow that is the ringtone.
The software, called Xingtone, evokes the same ‘’oh wow, oh no’’ reaction from the labels that greeted the original Napster. The fear is that people will make ringtones out of pirated songs, thus compounding the file-sharing problem while robbing the music industry of a new source of revenue. [more @ www.siliconvalley.com]