Label:Life

The Phonographic Industry (BPI) official chart for downloaded singles is going live from the 1 September.

The chart is compiled from paid-for downloads from the likes of HMV, OD2 and iTunes. It counts singles sold to UK consumers and takes information from 7 Digital Media, iTunes, Metacharge, OD2 and Playlouder.com. The BPI will be looking for more partners in future.

The BPI also released the top twenty for 13 to 19 June. The Pixies came out at number one with Bam Thwok and Maroon5 secured number two with This Love. [more @ www.theregister.co.uk]

As an official download chart is launched, BBC News Online asks the music industry what the impact will be for singles.

Official music download websites could replace record shops as the public’s preferred places to buy singles within five years, one of the UK’s leading music industry figures has said.

The singles chart is under threat in its current form, Peter Jamieson, executive chairman of the British Phonographic Industry, which represents UK record companies, told BBC News Online. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

Music retailer Music Zone say they are planning to open five new stores in North England, bringing the relatively new music chain up to 58 stores, with plans to increase that to 70 by the end of 2005, and ambitions to have passed 100 stores by late 2006.

Denying the retail sector is suffering as downloading starts to take off, Music Zone’s founder Russ Grainger told Music Week: “I do sometimes feel like I’ve got my finger in the dyke with all this press about downloads. But it is not affecting the High Street in the slightest. [more @ www.unlimitedmedia.co.uk]

Music Arsenal, a software development company in Omaha, Neb., announces the release of record label management software that bears its name. Music Arsenal is a web-based application tailor-made for information storage and sharing for record labels.

Business contacts, venue information, sales reporting, tour mapping, and more are accessible from an internet browser 24 hours a day, anywhere in the world. State-of-the-art servers back information up daily, ensuring vital information is always just a click away. [more @ www.emediawire.com]

With the music industry looking to cut costs amid lower profit margins, record companies see fewer incentives to investing in artist-run label projects. Twelve years ago, Madonna decided to apply the business instincts that made her a superstar toward finding and developing new acts for her own music label.

Maverick Records flourished early on. It generated hits by the likes of Alanis Morissette and Prodigy, validating the decision by Warner Music to form a partnership with its biggest star.

But Maverick’s good fortunes started to turn during the industrywide sales slump that began in 2000. The label-parent relationship soured, landing record company and artist in a nasty legal dispute that was settled June 14, with Warner buying out Madonna.

The episode reflects the sometimes tenuous and often financially risky nature of artist-run music labels. [more @ www.abcnews.go.com]

LightningCD, a new online music service that launched its site in February, has signed an agreement with Doug Schulze to expand its content offering and consumer base.

According to Schulze, who has focused his career on the digital media industry over the past five years, “LightningCD fills a huge gap for music fans and artists. The industry leapt from retail CDs to individual digital tracks, completely bypassing digital CD replication. LightningCD addresses that oversight.”

Schulze continues, “There are still many situations where the current digital music services just don’t serve the needs of mainstream consumers. Most people want to be able to play CDs in their car, their home stereo, and in portable players. Lightning CD marries the convenience of e-commerce with these consumer behaviors.” [more @ www.biz.yahoo.com]

The US Senate has passed legislation to allow the US Department of Justice to bring civil suits against copyright infringers.

The Protecting Intellectual Property Rights Against Theft and Expropriation (PIRATE) Act would extend the power of US federal prosecutors, enabling them to bring cases on the civil standard of proof “on the balance of probabilities,” rather than the criminal standard of proof “beyond a reasonable doubt.”
[more @ www.dmeurope.com]

Festival-goers at Glastonbury 2004 have been getting a taste of making their own music with a new service launched by the Orange mobile operator.

Fireplayer allows music-lovers to pay to download a full track and mix it up how they wish on their mobile devices.

Users can add their own sound effects, such as vocals or bass, and can save the mix as their unique ringtone.

Also launching on 1 July is the first mobile music download service, which goes by the name of Music Player. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

T-Mobile has launched five new handsets equipped with “Ear Phones” technology, allowing customers to download CD-quality tracks to their phone. The move follows similar services offered by rivals Vodafone, Orange and mm02.

The T-Mobile handsets will be available as of Monday in Britain, Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and the Czech Republic. Song downloads will be limited to a catalogue of 500 “mobile mixes”, or condensed versions lasting between 90 and 120 seconds and cost roughly £1.50 or EU1.50. Ear Phones handsets will have a launch price of between £29.99 and £59.95 for contract customers. [www.netimperative.com], [more details @ www.biz.yahoo.com].

Clear Channel Communications Inc. on Monday said it has signed singer Jewel as the first major-label music artist to take part in its controversial service for instant concert recordings.

Clear Channel’s Instant Live operation, which makes CDs of concert performances available to attendees within five minutes of the end of a show, has been criticized by smaller competitors for claiming to control a key patent covering the technology for that service. [more @ www.reuters.com]