Label:Life

Apple is to produce a version of its iTunes online music downloading service which will be compatible with Motorola mobile phones. Under the deal, Motorola phones will be able to install songs from iTunes via a USB cable or Bluetooth connection.

Apple said the new iTunes music player would become Motorola’s standard music application for its music phones. Motorola, the world’s second biggest mobile phone maker – said the music handsets would be available from 2005. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

RealNetworks announced Monday that it has unlocked some of Apple Computer’s most tightly held technology secrets, giving its music a way onto the popular iPod digital music player.

The announcement is part of a broader release of RealNetworks software, which will let songs sold from the company’s online store play on a variety of portable devices, including the iPod and Microsoft-compatible rivals. RealNetworks has been selling songs from its digital song store since January, but the files could previously be played only on a few portable devices. [more @ www.news.com.com]

US digital music sales will more than double this year, analysts claim.

JupiterResearch announced its new projections yesterday at the Jupiter Plug.IN Conference and Expo 2004. It anticipates that sales will reach more than $270 million in 2004, and will grow to reach $1.7 billion in 2009, the report claims. This equals 12 per cent of consumer music spending. Previous expectations from the company had anticipated 2009 sales of $3.3 billion.

“While digital music will return the US music industry to growth after four years of deeply-declining sales, digital music will not replace CDs or bring music sales back to its 1999 peak,” the analysts said. [more @ www.macworld.co.uk]

Music piracy remains a huge USD4.5 billion (EUR3.7 billion) illegal business driven by organised crime, government apathy, and corruption, according to new research.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) also found that a record 35 percent of all music discs sold worldwide are illegal copies, global sales of pirate music have hit another record at 1.1 billion discs annually, but the fake CD trade is spreading more slowly than in recent years because of stepped up enforcement efforts. [more @ www.enn.ie]

Independent record companies yesterday [07/20/04] pledged to consider a legal challenge to the European Commission’s approval of a EU 5 billion (£3.3 billion) merger between the recorded music divisions of Sony Music and Bertelsmann Music Group (BMG).

Legal advisers to Impala, the organisation representing more than 2,000 independent record labels, said there was a “good chance” that an appeal would be lodged with the European Court in Luxembourg. [more @ www.timesonline.co.uk]

Apple Computer Inc. clinched licensing deals with a trio of Europe’s independent music labels to bring acts such as The White Stripes and Basement Jaxx to iTunes Europe customers for downloading, the company said on Wednesday.
The deals, struck this week with Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2, pave the way for further signings from other European independent labels in the near future, Apple and music industry officials said.

“We now have a standard agreement. It’s a deal that all UK and European independent labels can get from Apple,” said Sam Sheptob, a spokesman for the Association of Independent Music, a UK trade body representing an assortment of independent labels. Independent labels are smaller music companies not affiliated with any major media conglomerate. [more @ www.reuters.com]

Mobile music players are set to become the must-have gadget for music fans.
A report predicts that people will buy more than 10 million players this year to listen to music while on the move.

The buying frenzy is being driven by the success of Apple’s iPod and the reams of copycat gadgets aiming to cash in on its popularity.

The study by London-based Informa Media predicts that more than 21 million mobile music players will be in use around the world by the end of 2004. [more @ www.news.bbc.co.uk]

The heavy lifting is about to begin for BMG and Sony Music.

With the European Commission’s July 19 clearance of the proposed merger of the two music giants, approval by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission is the final hurdle before the deal’s completion.

But FTC approval should be imminent and the music industry’s new lineup of four global majors appears ready to become a reality.
[more @ www.reuters.com]

UK national newspaper The Sun and London local rag the Evening Standard have hopped onto the digital music bandwagon through joint promos with two UK-based online music services.

This weekend, the Sun began a summer-long deal with Napster, providing readers with 10,000,000 free songs.

The Sun promises an “accompanying promotion” on its website, but when we visited the site this morning, there’s was no sign of it. However, we did see iPods being offered for sale – a rich irony, given their incompatibility with the Napster service.
[more @ www.theregister.co.uk]

An Israeli technology company that makes popular software for downloading music over the Internet agreed Tuesday to pay $4.1 million to the recording industry for copyright infringement, a significant victory for music labels.

Bridgemar Services Ltd., formerly known as iMesh.com Ltd., agreed under a court-approved settlement to change its Internet service later this year to prevent consumers from illegally distributing music or downloading songs. The iMesh software has been downloaded more than 76 million times. [more @ www.forbes.com]