Label:Life

The compact disc has at least another five years as the most popular music format before online downloads chip away at its dominance, a new study said on Tuesday.

Technology consultancy Jupiter Research said in its annual report that in 2009 European music fans will buy 836 million euros ($1 billion) worth of music in the form of digital downloads and subscriptions to Internet radio services.

At that level, digital music revenues will account for roughly 8 percent of Europe’s estimated 10.2 billion euro music market. The study does not take into account the surprisingly successful market for mobile phone ring tones. [more @ www.reuters.com]

A federal judge on Friday overturned a 1994 law prohibiting the sale of bootleg recordings of live music, saying that the law is too restrictive and provides “seemingly perpetual [copyright] protection” to the original performances.

But don’t go whipping out the DAT machines just yet: The ruling only strikes down a federal law. Each state still has anti-bootlegging laws on the books, which means that illicit live recordings are still illicit. [more @ www.mtv.com]

According to a survey just completed by Film Music Magazine, ASCAP’s policy of valuing a minute of instrumental music at only 16 cents on the dollar compared to a minute of song on film or television clearly lacks industry support:

Question: Do you feel that 16 cents on the dollar for a minute of score music compared to a minute of song within the same film or television show is a fair rate for instrumental music royalties at ASCAP? [more @ www.filmmusicmag.com]

Long before Richard Branson became the latest billionaire with a reality TV show, before he started his cellphone company, his airline and his record label, he sold music from the Virgin Record Shop on Oxford Street in London. When he began in 1971, of course, music was presented as grooves pressed into a vinyl disk.

On Monday, Branson is introducing a new music store, VirginDigital.com, this time selling music as streams of bits to be downloaded from the Internet. [more @ www.iht.com]

Emap and Scottish Radio Holdings publish trading statements today but investors are more interested in the takeover speculation surrounding the companies.
The announcement of merger talks between Capital Radio and GWR last week has resurrected talk of mass consolidation in the radio industry. While Capital and GWR are the most obvious partners and have held on/off talks for years, Emap and SRH are not far behind. [more @ www.guardian.co.uk]

Consect, the leading provider of US mobile market analysis, including ringtone and other mobile entertainment metrics, charts and reports, announced the release of its 2004 Mobile Music Report.

The report indicates global mobile phone ringtone sales will total $4 billion in 2004. In the US market, total sales have doubled from $150MM in 2003 to more than $300MM for 2004, making the US one of the fastest growing and largely untapped markets for mobile music. [more @ www.marketwire.com]

An Omaha-based record label is turning heads in the music industry, and it’s not Saddle Creek. It’s not even a form of music most Omaha natives are familiar with. Cymbalism Recordings is strictly a drum and bass record label headed up by Tommie Emmie and Shawn Patrick.

Cymbalism was conceived a year ago with a focus to give lesser-known producers of drum and bass some exposure. Since then, the label has gotten so big so fast, it’s nearly gotten ahead of itself. [more @ www.unogateway.com]

A music activism group is encouraging people to remix a controversial sample from Funkadelic to draw attention to a court ruling that requires all musicians to get permission before sampling any music, even if it would be unrecognizable in the new work.

The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled that even if a sample has been mixed into an unrecognizable form, artists must secure the rights to use such clips. In this case, NWA used a 1.5-second section of Funkadelic’s “Get Off Your Ass and Jam.” The ruling reversed a lower court decision.

“It’s a ridiculous standard,” said Nicholas Reville, co-founder of Downhill Battle, which organized the 3 Notes and Runnin’ protest. “It’s a standard that only comes about when the current copyright regime is totally out of sync with the way music is made today.” [This is a good point; Hip Hop is arguably the biggest selling musical genre in the world today and wouldn’t exist without sampling -Ed.] [more @ www.wired.com]

Voting is now open for this year’s BT DIGITAL MUSIC AWARDS, which celebrates the cream of legal digital music entertainment.

Formerly known as the Interactive Music Awards, the awards honour the artists, radio stations, music TV programmes and the professional teams behind them who have done the most to reach music fans in the past year using digital media. [more @ www.nme.com]

What do you get when you cross the music of ‘70s glam rockers Queen with rap pioneer Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five?
Answer: “A Night at the Hip-hopera,” an unauthorised remix album that it is shaping up as the latest “copyright nightmare” for the beleaguered music industry.

The illicit remix from British DJs The Kleptones, which combines Queen songs such as “Another One Bites the Dust” and “We Will Rock You” with music from hip-hop legends including KRS-One and Africa Bambaataa, is the latest shot across the bow of music giant EMI. [more @ www.expressindia.com]