Music Industry 2.0
UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237 million sold in the 12 months to September.
The British Phonographic Industry (BPI) trade body said albums by the likes of Keane and The Streets had helped drive a 3% rise compared with last year.
It also said sales of single tracks were up thanks to the availability of legal download services. [more @ www.bbc.co.uk]
Kazaa owner Sharman Networks was back in the Australian Federal Court in Sydney today facing allegations that it had not only created the world’s largest music piracy network, but also knew for what illegal purpose its software was being put and even encouraged such usage.
So stated lawyers acting for the world’s four biggest record labels, Universal, EMI, Warner and Sony BMG – local recording company Festival Mushroom and dozens of others told the Court today at the opening of what is expected to be a three-week trial. [more @ www.theregister.co.uk]
[See also www.wired.com]
Amid the music industry’s 10-week sales spiral, merchants have a new concern: Aggressive pricing on high-profile releases is threatening to turn Black Friday, retailers’ highly profitable day after Thanksgiving, into a red one for stores devoted to music.
While music sellers spent the weekend of Nov. 20-21 worrying about whether U.S. retail would again be swamped with street-date violations, Sunday circular advertising for Nov. 23 releases revealed a new level of loss-leading on the part of two big-box merchants.
In its Nov. 21 circular, Target had the Nirvana boxed set priced at $27.98, or $10.11 cheaper than its wholesale cost of $38.09. The box is list-priced at $59.98. Even with a 5% buy-in discount, which brings the wholesale cost down to $36.19 on initial orders, Target is still losing $8.20 on each unit sold, not including whatever cooperative advertising dollars it received from Universal Music Enterprises. [more @ www.reuters.com]
RazorPop launched its P2P (Peer to Peer) Street Team program today with Musicdish Network artist Yohany. The program features customizable TrustyFiles file sharing software that makes it easy for artists to promote and sell their music and other digital files through their fans.
Yohany’s co-branded MusicDish Network P2P software will link users to her website (http://www.yohany.com) in one click, providing branding on her fans’ desktop and making it easy for fans to try her music and buy her CD. The application will encourage users to download and share the just released music video for her club pounding single “At The Bar,” as well as feature contests for a chance to win her album “All That I Want.” The application will also feature highlights from the MusicDish Network. [more @ www.emediawire.com]
It’s not a stretch to say that virtually every mobile network operator (MNO) in Europe, North America and Asia is devising a long-term strategy in relation to music, with ringtones, Tru-Tones, music downloads, video, Ringback Tones and music-related content all firmly in their crosshairs.
This emphasis on music by the wireless industry comes at a time when the music industry is facing lacklustre sales, which have been hurt by illegal downloads on the internet and a myriad of other issues, many of which have been brought on by new technologies.
In effect, the world’s ever-more-influential wireless industry players are looking for new content to feed to voracious consumers, while the powerful music industry is in a state of flux as it makes a transition away from older delivery models.
“Will network operators take control of the music industry in the next few years?” That’s the question that was posed by Enterprise Ireland at its “Technology Roadmap Seminar,” which was sponsored by the Irish Innovation Relay Centre and was held in Dublin’s Digital Hub on 17 November.
[more @ www.enn.ie]
Key players from the mobile music business will head to Cannes next year to attend the second Mobile Music Forum, which takes place on January 23, as a curtain-raiser to MIDEM 2005 – The International Music Market (Cannes Jan 23-27).
International experts from the mobile music sector will gather together to assess the future of this burgeoning market. A strong focus will be given to the new services linked to mobile music including: truetones, ringback tones, the downloading of complete tracks etc. and the challenges, opportunities and risks that these developments pose for the music industry. [more @ www.top40-charts.com]
In yet another move in the legitimate digital music market, BT and Blueprint have jointly developed a new service based on Blueprint’s Open Royalty Gateway (ORG) and Song Centre software that allows copyright holders to take more control of their material.
The new service for hosting, managing and distributing music and related content online, promises to accelerate the growth of the market by addressing key problems hampering the development of online music businesses, such as time to market, copyright protection, capital expenditure in IT and networking technologies, control of rights and the margin structure of the present models.
The solution enables rights holders, artists, writers, publishers and record companies, to host their songs, videos, ringtones and other digital media files while having a direct commercial relationship with retailers. Content can be delivered directly to any number of media-enabled devices, including PCs, digital audio players and mobile phones.
Of course, online-only distribution also dramatically reduces the time it takes to get digital files to market, but the system has to be successful in managing rights and digital licences, reporting royalties and sales to rights holders, and offering a wide variety of digital media to consumers using variable pricing structures. [more @ www.digital-lifestyles.info]
U2 singer Bono strode onto stage at Apple Computer’s iPod release party last month with his trademark swagger and sunglasses, along with words of praise for the company and its music products.
In the online music business, where top artist exclusives are the subject of bitter competition, this was a singular coup. On the eve of a major record release, U2 was freely giving Apple the rights to use its first single in an iPod commercial, was lending its brand to a new version of the music player, and giving the company first crack at selling its new single and album online.
The Edge: “When Napster first got up and running, I was immediately very excited, and appalled at where it might lead us,” he said, praising Apple for finding the right response with its iTunes store. “People are using computers to store and listen to music. As long as we find a way for us to get paid, that is ultimately going to be a good thing.”
This combination of idealism, fear and hunger for publicity is driving a cozy new relationship between the music business and young online music services, which insiders say is likely to define the online music industry for years to come.
For now, it stops short of money changing hands. The online services need exclusive content too badly to risk losing it by charging advertising or promotion fees for prime placement. Moreover, they control too little of the overall music market to have much leverage. [more @ www.cnet.com]
Ring tones are so yesterday. If the wireless companies have their way, the next multibillion dollar surprise in the cellular business will be “Ringback” tones.
Instead of the usual dialing noise which people hear when phoning someone, callers to Verizon Wireless subscribers may soon find themselves listening to a song until the phone is answered. [more @ www.newsfactor.com]
When did you last read anything about an MP3 music player that mentioned the quality of the sound it reproduces?
You’ll find size, storage capacity, the type of music files played, even the pastel colour it’s available in mentioned in advertisements and reviews, but chances are that sound quality won’t get a look in.
Which is odd, considering that not so long ago wow and flutter, rumble, tracking error, signal-to-noise ratio and other arcane measures of sound reproduction quality used to be vital statistics for hi-fi buffs in their quest for the perfect sound system. No spec sheet was complete without them.
[more @ bbc.co.uk]