Label:Life

London Drugs dropped the copyright levy on MP3 players Friday, and other retailers are considering similar action in the wake of a court ruling this week that found the fees illegal.

“We think it’s a very flawed levy,” said Wynne Powell, chief executive officer of Vancouver-based London Drugs, which has 62 stores across Western Canada. “We applaud the court decision, and we hope that the public of Canada will join us retailers who have vigorously fought this position and write their politicians and tell them not to introduce it back in another form.” [more @ www.globetechnology.com]

A new kind of copy-protected music CD will likely hit U.S. shelves early next year, as record label Sony BMG Music Entertainment experiments with a technology created by British developer First 4 Internet, according to sources familiar with the companies.

Several major music labels have already used a version of the British company’s technology on prerelease compact discs distributed for review and other early-listening purposes, including on recent albums from Eminem and U2. [more @ www.zdnetindia.com]

Christmas may have come early for a technology whose users just weeks ago faced a Hallowe’en nightmare. Events in the music download arena have moved as quickly as the nights have drawn in.

The record industry is intent on culling music thieves and last month the BPI won a significant court ruling to identify serial uploaders through their ISP’s in order to sue them.

However, according to Birmingham lawyer Andrew Sparrow, there will be a major shift by the industry in coming to terms with peer-to-peer online music services. [more @ www.icnetwork.co.uk]

Australia’s online music stores have responded to music analyst Phil Tripp’s criticism of the market, with one of the nation’s largest players saying he “ought to catch up with the reality of online music downloads.”

BigPond corporate affairs manager, Craig Middleton, said Tripp’s claim that the major online music stores have “failed miserably” in attracting the public to buy legal music online was “baseless”. [more @ www.zdnet.com.au]

MIDEM 2005, The World’s Music Market (Cannes, France, 23–27 January) will host a Live Music Network for the first time. The networking and conference day is dedicated to the thriving live music sector and will be held on Wednesday 26 January.

Live music experts taking part in the event and sharing their experience and opinions with MIDEM participants include: Tim Clark, Director of IE:Music and manager for Robbie Williams (UK), Tony Wadsworth, Chairman & CEO EMI Music UK & Ireland, Peter Grosslight, Worldwide Head of Music, William Morris Agency (US) and Peter Schwenkow, Director Deutsche Entertainment (Germany).

The Live Music Network will take place at a time when the live music sector has never been so dynamic. It will unite artists, management, agents, promoters, merchandisers, sponsors, venues, ticket agents, record companies, retailers, music publishers and media to discuss this growth. Particular focus will be given to how new technology has helped the live sector’s explosion, and how it will increasingly do so in the future. [more @ www.midem.com]

Sony BMG, the world’s No.2 record label, plans to double its investment in artists and songs so that it can reap the benefits of a revival in the music industry, the group’s Chief Executive has told the Financial Times.

Andy Lack said in an interview with the newspaper on Tuesday that he hoped there would be a revival in music industry sales in 2006. By 2007, he was quoted as saying, he planned to have equipped the group with “an extraordinary artist roster with tremendous depth and diversity”. [This is the same company who shelved Fiona Apple’s new album for being ‘not commercial enough’!. Ironic. – Ed.] [more @ www.reuters.co.uk]

EMI and Sony BMG, two of the world’s largest music groups, have formed a far-reaching alliance on new digital products and distribution platforms in North America.

The two companies, which between them control more than a third of the global music market, said the “ground-breaking agreement” would cover new physical formats, mobile ring tones, digital video distribution and downloads. [more @ www.ft.com]

Melodeo, Inc. and Warner Music Group (WMG) announced the signing of the first global agreement which allows consumers to securely download entire tracks from WMG’s rich music catalog directly to their mobile phones.

Melodeo, a Seattle-based company, provides music to wireless subscribers through a mobilemusic solution that resides on the wireless phone allowing consumers to shop, preview, purchase, play and store full-length music tracks all from their wireless phone. Wireless operators also can deploy Melodeo technology on their networks that allows them to offer subscribers access to WMG’s vast catalog. With the service, consumers can easily purchase and download full-length songs directly from their handsets, over the air to their wireless phone. [more @ www.davesipaq.com]

Melvyn Bragg’s heavyweight Radio 4 discussion programme In Our Time is hardly the obvious choice for the iPod generation. But last month, the programme was downloaded 70,000 times on to listeners’ computers and MP3 music players, in a new type of broadcasting that is set to become widespread soon.

Known as “podcasting”, listeners sign up for radio programmes that are then automatically saved on a computer or an MP3 player such as an iPod after they are broadcast. The BBC is the first British broadcaster to trial the service. [more @ www.timesonline.co.uk]

he recording industry will ask the International Red Cross to freeze a trust fund allegedly controlled by the owners of Sharman Networks, an Australian software company.

The music industry maintains that Sharman, the maker of the Kazaa peer-to-peer software, is owned by several companies through a trust fund registered in the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu. The Red Cross is the only beneficiary specifically named in the trust, so the recording industry, which is suing Sharman, is asking the organization to voluntarily freeze the fund until a verdict is reached in the Australian Federal Court. [more @ www.wired.com]