Label:Life

The judge in the Kazaa trial has lashed out at evidence presented in the landmark lawsuit as a “dog’s breakfast”.

As the two sides – the RIAA, representing the music industry, and the Sharman Networks, supporting its hugely popular file-sharing Kazaaa software – debated details of a mountain of final evidence, Justice Murray Wilcox said: “I have never seen a greater dog’s breakfast over documents than in this case.”

For nearly three weeks Justice Murray Wilcox had listened to the record labels’ and Sharman Networks’ drawn-out arguments on the legalities of Kazaa. The case has been frequently delayed due to lack of evidence, all while copyright is infringed on “a massive scale”, according to the record labels.
[more @ www.techworld.com]

Playlist magazine has made its debut issue available as a free PDF download from its Web site. Playlist looks at digital music, the technology and musicians featuring industry news, future trends, in-depth features and interviews with music artists.

The magazine’s Web site also publishes in-depth features online like its recent comparison of all of the music services available today, as well as daily news relating to the digital music industry. [more @ www.macworld.com]

Colossal (Sorry, couldn’t help it!) Pick Of The Week for the last one of 2004.

‘Colossal Insight’ is the lead single from Roots Manuva’s new album ‘Awfully Deep’. I’ve been lucky enough to hear the album and can honestly say that it’s the best British Hip Hop/Urban/Whatever you want to call it album I’ve heard for a long time, possibly ever.

Genre tags just don’t do it justice. The album seamlessly weaves together Hip Hop, Reggae, Techno, Electronica and even Pop and still manages to sound coherent. Lyrically, Rodney Smith has come of age. He touches on some deep shit, as the title suggests and manages to be philosophical and political without sounding contrived and bloody funny to boot.

After only a couple of listens, there are lyrics that have become little mantras for me. Mr. Smith has managed to make an album that speaks of the personal trials and tribulations of a thirty year old man growing up in urban britain in such an honest and eloquent manner that I couldn’t believe my ears. I don’t want to overdo it but I believe this is a really important record; musically and socially. Absolutely brilliant.

You can watch the video for ‘Colossal Insight’ HERE (Windows Media) or HERE (Real Media).

Finally it just remains to wish all our subscribers a very happy, peacefull and prosperous Christmas/holiday and new year.

I’m sure next year will be even more eventful than this one in the music business and the wider world in general. Hold on to your hats! In the spirit of the season, let’s look forward to resolving the problems faced by the industry and the world in a positive, co-operative and unified manner. Now wouldn’t that be a thing! Peace.

The U.S. Supreme Court said Friday it will consider whether Internet file-sharing services are responsible for their customers illegally swapping songs and movies, a multibillion-dollar case testing the limits of copyright law in the digital age.

Justices will hear a challenge to an August ruling by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in favor of Grokster Ltd. and StreamCast Networks Inc. that was a blow to recording companies and movie studios seeking to stop the online distribution of their copyrighted works. [more @ www.metnews.com]

The holiday mood at independent music retailers is one of cautious optimism, despite Nielsen SoundScan numbers showing that overall sales at U.S. indie merchants were down 7.1% from last year as of Nov. 28.

In fact, that figure represents a major improvement compared with years past: In 2003, indie merchants were down 14.9%, and in 2002 they were down 21.1%. Further, most indie retailers Billboard contacted saw a slight sales increase this year or stayed on par with their 2003 totals.
[more @ www.reuters.com]

In a move to cash in on the growing ring tone market, Napster has announced that it has forged an agreement with Dwango Wireless to go mobile.

Napster will work with the mobile developer and publisher of entertainment content to launch “Napster Mobile” across major North American carriers. The service will launch in the U.S. and Canada next year and will include a specially designed Napster interface. [more @ www.ecommercetimes.com]

Based on the latest data from The NPD Group, which was presented yesterday at the Music 2.0 conference in Los Angeles, digital music continues to represent a prime opportunity for the music industry; however challenges remain in both attracting and maintaining customers.

According to the most recent NPD information, 62 percent of Internet- enabled households currently have digital music files saved on their PCs. “Nearly two-thirds of U.S. households are now personally familiar with digital music,” said Isaac Josephson, senior account manager of The NPD Group. “That means that among regular internet users who have been online during the past 30 days there’s a potential audience of 43 million domestic households with at least some level of digital music savvy. [more @ www.mi2n.com]

MTV will unveil a digital music service in 2005, with SVP Jason Hirschhorn promising to “blow the space open”. The store will have various offerings, including a-la-carte downloads, programmed and personalized streaming radio, and an on-demand music subscription service.

Those aspects will be phased in using a staged approach, with all aspects housed within a home-grown player experience. The store will contain exclusive programming from the vaults of the MTV Network, and will be heavily promoted across the various channels. [more @ www.digitalmusicnews.com]

With the film and music industries at last ready to consider the idea of using the internet to deliver content, the question is – how to make money off it?

The need for new business models was expressed by many speakers at this week’s Westminster Media Forum on intellectual property in London, though no consensus was reached on just what that model would be.

The record labels are arguably more ready than their movie-making counterparts to accept downloading as a broadcast medium, if only because music files are smaller than video and therefore more suitable for even today’s broadband speeds. But they’ve made their share of mistakes – especially in taking so long to accept new technologies. [more @ www.silicon.com]