Label:Life

The German music business – the third largest in the world – is “in the state of a zombie” because it has failed to respond to the challenge posed by downloading and piracy, a leading industry figure has said.

Tim Renner, the head of Universal Music Germany until last year, told BBC World Service’s The Music Biz programme that the country’s music industry was now struggling to survive.

Renner warned that unless the industry accepted “new realties” – such as downloading – its decline could become irreversible. [more @ www.bbc.co.uk]

Eliot Spitzer has taken his payola investigation to the next level as radio giants Clear Channel, Entercom and Infinity have received subpoenas in the New York State Attorney General’s ongoing payola probe into the music industry’s promotion practices.

His office served subpoenas to major record labels last fall, gathering information pertaining to leads that would uncover suspicious behavior between record labels and radio stations. [more @ www.fmqb.com]

An Italian DJ has been fined a record 1.4 million euros ($1.8 million) for using thousands of pirate music files in a nightclub near Rome, police said on Wednesday.

Police in the town of Rieti, near Rome, said they raided a popular nightclub earlier this week as part of a crackdown on piracy and seized 500 illegally copied music videos and more than 2,000 MP3 music files.

Police said the files belonged to a “well-known” Italian DJ. [more @ www.reuters.com]

Music guru Antonio ‘LA’ Reid has praised the UK music industry for it’s serious fans and vibrant atmosphere.

Reid, who as chairman of the Island Def Jam record label is responsible for the global success of acts such as Outkast and Usher, predicts a new music culture will rise out of the contemporary British scene.

He says, “What really impressed me is that music is so alive in the UK. It is so alive and it’s so vibrant. [more @ www.contactmusic.com]

Apple is hanging tough to maintain market leadership in digital music.

The company is ready to exploit any weakness betrayed by its competitors – as it surely expects they will against it.

Since Napster launched Napster To Go, a group of hackers have already managed to build an exploit to undermine the Microsoft digital rights management in the tracks.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs learned of this, and seized the opportunity to cast aspersions against Apple’s rivals, the LA Times reports he, “sent an email Tuesday morning to top record industry executives”, which warned them of Napster’s DRM disappointment. [more @ www.macworld.co.uk]

Oasis may be setting up a new record label with their former Creation boss, Alan McGee.

The band represent themselves in the UK on their own label, Big Brother, however their international deal with Sony expires in just 6 weeks.

McGee and Oasis went their separate in 1999 when McGee sold Creation to Sony and went on to set up internet label Poptones.

A friend of the band told the Daily Star “Everyone wants to sign them but they want to go through Alan again, probably by creating a new label together and getting a major to distribute the albums.” [more @ www.gigwise.com]

High Karate Records of Portland Oregon is proud to release it’s first “real” release after years of “under the table” activity.

The Hurtbird and Loch Lomond Split is scheduled to be release on the 20th of February 2005. A release party and performance will be held at Berbati’s Pan in Portland on the 25th of February 2005. See www.highkarate.com for more details.

Endangered animals lists are familiar to those who care about nature, but now technology has its own list of gadget “species” under threat of extinction.

High on the endangered list is the file-sharing network, Morpheus, which is about to fight for survival in court.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) list highlights what it says is the grip industry holds over gadgets.

It says pressure from the entertainment industry for legal action over devices and technologies stifles innovation. [more @ www.bbc.co.uk]

Ozzy Osbourne’s apparent attempt to thwart one lawsuit has brought about another one. An Illinois man is suing Osbourne’s record label, Epic, over the “remastered” versions of his first two studio albums “Blizzard of Ozz” and “Diary of a Madman”.

Anthony Wester filed suit last week in Cook County Circuit Court, according to the Chicago Sun Times. Wester is seeking compensation for himself and anyone else that purchased copies of the two remastered albums, claiming he was duped into buying a remaster of the original recordings only to discover that the albums had been altered by the replacement of the bass and drum tracks. [more @ www.antimusic.com]

Yahoo Japan has tied up with Sony affiliate Label Gate and will soon launch a music download service, the company said Monday.

The download service will be based on Label Gate’s existing Mora download service and offer around 73,000 songs from 39 domestic record companies.

The files will be encoded in Sony’s ATRAC3 data compression format and be playable on compatible devices including some models of cellular telephones, NetMD-type MiniDisc players, ATRAC CD players and the recently launched PlayStation Portable, said Nozomi Yamaguchi, a spokeswoman for Label Gate in Tokyo. [more @ www.macworld.co.uk]