Label:Life

The amount of digital music, video and other entertainment content available on the Internet is at an all-time high, but finding something compelling is getting harder than ever.

As a result, the demand for more sophisticated Internet search tools that can match text-based queries with visual- or audio-based content like movies or music is on the rise.

This desire for a better multimedia mousetrap has led Internet firms large and small to respond with search engines that can filter results by media type like music or video, similar to how they can for images or news today. [more @ www.reuters.com]

Young people in the UK are spending around £165m on mobile music a year at present, with the figure expected to nearly double to £311 by 2007, according to new research.

The figures, from the mobileYouth 2005 report, revealed that on average, young people in the UK spend about £1.08 a month on music downloads with the figure set to almost double to £1.96 by 2007.

The report found that young people contribute 86% of all mobile music revenues in the UK. However, 15-24 year olds are the key mobile music audience and account for 80% of all spending on mobile music. [more @ www.netimperative.com]

The music industry and retail stores have been working on CD burning kiosks that can manufacture out-of-stock albums in retail stores and offer customized compilations.

However retailers, hardware suppliers, and the major labels are struggling to sort out issues that threaten to overwhelm the initiative.

Retailers say that the in-store CD manufacturing initiative is missing a profitable business model. Hardware costs and stringent content-usage requirements from the major labels are also contributing to the problems. [more @ www.kioskmarketplace.com]

The United States could bring a World Trade Organization case against China for piracy of copyrighted material, such as music, software and films, a top Bush administration official said on Monday.

“I think we would take a serious look if we could bring the evidence together to make that case to the WTO,” US Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick said during remarks at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.

The US Chamber of Commerce has estimated US companies lose more than $200 billion in China each year because of sales of counterfeited and pirated goods. [more @ www.financialexpress.com]

In recent years, economists have been drawn to the music industry like lawyers to a car wreck. Napster, Grokster, digital sampling, and Chinese piracy have thrown the industry into chaos. Economists have realized it’s the best place to study what happens when new technologies disrupt established industries. They have also realized it’s really fun.

Among the crowd rushing the stage is Alan Krueger, the Princeton labor economist who is an expert on the minimum wage and many other things. In a paper written with Marie Connolly, which managed to cite both singer Paul Simon and Nobel Prize-winning economist Gary Becker, Krueger set out to answer some fundamental questions of what he and Connolly call “rockonomics.” (This is not to be confused with Freakonomics, the book co-written by University of Chicago economist Steven D. Levitt and journalist Stephen J. Dubner.*) Why are Cher concerts so expensive? How have falling record sales and the rise of downloading affected big-name stars? And what’s the deal with scalping? [more @ www.slate.msn.com]

After closely aligning itself with the record label Island Def Jam, The Inc., a hip-hop brand known for such superstars as Ashanti and Ja Rule, may soon find itself looking for a new business partner, according to a published report Monday.

Island Def Jam is looking to sever ties with the rap label and its owner, Irv Gotti, as the hip-hop impresario faces federal money laundering charges and lackluster sales of its hottest artists, the New York Post reported Monday. [more @ www.money.cnn.com]

The man behind Channel 4’s move into music downloads has warned rivals in television and publishing that they need to put online at the heart of their strategies.

Andy Taylor, managing director of new media at the broadcaster, said he believed too many traditional media owners had failed to embrace the internet despite the huge explosion in broadband and the massive increase going on in advertising revenues on the web.

This week, Channel 4 launched its new music website, Channel4.com/music, part of a strategy which has seen the broadcaster double its investment online. [more @ www.mediaweek.co.uk]

P2p isn’t going away any time soon and, “The music industry must adapt or risk being swamped by technical progress,” says Waynn Lue in his fascinating new paper, Peer-to-Peer Networks and Radio Play: An Unexplored Link.. “Technology cannot be held back once developed, and trying to stamp it out through litigation is impossible.”

Lue told us (P2P.Net) he’s a CS/Econ double major at Stanford, “starting my Master’s in Computer Science.

“I’ve been interested in p2p networks since the original Napster, so I was hoping to combine a few areas of expertise when I wrote this thesis.”

[There follows an extremely in depth analysis of the P2P phenomenon, including a review of past studies, a breakdown of current statistics and a look at the effect of litigation and the nature of digital media. A must read. -Ed.] [more @ www.p2pnet.net]

R+B singer Akon has compared working in the music industry to his former life of crime.

The ‘Lonely’ star was jailed for three years in the late 1990s for his part in an American car theft operation, and attributes his chart-topping musical success to the skills he picked up breaking the law.

Akon says, “It’s the same rules and the same tactics in gangland and music. That’s why so many hustlers have taken over.

“The amazing thing is that music pays just as well but no-one can arrest you.” [True dat -Ed.]

KarmaDownload continues to push the boundaries by powering the Brasian Beats download website – the first website to offer the most comprehensive legal digital catalogue for South Asian music!

Following a hugely successful launch in the US, KarmaDownload continues it’s relentless journey to offer the most exciting and comprehensive independent download website. The launch of Brasian Beats marks a milestone not only for KarmaDownload as their first specialist collaboration, but for Asian music worldwide. [more @ www.mi2n.com]