Label:Life

Once the scourge of the music industry, digital downloads are now officially “the way forward” for the “Big Four” record labels – EMI, SonyBMG, Universal and Warner Music, which together control over 70% of the world’s recorded music – now that they have numbers to justify it, anyway.

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The monetization issue is tricky not least because at the end of the day music is just one content purchase option among many, says Marcel Fenez, Asia-Pacific leader of Entertainment & Media Practices at PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

“Music is competing for consumer entertainment dollars from other sectors, and they are all growing much faster,” he says.

For example, video games will grow 13% CAGR in the next few years, driven by online and wireless sales, while pay TV content revenues will grow 10%. Sports revenues will grow 8%, and film 6%.

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EMI and Warner Music were locked in a two-way $4.6 billion takeover battle on Wednesday, with each trying to acquire the other to create a combined company that would shrink the industry to three dominant players.

London-based EMI Group Plc, home to Coldplay and Robbie Williams, said it had rejected a 2.5 billion pounds ($4.6 billion) cash offer from its smaller U.S. rival, calling the bid “wholly unacceptable”.

At the same time, EMI revealed that it had sweetened its takeover bid for New York-based Warner Music, whose artists include Madonna and Red Hot Chili Peppers, to $31 a share or $4.6 billion in total, from its original May offer of $28.50, although the new bid was also rejected.

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Universal Music, one of the UK’s biggest record companies, is moving into TV production to make programmes with artists on its books, such as U2, Scissor Sisters and Keane.

The new division, Globe Productions, comes from the success of programmes such as The X Factor and Pop Idol. The production arm will aim to develop new television formats – both music based and factual – and work on programme ideas in-house, as well as collaborating closely with independent production companies.

More@TheStage

Record companies are hoping the mobile phone will help save the radio star after technology was unveiled yesterday that could allow listeners to buy any song playing on any station at the touch of a button. UBC Media Group, the company that developed the technology, said a trial would begin next month in the Birmingham area, with a full consumer launch expected within 12 months.

Record labels, buffeted by digital piracy in recent years, and commercial radio stations suffering an advertising drain to the internet hope the digital solution will help them to fight back. But it will pose another challenge to high street record stores, already struggling to compete with the convenience of digital downloads.

More@guardian

Digital Music Group Inc. said Monday it bought Philadelphia’s Chancellor Records, including the master recordings of its whole catalog _ more than 2,000 tracks.

The company did not disclose financial details of the deal. Digital Music Group owns and distributes out-of-print, back catalog and independent label recordings.

More@chron

Music retailer Tower Records will unveil its digital music download service on Tuesday, complete with 1.2 million tracks priced at 99 cents per song. Powered by Puretracks, tracks would be provided in Windows Media Format, Reuters reports.

As with the company’s brick-and-mortar stores, Tower’s digital store will provide a range of music across many genres not commonly found in other retail chains. Additionally, the company plans to offer the files encoded at a higher bitrate to increase sound quality.

Any player that can support protected Windows Media files would be able to use the service, which means users of the iPod cannot playback Tower’s tracks on their players. Songs would be downloaded from the Tower Web site, and would be burnable to CD.

More@betanews

Sony’s Walkman digital music players failed to meet their initial target for the past year, Chubachi told reporters. He declined to describe a strategy to bounce back over the rest of the year. “We miscalculated with the Walkman,” he said.

A recovery in the music-player business would be an important step toward putting Sony back on a path to growth after years of disappointing results. Although Sony’s other central products—such as televisions and digital cameras—are regaining strength, Chubachi said, the Walkman was a critical product “to reinforce Sony’s resurrection.”

More@washingtonpost

The plight of physically disabled performers in the music industry is explored this week in BBC Radio 2’s I Don’t Need No Doctor.

One man who will weep few tears over the axing of Top of the Pops is songwriter Robert Wyatt. Wyatt was a cult figure in the early 1970s as drummer with alternative band Soft Machine. But a fall from a fourth floor window left him paralysed and in a wheelchair. After leaving hospital, he was scheduled for a Top of the Pops appearance at the height of its popularity. Then a producer asked him if he could get out of his wheelchair for the performance.

“He told me it was not quite the image the programme wanted,” Wyatt explains.

More@bbc

An influential music producer from Thornton Heath has accused the BBC of brainwashing’ black youngsters with violent rap music.

In a letter to the Times Neil Fraser, known as the Mad Professor, attacks the corporation for promoting music he says can corrupt youngsters.

Mr Fraser spoke out after the Conservative Party leader, David Cameron, blasted the public broadcaster for playing too much violent gangster’ rap music.

Mr Cameron singled out Radio 1’s rap DJ Tim Westwood who, he said, played music which encouraged people to carry guns and knives.
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In his letter Mr Fraser said: “The BBC and other media continue to install white liberals’ and irresponsible blacks to brainwash our youngsters.

More@croydonguardian

Beijing has banned disco and other dance music in private rooms of nightclubs and karaoke bars to curb the flood of illegal drugs into the capital’s entertainment venues, Chinese newspapers reported Friday.

“Because many drug takers regularly dance and go crazy to upbeat ‘disco’ music in private rooms, police have specially requested karaoke machines not have this music,” the Beijing Times newspaper said.

More@yahoo