Monday, June 18, 2007

snapshot 6/18/07

Steve Jobs in a Box
http://nymag.com/news/features/33524/
It’s a stunning box, a wizard object with a passel of amazing features (It’s a phone! An iPod! A Web browser!). But for all its marvels, the iPhone inaugurates a dangerous new era for Jobs. Has he peaked? Universal, for one, is already experimenting with unprotected files in Europe. And the company is reportedly talking with Google about a deal to sell MP3s.


EMI cashes in on unprotected music sales
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070615/BUSINESS11/706150378/1438/ENTERTAINMENT50
"The initial results of DRM-free music are good," Lauren Berkowitz, a senior vice president of London-based EMI, said Wednesday at a music industry conference in New York. Berkowitz said the early results from iTunes indicate that DRM-free offerings may boost revenue from digital albums as well as individual songs. She said that sales of Pink Floyd's classic rock album Dark Side of the Moon had risen since the DRM-free digital versions became legally available.


EMI Says Dropping DRM Showing Good Initial Results, But Questions Emerge
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2007/06/emi_says_droppi.php
Increased sales of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon were singled out. That's true. Digital sales of Dark Side of the Moon have averaged over 3,600 units since the launch of iTunes Plus and the availability of unprotected AAC files. In the 11 prior weeks, average sales were 830 units per week. That's an increase of 272%. In the week iTunes Plus was released, digital sales of Dark Side of the Moon jumped 350% that week alone.

Here's the main question: Does an upgrade using iTunes Plus count as a scan? I can't find out. If that's the case, the increase in sales will actually a temporary thing. Once people who want to upgrade their tracks have done so, sales should drop and level off at pre-iTunes Plus levels (or, as EMI is hoping, above pre-launch numbers). My gut tells me SoundScan counts an upgrade as a sale. Those Pink Floyd numbers look to be more indicative of a technology-enabled sales jump than they are a sign of support for DRM-free downloads.

What about other albums? Digital sales in the last two weeks for Smashing Pumpkins' Siamese Dream rose 17% versus the 11 prior weeks' average. Norah Jones' Come Away With Me jumped nearly 24%. OK Go's Oh No increased 77%. Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head jumped 115%. Those are just digital album sales I'm talking about. But here's something very interesting: CD sales of four of those five titles dropped sharply over the same period.


Sony To Disconnect Connect
http://futuremusic.com/blog/?p=1557
According to recent reports, Sony will pull the plug on its penurious Connect download store in short order. The service, which was meant to complement its digital music player hardware, never gained any grip with users and has been a money pit since its inception. Several staffers have already been sent packing, and a few executives have received buyout packages. Although, an official conclusion has not been announced, Sony Connect should be disconnected some time this summer.


Can rap regain its crown?
http://www.usatoday.com/life/music/news/2007-06-14-rap-decline_N.htm
Not long ago, rap dominated album sales charts. Now, the music that has been a driving creative and commercial force in American culture is struggling to get its swagger back. The music industry is suffering across-the-board drops in CD sales, but rap is in a steeper slide: This year, rap sales are down 33% from 2006, twice the decline for the industry overall, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Five years ago, Eminem's album The Eminem Show was atop the Billboard chart, on its way to becoming the runaway best-selling album that year, with 7.6 million copies. Since then, no rap album has sold as well.

"Rap has gradually degenerated from an art form into a ring tone. It's a hip catchphrase or a musical riff with a short shelf life. It has a novelty element that captures the listener's imagination, but it's not a song. It won't build a career. That's why we're seeing this backlash."


Zune Marketplace to get MTV, VH1, and CMT content?
http://www.engadget.com/2007/06/18/zune-marketplace-to-get-mtv-vh1-and-cmt-content/
It seems that embedded in an innocent looking ZuneMarketPlace.dll file is some internal code that suggests a new content partnership with MTV, VH1, and CMT the Zune Marketplace. We know that Zune software has its roots in Windows Media Player, and Microsoft and MTV are pretty tight with their Urge integration in WMP11 -- but that doesn't necessarily mean this is holdover code. The found strings are very specific about mentioning "VH1 on Zune" and the like, so that's clearly cause for speculation.


E-tailers try brick-and-mortar on for size
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2007-06-18-mall-online-shoppers_N.htm?csp=34
To try to win their business, a new mall store is in the works that will showcase products from various e-tailers and catalog companies in a shared space for people with hang-ups about shopping from a distance. Customers at the first Epicenter Collection store to open next year in a Newark, Del., mall will use handheld devices to learn about products, order them and have them sent to their home without shipping fees. Some items can be bought through a conventional checkout line.


Crazy love when startup iLike hits pay dirt
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2003752014_brier18.html
That's happening now with iLike, a fledgling Seattle startup that suddenly, over the past three weeks, became one of the biggest online music services. Piqued by co-founder Hadi Partovi's blog describing the surge, I asked what it's like to experience the breakout moment that every Web entrepreneur dreams about.
"Our goals are first to become the dominant music player on Facebook and, second, to become profitable," he said. "I think both of those are well within reach."

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