Starbucks label signs Joni Mitchell
Joni Mitchell is following the lead of Paul McCartney in joining with the coffee giant Starbucks to release her comeback album. Hear Music, a record label formed in partnership with Starbucks Corp. and the Concord Music Group, said Wednesday that Mitchell is its second signing. "Shine," her first album of new compositions since 1998, will be released on Sept. 25. Hear Music expects to sign one more artist this year and eight in 2008, and is looking for a mixture of new and established artists, Lombard said.
Web Radio Battles Efforts to Expand Royalties for Music
Every piece of recorded music is covered by two separate copyrights. The first involves the musical composition itself and is usually handled by music publishers on behalf of composers and songwriters. The other is for a specific recording of the song, which is owned by record labels and musicians.
For example, a music sale via a service like iTunes is considered the same as the sale of a physical CD, in terms of royalties. But when you stream a piece of music, that is considered a "performance" of the song and an entirely distinct set of royalties kicks in. This distinction works to the disadvantage of songwriters, who are fighting to get music downloads categorized as performances and not sales. Court rulings, though, have so far been against them.
EMI and DRM: Does it matter?
The challenge to iTunes' hegemony will begin when Amazon launches its MP3-based store later this year. If EMI and the other smaller labels offering their tracks through the Amazon store start to see their digital sales rise, then the other big labels might follow suit. And once all tracks are available in DRM-less MP3 format, the only differentiator for the iTunes store is the fact that it's integrated with the iTunes software, which is required to use an iPod (or iPhone).
This integration will probably still be enough for iTunes to keep its lead (as long as the iPod keeps its lead), but Amazon's store should move into the clear No. 2 spot, as digital media enthusiasts--those who want their downloads to play on every computer and other type of device they own now or might own in the future--jump on board.
Facebook Wall to Support Video, Music
Facebook will update its Wall (comment feature) tonight, says Robert Scoble, adding support for multimedia like videos and music and allowing developers to integrate with it. This does not mean that developers will be able to post to the wall from their apps, but that applications can plug in to it. These new abilities will be added to the API in the next few hours, and you can keep up with all API additions by adding the Developers App to your Facebook account.
Txttunes Launches Text-Based Music Download Service in U.S.
Txttunes, the provider of a text-message-based music distribution and social networking service, on Tuesday announced the launch of its offering in the U.S. The Txttunes service lets labels and artists upload MP3s and ringtones to a website, which consumers can browse and select content to download to a PC or cell phone, with all charges billed directly to their mobile accounts. All DRM-free songs and ringtones cost $1.75, which includes a 75 cent "convenience fee." Txttunes launched with 60,000 tracks, and expects to triple its offering in the coming weeks.
Hands-On TiVo Unbox Movie Rentals, PC-Free
TiVo's $300 HD player was fully revealed today, so it's a good time to explore TiVo's pumped up Unbox functionality that this and the Series 3/2 all have. TiVo has been working as a set top box for Amazon's Unbox movie rental and purchase service for a while, but only in the last few weeks has it been possible to buy movies on a TiVo without any intervention from a PC. Having used it for a week, I have to say it's imperfect, but nice.
Off The Record
It concerns a young rock band who decided to stop selling their CDs at concerts. Selling CDs has, for many years, been a good way for an act to reclaim the margin that would otherwise have been snaffled by a retailer. But it made no sense to this band once they discovered that by selling CDs for $10 they were cannibalising sales of their $20 T-shirts.
There are two points to note here. First, that a simple garment with a logo stamped across it, probably manufactured for pennies in a third-world sweatshop, now costs twice as much as an album of digitally pristine, highly wrought music recorded in a state of the art western studio. Second, most bands, however successful, now make their money from live work and the merchandising opportunities that go with it, rather than from recordings.
81 Million People in U.S. Watch Broadband Video at Home or Work, According to Nielsen and CTAM
An estimated 81 million people, or 63% of the 129 million people who access the Internet over broadband in the U.S., watch broadband video at home or at work, according to new research conducted by The Nielsen Company for The Cable & Telecommunications Association for Marketing (CTAM). This number increased from 70 million in September 2006 to 81 million in March 2007, a jump of 16% in just six months.
Charting the mytunes revolution
It's taken decades of technology breakthroughs to get from 8-tracks to iPods. Digital downloads still represent just a fraction of total music sales, but CD sales have slid steadily since their introduction. Fortune looks at how the way we listen to music has changed over the years.
AT&T and eMusic team up
Beginning July 31st, AT&T customers with select handsets will be able to download tracks directly from eMusic.com. EMusic is one of the few online music retailers to offer completely DRM-free files, making the transition to mobile downloading that much easier. The service will be offered for $7.49/month which includes 5 song downloads of your choice. Supported handsets will be the Samsung A707, A717, A727, and the Nokia N75. Keep in mind that data charges will also be incurred, so trying to use this service with anything other than an unlimited plan could mean costly overages.
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