Thursday, July 5, 2007

snapshot 7/5/07

Music biz sales off for a seventh year: study
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070705/music_nm/business_dc_1;_ylt=AuL12pq919Be4OnHK1XRaBJkM3wV

The global recorded music market fell for the seventh consecutive year in 2006, and the slide is accelerating in 2007, according to figures published by a music trade group. Sales fell 5% year-over-year to $19.6 billion, said the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a London-based group that represents the major record labels.

Against a backdrop of shrinking CD sales and piracy, the value of physical music shipments tumbled 11% to $17.5 billion last year, the IFPI reported in its Recording Industry in Numbers 2007 study. Digital shipments through mobile services and the 500-plus recognized online music services jumped 85% to $2.1 billion.


Album sales down, digital track sales up
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070704/ap_en_bu/music_sales;_ylt=AmF981h_3NgbpgoMV91Pup5kM3wV
Album sales have continued their downward slide this year but sales of digital tracks are up almost 50 percent over this time last year. A total of 229.8 million albums were sold in the U.S. between Jan. 1 and July 1, according to Nielsen SoundScan figures released Wednesday. That's a 15 percent decrease over the same period last year. Meanwhile digital tracks sales increased 49 percent to 417.3 million this year. The decrease in album sales becomes only 9.2 percent when digital singles are bundled together and counted as albums.


Billboard Does Korn/EMI Math
http://www.coolfer.com/blog/archives/2007/07/billboard_does.php
Billboard (the print version only) offered details of Korn's two-album, revenue-sharing deal with EMI (the article is republished at Korn Underground, via from Blabbermouth). EMI purchased a 30% stake in Korn's revenues (touring, merch, recorded music, etc) for $25 million. The deal goes through 2010.

"To date, Billboard projects it has generated around $15 million on the sales of 'See You on the Other Side' (based on worldwide sales of about 2 million units and estimating a net of about $7.75 per album after manufacturing and distribution costs, based on an $11.45 wholesale price).

The band has also pulled an estimated $4 million after fees from additional sales of digital downloads, ringtones and the 'Unplugged' album. On top of that it has netted a projected $7 million-plus after expenses in touring-related revenue from the 2006 Family Values Tour and a 20-date U.S. theatre tour and selected European dates that grossed more than $11 million in box-office receipts.

Tour sponsorships and merch pulled in another estimated $2.2 million. That leaves the band still needing to earn another $20 million-$30 million in profits by 2010."


Universal confirms iTunes non-renewal
http://ilounge.com/index.php/news/comments/universal-confirms-itunes-non-renewal/
The Universal Music Group has confirmed reports that it will not renew its long-term iTunes contract. The label responded in a statement, which said, “Universal Music Group has decided not to renew its long-term agreement for Apple’s iTunes service. Universal Music Group will now market its music to iTunes in an ‘at will’ capacity, as it does with its other retail partners.” Macworld UK reports that in addition to variable pricing, Universal wants to be able to offer certain tracks and certain bands exclusively through other, competing online music services, in an effort to lessen Apple’s control of online music sales. Apple has yet to comment on the statement.


ReverbNation's Facebook Widget Detaches for Continuous Playback
http://archive.mediaor.com/post/4865004

  • Facebook users tend to spend a lot of time browsing other people's profiles, which causes the music on other embedded widgets to stop playing when a user navigates to another page. ReverbNation's widget, however, detaches from your profile page into its own window (example to the above right), so that people can keep listening to your selections even if they move on from your page. According to Chief Marketing Officer Jed Carlson, ReverbNation's is the first Facebook music application that can do this.
  • You can decide who should be able to see your playlist, which is helpful if you don't want future employers catching wind of your enthusiastic celebration of the entire Kottonmouth Kings catalog.
  • ReverbNation's Facebook widget works best for bands and labels that are trying to gain exposure with Facebook users, because after they create a ReverbNation account, it would only take minutes to add their uploaded songs to a detachable player on their Facebook profile page and start making friends.
  • If you're not in a band the widget is decidedly less useful, because you can only choose from ReverbNation's catalog, which, although it's apparently expanding by over 5,000 songs per week, does not contain a large number of bands that I've heard of (results may vary).
  • Right now, the widget streams the songs and includes links for buying the track or reading up on the artist. Any further monetization of the widget (ads perhaps?) would be split 50-50 with relevant artistsx

Apple iPhone: Music features
http://news.zdnet.com/1606-2_22-6194832.html
Video - One of CNET's MP3 experts, Senior Editor Donald Bell, takes a second, closer look at the music offerings on the Apple iPhone.


EMI Licenses Snocap, Offers DRM-Free Downloads
http://www.digitalmusicnews.com/stories/062907emi/view
EMI Music has now finalized a DRM-free licensing deal with Snocap, a move that allows the label to spin paid downloads on MySpace. Snocap carries a critical partnership with MySpace that enables artists to position downloads on their profile pages, and share resulting revenues. The latest deal follows an earlier arrangement involving Snocap and Warner Music Group, though EMI is the first major to lend DRM-free content to the alliance. MP3s are now being positioned on the MySpace pages of a number of artists, including 30 Seconds to Mars, Korn, Dean Martin, MIMs, Relient K, Saosin, and Yellowcard.


Name That Tune Now Song IDer
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/name-that-tune/musicmarker-now-song-ider-275397.php
For those times when you listen to the radio (do people still listen to the radio?) and you can't identify a song [do people still listen to songs?] there's the $19.95 MusicMarker. Press the button to activate the mic while the elusive song is playing, and the MusicMarker will record a snippet. When you get home, plug the unit in via USB and it will identify the track for you. The catch?

We're betting on loads of bloatware. There's no word on the site about exactly what service is being used to identify the tracks, and there is an option to be pointed to an MP3 or CD of the song.

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