Monday, December 17, 2007

snapshot 12/17/07

Digital business heats up for Latin music
After years of modest results, the digital marketplace in 2007 finally began to yield considerable revenue streams for Latin labels and acts. Sales of Latin digital albums numbered 477,000 units by December 10, according to Nielsen SoundScan -- 1.6 percent of all Latin albums sold. That figure is still significantly less than the 10.4 percent portion of album sales overall that were digital, but far exceeds the 293,000 digital album sales tallied for Latin music in 2006.
Growth has been bolstered by iTunes Latino's solidified status as a destination for a vast, well-catalogued library of music and by the proliferation of videos by Latin acts now found on YouTube. Ringtones and master ringtones are also growing sources of revenue for Latin labels.


New music services reach for slice of digital pie
After 2006 -- a year when virtually no one managed to launch a digital music service in competition with Apple's dominant iTunes -- 2007 was a refreshing change of pace. Several fresh faces emerged onto the digital music scene this year, buoyed in part by record companies' newfound willingness to experiment with different business models, but also by the departure of several high-profile competitors.
By far the most visible service to throw in the towel this year was MTV's Urge; now, a new entity called Rhapsody America joins Rhapsody's technology with MTV's editorial and music curation staff. Sony began the slow dimming of the switch on the struggling Connect music service. The company in August announced a gradual shutdown that will begin in March, laying off about 20 employees and reallocating the remainder to another division.

Zune, though, is hanging in there. This year, the Microsoft service was upgraded with a decidedly social networking-oriented strategy. The Zune Social initiative incorporates user profiles (called Zune Cards) that members can use to list their favorite artists, post widgets onto other social networking services and let others sample music in full-song fashion. Meanwhile, a host of such companies as Snocap and Lala tried a more "distributed commerce" approach -- where digital vending machines called "widgets" let artists offer downloads from their own social network profiles, as well as from their fans' profiles, rather than forcing consumers to visit digital megastores like iTunes.


Piper sees iTunes rentals, new breed of Apple touch games in 08
Meanwhile, Munster and his team also expect Apple to announce new content partnerships with one or more movie studios, which may involve the launch of iTunes movie rentals.
If Apple begins renting movie downloads on iTunes, we expect a related software update to the Apple TV enabling movie rentals direct to the Apple TV. In fact, the Apple TV software currently includes 'iTunes Store settings' in its settings menu, but the option is essentially inactive," he wrote. "We expect this setting to be activated soon; users will likely be able to log into their iTunes accounts directly from the Apple TV and browse movie rentals, then download them directly to their Apple TV."


Is Microsoft’s 80GB Zune Officially A Hit?
Microsoft’s 80GB Zune is reportedly experiencing a surge in demand during the Holiday season with some retailers experiencing shortages. The first generation of the Zune was Dead On Arrival, but the follow-up has proven to even the hardest critics that the portable music player is ready for its close-up. In fact, many industry analysts have picked the Zune over the iPod in their evaluations.

“What’s happening is that consumers are putting the 80GB Zune up against the 80GB iPod Classic and finding better value with Microsoft,” Greg Geller, Technology Editor for FutureMusic observes. “For gift buyers who are looking for a portable music player, the Microsoft Zune offers the best technology bang for the buck with the iPod Touch being just too expensive for average consumers and having only 8-16MB of storage.”


Rhapsody Makes Facebook App (Because Everyone Else Is Doing It)
Just got word that the Rhapsody music service has a new Facebook app called Music By Rhapsody. You get "access" to 4.5 million songs, and there's a preference engine that recommends songs for you and your visitors to play from the profile page. The price catch is, you get 25 free songs per month, after which you have to upgrade to a paid-for plan. And the whole thing, still in beta, feels more promotional than servicy. Like many Facebook apps, the promise of doing things right there on the profile page is quickly dashed, and you're whisked away to another page after just a click or two. I don't blame Rhapsody, I just think the Facebook app format is—ahem—highly overrated. [Rhapsody on Facebook]


Warner Music Faces Challenging Wall Street Week
Wall Street may continue to punish Warner Music Group this week, now a battered stock. Shares of WMG dipped as low as $6.21 last week before settling at $6.34 by the closing bell Friday. The stock, now a sub-$5 threat, has been buffeted by both external market conditions and a disillusioned recording industry investor. Instead of improved revenues and a successful digital transition, investors have mostly witnessed a downward sales spiral - as well as the departure of superstars like Madonna.

Now, onlookers are wondering exactly where the bottom is. Clearly, Warner has assets on its balance sheet - both on the recording and publishing side. But a punishing year is wreaking havoc on investor psychology, and the all-important fourth quarter is offering little relief. Cumulative album sales recently edged towards 442.5 million units for the week ending December 9th, a 14.8 percent year-over-year decline according to Nielsen Soundscan.


Having it all: New model for lossless downloads
An agreement in October between Olive Media and MusicGiants envisions a vastly different consumption of digital music, where owners of media servers (like Olive's) download CD-quality music files (like MusicGiants') that are also freed from the restraints of Digital Rights Management.


MTV to premiere Britney’s latest video on Web first
For the second time in the past seven days, MTV Networks has chosen an alternative distribution method for new content. This time, MTV will premier Britney Spears’ new music video “Piece of Me” exclusively on its Web site. Starting Friday at 11 p.m. ET, MTV.com will showcase “Piece of Me”, the second video off Spears’ recently released album “Blackout”, for 48 hours. Afterward, the video will go into rotation on MTV’s cable TV channels.

Just last week, Paramount Pictures and MTV announced they were using a different distribution strategy for the latest movie in the Jackass franchise, “Jackass 2.5.” It will be streamed free of charge before being released later on download-to-own services such as iTunes and Blockbuster’s Movielink and DVD. “Jackass 2.5” and Britney Spears, a tabloid favorite, certainly aren’t the best that the movie and music worlds have to offer, but it’s obvious MTV and Paramount are paying attention where there youthful customers are — and that’s on the Internet, not always in front of their TVs and at the movie theater.

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