snapshot 1/24/08

Global music sales fell around 10 pct in 2007
Sales of music fell at a faster rate in 2007 than 2006 despite digital sales soaring, and the gatekeepers of the Web must act if the industry is to beat piracy, the international trade body said on Thursday. Global digital sales grew by around 40 percent in 2007, the IFPI group said, but this was not enough to offset the sharp fall in CD sales, meaning the overall market is expected to be down around 10 percent for 2007.

Digital sales now account for an estimated 15 percent of the global music market, up from 11 percent in 2006 and zero in 2003. In the United States, online and mobile sales now account for 30 percent of all revenues.


Yahoo discussing online music deals: report
Web portal Yahoo Inc is in early discussions with major record labels to offer an online music service, the Associated Press reported. The report, dated late Wednesday, quoted two unnamed record company executives and said details are still being negotiated and that Yahoo could offer the MP3 files either for sale or for free as part of an ad-supported service.


HP to make Sony DVDs; It will create copies of the studio's films and TV shows on demand.
Hewlett-Packard Co. plans to announce today that it has signed an agreement with Sony Pictures Home Entertainment to create made-to-order DVDs of some of the studio's movies and TV shows. The agreement, whose terms were not disclosed, boosts Palo Alto-based HP's ambition to play the middleman in the future of how entertainment is distributed.

Separately, HP has started a DVD production business and already has agreements with 40 content partners for 5,000 titles, including classic science fiction movies, exercise videos and children's series. The titles aren't on sale yet, but HP said it planned to soon announce partnerships with websites that would sell these made-to-order DVDs.


Only 25% Of 2007's Top Live Acts Were Under 30
Why is this scary? Everyone keeps saying “thank God The Police put their differences aside last year” or “lets hope Led Zeppelin does a full on world tour next year”. Sure, this is great for now, but it ignores the 800 pound gorilla in the room: these guys aren’t recording anything new, and eventually, the Zeppelins, the Van Halens, the Billy Joels and Paul McCartneys and Mick Jaggers of the world will not be able to tour any more. Or their fans will be too old to climb the steps in the arena. Or big box retailers will stop carrying CDs altoghther, and these older acts targets audiences will stop buying their music instead of venturing online. Or all of the above. And when this happens, music is in serious trouble.

The long tail is largely to blame here. When these old bands came up, they were the entertainment. Their concert was the thing going on in any given city that night, their appearance on a late show was the thing to watch that night (think The Beatles on Ed Sullivan). Now, there is just too much going on at any given time to get that sort of attention.


John Legend’s “Live From Philadelphia,” which is being sold exclusively at Target, sold 33,000 to debut at No. 7.


38 free/cheap music sites — Welcome to the fray, Qbox!
Ever since Napster brought free MP3s mainstream — and subsequently garnered the wrath of the Recording Industry Association of America — the music industry has been reeling. No single strategy for listening to music online has come to dominate the market, as record labels, managers, artists, fans, Apple’s music offering, Internet radio and recommendation companies all jockey for position. But one thing is clear above all the din: Fans will not be denied their music — and most want it free.

Music network Qbox is the very latest to join the fray of companies hoping to stake a claim in this market. It’s releasing its beta Friday. It gives users who search for musicians in Wikipedia or Google a Qbox icon on their screen, which they can click to then hear music to go with the artist information that comes up in their search results.

With such a variety of services on offer and so many developments within those services, it’s hard to tell. But in an attempt to give you some perspective on what the various free, or at least cheap, music offerings are — whether for the computer, mobile phone, or even the Nintendo Wii — we’ve compiled a list. We tell you what the service does, what its business model looks like, and whether it lets users stream or download, among other things. The most useful categories may be 1) what we’ve termed “musicability,” or how easy can you find the song you want (this may be the best way to pick a potential favorite), and 2) “genre,” or how easy it is to search through a particular genre of music. Both are rated on a scale of 5.