snapshot 2/11/08

Random House to sell books by the chapter online: report
Random House Publishing Group, the world's largest book publisher, is planning to test selling individual chapters of a popular book to gauge reader demand, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Random House, a unit of German media giant Bertelsmann, will sell the six chapters and epilogue of "Made to Stick: Why Some Ideas Survive and Others Die" for $2.99 each according to the report.


Timbaland, Verizon making mobile music together
Hitmaking hip-hop producer Timbaland ("Shock Value") has announced a deal with Verizon Wireless to make the first "mobile album," which will be exclusively available to subscribers of V Cast, Verizon's mobile entertainment service. As Verizon's mobile producer in residence, Timbaland will produce one song per month throughout 2008. Each month, he will work with a different artist on a track while touring the country on the Verizon Mobile Recording Studio Bus, which will also capture making-of footage for V Cast subscribers on a dedicated Timbaland channel. He will perform in some tour cities to be announced, and Verizon will select subscribers to visit the tour bus in other cities to watch him work his magic.


Classical artists embrace digital culture
When British violinist Tasmin Little announced in January that she would be giving away her "Naked Violin" album as a free download, she tapped into a growing trend: classical music artists and retailers utilizing digital formats and business models. Thousands of tracks have been downloaded, and monthly page impressions on Little's Web site have increased from 5,000 to 150,000 since the announcement.

Classical fans are certainly purchasing more music digitally; in the United States, digital classical album sales surged 47.7 percent in 2007, accounting for 7 percent of the genre's 18 million total album sales, up from 4.4 percent the previous year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Classical digital album sales burst through the 1 million barrier for the first time with a total of 1.2 million units.


Guy Hands to open EMI back catalogue
G uy Hands is throwing 300,000 of EMI's music tracks open to advertisers, TV producers and computer games makers in a bid to cash in on its vast back catalogue. EMI has struck a deal with London-based Ricall, which is poised to launch several EMI websites around the world allowing music-hunters to license its music much more easily. Terra Firma sees the so-called ''synchronised licensing" market - in which media companies pay to use music in their productions - as a key way of offsetting sliding compact disc sales.


360 + Change: Labels Pushing Harder on Broader Deals
Survival now depends on the execution of broader deals, according to many executives. The latest industry buzz surrounds the "360-degree deal," and the term carries more substance than hype. The reason is that the music business is far broader than recordings, and labels have been missing downstream profit opportunities for decades. That includes money from touring, merchandising, and advertising, among other areas.

Now, majors are pushing 360-degree deals quite aggressively, according to executives close to the negotiations. Just recently, one platinum-selling manager told Digital Music News that majors are almost exclusively interested in 360-degree relationships. And even if that is secured, investments in artists - new or old - are being made very carefully. "They go over and over the album, until they are positive it will work," the manager relayed.


Universal Music Starts Skinning, Ponders Mobile Modules
As an alternative, the Modu structure enables users to customize their phones with "jackets," an approach that allows a phone to reflect individual personalities and moods. Modu starts with a stripped-down device, the basis for a customized experience. That spells opportunity for media companies trying to crack the finicky youth market, including Universal Music Group.

Just recently, Universal started exploring the creation of artist-specific jackets, possibly for delivery by the end of this year. But the jackets themselves are more than just cosmetic covers. According to the pair, the jackets will contain design aspects inspired by the artist, but they will also include pre-loaded content and even music subscription offerings. That is part of a broader Modu customization agenda, one that includes an ecosystem of compatible consumer electronics add-ons.