snapshot 4/10/08

Blockbuster eyes streaming to TVs
Apple TV is getting some competition from Blockbuster. The home video giant is developing a set-top device for streaming films directly to TV sets and is expected to announce the offering sometime this month.

The device would join a growing roster of devices that aim to bring broadband video to the living room, including Apple TV, which hasn't quite seen sales match the hype surrounding the product. Blockbuster rival Netflix also has indicated that it will compete in this market with a similar device being created with LG Electronics. The product would be an offshoot of Movielink, the online film service Blockbuster acquired last year that allows consumers to watch films licensed from the major studios on their PCs.


Strait Speeds Past R.E.M. To Debut At No. 1
For the fourth time in his career, country vet George Strait earns the No. 1 spot on The Billboard 200 with "Troubadour." According to Nielsen SoundScan, the MCA Nashville album moved 166,000 copies, more than enough to push him to the summit of the Top Country Albums tally, his 22nd No. 1 there. The Billboard 200 has hosted at least one new entry from Strait every year since 1984.

R.E.M. scores its highest sales and charting week in nearly 12 years with the Warner Bros. set "Accelerate," which debuts at No. 2 with 115,000. "New Adventures in Hi-Fi" also started at No. 2 in September 1996. Album sales this week are down 3.5% compared to last week at 7.99 million and down 24.5% against the same week in 2007.


At EMI, could digital music kill the 'record' promo?
She [Yelle ] is unwittingly helping The EMI Group, one of the four largest music companies, to push CDs further into the shadows. Already a star in her own country and a growing nightclub favorite in the U.S., Yelle was being promoted until recently in this country exclusively through digital means.

As part of the digital-only promotion, EMI didn't seek radio airplay for Yelle's music and didn't buy banner or print ads in traditional music magazines like Rolling Stone or Blender. Instead, executives took to MySpace, music widgets, and powerful music blogs like Pitchfork. The label started digital and stayed digital until it reached a critical mass. On April 1, EMI finally released a CD version of Yelle's album, Pop Up.

Study: 66% have no interest in mobile music
A combination of disinterest and unnecessary hurdles is discouraging most cellphone users from using mobile music downloads, says a new Jupiter Research study (pay only). Although many Western carriers heavily promote their direct-to-phone services, approximately two thirds (66 percent) of the more than 1,800 respondents to the study say that nothing is likely to spur them into paying for music on a phone; 28 percent are interested in ringtones, while only 14 percent are interested in full tracks, according to the results.

Most users cite the price of downloads as the primary barrier and are looking for songs available for near the same 99-cent price as with music stores accessed from home, Jupiter says. With the exception of the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store and Sprint's Music Store, most cellular providers and phone store operators often charge a significant premium for wireless downloads, often claiming the need to offset the extra network bandwidth costs. This insistence is effectively driving customers to more traditional stores where they can either sideload music to the phone afterwards or else are confined to dedicated portable media players.


Radiohead's 'Nude' May Have Charted by Releasing Tracks on iTunes
Radiohead's "Nude" made the Billboard Hot 100 this week at no. 37 -- their first appearance on the chart since "High & Dry" in 1996. I had been wondering why Radiohead picked iTunes to release the remix stems, rather than using their own website as they had with other aspects of In Rainbows' digital release. Richard Bradley thinks he knows the answer.

"In a nutshell, [Radiohead] kind of scammed people into buying the single five times over." His theory is that iTunes' sales numbers for "Nude" were misleading because Apple included sales of the song as well as the individual stems for guitar, drums, bass, voice and strings/effects in the same sales figure.