snapshot 4/11/08

IDJ, J. Dupree & Body Spray Form Label
Island Def Jam and Procter & Gamble's TAG men's body spray have formed a new hip-hop record label, TAG Records to be led Jermaine Dupri. TAG Record's first artist will be announced in May.

In addition to an album release, the TAG Brand will showcase TAG Record's artist and Jermaine Dupri across various TAG brand advertising and marketing initiatives throughout 2008. The partnership was brokered by the New York based ACME Brand Content Company. (press release)


Besieged by web, music stores go digital, sort of
This has become an increasingly quaint experience, as brick-and-mortar retail space for CDs continues to evaporate. But music sellers have come up with an item that may provide some middle ground between consuming music via the internet and shopping for it in person: digital album cards. These products -- marketed by top digital music seller iTunes and major record company Sony-BMG, with other major labels and perhaps Wal-Mart to follow -- manage to be both physical and digital. Selling for the price of a CD (usually $12.99), the glossy cards give purchasers a code that enables them to download the album's songs, a booklet and such extras as videos and bonus tracks not available on CD.

While the digital album cards may turn out to be neither-fish-nor-fowl ephemera, they don't take up as much costly inventory space as CDs, making them easy to merchandise in multiple spots. The Sony-BMG line debuted in January, with the iTunes cards appearing last fall. Neither company will reveal sales figures for their cards, but Sony-BMG reports an exponential spike around Valentine's Day and Easter, suggesting that the cards could be a hit as a gift item.

The iTunes album cards are problematic for traditional music stores -- the site's virtual record shop is killer competition, after all. Trans World Entertainment -- which operates 30 music outlets in New Jersey (including 26 FYE shops) -- sells dollar-amount iTunes gift cards as a sort of necessary evil. But the firm draws the line at the Apple's album cards, says Ish Cuebas, Trans World's vice president of music and merchandising operations. But Cuebas is bullish about these products from the major labels, saying, "The Sony-BMG album cards haven't been a runaway success, and the profit margins are lower than with CDs, but we've definitely seen some incremental sales. They're not going to replace CDs for us, but they fill a need -- we'll try anything."


Add Music Here, Get it There, and Listen Everywhere
MP3tunes has launched AutoSync, new technology that makes it possible for people to automatically move their digital music between their own computers, without having to connect cables or portable drives or even burn CDs. Included with every MP3tunes Music Locker, AutoSync provides the music fan with a powerful, yet easy-to-use, tool for managing their digital music collection. For instance, with AutoSync it's now possible for consumers to buy MP3s from Amazon while at work and have the new music available for immediate listening on the family computers when they get home. AutoSync works by first automatically detecting when a person has added new music to their computer, whether singles, albums or even playlists. After the music is backed-up to their password-protected MP3tunes Locker, it's then instantly synced from the Locker to any other PC specified by the consumer.


In-Stat Predicts Ramping Digital; Modest Top-Line Increases
On Tuesday, In-Stat offered a more optimistic assessment, one sprinkled with reasonable levels of caution. The Scottsdale, Arizona-based group predicted that global, top-line recording industry revenues would reach $37 billion by 2012. Of that total, In-Stat projected that 40 percent ($14.8 billion) would come from digital formats.

That represents a boost from a year-2007 estimate of $30.5 billion, and a digital contribution of 10 percent. Sounds reasonable enough, though plunging physical sales raise questions on the upward direction of the forecast. And whether mobile-based revenues will offer a life raft also remains speculative, though In-Stat predicted mobile-based, full-track revenues of $4.2 billion, measured globally.