snapshot 4/22/08

Nokia signs Sony BMG for free music offering
Nokia will offer free 12-month access to music from artists of Sony BMG, the world's second-biggest label, to buyers of its particular music phones, the world's top cellphone maker said on Tuesday. "Comes With Music is expected to launch in the second half of 2008 on a range of Nokia devices in selected markets," Nokia said in a statement. Nokia gave no financial details.


Netflix, consumer electronics partnerships near
U.S. online DVD rental company Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) on Monday said it expects to soon announce three partnerships, similar to its set-top box alliance with LG Electronics Inc (066570.KS), that will let subscribers watch films streamed directly from the Web to TVs. "We have LG plus three additional partners actively working on integrating our technology into their products," Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings said on a conference call with analysts.


Creative ZENs to use Internet music storage?
Creative's upcoming ZEN X-Fi media player may hinge on Internet-based storage as a selling point, says a new tip sent to epiZENter. While the player is already anticipated to offer local sharing between users, a "reliable" source indicates that Creative wants to use the device's Wi-Fi for accessing a remote collection; users would subscribe to a service that offers a multi-gigabyte Internet storage space for holding music; users could then access songs they can't fit on the player simply by streaming them wirelessly.

The information doesn't include any specific price plans or whether there would be any limitations in the format or content. Details are more likely to appear on the ZEN's official release later in spring, which is expected to include a US version of the as yet unconfirmed device and capacities up to at least 32GB of flash memory.



Hastings Improves Profits, Will Reduce Music Inventories
Entertainment retailer Hastings reported improved Q4 earnings and slightly lower revenue for fiscal 2007. (Read 10-K filing.) Comp-store music revenue was down 15.3% in fiscal 2007 (compared to a 9.3% decline in fiscal 2006 and 2.9% decline is fiscal 2005). In fact, music was the only one of the top eight product categories to decline in fiscal 2007.

The bad news for labels is that falling CD sales will result in fewer titles being stocked -- a painful double whammy -- that will result in even lower CD sales. For fiscal 2008, the company has budgeted $5.3 million to reformat 35 stores to reduce the retail space dedicated to music by 15-20%.


Sonific Goes Dark. Blames Major Labels.
Sonific, creators of the SongSpot widget that enabled bloggers and others to embed a single song player anywhere with ease is going offline May 1st. Co-founded by music futurist Gerd Leonhard, Sonific sited unreasonable label demands as a primary reason for the shut down.

"When we approached the major record label decision makers in order to obtain licenses...we have routinely faced demands for very large cash advances and fixed per-stream minimum payments, pressure to give them 'free' company equity, and requirements of utterly bizarre usage restrictions. It seems that the industry's major stakeholders still prefer this turf to remain unlicensed rather than to allow real-life, workable and market-based solutions to emerge..."


Full-length shows, even movies, growing on cellular
Forget short clips and "mobisodes." Cellphone providers are ramping up their full-episode TV offerings, from Lost to The Office, and even movies. Today, only about 7% of mobile subscribers (cell and data) watch video on their phones, he says. But the industry is poised for major growth: Mobile video revenues at domestic carriers jumped to $308 million in the last three months of 2007 from $112 million in the same period a year earlier, according to Nielsen Mobile.


From Bricks and Mortar to Digital Music Master
The Internet has steamrolled music retailers (BusinessWeek.com, 10/10/07). As consumers fill their iPods with digital downloads—legal and otherwise—the ranks of CD buyers have dwindled. One in four U.S. record stores around in 2002 was gone by 2005, according to U.S. Census data—a net loss of 1,900 stores. But the data suggest that small retailers fared better than large ones. The number of stores with fewer than 100 employees shrank by 18.6% in that period, compared with 34.3% for stores with 100 or more workers.


Sony Buys Media Metadata And Tech Firm Gracenote For $260 Million Plus
So it has finally happened: Gracenote, the media metadata and tech firm which has been around since 1998, has been bought by Sony Corp of America, for about $260 million and more depending on earnout. The deal is expected to close in May. Gracenote’s existing business will continue to operate separately, and will continue to develop new technologies in existing as well as new areas of operation, the companies said. The senior management team will remain with the company. The company’s tech and services are used in Apple iTunes, Winamp, Panasonic, Philips and Sony, and on the mobile music side by players such as from Samsung, Sony Ericsson and others. Thus ends the era of any independents in the traditional music metadata space. AMG was bought by Macrovision late last year; Muze is owned by VC/PE firm Enterprise Partners Venture Capital.


DRM sucks redux: Microsoft to nuke MSN Music DRM keys
Customers who have purchased music from Microsoft's now-defunct MSN Music store are now facing a decision they never anticipated making: commit to which computers (and OS) they want to authorize forever, or give up access to the music they paid for. Why? Because Microsoft has decided that it's done supporting the service and will be turning off the MSN Music license servers by the end of this summer.

MSN Entertainment and Video Services general manager Rob Bennett sent out an e-mail this afternoon to customers, advising them to make any and all authorizations or deauthorizations before August 31. "As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers," reads the e-mail seen by Ars. "You will need to obtain a license key for each of your songs downloaded from MSN Music on any new computer, and you must do so before August 31, 2008. If you attempt to transfer your songs to additional computers after August 31, 2008, those songs will not successfully play."