snapshot 4/29/08

CinemaNow to offer movie orders via cell phone
Privately held digital entertainment provider CinemaNow said on Tuesday that U.S. consumers would be able to use their cell phones to view movie trailers and order full-length movies to watch on their home television or computer through its mobile website. The service, offered on Web-capable phones at http://mobile.cinemanow.com, would let U.S. consumers immediately buy or rent a movie when they hear about a new offering while they are out with friends.


Record companies sue Project Playlist on copyright
Nine major record labels filed suit against an online music provider on Monday, accusing Project Playlist Inc of a "massive infringement" of their copyrights to the songs of artists such as U2 and Gwen Stefani. Project Playlist (http://www.projectplaylist.com) enables its users to easily find, play and share music with others for free, according to the suit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan.

The website compiles a vast index of songs on the Internet and users can "quickly and easily search the index for recordings by their favorite artists. At the click of a mouse, Project Playlist instantly streams a digital performance of the selected recording to the user, who can listen to it on his or her computer or mobile device," the lawsuit said.


The Incredibly Discounted CD: Now at Wal-Mart
Want cheap CDs? Wal-Mart has been pressuring major label groups to lower wholesale pricing for quite some time. And the results of those efforts are now being felt. Currently on walmart.com, fresh titles from Michael Buble, Josh Groban, and Blake Shelton are available for $5, and other titles are available sub-$10.

Cheaper discs are now available both online and in-store, part of an aggressive downward trend. In fact, a large percentage of CDs are expected to carry the basement tags in the near term. "I think this will have the most impact on the music industry this year," said David Pakman, chief executive of eMusic, during a discussion at MusEXPO in Los Angeles on Monday.


Record labels fund music discovery site MOG
Some of the early music discovery startups, like Imeem, Pandora, Last.fm and iLike, now have many millions of people using their services every month. MOG, a desktop music player plugin and music fan site perhaps most similar to social network-focused iLike, isn’t too far behind — it has around a million unique users a month, it says. So maybe the record labels investing in MOG will figure out some interesting ways to help it pull forward. Universal Music Investments and Sony BMG Music Investments, along with The Angels Forum 74, have just put $2.8 million into the Berkeley, Calif. company. That’s on top of the $3.2 million it already raised through two angel rounds.


Karaoke to become a keynote beta feature of MySpace
Today marks the launch of the first public beta of MySpace Karaoke, a service that enables members to sing along with instrumental tracks and share the results with other members. MySpace Karaoke is powered by kSolo, a well known online karaoke service that was purchased by MySpace's parent company, Fox Interactive Media, in April 2006. After that time, its service was continually delayed due to licensing issues related to its catalog of 2,000 to 3,000 songs. MySpace officials had an increasingly difficult time trying to wade through legal issues for songs owned by foreign record companies.


ILike (and its apps) show results: It really is helping musicians reach fans across the web
ILike is an emerging leader in this competitive but still relatively young marketplace of “music discovery” services that help musicians build fan bases. We’ve been tracking the Seattle, Wash. company for years, and at this point it appears to have become a significant component of how music will be shared in the future. Both new and existing acts are using it to help advertise album releases, and iLike is starting to have a big impact.


Digital Hits 23 Percent of US-Based Revenues, RIAA
Digital formats now account for 23 percent of US-based recording revenues, according to figures published by the RIAA. The percentage was packaged into a larger breakdown of shipments and revenues in 2007, an report now available at riaa.com.

The digital percentage represents a serious bump from year-ago figures of 16.1 percent - and 9 percent in 2005. Part of that gain comes from increased sales of assets like iTunes downloads, though a meltdown in CD sales is naturally ramping digital percentage gains. For the period, CD shipments dropped 17.5 percent to 511.1 million units, or $7.45 billion in revenues. In terms of revenues, the CD-based drop represents a 20.5 percent slide.


Subscriptions Plateau In 2007; Revenues Start Declining
Subscription-based platforms enjoyed little growth in 2007, at least according to US-based data recently published by the RIAA. The label group pointed to a total of 1.8 million subscribers by the end of last year, up from 1.7 million in 2006. That is a mere 0.7 percent gain, though accompanying revenues actually slipped 2.6 percent. Specifically, the RIAA pointed to revenues of 200.9 million in 2007, down from 206.2 million during 2006.

Meanwhile, the number of companies within the space continues to shrink. Just recently, MTV merged its Urge offering with RealNetworks' Rhapsody. And Yahoo Music announced that it would farm its Unlimited offering to RealNetworks in February.


HDtracks.com - High Resolution Online Music Store - Launches
HDtracks.com, a high resolution, digital music site offering DRM-free music in multiple formats, as well as cover art and complete liner notes, has launched. Created by David and Norman Chesky, HDtracks offers the highest quality file formats for any platform or media player. Consumers can choose the file type that best suits their needs: AIFF, FLAC (both CD quality), or 320 kbps MP3. In the near future, select titles will be offered as DVD-Audio quality 96/24 FLAC files.