snapshot 4/8/08

Online music site Sellaband gets $5 mln investor
Dutch-based online music Web site Sellaband.com said on Tuesday that European venture capital fund Prime Technology Ventures has invested $5 million in the company to help it expand in the United States. Sellaband, which allows fans to buy shares in unsigned bands to help fund recordings, will use the investment to boost marketing and development, particularly in the United States, co-founder and Chief Executive Johan Vosmeijer said.


Radio Index' Report: Radio Audience Remains Loyal
CHARLESTON, SC -- April 7, 2008: Seventy-two percent of American adults are listening to the radio about the same amount or more than they did five years ago, according to American Media Services' latest "Radio Index" survey. Seventy-three percent, meanwhile, still usually turn on the radio when they get in the car.

Thirty-three percent of respondents said they've listened to radio over the Internet, and 12 percent have heard an HD Radio broadcast. When they're listening to radio over the air, 53 percent said they stick with a station through commercial breaks, 35 percent change the station, and 8 percent turn off the radio. And those who change the station tend to do it quickly: Seventy-seven percent of those who tune away do it within 30 seconds after commercials begin.

Slacker Completes Deals With Top Music Publishers
Slacker, Inc. today announced it has entered into agreements with top music publishers, including EMI Music Publishing, Sony/ATV Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group and Warner/Chappell Music. The new deals give Slacker the content rights to enable Personal Radio that can be played everywhere on Slacker Portable Radio Players.

With these publishing license agreements, Slacker users can transfer songs from the Slacker service and store the music on Slacker Portables giving listeners the best on-the-go personal radio experience available today. The agreements, completed prior to the availability of Slacker Portables, also enable Slacker Premium Service customers to save songs and replay them whenever they want.


Plan would tax music downloads
A Los Angeles-area lawmaker trying to help raise money to delete the state government's $8 billion shortfall thinks consumers should pay sales tax when buying from online music stores.

The proposal by Assemblyman Charles Calderon, D-City of Industry, doesn't seek directly to tax music tracks, but instead would require the Board of Equalization to update a 75-year-old law that authorizes sales-tax collections on tangible personal property. Music, books and videos downloaded off the Internet aren't considered tangible goods.


Digitization Of Album Art Is About New Possibilities, Not Smaller Graphics
Graphic designers working in the music industry are facing a crossroads on par with anything the labels are dealing with. Now that album art is viewed at sizes of one-inch-by-one-inch and smaller, how can cover art add meaning to an album? And with people are finding out about shows online in addition to seeing flyers taped around town, how can bands, labels and designers apply their papering techniques to the online world?


Digital Narm 2008
The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) has announced that this year's 2008 Convention will feature a two-day Digital conference on May 6 - 7 in San Francisco. Offering both results oriented info and networking, Digital NARM is designed to create discussion around the convergence of physical, digital, and mobile music fueled by rapid changes in technology. “Digital NARM will feature well-respected thought leaders from an array of industries involved with developing the future of digital music,” says NARM President Jim Donio. “This is an ideal, one-of-a-kind forum to share ideas, create partnerships across industries, and develop the future of digital music.”

Participating speakers include: Amazon, AT&T, eMusic, Facebook, My Space Records, Motorola, Napster, IODA, IRIS, The Orchard, Nokia, 9 Squared, Imeem last.fm and the four majors. Sessions will be moderated by analysts and journalists including staffers from the LA Times Gartner Research and Digital Music News.


Wal-Mart focuses on MP3, but without Sony BMG and Warner
Sony BMG and Warner's music is missing from Wal-Mart's online store, which has been recently redesigned to feature its catalog of DRM-free music. With the apparent full switch to MP3, it marks yet another former customer of Microsoft's PlaysForSure who let the DRM technology fall by the wayside. However, it appears that with the embrace of DRM-free music, some artists are not available, at least temporarily.

Despite the publicity of a recent upset from the number one position in digital music retail by iTunes, Wal-Mart seems happy about its progress in the online music front. "We've been pleased with the overall growth and customer response to our MP3 offering since our launch last August," Wal-Mart spokesperson Ravi Jariwala said. "We'll continue to work with our music partners to further grow our MP3 selection."
http://techdirt.com/articles/20080408/003857784.shtml
http://www.last100.com/2008/04/08/wal-mart-ditches-drm-at-a-cost/
http://venturebeat.com/2008/04/08/wal-mart-wises-up-ditches-windows-based-drm/
http://digitalmusicnews.com/stories/040608walmart
http://gizmodo.com/377004/wal+mart-mp3-store-drops-all-drm-but-only-half+ass-opens


Over 340 Clear Channel Radio Stations Now Supporting iTunes Tagging
Clear Channel Radio has revealed that over 340 of its HD Radio stations are now compatible with iTunes Tagging. “Radio continues to be the number one way that people discover new music, and the HD Radio iTunes tagging capability lets listeners add songs to their iPod playlists with just a push of the button,” said John Hogan, President and CEO of Clear Channel Radio. “With the vast majority of our HD primary stations now offering this exciting feature, we’re demonstrating how radio’s collaboration with the iPod benefits consumers.”

Announced last fall, iTunes Tagging is a new HD Radio feature that allows radio listeners to Tag the currently playing song. The track is then automatically added to a Tagged Playlist on the connected iPod. The next time the iPod is synced with a computer, the tagged playlist appears in iTunes, making it easy to then purchase the songs.


Competition unable to take a big bite out of Apple's iTunes
iTunes is widening its lead in the digital music market at the expense of other top brands, according to a new report by Ipsos. In its annual TEMPO Digital Music Brandscape Study, the market research firm says that more people are aware of iTunes than ever before and regard it highly compared to other online music destinations. One brand in particular—MySpace—performed particularly poorly, which could mean bad news for the recently-launched MySpace Music.

"iTunes' steady gain as 'best' brand over the past three years does denote a threat to other digital music services, particularly due to the persistent lack of interoperability," Ipsos senior research manager Karl Joyce said in a statement. "While iTunes' growth in 2006 may have come at the expense of Napster, other brands have begun to feel its impact as well, including other top competitors such as Rhapsody and Yahoo! Music. Moreover, social networking's hope of overtaking the lead in mainstream digital music acquisition appears to have fallen short."


Teen iPhone share seen doubling as iPod, iTunes flatten
In the latest round of its semi-annual teen surveys, analyst group Piper Jaffray finds that ownership of Apple's iPhone has doubled in six months and is set to double again, though cooling iPod and iTunes use suggests a changing of the guard. Clouds loom over the news, however, and point to the iPhone potentially dulling the iPod's earlier success. While Apple's command of MP3 players has increased, actual demand for any MP3 player has dropped to its lowest amount in three years -- just 28 percent look to buy a new player in the next six months, while 47 percent did in fall 2007.

Moreover, while Apple's share of online music purchases is higher than in late 2007, it remains smaller than all-time highs of 89 and 91 percent set in fall 2007 and spring 2006 respectively. Munster and fellow analysts believe it may the result of more sites offering music without copy protection, permitting iPod owners to buy more of their digital music outside of iTunes.


Guitarati aims to make mood music into a business
On its main page, Guitarati lays out a series of colorful dots. Clicking on one of these takes you to a selection of music based around that color. This color/music link-up is set by what other users set as the color they feel best represents the feeling of the song while listening to it.

In terms of making the site profitable, the thought process is less outside-the-box — it charges users money. Still, it’s a somewhat unique combination of flat-fee downloading (usually 99 cents) and cheap streaming fees. A user pays 1 cent for every full length song they stream, but these cents are deducted from the purchase price of the song if they choose to buy it. Songs are all in DRM-free MP3 format with 192 Kbps encoding. Samples of all songs can be listened to for free. Artists and labels get paid for both downloads and streaming. They can dictate the price of their music and get back 75 percent of the earnings. There are no registration fees for those who want to spread their music via Guitarati.


Searching for swag: Music to fans' ears
Forget about MySpace. Music groups are now turning to branded search engines to reach their fans online. By using the special search engines, fans earn points that can be redeemed for band swag, like T-shirts, posters, and autographed guitars, as well as etched iPods and other electronics, movie tickets, music, and books.