snapshot 6/12/08

Play-along video game genre amps up music industry
Tapping on fake instruments and screeching into microphones connected to video game consoles has become lucrative for both the music and gaming industries. Downloadable tunes for music-based games "Guitar Hero," "Rock Band" and "SingStar" have become as vital as iTunes itself — and one of the last ways to expose youngsters to classic rock.

The genre will evolve again later this month when game publisher Activision and developer Neversoft release "Guitar Hero: Aerosmith," the first such play-along rhythm game pegged to one music group, instead of featuring a multi-artist compilation more akin to one of those "Now That's What I Call Music!" albums.


Free Music Service QTrax: Launching (Again) June 18
After an embarrassing false start last January, QTrax is just about ready to try again. The service now says it will begin offering free and legal downloads on June 18. As of now, though, QTrax will still only be able to offer music from two of the big four music labels: Universal Music Group and EMI; it has yet to reach deals with the recorded-music divisions of WMG or Sony/BMG.


Despite Leaks, Lil Wayne Album Selling Strong
The recently-released Lil Wayne album could push past 900,000 during its first week, according to projections circulating Wednesday. First-day estimates landed at 423,000, per data compiled by Nielsen Soundscan. That rivals broader, full-week totals from the top-selling albums of the year, specifically Mariah Carey's E=MC2 (463,000) and Usher's Here I Stand (433,000). The Lil Wayne album, Tha Carter III, was leaked earlier this month by a member of the mixtape community.


Interview with Microsoft’s Robbie Bach, part 1, on Zune
Robbie Bach is the president of the multibillion-dollar Entertainment & Devices Group at Microsoft. The group is closing in on a big fiscal year end on June 30. The company has projected that the group will be profitable this year for the first time since its inception in 2005. One of the products that isn’t profitable yet is the Zune media player. A challenger to Apple’s iPod, the Zune is so far a quixotic attempt to unseat Apple in making cool music devices that capture the buzz among consumers.The Zune is just one of many products within Bach’s domain, where the common theme is “connected entertainment.” VentureBeat was part of a small group of reporters that recently got to quiz Bach about all of his businesses, from Zune to the Xbox 360. This edited transcript is the first of several parts and focuses just on the Zune business.


Live Nation's Leaders Battle Over Strategy
A fierce battle has broken out among top executives at Live Nation Inc. over the concert-promotion company's ambitious strategy to reshape the struggling music industry by making wide-ranging but expensive deals with artists such as Madonna and Jay-Z. The battle is over the limits of that strategy, in which Live Nation has pledged hundreds of millions of dollars to a handful of performers in return for exclusive rights to release their recordings, promote their concert tours and sell T-shirts and other merchandise bearing their images.

Sharp declines in recorded-music sales have made it tough for traditional record labels to survive by selling music alone. So a variety of players are attempting to build broader businesses around each artist, such as touring and merchandising, which traditionally have been handled by separate entities, creating a turf war among music labels, concert promoters and ticket companies all angling for the same deals.


Jayhawks and Apple Team Up for iTunes Giveaway
The performing arts center of the University of Kansas, the Lied Center, today announced a partnership with Apple to distribute 50,000 special Lied Center iTunes cards to people in the Midwest US. Each of the special cards provides free downloads of 20 songs by artists who will be performing at the Lied Center during the 2008-09 season.
The exclusive card, available at the Lied Center Ticket Office, provides a way for the Lied Center to attract new patrons and give existing ones a way to capture a foretaste of the upcoming season. The free music downloads available with the card include artists such as Phillip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and the Turtle Island String Quartet.


Sony BMG signs mobile-marketing deal with Mozes
Sony BMG, one of the top four recording companies, has signed a deal with Mozes, a start-up that connects communities through mobile phones. Mozes will hand Sony BMG music artists a way to communicate with fans through text and voice messages. He says Mozes only sends messages to people who have opted into the program. If you're a hard-core fan of musician Teddy Geiger, Porter says, you'll want him texting you with his next concert date or leaving a voice message about an upcoming release (Geiger uses the service, Porter said).