Hulu makes public debut, adds Warner Bros shows
Hulu, the online video joint venture of News Corp and General Electric's NBC Universal, will make its public debut on Wednesday with programming from Time Warner Inc's Warner Bros Television Group, Lionsgate and from sports leagues.
At launch, Hulu will offer full-length episodes of more than 250 TV series from current hits such as "The Simpsons" as well as older shows like "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." It also will offer 100 movies including "The Big Lebowski" and "Mulholland Drive."
Puretracks Announces New DRM-Free Mobile Music Store for the BlackBerry Platform
-Toronto-based Puretracks, a leading North American digital music provider that partners with Universal, Sony BMG, Warner, EMI, and independent labels worldwide, has developed a new DRM-free mobile music store and service for BlackBerry® smartphones from Research In Motion.
The Puretracks Mobile Edition music store for BlackBerry, built in conjunction with handset development partner Magnet Mobile Media, will work with all BlackBerry® Pearl™, BlackBerry® Curve™ and BlackBerry® 8800 series smartphones. It is a next-evolution digital music service developed exclusively for wireless handsets using compressed DRM-free AAC/AAC+ file formats. This high-quality digital format is only half the size of MP3 files, significantly reducing the download time and storage capacity required while maintaining CD quality sound. The DRM-free service will make it easy for users to download and play songs on their BlackBerry smartphones.
Publishers Phase Out Piracy Protection on Audio Books
Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anticopying software on digital downloads of audio books. The trend will allow consumers who download audio books to freely transfer these digital files between devices like their computers, iPods and cellphones — and conceivably share them with others. Dropping copying restrictions could also allow a variety of online retailers to start to sell audio book downloads.
Publishers, like the music labels and movie studios, stuck to D.R.M. out of fear that pirated copies would diminish revenue. Random House tested the justification for this fear when it introduced the D.R.M.-less concept with eMusic last fall. It encoded those audio books with a digital watermark and monitored online file sharing networks, only to find that pirated copies of its audio books had been made from physical CDs or D.R.M.-encoded digital downloads whose anticopying protections were overridden.
Korean music-making site MusicShake expanding to U.S.
MusicShake is a South Korean company that was a crowd favorite at the TechCrunch 40 awards last year. I checked in recently with the company and found that it has been doing fairly well, picking up over 100,000 users and achieving some success with a music sales model that I was skeptical of. MusicShake users create songs by combining pre-created instrumental tracks (from a list of thousands). The creation software, which currently still requires a download but will be moving fully online sometime this year, makes it relatively easy to create a catchy song. More daring users can also add their own vocals to the tracks they create.
According to co-founder Kihong Bae, users have already sold around 60,000 songs to each other, from which MusicShake takes a small cut. The site itself has proven extremely “sticky” to users — average sessions can be around an hour. However, to really make much money, sales will really need to ramp up for the company.
eMusic Adds Labels
eMusic has announced that its catalog has surpassed 3.5 million tracks with the addition of 43 new record labels and digital aggregators. The eMusic roster now includes German electronic label Kompakt (Michael Mayer, Superpitcher), indie rockers Constellation Records (Do Make Say Think, Silver Mt Zion), and pop/rock/electronic imprint IAMSOUND Records (Cut Off Your Hands) among others.
Pre-Loaded iPod Killer Emerges; 30,000 Songs On Tap
That is the underpinning of a pre-launch startup called PushButtonMusic, a more sophisticated iPod killer. The concept is being started by Hal Oppenheimer and Robert Uhlmann, cofounders of Broadcast Data Systems (BDS). Instead of millions of songs, Oppenheimer asserts that most consumers are actually tuned into a selection of roughly 30,000. The company is assembling that collection by monitoring airplay, file-sharing, purchasing, social networking, and club spins, a cross-section that produces a smaller-than-expected list. "It's a pyramid, not a bell," Oppenheimer explained. "Can you find something we don't have? Yes, but we are addressing 98 percent of the market."
The plan is to pre-load that pyramid onto devices, before it hits consumer hands. The company is scheduling its initial launch in July, at which point consumers can handpick their collections online and have their pre-loaded devices shipped to them. But the idea is not iTunes compatible, and relies on a subscription-based relationship. Oppenheimer tossed a monthly figure of $20 per month, a serious handicap against freebie acquisition methods. The underpinning for the service is MediaNet Digital, which is no stranger to subscription models. Initially, PushButton will launch on a 30GB, Creative Zen, a size that trims the collection to about 7,000 songs. But much bigger players are on the roadmap - potentially by Christmas.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
Monday, March 10, 2008
snapshot 3/10/08
Lionsgate Adding iTunes Digital Copy on DVD and Blu-ray Discs
Lionsgate announced that they are working with Apple to provide iTunes Digital Copies on select DVD and Blu-ray releases. The process of copying the movie to iTunes involves entering a unique code into iTunes. The movie is then transferred to iTunes, allowing you to sync the movie with your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Each DVD (unique code) will allow digital transfer to only one iTunes library.
Record Industry Duel: Disc Duos
Plans to sell new hybrid CD/DVDs have hit legal and licensing snags that threaten to scuttle a mass rollout that the hard-hit music industry had been counting on to aid its recovery, people familiar with the matter said this week. T he labels also have spurred sales by packaging "bonus" DVDs with CDs. In February, several began test marketing the new hybrid discs -- CD on one side and DVD on the other. They see these DualDiscs as a next generation product that marries the booming market for DVDs with declining CDs.
Slacker Dead On Arrival?
After much fanfare, and then several major delays, the Slacker music player and subscription service finally debuted. Unfortunately, the company’s sales appear to be lifeless at best, and it could be just a matter of time before the company is pushing daisies. The company is only seeding reviewers who will give the player at least some love, but the reality is that the device has come up wanting in several categories that even the most biased reviewers have to acknowledge. Although the device contains a large 4″display, it is unwieldy with poorly placed controls. In addition, the player has a serious noise floor issue that is immediately noticeable, even to individuals who are not demanding about quality.
As Music 2.0 Gains Traction, How Do Artists Get Paid?
A plethora of new and re-tooled sites are offering free ad supported music via streaming and download. Spiral Frog, Qtrax, imeem, We7, iLike, YouTube and others each offer their own platforms to listen to almost any song or video on demand and sometimes to even download it. But how much of that money will find its way to the artist and how many of these new deals conform with existing label and publishing contracts or the statutory rate legally due songwriters? I don't know of a single artist contract that mentions stock options or ad revenue as acceptable compensation.
Technology turns music videos into shopping portals
View music videos and shop at the same time. That's the premise behind an innovative advertising and entertainment branding program launched by GET Interactive. By way of GET Interactive's Ad-Venture technology, viewers watching a video on the Internet or a mobile phone will be offered the option of opening a new window to browse through still images and shop for products tagged with a GET Shop Spot.
The technology goes live in March with Knockout Entertainment/DEJA34/Koch artist Ray J's "Sexy Can I" video. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based GET Interactive has signed content deals with Universal Music Group and Sega of America. The company is also in discussions with Epic Records.
MP3 vs AAC vs FLAC vs CD
Although they are universally described in the mainstream press as being of "CD quality," MP3s and their lossy-compressed ilk do not offer sufficient audio quality for serious music listening. This is not true of lossless-compressed formats such as FLAC, ALC, and WMA lossless—in fact, it was the release of iTunes 4.5, in late 2003, which allowed iPods to play lossless files, that led us to welcome the ubiquitous Apple player to the world of high-end audio. But lossy files achieve their conveniently small size by discarding too much of the music to be worth considering.
So to us at Stereophile, the question of which lossy codec is "the best" is moot. We recommend that, for serious listening, our readers use uncompressed audio file formats, such as WAV or AIF—or, if file size is an issue because of limited hard-drive space, use a lossless format such as FLAC or ALC. These will be audibly transparent to all listeners at all times with all kinds of music through all systems.
Beatles on iTunes by end of the year?
The Beatles' back catalog should finally appear in digital form by the end of the year, claims a British tabloid. The deal will reportedly see the music come to the iTunes Store, with albums including the likes of Help!, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and possibly more. The deal is said to worth as much as £200 ($402.5) million, and has allegedly been sanctioned by lead Beatle Paul McCartney as means to help pay for his divorce from Heather Mills.
Paramount making movie clips available as Facebook messages
Paramount Pictures will become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet. The unit of Viacom Inc. is teaming with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to launch the VooZoo application Monday on Facebook. The service gives Facebook users access to footage from thousands of movies, ranging from "The Ten Commandments" to "Forrest Gump," to send to others on the popular social networking site.
Games That Launched the Band
Epic Records credits Madden 2003 as being instrumental in the breaking of Good Charlotte. Avril Lavigne was first introduced to European audiences through FIFA 2003. Fabolous was first introduced in America via NBA Live, and went on to sell over 2 million albums here. JET got their American iPod commercial based on exposure in Madden 2004. Avenged Sevenfold were an unsigned act when we featured them in Madden 2004. In the weeks following the game's release, their independent album sold tens of thousands of copies without radio airplay, and they were signed to a major label soon after. Our FIFA 2005 soundtrack featured the earliest appearances of Franz Ferdinand, Marcelo D2, and Scissor Sisters. Sony Records credits Madden 2005 as being instrumental in the breaking of Franz Ferdinand in North America. Ozomatli, a band that has existed for years with minimal sales and exposure, got an iPod commercial, a career-changing sales jump, and a Grammy nomination based on their exposure in Madden 2005. Def Jam Vendetta single-handedly created a new global market for hip-hop.
Within the past two years, we've seen major international breakthroughs from acts that include Robyn, Mando Diao, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Dúné, Tribalista, Go Team, Bullet for My Valentine, The Caesars, Kasabian, Lupe Fiasco, MIA, Wolfmother, Hawthorne Heights, and others. That's just a small sampling of what we've helped make happen. It's all real and exciting proof that video games are a critical component of the new industry paradigm.
Amazon: What are you hiding?
Amazon shipped its Kindle e-Book reader way back in November of last year. Since then, the company has tried to paint a picture of runaway success by suggesting that the incredible popularity of the device prevents the company from keeping up with orders. Is the Amazon Kindle really a secret failure?
Why is Bezos so aggressively hiding the actual numbers. Have they shipped millions? Thousands? Dozens? Has Amazon sold ten times as many Kindles as Sony has the PRS-500 Reader? Or one-tenth as many? We have no idea. None! Is Amazon really working hard to ramp up production? Or is the company artificially creating a perception of high demand by playing games with production? If not, why hasn't it been able to fix the problem in four months? And since Amazon can't keep up with demand, why does it devote the very top center of the Amazon.com home page -- the most valuable real estate on the entire site -- to the creation of MORE demand?
iLike Scores Exclusives R.E.M. Album Debut
WMG's R.E.M. and iLike announced today that "Accelerate", the band’s 14th studio album, will stream in its entirety exclusively on iLike and its syndicates beginning Monday, March 24th. The iLike "Worldwide Listening Party" will continue through March 26th prior to the album’s North American release on April 1st. R.E.M. will also record an exclusive video and discussing the album that will be available via iLike.
In addition to being available on iLike, this promotion extends to the iLike Sidebar desktop plugin for iTunes and Windows Media Player as well as via iLike’s applications on Facebook, Bebo, hi5 and the iPhone. The band already uses iLike's Artist Dashboard to post content across multiple syndication channels via iLike's "Post Once, Publish Everywhere" platform. The album will also be available for pre-order via iLike’s retail links to iTunes and Amazon.com.
Lionsgate announced that they are working with Apple to provide iTunes Digital Copies on select DVD and Blu-ray releases. The process of copying the movie to iTunes involves entering a unique code into iTunes. The movie is then transferred to iTunes, allowing you to sync the movie with your iPod, iPhone or Apple TV. Each DVD (unique code) will allow digital transfer to only one iTunes library.
Record Industry Duel: Disc Duos
Plans to sell new hybrid CD/DVDs have hit legal and licensing snags that threaten to scuttle a mass rollout that the hard-hit music industry had been counting on to aid its recovery, people familiar with the matter said this week. T he labels also have spurred sales by packaging "bonus" DVDs with CDs. In February, several began test marketing the new hybrid discs -- CD on one side and DVD on the other. They see these DualDiscs as a next generation product that marries the booming market for DVDs with declining CDs.
Slacker Dead On Arrival?
After much fanfare, and then several major delays, the Slacker music player and subscription service finally debuted. Unfortunately, the company’s sales appear to be lifeless at best, and it could be just a matter of time before the company is pushing daisies. The company is only seeding reviewers who will give the player at least some love, but the reality is that the device has come up wanting in several categories that even the most biased reviewers have to acknowledge. Although the device contains a large 4″display, it is unwieldy with poorly placed controls. In addition, the player has a serious noise floor issue that is immediately noticeable, even to individuals who are not demanding about quality.
As Music 2.0 Gains Traction, How Do Artists Get Paid?
A plethora of new and re-tooled sites are offering free ad supported music via streaming and download. Spiral Frog, Qtrax, imeem, We7, iLike, YouTube and others each offer their own platforms to listen to almost any song or video on demand and sometimes to even download it. But how much of that money will find its way to the artist and how many of these new deals conform with existing label and publishing contracts or the statutory rate legally due songwriters? I don't know of a single artist contract that mentions stock options or ad revenue as acceptable compensation.
Technology turns music videos into shopping portals
View music videos and shop at the same time. That's the premise behind an innovative advertising and entertainment branding program launched by GET Interactive. By way of GET Interactive's Ad-Venture technology, viewers watching a video on the Internet or a mobile phone will be offered the option of opening a new window to browse through still images and shop for products tagged with a GET Shop Spot.
The technology goes live in March with Knockout Entertainment/DEJA34/Koch artist Ray J's "Sexy Can I" video. Winston-Salem, N.C.-based GET Interactive has signed content deals with Universal Music Group and Sega of America. The company is also in discussions with Epic Records.
MP3 vs AAC vs FLAC vs CD
Although they are universally described in the mainstream press as being of "CD quality," MP3s and their lossy-compressed ilk do not offer sufficient audio quality for serious music listening. This is not true of lossless-compressed formats such as FLAC, ALC, and WMA lossless—in fact, it was the release of iTunes 4.5, in late 2003, which allowed iPods to play lossless files, that led us to welcome the ubiquitous Apple player to the world of high-end audio. But lossy files achieve their conveniently small size by discarding too much of the music to be worth considering.
So to us at Stereophile, the question of which lossy codec is "the best" is moot. We recommend that, for serious listening, our readers use uncompressed audio file formats, such as WAV or AIF—or, if file size is an issue because of limited hard-drive space, use a lossless format such as FLAC or ALC. These will be audibly transparent to all listeners at all times with all kinds of music through all systems.
Beatles on iTunes by end of the year?
The Beatles' back catalog should finally appear in digital form by the end of the year, claims a British tabloid. The deal will reportedly see the music come to the iTunes Store, with albums including the likes of Help!, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and possibly more. The deal is said to worth as much as £200 ($402.5) million, and has allegedly been sanctioned by lead Beatle Paul McCartney as means to help pay for his divorce from Heather Mills.
Paramount making movie clips available as Facebook messages
Paramount Pictures will become the first major studio to make clips from thousands of its movies available for use on the Internet. The unit of Viacom Inc. is teaming with Los Angeles-based developer FanRocket to launch the VooZoo application Monday on Facebook. The service gives Facebook users access to footage from thousands of movies, ranging from "The Ten Commandments" to "Forrest Gump," to send to others on the popular social networking site.
Games That Launched the Band
Epic Records credits Madden 2003 as being instrumental in the breaking of Good Charlotte. Avril Lavigne was first introduced to European audiences through FIFA 2003. Fabolous was first introduced in America via NBA Live, and went on to sell over 2 million albums here. JET got their American iPod commercial based on exposure in Madden 2004. Avenged Sevenfold were an unsigned act when we featured them in Madden 2004. In the weeks following the game's release, their independent album sold tens of thousands of copies without radio airplay, and they were signed to a major label soon after. Our FIFA 2005 soundtrack featured the earliest appearances of Franz Ferdinand, Marcelo D2, and Scissor Sisters. Sony Records credits Madden 2005 as being instrumental in the breaking of Franz Ferdinand in North America. Ozomatli, a band that has existed for years with minimal sales and exposure, got an iPod commercial, a career-changing sales jump, and a Grammy nomination based on their exposure in Madden 2005. Def Jam Vendetta single-handedly created a new global market for hip-hop.
Within the past two years, we've seen major international breakthroughs from acts that include Robyn, Mando Diao, Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Bloc Party, LCD Soundsystem, Dúné, Tribalista, Go Team, Bullet for My Valentine, The Caesars, Kasabian, Lupe Fiasco, MIA, Wolfmother, Hawthorne Heights, and others. That's just a small sampling of what we've helped make happen. It's all real and exciting proof that video games are a critical component of the new industry paradigm.
Amazon: What are you hiding?
Amazon shipped its Kindle e-Book reader way back in November of last year. Since then, the company has tried to paint a picture of runaway success by suggesting that the incredible popularity of the device prevents the company from keeping up with orders. Is the Amazon Kindle really a secret failure?
Why is Bezos so aggressively hiding the actual numbers. Have they shipped millions? Thousands? Dozens? Has Amazon sold ten times as many Kindles as Sony has the PRS-500 Reader? Or one-tenth as many? We have no idea. None! Is Amazon really working hard to ramp up production? Or is the company artificially creating a perception of high demand by playing games with production? If not, why hasn't it been able to fix the problem in four months? And since Amazon can't keep up with demand, why does it devote the very top center of the Amazon.com home page -- the most valuable real estate on the entire site -- to the creation of MORE demand?
iLike Scores Exclusives R.E.M. Album Debut
WMG's R.E.M. and iLike announced today that "Accelerate", the band’s 14th studio album, will stream in its entirety exclusively on iLike and its syndicates beginning Monday, March 24th. The iLike "Worldwide Listening Party" will continue through March 26th prior to the album’s North American release on April 1st. R.E.M. will also record an exclusive video and discussing the album that will be available via iLike.
In addition to being available on iLike, this promotion extends to the iLike Sidebar desktop plugin for iTunes and Windows Media Player as well as via iLike’s applications on Facebook, Bebo, hi5 and the iPhone. The band already uses iLike's Artist Dashboard to post content across multiple syndication channels via iLike's "Post Once, Publish Everywhere" platform. The album will also be available for pre-order via iLike’s retail links to iTunes and Amazon.com.
Friday, March 7, 2008
snapshot 3/7/08
Why Doesn’t Best Buy Sell Creative?
Back in Q4 or 2007 Creative players diminished from Best Buy’s store shelves and finally disappeared. It was left to mere speculations of low profit margins, the need to push their in-house brand, and Creative’s own lack of enthusiasm. None are the case.
Best Buy launched its digital music store powered by Rhapsody not too long ago. They asked manufactures to be Rhapsody certified, similar to being PlaysForSure certified, so that all players will fall into one of three music services: Best Buy Music Store (Rhapsody), Zune Marketplace, or iTunes. Creative failed to comply with the request and was thus dropped from Best Buy retailers.
Live from the Middle East: the Pussycat Dolls, via MySpace
MySpace, streaming encoder provider Kulabyte, and network systems provider Akamai will pool their resources for "Operation MySpace," a new initiative that will offer streaming webcasts of concerts in high-definition live Kuwait. Operation MySpace will stream the performances live to as many people in the world who choose to see it, using Kulabyte technology to encode the video and Akamai technology to deliver the content to MySpace. A satellite will pick up the feed live from Kuwait, send it to a link on the East Coast, direct it to another satellite, and it will arrive to MySpace servers located in Los Angeles.
HP’s BookPrep could be springboard for book sites
One of the more interesting technologies that Hewlett-Packard showed off at its research event yesterday was HP BookPrep. This service essentially enables consumers to track down and buy any book — even those that have been out of print for years.
Amazon.com could start selling those books to anyone who can find them. Amazon already has more than 1.2 million books for sale. But Reddy says there are 6.5 million books out of copyright, roughly 32 million more in a kind of legal gray zone, and a total of 90 million that are completely out of print.
Trans World Revenue Drops 23% in Q4
The old way of selling CDs looks to be dying faster than overall CD sales. Trans World's fourth quarter revenue dropped a whopping 23% and 2007 sales revenue dropped 14% (read press release and 8-K, which has a transcript of the conference call). Net loss for fiscal 2007 was $99.4 million. Comp store sales dropped 8% on the year. In the conference call, President and COO Jim Litwak said Trans World's comp store music sales dropped 28% in Q4, the top 50 titles 35% in Q4 and the top 50 video titles were down 12%. For the year, comp store music sales dropped 23%.
Back in Q4 or 2007 Creative players diminished from Best Buy’s store shelves and finally disappeared. It was left to mere speculations of low profit margins, the need to push their in-house brand, and Creative’s own lack of enthusiasm. None are the case.
Best Buy launched its digital music store powered by Rhapsody not too long ago. They asked manufactures to be Rhapsody certified, similar to being PlaysForSure certified, so that all players will fall into one of three music services: Best Buy Music Store (Rhapsody), Zune Marketplace, or iTunes. Creative failed to comply with the request and was thus dropped from Best Buy retailers.
Live from the Middle East: the Pussycat Dolls, via MySpace
MySpace, streaming encoder provider Kulabyte, and network systems provider Akamai will pool their resources for "Operation MySpace," a new initiative that will offer streaming webcasts of concerts in high-definition live Kuwait. Operation MySpace will stream the performances live to as many people in the world who choose to see it, using Kulabyte technology to encode the video and Akamai technology to deliver the content to MySpace. A satellite will pick up the feed live from Kuwait, send it to a link on the East Coast, direct it to another satellite, and it will arrive to MySpace servers located in Los Angeles.
HP’s BookPrep could be springboard for book sites
One of the more interesting technologies that Hewlett-Packard showed off at its research event yesterday was HP BookPrep. This service essentially enables consumers to track down and buy any book — even those that have been out of print for years.
Amazon.com could start selling those books to anyone who can find them. Amazon already has more than 1.2 million books for sale. But Reddy says there are 6.5 million books out of copyright, roughly 32 million more in a kind of legal gray zone, and a total of 90 million that are completely out of print.
Trans World Revenue Drops 23% in Q4
The old way of selling CDs looks to be dying faster than overall CD sales. Trans World's fourth quarter revenue dropped a whopping 23% and 2007 sales revenue dropped 14% (read press release and 8-K, which has a transcript of the conference call). Net loss for fiscal 2007 was $99.4 million. Comp store sales dropped 8% on the year. In the conference call, President and COO Jim Litwak said Trans World's comp store music sales dropped 28% in Q4, the top 50 titles 35% in Q4 and the top 50 video titles were down 12%. For the year, comp store music sales dropped 23%.
Thursday, March 6, 2008
snapshot 3/6/08
Musicians still waiting on a YouTube payday
How important is music to Google's YouTube.com? Out of the top 12 all-time most viewed YouTube clips, nine are professionally made music videos. At least one rock video has been watched more than 75 million times on YouTube. But do the performers in the videos share in the advertising revenue generated by their work? Some top music managers have told CNET News.com that their clients haven't seen any money from the licensing deals the four largest music labels have signed with YouTube over the past 18 months.
Someone Likes Them: iLike Announces 200,000th Artist
Music networking application iLike announced its 200,000th participating artist on Wednesday, part of a quickly-growing profile. The artists are tapping the iLike application to spread themselves across Facebook, hi5, and Bebo. The company also reaffirmed its intent to launch applications and widgets within MySpace, Orkut and others within "the coming weeks," an initiative first shared with Digital Music News last week. That expansion will be powered in part by Google OpenSocial, a shared platform that does not involve Facebook. But MySpace is a serious terrain for artists, and the networking behemoth hosts more than eight million band profiles. Elsewhere, Facebook is also opening artist profile pages, a move that directly overlaps with iLike.
OurStage Gets Much, Much Bigger Venue; Strikes AOL Deal
Supercharged battle-of-the-bands destination OurStage (ourstage.com) is now bringing its concept to a much broader audience, thanks to a recently-announced AOL Music (music.aol.com) partnership. The Boston-based OurStage invites fans to upload their songs, and enters them into an endless series of face-offs with other bands. That theoretically sifts the wheat from the chaff, and creates a more democratic artist discovery platform.
The deal finds OurStage sharing music content - including interviews, streaming audio and videos - with the AOL Music destination. AOL will blend OurStage into its massive advertising platform, and share revenues accordingly. AOL Music commands a monthly unique visitor audience of roughly 20 million, according to information shared Wednesday
Can The Crowd Choose The Hits? Slicethepie Releases First Album
Based on the concept that the wisdom of the crowd is greater than that of a handful of struggling record executives, Slicethepie.com releases its first project Monday, UK indie-rockers The Alps. Completely fan-funded yet professionally recorded and released, The Alps' ‘Something I Might Regret’ is positioned to compete in what the site calls "a climate of poor major label hit-rates and roster downsizing". Dave Allen (The Cure, Depeche Mode) produced and album that Slicethepie hopes "offers proof that great music and innovative business models can offer real hope for this troubled industry".
How important is music to Google's YouTube.com? Out of the top 12 all-time most viewed YouTube clips, nine are professionally made music videos. At least one rock video has been watched more than 75 million times on YouTube. But do the performers in the videos share in the advertising revenue generated by their work? Some top music managers have told CNET News.com that their clients haven't seen any money from the licensing deals the four largest music labels have signed with YouTube over the past 18 months.
Someone Likes Them: iLike Announces 200,000th Artist
Music networking application iLike announced its 200,000th participating artist on Wednesday, part of a quickly-growing profile. The artists are tapping the iLike application to spread themselves across Facebook, hi5, and Bebo. The company also reaffirmed its intent to launch applications and widgets within MySpace, Orkut and others within "the coming weeks," an initiative first shared with Digital Music News last week. That expansion will be powered in part by Google OpenSocial, a shared platform that does not involve Facebook. But MySpace is a serious terrain for artists, and the networking behemoth hosts more than eight million band profiles. Elsewhere, Facebook is also opening artist profile pages, a move that directly overlaps with iLike.
OurStage Gets Much, Much Bigger Venue; Strikes AOL Deal
Supercharged battle-of-the-bands destination OurStage (ourstage.com) is now bringing its concept to a much broader audience, thanks to a recently-announced AOL Music (music.aol.com) partnership. The Boston-based OurStage invites fans to upload their songs, and enters them into an endless series of face-offs with other bands. That theoretically sifts the wheat from the chaff, and creates a more democratic artist discovery platform.
The deal finds OurStage sharing music content - including interviews, streaming audio and videos - with the AOL Music destination. AOL will blend OurStage into its massive advertising platform, and share revenues accordingly. AOL Music commands a monthly unique visitor audience of roughly 20 million, according to information shared Wednesday
Can The Crowd Choose The Hits? Slicethepie Releases First Album
Based on the concept that the wisdom of the crowd is greater than that of a handful of struggling record executives, Slicethepie.com releases its first project Monday, UK indie-rockers The Alps. Completely fan-funded yet professionally recorded and released, The Alps' ‘Something I Might Regret’ is positioned to compete in what the site calls "a climate of poor major label hit-rates and roster downsizing". Dave Allen (The Cure, Depeche Mode) produced and album that Slicethepie hopes "offers proof that great music and innovative business models can offer real hope for this troubled industry".
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
snapshot 3/5/08
Facebook in talks with major music labels: report
Social networking site Facebook has approached major music labels about launching a music service, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The talks were described as "preliminary" and come after sources familiar with the discussion told Reuters last week that the major labels had held similar talks with MySpace, the leading social network site owned by News Corp (NWSa.N).
1,000 True Fans
Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail? One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.
Few listeners can distinguish between "average" and "best" MP3 samples
Two weeks ago, we challenged our readers to see if they could discern the difference between MP3 recordings at different sampling data rates. Nearly 700 completed our study. So does a very high data rate result in a noticeable difference? Here our are basic results:
Respondents rated two recordings, one by rock guitarist Carlos Santana, and another by orchestral composer Aaron Copland. Each recording was encoded into an MP3 file at three different data rates: 64, 128, and 256 kbps. For both recordings, there was a significant difference between ratings of the 64 kbps data rate and the 128 kbps data rate, but no difference between ratings of the 128 and 256 kbps data rate. It's looking like the 256 kbps MP3s offer no advantage over the much smaller 128 kbps MP3s.
Reznor makes $750,000 even when the music is free
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made headlines again this week as he released his new, four-part instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, at a variety of price points, including a $300 super-deluxe package. He's also giving away Ghosts I at no charge, even throwing the tracks up on The Pirate Bay for anyone to download. And it appears to be working quite well for Reznor, who has managed to sell all 2,500 copies of his $300 package without major label backing or much in the way of splashy marketing. If Reznor's earlier experiments in digital distribution failed to recoup their costs, he's clearly learned his lesson: grossing $750,000 in the space of three days isn't a bad haul for any businessperson.
American Idol tab in Wi-Fi iTunes store
If you have recently used the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on the iPhone or iPod touch, then you may have noticed a new tab that Apple added. In the "Featured" category, you will find an "American Idol" tab beside "New Releases" and "Genres."
Social networking site Facebook has approached major music labels about launching a music service, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter. The talks were described as "preliminary" and come after sources familiar with the discussion told Reuters last week that the major labels had held similar talks with MySpace, the leading social network site owned by News Corp (NWSa.N).
1,000 True Fans
Other than aim for a blockbuster hit, what can an artist do to escape the long tail? One solution is to find 1,000 True Fans. While some artists have discovered this path without calling it that, I think it is worth trying to formalize. The gist of 1,000 True Fans can be stated simply: A creator, such as an artist, musician, photographer, craftsperson, performer, animator, designer, videomaker, or author - in other words, anyone producing works of art - needs to acquire only 1,000 True Fans to make a living.
A True Fan is defined as someone who will purchase anything and everything you produce. They will drive 200 miles to see you sing. They will buy the super deluxe re-issued hi-res box set of your stuff even though they have the low-res version. They have a Google Alert set for your name. They bookmark the eBay page where your out-of-print editions show up. They come to your openings. They have you sign their copies. They buy the t-shirt, and the mug, and the hat. They can't wait till you issue your next work. They are true fans.
Few listeners can distinguish between "average" and "best" MP3 samples
Two weeks ago, we challenged our readers to see if they could discern the difference between MP3 recordings at different sampling data rates. Nearly 700 completed our study. So does a very high data rate result in a noticeable difference? Here our are basic results:
Respondents rated two recordings, one by rock guitarist Carlos Santana, and another by orchestral composer Aaron Copland. Each recording was encoded into an MP3 file at three different data rates: 64, 128, and 256 kbps. For both recordings, there was a significant difference between ratings of the 64 kbps data rate and the 128 kbps data rate, but no difference between ratings of the 128 and 256 kbps data rate. It's looking like the 256 kbps MP3s offer no advantage over the much smaller 128 kbps MP3s.
Reznor makes $750,000 even when the music is free
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made headlines again this week as he released his new, four-part instrumental album Ghosts I-IV, at a variety of price points, including a $300 super-deluxe package. He's also giving away Ghosts I at no charge, even throwing the tracks up on The Pirate Bay for anyone to download. And it appears to be working quite well for Reznor, who has managed to sell all 2,500 copies of his $300 package without major label backing or much in the way of splashy marketing. If Reznor's earlier experiments in digital distribution failed to recoup their costs, he's clearly learned his lesson: grossing $750,000 in the space of three days isn't a bad haul for any businessperson.
American Idol tab in Wi-Fi iTunes store
If you have recently used the iTunes Wi-Fi Music Store on the iPhone or iPod touch, then you may have noticed a new tab that Apple added. In the "Featured" category, you will find an "American Idol" tab beside "New Releases" and "Genres."
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
snapshot 3/4/08
Nokia opens online music store in Germany
Nokia opened on Monday its online music store in Germany, the second such store for the world's largest cell phone maker, which plans to open the stores in nine more countries by mid-2008. Nokia's German music store will charge 1 euro ($1.52) per track, compared with the largest online music retailer Apple's iTunes' 0.99 euros charge.
Audio book publishers drop copy protections
Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anti-copying software on digital downloads of audio books. Random House, a division of Bertelsmann, was the first to announce it was backing away from DRM, or digital rights management, software, the protective wrapping placed around digital files to make them difficult to copy. In a letter sent to its industry partners last month, Random House, the world's largest publisher, announced it would offer all of its audio books as unprotected MP3 files beginning this month, unless retail partners or authors specified otherwise.
Penguin Group, the second-largest publisher in the United States, appears set to follow suit. Dick Heffernan, publisher of Penguin Audio, said the company would make all of its audio book titles available for download in the MP3 format on eMusic, the Web's second-largest digital music service after iTunes.
Wal-Mart stirs CD pricing pot with multi-tiered plan
The major music companies have been resistant to lowering their price on CDs, but now they may be dragged to that point: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of music with an estimated 22 percent market share, has proposed a five-tiered pricing scheme that would allow the discounter to sell albums at even lower prices and require the labels to bear more of the costs.
According to sources, the Wal-Mart proposal would allow for a promotional program that could comprise the top 15 to 20 hottest titles, each at $10. The rest of the pricing structure, according to several music executives who spoke with Billboard, would have hits and current titles retailing for $12, top catalog at $9, midline catalog at $7 and budget product at $5. The move would also shift the store's pricing from its $9.88 and $13.88 model to rounder sales prices.
Merge Records Store via Coolfer
Merge Records has launched a download stores that sells MP3s for individual tracks and complete albums and FLAC for complete albums only. I'll continue to get Merge music at eMusic, a much cheaper option. (Merge Records Store)
Songza gets a memory, adds some new bling
Now Songza offers users even more options. According the the Songza team, the ability to save playlists has been the most requested feature. That feature has been added. Once you register for a free Songza account, you can save your playlist. The user profile page is simple and intuitive, and we have a feeling it's the sign of more networking/sharing features to come.The Songza interface has been updated too. The same overall style that we know and love remains, but there is now more emphasis on a users playlist (which is always present on the right-hand side of the page). Additionally, a "Most Played" tab has been added to the search area. The Songza interface is what really sets the site away from other music search engines. It is easy to use, clean to look at and fast loading. Now, it's even better.
AppleTV vs Vudu vs xBox360 Video Download Battlemodo
Now that you've seen all the evidence I could gather. It's a toss up to me, though I think for content I have to lean towards Vudu and for pure video quality (and most HD content) the Xbox 360 is hard to beat. Meanwhile, Apple TV is cheapest and lives up to its name with the best access to actual TV programming—though NBC is still painfully absent
eMusic making good money from back catalog
During a recent lunch meeting in New York, eMusic CEO David Pakman made a remarkable claim. Each quarter, the company sells at least one copy of 67 percent of its total inventory, and has done so consistently. That's 2.1 million unique tracks moved every three months, indicating that demand for music is far richer and deeper than sometimes assumed by labels and radio stations.
With two-thirds of its total inventory still selling at least small amounts, Pakman sees a similar opportunity with long tail video content. He tells me that eMusic has hopes to offer a similar deep catalog of video content currently of little use to owners, mainly television content from the last century that has no current commercial outlet. eMusic has nothing to announce on this front yet, and Pakman says the company will act only if it can offer DRM-free downloads, as it does for music and audiobooks.
Nokia opened on Monday its online music store in Germany, the second such store for the world's largest cell phone maker, which plans to open the stores in nine more countries by mid-2008. Nokia's German music store will charge 1 euro ($1.52) per track, compared with the largest online music retailer Apple's iTunes' 0.99 euros charge.
Audio book publishers drop copy protections
Some of the largest book publishers in the world are stripping away the anti-copying software on digital downloads of audio books. Random House, a division of Bertelsmann, was the first to announce it was backing away from DRM, or digital rights management, software, the protective wrapping placed around digital files to make them difficult to copy. In a letter sent to its industry partners last month, Random House, the world's largest publisher, announced it would offer all of its audio books as unprotected MP3 files beginning this month, unless retail partners or authors specified otherwise.
Penguin Group, the second-largest publisher in the United States, appears set to follow suit. Dick Heffernan, publisher of Penguin Audio, said the company would make all of its audio book titles available for download in the MP3 format on eMusic, the Web's second-largest digital music service after iTunes.
Wal-Mart stirs CD pricing pot with multi-tiered plan
The major music companies have been resistant to lowering their price on CDs, but now they may be dragged to that point: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of music with an estimated 22 percent market share, has proposed a five-tiered pricing scheme that would allow the discounter to sell albums at even lower prices and require the labels to bear more of the costs.
According to sources, the Wal-Mart proposal would allow for a promotional program that could comprise the top 15 to 20 hottest titles, each at $10. The rest of the pricing structure, according to several music executives who spoke with Billboard, would have hits and current titles retailing for $12, top catalog at $9, midline catalog at $7 and budget product at $5. The move would also shift the store's pricing from its $9.88 and $13.88 model to rounder sales prices.
Merge Records Store via Coolfer
Merge Records has launched a download stores that sells MP3s for individual tracks and complete albums and FLAC for complete albums only. I'll continue to get Merge music at eMusic, a much cheaper option. (Merge Records Store)
Songza gets a memory, adds some new bling
Now Songza offers users even more options. According the the Songza team, the ability to save playlists has been the most requested feature. That feature has been added. Once you register for a free Songza account, you can save your playlist. The user profile page is simple and intuitive, and we have a feeling it's the sign of more networking/sharing features to come.The Songza interface has been updated too. The same overall style that we know and love remains, but there is now more emphasis on a users playlist (which is always present on the right-hand side of the page). Additionally, a "Most Played" tab has been added to the search area. The Songza interface is what really sets the site away from other music search engines. It is easy to use, clean to look at and fast loading. Now, it's even better.
AppleTV vs Vudu vs xBox360 Video Download Battlemodo
Now that you've seen all the evidence I could gather. It's a toss up to me, though I think for content I have to lean towards Vudu and for pure video quality (and most HD content) the Xbox 360 is hard to beat. Meanwhile, Apple TV is cheapest and lives up to its name with the best access to actual TV programming—though NBC is still painfully absent
eMusic making good money from back catalog
During a recent lunch meeting in New York, eMusic CEO David Pakman made a remarkable claim. Each quarter, the company sells at least one copy of 67 percent of its total inventory, and has done so consistently. That's 2.1 million unique tracks moved every three months, indicating that demand for music is far richer and deeper than sometimes assumed by labels and radio stations.
With two-thirds of its total inventory still selling at least small amounts, Pakman sees a similar opportunity with long tail video content. He tells me that eMusic has hopes to offer a similar deep catalog of video content currently of little use to owners, mainly television content from the last century that has no current commercial outlet. eMusic has nothing to announce on this front yet, and Pakman says the company will act only if it can offer DRM-free downloads, as it does for music and audiobooks.
Monday, March 3, 2008
snapshot 3/3/08
Nine Inch Nails releases Internet album
Trent Reznor, the man behind the rock group Nine Inch Nails, continued his foray into self-distribution by releasing a 36-track instrumental album over the Internet. The album, Ghosts I-IV, went on sale Sunday on NIN.com, the band's Web site, and was available in a varying range of price packages.
Reznor is giving away the first nine songs of the album for free. The entire album in a digital version is available for $5. Nine Inch Nails' fans can order separate disc-sets of the album (with varying bonus materials and merchandise) from $10 to $300.
Is Amazon Rethinking Its Movie Download Service?
It’s been a year-and-a-half since Amazon launched Unbox, its movie download service that competes with Netflix and iTunes. Amazon has a partnership with TiVo to allow people to download movies straight to their TV set-top boxes. But Unbox doesn’t appear to have really made a dent in Amazon’s business yet. The service did not even warrant a mention in last quarter’s earnings announcement. Maybe that is why Amazon is noodling over what it can add to Unbox to make it a hit.
Amazon is asking Unbox customers to fill out an online survey about how satisfied they are with the service. One of the questions asks which of ten potential improvements is “most likely to increase your use of the Amazon Unbox service?” The options range from free streaming with ads and an HBO-like movie subscription service to HD-quality videos and bundling digital copies with the purchase of a regular DVD.
iPhone now fourth-largest browsing platform
The iPhone has become the world’s fourth-largest online browsing platform, according to the latest operating system numbers from Net Applications. For February 2008, the various versions of Windows held nearly 92% market share, followed by the Mac with ~7.5%, Linux with 0.65%, and iPhone, with 0.14% — up 0.01% from January.
Amazon MP3 Store Now Linux-Friendly
Amazon's MP3 store got officially Linux-friendly last week, adding support for Debian 4 Etch, Fedora 8, Open SUSE 10.3, and Unbuntu 7.10 Gutsy.
Digital Music Store Lets Fans Set Pricing
(Kevin Hockin, who handles operations and marketing for the company, points out that RIAA member labels are trying to reduce the artist's cut of a digital sale from 13 percent to 9 percent, and that Apple is trying to lower the payout to artists from songs sold on iTunes down to 4 percent.)
Counting Billions: Are iTunes Store Sales An Issue?
Apple has now sold four billion song downloads on its iTunes Store, a feat accomplished after nearly five years. That is a large number of paid downloads, but is iTunes growing fast enough?
A top-level look shows a rapid acceleration over past few years. It took Apple more than two and one-half years to accomplish its first billion. The threshold was announced in early February of 2006, after an initial launch in May of 2003.
But a slight deceleration is now emerging. The fourth billion happened after roughly seven months, about equal to the time between the second and third billion. The second billion was announced in early January of 2007, and the third came at the tail end of July. That offers more evidence of a plateau, especially given the dominant position that Apple enjoys in the paid download space.
Mercedes-Benz Expands Online Music Initiative
Mercedes-Benz is one of the most recognized brands worldwide, and one of the largest advertisers. But outside of its more mainstream pitches, the company is tapping newer formats to excite a younger generation.
In 2004, the German automaker started a promotional music download initiative called Mixed Tape. Since that point, the company has racked a total of 28 million downloads from roughly 2.5 million users.
Coming soon: Movies on flash memory cards
PortoMedia is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive. The kiosks will be packed with hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Users then plug in a memory device from the company, enter a PIN code, and buy or rent a movie. When consumers get home, they simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a TV.
The key to the service is a proprietary USB interface that transfers data at a faster average rate than standard USB devices. A standard-definition movie can be loaded onto a memory device in 8 to 60 seconds, depending on the length and chip speed. High-definition movies, which won't be available initially on the service, can be downloaded in 18 to 45 seconds. The USB interface works just fine with the USB slots on PCs and notebooks.
Apple expands Digital Release cards with iTunes Essentials compilations
Following its mid-2007 rollout of Digital Release cards, which first appeared in Starbucks to offer digital downloads of albums from individual artists, Apple has expanded the Digital Release program to include themed, 15- and 30-song iTunes compilations, and started to sell the cards in Best Buy locations. Branded under the iTunes Essentials name, the cards are available for collections such as “Classic Rock Hits,” “R&B Hits,” “Love Song Classics,” “Party Hits,” “70’s Super Hits,” and “80’s Super Hits,” with prices from $10 to $20. The $10 cards include 15 songs each, while $20 cards provide 30 tracks each, bringing the per-track price to only 67 cents per song. Tracks selected by Apple for these cards come from major artists, and the cards feature eye-catching metallic material rather than just plain plastic or cardboard.
Apple falls short of 1,000 movie rentals
Apple fell far short of its goal of rolling out 1,000 movies for rent through the iTunes Store by the end of February. Macworld's Christopher Breen checked in Friday on Apple's promise, and found that just 351 titles are available to rent through the latest version of Apple TV. If you check the iTunes Store from a Mac or PC, there are 399 movies available to rent. Breen notes that even if you include all the movies available through the iTunes Store, for both purchase and rentals, there are only 770 available.
Analyst: Recording industry needs even newer business models
JupiterResearch analysts are pointing to the music industry's need to revolutionize its business model even further, as social networking sites, Internet radio stations, and legit P2P services are taking command of the market.
A Tough Sell: Movies on Small Screens
Apple TV, Vudu, Movielink, Unbox: the Internet is littered with ventures that offer the ability to download movies legally online. Few have had the predicted success. A new report by the Diffusion Group, a research firm, says that less than 10 percent of adults with broadband connections have ever used such services, and only about 1 percent use them frequently.
TuneCore Starts Getting Physical, Moves Beyond iTunes
Digital distribution is easier than ever, thanks to entrants like TuneCore. The Brooklyn-based company allows artists to direct-inject their content into the iTunes Store, without any special relationships or contracts. The platform also offers distribution into rival outlets like eMusic and Amazon MP3.
Now, the TuneCore footprint is expanding. On Thursday, the company revealed plans to offer a physical sales solution starting April 1st. The concept does not involve brick-n-mortar, though it does involve widget-based stores containing CDs, according to details shared with Digital Music News.
The portable store can be planted into any website, blog, or social networking profile. Artists control pricing, album positioning, artwork, and other details, and TuneCore will ship orders. Artists must pay a flat fee for the first year, according to the company.
Trent Reznor, the man behind the rock group Nine Inch Nails, continued his foray into self-distribution by releasing a 36-track instrumental album over the Internet. The album, Ghosts I-IV, went on sale Sunday on NIN.com, the band's Web site, and was available in a varying range of price packages.
Reznor is giving away the first nine songs of the album for free. The entire album in a digital version is available for $5. Nine Inch Nails' fans can order separate disc-sets of the album (with varying bonus materials and merchandise) from $10 to $300.
Is Amazon Rethinking Its Movie Download Service?
It’s been a year-and-a-half since Amazon launched Unbox, its movie download service that competes with Netflix and iTunes. Amazon has a partnership with TiVo to allow people to download movies straight to their TV set-top boxes. But Unbox doesn’t appear to have really made a dent in Amazon’s business yet. The service did not even warrant a mention in last quarter’s earnings announcement. Maybe that is why Amazon is noodling over what it can add to Unbox to make it a hit.
Amazon is asking Unbox customers to fill out an online survey about how satisfied they are with the service. One of the questions asks which of ten potential improvements is “most likely to increase your use of the Amazon Unbox service?” The options range from free streaming with ads and an HBO-like movie subscription service to HD-quality videos and bundling digital copies with the purchase of a regular DVD.
iPhone now fourth-largest browsing platform
The iPhone has become the world’s fourth-largest online browsing platform, according to the latest operating system numbers from Net Applications. For February 2008, the various versions of Windows held nearly 92% market share, followed by the Mac with ~7.5%, Linux with 0.65%, and iPhone, with 0.14% — up 0.01% from January.
Amazon MP3 Store Now Linux-Friendly
Amazon's MP3 store got officially Linux-friendly last week, adding support for Debian 4 Etch, Fedora 8, Open SUSE 10.3, and Unbuntu 7.10 Gutsy.
Digital Music Store Lets Fans Set Pricing
(Kevin Hockin, who handles operations and marketing for the company, points out that RIAA member labels are trying to reduce the artist's cut of a digital sale from 13 percent to 9 percent, and that Apple is trying to lower the payout to artists from songs sold on iTunes down to 4 percent.)
Counting Billions: Are iTunes Store Sales An Issue?
Apple has now sold four billion song downloads on its iTunes Store, a feat accomplished after nearly five years. That is a large number of paid downloads, but is iTunes growing fast enough?
A top-level look shows a rapid acceleration over past few years. It took Apple more than two and one-half years to accomplish its first billion. The threshold was announced in early February of 2006, after an initial launch in May of 2003.
But a slight deceleration is now emerging. The fourth billion happened after roughly seven months, about equal to the time between the second and third billion. The second billion was announced in early January of 2007, and the third came at the tail end of July. That offers more evidence of a plateau, especially given the dominant position that Apple enjoys in the paid download space.
Mercedes-Benz Expands Online Music Initiative
Mercedes-Benz is one of the most recognized brands worldwide, and one of the largest advertisers. But outside of its more mainstream pitches, the company is tapping newer formats to excite a younger generation.
In 2004, the German automaker started a promotional music download initiative called Mixed Tape. Since that point, the company has racked a total of 28 million downloads from roughly 2.5 million users.
Coming soon: Movies on flash memory cards
PortoMedia is setting up kiosks that will let consumers download movies to a flash memory key or portable hard drive. The kiosks will be packed with hard drives that can hold 350 to 5,000 titles. Users then plug in a memory device from the company, enter a PIN code, and buy or rent a movie. When consumers get home, they simply slide the memory device into a dock connected to a TV.
The key to the service is a proprietary USB interface that transfers data at a faster average rate than standard USB devices. A standard-definition movie can be loaded onto a memory device in 8 to 60 seconds, depending on the length and chip speed. High-definition movies, which won't be available initially on the service, can be downloaded in 18 to 45 seconds. The USB interface works just fine with the USB slots on PCs and notebooks.
Apple expands Digital Release cards with iTunes Essentials compilations
Following its mid-2007 rollout of Digital Release cards, which first appeared in Starbucks to offer digital downloads of albums from individual artists, Apple has expanded the Digital Release program to include themed, 15- and 30-song iTunes compilations, and started to sell the cards in Best Buy locations. Branded under the iTunes Essentials name, the cards are available for collections such as “Classic Rock Hits,” “R&B Hits,” “Love Song Classics,” “Party Hits,” “70’s Super Hits,” and “80’s Super Hits,” with prices from $10 to $20. The $10 cards include 15 songs each, while $20 cards provide 30 tracks each, bringing the per-track price to only 67 cents per song. Tracks selected by Apple for these cards come from major artists, and the cards feature eye-catching metallic material rather than just plain plastic or cardboard.
Apple falls short of 1,000 movie rentals
Apple fell far short of its goal of rolling out 1,000 movies for rent through the iTunes Store by the end of February. Macworld's Christopher Breen checked in Friday on Apple's promise, and found that just 351 titles are available to rent through the latest version of Apple TV. If you check the iTunes Store from a Mac or PC, there are 399 movies available to rent. Breen notes that even if you include all the movies available through the iTunes Store, for both purchase and rentals, there are only 770 available.
Analyst: Recording industry needs even newer business models
JupiterResearch analysts are pointing to the music industry's need to revolutionize its business model even further, as social networking sites, Internet radio stations, and legit P2P services are taking command of the market.
A Tough Sell: Movies on Small Screens
Apple TV, Vudu, Movielink, Unbox: the Internet is littered with ventures that offer the ability to download movies legally online. Few have had the predicted success. A new report by the Diffusion Group, a research firm, says that less than 10 percent of adults with broadband connections have ever used such services, and only about 1 percent use them frequently.
TuneCore Starts Getting Physical, Moves Beyond iTunes
Digital distribution is easier than ever, thanks to entrants like TuneCore. The Brooklyn-based company allows artists to direct-inject their content into the iTunes Store, without any special relationships or contracts. The platform also offers distribution into rival outlets like eMusic and Amazon MP3.
Now, the TuneCore footprint is expanding. On Thursday, the company revealed plans to offer a physical sales solution starting April 1st. The concept does not involve brick-n-mortar, though it does involve widget-based stores containing CDs, according to details shared with Digital Music News.
The portable store can be planted into any website, blog, or social networking profile. Artists control pricing, album positioning, artwork, and other details, and TuneCore will ship orders. Artists must pay a flat fee for the first year, according to the company.
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