snapshot 6/11/08

Pearl Jam and Verizon go mobile for live bootlegs
Pearl Jam has struck a deal with Verizon Wireless' V Cast service to sell select tracks from the authorized live bootlegs that will be available in conjunction with the band's upcoming summer tour, which begins Wednesday (June 11) in West Palm Beach, Florida.

Under this extension of Pearl Jam's long-running live bootleg program, three tracks from each show (excluding Bonnaroo) will be available immediately afterward via V Cast and PearlJamConcerts.com -- one as a free mobile download and two others for purchase. All V Cast tracks will be "dual downloads," meaning that once purchased, they are sent to both the mobile phone and the user's computer. They will feature Verizon's existing digital rights management (DRM) system and will also be sold as ringtones and ringbacks.


Merlin claims 8% share of US market
Merlin, the world’s first global rights body for independent music, now claims to have captured 8% of the US market. The organization has seen its membership swell to over 12,000 and now represents the repertoires of independent US music market leading labels and distributors, including Koch, Epitaph, IODA, Beggars and Concord.


CDs Have Another Thing To Fear: Vinyl?
There has been no doubt that CD sales have been declining due to the growth of digital music. Well, CDs are now being flanked by an old format: vinyl. Although vinyl LPs have always enjoyed a niche popularity with dance djs and indie rock fanatics, large mass-market retailers like Fred Meyer are starting to stock vinyl versions of albums in response to broad increasing consumer demand for the "obsolete" format. Though vinyl enthusiasts claim that the analog sound from records is of higher quality than that of their digital counterparts, audiophiles are not necessarily the ones leading this resurgence in vinyl demand. Consumers like the larger format's liner notes and the nostalgic experience of owning and playing a vinyl LP -- both things that cannot be replicated with the digital version of a song. Unlike the declining sales of CDs, Vinyl LP sales are expected to grow 60% this year over last year. However, the actual volume of vinyl sold (1 million albums sold versus 450 million for CDs) is very low, so clearly the resurgence is not an indication of a shift in consumer's primary demand. That said, as more consumers are exposed to the music, the market for related non-digital goods will grow, and the increasing demand for vinyl albums is yet another indication of this trend.


Grammy winning record producer says CD quality isn't good enough
Producer T Bone Burnett talked passionately about sound quality, or lack thereof on a radio program, Soundcheck, from WNYC on Monday. Turns out Burnett's no fan of CDs or downloads, stating that CD's inadequate sampling rate loses too much of the sound he heard while making and mixing records. He put it this way, "We've been fighting digital sound since it came out twenty years ago...music's gotten to a place that's harder to listen to."

To fix the problem Burnett wants his future projects, like the new John Mellencamp album he produced that's due in July, to come out on DVD-Audio, with a bevy of formats including 24 bit/96 kHz WAV files, uncompressed 16bit/44.1kHz files, AAC, and MP3, so you can pick the level of fidelity that works for you. Burnett claims you'll finally get to hear the music as he intended when he made the record in the first place. "It's all part of what makes music feel good."


Disney busts out of iTunes ghetto, tries on-demand experiment
While the existence of P2P networks has yet to force open the vault, Disney has made other concessions to the modern world, including the creation of oddly-enticing MMOs for teens and kids. But when it comes to one of the company's core assets—movies—Disney has in some ways taken a safer path. It has partnered with iTunes, where it managed to move four million movies in two years, but it hasn't yet embraced the brave new on-demand streaming video culture that has grown up in the past couple of years at sites like Hulu and networks like ABC and CBS. Hulu, in particular, now offers a wide range of films (with the requisite ads) for streaming whenever you need a cinematic fix.

Disney has now announced its own foray into the world of streaming, though it will keep total control over the experience and will tie it to the Wonderful World of Disney show on ABC. Here's how it works: seven films are shown on TV throughout the summer, and free streaming versions of the movies are available from Monday to Friday of the following week. What's more, the films appear to have no ads apart from a single pre-roll advertisement. Finding Nemo is streaming throughout this week, and when I checked it out, I was treated to an upfront Cocoa Pebbles Cereal ad, which I'm told is "part of a good breakfast." Ugh. Once that was out of the way, though, I could watch the entire film, in fullscreen, for free. Quality was good, though no one will mistake this for a DVD.


Yahoo! Music Doesn’t Want You to Forget the Lyrics
Yahoo! Music is testing the waters with a few such options: offering lyrics to “tens of thousands” of songs through Gracenote’s Lyrics Program; and FoxyTunes, a browser plug-in that essentially takes control of any media player to locate additional and related content. Both offerings are part of a complete redesign of the company’s music Website, which provides, in addition to digital music, content like music videos (more than 17,000), nearly 100 streaming radio stations, concerts, music news, and blogs. FoxyTunes, available as a download at www.foxytunes.com, is a plug-in that is compatible with the Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers. Once downloaded, it allows you to change tunes or other content from virtually any media player without having to close your current browser window.

Yahoo! Music’s homepage now includes on-demand music, videos, themed radio and video stations, and exclusive artist features. Users will be given music video recommendations based on an accumulation of their ratings, tastes, and interests. An embedded music player has also been added so users can post their favourite videos on their own Websites or blogs; and a drag-and-drop video playlisting tools makes it easy to create personalized video selections. Concert listings will also be provided via a wiki.


The Bargain Bump
When Amazon.com MP3 began running its daily "blue light special," I assumed it would feature older, back-catalog titles. But some of the bargain albums are recent, big-name releases -- today it's Madonna's Hard Candy album for $3.99.
I'd love to find out exactly what kind of bounce Amazon.com is getting with these daily specials, though it seems pretty clear that the reduced price is moving some additional units: As of this afternoon, the album is #7 on Amazon's top mp3 albums chart, but it's only in the #50 spot over at the iTunes store...


Court Rules That Selling Promo CDs Is Perfectly Legal
There was a big win for copyright and the concept of the first sale doctrine today, as a court has ruled that record labels cannot stop the sale of a promo CD just because it's stamped with a message that says "not for resale." We had discussed this case last summer, when it was first filed. Universal Music was trying to prevent a guy selling promo CDs on eBay. He had bought them at various music stores. Universal claimed that because the CDs were stamped with that "not for resale" message, they really retained ownership of those CDs and no one could sell them. This would go against the very concept of the first sale doctrine, and, thankfully the court agreed, trashing Universal's weak claim that just by writing a note on any piece of content, it could ignore copyright law and retain ownership of the good forever.