• The National Music Publishers' Association has joined a class action lawsuit against Google and its YouTube division. The suit, originally brought in May by English soccer's The Football Association Premier League Ltd, contends YouTube facilitates copyright infringement of music videos and live footage. (Wall Street Journal)

• It's the year of the widget boom: Pandora has launched a Facebook widget. Users can log in with an existing Pandora account and the widget will contain previous user information like favorite artists and radio stations. (Listening Post)

• Microsoft's DRM lives on: Nokia's S60 mobile operating system will use the PlayReady DRM that will allow users to share music, videos and games. PlayReady was unveiled in February. It requires users to register different devices under a domain, and PlayReady content can be played under each user's domain. (Billboard.biz)

• A profile on Anywhere.FM, an online music service that does the usual online music storage locker and music discovery stuff. It has 3,700 registered users in just five days and is part of the Y Combinator start-up incubator program. (John Cook's Venture Blog)

• A U.S. judge overturned a $1.75 billion ruling against Microsoft that dealt with the company's use of a disputed MP3 technology. Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the creator of the MP3 format and now owned by Lucent, had argued that Microsoft infringed on two of its patents. (The Age)

• Music attorney Chris Castle asks, Why does the EFF hate artists so much? "The issue is not whether society needs copyright to have a creative community, I would suggest that society needs copyright to protect the creative community from von Lohman of the EFF’s fellow travelers at the National Association of Broadcasters and the Consumer Electronics Association who would free ride on our backs." (Music Technology Policy)

• Commodore (remember that brand?) has released an digital media player. The Gravel C200 won't win any design awards, that's for sure. (Engadget)

Posted by Glenn at 8:23 AM | Link
|DRM||Legal||Music 2.0||Portable Music Players|

• Album sales sank 5% last week and were 11% lower than the same week last year. For the year, album sales are down 15%. Digital track sales dropped 6% last week and were 44% higher than the same week last year. For the year, digital track sales are up 48%.

• According to research by Informa Telecoms & Media, Universal Music Group was tops in both physical and digital music in 2006. The company had 25.7% of the global market, up from 25.6% in 2005. Independents amounted to 27.5% of the total market. (Reuters)

• EMI Music Publishing and Universal Music Publishing have entered into a joint venture with music search engine One Llama and APM Music, which has "the world’s leading production music library." Try to get through the long-winded and wordy press release if you're feeling spry, but the bottom line here is that all parties are trying to facilitate and improve the process of finding the right music for a project. One Llamas is backed by illinoisVENTURES. (Press release)

• It's the year of the widget. ReverbNation has launched a Facebook widget called My Band that has a band's profile, picture, play statistics, songs (that can be shared) and tour schedule.

• The Independent previews James Blunt's upcoming court battle over the authorship of six tracks from his hit album. (The Independent)

• Yesterday's Soundcheck program on WNYC found guests Timothy English, author of "Sounds Like Teen Spirit," and Robert Clarida, an attorney who specializes in copyright issues, talking about the lawsuit against Avril Lavigne and other moments in music copyright history. In my opinion, Lavigne's song "Boyfriend" bears little resemblance to The Rubinoos' "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend." There's an obvious Stones riff ("Hey! You!") in the Rubinoos' song, though. Check out this YouTube video that lays "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" over the video for "Girlfriend." (Soundcheck)

• SESAC, the performance rights organization, and MySpace have reached a deal that will pay SESAC members for streams at the popular social networking site. The deal does not cover songs uploaded to an artist's MySpace page. (Press release)

• A Bear Stearns analyst predicts the FCC will approve a merger of XM and Sirius. "We believe the merger likely will be approved on merits. ... We underscore though, if political forces are more powerful than the merits of the deal, the outcome may be different. However, our sense is that the deal will be judged on merits and is therefore likely to pass." (Radio Ink)

Posted by Glenn at 8:26 AM | Link
|EMI||Music 2.0||Research||Universal Music Group|

• Supermarket chain ASDA is the first in the U.K. to exclusively stock an environmentally friendly "Ecopac" CD that is manufactured by Universal Music Group. The package is made from 100% recycled and recyclable paper-foam, and will be made for 42 titles. The really new twist here is that the ecopac does not have a CD sleeve -- that will be available at the UMG website. (Retail Bulletin)

• Music 2.0 site imeem.com has hooked up with Snocap to launch an ad-supported digital music service. The new service filters out uploaded content for which imeem does not have permission to stream; songs for which imeem does not have permission will stream only a 30-second clip. Artists and/or record labels will get a share of the ad revenue. (Reuters)

• Industry vets Bill Hurley and Fred Boenig have launched the Artist Development Co-Op (ADC). For a flat rate of $1,600, an artist can get radio and press support, graphic design services and placement on ADC's music and merch store. (The Artist Development Co-op, via CMJ)

• New York is getting another music venue. The 550-capacity The Music Hall of Williamsburg is set to open on September 4th with a performance by Patti Smith. The venue is part of the growing Bowery Presents empire, recently profiled in the New York Times. (Relix)

• Responding to my post about hip hop sales, blogger Camdemonium looked up BPI statistics for 2006 U.K. album sales. In 2006, hip hop accounted for 3.3% of U.K. album sales. Hip hop's shares in 2004 and 2005 were 6.5% and 5.9, respectively. That's quite a decline, and it mirrors what's happening in the U.S. (BPI, via Camdemonium)

• Country legend Porter Wagoner now holds the record -- 43 years, five months and two weeks -- for longest span between charting albums. (Billboard Chart Beat)

Posted by Glenn at 7:53 AM | Link
|Brick-And-Mortor Retail||Music 2.0|

• Album sales were up 10% last week and were "only" 8% lower than the same week last year. For the year, album sales are down about 16%. Digital track sales rose 3% and were 43% higher year over year.

• Rolling Stone magazine has the first of a two-part series on the fall of the music industry, a situation for which "there's no hope in sight." It's a collection of previously told stories and publicly available sales statistics. As with many articles that attempt to describe labels' failed attempts over the years, the writers tell us that the industry's death blow was failing to work with the original Napster. I don't believe P2P is or ever was the cure-all it's made out to be. Assuming all or most P2P users would have or ever will pay a voluntary monthly fee is as pie-in-the-sky as it gets. (Rolling Stone)

• Quincy Jones is becoming a brand that will encompass digital media, how-to publishing, clothing and even (reportedly) shaving cream. The marketing push is being led by Jones' management team at The Firm. (Billboard.biz)

• Music and social networking continues to get more new ideas and more venture capital. One of the newest companies is Fuzz. The site allows bands to set up profiles and sell their music. (Fuzz, via CMJ)

• Seventy-two House members oppose a merger between satellite radio companies XM and Sirius. (Radio Ink)

• RealNetworks' Rob Glaser answers questions on the new Real Player 11, Real's file formats and the Rhapsody music service. (Rhapsody Blog, via paidContent)

• Australian rock band Airborne, dumped by Capital amidst the shake-up at EMI, just signed to Roadrunner. (The Age)

Posted by Glenn at 8:09 AM | Link
|Music 2.0||RealNetworks||Rhapsody||Satellite Radio|

• Warner Music has sued social networking site imeem for copyright infringement. According to the lawsuit, "Imeem itself directly engages in much of the infringing conduct by duplicating, adapting, distributing and performing plaintiff's works through Imeem's own servers." Indeed. Take a look at the top songs at imeem and count the number that have the proper license for on-demand streaming (somewhere around zero I would imagine). (Wall Street Journal)

• The UK Parliament Committee has called for an extension on copyrights on sound recordings from 70 years from the existing 50 years. (BBC News)

• The Los Angeles Times' Jon Healey was a good article on the sometimes perplexing variation of CD price points. A theme of the article echoes some of my recent arguments about differences in price elasticities, that "there are two price thresholds: one for fans and one for the merely curious." (Los Angeles Times)

• Motorola has inked a partnership with Napster to provide subscription services to the handset manufacturer. The Motorola ROKR and Z6m will be the first phones able to download and play tracks from the $14.95-per-month Napster To Go service. Motorola buyers will be offered the first month at no charge. (PC Pro)

• Great marketing: Blue Note will sponsor an air-conditioned jazz tent at this summer's Bonnaroo Music Festival. Blue Note artists such as Ravi Coltrane and Stefon Harris will perform. (AP)

Posted by Glenn at 11:22 AM | Link
|Legal||Marketing||Mobile Music||Music 2.0||Napster||Warner Music Group|

New York Times' Sunday Magazine has a great article titled "Sex, Drugs and Updating Your Blog" (click here for short NY Times video on the story) that's about Internet-using, DIY artists that is definitely worth a read. Much of the article is about Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton, who in late 2005 quit his day job to pursue a career as a musician supported by his (mostly) online audience (though he does hold down a couple freelance-type gigs as well).

If I were to add something to the article, I would expand upon a statement by Coulton that perfectly describes the kind of fan -- and therefore the type of musician that those fans enable: "My fans pretty geeky." This sort of online support works better for super-literate, ironic singer-songwriters than, say, Norwegian death metal or something in the vein of MySpace star Tila Tequila (whose music career is the biggest flop of 2007). Author Clive Thompson really should have added this very important aspect to his article.

Posted by Glenn at 11:41 PM | Link
|Music 2.0|

• Will Apple offers a music subscription service? No, not if Steve Jobs' comments to Reuters in any indication. Said Jobs, "Never say never, but customers don't seem to be interested in it. The subscription model has failed so far. ... People want to own their music." (Reuters)

• Even a person with no legal knowledge could see this coming: In saying digital downloads do not count as public performances, a court denies ASCAP from double-dipping. (Hollywood Reporter)

• Research from Strategy Analytics Digital Media Strategies puts this year's global online music growth rate at 62%. By 2011, the value of the online market will grow to $6.6 billion from $2.7 billion in 2007. It predicts a "temperate increase in single track download revenues" due to EMI's decision to offer DRM-free, premium tracks. Their optimism is striking: "This year will likely be the turning point for the music industry, and a return to overall revenue growth." I doubt it, but it's possible if you include publishing revenue. (Strategy Analytics)

• The Guardian has a routine article on download stores and DRM -- it's the hot topic of the quarter -- but there's one part that may cause your eyes to open wide. Scott Cohen, founder of The Orchard, explains that dropping DRM is not technically complicated but the finer stuff can get a bit complicated. Details vary from store to store (things like bit rates and metadata identifiers). "There are 63 variants for mobile devices alone, and overall there are hundreds. Cohen notes, though, that the really hard work is marketing the music." (The Guardian)

• An interview with Last.fm co-founder Martin Stiksel. "We released our software in ten different languages before Christmas, and because of our unique 'scrobbling' within two weeks we had millions of tracks of Brazilian music and Spanish music and Russian music added to our catalogue." (Exclaim.ca)

Posted by Glenn at 8:11 AM | Link
|DRM||Music 2.0||Online Stores/Services||Research||iTunes|

• One thing that's all over the news today -- on the Internet, at least -- is MP3tunes' Oboe Free. Oboe is the company's online music locker that allows users to listen their files from anywhere. Oboe Free is a free version of Oboe, which costs $19.95 a year for 2,000 songs or $39.95 for unlimited songs. Users can store up to 1,000 songs at no cost with Oboe Free. If you're interested in signing up, go to the Oboe registration page and select the free version. Using Obie requires downloading a program that will sync up the music on your computer to your Oboe locker. It's a process that takes one hour for every 100 songs.

• David from Digital Audio Insider moderated a panel at the Bandwidth Conference and wrote about the long tail discussion at this blog. He asks the important question: "Is the pie getting bigger?" Much of the long tail discussion I've read assumes a zero-sum game in which the outer-laying artist takes from the superstar. What I'm waiting for is the new digital technology that will increase the size of the pie. Until then new technology will simply allow people to replace one behavior with another without increasing the overall value of the market. (Digital Audio Insider)

Posted by Glenn at 5:21 PM | Link
|Digital Music||Long Tail||Music 2.0|

• Artist development is not dead...at least in the UK. New British acts like Corrine Bailey Rae, Arctic Monkeys, Dirty Pretty Things and Sandi Thom have accounted for 17.2% of UK music sales this year. The British Phonographic Industry credits an increase "in the quality in new acts and the creative impetus of digital media." (The Hollywood Reporter)

• Start up eMinor (a seriously Google-screwed company at this point) landed $2 million in funding. The company will launch ReverbNation.com this fall. The site will be, according to the CEO, "empower musicians and independent bands so they can more closely interact with their fans and, as a result, be in better control of their financial destiny." No word yet if the service includes a manager, a booking agent, a publicist, an accountant, a lawyer and a group of fans who actually leave the house at night. (Digital Music News)

• Russian cheapo download site AllofMP3.com is down. Why is this suspicous? Richard Menta explains that in two weeks there will be an ammendment to the Russian copyright law, which will require AllofMP3.com "to come to some direct agreement with the worldwide record industry." (MP3newswire.net)

• Los Angeles loses a country station as its switches to "the mix that makes you move." (Radio Ink)

• iLounge has details on the Microsoft Zune's body, interface and capabilities. It's made entirely of plastic, has a Wi-Fi capability that allows users to loan songs to other Zune users, displays album art and has an integrated FM radio. (iLounge, via Engadget)

• A Paris Hilton autograph signing at a Manhattan FYE (which "caused a veritable riot") marks the beginning of the elaphantine marketing push for her upcoming album, Paris (out this coming Tuesday on Warner Bros). Next up: a tour with dancers choreographed by Pussycat Doll member Robin Anton, and voice lessons before a tour. No kidding. (Rock & Roll Daily)

Posted by Glenn at 11:32 AM | Link
|Music 2.0||Online Stores/Services||Radio||Zune|

• Google Talk will soon track the music its users are listening to and keep a list of top songs. Google will store a user's play history that the user can later search. This would be filed under Privacy Concern but it's an opt-in service, so it should be filed under Potentially Cool But Probably Pointless Application. Do you really need to know at what time of what day you were listening to a song? (BetaNews, via paidContent)

• Tech blog Gizmodo has a hands-on video of Sony's new Mylo handheld do-everything device, and it briefly shows its music capabilities. (YouTube, via 12F)

• The Kansas City Star queried over 30 musicians, record store owners, writers, label owners and fans to find the best ever bands from Lawrence to Kansas City. The top three, in order: Sin City Disciples, the Rainmakers and the Get Up Kids. (Kansas City Star)

• A list of 47 Music 2.0 companies, including last.fm, Mercora, Flukiest and Streampad. (Hub Pages, via Hypebot)

Posted by Glenn at 9:11 PM | Link
|Music 2.0|