Music News Bulletin - 10/10/08

Music Week
YouTube plans music sale
YouTube will start to sell music and video games and experiment with new advertising formats to grow revenue. The Google-owned business is reportedly taking steps toward building an e-commerce service through which it will sell music, films, TV shows, video games, books and other media-related products featured on YouTube.
Visitors to YouTube.com can buy songs from music videos they watch by clicking on buttons that take them either to Amazon.com’s store or iTunes.
It is expected Amazon and iTunes will share revenue with YouTube when users buy content through the partnership.
YouTube had 330 million visitors in August 2008. [MusicWeek]

Digital radio summit to reconvene
Key players in the commercial radio industry are expected to reconvene last Friday’s (October 3) digital radio crisis summit within the next few weeks after the initial day of talks failed to produce a resolution.Global Radio CEO Ashley Tabor has suggested that broadcasters pool their services to reinforce the existing digital radio multiplex, and he has appealed to Channel 4 to reconsider its plans to launch a second multiplex.
But last Friday’s all-day meeting, called by Tabor and reportedly attended by executives from Channel 4’s 4 Digital Group, Bauer Radio and UTV Media, failed to move the matter forward. A date for follow-up talks has yet to be announced.

BILLBOARD
9/10 Editorial: MySpace Caters To Majors, Not Indies
As president of Koch Records, the No. 1 independent in the United States, it is my obligation to counter MySpace's effervescent statements that patronized the independent labels and informed us that we were being offered the same deal as the majors. In a nutshell, MySpace has given equity to the majors in what appears to be an unhealthy and anti-competitive arrangement while treating the indies as second-class citizens. [BillBoard]

Popkomm Day 1: Delegates Debate Rights
Rights issues were at the top of the agenda at the first day of Popkomm in Berlin.
A total of 15,000 exhibitors and trade visitors are expected, according to managing director Ralf Kleinhenz, although the opening day was a fairly relaxed start to the event.
Popkomm comprises an international music and entertainment business trade fair, conference and live music festival. Organizers say they are expecting 843 exhibitors from 50 countries, while the festival will feature 400 artists from 30 countries. [BillBoard]

Popkomm Day 2: Digital Drives Forward
The development of digital music was the major topic of debate at day two of Popkomm in Berlin, with delegates discussing the need for users to be able to synchronize their music collections between their computers, phones and even automobiles. [BillBoard]

European Labels Back Streaming Service Spotify
New music streaming service Spotify launched today in Europe with the support of all four major labels, as well as independent rights body Merlin and independent digital music distributor The Orchard.
The service is available in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden. It plans to roll out in further territories through the remainder of 2008 and into 2009. [BillBoard]

In The City: Digital Will Deliver
A bright future for artists, consumers and the music industry was the general prognosis at the second day of Manchester's In The City (Oct. 6) -- the U.K.'s biggest music conference -- but only after several more years of struggle and dwindling revenues. "It's going to be tough for a time to come," stated Barney Wragg, who exited as EMI Music's global head of digital in January. Speaking at the event's digital music panel "the Digital Buffet," Wragg said: "I think it's going to be hard for labels and that's going to make it hard for artists. The change that [the industry is going through] is going to make it very difficult." [BillBoard]

RECORD OF THE DAY
SPOTIFY ANNOUNCES LICENSING DEALS AND UPCOMING LAUNCH
Spotify announces a series of licensing deals with music companies including Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music, Warner Music Group, Merlin and The Orchard for their content to be included in the new digital music service. Spotify offers instant access to a world of music via a service that enables on-demand streaming of audio content.

Spotify users will have unlimited access to millions of tracks from a vast music catalogue, with the opportunity to create and share playlists with each other and explore music through a wide range of discovery and social features. Spotify will launch on October 7th 2008 in UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Finland, Norway and Sweden. Throughout the remainder of this year and into 2009 Spotify will be rolled out to further markets. Spotify will be marketed both as a premium monthly subscription service and a version which is free for consumers to use and supported by advertising. Consumers will also have the option to purchase a day pass that gives access to Spotify without advertising. Advertisers that have signed up to be included from the launch include Ford, T-Mobile and Xbox. Daniel Ek, founder and CEO at Spotify says: "We believe that everyone loves music, and we're thrilled to partner with all major content owners already at launch. This is an exciting step forward in our mission to provide the best possible music experience by allowing people to listen to whatever they want, whenever they want." [RecordOfTheDay]

Record of the Day press releases of the week
[RecordOfTheDay]