Digital Boosts 2008 Sales To New Mark
"Overall music sales hit a new record in 2008, with over 1.5 billion units sold, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The Nielsen Company's annual year-end music industry report, released today, reveals that combined sales of albums, singles, music videos and digital tracks increased 10.5% over 2007, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The report covers purchases made during the 52 weeks between Dec. 31, 2007 to Dec. 28, 2008.
Digital tracks posted a 27% gain on their own to over a billion units sold in 2008, a new record. Digital albums grew 32% to 65.8 million units, also a new high. The 2008 numbers dragged when physical product was accounted. Combined sales of albums on CD, tape, vinyl and digital download were down 14% over the year prior, from 500.5 million units to 428.4 million. When track-equivalent albums are figured in, with ten digital tracks counting as an album, the decrease comes to 8.5%.
On a brighter note, total music purchases across all product categories went over 65 million units in the last week of 2008, making it the biggest music sales week in Nielsen SoundScan history." [Billboard]
Scramble over Woolies’ stock
"Companies including EMI and Microsoft are preparing legal action against the administrators of Woolworths to claw back millions of pounds of stock. Although the shelves in its stores are emptying fast, Woolies’ distribution arm, Entertainment UK (EUK), still has CDs, DVDs and computer games worth tens of millions of pounds in its warehouses.
Under “retention of title” rules, suppliers can claim back their own stock if it has not been paid for but, more broadly, they can can claim stock that has been paid for in lieu of debts.
That gives them the chance to resell the merchandise and prevent the administrator, Deloitte, offloading it cheaply." [RecordoftheDay]
Music sales up 10% in 2008, thanks to downloads (and vinyl)
"The music industry finished 2008 with positive sales growth numbers overall, but the grim CD death march continues apace. Overall unit purchases of music in the US increased by 10.5 percent year-over-year since 2007, according to new data released by Nielsen SoundScan, Nielsen BDS, and Nielsen RingScan, but the growth is coming completely from downloads—and from vinyl.
More than 1.5 billion songs were sold during 2008, accounting for the 10.5 percent growth since the previous year. One billion digital tracks were sold online, which indicated 27 percent growth since 2007. But the trend toward digital singles continues to hurt full CD album sales—428 million albums (including LPs, CDs, and online albums) were sold in 2008, down 14 percent from the year before." [ArsTechnica]
L’Internet ne compense pas la chute des CD
"L’industrie du disque a subi une nouvelle année difficile en 2008, le développement des techniques de téléchargement légal ne parvenant pas à compenser la chute des ventes de CD, selon l’agence spécialisée Nielsen.
Aux Etats-Unis les ventes totales d’albums sur CD, sur internet, et en vinyle ont accusé un recul de 14 %, à 428,4 millions d’unités, contre 500,5 millions en 2007. En prenant en compte la vente de chansons à l’unité sur internet, le recul atteint encore 8,5 % (535,4 millions contre 584,9 millions d’unités), selon Nielsen.
Les ventes de CD représentant encore plus de 80 % du chiffre d’affaires du secteur, la désaffection des consommateurs pour les disquaires est un véritable défi pour les éditeurs, qui doivent à la fois lutter contre le piratage et trouver une façon satisfaisante de monétiser les téléchargements." [LeSoir]
Facebook Removes Project Playlist
"Facebook today has also removed access to the Project Playlist service from the popular social networking site, citing a request from the RIAA. A Facebook statement says the company hopes to resolve the situation so that the Project Playlist service eventually can resume service on the site, but that it will block access until the proper label deals can be established.
Just days after getting banned from MySpace, Project Playlist has struck a licensing deal with Sony BMG. The deal gives Project Playlist users direct access to the Sony BMG catalog of both music tracks and videos. Financial details were not disclosed.
The major-label licensing deal is a big step forward for the playlist-sharing service, which is being sued by the other three major labels - Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and EMI Music - as well as the RIAA for copyright infringement. Project Playlist allows users to upload music to create playlists that other users can then stream, but until the Sony BMG deal has done so without paying labels a licensing fee." [Billboard]
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Facebook. Show all posts
10/24/08
Music News Bulletin: 24/10/08
UMG Bundles Tunes With Dell
"Universal Music Group is teaming with Dell to give customers the option of adding pre-loaded MP3s from the label's catalog to new computers purchased from the company.The deal does not provide access to the full UMG catalog, but rather a collection of curated playlists organized by various themes - No. 1 songs, Rock Titans, Blues Masters, etc. - as well as music featured in films that Dell also offers as bundled content. A 50-song playlist for $25, and a 100-song playlist for $50, which works out to about half the cost per-track from music purchased online. All files will be DRM-free.
The pre-installed music bundles will be organized under a "Music" icon in Dell's system, which customer can then move to their preferred music management software as they like. UMG says it plans to expand the number and themes of the playlists, as well as update the songs added to each, on a regular basis." [Billboard]
Microsoft celebrates antipiracy day
"Microsoft plans on Tuesday to announce "Global Anti-Piracy Day," an effort to gain attention for the steps the company undertakes in order to thwart those who would profit from illegitimate software. As part of the event, Microsoft is highlighting recent antipiracy efforts in 49 countries, ranging from the filing of lawsuits in the U.S. to a seminar for journalists in Pakistan.
It's the kind of thing that Microsoft does all the time, although the company is aiming for some added ink by grouping together so many actions at once.
"One of the things we want to illustrate with this announcement is the diverse nature of the work," associate general counsel David Finn said in an interview from Singapore" [CNet]
Baidu launches legitimate music channel
"BEIJING - Baidu has partnered with seven record companies to launch a music-streaming channel in an attempt to better combat illegal downloading.
According to Chinese reports, the channel, called New Song Debut, legally pairs Baidu with labels including EMI Music, Emperor Entertainment Group and Rock Records & Tapes to offer albums from nine Chinese artists for streaming.
This comes nearly a year after Beijing courts ruled that Baidu’s music search - which linked to sites that allowed users to illegally download music - was not classified as copyright infringement.
The ruling cleared the Chinese search engine of lawsuits issued in 2005 by seven international record labels, including EMI and Warner Music." [BrandRepublic]
MySpace Music adds more indies
"MySpace Music has signed a deal with leading indie distributor IODA, adding more than 1m tracks from independent labels to the service. The deal, announced this morning, adds labels such as Cooking Vinyl, Demon Music Group, Fat Cat Records and Cherry Red to MySpace Music, which already has content from all four major labels and aggregator The Orchard.
However, Merlin, which represents leading indie players such as Beggars Group and Domino, has still yet to agree a deal with MySpace after a very public war of words, and the announcement is likely to put more pressure on its CEO Charles Caldas MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe re-affirms the company’s commitment to indie music, saying, “The independent music community has been a cornerstone of MySpace Music. We remain fully committed to building an economy for artists and providing them with the necessary tools to further their careers and better connect with music fans everywhere." [MusicWeek]
MySpace Music Adds IODA
"MySpace Music added thousands of independent labels to its service today (Oct. 23) through a new deal with independent digital distributor IODA. Details of the agreement were not disclosed. MySpace Music has drawn criticism from some in the indie community for striking equity deals with major labels while not offering the same terms to indies.
The service opened Sept. 25 as a joint venture partially owned by the four major record labels, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The partners in the joint venture will profit not only from a cut of the same ad and sales revenue, but also in the underlying revenue the venture receives, even from content contributed by other labels.
The service has deals in place with indie digital distributor the Orchard, as well as the indie distribution arms of the four major labels. Merlin, the indie global rights organization that spoke out publicly about what they perceived as unfair treatment by MySpace Music, still has not signed a deal. Merlin says its represents labels that have a 9% share of the U.S. digital recorded music market." [Billboard]
TuneCore, iLike Bundle Indie Services
"TuneCore and iLike have teamed up to offer independent and unsigned artists a package deal on both distributing and promoting their music. The partnership is more of a bundled product than it is a new service, as both companies offer their core services independently. But together, the two hope to present a more complete message than they could marketing their services separately.
TuneCore brings to the table a wide digital distribution platform, which can post clients' music to all the major digital retailers and subscriptions services. Once the music is available, iLike then lets users promote it through full-song streaming applications on social networks like Facebook, Bebo and other channels. Each time their music is played, artists get a royalty from the corresponding service hosting the file.
The partnership between the two firms lets artists sign up for both services at the same time, rather than requiring separate agreements." [Billboard]
Facebook Music Redux
"Facebook doesn't seem ready to give up its music-service aspirations just yet. After first approaching the major labels with the idea back in March of this year, the company is now reportedly reaching out to existing streaming services as part of an outsourcing strategy.
The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reports that Rhapsody, Imeem, iLike and Lala are all potential targets.
Tapping an existing provider to turnkey its music strategy would allow Facebook to avoid striking its own licensing deals with labels, not to mention give the winning service a huge marketing boost by promoting it via the massive Facebook platform." [Billboard]
Click here to read more from the Music News Bulletin
"Universal Music Group is teaming with Dell to give customers the option of adding pre-loaded MP3s from the label's catalog to new computers purchased from the company.The deal does not provide access to the full UMG catalog, but rather a collection of curated playlists organized by various themes - No. 1 songs, Rock Titans, Blues Masters, etc. - as well as music featured in films that Dell also offers as bundled content. A 50-song playlist for $25, and a 100-song playlist for $50, which works out to about half the cost per-track from music purchased online. All files will be DRM-free.
The pre-installed music bundles will be organized under a "Music" icon in Dell's system, which customer can then move to their preferred music management software as they like. UMG says it plans to expand the number and themes of the playlists, as well as update the songs added to each, on a regular basis." [Billboard]
Microsoft celebrates antipiracy day
"Microsoft plans on Tuesday to announce "Global Anti-Piracy Day," an effort to gain attention for the steps the company undertakes in order to thwart those who would profit from illegitimate software. As part of the event, Microsoft is highlighting recent antipiracy efforts in 49 countries, ranging from the filing of lawsuits in the U.S. to a seminar for journalists in Pakistan.
It's the kind of thing that Microsoft does all the time, although the company is aiming for some added ink by grouping together so many actions at once.
"One of the things we want to illustrate with this announcement is the diverse nature of the work," associate general counsel David Finn said in an interview from Singapore" [CNet]
Baidu launches legitimate music channel
"BEIJING - Baidu has partnered with seven record companies to launch a music-streaming channel in an attempt to better combat illegal downloading.
According to Chinese reports, the channel, called New Song Debut, legally pairs Baidu with labels including EMI Music, Emperor Entertainment Group and Rock Records & Tapes to offer albums from nine Chinese artists for streaming.
This comes nearly a year after Beijing courts ruled that Baidu’s music search - which linked to sites that allowed users to illegally download music - was not classified as copyright infringement.
The ruling cleared the Chinese search engine of lawsuits issued in 2005 by seven international record labels, including EMI and Warner Music." [BrandRepublic]
MySpace Music adds more indies
"MySpace Music has signed a deal with leading indie distributor IODA, adding more than 1m tracks from independent labels to the service. The deal, announced this morning, adds labels such as Cooking Vinyl, Demon Music Group, Fat Cat Records and Cherry Red to MySpace Music, which already has content from all four major labels and aggregator The Orchard.
However, Merlin, which represents leading indie players such as Beggars Group and Domino, has still yet to agree a deal with MySpace after a very public war of words, and the announcement is likely to put more pressure on its CEO Charles Caldas MySpace co-founder and CEO Chris DeWolfe re-affirms the company’s commitment to indie music, saying, “The independent music community has been a cornerstone of MySpace Music. We remain fully committed to building an economy for artists and providing them with the necessary tools to further their careers and better connect with music fans everywhere." [MusicWeek]
MySpace Music Adds IODA
"MySpace Music added thousands of independent labels to its service today (Oct. 23) through a new deal with independent digital distributor IODA. Details of the agreement were not disclosed. MySpace Music has drawn criticism from some in the indie community for striking equity deals with major labels while not offering the same terms to indies.
The service opened Sept. 25 as a joint venture partially owned by the four major record labels, and Sony/ATV Music Publishing. The partners in the joint venture will profit not only from a cut of the same ad and sales revenue, but also in the underlying revenue the venture receives, even from content contributed by other labels.
The service has deals in place with indie digital distributor the Orchard, as well as the indie distribution arms of the four major labels. Merlin, the indie global rights organization that spoke out publicly about what they perceived as unfair treatment by MySpace Music, still has not signed a deal. Merlin says its represents labels that have a 9% share of the U.S. digital recorded music market." [Billboard]
TuneCore, iLike Bundle Indie Services
"TuneCore and iLike have teamed up to offer independent and unsigned artists a package deal on both distributing and promoting their music. The partnership is more of a bundled product than it is a new service, as both companies offer their core services independently. But together, the two hope to present a more complete message than they could marketing their services separately.
TuneCore brings to the table a wide digital distribution platform, which can post clients' music to all the major digital retailers and subscriptions services. Once the music is available, iLike then lets users promote it through full-song streaming applications on social networks like Facebook, Bebo and other channels. Each time their music is played, artists get a royalty from the corresponding service hosting the file.
The partnership between the two firms lets artists sign up for both services at the same time, rather than requiring separate agreements." [Billboard]
Facebook Music Redux
"Facebook doesn't seem ready to give up its music-service aspirations just yet. After first approaching the major labels with the idea back in March of this year, the company is now reportedly reaching out to existing streaming services as part of an outsourcing strategy.
The New York Post, citing unnamed sources, reports that Rhapsody, Imeem, iLike and Lala are all potential targets.
Tapping an existing provider to turnkey its music strategy would allow Facebook to avoid striking its own licensing deals with labels, not to mention give the winning service a huge marketing boost by promoting it via the massive Facebook platform." [Billboard]
Click here to read more from the Music News Bulletin
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