Music News Bulletin - 09/01/09

Apple Changes Tune on Music Pricing
"Apple Inc. unveiled significant pricing and copyright changes to its iTunes Store, moves by the dominant online music seller that could spur similar action across the industry.The changes, announced at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco Tuesday, include a new three-tiered pricing plan for songs, instead of the 99-cents fixed price Apple has used almost exclusively. Apple also said it will drop copy protection from all of the songs in its digital store." [WSI]

Apple to end music restrictions
"Apple Inc has agreed to start selling digital songs from its iTunes store without copy protection software. At present, most music downloaded from Apple's iTunes store can only be played through an iTunes interface or iPod. The agreement with Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music will end digital rights management (DRM) software currently attached to iTunes music." [BBC]

iTunes Price Cut: Apple Announces Tiered System, DRM-Free Tunes January 6, 2009
"Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.

In Apple's final appearance at the Macworld trade show, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said Tuesday that iTunes song prices will come in three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices, which marks a significant change, since Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents." [CBS]

iTunes Price Cut: Apple Announces Tiered System, DRM-Free Tunes January 6, 2009
"Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.

In Apple's final appearance at the Macworld trade show, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said Tuesday that iTunes song prices will come in three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices, which marks a significant change, since Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents." [HuffingtonPost]

Apple iTunes goes all DRM free, with three price tiers
"Apple announced today that effective immediately 8 million songs on iTunes would be DRM free, and that by the end of the quarter all 10 million songs on the popular music site would be DRM free. DRM stands for Digital Rights Management, otherwise known as copy protection. DRM-free music can be shared between all your devices without complicated registration and proprietary software.

In addition, iTunes songs will no longer cost a flat $0.99. There will be three tiers: $0.69, $0.99, and $1.29 starting on April 1st. You can expect to see older releases at the lower price point, and newer releases at the higher one. The removal of DRM and the flexibility on prices is a compromise worked out between Apple and the music industry." [ZDNet]

Apple cuts copy protection and prices on iTunes
"Apple Inc. is cutting the price of some songs in its market-leading iTunes online store to as little as 69 cents and plans to make every track available without copy protection.

In Apple's final appearance at the Macworld trade show, Apple's top marketing executive, Philip Schiller, said Tuesday that iTunes song prices will come in three tiers: 69 cents, 99 cents and $1.29. Record companies will choose the prices, which marks a significant change, since Apple previously made all songs sell for 99 cents.

Apple gave the record labels that flexibility on pricing as it got them to agree to sell all songs free of "digital rights management," or DRM, technology that limits people's ability to copy songs or move them to multiple computers. Apple had been offering a limited selection of songs without DRM, but by the end of this quarter, the company said, all 10 million songs in its library will be available that way." [AOL]

ITunes Price Change Leads Apple's Moves At Its Last Macworld; No Cameo From Steve Jobs; CEO's absence weighs on show; analysts rate slew of announcements as ho-hum
“In the two-and-a-half-year standoff between Apple and music publishers over song prices on iTunes, it appears that both sides blinked. In a major concession to the big recording labels, the iPod maker will sell song downloads for 69 cents and $1.29, in addition to the 99-cent price Apple had maintained since starting the iTunes service in 2003. Apple had come under mounting pressure from record companies for tiered pricing.” [ContentAgenda]

Music News Bulletin - 09/01/09

Remaining Three Majors Drop DRM at iTunes, and Why It Matters
"Apple has come to an agreement with Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group and Sony Music that will give iTunes their songs in MP3 format. The majors get a three-tiered pricing structure (not dynamic pricing, and only slightly variable pricing) that finally gives them the ability to price according to demand. There is also word that iPhone users will be able to download from iTunes through their cellular carrier.

The news has been covered widely, and there has been some interesting opinion out there. One blogger thinks there is no reason to ever shop at anywhere but iTunes (I wholeheartedly disagree, compatibility with the iPod is only one reason to shop there). Another believes allowing iPhone users to download via cellular carriers could lead to explosive mobile music sales (if that happens they will probably just replace normal downloads and result in a wash). No, the important effects of this news are further under the surface." [Coolfer]

Changes Coming to the iTunes Store
"Apple today announced several changes to the iTunes® Store (www.itunes.com/uk). Beginning today, all four major music labels — Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels, are now offering their music in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes customers can also choose to download their favourite songs from the world’s largest music catalogue directly onto their iPhone™ 3G over their 3G network just as they do with Wi-Fi today, for the same price as downloading to their computer. And beginning in April, based on what the music labels charge Apple, songs on iTunes will be available at one of three price points: 59 pence, 79 pence and 99 pence, with most albums still priced at £7.99." [RecordOfTheDay]

Apple vendra sur iTunes sans dispositif anticopie
"Le groupe informatique a annoncé qu’il allait supprimer d’ici à la fin mars les dispositifs anticopie de la musique qu’il vend sur sa plateforme. Les maisons de disque ont longuement milité pour que les internautes ne puissent pas acheter de chansons ou d’albums sans ces dispositifs qui lient le fichier à un seul utilisateur.

Apple vendra sur iTunes sans dispositif anticopie
L’annonce a été faite lors du salon Macworld Expo à San Francisco (Californie, ouest des Etats-Unis) à l’occasion de la présentation par le vice-président du marketing d’Apple, Phil Schiller, du nouveau modèle de l’ordinateur MacBook Pro et d’améliorations aux logiciels qui équipent la gamme Macintosh." [LeSoir]

Music News Bulletin - 09/01/09

Consolidated launch independent digital storage device
"Digital services company Consolidated Independent has announced a new service designed to streamline the workload for independent record companies who distribute their digital catalogue around the world through various partnerships with different distributors, aggregators and download stores. It would also mean that if one of those distributors went under - as distributors have a habit of doing these days - a label could immediately channel their digital content through an alternative distributor." [CMUDaily]

Consolidated Independent launches new digital service to help future-proof the independent music sector
"Consolidated Independent (CI), the leading independent provider of digital supply chain services for music companies, today announces details of a new service aimed at the independent music sector worldwide in response to turbulence in the physical music market, and the growing importance of maintaining a master digital archive.

CI’s Digital Archive Service offers labels and distributors a way to store their digital assets and metadata so that it always remains under their independent control and ownership, whilst at the same time enabling them to work with multiple digital partners worldwide. Once a client has provided its catalogue and data to CI, it is stored on their behalf and can be delivered on to any third party or back to the client at any time. Hence, for example, if a label needs to switch quickly from one distributor to another, this can be managed quickly, efficiently and seamlessly." [RecordOfTheDay]

Finally, Here Comes Bulk Music
"With the news of SanDisk's slotRadio, an extension of the slotMusic memory card and player, comes a new way of selling music: in bulk. SanDisk has teamed up with Billboard to release 1,000-song memory cards that will carry a $39.99 sticker price. Even the slotRadio player, a small music player with a FM tuner, comes pre-loaded with 1,000 songs (and has a $99.99). Tracks will come from Billboard's charts and will be of a variety of genres.

Even though $39.99 is a tall price, it offers a great bargain on a per-track basis. Each song costs only four cents. The involvement of Billboard gives the consumer an identifiable brand name and, one would assume, a well curated selection of popular songs." [Coolfer]

EU Public Affairs Monitor - 24/12/08

Internet Piracy: No, Virginia, There Really Is No "Competing" Against Yourself for "Free"
"CNET and others report about a charming new steal-don't-buy browser extension that reminds Amazon.com shoppers that much of Amazon's legal content can be downloaded illegally "4 Free" from The Pirate Bay. If correct, such reports expose the truly self-destructive venality of Internet piracy. They also expose the vacuity of an argument favored by defenders of piracy--the claim that content creators (and law-abiding distributors) can or should "compete against free." Usually, persons spouting this claim cite the case of "bottled water" as a real-life example. For two reasons, this example refutes their vapid claim.

First, this claim understates the achievement of commercial creators of bottled water and content. They compete not only against "free"--but against competitors whose goods seem free because their production costs and risks are subsidized by non-market sources like taxation. Creators of works like movies, music, and books, like creators of bottled water, have long competed successfully against "free" tax-subsidized alternatives (like tap water). In other words, private companies produced bottled water because they concluded that if they incurred the costs and took the risks needed to create high-quality water, taxpayers who have already paid for the "free" water produced by the County Water Board would pay again to purchase higher quality water from a private source." [IPCentral]

The hitman, the Pirate Bay and the freetard prof 10th December 2008
“Since Duchamp's urinal, a great deal of modern art has been a "prank" against the art establishment. Maybe that's why now, state-funded "pranks" like the Pirates plug-in - designed to preach to the converted - feel so stale. Or it could be Cramer's own deeply conservative (and misanthropic) outlook. By design, the course ensures his students fulfill a narrow set of ideological obligations - all of which are de rigeur in modern media theory.

And that, we must conclude, is exactly what the modern state requires from its "radicals". Rather than being outside the tent pissing in, they're quite content to be on the inside, launching Firefox browser plug-ins outwards. Repressive regimes once persecuted dissidents - now they merely need give them cushy jobs on Media Theory courses to render them useless. They'll do the rest.” [TheRegister]

Hollywood wants in on ISP "graduated responses," too : December 24, 2008 - "Graduated response" isn't just for music
"Ars has learned that the Motion Picture Association of America has been having similar discussions with US ISPs for some time and has already been involved in trial projects. The results of this limited testing have been encouraging to the movie business, as they show that most people do in fact stop sharing files illegally after receiving a simple warning from their Internet provider.

The recording industry made waves last week by announcing a set of voluntary agreements with American ISPs to pass warnings (and eventually sanctions) to users accused of sharing files illegally over P2P networks. The scheme is similar in concept to the recent deals in the UK and France, but such graduated response mechanisms are actually under consideration all over the world." [ArsTechnica]

"Can I resell my MP3s?": the post-sale life of digital goods: Second time's a charm December 17, 2008
"The Castaway" is not a very good book. Published in 1908, Hallie Ermine Rives' novel opens with these deeply unpromising sentences:

"A cool breeze slipped ahead of the dawn. It blew dim the calm Greek stars, stirred the intricate branches of olive trees inlaid in the rose-pearl facade of sky, bowed the tall, coral-lipped oleanders lining the rivulets, and crisped the soft wash of the gulf-tide. It lifted the strong bronze curls on the brow of a sleeping man who lay on the sea-beach covered with a goatskin." [ArsTechnica]

UK talks mashups, DRM, CD ripping as it opens copyright overhaul December 17, 2008
"The UK's Intellectual Property Office has some odd ideas. In thinking about the "future agenda on copyright" in Britain, the agency recognizes the disconnect the law and common actions like CD ripping, feels the pain of mashup artists who have no real way to clear rights, knows that DRM can currently override statutory copyright exemptions, and wants to hear especially from creators and users. David Lammy, the minister in charge of higher education and intellectual property, even puts quote marks around "online music 'piracy'."

The occasion for all this attention do digital copyright issues is UK IPO's new "© the future: Keeping ahead of the game" consultation. The government has a wide-ranging scheme called Digital Britain that various ministries have been at work on for several months, and the chance to think about copyright's future is part of the UK plan to make Britain a hub for the digital and creative industries. Government statistics already show that the creative industries generated 8.2 percent of GDP in 2007 and are growing twice as fast as the overall economy." [ArsTechnica]

Music News Bulletin - 23/12/08

Amazon MP3 fuels indie gloom: Not exactly retail therapy 5th December 2008
"Do you remember when the internet was supposed to "empower" new businesses, sweep away cartels and monopolies, and give a voice to the little guy? Well, unless you view increasing concentrations of power as a good thing, this week has been a bad one for the music economy.

Amazon finally launched its MP3 download service in the UK on the Wednesday, stealing the headlines with cheap deals. Yet popular acts who chose to opt out of the major label system received a kick in the teeth, with the front page carved up between the majors. Best-selling acts such as The Arctic Monkeys and Franz Ferdinand (both signed to PIAS group label Domino) are nowhere to be found." [TheRegister]

Amazon launches music downloads: The online bookseller has branched out into digital music sales
"Online retail website Amazon has launched a UK music download service. Amazon MP3 will sell tracks from 59p and albums from £3. The new music store will offer more than 3 million songs that will work on any digital music player, including Apple's iPod. The move puts Amazon in direct competition with Apple for a stake in the growing market of online music sales, which in Britain alone was worth an estimated £163m in 2007." [BBC]

Rumor: Music labels want to create Hulu for music videos Dec 23rd 2008
"There's been a lot of buzz over the last few days about how all of Warner Music Group's music videos have gone missing from YouTube. Now Alley Insider reports that Warner, BMG, EMI, and Universal are talking about building their own site for music videos.

The idea would be to create a single destination where be able to find music videos from popular artists. There's some reason to think the site could work. After all, Hulu has become one of the top destination for online video by providing full length, ad-supported streaming episodes of TV shows and movies with the cooperation of several major networks and studios." [DownloadSquad]

Music News Bulletin - 21/11/08

French Biz Falters, Digital Remains Strong
"The wholesale value of the French recorded music market in the first nine months of 2008 decreased to €382 million ($484 million), down 13.9% from the corresponding period last year, according to new figures issued by labels trade body SNEP. It follows a 20.5% year-on-year shortfall registered for the first nine months in 2007.
i
The reduction in the rate of decline is mainly due to a stronger growth in digital sales, up 52.6% to €52.8 million ($66.9 million). Digital represented 14% of the French market during the period." [Billboard]

The impact of iTunes on the music industry came under the spotlight at the latest MusicTank session earlier this week.
"Sincere Management’s Peter Jenner, the keynote speaker at the Coalition of The Billing event, said that digital retailer has “had the disastrous effect on the record industry of debundling the album”. He told delegates at the third session in the Lets Sell Recorded Music think tank series that iTunes had the effect of converting “a £10 product, the album, into a £1.60 product, the two singles that are worth buying"

Beggars Group director of digital Simon Wheeler argued, “iTunes set a level that took power out of rights holders. Whether it's right or not, it has set the price for a la carte downloads."" [MusicWeek]

Amazon.com launch artist pages
"With MySpace looking to now sell MP3s off artist profile pages, and Live Nation-owned Musictoday, who run official onlines stores for hundreds of artists in the US, announcing last week that they would start selling MP3s from their artists' pages, Amazon US have announced a move in the opposite direction. Already selling CDs and MP3s via their e-tail website, they are launching a new website of artist profiles which will include both editorial and commercial content for each featured singer or band.

Commercially, the new service will basically aggregate all the CDs, MP3s and DVDs Amazon already stocks for any one artist, so that fans can browse all available content on an editorially-driven page, rather than having to work their way through album or artist searches. Amazon US VP of Music & Movies, Peter Faricy, told reporters: "These [artist pages] allow our customers to easily find and discover the music they love in any format along with a variety of artist content, like exclusive music videos and behind-the-scenes footage, all in a single place"." [CMUDaily]

Sources: Apple, music labels talk DRM-free songs
"A year after iTunes began offering music without copy protection software from EMI, Apple is in discussions with the other three top recording companies about acquiring DRM-free songs, according to two music industry sources.The talks are still preliminary and no deals have been finalized, but one source said one of the major labels is close to a final agreement. Rumors have been swirling on the Internet for a week that Sony would soon be offering music without the controversial digital rights management software. My sources could not confirm this.
Spokespeople for Apple and the major labels declined to comment." [CNet]

Music News Bulletin - 20/11/08

Microsoft enhances the Zune service with MP3s November 20, 2008
"Subscription music services -- the kind that let you hear an unlimited amount of music per month for a flat fee -- made their debut almost seven years ago, and yet the public remains stubbornly cool to the idea of paying for music you don't get to keep. Now, Microsoft is offering the first significant sweetener to the deal since the services added portability by letting subscribers to the Zune Pass service keep some of the songs they play. Ten, to be precise, and the songs will be in the DRM-free MP3 format." [LATimes]

Dell: It's not about the music player November 11, 2008
"Like a popular mayor declaring he's not going to run for president after all, Dell has scrapped plans for a new MP3 player and subscription service, according to the Wall Street Journal. In fact, Dell says in a blog post, the company's strategy "has never been about a music player." Glad we got that straightened out, but I actually liked the idea of Dell developing an inexpensive WiFi-enabled player that could tune in streams from a variety of sources. The secret sauce behind the rumored player was software from Zing, a Silicon Valley start-up that Dell acquired last year." [LATimes]

Music News Bulletin - 14/11/08

EMI will unveil plans to radically re-structure its business today, splitting EMI Music into three business units: new music, catalogue and music services
"EMI Music chief executive Elio Leoni-Sceti is meeting staff today to unveil the plan.
He will also report half-year results, which show that EMI Music made £59m of earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the six months to September 30, compared with a loss of £14m last year.

The date is the first in a series of strategy meetings, which will take in offices in LA, New York and Milan, to unveil the plans to key territories.
It will also be the first time that Elio Leoni-Sceti, who was appointed chief executive of EMI’s recorded music division in July, meets many of his staff" [MusicWeek] [Billboard] [CMUDaily]

Sony DRM-Free To iTunes?
"The Apple rumor du jour is that Sony Music Entertainment will license DRM-free tracks to iTunes, under the iTunes Plus program. The speculation began on Apple blog 9to5mac.com, which provides very little information other than hinting its more than just a hunch.
A Sony Music spokesperson did immediately respond to requests for comment.
To date, EMI Music Group is the only major label licensing DRM-free tracks to iTunes. The others license DRM-free to other services, notably Amazon.com, but have resisted doing the same in iTunes." [Billboard]

Is the Datz Music Lounge Worth the Money?
"Of all the new music services, the most innovative is Datz Music Lounge, which UK consumers can buy for £99.99 per year. Its interface is nothing special. There is no editorial content, no lists, no hints that Datz is acting as a gatekeeper of any kind. What is so innovative is its revenue model, and what is amazing is that many labels -- including two majors -- have signed on.
Datz allows for unlimited access to its catalog of music. Subscribers get MP3 downloads of any song on the site. There are no restrictions, no protections. Subscribers keep everything they download. The revenue model is a great leap of faith from the typical per-track/per-album model." [Coolfer]

LIVE NATION'S ARTIST WEBSITE COMPANY TO SELL MAJOR-LABEL MP3S
"More digital, and according to Digital Music News three of the four majors - EMI, Sony and Universal - have licensed their DRM-free MP3 catalogues to Live Nation's US-based Musictoday outfit which operates websites and merchandise stores from numerous artists, including The Rolling Stones, Eminem, Dave Matthews Band and Christina Aguilera. It means artists signed to those majors whose official online shops are managed by Musictoday will be able to sell DRM-free MP3s directly to fans. Musictoday's Chas Patrizia told DMN: "We're going to allow artists to control the presentation of their content; it's a totally different experience. They don't have to go to iTunes, they can go directly to the artist. Most of our bigger artists have opted in"." [CMUDaily]

Music News Bulletin - 03/11/08

Warners wants it all
"Edgar Bronfman, the man who is - let's say - in charge of Warners Music Group, has announced that in future they'll only be interested in signing 360 degree deals with artists.

You can see why this might be appealing to Warners - after all, their core business, the one in which they have expertise, isn't doing as well nowadays. But where would be the value for an artist, when looking for a 360 degree deal, in signing with a company whose expertise lays in the bit that isn't doing as well nowadays?" [XRRF]

LaLa tries again, October 21, 2008
"Remember La La? No, not the one who hung out with Dipsy and Po, the CD-swapping service? It's not a CD-swapping service any more: it's reinvented itself as, erm, something else.

Now, you can copy your music to an online locker, and it will stream you songs that are a bit like the ones you already own. For free, unless you listen more than once. But if you do listen more than once, the ten cents you pay for each play can be set against the price of buying an mp3 file if you decide to keep it. Or something like that. But only one ten cent." [XRRF]

SFR launches all-you-can-eat MP3 download service, November 3rd, 2008
"French mobile operator SFR is the latest company to launch an all-you-can-eat music subscription service, and this one’s DRM-free.

However, you’d be hard-pressed to describe it as `unlimited’, as its catalogue only contains a few thousand tracks from Universal Music Group artists in three genres, and only 60,000 people will be allowed to sign up.

The cost will be bundled into mobile tariffs, with the cheapest costing €22.90 a month. It’s dual-download - users get AACs for their phone, and MP3s for their computer. “This is a way for us to see how consumers react to DRM-free offers,” says a spokesperson. “We are not giving away Universal’s catalog.”" [MusicAlly]

Music News Bulletin - 25/10/08

Why Nokia's Comes with Music package comes with a price September 25 2008
"When Nokia announced their Comes With Music programme last year it was touted as a scheme that would give subscribers a year of unlimited downloads from a huge catalogue of tunes. What's more, they would be able to keep those downloads even after the subscription ends.

It sounded like an amazing deal for the consumer, but it surprised a lot of artists – and probably most record labels too. How would artists and labels possibly earn any money from the content that Nokia planned to give away? Well, I suspect that Nokia jumped the gun before realising they'd have to pay both the record labels and songwriters." [Guardian]

Invisible Listening September 23, 2008
"I came across an interesting study from Coleman Insights that was presented at the National Association of Broadcasters Radio Show last week.The study makes the distinction between intentional radio listening and incidental, or invisible, radio listening. From the study press release:
Coleman Insights defines Intentional listening as when people are aware of a station and intend to listen to it. Incidental listening is to stations that people are aware of and have some sense of, but that is driven by other forces that are generally out of their control (such as someone being exposed to a station played in an office environment). Invisible listening is completely unexplained listening that the PPM captures, but that the listeners have no recollection of. The findings demonstrate that there is very little a radio station can do to impact the amount of Incidental and Invisible listening it generates in PPM." [AdSupportedMusic]

Now there are four: EMI joins MySpace Music on eve of its launch* September 24, 2008
"On the eve of the launch of its new music site, MySpace said today that EMI Group, which counts the British band Coldplay (pictured above) among its jewels, is now part of the joint venture that already includes the other three top recording companies.

EMI was the missing link for the venture, which came out of a negotiation between MySpace and the recording industry over copyright infringement on the News Corp. social network. The music service, which will be available tonight at www.myspace.com/music, will include full songs streamed for free and personalized music management services. Through the service, which is powered by Amazon.com, MySpace users will be able to buy music downloads and ringtones as well." [LATimes]

For MySpace, a lot rides on music service launch September 17, 2008
"MySpace, the social networking site owned by News Corp., is hoping to reclaim its mantle as king of the digital music sites when it relaunches its music site sometime this month.

The launch is being closely watched by the music industry as well as by Internet companies, such as iMeem, iLike and Lastfm.com, that have built their businesses on letting people create playlists, share musical interests and connect with other fans. What will MySpace, with its audience of 61 million or so, do differently in this crowded space?" [LATimes]

SD: the new CD? 21/09/08
"With CD sales dropping despite a demonstrable increase in music consumption, you might think that music fans just aren't as interested as they used to be in paying for tunes. Or you could believe in the spirit of hope springing eternal, and that the problem is with the CD itself. If you're in the latter camp, then you should be cheered by the announcement this morning that the four major record companies plan to experiment with a new physical format for albums: microSD cards. See my colleague Michelle Quinn's piece about the deal here.

Now, if you're convinced that the CD is dying because there are a plethora of free sources of music online, you're probably scoffing at the prospects for albums sold on a microchip -- or any other shrink-wrapped container, for that matter. But Daniel Schreiber, a senior vice president at SanDisk (the company behind microSD cards and the prime mover behind the "slotMusic" initiative) has a question for the skeptics: how do you think people are going to load tunes onto their shiny new music phones?" [LATimes]

Music News Bulletin - 23/10/08

Sony completes buyout of Bertelsmann's stake in music label October 2, 2008
"Bertelsmann AG's planned divestiture from the Sony BMG Music Entertainment Inc. joint venture is now complete, as Sony Corp. [SNE] announced that it had bought out the German media giant's 50% stake. The sale, rumored for months and announced Aug. 5, was approved by EU regulators in mid-September.

The newly renamed Sony Music Entertainment Inc. will be a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Corp. Bertelsmann's stake was valued at $900 million, but an additional $300 million in cash on the company's balance sheet pushed the value of the deal up to $1.2 billion." [TheDeal]

Play.com Steps Up Music Download Battle With 3 Million DRM-free Tracks From All Four Majors 10 Oct 2008
"UK e-tailer Play.com has stepped into the music download battle by signing the four major music labels to its PlayDigital online store to offer more than 3 million DRM-free MP3 tracks that can be played on any device. In a move directly aimed at iTunes, tracks and albums currently being sold at a cheaper price than at the Apple- owned store. More details at sister site paidContent.co.uk." [PaidContent]

Baidu Unveils New Internet Song Channel October 22, 2008
"After Google (GOOG) launched a free genuine music search service, Chinese search engine Baidu (BIDU) has now also taken action to resolve the problems brought by pirated music and the search company ahs launched a channel for newly published songs and music.

The new channel, which is entitled "New Song Debut", is a cooperation with seven record companies, including Emperor Entertainment Group, Ocean Butterflies Music Group, EMI Music, Music Nation, Rock Records & Tapes, Huayi Brothers and B in Music." [ChinaNews]

Blip.fm raises funding, CEO Yasuda discusses reorg October 23, 2008
"Fuzz Artists Inc. chief executive Jeff Yasuda revealed to me Monday at the SanFran MusicTech Summit that his company has raised additional funding in support of its Blip.fm social music playlisting service. We followed up that brief conversation with a longer one, in which he offered additional details on the fundraising and his plans for the company.

Yasuda hit up Fuzz's existing angel investors for the company's fourth installment of capital since 2005, although the total funding for his operation remains less than $10 million. He declined to name the investors. The entrepreneur said in May that unidentified individuals connected with Google Inc. [GOOG] have invested in the past. The round remains open, with room for first-time backers to participate, Yasuda added." [TheDeal]

Music News Bulletin - 17/06/08

Where did all the money go? It's in the Black Box...: As revenues from music become increasingly diversified, it's becoming more and more difficult for artists to keep track of what they're owed May 20 2008
"An astute business sense and creativity doesn't always bless the same person. Matter of fact, judging from the many examples, in books like Hit Men, of artists getting royally screwed, musicians have a tendency to take their eye off the ball when it comes to the business side of the music business. Hey, who'd want to spend a day sifting through royalty statements and contracts when it can be spent making music?

Well, I decided to educate myself by attending an event thrown by MusicTank, where the future of record deals was being discussed. On the panel was Adrian Bullock, an auditor of royalties (don't fall asleep; this is going to get interesting), who kept referring to Black Box. No, he wasn't talking about the nineties house act of Ride On Time fame, nor about airplanes - though the artist managers on the panel seemed to be looking for Black Box like a rescue team after a crash." [Guardian]

Amazon cuts Coldplay album prices to bring in the crowds June 17, 2008
"If you are going up against a giant, it helps if you too are a giant. And scrappy.That appears to be Amazon.com's strategy as its MP3 store takes on Apple's iTunes in digital music.Today, the British alternative rock group Coldplay (pictured above), is releasing its new album, "Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends." Amazon is using the occasion to wave in more customers with some huge discounts.

Amazon said it would begin selling digital versions of past Coldplay albums for bargain-basement prices. As part of a weekly promotion called Daily Deal, the Coldplay album "X&Y" is today available for $1.99. On Wednesday, "A Rush of Blood to the Head" can be yours for $1.99. Both albums are currently $7.99 on iTunes. "Parachutes" is next up on Thursday for $1.99. On Friday, the "Brothers and Sisters" EP will cost you only 99 cents." [LATimes]