Music News Bulletin - 25/11/08

Datz Music Lounge
"I am a little late on this one. A couple of weeks ago Datz Music Lounge announced that it would be offering unlimited permanenet downloads in the UK for 99 GBP per year (approximately $155). Read more about the service here.

Datz offers a tremendous value proposition but it will never take off - just like subscription services will never be more than niche. The problem is a misunderstanding of consumer psychology." [AdSupportedMusic]

MySpace Music names president: Courtney Holt tapped to run music offshoot 25/11/08
"MySpace has found its top music man. News Corp.'s social-networking site has named Courtney Holt prexy of MySpace Music, the music offshoot it launched in September with the backing of all four of the biggest record companies.

Holt, who formerly served as exec VP of digital music for MTV Networks Music and Logo Group, takes the reins on Jan. 5. He will be responsible for overseeing the growth and development of the MySpace Music brand and will relocate to Los Angeles from Gotham to take the post." [Variety]

(Red) bows subscription music site: Service will raise money for the Global Fund Nov. 24, 2008
"(Red), the Bono-led organization that raises awareness and money to help eliminate AIDS in Africa, will launch a weekly subscription music service Monday. Launch of (Red) Wire at MSN.com, being held on World AIDS Day, will include world premiere songs and videos from Coldplay, Death Cab for Cutie, Dixie Chicks, Jay-Z, John Legend, the Killers with Elton John, the Police with Elvis Costello, U2 and others. Bob Dylan and R.E.M. will be supplying content in the near future." [Variety]

MusicBox leads hybrid-license movement: Shop functions as library and original music creator Nov. 17, 2008
"MusicBox is trying to build a better mousetrap. As the number of outlets needing inexpensive production music -- such as the Internet, cable reality shows and TV commercials -- continues to grow, more libraries are joining the fray. Even the major music publishers have been snapping up the leading independents as a way of gaining market share. Production music typically describes the songs emanating from the juke box in a bar scene, the overhead music while a character shops in a mall or the theme music of a reality show." [Variety]

CBS launches Play.it to compete with, er, Last.fm 18/11/08
"US media giant CBS has quietly launched something called Play.it - a music streaming service that lets users create their own personalised stations, listen to artist-themed stations, or tap into 340 existing channels from CBS and AOL Radio." [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 - 24/10/08

MySpace Music Struggles to Hit the Right Pitch With Indie Labels 10/24/08
"When it first launched, MySpace Music had support from major record labels as well as The Orchard, a strong independent distributor. Largely left out were smaller independent labels not associated with The Orchard. A month later, MySpace is attempting to grow its stake in the indie field by cutting a deal with another large distributor for independent music, IODA.

A month after irking part of the independent recording community by launching its online music service mostly with major labels, MySpace Music Latest News about MySpace has made a deal to almost double the amount of indie tunes available through the service." [HeutePopMorgen]

Digital music and ‘the recession’ October 3rd, 2008
"So what’s going on? A recession? A real one or just one that gets newspapers excited? I’m too cynical to get get concerned about these issues until they really effect me or I can see other people affected.

Then I looked at my schedule for the upcoming Popkomm conference in Berlin and noticed it is still strangely open. Either I am becoming less popular or the companies I normally catch up with at this conference are not attending this year. The latter seems to be the case: lots of emails from people saying that they will not make it this time. Those are often Americans and it looks like they want to safe a few dollars by not making it over to Berlin. Will be interesting to see if the American companies that brought over 30+ people and took out huge stands the last few years will do the same next week." [HeutePopMorgen]

Music News Bulletin - 17/10/08

Giving your music away October 17th, 2008
"I’ve been thinking some more about my post last week, debating how much you actually earn from selling your music online these days. Coupled with the news that’s been finally weaned from Radiohead’s ‘In Rainbows’ Album and the fact that the more forthcoming Trent Reznor’s figures on Nine Inch Nails’ ‘Ghosts I-IV’ album, I thought I’d blog further on the topic of what you can earn by giving your music away.

Regarding ‘In Rainbows’,”More than three million people acquired the album,” points out Warner Chappell Music senior vice president of International Legal & Business Affairs Jane Dyball, who admits “I had doubts there was money to be made online”. That figure includes downloads sold across various retailers, and physical packages sold online and through brick-n-mortar stores, and Dyball noted that 1.75 million copies of the physical, full-priced release were shifted. The band may have decided to not give out any specific figures on sales, but that hasn’t stopped people from estimating revenue ($10m in the first week?) and average price paid per album ($5? $8?). Other companies are saying that these figures don’t allow for those who paid $0 for the album (ComScore.com), and Radiohead’s representatives then reply that those figures are inaccurate but don’t give us anything solid to go on. Despite the option of a ‘$0’ price on the official website, between October 10 and November 3 2007, ‘In Rainbows’ was still downloaded from Torrent websites to the tune of 2.3m downloads. So just about no-one can figure it all out once the Torrent numbers are thrown into the mix." [UKMusicJobs]

Royalty rate stays same for iTunes, other download services October 02, 2008
"The Copyright Royalty Board has handed Apple and other online music store operators a big victory, as it has decided to keep the royalty rate the same for physical media and "permanent" (nonsubscription) music downloads. The decision, which was handed down Thursday afternoon, defines the mechanical rate terms for songwriters and publishers as 9.1¢ for physical products (like CDs), as well as music downloads, mitigating fears that significantly raised rates might force the closure of popular online music stores.

In addition to keeping the mechanical royalty rates the same for downloads, the CRB also established a rate for ringtone purchases for the first time—24¢. Music publishers may also now seek a 1.5 percent late fee per month from distributors that don't pay up on time." [ArsTechnica]

Universal Music CEO Still Doesn't Believe In The Promotional Value Of Music 14/10/08
A year ago, we were fairly shocked at an interview with Universal Music CEO Doug Morris. The guy gleefully explained how clueless he was about technology, and said that he didn't even know enough to hire people who could properly guide him to understanding how technology was impacting the music industry. Furthermore, he displayed an ignorance of basic economics and basic finance at the same time by insisting that any sort of promotion that might pay back tenfold at a later date was bad business because it meant someone was "taking advantage of you." Yes, apparently, the idea of spending a dollar today to make back ten next year makes no sense to the CEO of a large company. We wondered how Universal's shareholders could possibly let someone so gleefully clueless continue to run the company.

Apparently, he's still at it, and still not afraid to open his mouth and expose his ignorance. In Morris' latest interview he insists that the company doesn't believe in promotions, but wants to get paid for every single use of its music." [TechDirt]

Slate: Dump MySpace Music, Bring Back Muxtape 03/10/08
"As we had suspected, the early reviews of MySpace Music make it sound like a dud. It sounds, not surprisingly, like the focus was on appeasing the big record labels, rather than actually making a service that's fun and easy to use. Farhad Manjoo, over at Slate, makes the argument clear, contrasting MySpace Music to Muxtape, the small indie site that the RIAA shut down when it couldn't own a big chunk of it. As Manjoo notes, Muxtape was fun, it worked well, and people liked it. MySpace Music, on the other hand, is just not that compelling. He notes that it doesn't offer anything other sites haven't offered for a while, and on top of it, makes the whole interface cluttered and confusing, while limiting what you can actually do. Once again, we see the RIAA shut down a useful service and put up a dreadful competitor." [TechDirt]

Music News Bulletin - 24/09/08

MySpace Music set to launch tonight, with all four majors on board September 24, 2008
"The MySpace Music joint venture intends to go live tomorrow with a new Web site that will give users free access to a massive catalog of songs from all four major labels as well as independents. The last holdout, EMI Group plc, has agreed to be part of the service, and has received equity in the joint venture alongside Warner Music Group Corp. [WMG], Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group, and MySpace Inc. itself, a division of News Corp. [NWS] Independent content will be supplied by key distributor The Orchard Enterprises Inc. [ORCD], and Sony/ATV Music Publishing has also agreed to be part of the venture." [TheDeal]

Anticipating MySpace Music launch, Imeem plans outreach September 24, 2008
"As the launch date nears for MySpace Inc.'s joint venture with three major record labels, its many rivals have begun to anticipate a new competitive landscape. Apple Inc. [AAPL], whose iTunes music store already faces off with rumored MySpace partner Amazon.com Inc.'s [AMZN] download store, will see redoubled competition from the new operation. Social network operator Facebook Inc. continues to gain strength from the proliferation of third-party applications on its platform, including music tools such as iLike Inc. And on-demand streaming music provider Imeem Inc., itself a social network as well, has taken steps to differentiate itself from MySpace Music, which will likely be its largest competitor yet." [TheDeal]

Could MyTunes beat Apple at its own game?
"A few months ago News Corporation announced that it was taking on Apple in the music downloads marketplace.

Chris DeWolfe, the CEO of MySpace, said it would be starting up a one-stop music shop by spinning out the existing MySpace Music service to become an independent joint venture." [Mark8]

With SlotMusic, SanDisk gambles that physical music isn't dead yet September 22, 2008
"SanDisk Corp. is baffling observers with its introduction of a new physical format for music retailers, intended to replace CDs on shelves in big-box retail stores. Why in the world would the company expect people to buy music in a new, unfamiliar physical form when so many listeners are moving toward paid downloads with no physical media, not to mention various free models?" [TheDeal]

ImTheMusic: Whose musical taste is it, anyway?
"As an abundance of user-generated content continues to appear on the Web, mechanisms for separating wheat and chaff increase in importance. Influential companies such as Digg Inc. may point the way to the future of democratically filtered content, but thus far, the thumbs-up-or-thumbs-down functions of most Web 2.0 sites are largely underused and ineffective. As one VC said to me recently, "What's more depressing than the comments section of a YouTube video?"" [TheDeal]

Music News Bulletin - 11/08/08

MySpace faces rejection, internal dissent in hiring music venture CEO August 11, 2008
"MySpace Inc.'s search for a new CEO to run the MySpace Music joint venture has hit a number of snags, not the least of which is that its preferred candidates have declined the job. Another obstacle: Key technology executives inside the company have urged top brass not to hire a new leader until after MySpace Music launches next month.

A source with knowledge of the situation says the company's technology team has warned MySpace CEO Chris DeWolfe and chief operating officer Amit Kapur not to bring in a CEO with the new music service, a joint venture with three of the four major music labels, so close to launch for fear that a new executive would demand changes that would threaten the development team's timeline." [TheDeal]

The MySpace Music CEO Candidate Shortlist August 5, 2008

Get ready to start hearing a lot about MySpace Music, a huge joint venture project between MySpace and the big music labels. One big question about the project remains: who will be the CEO of the new company. We’ve gathered a shortlist of candidates that MySpace has interviewed. [TechCrunch]

Why are joint ventures such magnets for trouble? August 6, 2008
Why (apart from a journalistic weakness for handy labels) should this be? The governance challenge when two companies team up -- a great argument-starter whenever corp dev professionals talk about JVs -- is surely one factor. Decisions inevitably take longer with two parties involved.

But there's more going on.

Rarely a first choice as a strategic tool, JVs are usually formed because there seems no better way to solve a tough business problem. Sometimes the problem is one of market access. BP plc's deal with TNK and Group Danone SA's experience in China with Wahaha Group Co. Ltd. notwithstanding, these kinds of JVs do have a reasonable track record; lots of multinationals have used them to get established in developing markets, often buying them out as the local rules change. [TheDeal]