UPDATED: Massachusetts Judge Nancy Gertner reversed course and today issued a directed verdict against P2P defendant Joel Tenenbaum. The ruling says he is liable for infringing on all 30 copyrights named in the lawsuit. The jury will decide if the infringement was "willful", as well as, the size of the award which could be set at up to $4.5 million.
On the Joel Fights Back blog, Debbie Rosenbaum, a student member of the Harvard defense team wrote after the verditc, "When the music industry spent an estimated $1M to prosecute just one of the millions of individuals who use file-sharing software, Joel fought back. The battle was lost, and the war is not over."
RealNetworks (RNWK) yesterday reported revenues of $135.7 million, which fell short of the Thomson Reuters consensus forecast of $139.2 million. Real's net loss also widened dramatically to $188.3 million up from a loss of just $1.3 million a year ago. Included in the loss was a non-cash goodwill impairment charge of $175.6 million and Real called most of the factors leading to the dismal result were “one-off timing related issues”.
But the long term outlook looks difficult as well, The end of the quarter saw real with just 1.8 million subscribers down from 2.9 million in the previous quarter, and 2.6 million in the year-ago period. At Real's Rhapsody subscribers fell to 750,000 from 800,000 the previous quarter. That was up compared 600,000 e year ago.
EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW: For more than a year ArtistData has created tools that help artists from the smallest garage band to the roster of labels like Universal Republic and Rounder enter data once and spread it across multiple platforms from MySpace to concert databases.
But understanding that they've solved only one piece of the artist puzzle, ArtistData is smartly opening its API to outside developers who can now create services that integrate with AritstData and its 10,000 users. Phase one is to attract the developer community and in an exclusive interview founder Brenden Mulligan shared what else we can expect.
Q:What kinds of apps do you see being developed with the new open platform?
We're talking with developers and companies who will be building all kinds of artist services on top of the platform. That includes fan communication tools like mailing lists and fan clubs, data analytics tools, sales tools for music, merch and tickets, and a lot more. I think people will get really creative with the platform, which is exciting.
Q: Are any outside developers currently using the API?
We are wrapping up the API now, so have just started showing it to select partners. The full public API release will be coming in the next few months.
Q: What advantages to developers are there for using your API beyond the large community of artists?
Hypebot's Kyle Bylin recently interviewed Greg Kot, author of "Ripped", a book the analyzes the effect of the Wired generation on the record industry. Earlier this week in an article titiled "Another lesson for the news industry from the record industry", Shane Richmond of the UK's Telegraph named Kyle's interview "worth reading in full", but said that one paragraph could serve as a lesson to the news industry:
“But the system was inherently flawed; it worked for a long time because the industry basically seized monopoly control of manufacturing, distribution and marketing of music. " said Kot. "Only the best-financed music stood a chance of getting heard, which usually meant bland releases by multimedia celebrities, whether Britney Spears or Creed. Consumers had no other choice put to play along, and pay what the industry demanded. When an alternative emerged, consumers naturally gravitated toward a market that allowed them greater access to more music at a better price.”
"That’s not only a good analysis of what went wrong with the record industry," wrote Richmond. "It’s also applicable to all content industries. The challenge they’re facing is the shift from being gatekeepers, controlling the flow of content to the customer, to becoming curators, helping customers find what’s most relevant to them."
Geffen Records has signed The Pope to a deal to record a Christmas record....
Grooveshark’s iPhone App Is Great, But It’s About To Get Smacked Down By Apple. (TechCrunch)
Tenenbaum takes the stand: I used P2P and lied about it. - Accused of sharing 30 songs on the Internet, Joel Tenenbaum today admitted his liability in a federal courtroom, then told the court he told a "lie" in his earlier sworn responses. The labels have moved for a directed verdict of copyright infringement, and look likely to get it. (ars)
What Twitter and Facebook Can Learn From Phish (Mashable)
The Pirate Bay Ordered To Close In The Netherlands - The Dutch anti-piracy outfit BREIN has won its court case against The Pirate Bay. The Amsterdam court today ruled that the site must cease all operations in The Netherlands within 10 days, or else pay penalties of 30,000 euros ($42,300) a person, per day. (TorrentFreak)
Spotify v illegal downloads: Advertising-supported music will not save a troubled industry. But it helps. (The Economist)
Behind the music: Mystery of the filesharing windfalls - When individuals are sued for illegal filesharing, in cases such as the IFPI v Kazaa, where does the money go? (Guardian)
MySpace Mail Goes Public; Global Rollout In Weeks (paidContent)
Jill Sobule Talks About Her Experience Connecting With Fans, Giving Them A Reason To Buy. (Techdirt)
AFI getting fans to tweet for content - US rock band AFI have relaunched their website with a new feature that revolves around Twitter. Specifically, fans are being asked to tweet with the hashtag #medicate (the band’s new single). (Music Ally)
A “TEMPO Digital Music Discovery & Purchase Process” report from Ipsos MediaCT shows that ad supported music services and in particular MySpace Music may offer hope for frustrated rights holders trying to find a way - any way - to monetize music.
Consumers describe their current music habits as:
When respondents were asked to imagine a world without P2P, their habits shifted:
Warner Music still doesn't have a deal with YouTube and some other labels complain their share of revenue form the online video channel. But not be on YouTube, is to miss out on those unforeseeable viral moments that it and its fans sometimes create and the income that follows.
Take for example the case of Chris Brown's "Forever". New fans have not exactly been flocking to Brown since his attack on pop singer Rhianna. But an unusual entrance to a St. Paul. MN wedding choreographed to his song attracted 12 million plays in a week on YouTube and garnered the newlyweds an appearance on The Today show. "The JK Wedding Entrance" video pushed Brown's year old song jumped to #4 on iTunes.
"It was a win-win-win for us, the labels and Apple," YouTube's director of content Jason Hoffner told a crowd at yesterday's Digital Media Summit. Chris Brown's label Jive and YouTube shared revenues from both accompanying ad placements and download sales and Apple got their piece of the later. If Brown had been on a WMG, the inevitable take down would have prevented both the viral promotion and the income that it produced.
Terra Firma investors have approved plans for the private equity firm to inject another £300 million ($492M USD) into a struggling EMI as part of a proposed refinancing of the label group’s £2.6bn (4.26B USD) in debt according to the Financial Times. Investor approval was needed because EMI accounts for more than 30% of Terra Firma's entire portfolio.
It's all part of a plan by Terra Firma's Guy Hands to keep the label group afloat. He's said to be working with other investment firms to raise funds with a major high yield bond offering, as WMG did recently. Troubled US bankers Citi are also being asked to discount or refinance its EMI debt; and US financial regulators are rumored to be encouraging Citi to accept a 20-30% to get EMI and other toxic assets off its books.
The music industry is in a desperate search for new ways to re-engage fans to the point where they are willing to hit the buy button. Most recently we learned that Apple is exploring a new interactive album format code named "Cocktail" and WMG's Rhino is releasing a series of digital 45's with bonus content.
Another attempt comes from MXP4 whose interactive music technology, the album files (first in widget
form) incorporates multiple tracks, liner notes, video, images, news, tour dates and interactivity. Fans can even remix different elements of the songs on the fly. Here's the MXP4 widget for the new Michael Jackson "The Stripped Mixes" release.
MXP4 widgets for Dave Stewart and Sliimy follow after the jump.
Sony earnings down as gadget sales fall and Yen rises. "On the music front, Sony makes a big increase after fully taking over Sony Music Entertainment from Bertelsmann. The world’s second largest music label made Sony 108.8 billion yen ($1.11 billion)—96.1 percent more than it made from the Sony BMG JV in the same period last year." (paidContent)
GGF: Pirate Bay Purchase Will Happen August 27. (TorrentFreak)
Tenenbaum lawyer admits liability; damages now main issue. The second-ever P2P file-sharing case to go to trial has been anything but conventional, and yesterday was no exception: one of Joel Tenenbaum's attorneys admitted in court that his client was liable for infringement. The real issue now appears to be the amount of damages. (ars)
Music and media futurist Gerd Leonhard holds a free online webinar "Music 2.0 and the Future of the Music Industry" tomorrow July 31st at 5pm CET, 4pm GMT/UK, 11 am EST, 8am PST, midnight JST and 1am (next day) AEST. Find out more on Gerd's Facebook page. More info here.
Bandwidth Music | Technology Conference 2009 Announces Conversation with Charles Caldas, CEO, Merlin (press release)
iPhone Jailbreaking Could Crash Cellphone Towers, Apple Claims (Wired's Threat Level)
Depsite a slow adoption rate from consumers, HD radio developer iBiquity lands another $42.5 Million (DMW, SEC filing)
New Orange mobile music service works via voice calls. (Techdirt)
It's no secret that music magazines a rapidly becoming a relic of another era. Most blame a decline in advertising revenue coupled with the growth of free online music media. But ex-Blender staffer Jonah Weiner suggests there are other factors killing our once beloved music rags in his Slate piece "Spinning In The Grave".
1. There are fewer superstars, and the same musicians show up on every magazine cover.
2. Music mags have less to offer music lovers, and music lovers need them less than ever anyway.
3. Music magazines were an early version of social networking. But now there's this thing called "social networking" …
For decades music executives and even artists themselves have shied away from many musical niches because their potential audience was too small to achieve an acceptable level of success. But now. with the global marketing and sales reach offered by the int coupled with affordable world travel, is any niche really too small to find audience?
While certainly not as small as some musical niches, classical music has been considered dead or dieing for more than a decade. Younger audiences simply have no interest . But despite tthe death sentance, the world's most successful male touring artist for the first half of 2009 was classical musician Andre Rieu according to Billboard. He ranked number 4 overall with 554,242 tickets sold and $57.4 million in gross revenue with only Madonna, Tina Turner and Britney Spears grossing more Rieu had already clinched the 8th position on Pollstar's 2008 touring chart.
A song by the band Barcelona was used without permission in a short production by Vancouver documentarian Jon Rawlinson that went viral on YouTube with 911,000 plays and climbing.
But instead of the calling their lawyers to sue for unauthorized use of their wonderfully textured original song "Please Don't Go", the band watched their iTunes sales climb and even did a short video (below) explaining their reaction and thanking the filmmaker. So far the band's label Universal Motown has not objected either. The original pirated video is after the jump.
Digital distributor The Orchard has
partnered
with Digonex
to
offer
dynamic
pricing
beginning
with
a
select
group
of
albums
and
tracks
from the company's catalog.
The Orchard will use Digonex's Digital Online Exchange
platform, a
dynamic commerce
engine that
systematically
changes prices
based upon
econometric
and behavioral principles
to dynamically
price digital downloads.
“We believe that
dynamic pricing
has the potential
to positively
impact our clients
and the digital
media industry
as a whole,
and change the
way online retailers
and consumers approach selling
and purchasing,” said
Prashant Bahadur,
Vice President
of Retail Marketing
of The Orchard.
The deal to buy Pirate Bay appears to be falling apart. (cNet)
Orange and UMG launching Monkey unlimited streaming mobile music service in UK. (Music Ally)
Tenenbaum P2P trial features prophetic warnings of doom. - True to his word, Harvard Law's Charles Nesson brought both Styrofoam and a "Necker Cube" diagram to court for his opening statement this morning, but the real drama was just beginning. The second day of the Joel Tenenbaum file-sharing trial featured Tenenbaum's own father taking the stand, recounting how he had warned his son about P2P use as far back as 2002. (ars)
A8 – the China First Online Music Store. Unlimited downloads for $1.90 USD per month. (more)
Sonos BU250 music system gets Editors' Choice (cNet)
Blip.tv has inked deals With YouTube, NBC, Tivoand other heavy hitters.(Epicenter) Given the new partnerships and Blink's revenue sharing platform, it makes the service wirth getting involved with for music video producers and artists with enough video contact to take the channell approach.
Powerful Sen. Kohl wants Live Nation/Ticketmaster probe. (FMQB)\
Beastie Boy's Adam Yauch is building a serious indie film company. (FT)
Microsoft and Yahoo announce a 10 year search and ad deal. (paidContent) This is a big boost to Microsoft search engine Bing and is a reminder to music marketers that its not only about Google.
In a rambling post on the company blog, Qtrax head Alan Klepfisz admitted that its been a long strange trip to get the ad-supported music service off the ground, but claimed once again that it is nearing a full launch, perhaps as early as this Thursday. Of course, this is all coming from the same company that held a flashy party in January of 2008 in Cannes to announce deals with the major labels that did not exist...
Before officially launching, however, the company may also have to make good on a $1.8 million bounced check and repeated attempts to collect on it that Greg Sandoval of CNet found buried in lawsuit filed by Oracle. The lawsuit asserts that the bounce check means that Qtrax is in breach of contract and illegally using Oracle's software.
From Hypebot to the New York Times, a lot of attention is being given to the emerging artist as a start-up business model with Cabdain indie rock band Metric used the most visible example of the trend. But to Sean Adams who founded Drown In Sound and is a regular columnist for London's Sunday Times, the start-up analogy doesn't quite fit. This post first appeared on his Sean In Sound blog.
Been pondering this bands as start-ups concept too but I have a huge problem with it. Been curious about the reactions to the NYT piece,
especially as I was the guy who released Metric's previous record 'Live
it Out' in the UK. They're an interesting example which kinda breaks
this bands as a start-up concept into disperate red herring puzzle
pieces.
My main issue is that start-ups and hyped new bands,
both work on the premise of hope and potential, whereas any tried and
tested company or band, has a quantifiable ROI (return on investment).
This is problematic because the media is not that interested in bands
or websites/tech which aren't brand new (as Metric weren't when we
released their record, despite outselling the Gossip week on week until
the NME cool list, etc) or massively successful. It's always a
headscratcher when a band changes their name (like the Kaiser Chiefs
did) or a website relaunches as something totally different, that it
leads to press, which leads to other media coverage.
Would you consider the mass-marketing successes that occurred during the CD-Boom a relatively short-lived phenomenon and, if so, why and what’s some of your reasoning behind that belief?
Greg Kot: Yes, I think the era of the mass-marketed mega artist is coming to an end. The multimedia companies that once dominated the star-maker discourse no longer monopolize how music is accessed. The culture for entertainment, as well as everything else for that matter, is fragmenting into niches facilitated by tools that enable us to find and communicate with people who have similar interests more efficiently and quickly than ever.
Audioholics has composed a list of its favorite corporate and industry-specific "disasters" and the music industry proudly made the list in two places.
The Largest Music Retailer Is A Computer Company -Why did the music labels and an entire industry sit on its laurels and allow a computer company to innovate and develop the largest resource for online music? Perhaps because, like a lumbering shipping vessel, the labels, used to bullying around an entire industry of artists, distributors and broadcasters, were simply too slow to recognize that the world was passing them by...
From behind this massive Titanic-bound juggernaut came Apple Computer, who, known for their innovation and market-savvy, decided to work their own back-door deal and invent the world's first (and over 7 years later still the most popular) mass-market digital music player that was quickly followed by a robust, fully-loaded online music store.
Music Industry Hails Solution to "CD Problem" - Embraces DVD, DVD-Audio and SACD Discs -Really? No... no... not really. Instead they continued to sue teenagers and little old ladies for thousands of dollars and resist all attempts to give consumers what they wanted - online streaming content. But they also did one other very important thing: they failed to innovate in the area of the physical disc...
The major label to tech exodus continues as Zeeshan Zaidi, a former exec ar Sony BMG, RCA Music Group and Arista Records joins Lime Wire as Head of Global, a newly created position. He will be responsible for global strategy at Lime Wire and will report to George Searle, Lime Wire CEO.
Like most similar announcements, the press release is filled more with what Zeeshan Zaidi used to do rather than what his future holds at Limewire. Zaidi comes to Lime Wire from NABBR, where he was COO and Head of Business Development for the online media startup. Prior to NABBR, Zaidi was VP of New Ventures for the Sony BMG Global Digital Business Group. He was VP of Digital Business Operations for RCA prior to joining Sony BMG. He oversaw the digital business of the RCA Music Group.
The Tenenbaum trial began yesterday with "tortured" jury selection: The trial of accused file-swapper Joel Tenenbaum finally got underway just eight hours after the judge tossed dendied his "fair use" defense. But Harvard Law Proffessor Charles Nesson kept things interesting, asking prospective jurors questions like what they thought of his turtleneck and of decriminalizing pot. (ars)
Lawmakers Want Ticketmaster/Live Nation Probe (Reuters) Today is opening arguments.
Music Bloggers Roundtable Redux: The music industry’s devil and savior bear the same name: the web. Five years later, the Morning News reconvenes a panel of Music Blogfathers for a look into the future.
Topspin comes to Nashville with heavy hitter partners. (Nashville Post)
The Blue Scholars are staying independent with a vengeance, in part, "through a unique partnership formed with Duck Down Records, and Seattle's Caffe Vita Coffee Co." for their upcoming releases OOF! and Bayani Redux. (ProHipHop)
SXSW online debuts a 10-minute film titled “Remix…A New Way to Engage Fans.” The team behind the video, MixMatchMusic shows how artists and fans are turning to remixing to connect in a dramatically changed music landscape. The vidoe goes live today at Noon CDT here.
Virgin Mobile USA Asks Music Fans to "Book the Band" for the 2009 Virgin Mobile FreeFest. (press release)
Apple and the four major label groups are reportedly collaborating on an interactive album bundle that would add additional content like liner notes, lyrics, videos and more to every album download.
Code named Cocktail, "It's all about recreating the heyday of the album when you would sit around with your friends looking at the artwork while you listened to the music," one executive familiar with the initiative told the Financial Times. "It's not just a bunch of PDFs. There's real engagement with the ancillary stuff."
If it caught on, Cocktail could help save an industry suffering from the lower profits garnered by single track sales. And deeper engagement with the album could also lead to more loyal fans who know and care enough about the artist to consider their next album project as well.
(Part 1 of 2) Today, I spoke with Greg Kot, who is the author of Ripped: How the Wired Generation Revolutionized Music, a rock critic at The Chicago Tribune, and co-host of the popular radio show Sound Opinions. In this interview, Greg talks about the media landscape, the end of the mass-marketed mega artist, and adds his thoughts to ‘the file-sharing debate.’
Do you think we largely and often times do forget that for every action the Record Industry made in the media landscape there was an equal and opposite reaction from the general public, which only contributed to further evolving the complex system of relationships that had been created in the twentieth-century?
Greg Kot: I think there is a central motif here: The 20th Century record industry has never been particularly eager to embrace new technology, basically anything that threatened the status quo. It wasn’t so much greed and arrogance that destroyed it as fear of change. They lost touch with consumers, and got comfortable riding a pricey cash cow – the compact disc.
