Music Industry News: Jammie Thomas In Court, Annual Zune Pass, Doug Morris, Spotify & More

While I am rather optimistic about the future of music myself, I found these four stories to reflect other themes. Digital music sales are falling flat, BitTorrent is very popular, and MOG hasn't been able to gain a strong foothold in the market yet. However, the stats cited indicate that users my not be using the service because they don't know it exists. In one year, their site visitors have dropped one million, placing their awareness close to that of SpiralFrog.

Losing Steam: Why Digital Track Sales Are Flat. (Huff)
Stats don't support hype: Digital music is ailing. (cnet)
BitTorrent Still Dominates Global Internet Traffic. (Torrentfreak)
MOG’s figures not too strong, despite CEO’s optimism. (MusicAlly)

More Music Industry News & Commentary:

BigChampagne's building a social music chart. (Fortune)
The Doug Morris Farewell Tour. (waynerusso)
Why Netflix Won (And Why Digital Music Start-Ups Can’t) (Pakman)
Google’s Indian Music Service Not Quite A Prelude To A Subscription Offer. (PC)
Microsoft has just launched a $150 annual Zune Pass to coincide with its Windows Phone 7 launch (effective in the US, UK, Spain, Italy, France).
Jammie Thomas-Rasset and the RIAA are careening towards their third trial - that's right - on November 1st, after a judge denied a motion by Thomas for reconsideration on Constitutionality grounds.
Ustream will soon allow users to create pay-per-view and ad-free broadcasts.
Metric goes truly indie and reaches the mainstream anyway. (NJ)
Want Spotify in the US and beyond? Now you can with Spotify Worldwide. (TNW)
Universal Claiming Dancing Baby Video Not An Obvious Case Of Fair Use. (TechDirt)
Sony Retiring Cassette Walkman in Japan: Sony retiring cassette Walkman in Japan but production to continue overseas. (AP)
Is Zune dying, or more important than ever? (Cnet)
The New Report Card. (TuneCore)
Tin Ears Tuning In: Alex Ross’s Listen to This. (MM)
Facebook touts encryption as solution to security flaw. (Ars)
Pincus: In Five Years, Connections Will Be To Each Other, Not The Web; We’ll Be Dial Tones. (TechCrunch)