Uncategorized

Hypebot’s Music 2.0 Week In Review: MySpace Music, Universal Invests, U2, Job Changes & Much More

It was a week of big announcements that signaled a shift in who will control  Music 2.0. Myspace_music

> Hypebot named 5 Winners and 5 Losers as MySpace announced a new music store with three of the four major labels as partners.

> iTunes claims to have passed WalMart to become the #1 music retailer in the US
WalMart.com has stopped selling SonyBMG and WMG downloads.

> U2 cut a major deal with with concert giant Live Nation, but stopped short of the $150 million 360 deal Jay-Z is reportedly working on with the concert giant.

> EMI has grabbed a senior exec from Google to head its digital efforts.

> eMusic has added the Rolling Stones catalog from ABKCO.

> Music sales via video game Rock Band come close to the early days of iTunes

> Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is boycotting SonyBMG.  Who cares?

Universal
> UNIVERSAL INVESTING: The company is investing in digital distributor INgrooves and will start using some of its software.  And Universal’s Intersope joined a $25 million funding found for music social networker BuzzNet.

> Losses at The Orchard jumped even as revenues doubled. Next week, Hypebot will take an in depth look at the problems shaking up the digital distribution sector

> Danish telco TDC has begun offering free downloads with EMI, WMG and SonyBMG a part a million track catalog.  Napster

> Napster had stronger earnings last quarter

> A 20 million song iPod may be in your future

> Universal also announced a new line of greener packaging for some of its re-releases.

> JOB CHANGES: Ian Rogers has left his gig as head of Yahoo Music for start up TopSpin and Ricall, an online music licensing marketplace, appointed former Sony ATV exec Ben Walter as head of Business Development.

Share on: