The reports of P2P’s death remain greatly exaggerated
It is not often that one gets to see justice, of a sort anyway, happen so quickly. Just Thursday, The Economist magazine, one of the most influential and widely read business news publications in the world, published an article and corresponding editorial crowing about how the problem of piracy in the music industry was coming [...]
Report – Windows 7 is ‘Practically Made for Pirates’
We’re not entirely sure who would be more upset, copyright holders who have been desperately trying to install a three strikes regime everywhere in the world or Microsoft after they receive a lawsuit from those same copyright holders. It’s unlikely that, in the face of the MGM vs. Grokster case, that Microsoft will exactly [...]
Disney sells 23.7M TV shows, 2M movies via iTunes
Walt Disney, which on Tuesday said second quarter profits rose 27 percent, also offered analysts and members of the media an update on its iTunes sales totals during a conference call.
For the quarter ended March 31, the entertainment conglomerate earned $931 million, or 44 cents a share, up from the $733 million, or 37 cents [...]
Apple, labels focus on copy protection
The last time Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs took on major recording companies, he refused to budge on his 99-cent price for a song on iTunes.
As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices — as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their [...]
Will DRM-free music threaten iTunes?
Need proof that Apple’s iPod and iTunes Store has forever changed how people, particularly mobile people, acquire music? Here it is: The recording industry recently reported that nearly 13 percent fewer CDs were sold in 2006 than the previous year, while sales of downloaded digital songs increased by almost 60 percent.
The iPod/iTunes combination accounts for [...]
Peter Gabriel launches We7, ad-supported music download site
“Advertising attached to the music will ensure that artists receive royalties for making their songs available, whilst consumers will receive and share DRM-free music legitimately”.
Peter Gabriel, tech entrepreneur Steve Purdham and finance guru John Taysom have teamed up to create a new technology and music venture site called We7 that will offer ad-supported, [...]
Apple tells content partners it can soon offer DRM-free music
According to the MacRumors site, iTunes’ content partners will soon have the option of offering DRM-free music and music videos.
Perhaps in another bid to assuage European anti-trust concerns, Apple sent out a brief memo to its content partners that starting next month they will be able to offer DRM-free music and music videos.
The memo [...]
Steve Jobs: ‘No subscription-based iTunes’
Says customers not into renting music — and I agree.
Record labels have been supposedly asking Apple to introduce a music subscription service to its iTunes digital music download store in an attempt to increase profits but, Steve Jobs is adamant that “customers don’t seem to be interested in it”.
Apple is gearing up for [...]
iTunes Store a greater cash crop than Apple implies?
Although Apple has repeatedly said that its iTunes Store operates at “just above break even,” a thorough analysis of the service’s economics suggests it turns a profit roughly in line with the company average, with recent events paving the way for even greater gains.
Based on per-song cost estimates, the ubiquitous iTunes service generates an operating [...]
Delivering the Digital Goods:
Apple boasts that more than one billion songs have been purchased from its iTunes music service. That sounds like a great number—until you consider that an estimated ten million users of Internet-based peer-to-peer (p2p) networks are logged on at any one time to swap music.
How does Apple, which sells music titles for 99 cents each, [...]
