A Sound Marketplace For Recorded Music
Here in Washington, there is nothing more amusing than watching business interests work themselves up into a righteous frenzy over a threat to their monopoly profits from a new technology or some upstart with a different business model. Invariably, the monopolists (or their first cousins, the oligopolists) try to present themselves as champions of the [...]
G8 Leaders Address Piracy Protection, BPI Chases AllofMP3
The music industry has been pushing for concerted, multinational action to protect intellectual property, and this week their efforts paid off in the form of a communiqué from the G8 summit.
As the internet continues to break down barriers and facilitate the rapid transmission of copyrighted content, G8 leaders vowed to address piracy-related concerns “through [...]
Digital music age prompts copyright debate
Technology commentator Bill Thompson on music industry proposals to “tax” net providers who carry music as part of their internet traffic.
Earlier this month the Association of Independent Music had one of those roundtable debates that industry bodies are so fond of.
As well as the independents there were people from the Musician’s Union, the Music Managers [...]
See you later, CDs
Forget vinyl: Now CD stores are suffering from a generation gap, and they’re closing down in increasing numbers
So this is an evening rush?
On a recent Monday, six people — soon enough four, then two — were browsing the bins of compact discs at Norman’s Sound & Vision, a music store on Cooper Square in Manhattan’s [...]
Prince shuts down online music site
After five years, Prince’s NPG Music Club online site is being shut down. According to a statement released to NPG members, the music club has maximized its potential.
“In its current form, there is a feeling that the NPGMC has gone as far as it can go,” read the statement. “Has the time come to once [...]
Album Sales Dip During First Half, Digital Sales Balloon
Album sales in the United States continued to sink during the first half of this year, though digital formats remained explosive.
Overall albums dipped 4.2 percent during the first two quarters, landing at 270.6 million units, according to figures released by Nielsen Soundscan.
Digital album sales moved to 14.7 million units, more than double the [...]
CD format gets a “reboot” from Universal Music
The world’s biggest record company is not ready to give the compact disc up for dead just yet, and is giving the venerable music format a revamp.
Universal Music Group, home to artists such as U2 and Mariah Carey, is rolling out three new tiers of CD packaging in Europe, ranging from lush deluxe editions down [...]
Study: legal music far outweighs P2P on portable music players
A new study from marketing research company Ipsos Insight indicates that while file sharing may be down, it still constitutes a significant percentage of the music found on today’s portable digital music players. Yet music downloads from legal services have eclipsed those stemming from P2P and other unauthorized sources. In fact, the study indicated that [...]
Song-swapping site Soribada sued by music companies
A group of South Korean music companies said Monday it has filed a complaint against the Internet file-sharing site Soribada with a Seoul police station for alleged copyright violations.
The complaint came five months after Soribada reached an out-of-court settlement with the Korean Association of Phonogram Producers (KAPP), ending a three-year suit. In February, Soribada agreed [...]
BPI gets go-ahead to sue MP3 site
The British recording industry has been given permission to sue Russian music website allofmp3.com in the High Court.
Members of the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) want to prove the site, which offers downloads for as little as five pence, is illegal.
They were given the go-ahead to sue the company last week, and say proceedings will be [...]
