Digital Music Forum from Cyberextazy

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EU to target Apple?s iTunes site
2007-04-04 13:12:00
  British newspaper Financial Times reported that Apple and several big music companies are facing a European Commission antitrust probe after Brussels issued formal charges alleging that the deals underpinning the sale of music through the hugely popular iTunes platform violated competition rules. In a surprise development, the Brussels regulator last week sent a confidential statement of ...
More About: Itunes , Site , Itune

First reactions to EMI?s DRM-free policy
2007-04-03 14:06:00
Some say it was bound to happen others praise EMI’s bold decision to drop DRM but everybody agrees this is a huge step for digital music! The deal between EMI and Apple that was announced yesterday to sell digital music without copy protection is already shaking the world of music. Today, both the Digital Free dom Campaign ...
More About: Action , Policy , First , Poli

EMI drops DRM with iTunes
2007-04-03 01:09:00
EMI is to make its music available online without a key anti-piracy measure, becoming the first major music group to take the risk in a bid to grow digital sales. Digital Rights Management or DRM was introduced to contain piracy by preventing users from making multiple copies, but its critics say it restricts consumers and therefore ...
More About: Tunes , Itunes , With , Itune , Tune

Delos classical music label founder dies
2007-03-30 18:59:00
  Amelia S. Haygood, a former psychologist whose passion for classical music propelled her to found the independent record label Delos in the ’70s and become a leader in digital recording, has died. She was 87. Haygood died on March 19 at her home in Santa Monica following a decade-long battle with breast cancer, said Harry Pack, ...
More About: Music , Founder , Classic , Classical , Label

iTunes works to boost album sales
2007-03-29 20:30:00
Apple Inc. is throwing its weight behind the music industry’s efforts to protect the album format by allowing fans to buy complete digital albums without having to pay again for songs they already own. The record industry is keen to maintain the profitable album format, which is under threat as users of Web-based music download stores, ...
More About: Tunes , Itunes , Sales , Work , Sale

Motorola and Verizon to Offer Car System
2007-03-28 12:07:00
  Cell phone maker Moto r ola Inc. said Wednesday that it will partner with voice and data network operator Verizon Wireless to provide a kit that gives customers access to digital music and phone calls through a car’s sound system. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The new Motorola Automotive Music & Hands-free System T605 will be ...

Hyatt hotels and resorts offer digital music
2007-03-27 15:44:00
Hyatt Hotel s & Resorts announced yesterday its new digital download music pilot program, in partnership with leading digital music agency Audiosuite, at and Spa at Gainey Ranch and Hyatt Regency Lost Pines Resort and Spa located between Austin and Bastrop, Texas. Individual properties will offer unique, destination-specific music collections, making Hyatt?s program truly a ...
More About: Music , Digital Music

The painter
2007-03-26 21:27:00
  “Everyone was using tiny brushes and doing watercolors, while Jimi Hendrix was painting galactic scenes in Cinemascope.” Carlos Santana
More About: Inter , Pain , Painter , Paint

XM sued by music publishers
2007-03-26 14:27:00
The National Music Publish ers ’ Association, a group representing music publishers, is suing XM Satellite Radio, saying that XM violates copyright laws by giving users the ability to store and replay songs on certain devices. The lawsuit filed in federal court in New York Thursday claimed that XM Satellite Radio Holdings Inc. offers an unlawful music ...
More About: Hers , Publisher

Music expenses
2007-03-23 20:34:00
“And, we have no such thing as a budget anymore. Our manager freaks when we show him the bill.” Freddie Mercury
More About: Music , Pens , Expenses , Ense , Advil

Elton John goes digital
2007-03-23 13:55:00
Elton John says he will make his back catalog of more than 30 albums available for digital download later this month. The tracks, more than 400 in all, will be available through iTunes service from March 26 through April 30, and then will be made available on other download services. The newly digitized albums include John’s 1969 ...
More About: Elton John , Digital , Digi , Goes

Cebit 2007 looks into the future
2007-03-20 17:10:00
Cebit, the world’s largest hi-tech fair, has opened its doors in Hanover for a look at the latest technologies for homes and businesses. There are more than 6,000 exhibitors registered and about 500,000 visitors are expected to pass through the doors. Third generation mobiles, the digital home and broadband are key themes at the show. But Cebit is ...
More About: Future , The Future , Look , Looks

Slacker personalizes Internet radio with iPod rival
2007-03-19 14:00:00
Fans of Internet radio who want to listen to their favorite stations away from the computer will soon be able to do so with a new digital music player called Slacker. The new gadget, by a San Diego-based start-up of the same name, aims to compete with Apple Inc.’s iPod and ...
More About: Radio , Personal , Ipod

Sina to build digital music platform
2007-03-16 13:45:00
Chinese web portal Sina.com stated it has reached agreements with five record companies to launch a digital music platform for online music, downloads and other wireless value-added services. The partners, according to a recent release, include Sony, BMG Universal, Warner, EMI and Rock Records, who reportedly hold a total of 80 percent of the world’s ...
More About: Music , Digital Music , Plat , Digital , Digi

Legal download sales up 47%
2007-03-15 19:41:00
A recent market research done by NPD Group reports that legal download sales were the fastest growing digital music category in 2006 and that while user growth on illegitimate peer-to-peer services slowed, the total number of files downloaded on file-sharing networks was up 47% from 2005. NPD vice president Russ Crupnick sais “It is likely ...
More About: Download , Sales , Legal , Sale , Down

HMV seeks to revitalise business
2007-03-14 15:32:00
Shares in music and book retailer HMV Group have fallen 16% after the firm issued a profit warning as it launched a “radical” review of the business. HMV reported sales had deteriorated further since the start of 2007 and that annual profits would be lower than expected. The retailer is likely to close loss-making stores following ...
More About: Business , Vita , Vital , Ness , Seek

Heavy jail sentences for music pirates
2007-03-13 11:46:00
  IFPI reports that the Court of Appeal in Naples has imposed heavy jail sentences on members of an organised gang involved in a major music piracy case. Members of the gang were arrested in 1999 after an investigation carried out by Luciano D?Angelo, the district anti-mafia attorney, and the police, with the assistance of FPM, ...
More About: Music , Pirates , Pirate , Heavy , Jail

EU commissioner criticizes iPod-iTunes tie-in
2007-03-12 16:09:00
German weekly magazine Focus published European Union consumer chief Meglena Kuneva oppinion on Apple Inc.’s bundling of its popular iPod music players and its iTunes online music store and it was not a very positive one. “Do you think it’s fine that a CD plays in all CD players but that an iTunes song only plays ...
More About: Itunes , Ipod , Itune

10 000 visits :)
2007-03-11 02:45:00
And so our blog has just reached 10,000 visits! We, at Cyberextazy, would like to thank everyone who has been visiting us and reading our daily uptade on the digital music news. Unless, of course, this 10,000 hits has been the work of only one visitor who keeps coming back 100 times a day…. In that case ...
More About: Visi , Visit

DGMI and Universal report fourth quarter of 2006 results
2007-03-10 06:30:01
Digital Media Group Inc. and Universal Music Group have both reported their fourth quarter of 2006 revenues. DMGI) reported revenue of $5.56 million, a 700 percent increase from fiscal 2005 revenue of $679,975. The company shrunk its net loss to 32 cents per share, or $2.62 million, from 69 cents per share, or $1.56 million in 2005. With an average of 137.000 tracks available for sale in 2006, the company’s total paid downloads increased 21/2 times to 14 million from 5.3 million in 2005. Digital Music had 219,800 tracks for sale as of Dec. 31, 2006. For the fourth quarter of 2006, the company reported revenue of $2.7 million, compared to $454,440 in the previous year. The company’s net loss was 9 cents per share, or $770,329, compared to a net loss of 16 cents per share, or $363,128 in the fourth quarter of 2005. On the other hand, earnings bumped for Universal Music Group during 2006, according to figures produced Wednesday by parent Vivendi.  EBITDA (Earnings before ...
More About: Results , Arte , Report , Port , Four

New royalty rate worries webcasters
2007-03-08 18:28:01
Internet music broadcasters worry that a new ruling could put many of them out of business by drastically increasing the royalty payments they have to make to record labels and artists. The new rates, which are retroactive to last year, were decided on Friday by the Copyright Royal ty Board, a panel of three copyright judges, and made public Tuesday on the board’s Web site. The ruling could have the greatest impact on startup companies that make their living from broadcasting music online and selling advertising to pay for it. For large radio companies like Clear Channel Communications Inc. and CBS Corp., online broadcasting still makes up a relatively small portion of their overall business. Kurt Hanson, who founded an online radio company five years ago called AccuRadio, said his six-employee company managed to “eke out” a profit last year under the former rate structure that called for paying royalties of 12 percent of revenues to music publishers. Under the new ...
More About: Cast , Royalty , Caste , Rate

The next frontier of music
2007-03-08 18:28:01
When Canada’s longest-running music conference began 25 years ago, it was the major labels that formed the backbone of the industry shmoozfest known as Canadian Music Week. Today, those industry giants are reeling from layoffs and declining sales and the future is anything but certain, says CMW president Neill Dixon. He predicts the next big music frontier will be mobile networking, pointing to an increased demand for souped-up cellphones that serve as multi-function gadgets for people on the go. “It’ll become your iPod regardless of whether you have an iPod or iPhone or whatever you’re going to have, they’ll all be the same thing,” Dixon says. “Eventually we’ll be able to have massive storage and be able to download and do all that. To me, it’s pretty natural that that’s where things are heading in a big way, in a fast way.” A mobile phone conference in Barcelona last month heard that many of today’s devices ar...
More About: The N , Next , Front , Tier

EMI Music Publishing has new chairman
2007-03-07 00:25:02
Roger Faxon has been appointed by EMI Group as the new chairman and CEO of EMI Music Publish ing . This appointment is part of the succession plan that EMI Group announced for its New York-based publishing division in January 2005. EMI Group CEO Eric Nicoli has said: “Roger is the ideal person to lead the next stage of EMI Music Publishing’s development with his strategic insight, his digital prowess, his passion for and knowledge of music publishing and his vision for the company. With his highly talented and creative management team and EMI Music Publishing’s outstanding roster of songwriters and catalogue, the company is in great hands and has excellent prospects.” For the past year Faxon has been president and co-CEO of EMI Music Publishing, and prior to that president and COO of the division.  Faxon replaces Martin Bandier who was with the company for 17 years. Analysts said EMI’s announcement showed it was getting on with “business as usual&#...
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Electronic Arts opens digital music store
2007-03-06 12:24:01
After years of highlighting new bands through its many videogames, the world’s largest game publisher is getting into the digital music game. In a first for the videogame industry, Electronic Arts has opened a digital music store called EA Trax on its Web site, selling licensed and original music found on its videogame soundtracks. The move highlights the increasing role the videogame industry is taking in the field of digital music. For years, the music industry has worked closely with videogame publishers to promote new acts and releases through their soundtracks, particularly in genres that don’t get much radio airtime and that also appeal to the core gamer demographic of 18- to 35-year-old males. Of late, however, many videogames have featured original music that is not released on CDs or other outlets. But EA worldwide executive of music and marketing Steve Schnur said the site’s 6 million page views per month should enable the company to close the gap between...
More About: Music , Digital Music , Electronic Arts , Open

Fan mail
2007-03-05 12:23:01
“Who needs fan mail when you have the Internet?” Nuno Bettencourt
More About: Mail , Fan Mail

The spirit of the thing
2007-03-02 00:21:01
“Music is spiritual. The music business is not.” Van Morrison
More About: The Spirit , Spirit , Thing

Music Industry Remains Divided Over DRM
2007-03-02 00:21:01
The music industry has shaken the debates of DRM and the challenges of digital music in the overall business around the world during this last couple of days in the annual Digital Music Forum East Conference. The event was organized by Digital Media Wire at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York City, and is the industry’s only comprehensive digital music conference focused on the evolution and future of the digital music marketplace. The 77 speakers and over 400 attendees have debated the future of digital music where subjects like DRM and the mobile entertainment revolution were not forgotten. Day one, February 27, oppened with”The State of the Digital Union” early in the afternoon, with a panel of industry experts who discussed the future of Digital Rights Management (DRM). The debate covered a lot of the usual ground (”is DRM ncessessary;” “are labels bullies?;” “why aren’t users adopting digital music subscriptions?;̶...
More About: Industry , Main , Over , Music I

EMI DRM-free online talks stall
2007-02-28 12:20:02
Talks between EMI and online music services, including iTunes, on releasing music free of digital rights restrictions have stalled. EMI was approaching services offering to license tracks in MP3 format, with no limitation on consumer use of the content they own. In order to protect itself from any rampant file-sharing which may result if tracks were made available in DRM-free formats, EMI was requesting a significant up-front payment from online services. Bloomberg explains that Apple, Microsoft, RealNetworks, Yahoo, Amazon, and potentially others were unprepared to pay the fee requested, and came back with offers of up-front fees below the value EMI desired. “It’s a setback,” independent media analyst Harold Vogel told Bloomberg. “That this industry fights every change tooth and nail is not helping reverse the tide.” Warner is attempting to acquire EMI at present, though EMI management are concerned such a deal would face regulatory hurdles. US-based F...
More About: Free , Talk , Online , Tall , Line

Volaris airline rents iPods on board
2007-02-27 12:19:01
The airline company Volaris, known for its low-cost flights in Mexico, is now renting iPod s on board in a new service, the iPod Video, for US$ 5. The company started earlier this month, althougt for the moment the content is exclusively from Televisa’s TV series. The 30Gb iPods on board are available for renting in flights with over 2 hours. CEO Enrique Beltranena has stated that Volaris “wants to rewrite the concept of entertainment on board in Mexico”. By the way they’re going, they will reinvent entertainment on board in general. Volaris is the fisrt airliner to introduce this system. We hope more will follow.
More About: Ipod , Board , Line , Rent

DRM, no-DRM, maybe-DRM?
2007-02-27 12:19:01
  “If we’re still talking about DRM in five years, please take me out and shoot me.” eMusic CEO David Pakman
More About: Maybe