Tag: ONLINE MUSIC

iTunes, now the world's largest music retailer, is under fire from many competitors, including Amazon's amazonmp3 service, which sells most popular tracks for $.99, but also offers plenty of other tracks at $.79 or less. So how does Apple respond to this pressure? Why, by raising prices on some tracks $.30, naturally. Starting April 7, Apple will raise the prices of a number of its hottest ...

While the iTunes store is doing better than, say, Tower Records, it's still getting a miniscule fraction of online music downloads. According to a report by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), 95% of the music being downloaded online is illegal. The global music trade body said this is its biggest challenge as artists and record companies miss out on payments. ...

A study performed by the MCPS-PRS Alliance, a non-profit royalty collection service, has found that only 15 percent of the albums hosted online last year sold as much as a single copy. This report flies in the face of author Chris Anderson's popular "long tail" theory, which states that Internet music sales depend more upon niche artists than MTV-style chart-toppers. The MSPS-PRS study found ...

If you purchased and downloaded your first digital album this year, then congratulations, you're not alone! Demand for legal music downloads increased an impressive 29-percent last quarter over the same quarter in 2007. Interestingly, while illegal downloads of music also increased over the same period, they rose only 23 percent. This means that more and more people are turning to legal ...

As more and more music is bought (or otherwise acquired) online, physical sales of CDs have plummeted over the past few years and have dragged liner notes and album artwork down with them. But some folks in the music business, while they cope with the decrease in sales, are not willing to let liner notes and artwork go the way of the 8-Track, Reuters investigates. As Pink and Snow Patrol have ...

At this year's You are in Control conference, in Iceland, Warner Chappell will tell the world what our three-year-old golden retriever already knows...The groundbreaking release of Radiohead's 'In Rainbows', though not flawless, was a massive success. For those of you who don't know what we're talking about, here's a little back story... A year ago, Radiohead released its newest album on its ...

Walmart began selling DRM-free tracks in its music store in August of last year. 13 months later, the mega-corp has decided to follow the footsteps of so many others and hit the kill switch on its DRM management servers. As noted in an e-mail to customers, Wally World will be making the final transition into a fully DRM-free MP3 store on October 9th, and in order to keep those DRM-laden files ...

MySpace, the popular social networking site, has come up with a creative solution to a lawsuit filed by Universal Music Group. Instead of just settling with Universal, Myspace (owned by News Corp) announced a new joint business venture with three major record labels: Warner, Sony BMG and Universal. The company will be called Myspace Music and will launch in July or August of this year. It will ...

Took them awhile, but Sony BMG is finally selling access to all of its music online. Big boss man Rolf Schmidt-Holtz has been quoted saying that Sony BMG is "working on an one music subscription service" which would cost between €6 to €8 per month (about $9 to $12), and provide access to the entire Sony BMG music catalog. Schmidt-Holtz goes on to say that customers could own "some ...

Debates are raging around the world regarding exactly what role Internet Service Providers, or ISPs, should have when it comes to the illegal swapping of music or movie files. In the U.S., Comcast has already taken steps to block those who would share files, while Verizon has made it clear that it has no intentions to monitor those it provides service to. In Japan, though, the debates are over, as ...

Just a few years ago the smart phone was a something only the slightly geeky business professionals of the world would carry, usually by clipping the bulky monstrosities onto their belts for all to see. Today, though, with slim and pocketable smart phones like Apple's iPhone and the HTC Touch, the devices have started to shrug off their professional manners and start to live it up a little. The ...

Sure Rhapsody isn't iTunes, but the online music store/serviceis still a massively popular source for digital music, and it has a rather impressive catalog available to purchase or "rent" (via subscription). Yesterday, at CES, Matt Rowlen, Vice President of Real Networks, joined the head of the new Philips Consumer Lifestyle division, Andrea Ragnetti, on stage at a press conference to announce ...