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Posts with tag warner

Amazon Gaining On iTunes' Lead In Online Music Sales

by Thomas Houston , posted Mar 27th 2008 at 10:02AM



Amazon recently moved into the number two online music retailer spot without much fanfare. Amazon's online MP3 store opened merely six months ago, and it appears to be gaining on the number one retailer -- Apple's iTunes Store, which commands 80% of online digital music sales.

The trends towards moving away from music burdened with digital rights management (DRM) software created new opportunities for Amazon. Why has DRM-free music -- which lets people play purchased tunes on any digital player or computer -- become such an important area of growth in the online music business? As Amazon's director of digital music, Pete Baltaxe, explained to USA Today: "Songs sold without DRM, at high quality, with album art, that's the best way to get people to buy music instead of stealing it," whereas DRM is a way to punish people who are buying...."

While Apple worked with record label EMI to sell DRM-free music in early 2007, the iTunes giant didn't have much luck getting other major labels immediately signed on. Instead of working with Apple -- currently offering 2 million DRM-free songs -- Warner, Sony/BMG and Universal decided to offer parts of their catalogs DRM-free on Amazon. Amazon's DRM-free library totals around 4.5 million, and is well-positioned to compete with iTunes.

Hopefully, the competition between the two retailers will result in better pricing and accessibility to music for consumers.

From USA Today

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Blu-Ray Disc Player Sales Skyrocket

by Alon Avdi, posted Jan 24th 2008 at 2:39PM



It appears that the high-definition disc format war between Blu-Ray and HD-DVD is nearing the mop-up stages, as Blu-Ray sales have accounted for 93% of the market share for set-top players since the second week of January. Coming on the heels of Warner's announcement to support Blu-ray rather than its rival, HD-DVD, these figured indicate that HD-DVD could be in its death throes. Interestingly, sales were almost evenly split during the first week of January, before the Warner announcement.

While the numbers suggest that the general public is taking the pragmatic approach in supporting the supposed victor, HD-DVD nevertheless continues to insist on business as usual. One aspect of the issue to consider is whether or not the mainstream media bears some responsibility for the skewed sales, as most media outlets reported the Warner story as the nail in HD-DVD's coffin. Did the media "make" news which the public followed? You decide, but it may be a moot point if Blu-Ray continues to enjoy its current market share for DVD players.

From The Digital Bits Via Engadget

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Sony Now Selling DRM-Free Music on Amazon

by Tim Stevens, posted Jan 11th 2008 at 1:32PM

Sony Selling DRM-Free Tunes on Amazon

Amazon.com has done it. In less than six months since its launch, the amazonmp3 service has gone from nothing to establishing a position as the only place on the web to legally download DRM-free music from every major American music studio. It was just a few weeks ago that Warner signed up, leaving Sony as the odd company out, something we predicted would change quickly. We didn't figure it'd be quite this quick, though, with Sony announcing plans to sell DRM-free music on amazonmp3.

DRM is of course the nasty copy protection that comes along much of the music you download online. Lately it's been going out of style faster than trucker hats and corny TV game shows, but Amazon.com's site is the only place on the web that exclusively sells DRM-free music from in a format that works on every digital music player known to man (the ubiquitous MP3), giving it a strong advantage over Apple's iTunes service. Plus, with many of its tracks available for $.89, ten cents cheaper than iTunes, at this point there's no reason not to check out what Amazon has to offer.

From USA Today

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MatchBox Twenty and Others Release Music on USB Drives

by Terrence O'Brien, posted Oct 19th 2007 at 11:42AM

Record Industry Releasing Music on USB Drives

Shhh... you hear that? That's the sound of the record industry grasping at straws. The latest desperate attempt to lure in consumers is selling albums on USB drives. This isn't the first time artists have gone the digital drive route, but the move is getting a renewed push from the record industry.

Universal, Warner and EMI have all announced plans to sell music on USB Flash drives. Details are scant, and there's no word on format, bit rate, DRM-or-not... nothing. All we do know is that they'll pack the drives up with extras like videos, desktop wallpapers and icons. We also know that these drives will be more expensive than their CD counterparts. As you can see from the above picture, the drives will come in fan-friendly wristband forms, for starters.

Earlier this year, the White Stripes dropped its latest album 'Icky Thump' on overpriced, albeit cool looking, USB drives. The band was beat to market by the Barenaked Ladies by a full two years, though. Now, Matchbox Twenty is preparing to release its next album 'Exile on Mainstream' on a USB bracelet.

Willie Nelson, the estate of Bob Marley, the Rolling Stones, and UK group the Fratellis all have also jumped on the bandwagon. However we can save the labels some time by letting them in on a secret: no one buys these things.

From Engadget and USA Today

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