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Report: U.S. Ringtone Market to Fall 7% in '08; Ringbacks on Rise

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 27, 2008 - 8:07am.

New York - Ringback tones -- the ringtones that can be programmed to play when a caller dials your mobile number -- will lead mobile music growth and surpass $210 million in U.S. retail sales this year, up 50% from 2007, according to a projection from performing rights organization BMI (Broadcast Music, Inc.).

tags: Mobile | Music | Reports | Ringtones | Ringbacks | Research | BMI |

ASCAP, BMI Launch RapidCue Music Cue Sheet Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 14, 2007 - 2:19pm.

New York - Performing rights organizations ASCAP and BMI on Tuesday jointly announced the launch of RapidCue, an online service that film, TV and cable producers can use to enter, manage and electronically submit music cue sheet data. A cue sheet is a document that lists data on all the music performed in a particular film or TV show, used to calculate royalties paid to artists and copyright holders.

tags: TV | Music | Movies | ASCAP | BMI | RapidCue |

BMI Expects 8% Downturn in U.S. Ringtone Sales in 2007

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 28, 2007 - 1:27pm.

*A correction has been made to the original version of this story.

New York - Performing rights organization BMI has said in its third annual projection of U.S. ringtone sales that it expects an 8% downturn in 2007, with sales dipping to $550 million.

tags: Mobile | Music | Ringtones | BMI |

SpiralFrog Licenses BMI Catalog for Ad-Supported Download Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 14, 2006 - 6:55am.

New York - Performing rights organization Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) announced on Thursday that it has licensed the over 6.5 million musical works it represents for distribution on SpiralFrog, an ad-supported music download service.

tags: Music | Universal Music | EMI | KOCH | BMI | SpiralFrog |

BMI Acquires Song Identification Technology from U.K.-Based Shazam

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on August 30, 2005 - 4:57am.
New York -- BMI, the performing rights organization that represents 300,000 songwriters and 6.5 million works, announced on Tuesday that it has acquired the technology assets of Shazam Entertainment, a developer of mobile music recognition technology. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed. Terms of the deal call for Landmark Digital Services, a new subsidiary of BMI, to acquire the music recognition technology from U.K.-based Shazam -- which it will rename BlueArrow. Shazam will receive a worldwide exclusive license from Landmark to continue offering the music recognition technology to consumers; Shazam's service lets users dial a number, hold their cell phones up to a speaker playing music, and receive a message sent to their phones containing the artist and song title of the song being played. BMI plans to use the BlueArrow technology to identify members' songs played on various media, including radio and TV, to track and process royalty payments. "Pattern recognition technology is the single most promising way to identify music performed on today's media and further into the digital future," said BMI president and CEO Del Bryant. "BlueArrow technology will give us a powerful new tool for the identification of music played on radio, television and in digital media."
tags: U.K | BMI | Song Identification Technology | Shazam |

BMI: 2005 U.S. Ringtone Retail Sales to Surpass $500 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 9, 2005 - 2:54am.
New York -- Performing rights organization BMI, which represents more than 300,000 songwriters, predicts that retail sales of cell phone ringtones in the U.S. this year will surpass $500 million, up from $245 million in 2004 and $68 million in 2003. The organization, which has processed over 150 million ringtone sales since entering the market in 2001, said it based its projection on census-based sales data aggregated from 225 mobile entertainment retailers. "We see the growth trend in ringtones and mobile entertainment continuing through mid 2006," said Richard Conlon, BMI vice president of business development. "We believe that the market will double for the ringtone sector alone. Any revenues derived from the ringback-tone services and mobile subscription music services, which have just begun to roll out in the U.S., will be incremental."
tags: Music | U.S | Surpass | BMI | Retail Sales |

ASCAP, BMI License Digital Jukebox Firms TouchTunes, Ecast

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on March 11, 2004 - 6:19am.
New York -- Performing rights organization ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) announced on Thursday that it has reached licensing agreements with digital jukebox manufacturers TouchTunes and Ecast, covering the rights to perform music from ASCAP members on their jukeboxes in bars and restaurants. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed. Under the deals, ASCAP will receive detailed reporting information from both companies on which songs are played on their jukeboxes, in order to accurately compensate artists for their works. Separately, San Francisco-based Ecast said it has also secured a licensing agreement with the other large performing rights organization in the U.S., BMI (Broadcast Music International).
tags: ASCAP | TouchTunes | Jukebox | BMI | Ecast |