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LabelsMOD Systems Licenses Major Label Tracks for Retailer KiosksAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on January 11, 2007 - 12:34pm.
Las Vegas - MOD Systems, a provider of in-store digital media systems, announced that it has signed new licensing agreements with Warner Music Group, Sony BMG, Universal Music Group, and EMI Music. Retailers utilizing the MOD System platform will have access to more than one million tracks and samples, providing patrons with the ability to browse a catalog, preview samples, create customized playlists, and then burn them to CD or download them to a music player or music-enabled phone. Apple, Major Labels Agree to Maintain 99 Cent Song DownloadsAuthored by dmw on May 2, 2006 - 11:18am.
New York - Apple Computer has succeeded after months of negotiations with the major record labels in keeping the price of digital song downloads at 99 cents for the time being, the Financial Times reported. Details on the term length of the new agreements have not been made public. Several label executives at Warner, EMI and Sony have called for variable pricing that would discount catalog releases, and allow the labels to charge higher prices for new digital releases, prompting Apple CEO Steve Jobs to publicly label the industry as "greedy". Some label executives privately acknowledged to FT that they "have little leverage over Mr. Jobs." Apple's iTunes Store accounts for around 80% of U.S. digital music sales.
WSJ: Amazon, Labels in Talks on Digital Music Subscription ServiceAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 16, 2006 - 8:51am.
Seattle - Online retail giant Amazon.com is in licensing negotiations with the four major record labels, with eyes toward launching its own digital music service, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. On Tuesday, Warner Music Group CEO Edgar Bronfman told reporters that the company has been in talks with Amazon. "We certainly have been working closely with Amazon as they work to launch their service," said Bronfman. "They have a very powerful base of CD purchasers and we think that their digital launch, when it comes sort of second half of the year, we hope will be a successful one." Amazon, which claims 55 million customers with active accounts, is said to be looking at a subscription-based service like Napster, The Journal reported. The service would offer subscribers a discounted, Amazon-branded portable music player made by Samsung.
Report: Spitzer's Digital Music Probe Centered on Labels' Price GuaranteesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on January 12, 2006 - 3:50am.
Los Angeles - New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer's ongoing probe into digital music price-fixing is centering on the "most-favored nation" status that record labels have demanded when licensing their songs to online services, ensuring they get the same rates as their rivals, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday. "Some of the major labels have proposed and re-proposed and insisted on the inclusion in their licenses of most-favored nations clauses which would grant that label the benefits and pricing negotiated by a competing label," Jonathan Potter, executive director of the Digital Media Assn., which represents Apple, Yahoo and others, told the Times. "Collusion has never been known to lower prices." While executives at some music companies told the Times that such clauses have not been activated, executives at online music retailers said they have been enacted several times -- to ensure a label gets the highest-price download, or even mandate that a retailer exert equal marketing efforts to promote a label's artists.
N.Y. Times Op-Ed: CD Copy-Protection is Bad for Consumers, Musicians, LabelsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on December 9, 2005 - 4:13am.
New York - The New York Times this week published an op-ed piece written by Damian Kulash, Jr., the lead singer for the U.K. band OK Go, on the Sony BMG copy-protected CD debacle and how such anti-piracy technology is actually hurting up-and-coming bands like his. "Sony BMG and the other major labels need to face reality: copy-protection software is bad for everyone, consumers, musicians and labels alike," writes Kulash. "It's much better to have copies of albums on lots of iPods, even if only half of them have been paid for, than to have a few CD's sitting on a shelf and not being played."
Labels, Webcasters Fail to Reach Agreement on Streaming Royalty RatesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on July 8, 2005 - 2:40am.
Washington -- Record labels negotiating with webcasters on updated royalty rates for the rights stream music online have failed to reach an agreement during a "voluntary negotiation period," Radio and Internet Newsletter reported. SoundExchange, the recording industry entity set up to collect and distribute digital royalties, noted that "settlement discussions are ongoing." The current rates were set only after bitter debate and a flawed royalty arbitration that spurred an overhaul of the entire process, resulting in the creation of a panel of Copyright Royalty Judges. Should negotiations between labels and webcasters break down, the two sides will submit statements of evidence for a "settlement conference"; should that conference fail to produce a settlement, the Copyright Royalty Judges will then hold their own hearings and independently set royalty rates for webcasters.
Snocap Opens Legal P2P Song Registry to Independent Labels, ArtistsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on June 13, 2005 - 9:53am.
San Francisco -- Snocap, a digital music venture founded by Napster creator Shawn Fanning to serve as a digital registry and identification service for online songs, announced on Monday that it has begun allowing independent artists and record labels to register their songs in its database. All of the major record labels except for Warner have begun registering their songs with Snocap, which hopes to license its database to peer-to-peer file-sharing networks so that only authorized copyrighted files may be exchanged -- on the copyright holder's terms. Independent labels including TVT, Ryko, Artemis and Nettwerk have now also begun to register songs with Snocap.
U.S. Independent Record Labels Form New Trade GroupAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on June 8, 2005 - 10:32am.
New York -- A consortium of U.S. independent record labels has joined together to form the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), a trade group that aims to "promote the significant market share of its combined membership," and "urge government and business to support fair trade practices, including equal access to the media and the marketplace, on par with the largest companies in the industry." Some 125 record labels are now members of A2IM. Noting that over 30% of Internet radio play is derived from independent label artists, Steve Gottlieb, CEO of TVT Records and an A2IM board member, told CNET News.com: "Manufactured pop culture is disintegrating before your eyes as the Net takes hold, but some of these institutional biases hold on and continue into new media … Any arrangement that treats music differently by virtue of it being owned by multinationals is not a good strategy and is doomed to fail."
Cingular Launches Ringtone Service to Promote New Singles for LabelsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on April 12, 2005 - 10:17am.
Atlanta -- Mobile network operator Cingular Wireless on Tuesday launched a service that will premiere new music singles as ringtones, either before they are heard anywhere else, or at the same time that the song debuts on radio. The first such song to be promoted through the Cingular Sounds service will be "Speed of Sound," the first single off of Coldplay's forthcoming album X&Y, due for release on Capitol Records on June 7. Cingular has deals to offer master recording ringtones of songs from all four major record labels.
Labels Sue Altnet to Block P2P Ad Revenue-Sharing FundAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 4, 2005 - 7:12am.
Sydney -- The major record labels suing peer-to-peer file-sharing software firm Altnet and its more well-known partner Kazaa in Australia for copyright infringement have asked a court there to block Altnet's plans to launch an advertising revenue-sharing fund with the independent labels utilizing its file-sharing distribution service. Altnet announced earlier this week plans to launch a new service that would share advertising revenue derived from its file-sharing service with labels such as V2, Artemis, Epitaph and Simmons/Lathan, who have distributed their artists' works via Altnet. Altnet has also sued the RIAA in the U.S. for patent infringement of its "TrueNames" technology, which it says the labels and antipiracy firms Overpeer and Media Sentry have misappropriated to seed file-sharing networks with "spoof" files.
Report: Some Major Labels Want Price Hike for Digital Music DownloadsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on February 28, 2005 - 3:55am.
New York -- Some of the major record labels are in negotiations with online music retailers to increase the wholesale price of digital music downloads, The Financial Times reported on Monday. One top label told The Financial Times it wouldn't raise prices because the market is not yet mature enough, while the paper noted that Universal Music and Sony BMG "are known to be particularly reluctant to disrupt the market for downloads." The report said that Apple CEO Steve Jobs was "angered" by the desire of some labels to increase the wholesale price of digital downloads, now believed to be about $0.65; most online retailers currently sell tracks for $0.99 each. Analysts cautioned that an increase in download prices could result in consumers returning to illegitimate services that offer free downloads. "It seems to me to be singularly bad timing," Gartner analyst Michael McGuire told FT.com.
News.com: Labels Looking to Limit CD Burning CapabilitiesAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on June 2, 2004 - 3:29pm.
San Francisco -- Citing the unfettered copying of CDs enabled by CD burners, the major record labels are currently testing technology that would limit the number of times a CD may be copied, and eliminate the ability to make copies of copies, CNET News.com reported on Wednesday. Anti-piracy firms SunnComm and Macrovision are developing such technologies in cooperation with the labels, with SunnComm and BMG already testing a "secure burn" solution and Macrovision expected to release its technology within several months. "If there's somebody who's making 25 copies for the world and finds they can't do that, then few people will probably complain. But if someone finds they can't make a copy for their kid so he can play it in the car, you're going to have a lot of people returning broken CDs," Mike McGuire, an analyst with GartnerG2, told News.com. A Macrovision executive told News.com that the labels are also interested in further limiting the amount of copying that can be done with songs purchased from online services like iTunes and Napster.
U.S. Indie Record Labels Look to Form Own Trade GroupAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on April 2, 2004 - 8:51am.
New York -- Over 150 U.S. independent record labels are negotiating to form their own trade group to negotiate copyright and distribution matters on behalf of members, The Financial Times reported. Details for the group, whose working title is "American Music Independents," will be discussed during meetings in New York and Los Angeles this month. The group would give a voice to independents not represented by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), whose members include the major record labels Sony, BMG, EMI, Warner and Universal. U.S. independent record labels represent approximately 13% of the world's $13 billion total music sales, and about 30% of the online retail market. The proposed U.S. group has consulted both the U.K.'s Association of Independent Music (AIM) and Europe's Impala -- which represents 2,400 independent labels -- on organizing the collective.
Aussie Judge Denies Kazaa Motion to Exclude Evidence Seized by LabelsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on March 4, 2004 - 6:53am.
Sydney -- Australia's Sharman Networks, distributors of the Kazaa file-sharing software, have lost a legal motion to have evidence seized by the Australian record industry in February raids on its offices and executives' homes declared off-limits. Justice Murray Wilcox ruled that, despite similar legal actions taken against Kazaa in other jurisdictions -- in which the company complied with subpoenas during copyright infringement investigations -- the Anton Piller orders he issued to the record industry to conduct its searches without prior warning were justified. The judge ordered the two sides to meet and discuss the handing over of evidence seized in the raids. "We remain outraged at the heavy-handed tactics that have been used by the record industry to obtain information that we would have provided through the normal, appropriate court process," said Sharman CEO Nikki Hemming. In his ruling, Justice Wilcox noted that the Anton Piller orders were necessary in order to provide a "snapshot" of the inner workings of Kazaa while in progress. The Australian recording industry's case against Sharman Networks is now set to begin in earnest on March 23.
Labels Sue Website for "Parallel Importing" of CDs, Undercutting RetailersAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on January 13, 2004 - 3:36am.
Los Angeles -- The Financial Times reports that the British High Court next month will hear a case brought by the recording industry against an online company importing cheap CDs from Asia and selling them for profit in Britain and other European markets. The British Phonographic Industry is alleging that Hong Kong-based CD Wow is engaged in "parallel importing" -- where goods are illegally imported into a region without the copyright owner's consent. The site sells CDs for an average of $7 less than is charged for the same albums in U.K. record stores, and was estimated to have sales of $184 million in 2003. CD Wow CEO Philip Robinson told the Financial Times the company will vigorously defend the lawsuit. "I would not have set the business up if there was something intrinsically wrong with it."
Belgian Consumer Group Sues Labels Over Copy-Protected CDsAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on January 5, 2004 - 4:24am.
Brussels -- Belgium's consumer watchdog Test-Achats (Test Aankoop) announced on Monday that it is taking major record labels EMI, Sony, BMG and Universal Music to court over the copy-protection technology they are beginning to embed on their audio CDs. The regulator says that it has received numerous consumer complaints that the anti-piracy systems have prevented the CDs from being played on PCs and car stereos, and that the technology strips consumers of their usual ability to make a back-up copy of a CD. With the news, Test-Achats becomes the first European watchdog to challenge the global music industry over its anti-piracy measures.
Kazaa Sues Labels, Studios, Alleging Collusion and Copyright MisuseAuthored by Mark Hefflinger on January 28, 2003 - 4:48am.
Los Angeles -- The owner of the Kazaa file-sharing service sued the recording and motion picture industries in federal court on Monday, accusing them of antitrust violations and colluding to deny licenses to offer their popular songs and movies on its peer-to-peer network. Sharman Networks, which recently lost a jurisdictional argument and will stand trial in the U.S. on alleged copyright violations by its Kazaa service, asked a judge to determine that the major record labels' and movie studios' copyrights should be invalidated because of their misuse. The accusations stem from meetings Sharman partner Brilliant Digital Entertainment -- which runs the copyright-authorized Altnet file-sharing service -- had with major record labels and movie studios in trying to license content for its service. Napster also made similar arguments in its legal wrangling with record labels, but the company declared Chapter 11 before the allegations of copyright misuse could ever be addressed in court.
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