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Virgin Mobile USA Offers Exclusive Ringtones from Cash Money Records

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 26, 2006 - 8:27am.
Warren, N.J. - Virgin Mobile USA said on Thursday that it has partnered with Universal Music's Cash Money Records to offer exclusive ringtones from Cash Money artists. Through Virgin Mobile USA's "First Dibs" program, five ringtones from artists including Lil Wayne, Mannie Fresh and Hot Boyz will be available exclusively to its subscribers through February.
tags: Mobile | Music | Ringtones | USA | Virgin | Records | Cash |

Google Vows to Fight U.S. Justice Department Request for Search Records

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 20, 2006 - 2:54am.
Washington - In a move being watched by Internet privacy advocates, search engine giant Google said that it plans to "vigorously" fight the Bush administration's demand to reveal what million of its users have been looking up on the Internet, several media outlets reported on Friday. The Justice Department is asking to see a random sampling of one million searches conducted on Google over a one-week period as part of its effort to revive the 1998 Child Online Protection Act (COPA), designed to protect minors from sexually explicit material. The measure was previously struck down by the Supreme Court on First Amendment grounds. Though several of Google's competitors, including Yahoo, America Online and MSN, already have complied with the request, Google told CNN that the government's demand for information "overreaches." "We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously," Nicole Wong, an associate general counsel for Google, wrote in a statement to the network. The government filed a motion on Wednesday demanding that Google turn over the records.
tags: Google | U.S | Records | Justice |

The Orchard to Distribute Digital Tracks for SST Records

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 11, 2006 - 4:04am.
New York - The Orchard, a distributor of digital music for independent labels, announced on Wednesday that it has signed a distribution deal with SST Records, home to hardcore bands including Black Flag, Descendents, Bad Brains and the Minutemen. Tracks from 94 SST albums will be offered exclusively on the eMusic digital music service for the next two weeks, before they are additionally offered through Orchard partners including iTunes, Napster, MSN Music and Rhapsody.
tags: The Orchard | Records | SST | Digital Tracks |

Radio and Records Named Exclusive Reseller of Promo Only MPE

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 10, 2006 - 4:26am.
Vancouver, B.C. - Destiny Media Technologies (DMT), a developer of technology that delivers radio singles from record labels to radio stations securely over the Internet, announced on Tuesday that it has named industry publication Radio and Records as the exclusive sales representative for its Promo Only MPE System. Vancouver-based DMT has to date delivered over 7,000 tracks from all four major labels to radio stations using Promo Only. "This relationship comes at a time when everyone is realizing that radio is embracing digital distribution," said John Fagot, senior director of digital initiatives and new business at Radio and Records. "The industry is increasingly aware of the positive effect digital distribution can have on record labels' bottom lines."
tags: Radio | MPE | Promo | Records | Reseller |

Gotuit Media Licenses KOCH Records Video for On-Demand Service

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 9, 2005 - 9:01am.
Woburn, Mass. - Gotuit Media, a provider of video-on-demand programming services, announced on Wednesday that it has signed an agreement with independent music label KOCH Records, to offer music videos and live concert footage from KOCH artists through its Gotuit Music On Demand product. The service is offered to cable TV and broadband TV providers in the U.S. and Canada.
tags: Video | on-Demand | Records | KOCH | Gotuit Media |

Song to Sell In-Flight CDs, Downloads in Joint Venture With Artemis Records

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 26, 2005 - 6:14am.
Atlanta -- Song, the discount carrier launched by Delta Air Lines, announced on Thursday that it has partnered with independent label Artemis Records to create Song Records, which will offer albums from its artists for sale on Song flights, as well as digital downloads through its in-flight entertainment system. Albums will also be available in retail stores and downloadable from the Song Records website. The first two Song Records artists to be featured will be Artemis signees Better Than Ezra and Jaguar Wright, with new artists to be added each quarter. "This venture was exciting to us because the music industry needs to really take risks and try some different things to create new avenues of visibility and that is what this will do," said Daniel Glass of Artemis Records.
tags: Downloads | Musics | Records | In-Flight CDs | Artemis |

Report: Interactive Advertising Sales Total Record $2.7 Billion in Q4

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 23, 2005 - 4:26am.
New York, N.Y. -- The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced on Tuesday that Internet advertising totaled nearly $2.7 billion in the fourth quarter of 2004, the highest quarterly revenue ever reported by the IAB. Estimates for the full-year 2004 totaled just under $9.6 billion -- a 32% increase over full-year 2003 ($7.3 billion). Sales in the fourth quarter of 2004 increased 24% over the fourth quarter in 2003 ($2.2 billion) and were about 17% higher than third quarter of 2004 ($2.3 billion), the report said.
tags: Reports | Interactive | Records |

Online Holiday Spending Expected to Reach Record $15 Billion

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 12, 2004 - 7:24am.
San Bruno, Calif. -- This holiday season is expected to be a boon for online retailers, according to a new forecast from comScore, a provider of Internet audience measurement services. The firm said that spending on non-travel goods at U.S. web sites should exceed $15 billion during the November through December holiday season. If the numbers hold true, that would represent growth of 23%-26% over a year ago. comScore also predicts total quarterly non-travel spending to cross the $20 billion threshold for the first time ever in the quarter. "We believe consumers' growing familiarity and confidence with online shopping, coupled with a dramatic increase in broadband penetration and continuing efforts by retailers to simplify the shopping process across channels, will translate to substantial gains for online merchants again this year," said Dan Hess, a senior vice president at comScore Networks.
tags: Internet | Records | Expected |

Report: Record 1.1 Billion Pirate CDs Sold Worldwide in 2003

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on July 22, 2004 - 4:49am.
London -- Despite reaching a record 1.1 billion discs in 2003, global sales of pirated music CDs have spread more slowly in recent years due to stepped up enforcement efforts, according to a report from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI). CD piracy in 2003 grew at its slowest rate in four years (4%), although total estimated illegal music sales were valued at $4.5 billion, or about 15% of all recorded music sold. The IFPI also identified 10 countries -- including Brazil, China, Pakistan and Russia -- where "governments urgently need to crack down on rampant illegal music sales." "Commercial music piracy dominates large swathes of the world's music markets, despite an encouraging slowdown in growth in 2003," said IFPI chairman and CEO Jay Berman. "The responsibility now is for governments -- and especially on the 10 priority countries our report names -- to act decisively against the problem. This means proper enforcement, deterrent sentences against pirates, effective regulation of disc manufacturing and, above all, the political will to make sure real change happens."
tags: Reports | Records | Worldwide | Pirate CDs |

"American Idol" Series Breaks Text-Messaging Event Record

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 27, 2004 - 7:08am.
Redmond, Wash. -- Wireless carrier AT&T Wireless announced on Thursday that its text-message voting feature for Fox's "American Idol" TV series once again figured as the largest text-messaging event by a single carrier, with 13.5 million messages sent during the course of the season. The figure -- an 80% jump over last year's 7.5 million text messages -- includes fan mail, games, sweepstakes entries and song dedications, in addition to actual votes. The show's viewer voting structure has generated some controversy this season, due to reports that many millions of phone votes haven't been counted due to busy lines, possibly created by phone hackers. "Our sponsorship of 'American Idol' is the seminal event that got mainstream America text messaging," said Andre Dahan, president of AT&T Wireless mobile multimedia services.
tags: American Idol | Records | Text-Messages |

TiVo Adds Record 264,000 Subscribers in First Quarter

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on May 26, 2004 - 7:20am.
San Jose, Calif. -- TiVo, a provider of digital video recorder services, announced that it added a record 264,000 new subscribers during the first quarter of 2004 -- triple the number added in the same period last year -- and now claims a total of 1.6 million subscribers. The company estimated that 196,000 of the new additions resulted directly from its relationship with DirecTV -- nearly five times the number of new subscribers from satellite TV reported in 2003. TiVo expects to add 265,000 to 300,000 in the second quarter, and says it is still on target to reach 10 million subscribers in three or four years.
tags: Subscribers | TiVo | Records | First Quarter |

Report: Record $2.2 Billion in 'Net Ad Revenue Generated in Q4 2003

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on February 13, 2004 - 9:06am.
New York -- Online advertising recorded its highest revenue-producing quarter ever in the fourth quarter of 2003, when $2.2 billion from ads was generated -- bringing revenues for the year of 2003 to $7.2 billion, a 20% increase over 2002, according to data from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PricewaterhouseCoopers. The previous single-quarter ad revenue record of $2.12 billion was set in the fourth quarter of 2000. "The consistent revenue growth signals, in part the increased adoption of broadband," said PricewaterhouseCoopers new media group chair Tom Hyland. "Combined with the evolution of emerging ad formats including Search the growing health of the online medium and its proven advertising effectiveness bode well for sustainable revenue growth."
tags: Reports | Records | Q4 | Generated |

U.K. Video Game Sales Grow 7.1% to Record $2.3 Billion in 2003

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 6, 2004 - 4:14am.
London -- Sales of video games in the U.K. rose 7.1% in 2003 to a record $2.3 billion (1.26 billion pounds), according to figures tallied by the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), a U.K. video game trade group. The group said that 15 game titles sold at least 300,000 units in the U.K. during the 10 weeks leading up to the Christmas holiday. Game developer Electronic Arts claimed four of the ten top-selling games, with its "FIFA 2004" and "FIFA 2003" both selling over 600,000 units. Other top 10 titles included Take-Two Interactive's "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City" and Atari's "Enter the Matrix." "The U.K. video games industry sales have been on the rise for the last 20 years -- it topped the £2 billion mark for the first time in 2002 and this year, once the final figures for all hardware are compiled, will see that dynamic trend continue," said ELSPA director general Roger Bennett.
tags: U.K | Video Games | Records |

Webcasters Challenge Bill That Would Loosen Record Label Antitrust Laws

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on December 12, 2003 - 5:16am.
Washington -- The Webcaster Alliance, a trade group made up of Internet broadcasters, announced on Friday that it has filed a legal complaint against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the five major record labels, opposing a recent bill introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) that would relax antitrust regulations for the recording industry. The "Enhancing Federal Obscenity Reporting and Copyright Enforcement Act of 2003" (the EnFORCE Act), the group says, would expand the existing antitrust exemption enjoyed by the recording industry to cover all compulsory mechanical licenses under section 115 of the Copyright Act. "A Federal Judge recently approved a $143 million settlement in the CD price-fixing case that was brought against the RIAA's Big 5 record label members," said Webcaster Alliance president Ann Gabriel. "Yet here they are attaching additional language to expand their antitrust exemptions to a bill they know most legislators would have a hard time opposing, since it deals with the exploitation of children. This is so typical of the RIAA and their manipulative, smoke and mirrors tactics." The Webcaster Alliance is asking the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to rule the record labels in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act, as well as for a declaratory judgment that the labels have engaged in misuse of their copyrights. http://www.webcasteralliance.com/modules/news/index.php?storytopic=5  http://www.webcasteralliance.com/docs/WA_complaint.pdf
tags: Antitrust | Records | Webcasters | Laws |

Record Industry Creates "One-Stop" License for International Webcasting

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on November 11, 2003 - 7:55am.
London -- The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), an international trade group of record labels, announced on Tuesday the availability of a new "one-stop" international license for Internet radio broadcasters. The agreement will enable webcasters to obtain a single license that covers the rights to stream music across a number of nations simultaneously, instead of having to acquire separate licenses from each country. The agreement covers only streaming radio stations; licenses for paid downloads must still be obtained for each applicable region. The IFPI said over 30 nations are expected to sign the webcasting agreement, including the U.S., France, Germany, India, Spain and the U.K. "It was important for our collecting societies to set up a system that would remove these hurdles," said IFPI chairman and CEO Jay Berman. "It will be much easier for these companies to operate across borders, and we expect to see webcasting gain momentum as a result of this agreement."
tags: International | Records | One-Stop | Webcasting |

Vivendi's Universal Music to Buy DreamWorks Records for $100 Million

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on October 31, 2003 - 9:01am.
New York -- Vivendi's Universal Music Group has reached an agreement in principle to buy DreamWorks Records for about $100 million, Billboard.com reported. The label, founded by the team of Steven Spielberg, Jeffrey Katzenberg and David Geffen, is home to artists including Rufus Wainwright, Eels, Q-Tip and the late Elliott Smith. Under the terms of the agreement, DreamWorks would operate under Jimmy Iovine at Universal's Interscope/Geffen/A&M label group, although it remains unclear whether DreamWorks will retain its identity as a separate label. DreamWorks is also reportedly seeking to sell off its music publishing business for between $200-$300 million.
tags: Universal Music | DreamWorks | Vivendi | Records |

Record Industry Sends Individual Warnings to Online Song-Swappers

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on April 29, 2003 - 9:47am.
Los Angeles -- The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), a trade group representing major record labels that has served as the industry's voice against online music piracy, has stepped up its campaign against file-sharing services by sending individual instant messages to users of Kazaa and Grokster, warning them of the penalties of criminal copyright infringement. "When you offer music on these systems, you are not anonymous and you can easily be identified," reads part of the message sent to around 200,000 file-sharing service users on Tuesday. The RIAA told Reuters that at least one million users will receive the message by the end of the week. "We're going to be sending messages to the very people who are offering music, in real time, as they do it," RIAA president Cary Sherman told CNET News.com. "The hope is that this way we'll be reaching the people who need to know that they are not anonymous, that there are risks of legal consequences if they continue, and also that there are risks to privacy and security."
tags: Internet | Records | Song-Swappers | Warnings |

Report: U.S. Video Game Sales Hit Record $6.9 Billion in 2002

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 28, 2003 - 4:47am.
Washington, D.C. -- U.S. video game sales grew 8 percent to a record-breaking $6.9 billion in 2002, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Interactive Digital Software Association (IDSA), a trade group representing computer and video game software publishers. The numbers, compiled by NPD Group, show that $5.5 billion was spent on console games, while computer games accounted for $1.4 billion in sales. Console games now account for 80 percent of the market, compared with 65 percent five years ago. A poll conducted by the IDSA and KRC Research found that 41 percent of all Americans, and almost two-thirds of parents, say they plan to purchase at least one game this year. "We believe that 2003 will be the peak year of the current hardware cycle, with software sales surging at least 10 percent yet again, and perhaps considerably more depending on other external factors," said IDSA president Douglas Lowenstein.
tags: Reports | U.S | Video Games | Records |

Record Number of Britons Signing Up for Broadband

Authored by Mark Hefflinger on January 28, 2003 - 4:43am.
London -- Record numbers of British households and businesses are signing up for broadband Internet services, according to Oftel, the country's telecommunications regulator. Almost 30,000 subscribers a week are switching to broadband, increasing the total number in the U.K. to more than 1.4 million. About 42 percent of U.K. households are connected to the Internet, either with a standard or broadband connection. http://www.oftel.gov.uk/press/releases/2003/pr03_03.htm
tags: Deals | Broadband | Records | Britons |