iTunes continued to be the top retailer of music with 28% of all music purchased by U.S. , up 4% since Q1 2009 according to researcher NPD. Amazon gained 3% to tie Walmart's shrinking music department for second position at 12% Sales of digital tracks and albums accounted for 40% overall music sales in the first quarter of 2010, up 5% from Q1 2009.*
iTunes Flat For Last 4 Quarters
When reviewing sales of digital music separately from CDs, NPD found that iTunes’s share of the digital-music download market has remained essentially flat since Q1 2009 - growing just 1% to 70% of the digital music market last quarter. At the same time, AmazonMP3 grew by 4% to reach 12% while Amazon’s share of the CD market grew 2% to 11%.
"Amazon’s growth reflects a stronger position in both the CD and digital formats,” said Russ Crupnick, VP of NPD. “This dual-pronged approach of selling both digital music and CDs helps attract the most valuable and committed music buyer who prefers access to both formats.”
Walmart led U.S. CD purchases in Q1 2010 with a 17% share of the retail market. Best Buy followed Walmart with 14%, Amazon’s 11 percent share positioned them in third place.
* NPD’s data is based on a combined music-retailer ranking that reflects the combined sales of CDs and digital music downloads (i.e., 12 digital music track downloads are equivalent to one CD).
Feds Investigating Apple's Control Of Music Industry
The U.S. Department of Justice is in the early stages of an investigation into how Apple runs its digital music business, according to several reports. While the probe is broad in scope, reportedly of particular interest to the Feds are alleged heavy handed tactics used against labels that participated in Amazon's Daily Deal promotion, which Hypebot reported in early March.
In 2009, Amazon began asking labels to give it a 1 day exclusive and digital marketing support as part of the Daily Deal package. "When that happened iTunes said, enough of that shit," and began threatening to bury releases that had been featured on it competitor.
Once a beloved and scrappy upstart, the DOJ investigation is further confirmation that Apple's image is shifting to that of corporate behemoth. According to NPD Group data, Apple is the dominant retailer of music downloads in the U.S. with 69% of the market and Amazon is second with just 8%. When physical product is factored in, Apples is still #1 with 26.7% of sales.
“Certainly if the Justice Department is getting involved, it raises the possibility of potential serious problems down the road for Apple,” Daniel L. Brown, an antitrust lawyer at Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton told the New York Times.
Inside Amazon's Daily Deal
The Daily Deal has been, for all practical purposes, a free promotion subsidized by Amazon. If accepted into the program, artists and labels are asked for a one day exclusive. During that 24 hours Amazon aggressively discounts the title to between $1.99 and $3.99. In part, to keep each sale eligible to be counted on the major charts, Amazon actually reimburses the labels at the normal wholesale price. In effect, subsidizing about $3 of each purchase. Amazon MP3 also features the title on its web pages and to the 1.4 million that follow the Daily Deal on Twitter.
Unlike the old price and positioning charges at brick and mortar retail, Amazon and most other online retailers do not charge labels for these promotions. In the case of the Daily Deal, artists and labels are only asked to promote the release via their web sites, email lists and social networks.
Some label executives worried that deep discounts cannibalized early sales that would have happened at full price. But one major label group recently told its labels that its own studies had shown that as much as 95% of all Daily Deal sales were incremental and would never have happened without the discount.
Apple Fought Back
Steve Jobs has often attempted to position himself as a champion of music and Apple as music's savior. But not this time.
Starting early last year, Jobs & Co. reportedly made it clear to almost every major and indie record label that participation in Amazon's Daily Deal would cost then dearly at iTunes. Afraid of Apple's power, most labels capitulated.
(UPDATED) We've heard the rumors before, but this one comes from the top. "We are in a position that allows us to seize every opportunity in the market - including EMI," the head of Sony Music, Rolf Schmidt-Holz, told German Sunday paper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
On Thursday Warner Music Chief Executive Edgar Bronfman declined to comment during an earnings call about speculation that he was also eyeing EMI.
On Monday morning Dow Jones reported that no talks between Sony and EMI are currently under way.
Insiders are claiming that Guy Hands is "close" to getting the approval of enough Terra Firma investors to give EMI just enough cash to keep lender CitiGroup from foreclosing. That may be true or it may be wishful thinking designed to gather investor momentum .
Meanwhile, rumors are swirling. Queen is said to be moving their lucrative catalog. Candid remarks by the head of Sony showed they are interested and have the cash. But reports early on Monday say no talks are underway. That may be because any buyer wants to know who the seller is going to be - EMI or Citi. Universal is said to be circling and waiting out the week. WMG group is holding its cards closer to the chest; and while it's interest in EMI is well known, it has much less cash to work with. Others are interested in only EMI's more profitable publishing division and some unusual partnerships are possible.
Meanwhile morale is low and frustration is high within the walls of EMI as employees wait for any news. More layoffs, particularly in North America, seem inevitable. But how many and who?
Vote: Should EMI Be Saved?
We should learn this week if EMI is going fall into the hands of creditor Citi or continue to operate as an independent company. But should EMI be saved? When companies like EMI are sold off in pieces many good people loose their jobs and artists careers are stalled if not ruined. But is the day of the major label over? Or do we still need big labels to deliver big hits and create stadium level artists?
Guy Hands Has Just 10 Days To Save EMI 2010/5/4 葛涵思Guy Hands在2007年向花旗借鉅款買入的百年老唱片公司百代可能因債務纏身而被拍賣。
(Updated) Guy Hands has just 10 days left to convince investors to add fresh funds to save EMI from the hands of the bankers at Citi. Because of the looming deadline, the Terra Firma boss has reportedly slashed his fundraising goal to just the £105 million needed to make one overdue loan payment and stop foreclosure for the next 10 to 12 months. Hands had originally been asking investors for £360 million. A few of the firm's largest investors have apparently given verbal commitments, but Hands still needs to secure the support of 75% of his fund's 200 investors before the May 14th deadline. It may not be an easy decision for investors. On the one hand cost cuts have lowered overhead without apparently hampering the label group's ability to deliver hits. At the same time, however, the turmoil has led key artists like Paul McCartney to move their profitable catalogs and others to reexamine the risk of doing business with EMI at all.
Google起訴唱片公司 聲稱未侵犯版權 2010/5/6 Google sues indie label Blue Destiny Records and RapidShare over copyright claims. (Hollywood Reporter) http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3i8f1f42046a622bdac513d3123ec3434a
Google近日向一家藍調音樂唱片公司提起訴訟，尋求法院判決：在搜索結果中提供連結並不構成“協助他人非法發行受到版權保護的歌曲”。 Google在加州北部的一家地區法庭起訴了該名為Blues Destiny Records (BDR)的公司，要求法院就BDR三月下旬撤訴的官司作出判決。
據This is Money報導在EMI董事長Charles Allen 最近向Terra Firma 總裁 Guy Hands提交的5年戰略計畫中決定撤銷賣掉EMI旗下分公司的計畫，但This is Money認為Charles Allen一直試著賣掉其在北美的業務是可以理解的。 Terra Firma準備用這份戰略計畫吸引投資者購買額外發行的債券用於解決EMI的債務問題，防止EMI被Citigroup接管。
New EMI Music chairman Charles Allen is believed to have pulled back from suggesting sales of parts of the group in the strategic plan he has just submitted to financier Guy Hands, who runs parent company Terra Firma. (ThisIsMoney)
2009年英國唱片業交易收入上升1.4%，總近10億英鎊 04/28/2010
新聞來源: bpi 據BPI最新的資料顯示
1.英國唱片業交易收入在去年上升了1.4個百分點，達到了9.288億英鎊。 2.數位音樂收入上升了47.8%，現在數字領域占總收入的20.3%，達到1.889億英鎊。 3.與預期相比較適中的CD銷售下滑(共計7.399億英鎊，下滑了2.1%)。 另一一組資料則更加有趣：廣告支撐的線上流媒體播放服務，包括Spotify，We7，Last.fm和Youtube共生成了820萬英鎊的收入，雖然增幅達247%，但也僅只占總收入的1個百分點。訂閱服務創收能力則要稍強一些，包括eMusic，Come With Music，Napster和Spotify付費版等則上升了37.2%，總1180萬英鎊。 移動音樂收入下降13.3%，為1270萬英鎊，而其中無線單曲銷售增長了6.8%至810萬英鎊。
Report: UK Recorded Music Biz A Mix Bag In 2009 The statistical highlights courtesy of BPI:
Total UK recorded music trade income rises 1.4% overall to £928.8m
Trade revenues from physical formats down 6.1% to £739.9m
Digital income now a fifth of total recorded music revenues - up 47.8% to £188.9m
What does this mix report mean for the future? According to Forrester analyst Mark Mulligan, the glass half empty perspective is appropriate. "The UK recorded music market has lost close to 40% of its value since 2003. Though this isn’t necessarily a dead cat bounce, it is going to take a lot more than 1.4% annual growth to turn things around".
Spotify Gets A Major Upgrade Unifying Cloud & iTunes Playlists In A Single Player Details & A Video Introduction
(UPDATED) After six months of development, Spotify has released a major upgrade that allows users to import tracks from their download library into the Spotify player along with a new Spotify Social feature that encourages music discovery. Users can friend each other to share tracks and there is full Facebook integration, all within the Spotify player. The result is a more unified music experience which for Spotify means additional opportunities to deliver ads.
A recently introduced iPhone app allows playlist downloads for offline listening. Now paid Spotify users can enjoy cloud-based music streaming, digital downloads, playlists, wireless sync and offline listening - all in a single player that looks and feels a lot like iTunes.
The gain for labels, says Spotify, is that greater engagement leads to more music sales. But that has yet to be proven, which U.S. users even more frustrated; as the record labels blocking their way wait for proof that Spotify can someday deliver significant payouts.
Video Of The New Spotify:
Rhapsody手機應用增加離線播放模式功能 04/26/2010 新聞來源: Billboard Real Netwoks旗下的音樂服務Rhapsody發佈了它的iPhone應用升級版，升級後的版本允許使用者在設備中緩存歌曲，以便他們在沒有無線網路覆蓋的區域不影響音樂播放，也就是所謂的離線模式。Rhapsody號稱自己是首個在美國提供離線模式支援的音樂點播應用，雖然Spotify具有此功能，但目前尚未進入美國市場，而MOG的手機應用也將具有離線播放模式，但預計在下月前不會發佈。Rhapsody的這次升級將首先允許訂閱用戶離線播放Playlist，而單曲和專輯的離線支援需要到6月才支援。 這次新版的Rhapsody應用只針對iPhone,計畫在今年夏季增加對Android設備的支援，而iPad則要等iPhone 4.0版本的多工作業系統發佈後才會支援。官方稱Rhapsody現有的應用已經被下載150萬次。 雖然無線網路的覆蓋率已經是越來越高，但畢竟還是不能確保移動設備始終處於網路連接狀態。由此來看，離線播放模式的支援將是無線音樂點播應用的關鍵功能，甚至會成為一種標配支持。
Rhapsody Adds Offline Playlists & An iTunes Buy Button To Mobile App As promised when they released an Android app last month, Rhapsody today launched a new version of its iPhone app that enables subscribers to download playlists to their iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad and listen to them - even when not connected to the net.
With the upgrade, Rhapsody becomes the first U.S. service to enable the downloading of subscription music to the iPhone. A similar app for the Blackberry is scheduled for a summer launch.
Using the app requires a Rhapsody subscription, either the $10 monthly Premier offering introduced earlier this month, which provides access to Rhapsody on one mobile device, or to the $14.99 Premier Plus plan, which allows access to the service on 3 devices.
Paul McCartney Rejects EMI, Takes Catalog To Indie 2010/4/21 (Updated) It was not the news that a struggling EMI wanted to hear. Yesterday Sir Paul McCarthey revealed that he'd re-release his post-Beatle catalog through indie Concord Music Group. EMI had previously handled almost his 2 dozen albums of McCartney solo and fronting Wings under an exclusive license.
The former Beatle worked with Concord on a 2007 album and a 2009 CD/DVD hybrid "Good Evening New York City." "Since the release of 'Memory Almost Full' in 2007 I've had a good working relationship with Concord and enjoyed our mutual love of music," McCartney said in a statement.
2010/4/20 EMI and Guy Hands will reportedly ask weary Terra Firm investors for three times what it initially sought to help EMI from defaulting on its loan obligations, unnamed sources told Bloomberg News.http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-19/hands-said-to-seek-360-million-pounds-for-emi-debt-covenants.html $551 million is now believed to be needed before mid-June to help EMI meet its debt obligations to lender CitGroup thru 2015. The new figure appears to reflect the growing reality that no major label group is stepping up to offer a hoped for cash infusion in exchange for a license of EMI's extensive catalog
Verve Music Group Takes Digital Sound Quality to the Next Level NEW YORK, April 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Verve Music Group, the world's leading jazz label and a division of Universal Music Group, today announced a new agreement with HDtracks whereby it will provide consumers with access to many of the world's chart-topping and seminal jazz recordings in better-than-ever pristine 96/24 quality sound.
"With HDtracks, Verve continues to bring consumers more choice in how they enjoy music online," stated Nate Herr, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Verve Music Group. "Along with the digital revolution, sound quality online has suffered. And for jazz fans in particular, this has been an issue. At least until now. Through HDtracks, jazz lovers will now be able to download DVD quality sound, as well as get full artist biographies, album descriptions and reviews, all of which creates an even richer musical experience."
Transfer of Verve 96K masters was done using a combination of the best new and vintage equipment available. The carefully chosen original analog masters were played back on vintage Studer 820 tape machines. These machines provide the most stable transport for handling these priceless analog tapes. The analog masters were converted to the digital domain using classic DCS 972 and Lavry analog to digital converters and recorded directly onto a SoundBlade Workstation with minimal processing in order to allow the music to be formatted for digital distribution. The shortest signal path and highest quality cabling were used to prevent any signal loss and additional noise from being introduced into the transfer. The entire digital process was driven with the Antelope Audio Atomic Clock, the industry leader in digital clocking technology. It enables the entire digital process to reference the same highly regulated clock master, preventing any loss in the digital signal due to jitter and clock degradation.
About Verve Music Group
Verve Music Group is a division of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company with wholly-owned record operations or licensees in 77 countries. UMG's businesses also include Universal Music Publishing Group, the industry's leading global music publishing operation.
Universal Music Group's record labels include A&M/Octone, Decca, Deutsche Grammophon, Disa, Emarcy, Fonovisa, Interscope Geffen A&M Records, Island Def Jam Music Group, Lost Highway Records, Machete Music, MCA Nashville, Mercury Nashville, Mercury Records, Polydor Records, Universal Motown Republic Group, Universal Music Latino and Verve Music Group, as well as a multitude of record labels owned or distributed by its record company subsidiaries around the world. The Universal Music Group owns the most extensive catalog of music in the industry, which includes the last 100 years of the world's most popular artists and their recordings. UMG's catalog is marketed through two distinct divisions, Universal Music Enterprises (in the U.S.) and Universal Strategic Marketing (outside the U.S.). Universal Music Group also includes eLabs, its new media and technologies division; Bravado, its merchandising company; Twenty-First Artists, its full service management division; and Helter Skelter, its live music agency.
Universal Music Group is a unit of Vivendi, a global media and communications company.
About HDtracks
Founded by multi Grammy-nominated jazz and classical composer and inventor of new sound technology, David Chesky and his brother, Norman Chesky, HDtracks raises the bar for digital download sound quality and enjoyment. Developed by musicians for musicians, HDtracks provides a superior listening experience in purity, tone and expression, presenting uncompressed CD and DVD audio quality and crystal-clear recordings of each world-class musician, vocalist and ensemble. HDtracks presents artists in the best possible light, allowing listeners to experience the true depth of their talent and individuality. David says, "The tone is what moves us. It is the poetry of the music. It is what gives artists their own identities."
HDtracks deepens the listeners' experience beyond the music by being the only digital music service to provide complete liner notes with every download. "Listening to an album without liner notes is like going to a concert without a program. The writers add to and enrich the musical experience."
iLike Founders Leave MySpace Executive Team 2010/4/21
The founders of social music service iLike, which MySpace acquired last year,are leaving the company.'s executive team. Hadi Partovi will depart MySpace completely and his brother Ali will now work only in an advisory capacity.
The course change for these two popular executives well versed in social music comes at a bad time for MySpace. The social networker is working to stop ongoing traffic loss to Facebook and Twitter, and the Partovi brothers were expected to play a major role in any transformation. MySpace still controls ILike's tech platform and has benefited from its deal with Google search. iLike cofounder Nat Brown also remains at MySpace as head of Mobile.
When asked for comment on the departure, MySpace said in a statement:
"MySpace SVP of Technology Hadi Partovi is stepping down to pursue other opportunities. In addition to continuing his work as an advisor and angel investor to various startups, he will be following his passion for education by working directly with technology focused non-profits. Hadi leaves as a valued friend to the company, and we wish him the best in his future endeavors."
Pandora and Facebook will be deeply integrated according to an announcement at the F8 Developer Conference today. using Facebook’s new Open Graph protocol, Pandora will stream music directly onto the social networker from bands that fans have "liked” using Facebook buttons placed on other web sites. Users can also see what kind of music their friends are "liking" as well.
In his own statement, Pandora founder Tim Westergren said they has been working on making the service more social for some time. "The idea behind today's update is to make it really easy to share your Pandora stations and music discoveries with your friends - and vice versa," according to Westergren "To make this truly easy for you, we've partnered with the experts at Facebook. Starting today, you can easily link your experience on Pandora with your friends on Facebook. This quickly brings your Facebook friend list into Pandora along with your Facebook profile picture. It quite literally puts a whole new face on Pandora."
Facebook Soars To 41% Of All Social Traffic 2010/4/20 According to comScore March data, Facebook traffic now makes up 41% of social traffic. MySpace ranks second at 24%. Gmail (which I don't consider a part of the social landscape) grabbed 15% and Twitter is at 8%. That's quite a change from 2009 ahen MySpace was in the lead with 38% of site visits over Facebook at 33%.
EMI May Need A Lot More More $'s To Keep Going EMI and Guy Hands will reportedly ask weary Terra Firm investors for three times what it initially sought to help EMI from defaulting on its loan obligations, unnamed sources told Bloomberg News.
$551 million is now believed to be needed before mid-June to help EMI meet its debt obligations to lender CitGroup thru 2015. The new figure appears to reflect the growing reality that no major label group is stepping up to offer a hoped for cash infusion in exchange for a license of EMI's extensive catalog
Hands Said to Seek 360 Million Pounds for EMI Debt Covenants April 19, 2010
April 20 (Bloomberg) -- Guy Hands’s Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. may ask clients for triple the amount it initially sought to help EMI Group Ltd. meet its debt obligations until 2015, according to a person briefed on the plan.
Terra Firma plans to raise 360 million pounds ($551 million) by the middle of June, which would allow the company to comply with its covenants over the next five years, said the person, who declined to be identified because the information is private. The record label of Coldplay, Queen and Pink Floyd had previously considered seeking 120 million pounds, enough to meet obligations until 2011.
Terra Firma, based in London, financed the 2007 buyout with 2.5 billion pounds of debt. Hands was negotiating with EMI’s lender, Citigroup Inc., to reduce the company’s debt by about 40 percent in return for a 1 billion-pound cash injection. The bank spurned the offer because it would have been forced to write off some of the debt as EMI’s profit rises, said another person familiar with the talks.
As part of the planned capital raising, Terra Firma may consider the sale of its Japan unit, EMI Music Japan, according to the person. EMI bought Toshiba Corp.’s 45 percent stake in their Japanese music venture Toshiba-EMI Ltd. for about 21 billion yen ($230 million) in cash, before being taken over by Terra Firma. Toshiba-EMI was later renamed EMI Music Japan.
The private-equity firm has written down about 90 percent of its 1.5 billion-pound investment in the music company, which accounts for about a third of its fund, a person close to the matter said previously. EMI said yesterday it is preparing a long-term business plan to secure additional funds and the project will be completed by mid-June.
Terra Firma’s management will contribute about 36 million pounds, or 10 percent, of the total it’s seeking from investors, the person said. The firm will look to existing clients before expanding an offering to third-party investors.
Andrew Dowler, a spokesman for Terra Firma, declined to comment.
EMI UPDATE: Many More Jobs On The Line 更多人工作將不保 2010/4/19 New Plan Would Hit U.S. Operations Hardest
Hundreds more jobs could be cut soon as top EMI executives prepare a plan to save the struggling company. EMI owners Terra Firma must get the votes of 75% of its investors - who have already lost most of their initial £1.8 billion investment - to inject £120M ($183M USD) in additional funds by June 14th or risk loosing control of the company to lender CitiGroup.
New CEO Charles Allen is expected to tell investors this week that profits at EMI Music could reach £300M by 2015 vs £200M in the last 12 months, according to The Times. But to achieve that, EMI must cut hundreds more jobs as well as find a way to lease EMI’s U.S. music catalog to a rival label group for the next 5 years. The plan would cut another £100m from EMI Music’s £500M operating budget and lead to the shut down of most of its U.S. operations. EMI has already cut 2000 jobs worldwide.
A Look At The Top 6 U.S. Music Download Stores 2010/4/19
A sample purchase of 10 rock, folk, country, and classical albums including six recent releases and four back catalog showed a distinct difference in the purchase price of tracks.
The comparison is particularly interesting since iTunes owns Lala.
SELECTION - According eMarketer in January of this year, iTunes had roughly 11 million tracks, Amazon sold 10 million and Lala offered 8 million. Rhapsody, eMusic, and the Zune Marketplace each had 6 million tracks to choose from. (via ZDNet)
WWW III: Apple vs. Microsoft vs. Google 2010/4/19 Apple, Microsoft and Google are in an epic battle fought on many fronts. At stake is nothing less than the control of our computer, cell and gadget operating and delivery systems, as well as, how we discover, purchase and consume... just about everything. On the surface music represents a just a tiny corner of hat battlefield, but take a minute to look at this chart by Shane Stone of Gizmodo and you'll see how many portions of this battle effects music creation, discovery, marketing and consumption.
Despite a 90 day clock ticking that could see them fall into the hands of creditor CitiGroup, and hundreds pink slippled, EMI Music is having a strong run in the U.S. delivering three of the top five albums on this week's sales charts. The company’s overall album market share is 11.97% this week, and year to date overall album market share is 11.63%, up from 9.02% the year prior.
Ex Guns and Roses guitarist Slash's new solo album debuts at number three, with 60,321 units scanned, after signing to EMI's unique Label Services division.
Capitol Nashville-signed 懷舊女郎Lady Antebellum hold firm at number four after 10 weeks in the US top 5, with 56,973 units scanned and with over-the-counter sales in the US now over 1.7 million making ‘Need You Now’ the best-selling album of 2010 so far in America.
Now! 33 is at number 5, with 53,403 scanned this week. Now! And Now That’s What I Call Music! are EMI-owned brandsand in the UK last week, Now! 75 was confirmed as delivering the highest week one sales of any album released in the UK this year to date.
U.S. Consumes Music Differently On Smartphones Than In UK & Canada 2010/4/9
A new Vision Critical study of music on smparthones in the US, UK and Canada, found major differences. While those in Canada and the UK are using apps on their smartphone or iPod Touch to listen to broadcast radio, U.S. users are more likely to listen to web-only radio and music streaming services.
Pandora was the clear leader among adults in the US who have listened to online-only radio in the past year:
Pandora 42%
Rhapsody 6%
last.fm 5%
Yahoo! (5%)
In The UK & Canada -
In the UK, where Pandora is not legally available but the music streaming service Spotify is, broadcast radio holds a clear edge for listening. A total of 31% of UK smartphone and iPod Touch users said they listened to broadcast radio in the past week using the apps on their device, compared to 21% who reported listening to web-only radio or streaming services.
In Canada, where neither Pandora nor Spotify is legally available, broadcast radio still dominates according to the study, with 14% of smartphone and iPod Touch users saying they have listened to AM or FM stations on the platform in the past week, while only half that many (7%) reported listening to web-only radio or streaming services.
Apple's iPad And iPhone By The Numbers 2010/4/9
300,000 iPads sold last Saturday
450,000 iPads were sold as of Thursday
0 iPads are left in stock Best Buy is out of stock
85,000,000 iPhone and iPod Touches have been sold
4,000,000,000 apps have been downloaded
185,000 apps are available in the official
3,500 of the apps are for theiPad
250,000 iBooks were downloaded on Saturday
600,000 iBooks were sold as of Thursday
The iPad & Music: A Weekend 1 Round Up 2010/4/5
(Update 2)
"There's something happening here.
What it is ain't exactly clear."
The iPad's first days sales including pre-orders are said to be in the 600-700,000 range according to an analysis by Piper Jaffray who now estimates first year sales could top 5.5 million. (Apple officially says that they sold 300,000) By contrast first day iPhone sales were just 270,000, in part because of supply issues.
But what all this means for music is far from clear. The iPad launched without any kind of music in the cloud service, though one appears to be in the planning stages for later this year. The potential for more robust and even interactive music experiences are enhanced with the iPad, but to date iTune's LP and imitators have shown more promise than fan interest.
Eliot Van Buskirk of Wired's Epicienter believes that the iPad could boost interactive music. ...
He sites the free Rj Voyager iPad app that "lets you modify the band’s music as if you were a sound engineer or pro DJ. The app heralds a future where users are constantly tweaking and personalizing the music they currently just listen to, and also hints at a world where music apps will adjust to a user’s surroundings through sensors on the device."
And in a warning that should sound familiar to the heads of major labels, some reviewers are reminding consumers that Apple likes to be in charge of everything that runs on its devices. In this case since all apps require Apple's approval, the iPad is a closed and even censored eco-system that could inhibit commerce and creativity.
諾基亞在中國發佈Come With Music服務：“樂隨享” 04/08/2010 ovi.com
諾基亞於今天在中國發佈了其Come With Music服務（以下簡稱為CWM）“隨樂享”，在中國的CWM與世界其它地方的最大區別在於中國諾基亞使用者下載的音樂將是免DRM保護的。諾基亞通過與華動飛天（A8）來推出中國地區的服務。目前支持X6，5230，5800w，6700s，E52，E72i等八款諾基亞手機，之前購買了這些手機的使用者也可以使用這個服務。數十萬首音樂，無限量免費下載。使用有效期為啟動開始12個月。 http://music.ovi.com/cn/zh/pc/help/comeswithmusicoverview/
Digital Economy Bill: Passed 189-47 With Piracy Measure IntactApr 7, 2010
Irate MPs passed a cut-down, sick-looking version of the Digital Economy Bill Wednesday night by 189 votes to 47 - lacking several key proposals but retaining the centrepiece provision for ISPs to act against unauthorised downloaders of copyrighted content. —The government withdrew clauses that would have extended licensing of orphaned copyright works, let Ofcom appoint regional news providers on the Channel 3 TV network and instructed Ofcom to promote investment in networks and public service content. —It also placed in to an alternative parliamentary process, which would require specific parliamentary approval but which will have to be executed after the May 6 election, a clause that would see ISPs, at copyright holders’ behest, block access to online services deemed to breach copyright. —The universal service commitment of nationwide 2Mbps broadband infrastructure appears to have vanished, though finance minister Stephen Timms said the ambition is retained: “Broadband Delivery UK is working on that at the moment. It will be in the Finance Bill that will be introduced shortly after the election.” —And the government scrapped plans, in the separate Finance Bill, for a £0.50-a-month levy on phone land lines to create an Independent Next Generation Fund, a stash any telco could bid for to part-subsidise the roll-out of truly high-speed broadband. The remaining Digital Economy Bill is now likely to get Royal Assent at parliament’s dissolution on Monday - despite widespread concern voiced tonight by MPs dismayed that they had just hours to debate it. In the key remaining provision - overseen by an Ofcom code - ISPs will, on copyright holders’ instruction, notify subscribers by letter as to their alleged transgression. If alleged infringers then persist, the ISP would sanction against them “technical measures” like speed blocks, bandwidth shaping, account suspension or other limits. It’s a landmark but, lacking ultimate talk of “disconnection”, it doesn’t go as far as France’s “three strikes” law. Read our guide to all the bill’s measures » Heavily lobbied by digital liberties activists, many MPs on Wednesday admitted they don’t understand the proposals, and suspect the measures - rather than reduce piracy - will instead punish downloaders’ parents or public WiFi operators, while abusers find workarounds. Even an MP who suffered piracy of a game he developed called the bill “inappropriate” for limiting internet access. MPs grumbled that they had insufficient time to debate the bill - indeed, they grumbled over five hours in the Commons on Tuesday and two hours on Wednesday. Several amendments proposed by Labour MP Tom Watson on Wednesday - for example, to limit its scope to P2P services - were derailed by such time-consuming interventions, and mostly were ultimately withdrawn by Watson himself. MPs are largely supportive of efforts to protect creators’ intellectual property, but the repeated extent of concern they expressed is at odds with the majority on which the bill was passed. After being told by music labels in December that a third of piracy occurs on services other than P2P, Lib Dem Lords introduced a measure under which an ISP, upon a court order sought by copyright holders, must block all its subscribers from accessing a website hosting the material. But the government, believing the measure would not be legal on a technicality, took the provision out of the bill and reinserted it as promised in a new clause that would require approval from both houses of parliament - something which cannot take place until after the election. Shadow culture minister Jeremy Hunt told the Commons on Tuesday: “Anything that becomes law as a result of the wash-up, we reserve the right to review in the event of a Conservative government.” The government’s withdrawal of the clause which would allow Ofcom to pick and pay multimedia Channel 3 news providers throws the plan for “independently-funded news consortia” (IFNC) in to disarray. The status quo - under which ITV (LSE: ITV) retains an obligation to produce regional news - now looks more likely than operating the recently-named multimedia IFNCs in three pilot regions.
2.一年一度的唱片店節（record store day）明顯的迅速發展。2008年舉辦的第一屆唱片店節使“唱片店”搜索流量增加了兩倍多。去年，以“唱片店”（同時包括“唱片店節”）為關鍵字的搜索流量增長了四倍多。大量增長的搜索流量完全可以預見今年4月17日舉行的唱片店節的成功，如果說2008與2009的兩屆活動帶來的流量增長可以預示著什麼，那便是今年的唱片店節將比去年取得更大的成功。
Interest Growing In April 17th's Record Store Day2010/4/6
Given the ongoing decline in record stores, it's exciting to hear that April 17th'sRecord Store Day is shaping up to be the biggest yet. Biggest, not just in terms of great things the stores are planning, but also in over all interest. A study of search engine traffic is also pointing to a big day according to Glenn Peoples of Billboard.biz.
You can learn more about what your local record store has planned at RecordStoreDay.com and the always way too serious Joshua Homme (Queens Of The Stone Age, Them Crooked Vultures) shares his own deep and revealing Record Store Day insights in this short video:
