More Music Industry News: Sweden’s Music Sales Up, Avenera Gets $10M, Oink Goes Free & More

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• Music Sales Increase In Sweden For First Time Since 2000 – IFPI Sweden are celebrating after new statistics reveal that in 2009, music sales were up for the first time in nearly a decade. Digital sales have increased rapidly, with revenues from streaming services such as Spotify increasing impressively. Even physical CD sales showed a modest increase over the previous year. (TorrentFreak)
• Glenn Peoples takes another look at the various 2009 music sales figures and points out that the number that really matters is an overall revenue slump of 10%. (Billboard)
• Avnera raises $10M for audio chips with coolest sound. (VentureBeat)
• A UK court has acquitted the admin of music sharing site OiNK of the one and only charge brought against him: conspiracy to defraud copyright owners. (ars)
• Music Ally has a strong five part series exploring metrics for digital music. Interviews include Duncan Freeman of BandMetrics, Eric Garland of Big Champagne; Alan Ault of WaveMetrix; Marie-Alicia Chang and Gregory Mead of MusicMetric; and Brad Little of Nielsen Buzzmetrics.
• Cypress Hill has signed with Priority/EMI and are gearing up for the April 6th release. The deal is the first for new Pirioty Creative Chairman Snoop Dogg.
• How much are Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter worth? (PaidContent)
• MySpace Records reorganizes. (TechCrunch)