Hypebot’s New Music Industry Briefing For Thursday May 4, 2006

– Napster’s new "play 5 times free" service got great press earlier this week.  Now some are questioning the lo-fi quality of the song streams and a press to eager to buy into corporate announcements and press releases (BetaNews via RAIN. Hypebot found the system a bit slow, but sound quality acceptable for "free".

– BMG parent Bertlesmann reported a 55% jump in profits in the 1st quarter of this year. (MarketWatch).  No details were given as to the performance of the music or other company divisions. The family that owns 75% of Bertelsmann is reportedly about to take out a loan to buy the remaining 25% rather than allow the company to be taken public.  This move would also seemingly end the need to sell the music group (which is half of the Sony BMG partnership) to raise cash. (Forbes)

– Neil Young’s new anti-war CD is gathering immense buzz with a marketing campaign that began online and takes full advantage of new technologies.  (Digital Music News)

– Street corner CD pirates in 12 US cities are the focus of a new crackdown (AP), and the RIAA and MPAA are putting more pressure on universities to stop student downloads. (The Inquirer)

– Shipments of Latin music CDs grew by 13 percent in 2005, representing a 15 percent increase in value, according to annual data released by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Total Latin music shipments to retail jumped 14 percent – 55.6 million units in 2005 compared to 48.6 million in 2004. (Celebrity Access)

– Page down for all of the latest news on the proposed EMI purchase of WMG.