Hypebot Music Indsutry Fast Facts & Figures

• UK’s Guardian reports that the British music industry lost £414m ($726 million US) to illegal file-sharing on the internet.
• Recently 2,000 new anit-P2P lawsuits were launched across 10 countries. This brings the total to 5,500 in 18 countries excluding the US where the RIAA has filed 18,000 cases to date.
• Napster said Thursday it would post revenue of more than $26 million, a "substantially narrower" net loss forecast with a total subscriber base of more than 600,000 users worldwide.
• BMI predicts US ringtone sales will climb 29% to $600 million this year. (Digital Music News)
• ABI Research predicts a massive global expansion in over the air (cell) downloads. Revenue jumped to $251 million last year; up from $12.4 million in 2004. The Asian market accounts for a large percentage of total sales.
• If you really like fact and figures read the publicly traded Digital Music Group’s quarterly and annual data via Yahoo! Financial. Hint: It isn’t a pretty picture.
• Steve Jobs offered Apple Records a mere $1 million in 2003 for us of the name in the iTunes store according to documents in the case between the two Apples which is now awaiting judgment in the UK.
• R.I.P. – Singer Gene Pitney age 65. Listen to a great NPR tribute here.