Hypebot’s New Music Industry Briefing For Monday May 1, 2006
UPDATED: Muze acquires digital music back end provider Loudeye for $11 million. (Digital Music News)
– RCA goes for the long tail with downloads of out of print classic dance tracks calling it "…part catalog capitalization and part crusade". (Billboard via Yahoo!)
– Unofficial estimates put the number of artists eligible to join the Allman Brothers/Cheap Trick Class Action Lawsuit against Sony BMG for digital download royalties at 2500 and the amount at stake more than $25 million. Some predict that lawsuits against more labels will follow. (Hypebot story and commentary.)
– Some are charging that the proposed French law designed to create more open digital rights management has been hi-jacked by the entertainment industry and will lead to more restrictive DRM. (BoingBoing)
– MTV & Microsoft will be unveiling their joint URGE music download service to the press late in the week.
– Sony is going to launch another new music player with a companion download service designed to compete with the iPod/iTunes juggernaut which shipped 8.5 million iPods in the last quarter compared to Sony’s 4.5 for the entire year. (PC World)
Online indie destination Pitchfork’s growing influence was chronicled in the Washington Post.
THE WEEK AHEAD:
- MTV & Microsoft will be unveiling their joint URGE music download service to the press late in the week.
- Expect earnings reports from:
- Sirius on Tuesday at 8AM EST. Listen @ Sirius.com
- Warner Music Group on Tuesday at 8AM EST. Listen @ 800-857-2625 or 210-234-6601.
- Next Week: Loudeye and Digital Music Group. Later in the month: EMI
