Year Over Year Holiday Music Sales Off Over 20%

From Phil Gallo, Variety:

Overall music sales during the Christmas shopping season were down an astounding 21% from last year. From the week of Thanksgiving up through the day before Christmas Eve, 83.9 million albums were sold, a decrease of 21.38 million from 2006's 105.28 million.

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RIAA Brief: Washington Post Gets It Wrong

From La Shawn Barber:

According to the brief, the authorized copies Howell made became unauthorized copies once Howell put them in a shared folder, presumably the Kazaa shared folder. I mentioned in the previous post that a “consummated transfer” wasn’t necessary for a violation to have occurred, according to the RIAA. If you rip a CD and place the MP3s into a folder to which only you have access, the copies are authorized. If the files are in a shared folder, they’re “available” to third parties, which is a copyright violation.

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Amazon Download Service Adds Warner Music

From Reuters:

Online retailer Amazon.com Inc has signed on Warner Music Group to its music download service, which aims to compete with Apple Inc's industry-dominating iTunes online store.

Warner Music songs are available on the Amazon MP3 service, which lets users purchase the tunes and download them to many digital music players, including Apple's iPod, the companies said on Thursday. They will also offer exclusive tracks and special album bundles.

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Canada: New Levies Proposed for iPods and Memory Cards

Canada follows Spain with potential digital tax on various music players and storage devices

From CTV:

Consumers could potentially be hit by a new tax on electronic storage devices such as iPods and blank memory cards in 2008.

The federal Copyright Board has given its approval for a special levy on iPods and other digital players because they can be used to copy movies and music.

The proposed levies range in price including:

85 cents for rewritable CDs and MiniDisc
$2 for 1 GB removable electronic memory cards
$25 for a digital audio recorder between 1 and 10 GBs
$75 for digital audio recorder of more than 30 GBs

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XM Settles With Warner Over Inno

From Peter Kafka, Silicon Valley Insider:

XM has settled a lawsuit with Warner Music over a portable XM device that lets users record music directly from the satellite radio service. Execs there won't talk about the settlement, but we can tell you that deal requires XM to pay WMG a fee for each "Inno" player it sells. Last week Universal Music Group inked a similar pact, which means that the satellite company still has to come to terms with Sony-BMG and EMI Group before it can extract itself from court proceedings.

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Sony BMG Selling MP3s

From Peter Kafka, Silicon Valley Insider:

A confusing report from Billboard says that Sony BMG is going to start selling a limited amount of DRM-free MP3s, via artist-specific gift cards that can be redeemed online. That makes a bit of sense -- Sony has been a steadfast champion of keeping locks on its content, but will likely have to capitulate to the anti-DRM crowd sooner than later, and this is a reasonable baby step. The confusing part: Billboard says the gift cards will be redeemed at musicpass.com, a Sony-BMG online store that currently doesn't exist.

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Quick Links 12/21/07

France's SPPF Sues Limewire

Pre-Christmas CD Sales On The Up, Says BPI

Chinese Legalese Spells Mixed Results for Labels

Spanish Parliament Approves Digital Tax

From Howell Llewellyn, Billboard:

The Spanish music industry received a belated $46 million Christmas present on Thursday when Parliament approved a new digital tax in its last full session before the general elections on March 9.

The so-called "digital canon" will apply to MP3 and MP4 players, mobile phones with MP3 recording capacity, and USB memory cards, and is expected to come into effect Jan. 15. It will apply a small charge to digital gadgets capable of recording music, film, photocopies, or any other form of intellectual property.

The Spanish government estimates that of the €100-115 million ($144-166 million) of "canon" that will be collected per year, some €32 million ($46 million) will go to the music industry. The figure is 100% greater than the current music industry "canon" charged on blank CDs, DVDs, CD and DVD recorders, printers and Xerox machines.

Labels' body Promusicae president Antonio Guisasola says, "this is a victory for the music industry, it is justice in the making. The [intellectual property] law forces us to live with private copying [of music by consumers], but without being compensated for loss of income [through non-purchase of music]. Now this will change."

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Live Nation Launches Global Ticketing Business

From Yahoo Finance:

Live Nation (NYSE: LYV - News) announced today that it has entered into a long-term agreement with CTS Eventim which will enable Live Nation to launch its own ticketing business utilizing the most technologically advanced ticketing platform in the world. Live Nation will exclusively license the Eventim platform in North America, and Eventim will provide back office ticketing services in the UK and ticketing services across Europe. The new agreement will allow Live Nation to begin selling tickets on January 1st, 2009.

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French Labels Gets Tough On Piracy

From Aymeric Pichevin, Billboard:

French independent labels collecting society SPPF has warned it would no longer tolerate Internet firms using the music of its members without authorization.

In a statement issued Dec. 17, the organization stated, "For years, SPPF has been observing that online music services are launched prior to any negotiation to get right holders' authorizations."

This strategy, acknowledges SPPF director general Jérôme Roger, complements the groundbreaking agreement signed by French government, right holders and ISPs in November to prevent online piracy. "This agreement is designed to fight individual infringements," explains Roger. "Here we fight illicit reproduction from professional services."

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MPAA Wins Case Against TorrentSpy

From InfoWorld:

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has won a lawsuit against the operators of TorrentSpy.com, with the judge ruling in favor of the MPAA because the Web site operators tampered with evidence.

In a ruling that could have implications for the privacy of Web site users, Judge Florence-Marie Cooper of the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, ruled that TorrentSpy has infringed MPAA copyrights in a default judgment against the operators of the site.

Cooper, in a ruling made public Monday, agreed with the MPAA that defendants Justin Bunnell, Forrest Parker, Wes Parker and Valence Media had destroyed evidence after another judge had ordered them to keep server logs, user IP (Internet Protocol) addresses and other information. TorrentSpy billed itself as a central location to find files distributed on BitTorrent P-to-P (peer-to-peer) networks.

The defendants' conduct was "obstreperous," Cooper wrote in her decision. "They have engaged in widespread and systematic efforts to destroy evidence and have provided false testimony under oath in a effort to hide evidence of such destruction," she wrote.

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Microsoft, Nokia in Mobile DRM Deal

From Eric Sylvers, IHT:

Microsoft and Nokia, which both make operating systems for mobile phones and compete for control of that market, are coming together in a rare accord in an effort to take advantage of the expected explosion of the sale of mobile digital content in the coming years. Under the agreement to be announced Monday, Microsoft's PlayReady DRM technology - which helps content owners like music companies and service providers deliver digital content while restricting access - will be loaded directly on some Nokia phones beginning early next year.

The market for mobile content - music, games, graphics, video and adult material - will exceed $44 billion in 2011, up from $20 billion this year, the market researcher iSuppli estimates. But many consumers have balked from the beginning at the restrictions put on them with DRM. And some analysts argue that the technology has limited the growth of digital content sales.

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Rhapsody Streams Full-Songs (with Limitations) To Facebook

Seems a bit silly to limit full streams to Rhapsody subscribers, as registered imeem users can already do so for free - as well as embed tracks and playlists anywhere.

By Antony Bruno, Billboard:

Rhapsody has beta-launched a Facebook widget designed to extend full-song music streaming into the popular social network.

Existing Rhapsody subscribers will be able to play an unlimited number of full songs, while non-subscribers will be limited to the 25 free songs a month that are offered under the company’s ad-supported model.

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Universal Music Group (UMG) and XM Satellite Radio Reach Agreement on Pioneer Inno

From CNN Money:

Universal Music Group (UMG), the world's leading music company, and XM Satellite Radio, the nation's leading satellite radio company, today announced that they have resolved the lawsuit brought by UMG against XM over its Pioneer Inno, a portable satellite receiver with advanced recording functionality. The companies did not disclose terms of the deal.

As part of the agreement, UMG becomes the first music company to reach a multi-year deal covering all XM radios with advanced recording functionality, including both those currently available as well as future product releases. In addition, UMG will withdraw as a party to the complaint filed by the major record companies against XM in May, 2006.

"We are pleased to have resolved this situation in an amicable manner," stated Doug Morris, Chairman & CEO, Universal Music Group. "We pride ourselves on empowering new technology and expanding consumer choice. And XM is providing a new and exciting opportunity for music lovers around the world to discover and enjoy our content, while at the same time recognizing the intrinsic value of music to their business and the need to respect the rights of content owners."

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Corporate Sponsorship: Levi's Jeans Record Company

From Sydney Morning Herald:

This year the Levi's jeans company started its own record label, Levity, to foster Australian and New Zealand music. Levi's pays the recording, distribution and marketing costs, and the acts agree to appear in the company's marketing.

The Sydney band Mercy Arms and the New Zealand group Cut Off Your Hands were the first to sign. They have released EPs and are to go on tour in the next few weeks, significant steps for two relatively unknown acts.

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Related: Red Bull to Enter Music Industry