Archive for August, 2007

itunes dumping nbc television shows

• Much to the dismay of fans, Apple announced on Friday that it will no longer be carrying NBC Universal television shows due to a NBC requested price hike. Apple felt that paying double the wholesale price was a bit steep, and asking iTunes patrons to pay $4.99 per episode was out of the question. Shows from ABC, CBS, Fox and more than 50 other networks will still be available to the public for $1.99 per episode.

  Regarding gambling…

  You know what it feels like to loose $5 bucks in the slots? I can’t imagine what the board members at NBC feel like after loosing their #1 online sales outlet.

  

• Friday, August 31st, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

youtube coins royalty deal with uk music alliance

• Google/YouTube has reached a blanket royalty agreement with MCPS-PRS in an unprecedented business deal that will give YouTube access to over ten million pieces from MCPS-PRS represented music, and will provide royalties to over fifty thousand rights-holders in the United Kingdom.

  This deal is an enormous win for Google, who is currently facing a $1.5 billion dollar lawsuit from a collective of American plaintiffs spearheaded by the massive media entity Viacom. 

  

• Thursday, August 30th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

emusic inks new label deals and secures future business

• eMusic is the largest online music retailer focusing on the independent music market and has gained a concrete following of both labels and patrons. The company has just announced updated contracts with Beggars Group, Concord Music Group, ATO Records and XL Recordings – these include platinum selling artists such as the White Stripes and Paul McCartney.

  eMusic has now surpassed a catalogue mark of 2.8 million songs from over 20,000 record labels.

  

• Thursday, August 30th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

Breaking news – sony closing connect

• Sony has just announced that it will be closing Connect, its sole online music store. The collapse of Connect can be pinpointed to the hardware it supported, not the music store itself – which was actually a well-administrated and managed website. The music files on Connect were ATRAC formatted to play solely on Sony devices - and with the popularity of Apple’s iPods continuing to rise, Sony would have been much better off assimilating into the marketplace instead of attempting to take on the world.

  With announcing the closure of Connect, the company has stated that a new game plan will be implemented. The newest Sony Walkman digital music devices will support all Windows Media files downloaded from an array of online sales sites with the exception of iTunes.

  FYI – iTunes still controls 80% of the (legal) media downloading market. 

  

• Thursday, August 30th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

ecast’s digital jukebox grows with the orchard

• With nearly 10,000 digital jukeboxes pumping out major label hits in bars and clubs throughout America and beyond, Ecast has now added The Orchard’s massive independent catalogue to the jukeboxes previously monopolized-mainstream mix.

  This is a primo move for Ecast, simply because most of the patrons at these jukebox hosting clubs and bars do not want to hear major label pop music anyway. Having a beer with friends - with a ditzy Avril Lavigne or High School Musical 2 song blasting in the background - does not make for good times and memories.

  

• Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

cd sales dropping like it’s hot

• Nielsen Soundscan estimates that at the 2007 half-way point, CD sales in the United States dropped by 15.1% - and has since declined to 18.4%.

  As (former) CD pushing music shops like Tower Records file for bankruptcy, retailers such as Trans World, Hastings, and Virgin Megastores are also feeling the crunch. Over the next several years, the public can expect to see less emphasis on in-store music from these brands, and more on music related materials such as books, video, games, and anything else they can sell in place of CDs.

  It is already reported that Trans World’s in-store merchandise contains less than 50% of actual music.

  

• Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

Daily ramble - marketing and promotion still the biggest player

• As the tentacles of digital distribution reach into the nether-regions of the independent music world and retrieve every single shred of audio they can unearth, the question still remains: who will buy all this independent music once it is available?

  For half a century, the major labels held all the cards when it came to the big package – product, marketing, sales – lock, stock, barrel. But now that physical product is no longer the way of the musical world, the once tangible reality of marketing a physical product has evolved into something else altogether – and with a jolly assortment of marketing/promotion companies all battling to corner the new wwwild west of the music business.

  And speaking of big-digital-music-business prospects: Pop2Life (Eric Murphy), one of the foremost promotion agencies around, has just teamed with former vice-president of Warner promotions, Dale Connone, to create a new media entity focusing on music promotion, marketing, development, and media management. The company is called in2une Music and will be announcing its staff and directors shortly.

  So, the question again: who will buy all this independent music once it is available? Hopefully with a well-managed and flexibly comprehensive multi-media marketing company handling independent music promotions, the public will.     

  

• Monday, August 27th, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

emusic boasts 150 million downloads

• The largest online music retailer focusing on independent artists and labels has just surpassed 150 million downloads. Known for avoiding mainstream popular music, while offering an unbeatable tiered subscription format, eMusic has gained a massive loyal following of music connoisseurs and independent music enthusiasts.

  A formal Congrats to eMusic from everyone here at BitsofBeats.com!

• Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

a billionth of a meter makes a world of difference

• The race for nano-sized information storage is ever an ever quickening competition for supremacy and innovation. IBM’s latest bid for top-rank (along with partner TDK) consists of spin-polarized electron technology and spin torque transfer RAM (STT-RAM) in which an electric current is applied to a magnet to change the magnetic field direction; the levels of resistance register as Ones and Zeros, which ultimately creates the binary code. The first prototype from IBM featuring this new technology will be unveiled within the next four years and is estimated to be 65-nanometers in size – the smaller the size of the chip, the faster and more efficient it is. Grandis also claims to have a STT-RAM chip that will be available sometime next year.

  The only known competitor to STT-RAM technology is Phase Change technology – Phase Change requires the chip to be heated by several hundred degrees Celsius which changes the crystalline material to amorphous, thus creating surfaces that read as Ones and Zeros. STT-RAM is faster and will last longer, but Phase Change is much denser.  

  Rumor has it that Intel and STMicroelectronics will soon announce a joint venture, Numonyx, which will bring Phase Change memory to the marketplace. 

• Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »

wal-mart offers the lowest prices on drm-free 256kps mp3s

• EMI and Universal are now pushing their DRM-free wares through Wal-Mart’s online megastore, and at jaw-dropping prices (just watch that little yellow smiley face whistle and dance). Wal-Mart is the latest online music store to drop the DRM format that will enable it to realistically compete with ITunes and bid for the iPod market. Wal-Mart’s 256kps mp3s are available to the public for 94 cents, compared to iTunes’ $1.29 per single.

  The only drawback to this entire scheme is the fact that Wal-Mart only offers censored versions of the music – censorship of all music is company policy and is not expected to change anytime soon.

  “Hmm, do I want to save 35 cents per song, or hear the word F#%K thirty-five times in this one 50 Cent single?”

• Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007 | Posted in Special Features | No Comments »