This is cool – Shazam has introduced an iPhone version of its mobile music discovery software, making it available at no charge through Apple’s App Store.
Shazam for iPhone fully integrates with and complements the device, allowing users to seamlessly discover, buy and share tunes simply by holding their iPhone to music for just a few seconds.
“Shazam on the iPhone allows users to discover, capture and share their experiences through music and images to fully encapsulate that moment.” said Andrew Fisher, Shazam’s CEO. “Shazam is inherently linked to the one device that is always with you – the mobile phone – and as such provides an instant link to the emotions and memories that sound evokes.”
If you’re not familiar with Shazam, it’s a great little solution that can really help you out when you hear a piece of music you like, but don’t know. Basically, you hold the device up to the music source, initiate the service, Shazam “listens” to the music, analysing it against its database of tracks, and then tells you who the artist is, what the track is, and offers you links to purchase the song immediately.The service is sensitive enough to recognize tracks within just three seconds, even when the volume is low and in environments with significant background noise.
Shazam for iPhone also lets you view music videos with links to YouTube and share events with other by attaching photos to the tag. The service has 15 million users.
The Orchard has acquired ownership of most of the assets of TVT Records, following its successful bid to purchase the company made before the New York Bankruptcy Court in June.
The Orchard takes ownership of most assets, including TVT’s catalogue of recorded masters, artist contracts and a New York office lease. As previously announced, the transaction excludes holdings in TVT’s music publishing subsidiary.
A second closing is scheduled to take place on or before July 11, 2008. This closing will address remaining assets contested in TVT’s bankruptcy proceedings and determine which of the assets The Orchard will acquire, or will otherwise remain as assets of TVT Records’ debtors.
The Orchard distributes more than 1.1 million songs and over 3,000 hours of video through hundreds of digital stores (iTunes, eMusic, Google, Netflix, etc.) and mobile carriers (Verizon, Vodafone, Bell Canada, Moderati, 3).
Founded by Steve Gottlieb in 1985, TVT Records is a leading independent label that has introduced the world to acts including Nine Inch Nails, Ja Rule and Lil Jon and has earned over 25 Gold, platinum and multi-platinum records. Billboard Magazine recognized TVT as the number one independent record label for five consecutive years (2001 – 2006). The label’s current roster includes Lil Jon, Ying Yang Twins, Pitbull, Default, Ambulance LTD, Yo Gotti, Keke Wyatt, The Polyphonic Spree, The Cinematics, The Holloways, Bobaflex, New Year’s Day and more.
Although terms of the deal were not disclosed Billboard once pegged it as worth $6.05 million.
Camden based Tourdates has acquired SoundGenerator.com in an all cash transaction that effectively combines the UK’s two leading independent music communities.
Tourdates Limited runs independent music community www.tourdates.co.uk, offering a platform for unsigned musicians to promote themselves and offering London gigs listings in LondonTourdates magazine.
Launched in 2001, SoundGenerator.com has become a leading music news website with an archive of 10,000 band and artist profiles, extensive picture library and a network of correspondents.
Mark Beilby, Tourdates chairman said: “SoundGenerator’s founders saw early the pivotal role that the web would play in the development of the music industry and appreciated the growing importance of a truly independent social community, not merely peddling a broader corporate agenda. We are delighted to be able to pick up the baton and continue their work.”
Segway chief technology officer, Doug Field is leaving the company to join Apple as vice president of product design.
A note on the Segway forums notes: “Doug has been the driving force in making the Segway what it is today and will be sorely missed at the company.”
The Segway is the upright, self-balancing electric scooter much beloved of Apple co-founder Woz. Supposed to revolutionise travel, the product shipped with a price tag that put it beyond the reach of most people. Here’s the Apple co-founder playing polo.
The enthusiasm of one Apple co-founder is tempered by a less enthusiastic reaction from another gentleman, one Steve Jobs, who said of the Segway, “I think it sucks. Its shape is not innovative, it’s not elegant, and it doesn’t feel anthropomorphic.”
Music sales continues their steep decline in the US, with the latest Nielsen SoundScan figures revealing an 11 per cent drop in album sales since mid-2007.
Overall, physical and digital album sales achieved 204.6 million units in the 26 weeks twixt December 31 and June 29, the music industry analysis firm reports in its mid-term figures.
The digital side of the story looks good. Here we see continued growth with digital album sales up 34 per cent to 31.6 million units, or around 15.5 per cent of album sales. Digital track sales grew 30 per cent, 532.7 million have been sold to date, compared to the 417.3 million sold in the six months ending July 1, 2007.
Physically, music sales seem a mess – sure, the 11 per cent decline in sales isn’t as bad as the 15.1 per cent decline experiences in 2007, CD sales continue to shrink – down 16.3 per cent.
Major label market share is pretty much the same:
Universal Music Group: 31.2%;
Sony BMG: 25%;
Warner Music Group: 20.9%;
EMI: 9.1%;
Indies: 13.9%
Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.
Radiohead recently held an online contest to remix “Nude” from their album, “In Rainbows”. This entry missed the deadline, and was created by artist, James Houston. It’s designed in response to the track’s complex structure, in the creator’s own words:
“I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed it in a situation where they’re trying their best to do something that they’re not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.”
Nine Inch Nails have released the download statistics for recent free album ‘The Slip’ in an interesting and innovative use of geo-tagging technology.
If you’re interested in finding out a little more about the 1.4 million fans who downloaded the album, the band has made available a Google Earth KML file that maps exact download numbers according to geographic region. The map only represents individual downloads that went directly through the band’s site. To open the file you need Google Earth to be installed on your computer.
Last month saw Trent Reznor offer another free download: A ‘Tour Sampler’ featuring songs from bands performing on the upcoming Nine Inch Nails tour. Included are tracks from A Place To Bury Strangers, Does It Offend You, Yeah?, Crystal Castles, Deerhunter, and Nine Inch Nails. Once again, 100% free, high quality MP3s, DRM-free.
HMV revealed a 25% rise in annual profit on Tuesday and said current trading was in line with its expectations, despite the challenging economic outlook. Company management observed the company to be well ahead on its three year turnaround plan, even after one year. It pointed out that online sales were up and noted profit before tax and one-off items was £56.6 million ($112.9 million) in the year ended April 26.
The firm said in May that underlying profit would be towards the top end of analysts’ expectations, which at that point ranged from £48 million to £58 million.
HMV out-performed the Waterstone’s division, with like-for-like sales at the DVD and music retailer up 11.4% compared to a 3.3% rise at the bookstore chain.
The company also saw strong market share performance across all product categories in the year, with games and technology growing rapidly and now comprising 21% of all HMV UK & Ireland sales, up from 14% in 2007.
In a statement, chief executive Simon Fox said: “One year into our transformation plan, group profits are up by 25% and we are ahead of where we expected to be. We still have much to do, and whilst we are mindful of the challenging economic outlook, the current financial year has started in line with our expectations and I remain confident that we are building a better and stronger business that can prosper in a rapidly-changing market”.
The board also announced that non-executive chairman Carl Symon would be standing down in September after nearly three years.
Betting that there’s loads more Flash video content out there that just isn’t popping up in search engine queries, Adobe is working with Google and Yahoo to improve search results of dynamic Web content and rich Internet applications (RIAs).
The company is providing optimised Adobe Flash Player technology to Google and Yahoo! to enhance search engine indexing of the Flash file format (SWF) and uncover information that is currently undiscoverable by search engines. This will provide more relevant automatic search rankings of the millions of RIAs and other dynamic content that run in Adobe Flash Player. What’s interesting about this is that developers and rich Web content producers won’t need to amend existing and future content to make it searchable, because Adobe’s found a way to avoid that.
The problem has been that although search engines already index static text and links within SWF files, RIAs and dynamic Web content have been difficult to expose to search engines because of their changing states.
“Google has been working hard to improve how we can read and discover SWF files,” said Bill Coughran, senior vice president of engineering at Google. “Through our recent collaboration with Adobe, we now help Web site owners that choose to design sites with Adobe Flash software by indexing this content better. Improving how we crawl dynamic content will ultimately enhance the search experience for our users.”
Yahoo! also expects to deliver improved Web search capabilities for SWF applications in a future update to Yahoo! Search.
Needham & Co has raised its estimates on Netflix from $22 to $25 per share, raising assessment on the stock from underperform to hold.
Netflix is the world’s largest online movie rental service, providing more than eight million subscribers access to over 100,000 DVD titles. The company offers a variety of subscription plans, starting at $4.99 a month. There are no due dates, no late fees and no shipping fees.
Analyst Charles Wolf explained the company’s previous models for Netflix performance needed some revision, and notes some challenges for the company’s attempt at offering online film services, a la Apple or Amazon.
“First, the mix of videos in its digital library is skewed to catalog titles rather than new releases. In contrast, Apple’s iTunes movie delivery service is tilted to new and recent releases,” the analyst points out. “We suspect that Netflix was partially motivated in its decision to focus on older releases by the lower costs of older films.
“Second, Netflix’s service is currently much cheaper than Apple or Amazon. Apple and Amazon charge $4 for a new release rental and $3 for an older title. Netflix is allowing subscribers unlimited digital downloads if they’ve subscribed to the one-out or higher plans. The company hopes that subscribers using its digital service will rent fewer movies through the mail, thus offsetting some of the costs associated with unlimited rentals. However, Netflix’s unlimited download scheme does have unintended consequences. Because they have access to unlimited downloads, some Netflix subscribers have downsized their subscription plans, substituting a 1 DVD-out for 3 DVDs-out to save money even as they watch as many if not more movies.
“Third, Netflix is betting on a virtuous circle—that unlimited downloads will stimulate demand and in turn, encourage more manufacturers to build direct-to-TV Netflix boxes. The company believes that a wide choice of boxes will eventually attract new subscribers to the Netflix service. Unfortunately, there is little, if any, logic underlying this belief,” Wolf observes.
“The competitive reality is that unlike the DVD-by mail market, Netflix is likely to face considerable competition in the digital distribution market. Apple recently announced that it’s selling or renting 50,000 movies daily, despite a quite limited selection compared to Netflix.”
He points to the imminent debut of Amazon and Blockbuster on the market, warning, “In the short run, Netflix’s strategy of allowing unlimited downloads to most of its subscribers is a risky one. Since it receives no payments for the downloads, the company loses money on every download irrespective of the lower costs incurred in streaming older movies. Indeed, if the digital delivery service takes off without a concomitant reduction in by-mail rentals, Netflix will have little choice but to set up a separate service for digital delivery. We suspect that such a service will be used more frequently than the company’s by-mail offering because it offers instant gratification. As such, then, it’s likely to be less profitable than Netflix’s by-mail subscription service.”
This is cool – Shazam has introduced an iPhone version of its mobile music discovery software, making it available at no charge through Apple’s App Store.
