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More signs of a developing relationship between Sony and Apple this morning.

Sony Pictures Television has reached another interesting deal with iTunes, offering its all-new legal drama, ‘Canterbury’s Law’ for purchase through the UK arm of the service.

It’s not the first television series the company has introduced into the UK market in this way - both Damages and Rescue Me (the first episode of the latter was made available free) also reached these shores through iTunes.

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EMI continues to refocus itself as a Web 2.0 music company, working to connect music makers with their fans..

…now as part of the deal to raise the value of music beyond that of a commodity, the company has appointed former MyCokeMusic leader, Rafael McDonnell to the new role of vice president - brand partnerships, licensing and synchronization for the UK and Ireland.

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There’s been a whole hoo-hah about the BBC making it possible to download its TV shows to Mac and Linux computers - now it seems the broadcaster may be moving to launch the service, which is already available on Windows, and the launch could come this month, if a report’s to be believed.

The broadcaster has frequently gone on the record to say that it wants to make it possible to download shows from iPlayer to the Mac, but has castigated Apple for refusing to license FairPlay to the corporation in order to easily achieve this.

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EMI’s senior executives provided a full and frank interview with Billboard today - an essential read for anyone in the business of music, the interview looks across the label’s revivified strategy and explores its new formation into three separate business units.

We like what they’re saying, to be blunt. The label seems prepared to make the transition away from music retail and toward relationship management, working to bring fans and bands closer together, which is exactly what most people have been saying all the labels should do.

We think EMI’s extensive recent root and branch reorganisation means it’s closer than most to achieving that dream.

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The reviews called it the “must-see comedy of the summer” and as winter closes in Sony has revealed an iTunes plan for the DVD release of ‘Pineapple Express’.

Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has signed-up to offer an iTunes Digital Copy of the film on the DVD or Blu-ray versions of the movie sold in the US from January 6.

UK and US customers who purchase a DVD also get an additional Digital Copy of the movie which can be popped inside iTunes, and then played back on the computer or Apple’s range of digital devices.

This means iTunes, iPod, iPhone and Apple TV owners will be able to extract a legitimate copy of the film for playback on their computers and digital devices when they buy the disc. Sony will also offer versions for playback on Windows PCs and the PlayStation Portable.

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Highly-respected music manager Pete Jenner will speak at the third of MusicTank’s ‘Lets Sell Recorded Music’ events, in a speech focusing on how we can license compelling alternatives to file sharing.
 
The event - which takes place November 18 at the MCPS-PRS Alliance - will also feature Beggar’s Simon Wheeler, Jez Bell From MCPS-PRS Alliance, Clintons’ Tom Frederikse On Panel.
 
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US album sales in October declined 19.4 per cent year on year, according to the latest SoundScan numbers as reported by Coolfer.

That’s steeper decline than 2008 has been as a year, but quite possibly attributable to a relatively weak summer release schedule (just watch the action hot up from mid-October on), the US elections and - principally - the economic downturn which will have a huge impact on music sales.

Why will recession have such an impact on music sales? Because years of litigation against customers has driven a schism between US music consumers and US labels, sadly to the detriment of all concerned, including the artists.

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Norwegian consumer champs want iTunes song sales opened up for playback on non-iPods

Apple has issued a response to the Norwegian Consumer Ombudsman in relation to plans to launch action against iTunes before the country’s Market Council, says PC World.

Apparently Apple’s answer to accusations its media service breaches the Norwegian Marketing Control Act has failed to impress consumer advocates in Norway.

In a statement issued at the end of September Consumer Ombudsman Bjørn Erik Thon explained:

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EMI Music has hitched a deal with InMotion under which the label’s music catalogue will be made available for sale at the latter firm’s airport-based kiosks across the US.

Music fans will be able to buy and download a selection of EMI Music’s key current and catalogue albums and singles directly to portable devices at major US airports using its in-store PlayPoint Media Hotspot kiosks. 

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The BBC has announced that content downloaded to Windows Media PCs using its iPlayer service can now be side-loaded to a growing family of compatible devices - and stormed at Apple’s reluctance to share its DRM as reason for the lack of feature parity for Mac and iPhone users.

The news means video can be played on any mobile device that supports Windows Media digital rights management. The BBC has assembled a list of compatible devices.

To use the feature users simply select a new ‘for media players’ option when downloading content using the iPlayer service, it can then be pulled across to the device. The BBC will in future iPlayer content available for the Nokia N96.
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