Distorted-Loop.com

Music industry analyst Mark Mulligan has sparked huge debate with a series of posts which explain why music can’t just be free.

His statements won a round of vituperative responses, and the analyst responded to these with a post on his own blog this afternoon.

Mulligan points out that as an active musician and an industry analyst, he (and we agree with him) doesn’t believe artists should be returned to some romantic position as unpaid minstrels travelling from town-to-town in hope of earning a few cents to get by on.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

The value of unlicensed music trafficked on P2P networks in 2007 was $69 billion, according to new MultiMedia Intelligence research, though the researchers warn the value shouldn’t be seen as lost revenue but instead reflects the “fair value” on a per–track basis of traded music files.

“A $69 billion figure is staggering to contemplate, but it effectively illustrates the impact of piracy on the music industry,” according to Rick Sizemore of MultiMedia Intelligence.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Insound is a US music retailer with a fresh twist, it sells vinyl but also makes MP3s of what it sells available to buyers - a business proposition music lovers seem interested in, Billboard reports.

The retailer has only secured permission to sell 500 albums in this new combined format, including releases from the likes of Sub Pop and Matador, but the scheme has seen Insound’s vinyl sales double in the last 18 months, the report claims.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

Apple’s “hobby” the Apple TV has a chance at becoming a ubiquitous household item, though the company may need to add support for non-Apple media services and implement many new features if it seriously intends making an iPod-level impact on this important growing market.

The reason Apple has the chance is visible in the growing momentum behind development of solutions to bring online video to the front room - a sector becoming quickly more intense.

Online video on-demand services such as iTunes or Hulu are hot properties, meaning many more devices - including TVs offering features similar to the Apple TV - should begin to reach market en masse starting next year. And even if Apple does not develop such solutions there will still be winners and losers in the race to offer the ‘iPod’ equivalent of the multimedia for the front room box.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

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.
 
Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

AC/DC’s quite brilliant ‘Black Ice’ album may not be available online, and while the legendary band have offered a few treats for the digital generation this latest fan-based move is something else…

AC/DC feature in the world’s first music video created within an Excel spreadsheet, built using ASCII art. Bigging up the clip, the band’s ‘people’ said, “AC/DC smashes through the corporate firewall with real rock ‘n’ roll. Watch the video playing back as ASCII art in Microsoft Excel!”

You can see the clip after the break, mainly so we could include an image of the new album and note that relatively recent estimates suggest the band’s music’s been downloaded in excess of half a million times of the file-sharing networks…

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

The much-publicised cosy deal between the BPI, Ofcom and the ISPs has raised howls from civil rights campaigners - who quite rightly protest that music consumers have had no voice in these discussions.

The Open Rights Group (ORG) has submitted its response to the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform’s consultation into legislative options to tackle illicit peer to peer file-sharing, warning of muddy thinking throughout the proposals made so far.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

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.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

OK, so news in from the really rather obvious department, consultancy firm Detica has put out a passionate appeal for the entertainment industry to collaborate against piracy with help from the ISPs.

Detica insists that stronger collaboration between Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the entertainment industry is the only way to make it easier for consumers to download music and films legally whilst providing ‘fair trade’ for artists.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!

will join music industry group, Musictank’s panel next week in which panelists will discuss the creation of compelling alternatives to file-sharing.

Vodafone UK Head of Music – Mobile Internet and Content Services, Tom McLennan, will join the panel along with an unannounced Carphone Warehouse person.

McLennan is responsible for Vodafone UK’s music products and the launch of MusicStation, and has the reputation of having an eye for new commercial models with a particular interest in what subscription-based services might offer operators and labels.

Read the rest of this entry »

Tweet This

If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to our RSS feed!