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| UPDATED: 2010-03-05 |
 Universal Revenues Down 6.2% Universal Music Groups (UMG) revenues were 4,363 million in 2009 a 6.2% decrease compared to 2008.
Music Mastermind Raises $4.85 Million Two year old startup Music Mastermind has raised $4.85 million in Series A funding. Music Mastermind empowers anyone to create...
MOG Gets $9.5M Music discovery and subscription service MOG.com has announced another $9.5 million in funding and a pending expansion into Europe.
Ustream Gains $75 Million... From Japan's Softbank. (UPDATED)Popular live video streaming enabler Ustream has received another $75 million in...
$2.4 Billion Loss for EMI Needs $160 Million To Avoid Citi Loan Default. UPDATE: Big Cuts Ahead As EMI Fights For Survival It's official. EMI has reported a 2.4 Billion Loss.
Ustream Scores $75 Million From Japan's Softbank (UPDATED)Popular live video streaming enabler Ustream has received another $75 million in funding led by #3 Japanese cell service Softbank.
EMI Reports $2.4 Billion Loss Needs $160 Million To Avoid Citi Loan Default. (UPDATED) It's official: EMI has reported a 2.4 Billion Loss. Accountants examining EMI's books...
Guvera Raises $20M More For Ad Supported Music image from www.hypebot.com Australian based Guvera has raised any additional $20 million for its ad supported music service. A U.S. launch is expected in 2010.
More Music Industry News Sweden's Music Sales Up, Avenera Gets $10M, Oink Goes Free & More. Music Sales Increase In Sweden For First Time Since 2000 - IFPI Sweden are celebrating after new statistics reveal that...
U.S. Justice Dept. Reported... ...Close To Approving Ticketmaster & Live Nation Merger. (UPDATED) The Justice Department is poised to approve Ticketmaster's proposed $720 million purchase of Live Nation with some...
Echo Nest Raises Another $1.3 Million Music intelligence developer Echo Nest has raised $1.3 million in venture funding. According to the SEC filing the round included 14 unnamed investors.
Public Enemy Lacks SellaBand Believer$ The press releases were flying on October 6th when Public Enemy announced that they were going to their fans via SellaBand for $250,000 to record and promote a new album.
MOG Launches $5 Music Streaming Today MOG's All Access premium music service goes live in the U.S. today (12/2) at 7 AM PST. MOG promises a deep on-demand library for $5 a month with a free trial...
Too Much Joy's Absurd WMG Royalty Statement (UPDATED) There is a long and illustrious list of artists who have complained about major label accounting practices; and almost every audit or lawsuit that I've ever...
Reports: MySpace Buys imeem At Fire Sale Price MySpace has completed the purchase of imeem, which has been rumored since Monday, at a price that could make venture capitalists wary of investing...
Zenph Gets $10.7M For Musical Re-Performances Badly done cover versions may soon become a thing of the past. Why am I not rejoicing? Zenph Sound Innovations has created a technology that turns music...
RealNetworks Reports Profit But Subscribers Down RealNetworks has reported a $1.5 million Third Quarter profit or less than 1 cent per share. It marks the first time that Real has turned a profit in more than a year.
Orchard Shares Double On Buyout News Shares of digital distributor The Orchard rose 38.9% during the trading day yesterday and then jumped another 70% after hours on news that majority...
WMG Pacts With Outrigger To Monetize Videos Warner Music Group is partnering with Outrigger Media to sell online advertising and sponsorships. Outrigger will represent the label group...
Georgia Tech Edison Fund Invests In Band Metrics Music analytics firm Band Metrics has received an investment from the Georgia Tech Edison Fund, an early-stage technology fund managed by the...
Loudcrowd Gets $3M. Will Visitors Follow? Conduit Labs has gotten $3 million in second round financing to expand its Loudcrowd social music community. I admit that I had not even...
Steve Jobs Returns: Apple News and Updates Norah Jones performed (playing guitar instead of piano) and Steve Jobs made his first major pubic appearance today at Apple's major music announcement.
Nimbit Facebook Commerce Platform Music commerce services provider Nimbit has launched Nimbit MyStore for Facebook, which they say is the first direct to fan social commerce solution.
Sony Music's Web Efforts Bear Fruit If its true that the the web rules, then the world's #2 major label group just got closer to the throne. Sony Music Entertainment recently became...
Music Blog Network MOG Gets $5 Million More Music blogging network MOG has closed a $5 million equity financing round lead by Menlo Ventures. Long-time investors Simon Equity Partners and Scott Jones have also...
Terra Firma Investors Approve $492M More Terra Firma investors have approved plans for the private equity firm to inject another 300 million ($492M USD) into a struggling EMI as part of a...
EMI Considers Bond Issue To Re-Finance Debt Yesterday I asked if EMI was in deep financial trouble. Now it appears they may have found a way back from the brink. John Studzinski...
ASCAP Wants $'s For Embedded YouTube Videos ASCAP sent a collection letter to Jason Calacanis seeking payment for YouTube videos embedded on his Mahalo site. Based on what the group told Valleywag...
Pandora, Other Webcasters Reach Royalty Deal After two year of wrangling, "pure-play webcasters" (those who do not also broadcast over the air or are part of large corporations) have reached a settlement...
Major Label vs. Startup: EMI Sues Grooveshark Grooveshark has become the latest music startup to be sued by EMI. Under the motto "Millions Of Songs. Find Yours", Grooveshark combs a database of...
mSpot Signs Up 6M For Paid Mobile Entertainment Mobile music and entertainment company mSpot announced this morning that it has surpassed the 6 million mark in total paid users - a 150% increase since...
Album Sales Drop Accelerated To 18% In May On the eve of the annual NARM music sales convention, Nielsen Soundscan delivered the sobering news that the decline in album sales accelerated to 17.8%...
Spotify Partners With The Echo Nest... ...for Enhanced Music Discovery. Ad supported music streaming service Spotify is partnering with The Echo Nest's music intelligence platform to expand its playlist...
Pandora Claims Profits Close, Adds Lyrics Pandora-logo new Pandora will reach profitability in 2010 according to founder Tim Westergren. Revenue is expected to double this year to $40 million thanks to...
WMG Quarterly Losses Widen To $68M Warner Music Group (WMG) losses widened to $68 million or 45 cents per share for the fiscal quarter ending March 31; up from $37 million a year earlier.
RealNetworks Losses Wider Than Expected RealNetworks reported wider than anticipated losses yesterday. Q1 revenues were down 5% for a net loss of $12.1 million or 10 cents per share compared with profits...
SoundCloud Atracts $3.3M Funding SoundCloud, a net based audio platform that enables musicians to send, receive and distribute music, has received 2.5 million...
SeeqPod Files For Bankrupcy Evidently fearing the outcome of lawsuits by Warner Music and Capital EMI, music search engine and playlist generator...
The Orchard Reports Stronger Financials (UPDATED) Digital distributor The Orchard ((NASDAQ: ORCD) today reported financial results for the fourth quarter and...
Buzznet Grabs $12.5M And A New Name So much for a venture capital drought. Culture blog network Buzznet which includes popular music sites Stereogum, Idolator and...
Nimbit Completes $1 Million Funding Round Led Amidst a very real venture funding cool down, direct-to-music fan commerce platform Nimbit has mange to complete a $1 million funding...
Rhapsody Subscribers Jump 25% In the later half of 2008 Rhapsody saw paying users of its music subscription service jump from 600,000 to 750,000. The company attributes...
Slicethepie Lands $1.4M In New Funding Despite an economic meltdown that has added to venture capitalists' already wary view of the music industry, fan-to-artist...
WMG Reports 34% Drop In Operating Income Early this morning Warner Music reported it's last quarter's earnings to Wall Street. There was little good news in the report accpet perhaps...
Major Labels Shift Revenue Strategy Rocked by shrinking revenues and disappointed in the revenue generated by music services like YouTube, MySpace and imeem, the four major...
MyMajorCompany Gets $4.1 Million MyMajorCompany, which like Sellaband and others empowers fans to finance recordings for artists they like, has received a $4.1 million...
Indie Labels Fight New York Download Tax The president of indie label trade group The American Association For Independent Music (A2IM) issued this statement today arguing...
Xmas Tears: Circuit City, Best Buy, Stocks & More Any early holiday cheer that the music industry had been able to muster hit a brick wall this week. When Circuit City filed for bankruptcy...
Ticketmaster Experiments With Lower Fees Long criticized for excessive ticketing fees, the newly renamed Ticketmaster Entertainment is experimenting with lower charges on some tickets.
TuneCore Gets $7M From Opus Capital. Why??? UPDATED: The economic meltdown has slowed venture funding, but it hasn't stopped it entirely. Discount flat fee digital distributor TuneCore...
Copyright Royalty Board Makes Few Rate Changes There was no real game changer on Thursday as the US Copyright Royalty Board ruled that for the next five years:
Best Buy To Acquire Napster Retail giant Best Buy is acquiring Napster via the cash purchase of outstanding shares for $2.65. Napster stocked closed Friday at $1.36.
ASCAP Seeks $'s For 30 Second Song Clips DiMA & NARM Says Clips Are Fair Use. Just as more and more sites are adding full song streams, ASCAP and BMI are trying to get paid for 30 second song samples.
BMI Collections Up 7.2% To $901 Million BMI has collected $901 million in revenues for its 2008 fiscal year which ended June 20th/ This marks the first time a copyright organization has topped $900 million mark for music performance...
Ringback Revenue Increasing With consumers increasingly able to create their own ringtones, carrier controlled ringback tones are on track to lead mobile music by 2012...
RealNetworks Up 12% But Music Lags "We achieved solid results in the second quarter," Rob Glaser, CEO of RealNetworks said during the company's report to Wall Street yesterday.
Revenue Streams Tipping For UK Labels Figures released by UK record company trade organization BPI show that label revenues other than physical or digital sales increased 13.8%...
Napster Revenues Up, Subscriptions Flat The day after Napster launched its MP3 store to mixed reviews, the company's quarterly report showed net losses narrowing and net revenue...
Sony Buys Gracenote For $260M Sony Corporation of America has signed a merger agreement with Gracenote. Sony will pay approximately $260 million "plus other...
Is 2.0 Music Editorial For Sale? Universal Buys Into Buzznet. It's official. Universal has made a major investment in Buzznet. The music centered social networking site also...
Buzznet Buys Idolator Music Blog The Idolator music site is being bought by social networker Buzznet, "the music site which says it doesn't want to roll up other music blogs...
Last.fm Says Full Song Streams Sell Music Last.fm released stats this week that its says proves that free on demand full song streams have a direct impact on sales. Since this...
WMG Backs ISP Music Tax With Griffin Hire Industry Veteran Jim Griffin Will Spearhead Campaign. The idea of a $5 of so fee tacked onto ISP bills to pay for unlimited downloads is...
WMG's Cohen Renews For $3M & Hypebot... ...Renews It's $1 Challenge. Lyor Cohens' new deal with Warner Music Group includes the following: the term of Mr. Cohens employment...
As Labels Demand Higher Royalties, Radio... ...Could Charge For Airplay. A battle is raging in Washington over requests by labels and artists to charge radio broadcasters more for playing music.
Reznor Rakes In $1.6M First Week Sales... ...by Understanding His Fans. Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails may have found the Music 2.0 sweet spot with his multi-tiered price strategy.
Kyte Flies Straight to $21M. Bands Get Live... ...Mobile Fan Clubs. Live mobile video and social networking site Kyte has grabbed an impressive $21.1 million in second round...
Music 2.0 Gains Traction, How Do Artists Get Paid? A plethora of new and re-tooled sites are offering free ad supported music via streaming and download. Spiral Frog, Qtrax, imeem, We7, iLike...
Trent Reznor's NIN Pockets An Easy Million... ...$'s In Early Sales. 2500 X $300 = $750,000 +...It took less than two days for the Nine Inch Nails to sell out 2500 copies...
Mobile Music On $17.5B Track Despite Ringtone... ...Decline. The global mobile music market is expected to rise to more than $17.5 billion by 2012, driven by subscription...
Wednesday's Music 2.0 Briefing: Yahoo Filtering?... ...Vivendi's Direct Distro, MySpace Music & Much More. Has filtering begun at Yahoo? Strangely a Yahoo search for Pirate Bay yields articles...
Thursday's Music 2.0 Briefing: Yahoo Layoffs... ...Motley Crue Live Nation 360, Free Radiohead Remix & Much More. Its been quite a week at Yahoo! Monday they rejected the Microsoft...
EMI Taps Ricall For Synch Licenses Ricall, which claims to be the largest online music licensing marketplace, has signed a global deal with EMI Music. Under the agreement, EMI...
Was Qtrax Debut Just A Stock Manipulation... ...Scheme? Qtrax was the rising star of the music industry on Monday morning. But 24 hours later after all four major labels denied having deals...
UPDATE 2: Qtrax Launch Delayed... ...as All 4 Majors Deny Deals. Qtrax is now live, but without any downloadable content until deals with the majors are completed. After the jump...
Qtrax Launches Legal Free P2P With 4 Majors... ...& 25 Million Tracks. Qtrax launches making available 20-30 million tracks floating around on P2P's available for free and legal download via its new ad supported service.
Digital Music Growth Slows As Global Sales Drop 10%. Global music sales dropped 10% in 2007 according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. Digital music sales...
Is Up-Selling Apple's New iTunes Strategy? UP-SELLING - whereby a salesman attempts to have the consumer purchase more expensive items, upgrades, or other add-ons in an attempt...
Wednesday's Music 2.0 Briefing... ...EMI's Digital Head Exits, Wozniak Joins en2g0, StubHub Sells For $265M & Much More. EMI's head of digital since 2006 Billy Wragg has excited.
Job Cuts Confirmed Today At EMI UPDATED: In a morning meeting in London, Terra Firma head Guy Hands confirmed that he will cut 1500 - 2000 jobs as part of an effort to cut...
EMI Cuts Rise To 2000. Company To Be Split... ...In Two Divisions. According to sources, EMI will cut 2000 jobs rather than the 1000 reported on Saturday. Other cost cutting measures along...
The Amazon Effect - Lessons Worth Learning Not since Apple has a single company changed the music industry like Amazon did in the last quarter of 2007 and will continue to as we enter 2008.
Yankee Research Predicts Record Label... ...Marginalization. The Yankee Group used CES to share an analysis showing two fundamental shifts are driving the music industry - digitization and...
WMG Stock Hits All Time Low. Future Appears... ...Bleak. Warner Music Group stock dropped another 4.21% present yesterday to hit an all time low of $5.81 off a 52 week high of $23.92.
What WMG MP3's On Amazon Really Means COMMENTARY: With the addition of Warner Music Group product to its 2.9 million track DRM free mp3 catalog, Amazon is poised to...
EU Could Still Split Sony BMG An adviser to the EU's highest court - who in the past has held great influence - has validated an early court decision to deny the Sony BMG merger. This could mean more drama for...
Nabbr Launches Player With Content... ...From Majors, Grabs More Funding. Widget promotion network Nabbr has announced agreements with all four major record labels...
7Digital Gets Agressive With Pricing & Features... ...US Launch Appears Imminent. UPDATED: UK digital retailer 7Digital is pushing aggressive pricing as well as new features and alliances...
Tuesday's Music 2.0 Briefing: News From... ...Microsoft, Cycloop, imeem, Rhapsody & More. Microsoft is adding to its music portfolio by buying mobile music firm MusicWave. (press release)
Facebook Launches Music Initiative UPDATED: Facebook has added several features that should bring more music related activity to the popular social networker and...
Friday's Music 2.0 Briefing: Napster Looses $5M... ... and 20K Subs, WMG Nixes Nokia & Much More. Napster's second-quarter loss narrowed from a year ago on higher revenue from...
Tuesday's Music 2.0 Briefing: Universal Folds V2, Penguin Walks From eMusic, Westergren Testifies. Apple reported fiscal 4th Q revenues climbed 28% over last year to...
Sony, KIDDI Link Could Challenge Apple Sony and Japan's second largest mobile carrier KDDI said Tuesday they will enable digital music to be shared between Sony portable and...
iTunes Plus to Drop DRM Free Price... ... and Add Indies. As early as this week iTunes Plus is expected to drop the price of all DRM free tracks to 99 cents from the current $1.29.
Google & YouTube Turn on Money Stream... ...for Music Videos. Google is extending it's AdSense platform to video and giving content creators and the web sites that carry...
Yahoo! Blog Confirms Changes Ahead... ...For Music Division. Rumors of major changes within Yahoo! Music have been rumored for weeks and a post on a company blog...
WMG Stock Falls Warner Music Group shares hit new lows yesterday closing at $9.74. A year ago the stock traded at $27. As the only publicly traded...
Bronfman Claims ''Awesome'' Growth Ahead WMG head Edgar Bronfman Jr. spoke on Monday at the Convergence 2.0 conference in NYC stating enthusiastically that the label...
Epitaph Adds ADA & Drops eMusic... ...Fontana Hooks Ameoba. Indie Epitaph has inked with ADA for digital and mobile distribution and says they will exit their deal with eMusic...
New Music Business Briefing, EMI Deals... ...With Pirates, Amazon Pricing Pressure, Marleys Fight Verizon & Much More. Internet music "piracy" is huge in China with many ISP's...
New Music Funding: The Filter Gets $5M... ...From Gabriel And Global Grind Grabs $3.5M To Start. Music reccomendation site The Filter has grabbed $5 million in new funding...
WMG Stock Hits New Low... ...As Bronfman Promises Turnaround. It was an up day on Wall Street, but Warner Music stock tumbled another 10% Tuesday...
Mobile Downloads Could Drive Sales Growth Hypebot has repeatedly wondered why so few major music services have explored over the air downloads.
Illegal Downloads Rising It should come as no surprise, but an extensive new UK study by Entertainment Media Research shows that illegal downloads are at an...
Last.FM Demands Indies Waive Royalties UPDATED: Last.FM has a stellar reputation as a place where all music is created equal. Where music discovery is a wonderfully random event untainted by cash or influence.
DiMA & SoundExchange Volley Over Royalties On Monday night SoundExchange informed the Digital Media Association that it will not agree to reduce the $1 billion...
Digital Music Group Merging With The Orchard The Digital Music Group is merging with rival Orchard. The combined companies will trade on the th NASDAQ...
Naspter Responds To Hypebot's Criticism Last last week we were critical of Napster's warning to investors that incompatibility of their downloads with the iPhone would stunt sales.
FTC Calls Burnlounge Pyramid Scheme The Federal Trade Commission filed suit last week alleging that Burnlounge is a pyramid scheme and that some ...
AnywhereCD Back In Business The lawyers have stopped filing suits and counter suits long enough for Warner Music Group and AnywhereCD to settled their dispute.
KCRW Airs Net Radio Royalty Debate Some key players in the debate over looming higher royalty rates for internet broadcasters shared the microphone yesterday on KCRW's Politics Of Culture:
Does eMusic's Math Work For Labels? In addition to increased competition, label defections pose the greatest threat to eMusic's future.
WMG Losses Widen 385% To $27 Million Warner Music Group posted a 385% wider quarterly today due to soft music sales and confirmed that it would cut about 400 jobs.
New Music Business Briefing: Napster Fired, Real Rises, Amazon Rumor & Much More. Penn State's ground breaking relationship with Napster is over.
Good News For Apple is Bad News For Music Yesterday Apple beat expectations with a whopping 85% increase in sales in the second fiscal quarter powered in large part by increased iPod sales.
WMG May Purchase Major Management Firm "... a big industry player is closing in on another type of union that would tap into new Wmg revenue outlets -- and if it's successful offer a new economic model for the major record companies.
EMI Stock Up After Profit Warning EMI stock rose 8% yesterday on the London Exchange after reporting profits of $349 million exceeding analysts expectations.
FCC Settles, MySpace Blocks, Vagrant's Density & More Download and subscription prices are on the rise. Will it hurt consumer adoption rates? (Billboard)
Music Business Week In Review Starting next month EMI is offering its entire catalog as DRM free downloads. iTunes gets it first.
Auto iPod Use Soars & More >>> Billboard.biz is reporting that Apple paid EMI a $5 million advance to be the first to sell their tracks DRM free. Will other services be required to pay advances and how will it effect DRM-free momentum?
New Music Business Briefing In a effort to boost complete album sales and calm label concerns that individual track sales are hurting profit margins ...
New Music Business Briefing... ...MySpace Files Lawsuits & More. Modest Mouse debuts at #1. MySpace marketers beware.
Viacom Sues YouTube & More Viacom whose properties include MTV and Comedy Central have filed a massive $1 Billion lawsuit against YouTube.
Net Radio In Danger As Royalty Rates Jump It's a sad day for fans of music on the internet and the creative broadcasters who program it.
Wall St. Hears Live Nation Strategy & Numbers Late yesterday concert giant Live Nation reported it's 2006 numbers to Wall St. The company reported 2006 revenues of $3,691.6 million...
Music Business Briefing Last week's $1.52 billion ruling against Microsoft for use of mp3 technology could have a chilling effect on the entire music industry...
EMI Update: DRM Free Talks Halted. Talks between EMI and a number of download providers seeking upfront payments for DRM free catalog offerings have ended according to Bloomberg News.
New Music Business Briefing A court has ordered Microsoft to pay $1.52 billion in damages for use of two digital music patents owned by Acatal-Lucent that convert audio files to mp3's on the PC.
EMI Seeks Bids Beyond WMG According to the Financial Times of London, EMI is in talks with several private equity firms including One Equity Partners...
WMG Wants EMI, Sirius Buys XM, And Much More Yesterday may have been a holiday for some, but there was still plenty of major new music business news...
Can the Major Labels Save Themselves? The value of Warner Music Group stock has fallen almost 20% this week trading at the end of Thursday at $18.12 on weak earnings forecasts and an increasingly gloomy sales picture for the entire sector.
European Music Industry Says Drop DRM Jupiter Research's new European Music Executive Survey reveals that most Euro music industry execs (employees of major and indie labels, industry and rights groups, digital stores, and services providers) want an end to DRM.
RealNetworks 4thQ Profits Fall RealNetworks reported a lower quarterly profit yesterday dues to sharply reduced income from a legal settlement with Microsoft and forecast full-year results below expectations.
Sony BMG Refile For EU Merger OK Sony and Bertelsmann have refiled for EU regulators to approve a 2004 deal the combined the music companies, the European Commission said Thursday.
Universal Reports Music Revenue Full Year 2006: Universal Music Groups revenues of 4,955 million were 1.3% above last year (1.5% on a constant currency basis) driven by strong digital sales growth, higher license income in t he U.S. due in part to legal settlements and strong sales growth in the U.K. and Japan.
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