Dream On: Own Part of a Hit Song (Wall Street Journal)

Starting next month, Madison, Wis.-based SongVest plans to auction on its Web site portions of the rights to 18 songs recorded by Garth Brooks, Aerosmith, Cher and others. People who buy the songs will receive a share of royalties the tunes generate.

View Original Article

Lawyers go crazy at baby Prince fan (BBC News)

In one of the strangest copyright infringement cases to come before a judge, a mother is fighting for the right to post a video on the internet showing her young son dancing to a song by Prince.

View Original Article

NBC shows return to iTunes after year-long feud (Reuters)

Apple Inc. and NBC Universal have ended a year-long disagreement over pricing that had been keeping NBC TV shows off the iTunes Store.. Beginning immediately, NBC shows including "Heroes" and "The Office" are available via iTunes for $1.99 per episode or $2.99 for high-definition (HD) versions.

View Original Article

Disney chief executive Bob Iger calls for illegal downloaders ban (The Guardian)

The chief executive of the Walt Disney Company has called on internet service providers to ban people who illegally download content.

View Original Article

Internet firms should fund TV content (Financial Post)

An independent study released yesterday by the CRTC calls for a hands-off approach to regulating television on the Web, but for companies that provide Internet access to fund the creation of online Canadian television content.

View Original Article

Half of Europe's youth go online for TV and movies (ATV's News)

Europe’s younger generation is leading the way in adoption of web TV services, according to research to be released by Strategy Analytics at this year’s IBC convention.

View Original Article

YouLicense and RightsFlow Announce Strategic Partnership (PR)

YouLicense.com, the global online music licensing platform and RightsFlow, an outsourced music licensing company, have partnered to offer synchronization and private label licensing solutions for record labels and content owners.

View Original Article

Comcast debuts FanCast (ATV's News)

Advanced Television reports that the US cable TV company has launched an online store, Fancast Store, which offers more than 1600 films for rental, downloading or both, and 1500 TV episodes for purchase. The article says that the initiative supplements Comcast’s Fancast digital entertainment portal, which already offers free-to-watch ad-supported episodes of TV programmes and films.

View Original Article

OiNK Uploaders Charged with Copyright Infringement (TorrentFreak)

This May, five men and one woman were arrested for sharing music on OiNK. The suspects were taken in for questioning, and required to provide DNA samples and fingerprints. Two months later, two of the six alleged uploaders were released from further investigation, but (at least) two of the remaining four have been charged today.

View Original Article

Universal extends music market share

According to the Informa Telecoms and Media publication Music & Copyright, Universal continued its strong success in 2007, dominating both the recorded and music publishing sectors. It grew its market share of the recorded music market to 28.8 percent from 25.7 in 2006. Sony BMG was second with 20.1 percent, ahead of Warner at 14.4 percent and EMI with 10.9. (The Guardian)

UK : Internet provider fires shot across bows of music industry on piracy

TalkTalk, the internet service-provider owned by Carphone Warehouse, has flatly rejected demands from the music and film industries that it should "police" the internet and cut off some broadband customers in an attempt to stem the flood of illegal file-sharing. The British Phonographic Industry (BPI), has suggested persistent illegal file-sharers should be warned by their service providers and then be cut off under a "three strikes and you're out" rule. (The Guardian)

Rock Band music sales close to early iPod music sales

MTV's Rock Band video game continues to fly off the shelves, but more importantly for the music industry the game resulted in more than 6 million song downloads since its launch on November 20, 2007. (Hypebot)

Orchard Losses Jump Even As Revenue Doubles

The Orchard posted a 99% jump over previous year revenue in the 4th quarter of 2007, but losses also grew from $1.4M to $2.4M as gross profit margins fell 34% to 25%. For 4Q 2007, Orchard revenues were $9.9 million, compared to $4.9 million for 4Q 2006, an increase of 99%. These results for 2007 reflect $1.1 million of revenues from Digital Music Group from the 11/17 merger through December 31, 2007.

University Researchers Proclaim Compression Breakthrough

Engineers at the University of Rochester are now sharing details on a new compression concept, one that has achieved interesting early results. The team managed to squeeze a 20-second clarinet solo into roughly 1 kilobyte, or 1/1000th the equivalent capacity of an MP3. The researchers disclosed the accomplishment Wednesday at the International Conference on Acoustics Speech and Signal Processing in Las Vegas. (Digital Music News, Geek.com)

Rolling Stones Roll Into eMusic; Abkco Deal Quietly Emerges

The Rolling Stones have now landed on eMusic, a quiet deal catching only modest attention Thursday. eMusic subscribers now have access to the entire Rolling Stones catalog spanning 1964-1970, available as MP3s. That includes famous albums Let It Bleed, Beggars Banquet, and Aftermath, as well as indelible classics like "Paint It, Black," "Satisfaction," "Jumpin' Jack Flash," and a laundry list of others. (Digital Music News)

DeWolf: MySpace Actively Talking to Independents

A ramped-up MySpace Music will include participation from the independent label sector, according to information offered by MySpace chief executive and cofounder Chris DeWolf on Thursday. "They will definitely be involved in it," DeWolf told Digital Music News. "We are actively reaching out to different groups that are representing independent labels," the executive continued, though specific companies were not disclosed. "Independent artists are what helped us get started," DeWolf indicated. (Digital Music News)

Sony BMG, Warner Music Downloads Missing at Wal-Mart

Songs from a larger number of Sony BMG and Warner Music Group artists are now unavailable from Wal-Mart's online music store, potentially the result of a licensing impasse between the parties. One source tied into the situation pointed to show-stopping disagreements related to the licensing of DRM-free content. (Digital Music News)

Mobile tickets in Canada by Live Nation

Rogers Wireless, Canada’s top cell phone company, recently announced an exclusive partnership with Live Nation to bring mobile ticketing to concerts in Canada. Rogers Wireless allows users with cell phones that support WAP 2.0 browsers to enter credit card information and purchase tickets through their phones anywhere within the country. After a successful purchase, the tickets will be sent to the purchaser via SMS and MMS. (Ticket News)

Are mix tape sites on solid legal ground?

If you're an aficionado of Twitter or the short-form blogging platform, Tumblr, over the last couple of weeks, you've no doubt become aware of the make-your-own-mix tape service, Muxtape. A seemingly home-spun operation with no obvious profit motive, Muxtape allows anyone to upload a series of songs to its servers to create, and then distribute online, a digital "mix tape" along the lines of the ones you made for your unrequited paramours back in college. (News.com, A VC)

Napster Q4 Revenue Hits $31 Million

Shares of Napster Inc. jumped Thursday after the online music retailer said it expects its revenue for the fiscal fourth-quarter, which ended March 31, totaled about $31 million, beating analysts' predictions. The company's revenue totaled $29.1 million in the year-ago quarter. Napster also said its subscriber base rose to about 760,000 by the end of March. (Billboard, Digital Music News)

Q&A: President Of Digital Business For EMI, Douglas Merrill

The appointment of former Google chief information officer Douglas Merrill to president of EMI's digital business is certainly one of the more innovative executive moves made by a major label in recent memory. Billboard had the opportunity to speak with Merrill the day his appointment was announced. (Billboard, Silicon Alley Insider, Paidcontent)

US Album sales decline, but is the slump slowing?

Album sales for the first quarter of 2008 are down by double digits, but that's significantly less than 2007's decline. So there's more than one way to look at the results. For the glass-half-empty crowd, this year's numbers continue a trend that has seen album sales tumble from 140.4 million in 2006's first quarter to 104.5 million this year, according to Nielsen SoundScan — a drop of more than 25% in two years. (USA Today, Digital Music News, Music Row)

First searchable web-based TV channel launched

Blinkx, the online video search site, launched the world's first searchable web-based television channel yesterday. Users will access the peer-to-peer service using downloadable software to view TV-quality news and entertainment content from the firm's 250 existing partners such as ITN and the Ministry of Sound. The channel will also include a library of 40 feature films thanks to a tie-up with Dogwoof, a UK-based independent film distributor, with another 10 to 20 to be added each quarter. (The Independent)

MySpace Settles With Universal Music

News Corp.'s MySpace has settled a long-running copyright lawsuit with Universal Music Group, a deal that gives the social network the go-ahead to launch its own music joint venture. Universal gets a "huge" cash payment in return for settling the 2006 lawsuit, perhaps in the $100 million range. WMG and Sony-BMG will also get cash from the deal, but much smaller payments. (Silicon Alley Insider)

Music fans tune into sound benefits of ‘punter equity’

As the traditional record company juggernaut ponders its massive running costs, “punter equity” becomes more attractive to a growing number of musicians. Sellaband, an Amsterdam-based website through which artists invite investment from individual admirers to fund the professional recording of an album, is one example. (Financial Times)

Gracenote to Power Next-Generation Music Handsets for LG Electronics

Gracenote, a global leader in embedded technology, enriched content, and data services for digital entertainment solutions, announced it will provide its music services embedded into handsets of LG Electronics. The services include its popular Mobile MusicID® and two other services embedded in handsets for the first time, File ID and Playlist. Together, these services will bring music identification, discovery and navigation to the mobile phone like never before. (PR)

iTunes Store Top Music Retailer in the US

Apple announced that its iTunes Store surpassed Wal-Mart to become the number one music retailer in the US, based on the latest data from the NPD Group. The iTunes Store became the largest music retailer in the US based on the amount of music sold during January and February 2008. (Ars Technica, LA Times, PR)

MySpace and Record Companies Create Music Site

As part of the deal, MySpace will spin out its popular MySpace Music service as an independent joint venture in partnership with Universal Music, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group. EMI, the fourth major label, is not a part of the deal at this time, but people involved in the negotiations said it would probably join soon. The music companies will own minority stakes in the venture and will make their entire music catalogs available. (NY Times, LA Times, Financial Times, Business Week, Billboard, AP, PaidContent, PR)

Danish Telco Launches Free, Unlimited Music Downloads

Scandinavian telco TDC on Monday announced the launch of a free, unlimited music download service, with all costs to the recording industry to be picked up by the telco. Powered by 24-7 Entertainment, the TDC Play service is available to all mobile, online and cable subscribers as part of their ordinary subscriptions. (Digital Media Wire, PR)

3G iPhone Launch Seen in Second Quarter

Apple is expected to launch a high-speed wireless version of the iPhone in the second quarter and produce as many as 8 million of the devices in the third quarter, according to Bank of America. Apple has said it expects to have sold 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008. It said in January that it had sold more than 4 million iPhones since the phone was launched in June. (Internet News)