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)

Judge to RIAA: You can't sue over songs 'made available' via P2P

In a widely anticipated decision, U.S. District Judge Kenneth Karas ruled Monday to reject the RIAA's claim that a Kazaa user who merely "made available" copyrighted music necessarily violated the law. Rather, he said, the RIAA would have to demonstrate that unlawful copying actually took place. While the judge rejected the RIAA attorneys' "making available" argument, he did provide them with a road map showing a detour that might still allow them to arrive at their destination. (News.com)

Wal-Mart Wants $10 CDs

Wal-mart wants every CD you buy to cost less than ten bucks. And the nation's largest retailer -- which moved a quarter of a trillion dollars' worth of goods last year -- usually gets its way. Suppliers who don't accede to Wal-Mart's "everyday low price" mantra often find their products bounced from the chain's stores, excluded from being sold to the 138 million people who shop at a Wal-Mart store every week. (Rolling Stone)

Justice Dept. OKs merger of XM, Sirius; now it's up to FCC

The Justice Department gave its OK on Monday to a deal that would put Howard Stern and Oprah Winfrey under the same satellite radio company roof. Antitrust officials said that they saw no reason to block or put conditions on Sirius' acquisition of XM, leaving consumers with a single satellite radio provider. "We determined that we did not have evidence to support a challenge," says Thomas Barnett, who heads the antitrust division. (AP, Financial Times, PR)

Comcast Hits 7 Billion Views On Demand

Comcast, a leading provider of cable, entertainment and communications products and services in the U.S., announced today that its signature On Demand service continues to be a one-stop destination for entertainment, with more than 7 billion VOD views and 1 billion hours watched since 2003. "The numbers speak for themselves...each month our customers watch roughly 40 million movies On Demand," said Derek Harrar, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Video Services for Comcast. (PR)

Does This Latte Have a Funny Mainstream Taste to You?

Despite adopting a broader musical approach, Starbucks on average sells only two CDs a store each day at company-owned shops, according to people briefed on its business. Starbucks disputed that figure but declined to provide a different one. Starbucks says it still has the power to move record sales. Though it shifts titles regularly, its sales of a CD over, say, six weeks typically accounts for 5 to 10 percent of the album’s overall sales, according to music executives who do business with the company. (NY Times)

Online Radio Reaches 33 Million Americans Per Week

The annual Infinite Dial 2008: Radio's Digital Platforms put out by Arbitron and Edison Media Research, estimates that 33 million Americans age 12 or older listen to a radio station over the Internet during an average week - up from 29 million listeners one year ago. There is also a strong connection between online radio listening and social networking sites according to the study. (PR)

Woman To Record Industry: Stop Spying

A woman who claims the recording industry's anti-music piracy campaign threatens and intimidates innocent people has filed a new complaint accusing record companies of racketeering, fraud and illegal spying. Tanya Andersen originally sued the Recording Industry Association of America after RIAA representatives threatened to interrogate her young daughter if she didn't pay thousands of dollars for music she downloaded from somebody else. (CBS News)

Retailers clash with Pepsi over free music

Pepsi is at odds with some of its biggest US retail customers over a national marketing campaign offering free digital music downloads from online retailer Amazon. The partnership has antagonised rival bricks-and-mortar retailers. In an apparent response to retailers’ concerns, Amazon’s name has been banished from the front of Pepsi bottles carrying the promotion. (Financial Times)

Verizon embraces P4P, a more efficient peer-to-peer tech

The Distributed Computing Industry Association's P4P workgroup is devising a new protocol for what researchers describe as carrier-grade peer-to-peer file transfer systems. Verizon reports that a recent test it conducted revealed that the new protocol provides a significant boost in download performance while simultaneously reducing network congestion. Verizon senior technologist and P4P workgroup co-chair Doug Pasko said that Verizon observed download performance improvements of approximately 200 percent during tests conducted with Pando. (Ars Technica, AP)

Video game sales grow 34 percent in February, PS 3 stays ahead of Xbox 360

Total video game industry sales were up 34 percent to $1.3 billion, year over year. Hardware was up 19 percent, a strong showing in spite of recent price cuts. Software was up 47 percent and accessories were up 36 percent. Year to date, the industry was up 26 percent. (Venture Beat)

Online, Mobile Percentages Keep Tilting at Majors

Just last month, top digital executives Ted Mico (Island Geffen A&M) and Thomas Hesse (Sony BMG) pointed to breakdowns of nearly 40 percent during discussions in New York. And earlier this week, Rio Caraeff, a top mobile and digital executive at Universal Music Group, offered more data. "Our mobile business is about half of our digital business, and our digital business is about 40-60 percent of our new releases," Caraeff told Digital Music News during the Mobile Monday symposium in Los Angeles. (Digital Music News)

SXSW music: A primer for the 22nd annual Austin festival

Never mind that CD sales are dropping and record labels are downsizing. As usual, South by Southwest just keeps growing. The annual music-biz schmooze-athon runs Wednesday through Sunday with a record-breaking 1,700 acts playing 80 stages around Austin. (Dallas News)

Are Carriers Crushing US-Based Mobile Music?

The US-based mobile media market has always been a giant step behind its European - and especially Asian - counterparts. But what is stunting growth in the stateside market? Americans have the disposable income to purchase mobile media assets, just like they have the money to purchase expensive iPhones, subscribe to high-end wireless plans, and barrel though endless text messages. That introduces the question of whether carriers are killing an early-stage media market by imposing heavy percentage demands. (Digital Music News)

Internet video poised for explosive expansion in viewing

A report by investment bank and brokerage Bear Stearns suggests that internet video is on the cusp of an explosion. In the United States over 70% of internet users now stream video, watching an average of 7 minutes a day. Video advertising spend is projected to reach $4.3 billion by 2012, when nearly 90% of internet users in the United States will be watching video online. (InformITV)

House panel kills provision in controversial copyright bill

A U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee has stripped out a provision in a copyright-enforcement bill that would have increased fines for compilation CDs containing pirated music by 10 times or more, meaning the fines for a 10-song mix CD would range from $7,500 to $1.5 million, instead of the current $750 to $150,000. (ComputerWorld)

Wal-Mart stirs CD pricing pot with multi-tiered plan

The major music companies have been resistant to lowering their price on CDs, but now they may be dragged to that point: Wal-Mart, the largest retailer of music with an estimated 22 percent market share, has proposed a five-tiered pricing scheme that would allow the discounter to sell albums at even lower prices and require the labels to bear more of the costs. (Reuters)

XM Satellite Radio Increases Revenue, Narrows Loss

As the company continues to wait for a decision from federal regulators concerning its proposed merger with rival Sirius reported quarterly revenue of $308 million, up 20% from the same period in 2006, and a net loss of $239 million, down $18 million. (DigitalMediaWire, PR)

NY AG subpoenas Comcast on broadband

Comcast, the nation's largest cable company, is the subject of several complaints to the Federal Communications Commission and has been sued by customers over its throttling of file-sharing traffic on its cable-modem service. "We have requested information from the company via subpoena," Jeffrey Lerner, a spokesman for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, said Tuesday. (AP, Portfolio.com)

FCC ready to curb ISP traffic management

Federal regulators on Monday said they are ready to discipline Internet service providers who secretly favor certain types of data traffic, like Web surfing, over others, like file sharing. "The commission is ready, willing and able to step in if necessary to correct any practices that are ongoing today," FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said. (AP, Mercury News)