News
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Illegal File Sharers 'Spend More On Music Than Legal Downloaders' A survey finds...
By Jason Gregory on 2 November 2009
People who download musically illegally spend more each year buying CDs and MP3s legitimately than those opposed to file sharing, a new survey has revealed.
The UK-based report found illegal downloaders also spent on average £77 a year buying music, while legitimate shoppers spent just £44.
A total of 1008 people aged between 16 and 50 were polled by researchers Demos.
Almost one in 10 admitted to using peer-to-peer file sharing websites, but eight out of 10 said they bought music legally.
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Government To Disconnect Persistent Illegal Downloaders As part of new legislation...
By Jason Gregory on 28 October 2009
Persistent illegal downloaders will be disconnected from the internet under new government legislation.
The cut-off will be implemented as a “last resort” if web users fail to respond to two warning letters.
The measures, which are expected to come into effect in April next year, were announced by business secretary Lord Mandelson.
"It must become clear that the days of consequence-free widespread online infringement are over," Mandelson said at a digital creative industries conference.
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HMV To Open High Street Pop-Up Stores In Run Up To Christmas In various towns...
By Jason Gregory on 19 October 2009
Music and DVD retailer HMV has outlined plans to open 10-15 temporary High Street stores in the run up to Christmas.
The pop-up shops will appear in towns stripped of entertainment retailers following the collapse of Woolworths and Zavvi last year.
The two High Street giants were among the highest profile victims of the credit crunch in the UK.
Simon Fox, HMV chief executive, said: "There are going to be a large number of towns and high streets that won't have an entertainment presence this Christmas."
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The Conservatives Launch Spotify Advertising Campaign You can now hear Tories waffle in-between songs...
By Scott Colothan on 16 October 2009
The Conservatives are hoping to snare the younger British vote by advertising on Spotify.
A 40 second advert will air in-between songs for a week from next Wednesday (October 21) where Tory Party chairman Eric Pickles will speak about debt and urge listeners to vote for them at the 2010 elections.
If you were ever in any doubt about how cool Mr Pickles is then look at the photo above – he wears sunglasses indoors like any reputable rock star AND over his spectacles!
The Tories have astutely swerved the rules which state that political parties cannot advertise on television or radio outside of official election broadcasts before the general election. There is no such rule for the web.
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Sky Unveils Rival To iTunes, Spotify Called Sky Songs It's available next week...
By Jason Gregory on 12 October 2009
Sky has unveiled its new digital music service, which has been touted as a rival to Spotify and Apple's iTunes store.
Sky Songs will launch in the UK on October 19 with over four million songs from all of the four major record companies, as well as independent labels.
Users will be able to subscribe to two different monthly packages – both of which offer unlimited song streaming.
The first option, priced at £6.49, will enable customers to download a £6.49 album or 10 songs.
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YouTube And PRS Resolve 'Complex' Dispute Over Royalties Thanks to new deal...
By Jason Gregory on 3 September 2009
Thousands of official music videos are to return to YouTube after the video-sharing website resolved a dispute with the songwriters' association, PRS for Music.
YouTube stripped the videos from its UK website in March after it failed to reach an agreement with PRS over royalties.
But the dispute, which attracted widespread criticism, has ended after the website agreed to pay an undisclosed lump sum to PRS as part of a deal lasting until 2012.
"We are pleased to announce that an agreement for a licence has been reached and both PRS for Music and YouTube are happy that the negotiations resulted in a mutually acceptable deal,” YouTube said in a statement.
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'Hardcore' File-Sharers Face Internet Cut Off Under new measures...
By Jason Gregory on 25 August 2009
Internet users who persistently download music and films illegally could be cut off, according to new measures outlined by the government.
The proposal, which marks a radical amendment to existing policy, is set to tackle “hardcore copyright pirates”.
In June, Digital Britain report gave regulator Ofcom until 2012 to decide whether a ban on persistent pirates was adequate.
But this has now been brought forward following an intervention from the Business Secretary Lord Mandelson, who is understood to want tougher measures.
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Live Nation And Ticketmaster Merger 'Would Be Detrimental' Former managing director warns...
By Jason Gregory on 31 July 2009
Stuart Galbraith, former managing director of Live Nation, has warned against the company's proposed merger with Ticketmaster.
The deal, which has been referred to the Competition Commission in the UK, would bring together the world's biggest ticket retailer and concert promoter.
Speaking to BBC 6 Music, Galbraith said the potential monopoly would have a “detrimental effect”.
"I don't think it would be a good thing,” he added. “I think competition is good for the customer and good for everybody that participates in live music."
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Apple Attempts To Boost Full-Length Album Sales Rather than users buying individual tracks...
By Andrew Almond on 28 July 2009
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Apple is working with major record labels in a bid to devise ways kick start sales of full-length albums.
With plans to add interactive booklets to full-length albums that are bought, the companies are seeking to reverse the modern trend that sees internet users simply download individual tracks, instead of a full album.
The interactive booklets are also set to allow music to be played on computers without the use of iTunes, as well as including videos and photos along with lyrics and are due for a September launch.
The talks, that are reportedly codenamed “cocktail”, are trying to recreate “the heyday of the album when you would sit around with friends looking at the artwork, while you listened to the music” according to one spokesperson.
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Spotify: Coming To An iPhone Near You But only if you're a Spotify Premium subscriber...
By Andrew Almond on 27 July 2009
The people behind Spotify, the Swedish music streaming site with a library containing millions songs, have unveiled an application for the iPhone which is set to launch in the near future.
On their blog earlier today it was announced that Spotify had “put the finishing touches to a very special project” which will eventually allow the potential for users to download content directly onto their iPhones and therefore seemingly place itself in direct competition with iTunes.
The free music streaming site which launched in the UK in February now has over one million in users in the UK alone and looks to expand upon this through the move into the iPhone market.
Spotify users have the choice to sign up to “Spotify Premium” a service that for £9.99 allows playback without adverts and Spotify have announced that the iPhone application will only initially be available for those subscribers.
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