New York
– Music industry trade publication Billboard announced that it has named Craig
Marks as its new editor. Marks was previously the founding editor of Blender
magazine, editor-in-chief for music at CNET.com, and executive editor of Spin magazine.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5el7
(Billboard)
New York – Liberal
talk-radio network Air America
unceremoniously announced on Thursday that it would cease broadcasting
immediately and file for bankruptcy. "It is
with the greatest regret, on behalf of our Board, that we must announce that
Air America Media is ceasing its live programming operations as of this
afternoon, and that the Company will file soon under Chapter 7 of the
Bankruptcy Code to carry out an orderly winding-down of the business," the
company said on its website.
"The very difficult economic environment has
had a significant impact on Air America’s
business. This past year has seen a ‘perfect storm’ in the media industry
generally," the company added.
"National and local advertising
revenues have fallen drastically, causing many media companies nationwide to
fold or seek bankruptcy protection."
Air America launched in 2004 with
on-air personalities including now-Senator Al Franken, and now-MSNBC host
Rachel Maddow.
The company already filed for Ch. 11 once in 2006, and was sold out
of those proceedings for just $4.25 million.
"In this climate, our
painstaking search for new investors has come close several times right up into
this week, but ultimately fell short of success."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5emc
(Washington Post)
Boston – The U.S. e-book
reader market is set to generate $1.3 billion in revenue in 2010, growing to
$2.5 billion by 2013, according to a report from market research firm Yankee
Group.
U.S.
e-book reader sales are expected to hit 6 million this year, and rise at a compound
annual growth rate of 34% to reach 19.2 million in 2013, when the installed
base will hit over 36 million.
Yankee Group sees $150 as the "sweet spot"
for e-book reader pricing.
"Unlike the iPod, which hooked serious music
buyers in addition to a raft of casual listeners, e-book reader adoption will be
limited to heavy readers only — at least until prices come down," said
Yankee Group analyst Dmitriy Molchanov.
"But we see the average price of
e-book readers declining by roughly 15 percent per year for the next five
years, resulting in 55 percent increase in adoption rate year over year."
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5eea
London – While a U.K. court
recently acquitted the administrator of BitTorrent site OiNK of charges of
"conspiracy to defraud" the recording industry, that industry is now
considering filing civil actions to reclaim what it says are the admin’s
ill-gotten gains from the site, TorrentFreak reported.
International record
label trade group IFPI called that outcome a "hugely disappointing verdict" last week.
Today, IFPI chairman John Kennedy said at a press conference that
the group plans to "find other ways" to seek remedy against OiNK
admin Alan Ellis, for the $300,000 in donations he received from users of the
site.
Ellis told the jury at his trial that the funds were used to rent server
space and to put toward the cost of his own server.
Kennedy said the industry
wants those funds to distribute to the artists whose music was shared without
permission on OiNK, according to TorrentFreak.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5eaz
(TorrentFreak)
http://snipurl.com/u5eb0
(DMW previous coverage)
Palo Alto,
Calif. – Comcast (NASD: CMCSA), the nation’s
largest cable TV provider that recently proposed a merger with NBC Universal,
is in talks to offer a music streaming service to its ISP and cable TV
customers, TechCrunch reports, citing multiple unnamed sources.
The service
would stream songs via a website or to a viewer’s TV set-top box.
Sources
speculated the service would cost an extra at least $5 per month for
subscribers.
Related Links:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2010/01/20/comcast-streaming-music
Seattle
– Amazon.com (NASD: AMZN) on Thursday announced that it will release a software development
kit to allow third-party developers to create applications for its Kindle
e-book reader device.
The Kindle Development Kit will be offered in limited
beta beginning next month.
The company said that developer Handmark is building
a Zagat guide application for the Kindle, while Sonic Boom is building
word games and puzzles; Electronic Arts is also developing games for the
Kindle.
Silicon Alley Insider and others noted that the Kindle’s grayscale,
electronic ink-based screen will rule out photos and video, and limit what
developers can do with the platform.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5e6t
http://snipurl.com/u5e7e
(Silicon Alley Insider)
San Francisco
– Rixty, the developer of an alternative payment platform designed to let
people without credit cards make online entertainment purchases, said on
Thursday that it has raised $1.24 million in seed funding, led by Javelin
Venture Partners.
Accelerator Ventures, First Round Capital, Freestyle Capital,
Nueva Ventures, Soft Tech VC and several angel investors also participated.
San
Francisco-based Rixty’s platform lets people convert their cash into online
credits at more than 20,000 Coinstar kiosks and retail locations.
They then can
spend those credits on games, virtual worlds, social networks, ringtones, and
MP3 downloads.
The company said that it will use the financing to fuel the
growth of its publisher network, expand its product offering and increase its
user base.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5e5t
Redmond,
Wash. – Microsoft (NASD: MSFT) has filed
patent infringement claims against TiVo (NASD: TIVO), the maker of digital video recorders,
as a ploy in ongoing patent litigation where TiVo has sued AT&T (NYSE: T) — the main
customer of Microsoft’s DVR technology.
TiVo sued AT&T for patent
infringement in August 2009, asking a judge to stop the distribution of set-top
boxes by AT&T that contained the allegedly infringing technology — which are
powered by Microsoft’s software.
For its part, Microsoft’s claims against TiVo relate
to patents covering technology used to purchase and deliver video, and the
display of programming information.
"We remain confident in our position
that AT&T will be found to infringe on the TiVo patents asserted," TiVo
said in a statement.
Related Links:
http://snipurl.com/u5dz5
(TiVo statement)
http://snipurl.com/u5dyb
(WSJ)
http://snipurl.com/u5dzw
(DMW previous coverage)
London
– Global recorded music sales were down 10% in 2009, as the digital share of
the market grew 12% to $4.2 billion — and now accounts for 27% of the total
market — according to data from IFPI, a trade group of the major record
labels. The IFPI maintained that, despite growth of the legitimate digital
market, it believes 95% of downloads are still unauthorized, and "illegal
file-sharing and other forms of online piracy are eroding investment and sales
of local music in major markets."
The trade group specifically called out Spain, France
and Brazil
as markets that are "suffering acutely."
The IFPI did note that 400
licensed music services are now available around the world, offering 11 million
tracks.
Single track downloads were up 10% in 2009, and digital album downloads
were up 20%.
"While the music industry has increased its digital revenues
by 940% since 2004, piracy has been the major factor behind the overall global
market decline of around 30% in the same period," IFPI said.
Related Links:
http://www.ifpi.org/content/section_resources/dmr2010.html
http://snipurl.com/u5d83
(Reuters)
http://snipurl.com/u5d88
(PaidContent)
