||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DECLINE OF RECORDING INDUSTRY CONTINUES
ROLLING STONE - Overall CD sales have plummeted sixteen percent for the
year so far -- and that's after seven years of near-constant erosion. In
the face of widespread piracy, consumers' growing preference for
low-profit-margin digital singles over albums, and other woes, the
record business has plunged into a historic decline. . .
In 2000, U.S. consumers bought 785.1 million albums; last year, they
bought 588.2 million (a figure that includes both CDs and downloaded
albums), according to Nielsen Sound Scan. In 2000, the ten top-selling
albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top
ten sold just 25 million. Digital sales are growing -- fans bought 582
million digital singles last year, up sixty-five percent from 2005, and
purchased $600 million worth of ring tones -- but the new revenue
sources aren't making up for the shortfall. . .
About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003,
according to the research group Almighty Institute of Music Retail. . .
It all could have been different: Seven years ago, the music industry's
top executives gathered for secret talks with Napster CEO Hank Barry. At
a July 15th, 2000, meeting, the execs -- including the CEO of
Universal's parent company, Edgar Bronfman Jr.; Sony Corp. head Nobuyuki
Idei; and Bertelsmann chief Thomas Middelhof -- sat in a hotel in Sun
Valley, Idaho, with Barry and told him that they wanted to strike
licensing deals with Napster. . .
The idea was to let Napster's 38 million users keep downloading for a
monthly subscription fee -- roughly $10 -- with revenues split between
the service and the labels. But ultimately, despite a public offer of $1
billion from Napster, the companies never reached a settlement. . .
In the fall of 2003, the RIAA filed its first copyright-infringement
lawsuits against file sharers. They've since sued more than 20,000 music
fans. The RIAA maintains that the lawsuits are meant to spread the word
that unauthorized downloading can have consequences. . . But
file-sharing isn't going away -- there was a 4.4 percent increase in the
number of peer-to-peer users in 2006
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline/print
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EMI SEES DRM-FREE SALE BOOM
INQUIRER, UK - EMI is reporting that the sales results for its DRM-free
music are better than those with protection. Since EMI ditched the DRM
on I Tunes it has seen sales of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
increase by between 272 and 350 percent. It is too early to tell if this
is just a temporary rise as punters replace their old DRM infected
tracks with those which are protection free. However it does look like
punters have given the record labels the thumbs up for DRM free music.
According to Bloomberg, digital sales for other DRM free music increased
by between 17 to 24 per cent. OK Go's Oh No increased 77 per cent.
Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head jumped 115 per cent.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40443
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CYBER NOTES
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LET YOUR EYES, NOT YOUR COMPUTER, TELL YOU WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF INK
KEN FISHER, ARSTECHNICA - A new study says that on average, more than
half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in
the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are
tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out
of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. . . Epson's printers
were among the highest rated, at more than 80 percent efficiency using
single-ink cartridges. . . Printers routinely report that they are low
on ink even when they aren't, and in some cases there are still hundreds
of pages worth of ink left.
The second issue is a familiar one: multi-ink cartridges can be rendered
"empty" when only one color runs low. Multi-ink cartridges store three
to five colors in a single cartridge. Printing too many photos from the
air show will kill your cartridge faster than you can say "blue skies,"
as dominant colors are used faster than the others.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-study-inkjet-printers-
are-filthy-lying-thieves.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
DECLINE OF RECORDING INDUSTRY CONTINUES
ROLLING STONE - Overall CD sales have plummeted sixteen percent for the
year so far -- and that's after seven years of near-constant erosion. In
the face of widespread piracy, consumers' growing preference for
low-profit-margin digital singles over albums, and other woes, the
record business has plunged into a historic decline. . .
In 2000, U.S. consumers bought 785.1 million albums; last year, they
bought 588.2 million (a figure that includes both CDs and downloaded
albums), according to Nielsen Sound Scan. In 2000, the ten top-selling
albums in the U.S. sold a combined 60 million copies; in 2006, the top
ten sold just 25 million. Digital sales are growing -- fans bought 582
million digital singles last year, up sixty-five percent from 2005, and
purchased $600 million worth of ring tones -- but the new revenue
sources aren't making up for the shortfall. . .
About 2,700 record stores have closed across the country since 2003,
according to the research group Almighty Institute of Music Retail. . .
It all could have been different: Seven years ago, the music industry's
top executives gathered for secret talks with Napster CEO Hank Barry. At
a July 15th, 2000, meeting, the execs -- including the CEO of
Universal's parent company, Edgar Bronfman Jr.; Sony Corp. head Nobuyuki
Idei; and Bertelsmann chief Thomas Middelhof -- sat in a hotel in Sun
Valley, Idaho, with Barry and told him that they wanted to strike
licensing deals with Napster. . .
The idea was to let Napster's 38 million users keep downloading for a
monthly subscription fee -- roughly $10 -- with revenues split between
the service and the labels. But ultimately, despite a public offer of $1
billion from Napster, the companies never reached a settlement. . .
In the fall of 2003, the RIAA filed its first copyright-infringement
lawsuits against file sharers. They've since sued more than 20,000 music
fans. The RIAA maintains that the lawsuits are meant to spread the word
that unauthorized downloading can have consequences. . . But
file-sharing isn't going away -- there was a 4.4 percent increase in the
number of peer-to-peer users in 2006
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/15137581/the_record_industrys_decline/print
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
EMI SEES DRM-FREE SALE BOOM
INQUIRER, UK - EMI is reporting that the sales results for its DRM-free
music are better than those with protection. Since EMI ditched the DRM
on I Tunes it has seen sales of Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon
increase by between 272 and 350 percent. It is too early to tell if this
is just a temporary rise as punters replace their old DRM infected
tracks with those which are protection free. However it does look like
punters have given the record labels the thumbs up for DRM free music.
According to Bloomberg, digital sales for other DRM free music increased
by between 17 to 24 per cent. OK Go's Oh No increased 77 per cent.
Coldplay's A Rush Of Blood To The Head jumped 115 per cent.
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=40443
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
CYBER NOTES
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
LET YOUR EYES, NOT YOUR COMPUTER, TELL YOU WHEN YOU'RE OUT OF INK
KEN FISHER, ARSTECHNICA - A new study says that on average, more than
half of the ink from inkjet cartridges is wasted when users toss them in
the garbage. Why is that interesting? According to the study, users are
tossing the cartridges when their printers are telling them they're out
of ink, not when they necessarily are out of ink. . . Epson's printers
were among the highest rated, at more than 80 percent efficiency using
single-ink cartridges. . . Printers routinely report that they are low
on ink even when they aren't, and in some cases there are still hundreds
of pages worth of ink left.
The second issue is a familiar one: multi-ink cartridges can be rendered
"empty" when only one color runs low. Multi-ink cartridges store three
to five colors in a single cartridge. Printing too many photos from the
air show will kill your cartridge faster than you can say "blue skies,"
as dominant colors are used faster than the others.
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070618-study-inkjet-printers-
are-filthy-lying-thieves.html
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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