MUSIC NEWS

Digital Music Market To Grow 22% Annually Through 2015, To $20 Billion   Global digital music revenues are expected to more than double from $7 billion last year to $20 billion by 2015, growing at a compound annual growth rate [CAGR] of 22% over the period. That's the word from Market Research, whose new "Digital Music Market Outlook" reports that subscriptions will be the fastest growing segment of the business, growing at a CAGR of 61% over the same forecast period. In terms of market value, the U.S., Japan, U.K., France, and Germany are the key digital music markets, together accounting for 79.5% of the global market in 2010. India, China, and Mexico are the rising digital music markets, presenting strong growth potential. The report also indicates that Internet Service Providers [ISPs] are entering the global battle against music piracy, primarily driven by the collective efforts of music companies and local governmental support. In 2010, France, Ireland, and South Korea took steps to curtail music piracy, while others, including the U.K., New Zealand, and Malaysia are aiming to do so in 2011. [Full story: Marketwire] PacketVideo Sues Spotify For Patent Infringement   San Diego-based PacketVideo, a manufacturer of music and video streaming software, this week filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in the Southern District of California claiming that Spotify violated its patent for a "device for the distribution of music in digital form." The patent allegedly covers methods for streaming copyright-protected music from a central device over data networks. PacketVideo asserts that, because Spotify has not licensed its patent, the company is suffering "substantial damages" that are not less than a "reasonable royalty." The company is seeking an injunction to stop Spotify's alleged infringement, as well as unspecified damages, and attorneys' fees and related costs. A Spotify spokesperson said the company is contesting PacketVideo's claim, insisting that the company's success over the past three years "is in large part due to our own, highly innovative, proprietary hybrid technology that incorporates peer-to-peer technology," which allows computers to share data directly. [Full story: CIO] Spotify Caught With Hand In "Cookie" Jar Just as Spotify was hit by the PacketVideo copyright infringement lawsuit [see story, above], researchers at the University of California at Berkeley reportedly discovered that Spotify also was using a so-called "vicious cookie" in its software that appears to be impossible to delete. The purpose of the cookie apparently is to track users' habits and, inevitably, to be used for marketing purposes. The cookie is powered by tech company KISSmetrics and allegedly is the same one that Hulu was found to be using. Spotify quickly suspended use of the cookie but, as some industry analysts have pointed out, "one has to wonder why they wanted to start out playing dirty." And as Flip The Media blogger Jonathan Cunningham njoted, "At the core, the allegation is that Spotify intends to spy on its own users. That's clearly no good and consumers are consistently pushing back against measures like these. Spotify was smart to halt using the cookie, but we'll see if the bruise to the music streaming site's reputation has lingering damages." [Full story: Flip The Media] U.K.  Government Scraps Plan To Block Copyright-Infringing Websites   Yesterday the British government revealed plans to "modernize and reform U.K. copyright law," the result of a study of recommendations announced in a report commissioned by Prime Minister David Cameron. As reported by Billboard, the most significant decision is the elimination of the government's plan to block copyright-infringing websites, which had been a key provision of the country's Digital Economy Act. According to Ofcom, the independent regulator and competition authority for the U.K. communications industries, that rule was deemed "not effective" and "extremely complicated to implement." Not surprisingly, the decision to scrap web-blocking has drawn significant criticism from the music industry, leading Geoff Taylor, chief executive of BPI [U.K.'s equivalent of the RIAA], to say, "Every day blatantly illegal foreign sites flout our laws, rip off consumers and musicians, and wreak huge damage on our creative sector. Government has recognized that blocking such sites could help to reduce levels of infringement, but there needs to be a more effective framework that enables speedier action than would be possible under the relevant DEA provisions." [Full story: Billboard] Deezer Aims To Go After Spotify With U.K. Launch   Deezer, a digital music service that has a partnership with France Telecom [aka "Orange"] in France, said it is planning to launch in the U.K. sometime in the coming weeks. A direct challenge to Spotify, Deezer offers a streaming service on a "freemium" ad model, with the option to pay for premium services that include commercial-free programming and higher-quality audio. Orange has a minority stake in Deezer and, since the two companies started working together in August 2010, the streaming service has added 500,000 subscribers. Deezer has said it is looking for a telecom partner to team up with in the U.K., much as Spotify recently teamed up with Virgin Media to offer its premium option as part of Virgin's bundled deals. An Orange spokesperson has said that, while "Orange has a very successful partnership with Deezer in France ... we have no official relationship with Deezer in the U.K. at present." [Full story: Marketing Magazine] Forbes: "Sirius XM Has Big Fans, But Pandora And Spotify Are Wildly Cheaper"   While Sirius XM CEO Mel Karmazin this week played down the potential competition from such online streaming services as Pandora and Spotify, Forbes' John Dobosz said that price alone could make that competition stiffer than the satellite radio company would like to believe. "Satellite radio will run you, as a subscriber, between $12.95 and $16.99 per month," he said in a recent blog post. "Throw in another $2.99 monthly if you want to have the crazy luxury of listening on the Internet. Compare that to Pandora Internet radio, which is free if you don't mind some annoying commercials every few songs, or $3 per month if you want to have unlimited listening that's commercial-free." As a Sirius subscriber since 2006, Dobosz says he has yet to cancel the service, "an act of laziness, as I have my credit card pay it each September or October. In fact, I try to drive in to work as much as possible just to amortize the cost and listen to all that's offered [but] the service does 'update' or 'search' quite frequently, usually right in the middle of a song. Also, not being able to listen to it on the Internet without getting hit for an extra three bucks per month is a bit of a chafe." [Full story:Forbes] Al Bell Presents American Soul Music  ... And American Soul TV If you're into classic and contemporary Soul, R&B, Blues, Gospel, Jazz, Hip-Hop Soul, Rap Soul, and Neo-Soul, we invite you to listen to Al Bell Presents American Soul Music. Former Stax Records owner and Motown President Al Bell personally has programmed this awesome radio station online, presenting your favorites from the 1960s and '70s [and some '80s], a lot of the best new music that's being released today, and some real gems you haven't heard in a long, long time. Come to www.AlBellPresents.Com and hear it for yourself! And now...join us for Al Bell Presents American Soul TV here.