DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS

Global Recorded Music Market To Reach $32.4 Billion By 2015   Global Industry Analysts Inc. this week released a report predicting that, despite continued piracy issues and a slowdown in physical music recording, the global music recording industry is expected to register steady growth over the next few years. Growth in the music recording market primarily will be driven by increasing demand for online music and proliferation of such advanced technologies as digital radio, legitimate P2P, and podcasting, the report claims. Projecting the overall global music recorded music market to reach $32.4 billion by 2015, GIA says the industry is witnessing a transition phase with the advent of digital technologies. "Popularity of digital music is steadily growing with online songs, including mobile music spreading fast across the globe," the company said in a statement. "Physical album sales have declined over the years, as a result of increasing adoption of digital music. Traditional recording companies have embraced digital music recording in a big way, and today digital recording accounts for a major portion of revenues generated by the recording industry. In line with the trend, online music licensing by the record companies is also shooting up." [Full story: news release] Forecast: Mobile Music Revenues Will Double To $18 Billion By 2016   A new report issued this week by IE Market Research forecasts that over the next five years music will be the fastest growing sector in the mobile entertainment industry. "Among different categories of mobile entertainment, we expect that Mobile Music will see the biggest growth in revenues over the next five years," IEMR VP/Research Nizar Assanie said in a statement. "We forecast that global mobile music revenues will increase from $9 billion in 2011 to $18 billion in 2016." Commenting on total overall mobile revenues, which include gaming, mobile TV, and other media content, Assanie observed, "We think the global mobile entertainment market will see significant growth over the next five years. Globally, we are expecting mobile entertainment revenue to rise from $39.6 billion in 2011 to $53.9 billion in 2016." [Full story:About.com] IFPI: Advertising Funds Digital Piracy Worldwide   Advertising is a major source of funding for digital piracy worldwide. So says the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry [IFPI] in its "Digital Music Report 2012," which states, "Illegal music sites may offer their content for free, but they are often commercially driven, and advertising revenues are a principal source of funding for many of them." To combat advertising-supported piracy, the IFPI says it and other organizations are alerting companies to the fact their advertisements are appearing on such services. "Companies including E-ON, HSBC, ING Direct, Mazda, and Monarch Airlines were clear they did not wish to associate their brands with piracy," the IFPI said in a statement. "Such companies were commonly unaware their media buyers were placing advertisements on networks that included illegal websites." In response, GroupM Interaction Global CEO, Rob Norman said, "We're serious about combating piracy and protecting our clients' intellectual property as forcefully as we possibly can. This policy extends to digital media buyers at all GroupM agencies." [Full story: Brand M Biz] RIAA: Megaupload Closure Will Cause Jump In Legal Sales   RIAA VP/Strategic Data Analysis Joshua Friedlander this week drew a direct link between the closure of illicit music sites and a jump in digital music sales, noting that when Limewire was forced to shut down in late 2010, digital album sales and single track sales were up by 19% and 8%, respectively. "Digital music sales that had been flagging jumped in the month immediately after the Limewire shutdown, and have remained stronger ever since," he said, adding that people who previously visited Megaupload may follow suit and not seek out a new illegal music hub. "[The Megaupload closure] encourages users to go to legitimate sites, and enables great new services to be launched - like Spotify, which [came to] the U.S. last year and quickly signed up millions of new users." Megaupload was seized and closed by the U.S. Department of Justice last week over allegations that it, along with other sites bearing the "Mega" prefix, engaged in mass copyright infringement. "Megaupload had been one of the most popular and notorious file sharing services in the United States, and used predominantly for trading unauthorized content including music, movies, and other copyrighted works," Friedlander said. [Full story: Myce] Edgar Bronfman: "I Will Fight Universal-EMI Merger Tooth And Nail" On his last day as Warner Music Group chairman on Tuesday [Jan. 31], Edgar Bronfman Jr. vowed to fight  Universal Music Group's proposed $1.9 billion takeover of EMI Music "tooth and nail." Claiming that the merger would create a market-killing "super major," he said "it's dangerous, problematic, and has to be stopped." Bronfman himself pursued a deal to acquire EMI for quite some time, and his decision to leave WMG has been widely considered a direct result of his failure to pull it off. Speaking at this week's Dive Into Media conference, Bronfman denied the connection, and said he was going to leave the company regardless of whether or not the EMI deal went through. In fact, he said his greatest regret at Warner was a miscalculation in the mobile space, saying, "Mobile took longer to mature than I thought at the time." Bronfman still says mobile is the future of the recorded music business, but is still taking time to mature. [Full story: The Wrap] Clear Channel's Bob Pittman: Radio Is A Social Party   In the same week that social media giant Facebook announced an Initial Public Offering, which values the company at upwards of $100 billion, Clear Channel CEO Bob Pittman [left] seemed to be waving his hand and saying, "hey, look over here, radio is social, too." In an interview at the Dive Into Media conference, Pittman chatted about Clear Channel, the future of radio, and why social networking is one of radio's greatest allies. "Radio is a party," he explained, contrasting the medium with music-collection services like iTunes and Spotify, which he said are more individual experiences. "It's like walking down the street and seeing a crowded bar and wanting to go in and socialize. One of the reasons radio does so well is that it's inherently social. In terms of the social platform, Facebook is where you want to go ... [but] what we build in radio are these incredible franchises. However our listeners want to get to those franchises is fine - whether it's radio or Internet or TV. Everyone's trying to protect business models, but in the end it's the consumer that rules, and we have to deliver the content to them however they choose to consume it." [Full story: All Things Digital] Forbes: Don't Cry For The Music Biz...It's Doing Just Fine   If you look beyond the largest firms, the entertainment industry is in great shape by almost any measure - and nowhere is this more evident than in the music industry. That's the word from Forbes writer Timothy Lee, who notes that while the "big four" record labels have seen their revenues plummet during the last decade, the music industry more broadly - encompassing independent labels, live performances, merchandise, music lessons, and the like - actually performed extremely well. In fact, statistics from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry [IFPI] indicate that the "broader music industry," which includes "revenues from music in radio advertising, recorded music sales, musical instrument sales, live performance revenues and portable digital music player sales [among a few other income categories]," grew from $132 billion to $168 billion over the last 10 years. Live music in particular experienced phenomenal growth, with U.S. ticket sales tripling from $1.5 billion in 1999 to $4.6 billion in 2009, vastly exceeding the growth of inflation and population growth. Additionally, the number of albums has been growing rapidly, with Nielsen SoundScan estimating that 38,000 new albums were released in 2003, a figure that grew to 106,000 by 2008 before falling - possibly because of the recession - to 75,000 in 2010. [Full story: Forbes] U2 Manager: "Spotify Is Less Useful Than Radio"   U2 manager Paul McGuinness this week claimed that secretive licensing deals and "insufficient transparency" could harm Spotify and other cloud-jukebox services, and criticized confidentiality agreements between the service and labels for failing to show exactly what the benefits to musicians might be. While conceding that "the Spotify model" is part of the future of music, McGuinness noted that the company "has yet to become popular with artists because artists don't see the financial benefit of working with Spotify. That's partly the fault of the labels, and the labels partly own Spotify." Details of exactly how much Spotify pays each label and each artist per play are closely guarded secrets, though previous leaks have suggested the balance is tipped decidedly in the direction of record labels. Essentially, McGuinness sees Spotify more as a promotional tool than a means of monetizing distribution of product, and said, "if we have to choose where to put records on their debut, we're unlikely to give them to Spotify. I'd rather give them to a DJ on a great station." [Full story: Slashgear] Neil Young: "Piracy Is The New Radio"   Neil Young may have lost a few friends in both the radio and record business this week when he told an audience at the Dive Into Media conference that he wasn't particularly concerned about piracy, and radio is over and done with. Specifically, he explained that piracy "doesn't affect me because I look at the Internet as the new radio. I look at the radio as gone. Piracy is the new radio. That's how music gets around. That's the radio. If you really want to hear it, let's make it available, let them hear it, let them hear the 95% of it." Young went on to say that his primary issue with the music industry is the low quality of digital music files, noting that "The MP3 only has 5% of the data present in the original recording. The digital age has forced people to choose between quality and convenience, but they shouldn't have to make that choice." While Young believes the MP3 boom in large part was driven by Apple Inc., he observed that the late Steve Jobs understood the need for high quality music. "Steve Jobs' [legacy] as a pioneer of digital music is tremendous. But when he went home, he listened to vinyl," Young said. [Full story: The Telegraph] Al Bell: "Don Cornelius's Entertainment Heartbeat Continues On"   "Don Cornelius - the visionary, the gentleman and my friend - was a class act. His creation of the 'Soul Train' entertainment phenomenon provided the platform that allowed the music, dance, and performing arts born of the African American culture to be exposed to and permeate American and world culture. Don Cornelius pioneered and popularized the recorded music of the Motown and Stax recorded music brands, rendering them successes, and 'Soul Train' became the catalyst that perpetuated their artistic achievements into a world of renown. Without Don Cornelius and 'Soul Train,' American popular music would not have become the work of artistic excellence that is admired by - and that influences - music creators and performing artists globally. 'Soul Train' and Don Cornelius's entertainment heart beat continues on!!!" - Al Bell 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 Records Group 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!