MUSIC NEWS

Public Enemy's Chuck D Sues Universal For $100 Million   Here we go again! Public Enemy frontman Chuck D [right] is suing Universal Music Group for over $100 million in royalties he says the record label owes for digital music sales from the first five Public Enemy albums. Citing the "Eminem ruling" from earlier this year, the suit claims that "UMG is paying ... roughly 25% of the royalties that it should be paying for moneys received from music download providers" for the sale of downloads and ringtones. Chuck D says Universal pays just $80.33 in royalties for every 1,000 song downloads and $49.89 for every 1,000 ringtones, sales he contends should be treated not as unit sales but as licenses - which would boost the figures from $80.33 to $315.85 and from $49.89 to $660, respectively. UMG acquired the rights to the Public Enemy albums when it bought Def Jam in 1998 and, while the contracts for legacy acts such as Public Enemy do not have explicit terms for digital royalties, they are commonplace for new signings. Note: In the "Eminem ruling," lawyers for FBT Productions successfully argued that digital sales should attract a higher payment than the standard royalty from the record label, on the grounds that online agreements count as licensing deals, and the artist should therefore receive 50% of net revenues, not 18%. [Full story: The Guardian] Pandora Seeks Universal Metric For Online And AM/FM Measurement   In order to compete with radio you must be measured like radio. That's the hard truth Pandora has learned in its quest to sell its digital music service to local and national advertisers, and founder Tim Westergren addressed the issue following a presentation to ad execs at Horizon Media last week, arguing that a universal metric is necessary to measure the audience of traditional and Internet radio networks. "It's really absurd there's not an apples-to-apples" comparison," he observed. Pandora reported total revenue of $203 million in the 12 months ending July 31, with advertising revenue comprising $176 million of the total. The company claims it captures close to 4% of U.S. radio market share, and Westrergren says it deserves a bigger slice of the $17 billion spent last year on radio advertising. In fact, when questioned whether the lack of a universal metric posed a challenge for Pandora's ad-selling efforts, Westergren responded, "To put it mildly." Pandora's Chief Revenue Officer John Trimble has implied that some traditional radio companies are opposed to a universal metric, something Arbitron - through its recently announced Arbitron Digital service - is expected to provide. [Full story: Ad Age] Sony Launches Discovery Feature For Music Unlimited Service As competition in the digital music subscription market intensifies, each service by necessity constantly looks for ways not only to satisfy its customers, but also develop cutting edge features that allow it to stand out in an increasingly crowded sector. As ZDNetnoted this week, one of these services is Sony's Music Unlimited, which this week updated its platform with a new music discovery function that, at least in theory, makes discovering new music easier for the user and also enables subscribers to create and control customized radio stations built around a particular favorite artist. Sony's My Channels does this by analyzing and categorizing musical traits of more than 10 million tracks available in the Music Unlimited content library worldwide, and then automatically populates stations built around a favorite artist or band. [Sound familiar?] The update to the Music Unlimited application is available for Basic and Premium plan subscribers, and is supported on the PlayStation 3, PCs, 2010- and 2011-connected Bravia HDTVs and Blu-ray Disc players, and home theater systems. [Full story: ZDNet] Sirius XM's Karmazin: SoundExchange Bypass Good For Rights Holders   Sirius XM Radio CEO Mel Karmazin [left] last week said he was considering a plan to bypass the standard method of paying for digital streams via royalty clearinghouse SoundExchange and deal directly with artists and record labels. Predictably the announcement drew numerous complaints from virtually everyone who would be affected by the plan, many of them claiming it would result in less money and more complications for artists. But Karmazin, who said that direct agreements with record labels are perfectly legal, insisted direct negotiations with Sirius XM would offer more flexibility than is available through the basic compulsory licenses processed by SoundExchange. "We think rights holders should benefit from a more competitive and open environment created by inviting individual labels to set their own value on their content rather than having to follow the industry collective," he explained. "We are giving rights holders a choice and, if they are not interested, we will continue to work with them through SoundExchange." In response, SoundExchange President Michael Huppe said Sirius simply was looking to pay less than the rates set by federal statute. "At the end of the day, what they're trying to do is get content for less money," he told the New York Times. "Our mission is to maximize the value of the content." [Full story: New York Times] Gartner: Online Revenues To Drive Music Biz Growth Through 2015   Global online music revenues should increase about 7% this year to $6.3 billion as digital services such as Spotify and Apple's iTunes gain momentum, while sales of CDs will continue to decline faster than can be made up for by digital sales. That's the word from technology research firm Gartner, which this week noted in a report titled "Media IAS Online Music Forecast, 2011-2015: Social Media, Subscriptions and the Cloud" that, as consumers opt for connected devices, their desire for access to and consumption of music and content is growing as well. As a result, "music labels, artists, publishers, and new distribution intermediaries are developing new business models to address consumers' changing behavior." The report projects that online music revenue from end users will grow more than 31% by the end of the forecast period, from $5.9 billion in 2010 to $7.7 billion in 2015. By comparison, consumer spending on physical music [CDs and LPs] is expected to slide from around $15 billion in 2010 to around $10 billion in 2015 [see next story, below]. "The music industry was the first media sector to feel the full impact of two major forces - the Internet and technology-empowered consumers," Gartner analyst Mark McGuire said in the report. "It has staggered through the first decade of the 21st century and entered the second bedraggled financially and facing a powerful set of intermediaries, which are creating borderless global ecosystems that defy the industry's previous notions of control and monetization." [Full story: All Access Music Group] Rumor Or Reality? Major Labels To Trash The CD By 2013   A widely circulated rumor claims that the four major record labels plan to stop manufacturing CDs before 2013, with only top-selling artists recording limited edition CDs to be sold through Amazon. Credited with starting the rumor, industry publication Sideline Music earlier this week claimed that sources revealed the labels plan to stop using the CD-format by the end of next year - and perhaps even earlier - in favor of Internet downloads and stream-only releases. While the labels still do billions of dollars in sales of CDs each year, the law of diminishing returns clearly is pointing CD sales in a downward-facing direction while digital music's revenue share is increasing rapidly. Billboard's Glenn Peoples ridiculed the Sidelineprediction as "premature euthanasia" for the CD, arguing that, while retailers may carry fewer titles and they pay less for them, which allows them to charge less, they continue to stock physical product. Still, as CBS News points out, "this may be a quibble over the inevitable ... the proverbial handwriting is on the cyber wall. The music industry, which was rocked by the advent of Internet, is now saying all the right things about having learned hard lessons, and is keen to avoid repeating mistakes it made following the rise of Napster and the digital downloading revolution." [Full story: CBS   Smart House] CSR, Livio Partner To Launch Hands-Free In-Dash Web Radio   Two digital technology have joined forces in what they claim is a plan to "reinvent the car radio." The partnership between Bluetooth manufacturer CSR and Internet radio aggregator Livio is designed to let in-dash entertainment units receive Internet radio streams wirelessly from a smartphone and allow the driver to control and play them without touching the handset. According to a hype-filled company statement, the collaboration has solved two major problems that have hampered in-vehicle Internet radio access: harnessing the large number of Internet radio content providers and creating a well-defined way for the in-vehicle entertainment system to control and play the content, allowing greater driving safety. "Through this collaboration, we can now deliver in-car Internet radio access and control for the next generation of in-vehicle systems," CSR's Thomas Carmody said in the statement. "While this solution will be available first in the RoadTunes software for the BC5MM Bluetooth solution, CSR intends to eventually support Internet radio access and control in all of its automotive connectivity software products." Similarly, Livio founder Jake Sigal said, "Instead of having to fumble with the smartphone to browse through, select, and control your preferred content, the Livio Connect API allows the in-vehicle system to be used to do it remotely, seamlessly, and safely." [Full story: Real Wire] 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!