DIGITAL MUSIC NEWS

Apple, Google, Microsoft, Pandora Set For Digital Music "Arms Race"

After giving Pandora (and Spotify) a significant head start, Apple, Google, and Microsoft have all but declared digital nuclear war as they rush to arm themselves with new music delivery services. To recap: early in October Microsoft introduced Xbox Music, a richly featured digital music service that will feature music discovery, play list streaming, and MP3 purchases. Then Apple's negotiations with the major record labels began to surface, pointing toward the launch of a digital radio service sometime next year. And just in the last week or so Google has begun to make noise about starting a similar streaming service, although details are slow to surface. "We've partnered with Warner Music Group, who will be adding their full music catalog with new songs coming each day," Google said in a statement on Monday. "We're now working with all of the major record labels globally." Terrestrial and satellite radio have taken notice of the looming battle, as Clear Channel added a Pandora-like component to its popular iHeartRadio app late last year, and Sirius XM Radio is hoping to launch its own Pandora-like platform before the end of 2012. [Full story: Daily Finance]

Billboard Chart Changes Draw Criticism And Anger   It's only been three weeks bout the editors at Billboard have already drawn fire - and considerable radio industry ire - for the changes that have been made to several of its music charts. The magazine recently started counting digital sales and online streams along with radio airplay in its tallies for most major formats, and created two new charts using the same criteria, breaking out rap songs in one and R&B songs in a second. The problem: South Korean pop star Psy, whose video "Gangnam Style" went viral on the internet, has been locked into the Number One slot on the new Rap Songs chart for the last three weeks, while Taylor Swift, whose "We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together" is not being played on a number of Country stations, has held the Number 1 position on the Country chart. Bill Werde, Billboard's editorial director, said the shake-up was necessary to reflect changes in the way people consume music these days. "Three weeks ago, the main genre charts only reflected FM radio play," he explained to the New York Times. "Every fan out there in the world knows and everyone in the music business knows that is not the business we are in anymore, that a stream on Rhapsody or Spotify, or a download at iTunes or Amazon - all these different things - are a meaningful part of the fan experience." Werde characterizes the detractors as a "vocal minority" and has stood firm in the face of the criticism, arguing in columns and online discussions that the definition of a hit has changed and Billboard must keep up with the times. [Full story: New York Times]

Anderson Merchandisers Transitions To Digital Distribution Platform   As bricks-and-mortar music sales continue to transition to the digital platform, Anderson Merchandisers - one of the nation's leading distributors of prerecorded music - has acquired SoPeachi Entertainment and Vanguard Cinema to create a new distribution arm known as Anderson Digital. With the acquisitions, Anderson Digital will have distribution capabilities in all segments of the digital marketplace, both domestically and internationally, and says it will give its content partners "extensive reach and direct access to leading digital, cable and satellite, hotel, and mobile platforms." Current customers include not only the world's largest digital music providers, but also such companies as Amazon, CinemaNow, Hulu,Netflix, Sony Entertainment Network, Toys"R"Us Movies, VUDU, and Xbox Video. "With the industry increasingly moving into the digital world, it is important to us to have a digital presence that can both complement and enhance our capabilities," said Anderson CEO Charlie Anderson. Anderson Digital will be run by its managing partners, Freyr Thor and Steve Lyons, and will provide a full suite of digital content aggregation and distribution services including not only delivery and artwork, but also digital restoration, artwork, ingestion, and transcoding. [Full story: Amarillo.com]

Pandora Upgrades iPhone, Android Apps; Windows 8 App Is Coming   Pandora this week announced it is adding more functionality to its mobile apps, showing lyrics and artist information and making it easier to share personalized radio stations with friends. Essentially, the company is bringing its website features to users of its apps for Apple and Android mobile devices, and plans to release a version for Microsoft's Windows Phone 8 early next year. The reason for the upgrades: mobile usage of Pandora's streaming service nearly doubled from a year earlier and now makes up more than 75% of its 3.3 billion listener hours. The company currently has 175 million registered users, including 58 million who use it in a given month, and claims 73% of all free online radio listening. Pandora's mobile ad revenue has been growing almost as quickly as its mobile audience, with revenue from mobile ads up 86% to $59 million in the last quarter vs. the same period last year, making up over half of the company's total revenues. Tom Conrad, Pandora's chief technology officer and EVP of product, said the upgrade was not purposefully designed to boost mobile ad revenue, although it will see some advertising partners get more involved. "Our motivation for doing this was to connect people with the music they're discovering in a fundamental way," he explained. [Full story: SCi-Tech Today]

With 750,000 Apps, Google's Play Store Closes In On iTunes   Google Play Store now offers almost as many apps as the Apple iPhone App Store, and a variety of new content deals gives the company access to more and more digital music and movies. In an announcement that went almost unnoticed because of weather events and the introduction of new Nexus devices, Google revealed it now is working with the four major music labels, in addition to a wide array of independent labels. It also struck new content distribution deals with Time Warner Music, 20th Century Fox and Time, Inc., all of which give the Play Store much broader access to music, movies, television programs, books, and magazines. According to a Bloomberg report, the number of Play Store apps recently surpassed the 700,000 mark, as app availability has become a crucial battleground in determining the success of mobile platforms. As reported by Information Week, Apple has long led the app charge with the iPhone App Store, which still garners the most interest from developers. Google is running a close second, and Microsoft is a distant third with somewhat more than 125,000 applications. All of these overshadow RIM's BlackBerry App World, which effectively will reset its app count to zero when it launches BlackBerry 10 next year. [Full story: Information Week]

Apple Delays Roll-Out Of Latest iTunes Upgrade   Apple earlier this week quietly delayed the release of its latest upgrade to iTunes, saying it needed more time to "get it right." The new version of iTunes was announced in September with no more specific timing than "coming in October," but on Tuesday - one day after a management shake-up - the company revised that projection with an orange tab on its website that now says "coming in November." The company made no formal statement about the change, but in a comment to the technology news site All Things Digital, a spokesman said, "The new iTunes is taking longer than expected and we wanted to take a little extra time to get it right. We look forward to releasing this new version of iTunes with its dramatically simpler and cleaner interface and seamless integration with iCloud before the end of November." The new iTunes is expected to have a streamlined look and better cloud server integration for synching music and video collections. [Full story: New York Times]

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

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