After Month-Long Delay, Apple iTunes 11 Launched Last Week Apple last week released the latest desktop version of iTunes after being delayed a month due to what was reported to be "engineering issues." The update, creatively dubbed iTunes 11, is available to download now for Mac and PC, and has been completely redesigned with an eye on being simpler and easier to use, with a "cleaner and more visually rich aesthetic." New features include album covers expanding outwards to show more songs and data about related tracks and music that is available to purchase so users don't have to click through to another page to see the metadata. The iTunes mini-player feature also has been redesigned so it includes an "Up Next" feature, showing what tracks are going to play and in what order, with album art, title, and artist. Some features that did not survive the transition from version 10 to 11 are "Cover Flow," which allowed people to peruse the iTunes library and locate albums by their cover art, and iTunes DJ, which has been replaced with a more global implementation of "Up Next." Additionally, the "Find Duplicates" feature, which allows users to locate and manage duplicate songs, was removed due to an oversight, and Apple says the feature will return in an update designed to fix some outstanding bugs and other issues with the initial release. [Full story: Digital Spy] |
Microsoft Skydrive To Transition To Cloud-Based Digital Music Locker While Microsoft has seemed slow to develop a cloud storage platform that can compete with Google and Amazon, the company reportedly is set to launch a digital music player within its SkyDrive service. This cloud-based music locker presumably would allow those who have stored audio files on SkyDrive to play their music from any browser or SkyDrive-compatible mobile app, although it remains unclear how the new service will integrate (if at all) with Mircosoft's recently launched Xbox Music service. Without specifically referring to SkyDrive, a company statement recently noted that, in the near future, "a scan-and-match feature will take you beyond the 30 million tracks globally offered through Xbox Music. It will add all the music you own to your Xbox Music cloud catalog, including music acquired through other services. This means you can add almost any content you have to your personal Xbox Music collection, even if it's not available in the Xbox Music catalog." By delivering some kind of musical locker in the cloud, Microsoft can step up a bit against its competitors, particularly since SkyDrive apps can be found on all the major mobile operating systems. [Full story: IT ProPortal] |
Opponents Spar As Internet Radio Fairness Debate Opens In D.C. While there's almost no chance of any substantial action in the waning days of the 112th Congress, the battle has begun on Capitol Hill over congressional legislation known as the Internet Radio Fairness Act (HR 6480 and S3609). The first day of official hearings last week included testimony from Hubbard Radio executive Bruce Reese, who said, "The internet presents an opportunity to expand, but streaming is impeded by high, unaffordable royalty rates. There simply is not enough revenue to cover costs." SoundExchange President Michael Huppe disagreed, telling the House committee that "a Pandora listener who spends 250 hours with the service costs Pandora only $4 in royalties, and now Pandora wants to lower it further. What would a willing buyer pay a willing seller for this?" Producer-songwriter Jimmy Jam argued that "an artist gets 70 cents per song download, but only a tenth of a penny for a Pandora stream - that's why the Internet royalty is so high," while Venrock investment partner David Pakman countered by noting that, "the current licensing regime virtually prevents success." The failure rate of digital music companies is among the highest of all fields Venrock looks at, making them non-investable businesses, Pakman explained. [Full story: Los Angeles Times] |
CEA Exec: Internet Radio Fairness Act Is Common-Sense, Overdue While artists and songwriters - and online radio executives and lawmakers - debate the pros and cons of the Internet Radio Fairness Act, Consumer Electronics Association SVP Michael Petricone argued that the current rate structure imposed on streaming music service was onerous and overly burensome. "Current law requires internet radio companies to pay vastly more in royalties than other digital or over-the-air music sources," he said in a statement. "By imposing disproportionately high costs on Internet radio companies, the government is effectively picking winners and losers in the digital music marketplace. Unsurprisingly, the internet streaming ecosystem is not healthy. Unjustifiably high royalty rates discourage new competitors and many internet streaming companies have closed or left the industry. By rationalizing the royalty structure, the Internet Radio Fairness Act will stimulate investment in the internet music industry. That means more royalties for artists, more choices for consumers, and more exciting new products and services for internet music. We urge Congress to vote for innovation and pass the Internet Radio Freedom Act as quickly as possible." [Fill story: mi2n] |
Online Radio Complements, Rather Than Competes With, AM/FM Despite the rapid growth of Pandora, Spotify, and Rdio, online radio's gains are not coming at the expense of AM/FM radio. In fact, a new study conducted by Vision Critical indicates that people who listen to Pandora spend 50% more time listening to AM/FM radio than non-Pandora listeners. While this is not necessarily a cause-and-effect situation, the research does suggest that online radio listeners are musical omnivores who want all the music they can get, however they can get it. "They not only listen to more broadcast radio, they listen to more music on their iPod, on CDs, and satellite radio," says Vision Critical SVP Jeff Vidler. "It's additive. Rather than displacing other ways of listening to music, Pandora is just another way for music fans to indulge their passion for music." The study also found that just over a quarter (26%) of online Americans said that they listen to Pandora on a weekly basis, while 15% said that they listen on a daily basis. Additionally, Pandora users are more likely than other Americans to listen to AM/FM radio online and on a mobile device. More than three-in-ten Pandora users (31%) say that they have streamed a radio station using a desktop/laptop in the past month (vs. 12% of non-Pandora users). Meanwhile, 16% of Pandora users said that they have streamed an AM/FM radio station on a mobile phone over the past month (vs. 3% of non-Pandora users). [Full story: Vision Critical] |
In New Singles Market, Album Sequencing Is Bottom-Line Decision When the music industry was primary an album business, the sequence in which songs were placed on a record largely was an artistic, creative, or philosophical decision. In today's emerging singles market, however, the order in which songs appear on a disc can have far-reaching effects on the an album's digital sales figures, as suggested by a recent analysis conducted by Billboard magazine. In fact, data strongly suggests that the earlier a song appears on an album, the more likely a listener is to stream it online. Also, because of a growing prevalence of multitasking, a music consumer's attention span may be even shorter than any artist or label exec wants to believe. "Everyone's doing 20 different things at once: listening to music, watching TV, and probably while on their iPad," Rdio content marketing manager Kelli Fannon says. And as Warner Bros. EVP of A&R Jeff Fenster observed, before a listener faces such time constraints, artists would do well to realize that they have only so long to make a memorable first impression with label leaders whom they hope to impress. "If I get a demo and the act has got great songs at numbers six and seven on it, there's a very good chance that I will never hear those," he says. [Full story: Billboard.biz] |
Gotye, David Guetta Top Spotify's Most-Streamed List With more than three weeks left in the year Spotify this week released what it says are the most-streamed songs and albums of 2012, with Gotye's "Somebody That I Used To Know" landing in the top spot both in the U.S. and globally (at least in those countries where Spotify operates). David Guetta's "Nothing But the Beat" was the year's most-streamed album, and Coldplay was the most-streamed band. For the record, the five most-streamed tracks of 2012 on a global basis were: 1] Gotye featuring Kimbra - "Somebody That I Used To Know"; 2] Carly Rae Jepsen - "Call Me Maybe"; 3] Fun. featuring Janelle Monáe - "We Are Young"; 4] Flo Rida - "Whistle"; and 5] Flo Rida featuring Sia - "Wild Ones." The top five most-streamed albums of the year were David Guetta's "Nothing But The Beat"; Gotye's "Making Mirrors"; Drake's "Take Care"; Lana Del Ray's "Born To Die"; and One Direction's "Up All Night." The five most-streamed female artists were Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, Adele, Lana Del Ray, and Katy Perry, while the five most-streamed male artists were David Guetta, Flo Rida, Eminem, Skrillex, and Gotye. Additionally, the most-streamed bands were Coldplay, Maroon 5, Fun., Mumford and Sons, and Florence and the Machine. [Full story: Paste Magazine] |
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! |
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