Ingjerds world...

Oscar Wilde once wrote "I am not young enough to know everything". I guess I am neither old enough, nor young enough, but we twentysomethings try our best to get a grasp of this world - and with that I welcome you to MY world: You are free to crash. This is a place publish curious thoughts and recent events - some personal stuff, but mainly about music and technology.

Friday, January 26, 2007

EMI restructuring: Virgin and Captiol merge

From paidcontent.org:

EMI Consolidation Continues: Flom In, Slater Out

  • Posted by Jimmy Guterman
  • Thu 25 Jan 2007 07:21 PM

More shoes are dropping as the EMI consolidation/restructuring/whatever continues. Capitol and Virgin are being merged into a combined Capitol Music Group, with Virgin head Jason Flom taking control of the unit. The odd man out is longtime (well, six years is longtime in the music industry) Capitol prez Andrew Slater. According to a release, the full restructuring program is “designed to deliver a £110m ($217 million) in annual savings across [EMI’s] business. For those who like to think about org chars, Flom will report to Eric Nicoli, CEO of EMI Group, and will Blue Note head Bruce Lundvall, EMI NA COO Ivan Gavin, and EMI NA CFO Colin Finkelstein. On his instant analysis blog, Bob Lefsetz praises Flom (smart), sees the overall consolidation as easing an eventual merger with Warner (astute), and comes across crankier than usual (understandable).

But if someone should be cranky, it’s EMI. If it’s 2007 and your hottest act is the Beatles, you’ve got a big problem to solve. But, with the physical CD market shrinking and the remaining major labels both fighting to keep their share of a shrinking pie and unable to figure out a coherent online strategy (the rumors coming out of Spiral Frog are as unpleasant as a Crazy Frog song, moving around executives has a deck-chairs-on-the-Titanic feel. Forget consolidation—how about delivering something people might want to listen to and even ... pay for?

...you know what? I couldn't agree more!

Thursday, January 25, 2007

Norway Deems iTunes As Illegal, Based on Non-Operability With Other Devices

This is the first such definitive country action against Apple and its iTunes store: Norway's powerful consumer ombudsman ruled that its iTunes was illegal because it did not allow downloaded songs to be played on rival companies’ devices, reports FT. This could lead to other European countries, already sitting on the fence on this, to review the situation.

The ombudsman has set a deadline of Oct 1 for the Apple to make its codes available to other technology companies so that it abides by Norwegian law. If it fails to do so, it will be taken to court, fined and eventually closed down.
Meanwhile Norwegian Consumer Council, who originally launched the complaint, is in negotiations with pan-European consumer groups to present a unified position on iTunes’ legality, the story says. Sweden and Finland have already backed Norway’s stance, but have yet to take action, and the campaign was joined on Wednesday by Germany and France.

OutLaw: “It doesn’t get any clearer than this. Fairplay is an illegal lock-in technology whose main purpose is to lock the consumers to the total package provided by Apple by blocking interoperability,” said Torgeir Waterhouse of the Council. “For all practical purposes this means that iTunes Music Store is trying to kill off one the most important building blocks in a well functioning digital society, interoperability, in order to boost its own profits.”

Finally - Norway ahead of the crowd! I'm so proud! Now, all that remains is to demand that Napster etc also removes it's Windows based DRM system....

UPDATE:
Not just iTunes

Many other music download services operate with similar terms and conditions. “CDON.com, prefueled.com and MSN.no are examples of other affected services. We are therefore asking the Consumer Ombudsman to investigate the terms and conditions of these download services,” says Torgeir Waterhouse.

Read more here.

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Filesharing is now legal in Italy (as long as it's not for profit)

Italian court says copyright infringement is not a crime- Unauthorized downloads are fine if no profit is made

ROME — In a blow to Italy's ongoing campaign against digital copyright infringement, a high level Italian court has ruled that the unauthorized downloading of copyrighted movies, music, and video games is not a crime if the downloader does not profit from the action.

In 2005, a court in Turin sentenced two men to jail time and issued them several hundred euros in fines for taking control of a computer server at the Turin Polytechnic Institute and using it to store and distribute various copies of video games, films and CDs. Last week, an Italian Supreme Court judge overturned the sentence saying the act wasn't criminal because the duo saw no commercial gain.

The ruling comes at a difficult time as Italian authorities continue to struggle against film and music infringement from groups and individuals.

The Silvio Berlusconi government in 2003 passed one of Europe's toughest copyright laws, modeled on the EU's copyright directive, passing down stiff fines for commercial infringers and individual downloaders. But, critics lament, the law is rarely enforced.

FIMI, Italy's trade group for professional musicians, on Monday downplayed last week's court decision saying the Turin judgment will have little impact on the current anti-infringement law as the two men were charged under an older, weaker law.

Still, as Italian media observers point out, last week's legal decision is one of the few to have reached the Italian Supreme Court.

Monday, January 22, 2007

Glaser: Get rid of DRM!

from paidcontent.org

[By Robert Andrews] The music business will not make significant enough gains until it drops restrictive DRM, and it won’t be saved by the long tail either, according to two music industry bosses.
RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser used the MidemNet forum in Cannes to call on companies to develop rights standards that were interoperable and more open.
He said the business was “seeing some signs the industry is open to” ... “giving consumers a way to purchase music with the flexibility that you can only get if you take the DRM off”.
“For purchases, move away from DRM,” he said, adding that the replacement of siloed digital rights management standards would be the first year that digital growth overtakes physical decline. Glaser said DRM should remain for customers who subscribe to a monthly download service and therefore don’t own the track.
Global sales of online music almost doubled to $2bn last year, according to research published by the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry last week - but had still not reached enough to offset the decline in physical-format sales, what the IFPI called “the holy grail”.
Meanwhile, Universal Music Group’s eLabs president Larry Kenswil warned that the ”long tail” -the subject of Wired editor Chris Anderson’s book illustrating how the net leverages small but everlasting value in archive material -was not enough to make up the shortfall.
“It’s an interesting catchphrase. Many more products will sell to a larger audience, that’s true,” he said. “But the question is - what is the offset of the most popular products selling less?
“It’s obvious that shelf space on the internet means people have access to things there wasn’t storage for before.
“But the long tail means that most of that will be listened to [only] once. So, even if you have 300,000 songs being listened to once, it doesn’t make up for the fall-off of the number one this year from what the number one was last year. No album sold 4m last year.”

SpiralFrog CEO goes before launch

The much-hyped online music service Spiral Frog, which got a lot of press a few months ago because it was going to be a fr*ee, ad-supported service, has lots its CEO even before it has launched. CEO Robin Kent was ousted, reports The Key blog on B2.0. Kent who was the former CEO of ad agency Universal McCann. Also, its launch has been delayed (was supposed to launch in December) and we had been hearing some rumbles for a while now. The service has signed deals with EMI and Universal to offer their music on the service.

Previous posts on SpiralFrog in this blog:
Future of Spiral Frog in doubt?
If I could download my trainers for free, I would buy the records!
EMI follows Universal and signs with Spiral Frog
New music distribution system

MySpace preps download store
By Jim Welte - MP3.com

Social networking giant hopes its massive user base will pony up for MP3 downloads powered by original Napster creator Shawn Fanning's Snocap.

The trunk of the car, which has famously served as the do-it-yourself retail store for acts like Wu-Tang Clan and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah--is about to get a lot more shelf space.

The Format's download store on MySpace. The Format's download store on MySpace.

In a move tipped last month by Nettwerk Music Group CEO Terry McBride, MySpace is set to allow bands to sell digital downloads to its more than 106 million users, hoping to turn its social networking clout into yet another rival for Apple's vaunted iTunes Music Store.

"The goal is to be one of the biggest digital music stores out there," MySpace cofounder Chris DeWolfe told Reuters. "Everyone we've spoken to definitely wants an alternative to iTunes and the iPod. MySpace could be that alternative."

The tentatively dubbed MyStore began previewing on MySpace last month with Nettwerk rock band the Format, which has been selling MP3 downloads of its music for 79 cents per song.

Under the expanded partnership between MySpace and Snocap, indie and unsigned artists with MySpace pages will be able to use Snocap's Linx service and sell music directly to their fans. Bands themselves will have the ability to set the price for their music, with MySpace and Snocap reportedly splitting the processing fee of about 45 cents per track.

Bands already use MySpace to stream music on their pages, often allowing fans to preview unreleased music. For their MyStore, bands will upload their songs to Snocap's online music database so the company can make sure the band isn't seeking to sell music for which someone else has a copyright. Once added to their MySpace pages, friends of the band are then able to place the online music storefront on their pages.

But unlike every major digital download store except eMusic, the second most popular digital store behind iTunes, MySpace and Snocap haven't yet brokered deals with the four major labels to allow their bands to sell music on MySpace. Fans of the likes of Justin Timberlake and the Killers will have to wait until such deals are in place.

But with record labels showing signs that they are willing to try anything to find additional revenue streams and dilute the stranglehold that the iTunes/iPod combo has on the digital music business, those talks are reportedly under way. Citing a source close to negotiations, Reuters reported yesterday that EMI and MySpace are discussing a deal that would allow EMI artists, including Coldplay and the Gorillaz, to sell music straight from the artists' MySpace pages.

The majors and MySpace would need to agree on song format, however. For indie artists and unsigned bands, MyStore will sell songs in the MP3 format, without the digital rights management (DRM) technology that major labels have insisted on using in selling digital downloads. DRM applies usage restrictions to downloaded music, such as how many times a song can be transferred to an MP3 player or burned onto a CD.

In his blog, Jupiter Research analyst David Card noted that MySpace will need to get major label content on its artist pages to make MyStore a viable entity.

"No company in the entertainment business can make a lot of money off of supporting only the [long] tail, without also delivering the hits," he wrote. "And for now, no rock stars or major labels are going to be interested in unprotected MP3s, which is what MySpace will offer, except for promotional purposes."

That means MySpace and Snocap still have their work cut out for them to make MyStore fly. But Snocap isn't putting all its Linx in one basket, so to speak. The company is also hoping to power download service on other social networking sites, a stark expansion of the company's initial strategy of powering P2P services hoping to go legit. Linx hopes to make everyone a music retailer.

"In 18 months the biggest music retailer in North America and maybe the world will be the consumer," McBride said. "P2P is going to arrive in a way that nobody saw. Fans will be selling to each other and getting micropayments into their Paypal account."

Saturday, January 20, 2007

Future of Spiral Frog in doubt?

"Spiral Frog CEO Robin Kent has pulled out of an appearance at Midemnet, prompting speculation about the company's future", wrote MusicWeek yesterday. Interesting - very interesting. Perhaps they could not get the advertisers/brands behind it? As we know, all the major record labels have signed letters of intent with spiral frog - so I don't see lack of content as the reason. We'll see....

While big labels falter, indie bands find stardom online

This article is quite old now - was posted to Boston.com on October the 15th last year by Scott Kirsner - but I just stumbled over it by chance, and found it to be incredibly relevant and well worth posting:

While big labels falter, indie bands find stardom online

When the Dresden Dolls' record label declined to finance a music video, the Boston band made its own video on the cheap, posted it to YouTube -- and attracted more than 300,000 viewers. To woo new fans, Brooklyn singer-songwriter Jonathan Coulton's digital avatar played a concert last month inside the video game Second Life.

On the website MySpace, Boston punk band The Charms have amassed nearly 9,000 "friends" with whom the band can communicate about upcoming shows and new releases. The old way of discovering new music was to hear a song on the radio, trek to a record store, and try to hum it for the clerk. The new way of discovering music is a dense swirl of websites, YouTube videos, blogs, MySpace pages, cell phone ring tones, and even video games. For emerging artists, the new technology creates opportunities to reach a wider audience -- especially when used cleverly -- as major labels and big-name artists fumble their way into the future.

"The record labels still don't know how to use the Web as adroitly and adeptly as the young people who grew up with it, who are now in these bands," says Phil Leigh, senior analyst at Inside Digital Media, a Tampa consulting firm. "I do think that the labels will continue to be the major force in the music industry, but they won't be as dominant as they were in the past."

The Dresden Dolls, a duo who describe their music as "Brechtian punk cabaret," invite their fans to send in artwork and videos inspired by their songs.

"A fan can send me a beautiful painting, and seven seconds later, it's up on our website , on the fan art page, and it's visible to thousands of other people," says singer Amanda Palmer. "I love that we can connect with people that way."

That sort of authentic connection between a band and its fans is a relatively new phenomenon. Coulton, who writes quirky, fabulist folk songs about American history, star-crossed mad scientists, and technology, recently used his blog to invite the Web audience to submit an eight-bar solo for his song "Shop Vac" on the instrument of their choice. The best one -- chosen by user voting -- was incorporated into the finished song.

"Audiences want to feel that Web authenticity thing," says Mike Denneen, a Somerville producer who has worked with Aimee Mann and the band Fountains of Wayne. "They don't want to feel they're being marketed to." That puts the deep-pocketed marketing departments of such mega-labels as Universal Music Group and Sony BMG at a distinct disadvantage.

The Dresden Dolls' homemade video "Backstabber," an homage to silent movies, came about after the band's label "decided that our album wasn't doing well enough to merit paying for a music video," Palmer says. "We didn't agree, so we did it our own way. The wonderfully democratic thing about YouTube and the Internet in general is that all you need is a good idea and a way to execute it."

The Charms, which will be playing an old-fashioned live show tomorrow night at Axis in Boston, stock their MySpace page with videos and streaming versions of their songs; the band's website includes a page devoted to phone numbers of local radio stations around the country.

"It took like 10 people a while to put that list together," says lead singer Ellie Vee, "but we were trying to make it really easy for fans to request our music."

Band members have been blogging about their current national tour on their own site, as well as on Billboard.com.

Bands can even use an online marketplace called Sonicbids, based in Boston, to get gigs. Founder Panos Panay says that 83,000 bands or musicians pay $5.95 a month to keep an "electronic press kit" on the site that festival organizers, club bookers, or even movie music supervisors can peruse. This month's Row-A-Palooza Festival, associated with the Head of the Charles Regatta, used Sonicbids to find two bands for its line up.

"When I was an agent, any act that makes under $3,000 a show really isn't a viable artist for you to handle," says Panay, who once represented jazz giants Pat Metheny and Chick Corea. "But we give those smaller artists a way to have representation and find opportunities."

Coulton, who quit his job as a database programmer last year to pursue music full time, may be the world's most Web-savvy guitar-slinger. He has given permission to podcasters to use his songs in their programs, created $1.50 downloadable ringtones based on several of his songs, and composed an ode to Flickr, the photo-sharing site, that is accompanied by a slide show of the images that inspired it.

In September, his digital doppelganger -- slightly more buff than the carbon-based singer and with a squarer jaw -- played a few songs for an online audience in the game Second Life. (Coulton is performing this week at PopTech, an annual conference in Camden, Maine, that explores the impact of new technologies on the culture.) "It sounds naive," Coulton says, "but I would like to make a living by making music and putting it on the Internet."

It remains an open question whether that's a viable path for Coulton and other still-relatively-obscure artists.

The Internet has proven to be a powerful tool for knitting together a community of passionate fans (though some question whether all those MySpace "friends" will ever pony up for a concert ticket or pay for an album download.) But the Net audience expects to get a lot of things for free, including music and videos.

"We're looking at a changing economy, in which music is free, and artists are going to have to learn to make their living through touring and merchandise sales," says Palmer.

"The barriers to getting your music and your image out there are lower than they've ever been," says Denneen, who co founded Q Division, a recording studio and record label. "But over the long-term, the big question is, how many of these people are going to be able to make a living at it?"

Scott Kirsner is a freelance writer in San Francisco who maintains a blog on entertainment and technology, cinematech.blogspot.com. He can be reached at kirsner@pobox.com.

Thursday, January 18, 2007

Warner turns artists into media channels

Author: By Justin Pearse | Source: NMA magazine | Published: 18.01.07

Warner Music has launched a mobile magazine as the cornerstone of the mobile strategy for the launch of Hard-Fi's follow-up to their number-one album Stars of CCTV.

The record label views the launch as a core example of its ongoing plan to transform its artists into separate media channels.

The Hard-Fi mobizine, a downloadable mobile Java application, has been developed by Refresh Mobile, which has launched a network of mobizines for brands ranging from the BBC to GQ.

The Hard-Fi mobizine will have four channels of content including news, downloads and competitions, in addition to video updates from the band as they record their second album.

"The challenge for us is how to move our artist brands towards becoming media channels,"
said Warner Music UK head of digital Adrian Coultas-Pitman. "This is important for our overall strategy, letting us communicate marketing messages in a different way."

The mobizine, accessed by texting 'mobi hard' to 63333, will be promoted on all the marketing material, including print and online, for Hard-Fi.

"All other media will point to the mobizine," said Coultas-Pitman. "This is all about having Hard-Fi in your pocket 24/7. The challenge for us is to constantly refresh content and think like a magazine." If successful, Coultas-Pitman said Warner will "look to assess opportunities for other artists" with Refresh's mobizines. Hard-Fi have scored a number of digital firsts. They produced the first video exclusively for mobile early last year and the first artist video podcasts. Last January they made live versions of single 'Cash Machine' available for download immediately after they were played each night on tour.

refreshmobile.com

hard-fi.com

Warner Music

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Online and mobile music sales reached £1bn in 2006

Author: Luan Goldie | Source: nma.co.uk | Published: 17.01.07

Record labels sold an estimated $2bn (£1.01bn) worth of music online and through mobile phones in 2006, doubling the market according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry's Digital Music Report.

While digital sales now account for 10% of the music market, they are not yet able to compensate for declining sales of CDs.

The report also addresses the on-going issue of piracy. It found that despite legal action being taken against 10,000 P2P uploaders during 2006, the culture of piracy has continued to devalue music content. As a result the report warns the IFPI will be demanding more responsibility from the ISPs.

IFPI Chairman and CEO John Kennedy said, "With co-operation from ISPs we could make huge strides in tackling internet piracy globally. It is very unfortunate that it seems to need pressure from governments or even action in the courts to achieve this, but as an industry we are determined to see this campaign through to the end."

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

V2 in trouble?

Digital Music News today annonced that V2 North America has now undergone a radical restructuring, one that will terminate all new release efforts. Various reports pointed to the changes at the tail end of last week, and V2 has now confirmed the realignment. The label, owned by Sheridan Square Entertainment, will not release any new material, except for some gospel content [ed: WTF????]. Instead, the label will shift its headquarters to Nashville and focus on existing catalog, a move that will involve digital distribution strategies. That effort will be headed by Chief Operating Officer Michael Olsen, though few others will remain on board. About 35 people have now exited, including president Andy Gershon.

The change could be liberating for artists like the Raconteurs, the White Stripes, and Moby, all of whom can now shop new deals - or pursue independent distribution. V2 will retain control over catalog materials, though the heavyweight acts could use the opportunity to alter their business relationships significantly. And according to Pitchfork Media, the White Stripes had already satisfied their V2 commitments anyway. Meanwhile, Sheridan also owns both Artemis and distributor Musicrama, and the V2 shift is part of a larger catalog roll-up that also involves several other labels.

PirateBay to become Pirate Island?

From DigitalMusicNews 16/01/07:

Pirate Bay Ponders Island Purchase, Legal Evasion Scheme


The Pirate Bay, a notoriously massive BitTorrent tracker, is now pondering the purchase of a small island. The evasive destination, currently based in Sweden, would use the purchase to position itself as a sovereign nation. "We have made progress in Ladonia and are now working on the Micronation of Sealand," the group recently reported on a website dedicated to the cause, buysealand.com. "It should be a great place for everybody. With high-speed internet access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay." The "island," essentially a raised platform several miles off the coast of England, reportedly carries a $2 billion price tag.

The latest development continues a slippery legacy for the Pirate Bay. The destination attracts about 1.5 million visitors daily and coordinates an immense amount of BitTorrent traffic. That drew the coordinated ire of both the Swedish government and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), which shuttered the site in early June of last year. But the success was short-lived, and the Bay was quickly resuscitated after a short relocation in The Netherlands. The Pirate Bay has since returned to Sweden, a nation that is known for its permissive attitude towards file-swapping. Regardless, the push to become a sovereign nation reflects a desire by the group to avoid any future entanglements, and truly cement its pirate status.

Monday, January 15, 2007

The Demise of Digital Rights Management

Excerpted from MediaPost Report


Despite Apple’s announcement this week that it’s sold 2 billion songs on iTunes, digital rights management (DRM) is on the decline. Consumers, in fact, are so frustrated with the restrictive software they’ve sued companies like Apple and Universal Music Group from using DRM on their music, citing anti-trust law.


Regardless of how those lawsuits turn out, the writing is on the wall. CD sales continue to drop, down 15% since 2000, but current digital sales aren’t picking up that slack. Apple, with its 2 billion songs sold, accounts for most of digital sales – 20 times more than eMusic, the industry’s No. 2 reseller. Just about everyone else in the music game, from Sony to Microsoft to Yahoo to Amazon.com, which plans to enter the business this year, want to see DRM go away.


Why? Because Apple is able to monopolize the music download business through its DRM software. It has the market-leading music player – a music player that won’t play other music companies’ files. No one else can get users to buy a player and the music to make a dent in Apple’s monopoly. Competitors want to be able to sell songs that play on the iPod and the only way to do this is to bring Apple to court. Meanwhile, many consumers have decided that it’s just easier to steal music. Please click here for the full report.

Unsigned band to make chart history

A band called Koopa from Essex is set to make history as the first unsigned group to enter the charts.

"Blag, Steal and Borrow" (an interesting reference to Babyshambles' song "Beg, Steal and Borrow" perhaps?) by Koopa was at number 17 in the unofficial midweek charts, and looks set to remain in the Top 40.

Singer and bassist Joe Murphy said: "You don't need to be dictated to by the big boys, by the record labels. "You can release a song and if you've got the fanbase and people buy it, you'll get into the charts, it's great."

New singles chart rules now allow any download that is paid for to be counted towards the countdown - which is about b.... time. Now, the quality of this new essex music is another matter entirely...

More information:
www.myspace.com/koopa
Official band website

P2P company joins A2IM

The P2P advocate organisation DCIA today announced that DCIA Member INTENT MediaWorks, a provider of technology for online distribution of licensed digital media, is partnering with fellow Member Nettwerk Music Group to distribute Nettwerk’s large and ever expanding catalog of artists, such as Barenaked Ladies, Sarah McLachlan, and Avril Lavigne.

Nettwerk has been responsible for the release of over 400 albums that have amassed worldwide sales in excess of 100 million copies, including multiple number one albums and singles.

“INTENT’s approach to digital distribution takes advantage of the sheer volume of the peer-to-peer (P2P) audience in a meaningful manner. It combines the promotional, marketing, and revenue tools necessary for artists to take control of their art and career.”

INTENT puts licensed music and video into general circulation via P2P networks, websites, and social networking destinations. Its technology tracks each file as it makes its way through the Internet for rights holders.

More revolutionary perhaps, is that INTENT also announced this week that they have joined the American Association of Independent Music (A2IM), representing a broad coalition of independent music labels. The organization is committed to promoting sector opportunity and enhancing market share for its membership.

“With nearly 30% of the market, indies are gaining prominence at a rapid pace. INTENT offers a way for these artists to significantly accelerate their market presence and adoption,” said Les Ottolenghi, CEO of INTENT MediaWorks.

“People have shared music for decades and online channels are a natural evolution of the practice. File sharers represent behavioral marketing at its best and should be embraced. INTENT brings much needed structure to the P2P market with a platform for profitable and consumer-friendly distribution of digital entertainment,” he added.

INTENT MediaWorks CEO Les Ottolenghi will deliver the opening keynote address at the upcoming P2P MEDIA SUMMIT NY.

Sunday, January 14, 2007

EMI issues revenue warning

EMI has just announced a massive restructuring, one that involves the departures of EMI Music chairman and CEO Alain Levy and vice chairman David Munns. "The Board thanks them both for their contribution to the business over the past five years," the company said in a statement issued this morning. EMI Group executive chairman Eric Nicoli will now grab the reigns as chief executive officer, where he will "take direct responsibility for the management of EMI Music". The major label also pointed to significant reductions in both overhead and employees, and a massive shift in business strategy. That includes a focus on markets that can deliver more secure and steady revenue streams.

As part of its announcement, EMI also projected a revenue drop of between 6 and 10 percent for the fiscal year ending March 31st. That caused a negative stir on the London Stock Exchange, where shares dipped in early trading. Meanwhile, Levy is expected to leave with a sizeable payout. According to a company filing, Levy will depart with a base salary of £1 million ($1.95 million), pension benefits totaling £550,000 ($1.07 million), and a bonus of £1.4 million ($2.73 million). Levy also carries stock options that could push the total parachute past £7 million ($13.64 million). Overall, EMI pointed to annual savings of £110 million, or $214.4 million, though the one-time restructuring costs could top £150 million, or $292.4 million.

A copy of the EMI announcement can be found at here

Friday, January 12, 2007

Memorable Quotes from High Fidelity

Nick Hornby is one of my favorite authors. Few people write books that are this funny that you really can relate to - somehow in particular I relate to the male characters (not that I am a balding man in my 40s - but in any case...). Last night I watched the movie version of High Fidelity (for the gazillionth time...) from 2000. It's a great film, despite the fact that I normally HATE Jack Black (but in this film he's actually good as he's SUPPOSED to be a bit annoying) AND it always annoys me that they decided to film it in the US, when the book is set in in the UK (but I must admit that John Cusack puts in a pretty darn good performance here, so all forgiven).

Ok, but one thing that's great about the movie are all the jawdropping, laugh 'till you crack dialouges - and I have included some of my favorite quotes (by the way, if you haven't seen this movie or read the book - shame on you! Get it immediately on Amazon.co.uk):

--
Barry: We're no longer called Sonic Death Monkey. We're on the verge of becoming Kathleen Turner Overdrive, but just for tonight, we are Barry Jive and his Uptown Five.

--
Rob: Liking both Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel is like supporting both the Israelis and the Palestinians.
Laura: No, it's really not, Rob. You know why? Because Marvin Gaye and Art Garfunkel make pop records.
Rob: Made. Made. Marvin Gaye is dead. His father shot him.

--
Rob: Should I bolt every time I get that feeling in my gut when I meet someone new? Well, I've been listening to my gut since I was 14 years old, and frankly speaking, I've come to the conclusion that my guts have shit for brains.

--
Rob: What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?

--
Barry: Holy shite. What the fuck is that?
Dick: It's the new Belle and Sebastian...
Rob: It's a record we've been listening to and enjoying, Barry.
Barry: Well, that's unfortunate, because it sucks ass.

--
Barry: I wanna date a musician.
Rob Gordon: I wanna live with a musician. She'd write songs at home and ask me what I thought of them, and maybe even include one of our little private jokes in the liner notes.
Barry: Maybe a little picture of me in the liner notes.
Dick: Just in the background somewhere.

--
Dick: I guess it looks as if you're reorganizing your records. What is this though? Chronological?
Rob: No...
Dick: Not alphabetical...
Rob: Nope...
Dick: What?
Rob: Autobiographical.
Dick: No fucking way.

--
Rob: She's a single. I'm a single. I'm a single man talking to an attractive single woman who may or may not have just confessed to feelings of sexual frustration. Oh my God...

--
Customer: Hi, do you have the song "I Just Called To Say I Love You?" It's for my daughter's birthday.
Barry: Yea we have it.
Customer: Great great... Well, can I have it?
Barry: No, you can't.
Customer: Why not?!
Barry: Beacause it's sentimental tacky crap that's why. Do we look like a store that sells "I Just Called to Say I Love You"? Go to the mall!
Customer: What's your problem?!
Barry: Do you even know your daughter? There's no way she likes that song! Oh oh oh wait! Is she in a coma?
--
Rob: ...I agreed that what really matters is what you like, not what you are like... Books, records, films -- these things matter. Call me shallow but it's the damn truth, and by this measure I was having one of the best dates of my life.

...and that's it for now, folks!

NOTE: Someone asked me why the book is called "High Fidelity" - and I think it's due to the fact that the characters are music-freaks or audiophiles. High fidelity reproduction as we know, or "hi-fi", is a quality standard that means the reproduction of sound or images is very faithful to the original. High fidelity aims to achieve minimal or unnoticeable amounts of noise and distortion. Some more geeky facts: The term high fidelity tends to be applied to any reasonable-quality home-music system, though some believe that a higher standard than this was intended, and in 1973, the German Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) standard DIN 45500 laid down minimum requirements for measurements of frequency response, distortion, noise and other defects and gained some recognition in hi-fi magazines.

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Tone Karlsen (1978-2007)

This year had a very bad start. On Sunday the 7th, Tone Karlsen lost her life in a car accident in South Africa. She was there on holiday with her live-in boyfriend, Christopher Dons. Dons survived the accident with mild injuries. Tone only lived to be 28 years old.

I studied with Tone at BI The Norwegian School of Management where she specialised in Organisational psychology and management. Tone was a very bright student, but even more importantly, she was a joy to be around with her warm smile and good sense of humour (bizarre to think of now, but I was a little jealous of her beautiful hair and smiling eyes...). I always thought it was a shame that we did not take any more classes together, as I'd have liked to get to know her better.

Unfortunately, you always think you'll get that chance again some time later - at an alumni gathering or just meeting up in Oslo with other friends from uni. This time there was no second chance. For me this is a reminder that we have to take care of friends and family when they're around, and not put it off because of a busy schedule.

To Tone's family and boyfriend: Please accept my most sincere condolences on this horrible loss.

Hvil i fred Tone. Vi kommer til å savne deg.

For lack of better words - here's a poem by Robert Frost that expresses what I would have liked to be able to say if I could.

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Robert Frost (1875-1963)

Yep, iPhone is here...

Not unexpected, Apple unveiled its new "iPhone" at MacWorld this week... In Apple's words not a single device but three revolutionary products in one: a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls and a 'breakthrough' Internet communications device. It is also a camera and, at a push, a PDA. But in the UK you will have to wait until the end of the year to get your hands on one.

Looking like a portable display with Apple's typically elegant design, the iPhone is based around a new user interface driven entirely by the fingers, using the company's innovative Multi-touch technology. This includes gestures that allow the user, for example, to enlarge or reduce a picture by simply 'pinching' it on the screen

It provides a quad-band GSM telephone, 802,11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and EDGE technology for wireless data handling; in fact there is scarcely a way that it cannot communicate, given that it also has USB 2 on board.

In phone mode, the iPhone lets the user make a call by pointing at a name or number in the contact list, which is itself automatically synced with address book information on your computer or from an Internet service such as Yahoo! Users can create a favourites list for your most frequently made calls and merge calls together with a single 'click' to create conference calls.

The phone is the first to let users view a list of their voicemails and select which to listen to, in effect working like email. There are also SMS text messages with a full QWERTY virtual keyboard, which appears only as it is needed and includes predictive technology.

When you lift the phone to your ear - if you are not using the optional compact Bluetooth headset - a built-in proximity sensor immediately turns off the display to save power and prevent inadvertent touches until the iPhone is moved away. And rather than cutting out, any music that is playing fades to silence.

As an enhanced iPod nano - with 4GB or 8GB of memory - the iPhone purports to let the user 'touch' their music, by scrolling through a list of songs, or flipping album covers, with their fingers.

The display also lets you view widescreen video and photos. Turning the iPhone though 90 degrees automatically rotates the screen image, so that images cane be viewed in landscape or portrait as necessary. Pictures can be uploaded by and synced with a computer, and the iPhone includes a photo management application that Apple believes is far beyond anything else on offer on current mobile phones. And the integrated light sensor automatically adjusts the display's brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, to improve image clarity and save on battery juice.

As an Internet communicator, the iPhone offers a rich HTML email client which fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services and displays photos and graphics right along with the text. The iPhone is fully multi-tasking, so you can be reading a Web page while downloading your email in the background.

Yahoo! Mail, the world's largest email service with over 250 million users, is offering a new free 'push' IMAP email service - similar to the BlackBerry's - to all iPhone users, but the handset will also work with most industry-standard IMAP and POP-based email services, such as Apple's .Mac, Microsoft Exchange, AOL and Gmail.

The Safari-style Web browser displays Web pages as they were designed, letting the user zoom in to expand any section by simply tapping on iPhone's display. Users can surf the Web over Wi-Fi or EDGE and can automatically sync their bookmarks from their PC or Mac. The browser includes Google Search and Yahoo! Search as well as Google Maps to view maps, satellite images, traffic information and get directions.

'iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,' said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. 'We are all born with the ultimate pointing device - our fingers - and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.'

iPhone will be available in the US in June 2007, Europe in late 2007, and Asia in 2008, in a 4GB model for $499 and an 8GB model for $599, and will work with either a PC running Windows 2000 or XP Home or Professional or Mac OS X 10.4.8 or later.

In the US it will be available exclusively through the Cingular network and the price will include a two-year contract.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

What to download on eMusic this month

Hi,

eMusic can be a hassle. Labels will release the albums there much later than the other online shop (money, money, money...) and some labels don't event release stuff there at all. However, the independent labels put quite a few really good records on there - if you look between the rubble. This is what I'd recommend downloading this month:

1. Beirut - The Gulag orkestar
Release Date: May 9, 2006
Genre: Alternative/Punk
Label: 4AD / Beggars Group

I discovered this record in October when I went to see the Calexico at Camden Roundhouse. Beirut was warming up for them, but he turned out to be much better! I immediately bought the album, and was amazed. Let this record bring you to Gulag land and gipsy rythms! Released in 2006, but new to emusic.

- Get it here

2. Architecture In Helsinki - We Died, They Remixed
Release Date: January 8, 2007
Genre: Alternative/Punk
Styles: Alternative
Label: Moshi Moshi / V2 Records

A great remix album from the Australian indie pop octet!

- Get it here

3. Hot Club De Paris - Drop It Till It Pops
Release Date: December 18, 2006
Genre: Alternative/Punk
Styles: Alternative
Label: Moshi Moshi / V2 Records

Released on now legendary label Moshi Moshi (Hot Chip... need I say more) and featuring ludicrous song titles like sometimesitsbetternottostickthingsinoneanotherforeachother (or something like that). This is a great album.

- Get it here

4. Cat Power - The Greatest
Genre: Alternative/Punk
Styles: Indie Rock
Label: Matador

The singer is blessed with a lovely voice! Perhaps a bit overrated, but defintely worth your while.

- Get it here

5. 120 days - 120 days
Label: Vice / Smalltown Supersound
Released: 2006

Finally a Norwegian band on my list! Norwegian teenaged friends Jonas Dahl, Arne Kvalvik, Kjetil Ovesen, and Ådne Meisfjord originally formed 120 Days under the guise of "Beautiful People" in the autumn of 2001. Now they're back with the album titled 120 days. This album was voted album of the year in Norway and we'll defintely hear more from this group in 07.

- Unfortunately 120 days is only available in eMusic US at this stage. Check back soon for updates, or get it on Amazon.uk (Import album).

6. The Hold Steady - Boys and Girls in America
Label: Hassle (Full Time Hobby) / Vital:PIAS Digital
Released: October 3, 2006

The favorite band of the nerds, bloggers and misfits return with their 3rd album, which will without a doubt bring them into the mainstream market. Buy it now before the hype...ooh, did I mention that it's a great album? A little Springsteen inspired maybe. And don't you dare calling them the OLD steady, just cause they're not 18 in any more...

- Get it here

Friday, January 05, 2007

Online Customers Are Good for the Music Business

Music execs must be clicking up their heels!

At one point not so very long ago, music executives thought that digital downloading would be their death knell, and they were locked in legal battles from coast to coast to stop the practice.

But things change.

In much the same way as the movie industry learned to love VCRs (and now DVD players), the music industry is adapting to digital music downloading.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, sales of digital music online continue to climb.

And now a new report from the Digital Media Association (DiMA) asserts that online customers are actually revitalizing the music industry, the whole industry.

Not only did the DiMA survey find that 60% of US consumers report that they are listening to more music since they have gone online, the vast majority of online music service users said that enjoying music over the Internet has expanded their musical tastes, allowing them to discover new artists and explore new musical options.

Nearly seven in 10 online music consumers said they are enjoying new genres of music since listening to online music services.

According to the survey, online music listening has increased overall music discussions with friends and co-workers, with more than 35% now talking about music more often. More than 75% of online music consumers report they have recommended a particular service to a friend or co-worker.

The survey also found that listening to and purchasing music over the Internet increases concert attendance. A full 15% of online music fans said they now attend more concerts.

"These findings demonstrate that real music fans — today's music tastemakers — are online," said Jonathan Potter of the DiMA. "Consumers of innovative online music services are reviving the music economy as they enjoy more music in every way possible."

The survey found that about half of digital music fans are spending more than $200 a year on music, and nearly 30% are spending more than $300.

"Prior to the digital age, someone who purchased six CDs per year — valued at just over $100 — was considered a significant music consumer," said Mr. Potter. "Online music consumers' spending habits, combined with what they are doing to promote and expand music enjoyment, is great for the entire music industry — artists, songwriters and producers."

Online music has the whole industry humming.

For more information on digital entertainment, read eMarketer's US DVR and VOD Usage report.