| Singles no. 1's |
| US |
Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera
Moves Like Jagger |
| UK |
Sac Noel
Loca People |
| AU |
Gotye & Kimbra
Somebody That I Used To Know |
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31-12-03 |
Online
downloading to the rescue of music sales in 2003
The music industry sold less again in 2003 compared to 2002 but the slide is
slowing down. 2003 sales were down 2.2% on 2002, which seems to be an
improvement on the 13.2% drop in 2002 to 2001 sales. Main contributor to the
turn-around in 2003 was online downloading. 17.5 million downloads were sold in
the US since July 2, 2003. Taking downloads out of the formula, the industry
would have fallen by 4.6% instead of the softer 2.2%. CD album sales were down
2.9% for 2003 compared to 9.2% the previous year but DVD sales increased by
102.4%. Singles sales dropped only 4.5%. The previous year they fell by 61.4%. |
|
24-12-03 |
Dutch Court rules that Kazaa cannot be held responsible for illegal file-exhange
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has said
that the ruling on Kazaa by the Dutch Supreme Court is flawed, but still leaves
no doubt that the vast majority of people using file-swapping services like
Kazaa are acting illegally, whatever country they are in. Following the decision
of the Dutch court, in which it ruled that Kazaa cannot be held responsible for
illegal file-exchange using its software, the international recording industry
has issued a call to Kazaa to take three key steps in helping to deal with the
large numbers of unauthorized copies of copyrighted products that remain
available through its service. IFPI still believes that Kazaa is able to control
and filter and thus should be held responsible for, infringements taking place
on its service. According to the IFPI, the only evidence heard in the Dutch case
on this critical point was put forward by Kazaa itself. The three key steps that
Kazaa must take according to the the international recording industry are to act
responsibly and deal with the ongoing infringements taking place via its
service, by stopping people distributing copyrighted music by changing the
default setting for users of the service; by explicitly notifying Kazaa users
that uploading copyrighted music without permission is illegal, whatever country
they are in; and by filtering Kazaa's service in order to protect copyrighted
works from unauthorized distribution, transmission and copying. |
|
17-12-03 |
Justin Timberlake's new
single available for download
Justin Timberlake's new single "I'm Lovin' It" can be downloaded from his
official website. The MP3 is available at
www.int.justintimberlake.com
and costs £1 (about $2). The track is expected to become one of 2003's biggest
selling digital singles. "Live From London," a live DVD, will be released on
Monday and also features "I'm Lovin' It."
Coca-Cola to launch music download site
Coca-Cola is set to launch a music download site, with songs costing
about a $1 a track. The company has announced that it will offer 250,000 tracks
by 8,500 artists from next month. This will be the internet’s largest collection
of legal downloads. Users of
www.mycokemusic.com must be over 18 and pay with credit or debit cards. |
|
19-11-03 |
Microsoft to launch
online music store next year
Microsoft has confirmed plans that it will launch its own music-download store
next year. The official confirmation of Microsoft's music-retail plans come
after months of speculation and hints from Microsoft. Microsoft's MSN division
says that the store is expected to launch in 2004. Microsoft says that it is too
early to tell whether the download store will be contained inside the Windows
Media application, or simply included inside the MSN service, although most
analysts expect a link to the store inside the application itself. |
|
12-11-03 |
Story Of The Year’s song Until The Day I Die downloaded over one million times
The band Story Of The Year’s song “Until The Day I Die” has been downloaded over
one million times on mp3.com. The song has had a 13 week run as the most
downloaded song on mp3.com. Their debut album “Page Avenue” was produced by John
Feldman after the band was signed to Madonna's Maverick label mid 2002.
New Napster sells
300,000 songs in first week
The relaunched Napster has sold 300,000 songs in its first week. Apple’s rival
online music service ITunes sold five times more, about 1.5 million songs.
Napster relaunched on October 29 after it had been closed for two years after a
judge in California ordered them to remove all copyright infringing songs.
Napster is currently only available to users in the US. The service charges 99
cents for a song and $9.95 for an album.
Comcast and Best Buy to
sell online downloads
The US leading cable company Comcast and a electronics chain Best Buy have
launched online music services will sell its own version of the
RealNetworks/Rhapsody subscription music service to its 4.9 million high-speed
Internet customers nationwide. Best Buy will open an online music store to
compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store, which has sold 17 million downloaded
songs since the service debuted in April. The music industry, whose CD sales
have declined 31 percent since 2000, is showing signs of overall recovery as CD
sales have shown week over week improvement for the past seven weeks. Best Buy
will begin promoting its own download store, developed in partnership with the
online music service MusicNow in Chicago. Customers can try out the service at
nine kiosks placed throughout the store. Comcast offers a seven-day free trial
of the RealNetworks/Rhapsody music service and 10 free tracks if they subscribe
for $9.95 a month. |
|
05-11-03 |
Legal internet
downloads exceed US CD single sales
According to a recent report, legal downloads of songs have now exceeded sales
of CD singles in the US. Consumers in the US are now buying almost twice as many
singles as downloads from the internet as they are on CD’s from stores. About
7.7 million tracks were bought and downloaded from the internet since the end of
June, compared with 4 million CD singles sold in stores. According to the
report, there is a difference with the downloading of songs in Europe as it
seems that the current battle by the RIAA against illegal file-sharing the US
has resulted in more legal downloading services, compared to Europe where there
is less chance of legal action against individual file swappers. Another reason
for the lower amount of online sales in Europe is caused by the fact that big
record labels have yet to wake up to the needs of the European market. Music can
be bought online in Europe from 40 different internet retailers at a cost of
about 99 pence per single track, but different firms put different limitations
on what can be done with that music, such as transferring to portable devices
and burning on to CD’s.
RIAA enters new round of legal action against individual file-swappers
The recording industry (RIAA) has sued 80 more music trades for copyright
infringement. The new legal action is said to be the second wave of lawsuits
filed by the RIAA. In September, the RIAA already sued 261 people, many of whom
said they had no warning that they were targets of legal action for sharing
songs on the Internet. This time around however, people were alerted beforehand
that a copyright infringement lawsuit was on the way. Most of those contacted,
approached the RIAA to settle the case in advance. Settlements already reached
are reportedly around $3,000. The targets of the new lawsuits were people who
had shared an average of 1,000 copyright music files using file-exchange
programs like Kazaa and Gnutella. So far, the music industry has settled with
156 file sharers. |
|
29-10-03 |
New alternative to online
file-exchange
Students Keith Winstein and Josh Mandel say they have discovered a way to let
all students access a huge music library without infringing on copyrights. The
system is operated over the Internet but the music is streamed through MIT's
cable television network. That makes it an analog transmission, as opposed to a
digital one, in which a file is reproduced exactly. The sound quality is better
than FM radio, but not as good as a CD. As the copy is not exact, licensing
rates are lower. According to the inventors of the system, it could easily be
replicated by a cable system of a city or town. The MIT project is called
"Library Access to Music" or "LAMP." Users go to a Web page and can check out
one of 16 cable channels in the MIT system, which they can control for up to 80
minutes. The controller then picks songs from among 3,500 CD's.
Michael Jackson's
long anticipated charity single out now and available for download
Michale Jackson's charity single "What More Can I Give" is out now and available
for download through the non-profit organization Music for Giving. Completed in
2001, recording of the single was orchestrated by Michael Jackson and features
Celine Dion, Mariah Carey, Carlos Santana, Beyoncé Knowles, Usher and Brian
McKnight, among others.
For a donation of $2, the single can be downloaded from
www.musicforgiving.com. Proceeds of
the single will be divided between several children's charities. MichaeL Jackson
originally wrote the song in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11,
2001. Artists that also worked with Jackson on the single are 3LW, Anastacia,
Boyz II Men's Shawn Stockman and Michael McCary, Nick Carter, Aaron Carter,
Gloria Estefan, Billy Gilman, Hanson, Ziggy Marley, Ricky Martin, Reba McEntire,
Mya, 'N Sync, Tom Petty, Jon Secada, Shakira, Thalía and Luther Vandross.
Jackson's biggest hits have been collected on "Number Ones," an 18-track Zor
15-track DVD, which are due November 18. The CD will include the brand new
single "One More Chance." |
|
22-10-03 |
RIAA sues more file sharers
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has begun sending new
notification letters to individuals allegedly distributing copyrighted music
over file-sharing networks. A total of 204 more letters were sent last week. The
individuals who received the notifications have allegedly distributed an average
of 1,000 copyrighted music files. The RIAA has said that it intends to continue
its current enforcement program "on a regular basis." |
| 08-10-03 |
Napster comeback set for October 9
Napster will make its comeback with an October 9 test. Napster, the pioneering
song-swap service that was shut down for copyright infringement, is coming back
next week as a paid site. Digital media company Roxio, which bought Napster for
$5 million last year, plans an October 9 test launch for a new, legal version of
the service called Napster 2.0. Earlier, Roxio had said Napster 2.0 would launch
no sooner than Christmas, but now it seems that the new website will be online
and running in November already. |
| 01-10-03 |
More song downloading suits get settled
The recording industry has announced settlements with 52 of the 261 Internet users it sued over allegations they illegally permitted others to download music from their computers using popular file-sharing software. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) plans to file more lawsuits in October. Also, the RIAA did not specify how much it collected, although defense lawyers familiar with some cases said payments ranged from $2,500 to $7,500 each, with at least one settlement for as much as $10,000. The settlements do not include any admission of wrongdoing and require Internet users to destroy copies of illegally downloaded songs and agree to not make any public statements that are inconsistent with the agreement. |
| 24-09-03 |
Kazaa owner sues music and film industry again
File-exchange company Sharman Networks has filed new antitrust charges against record labels and Hollywood studios. It is said that the company is hoping to deflect copyright infringement claims still pending over the Kazaa software. The suit claims that record labels and movie studios have conspired to drive Sharman Networks out of business in order to monopolize digital distribution and are more or less identical to charges first raised by Sharman in January. Those charges were largely dismissed by a federal judge in July. |
| 10-09-03 |
First sued file-sharer settles with RIAA
Less than 24 hours after the RIAA announced that 261 people have been sued for illegally downloading music, already one of them seems to have settled. Manhattan resident Sylvia Torres, who was sued for copyright infringement by the Recording Industry Association of America, settled with the organization for $2,000, according to an RIAA spokesperson. Apparently, Sylvia Torres did not make over 1,000 copyrighted songs, unlawfully obtained through Kazaa, available on the Internet, but her 12-year-old daughter did. The RIAA obtained Torres' name and address by issuing a subpoena to her Internet service provider, which could only surrender information on the subscriber. |
| 03-09-03 |
US colleges move to prevent music file-sharing
Students arriving for fall classes at colleges in the US are facing technological hurdles and stern warnings aimed at ending sharing of music and movie files over high-speed college Internet connections. Several of the universities are responding to a recording industry campaign to control the copying of files over peer-to-peer networks. The move comes after the Recording Industry Association of America has filed hundreds of subpoenas against individuals suspected of trading massive amounts of copyrighted music. So far, at least 10 universities, including UCLA, have been served with subpoenas demanding they help identify targets of such suits. |
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