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14-12-05 |
Underworld to make next
batch of downloads available
Underworld is preparing the third installment in its recently launched Riverrun
Project of downloads. Also included are a number of photographs shot by the
group. Band members Hyde and Rick Smith have more than 180 pieces of music ready
to go, but some of them may be used for Underworld's next studio album, which
should be out early 2007. The next project for Underworld is the score to the
film "Breaking And Entering."
Number of file-swappers down
The number of music file-swappers is down according to a recent study. However,
the number of actual music files being traded has remainshigh, indicating that
most of the active downloaders remain online. The study shows a drop of 11
percent in October, to 5.7 million households downloading at least one file, as
compared to June, when an estimated 6.4 million households downloaded at least
one music file. |
|
09-12-05 |
Grateful Dead allow free
downloads
After the Grateful Dead first asked a nonprofit Website to stop
making concert recordings available for free download, the band changed its mind
Wednesday and let Internet Archive, a site that catalogues content on Websites,
repost recordings of Grateful Dead concerts for download. after the surviving
members of the band decided to make them available again. The group was
persuaded by fans to do so as for decades fans have freely taped and traded the
band's live performances. |
|
24-11-05 |
iTunes in US music store
sales top 10
Online music store iTunes is now selling more music in the US than some of the
country's biggest traditional outlets. The online store entered the top 10 US
record sales list for the first time at number 7..iTunes beats Tower Records,
Borders and Sam Goody, but was still beaten by others, including Wal-Mart and
Amazon.com. According to figures from the Recording Industry Association of
America, digital sales account for approximately 4% of the market during the
first half of 2005, whicj is up from about 1.5% during the first half of 2004.
More than seven out of 10 US digital music sales through PCs are through iTunes. |
|
19-11-05 |
Underworld makes new
material available online
Underworld has begun selling new music via its official online store, the
Riverrun Project as off November 9. Business has started with the posting of a
28-minute piece of music comprised of "Jal to Tokyo," "Billy Goat," "Peggy
Sussed," "Dub Shepherd," "Lenny Penne," "Monkey Wink" and "Witness," with the
overall title "Lovely Broken Thing." The file is bundled with 177 photographs
and cover artwork. The group insists that this new approach will not be the end
of traditional albums, remixes, tours and gigs but that it is just an addition
to their portfolio. Meanwhile, Underworld is working on writing the score to the
upcoming Anthony Minghella movie"Breaking and Entering." |
|
09-11-05 |
Grokster shuts down after
settlement
Grokster is going legit after the Supreme Court ruled the file sharing service
to be liable for infringing actions of its users. The company has agreed to a
settlement with the RIAA that puts it out of business immediately. Grokster has
agreed to a permanent injunction prohibiting direct or indirect infringement of
any copyrighted works. The settlement also calls for Grokster to immediately
stop offering and supporting its software, effectively turning off its services
on the Internet. Grokster is planning to have a safe and legal service available
soon.
Complete John Lennon catalog available online
John Lennon's complete solo catalog will become available online for the first
time ever on December 6 through various sites. Meanwhile, Lennon's new greatest
hits album “Working Class Hero” will be released this week. |
|
27-10-05 |
iMesh relaunches as paid
online music service
iMesh was relaunched as a paid iMesh peer-to-peer music service on Tuesday. The
software is supposed to identify and block virtually any copyrighted song being
downloaded from peer-to-peer networks. iMesh is the first of several "label
approved" peer-to-peer networks hitting the market this year after long delays
in their development. Another paid service, Mashboxx, created by former Grokster
President Wayne Rosso, is also set to be launched this fall. |
|
14-10-05 |
Warner wants
share of search engine advertising revenues
Warner Music Group is looking into a new way of generating revenues. When search
engines launch new video-search sites, Warner Music wants a share in revenues
earned by the sites from selling ads next to search results. So, if somebody
would type in an artist name at a search site and the results are accompanied by
ads, Warner wants a share of ad revenues as well as payment for any artists’
videos that are streamed or sold. |
|
07-10-05 |
Legal download sales on the rise
The first half of 2005 has seen the revenue from sales of digital music triple,
as compared to last year's sales figures. Online sales now make up 6% of the
worldwide music market and are worth around US$ 792 million. According to the
IFPI, more and more people in a growing number of countries are turning to new
legal ways of downloading music on the internet or on mobile phones. The growing
interest in digital formats is linked directly to the increased use of broadband,
3G mobile phones and portable music players. |
|
30-09-05 |
BitTorrent trying to go legit
BitTorrent is raising $8.75 million in venture capital to create a legal digital
distribution system using the technology. According to their business plan,
content from big artists and independent producers would be gathered and
licensed for distribution. BitTorrent would make money by either charging for
the content or by using client-side advertising. |
|
24-09-05 |
RIAA after file-sharing websites
Tired of suing individual file downloaders, the RIAA has decided to now hit the
source of file-sharing. Last week the RIAA sent letters to seven P2P
file-sharing websites, including WinMX, LimeWare and BearShare, telling them to
cease and desist. The letters ask the companies to either implement filters in
order to prevent people from downloading copyrighted material or to cease
existence all together. The action comes after a US Supreme Court Decision in
June that similar P2P sites Grokster and StreamCast can be held responsible for
the copyright infringement of their users as they did nothing to stop them from
illegally sharing files. LimeWire has already taken some form of action by
putting up a warning to those trying to download the software on their website. |
|
08-09-05 |
Australian
court rules Kazaa to be copyright infringing
An Australian court has ruled that file-swapping service Kazaa breaches
copyright and was given two months to modify its web site to prevent piracy by
their users. The ruling only covers Australia, but according to the worldwide
recording industry the court has ruled the current Kazaa system ‘illegal.’ The
defendants will appeal those parts of the decision where we they not successful
and said that they are confident of a win on appeal. |
|
01-09-05 |
Royalty dispute could harm future of online music subscription services
Online music companies and music publishers have reached an impasse in royalty
negotiations, which could be harmful to the future of online subscription
services. The two parties have been negotiating on and off for years over the
amount of money that songwriters and music publishers should get from these
subscription plans, which allow listeners to download or stream an unlimited
amount of music per month. Subscription services have been operating under a
temporary agreement with the publishers since 2001.
eDonkey 2000 surpasses BitTorrent traffic
A study of worldwide P2P traffic, detailing the worldwide breakdown of P2P file
trading networks, shows that eDonkey 2000 has overtaken BitTorrent to become the
world’s largest P2P file trading network. The outcomes of the study were based
on actual packet data and traffic levels obtained from ISP’s worldwide. The data
shows that while BitTorrent remains extremely popular in Asia, European, US and
Latin American users have shifted to eDonkey for the vast majority of file
trading. |
|
18-08-05 |
RIAA:
bootleg CD’s bigger thread than online file-sharing
The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has acknowledged that
online file-sharing is less of a threat to music sales than bootleg CD’s. Last
week the RIAA revealed that music fans acquire almost twice as many songs from
illegally duplicated CD’s as from unauthorized downloads. A total of 29 per cent
of the recorded music obtained by listeners last year came from content copied
onto recordable media against only 16 per cent from illegal downloads. Legal
downloads accounted for four per cent of music acquisitions, while official CDs
accounted for almost 50 per cent of the total. |
|
28-07-05 |
File sharing continues to grow
Statistics have shown that the average number of simultaneous, individual
connections to file sharing networks has increased to around 9 million by June,
2005. One of the strong growing file exchange programs was eMule that uses the
eDonkey network and which had user numbers of more than 9 million at one time.
File sharing allows for widespread distribution of unauthorized copyrighted
content and continues to increase despite civil prosecution of both users and
developers of file-sharing software in the US as well as criminal in Europe and
Asia. |
|
03-07-05 |
Court rules
against decentralized file-exchange services
The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that file-exchange networks can and
should be held liable when they create programs that are used primarily to
illegally swap music, movies and other copyright-protected material. The court
decided that developers of software violate federal copyright law when they
provide computer users with the means to share unauthorized movie and music
files from the Internet. The ruling sends the case back to the lower courts,
which have twice ruled in favor of peer-to-peer networks Grokster and
StreamCast, saying the services could not be sued for the illegal actions of
their users because they also had legitimate, legal uses as well. |
|
21-04-05 |
New Order makes
remixes of new single available online
New Order has made remixes of their new single “Krafty” available exclusively
for Internet downloads. “The Glimmers 12" Extended Remix" and "The Glimmers Dub
Version" as well as the "Phone Reality Remix" will be available from iTunes from
April 26. The original track features on the new New Order album “Waiting to the
Sirens.” |
|
14-04-05 |
Media
companies after file trading students on Internet2
Record label and movie studio investigators are planning to sue over 400 college
students who used a special high-speed network to copy songs and movies.
According to the companies, broadband networks made college campuses the center
of illegal copying, but students now use an even faster network known as
Internet2. Designed for academic research, Internet2's extremely fast speed
allows users to download a movie in 5 minutes or a song in less than 20 seconds.
Existing cable or DSL broadband networks usually take an hour to download a
movie and 2 minutes to download a song. Those targeted in the lawsuits made an
average of 3,900 files available for copying over the network.
New Napster
disappoints
Napster II has not become the file-sharing success it once was according to its
first year-end figures. It’s reporting that only 410,000 people have subscribed
to its renewed online music service. In world of online music, upwards of at
least six million p2p music lovers are simultaneously online every minute of
every day, and more than a billion files move around the internet every month.
|
|
07-04-05 |
Billionaire to finance
Grokster defense
Billionaire Mark Cuban has announced that he will finance Grokster's defense
against MGM's lawsuit against Grokster. Cuban sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for
$5.7 billion and is now president of HDNet, a provider of high-definition TV
programming. Apparently, he has agreed to fund the software company's defense
after he was approached by the Electronic Frontier Foundation and others. The
case centers on whether file-sharing software companies could be held legally
responsible for copyright infringement on their networks. According to Cuban,
Grokster’s loss would create a stifling legal environment that would virtually
eliminate technological innovation in the United States. The case focuses on
Grokster and StreamCast Networks' Morpheus, popular file-swapping applications
that are widely used to trade movies, music and software. |
|
31-03-05 |
New Oasis single available online
Oasis’ comeback single “Lyla” has leaked online. The song is set for release in
the UK on May 16 and will be followed by their new album “Don’t Believe The
Truth” on May 30. A version of the new single has appeared on the Internet. |
|
24-03-05 |
File
sharing court case against Grokster to start next week
Next week, the Supreme Court will hear the case of MGM Studios against Grokster
to decide the future of file-sharing. If MGM wins, file sharing companies such
as Grokster and eDonkey may be forced to shut down. Grokster will argue that
there are legal uses for the application but Recording Industry Association Of
America president Cary Sherman has said that "any business that is based
entirely on copyright infringement should be held accountable."
Queens Of The Stone
Age promote new album online
Queens of the Stone Age have released their much anticipated new single "Little
Sister," and their new album "Lullabies to Paralyze" was premiered on internet
portal Myspace.com before it is released on March 22. The decision to preview
the album online was made due to the big amounts of users their album will be
reaching over the web. |
|
24-02-05 |
Digital download site AllOfMP3.com targeted for criminal copyright infringement
A Russian digital-music download site offering high-quality song downloads for
very little money is the target of a criminal copyright investigation.
AllofMP3.com has been operating for several years, asking consumers to pay just
2 cents per megabyte of downloads, which is about 4 to 10 cents per song.
Alongside the catalogue available at traditional stores like Apple Computer's
iTunes, the site offered access to songs from the Beatles and other groups that
have not yet authorized digital distribution. The Russian site claimed it had
licenses for these songs, from a local clearing house but record labels have
maintained that the licenses were not valid. |
|
16-02-05 |
New Napster copy security
technology hacked
Hackers claim to have found a way to strip the digital rights management
technology off music from Napster's new portable subscription service. Users of
the Winamp digital music jukebox have been reporting on peer-to-peer sites that
they can remove the DRM from Napster’s To Go subscription files and burn the
tracks to CD by installing plug-in software called "Output Stacker." Napster To
Go uses Microsoft's new Janus technology, a Windows Media Audio solution that is
designed to allow for secure transfer of subscription content to portable
devices. The service allows subscribers to transfer an unlimited number of songs
from the Napster library of 1 million tracks to a Janus-compatible device for a
monthly fee of $14.95. |
|
10-02-05 |
Appeals court rejects RIAA request to ISP’s to identify song swappers
A US appeals court has rejected a new move by the music industry to
identify alleged file swappers in order to sue them, marking the second time a
federal court has rejected subpoenas that seek names of Internet service
provider subscribers. The appeals court overturned a Missouri district court
ruling that ordered ISP Charter Communications to turn over about 200 subscriber
names to the Recording Industry Association of America. The court's decision
will not stop the RIAA from filing lawsuits against unnamed peer-to-peer users,
however. The association has filed more than 7000 such lawsuits against
unidentified file traders since December 2003, when the US Court of Appeals for
the District of Columbia rejected the subpoena process used by the RIAA to
obtain ISP subscriber names. The RIAA has filed lawsuits against unnamed
defendants only, since the District of Columbia court ruling. The defendants are
then identified in the course of the lawsuit. |
|
03-02-05 |
Bittorrent remains
strong file-exchange network
A month and half since the fall of SuprNova.org and despite the MPAA's
anti-piracy campaign, the BitTorrent network has proven to be stable and
continues by far to be the largest file-exchange network. In December 2004, the
MPAA began a worldwide campaign to eliminate BitTorrent and eDonke2000 indexing
and listing sites and initially seemed successful as various sites were forced
off-line. A big blow was the discontinuation of SuprNova.org as a BitTorrent
listing site. Despite these threats to the network from December 2004 to
present, Bittorrent yielded no significant change in the size of the network.
Rob Thomas makes new single available online
Rob Thomas' solo debut single "Lonely No More" premiered this week exclusively
via AOL Music's First Listen program. The song will be distributed to US radio
stations on February 14 for airplay consideration. Thomas' first solo album
"Something To Be," will be released on April 26 with guitarist Robert Randolph
and John Mayer guesting on the effort. |
|
20-01-05 |
New Beck album leaked to the
internet
Beck's forthcoming album has been leaked to the internet one month before the
scheduled release date. 13 tracks, all expected to be from the album went online
this week. The album was produced by Dust Brothers and Tony Hoffer. Songs from
the album that appeared online include “Brazilica, Guero,” “Go It Alone,” “Chain
Reaction,” “Nazarene,” “Black Tambourine,” “Earthquake Weather,” “E-Pro,”
“Summer Girl,” “Scarecrow” and “Hell Yeah.” |
|
06-01-05 |
File-sharing increasing
The number of people that use P2P file-sharing networks grew to nearly 10
million in April 2004, a 30% increase from the same period a year earlier. The
US accounts for more half the total the world's file-sharers, followed by
Germany (10.2%), Canada (8.0%) and France (7.8%). According to a independent
report P2P networks are growing faster in Europe and Canada than anywhere else.
Video and software make up more than 35% of total files shared on file-sharing
networks. |
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