| 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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13-12-07 |
UK’s top 10 of most
downloaded songs and albums of 2007
Apple iTunes have released their official charts for the most downloaded tracks
and albums of 2007 in the UK. Mika's “Grace Kelly” was the most down-loaded
song, followed by Rihanna's “Umbrella.” Amy Winehouse's “Back To Black” album
was the most downloaded album of the year, followed by Mika's “Life In Cartoon
Motion.”
Top 10 iTunes song downloads of 2007:
1. Mika - Grace Kelly
2. Rihanna - Umbrella
3. The Fray - How To Save A Life
4. Kaiser Chiefs - Ruby
5. Plain White Ts - Hey There Delilah
6. Kanye West - Stronger
7. Kate Nash - Foundations
8. Leona Lewis - Bleeding Love
9. Sugababes - About You Now
10. Take That - Shine
Top 10 iTunes album downloads:
1. Amy Winehouse - Back to Black
2. Mika - Life in Cartoon Motion
3. Arctic Monkeys - Favourite Worst Nightmare
4. Mark Ronson - Version
5. Newton Faulkner - Hand Built by Robots
6. Take That - Beautiful World
7. Foo Fighters - Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace
8. Kaiser Chiefs - Yours Truly, Angry Mob
9. Snow Patrol - Eyes Open
10. Timbaland - Shock Value |
|
06-12-07 |
New Queen single available
online
Queen & Paul Rodgers have recorded a new single, titled "Say It's Not True," to
commemorate World AIDS Day. The track is Queen's first studio effort with Paul
Rodgers and is available as a free download from the band's Web site. Recently,
Queen was reactivated with Rodgers replacing the late Freddie Mercury, who died
of AIDS complications in 1991.According to Paul Rodgers the band is working on a
new album, due next year.
The Pirate Bay integrates Last.fm content
The Pirate Bay has launched its new music feature, showing data from Last.fm
that includes more detailed artist info. The new feature also features an
embedded Last.fm player to stream the music before downloading. The new music
feature replaces The Pirate Bay's planned resurrection of the OiNK service,
which was shut down last month after a legal challenge. Last.fm makes technology
tools available to the public allowing virtually anyone to use its data and does
not work with any external site to manage any integration, and that includes The
Pirate Bay. |
|
20-11-07 |
Beatles catalogue
available online next year
Paul McCartney has said that the Beatles' catalog will see its digital release
next year.
According to McCartney, delays in bringing the Beatles music to the Internet
have been caused by contractual issues as well as deliberate planning. Meanwhile,
he is releasing "The McCartney Years," a three-DVD set that features videos and
concert footage from throughout his solo career including newly recorded tracks.
"The McCartney Years" is released together with an expanded edition of his
latest album "Memory Almost Full" which includes three bonus tracks. |
|
07-11-07 |
Bittorent site The Pirate
Bay promotes band Lamonte
Bittorrent tracking site The Pirate Bay is promoting the band Lamonte. A link to
download the band’s new album for free can be found on the site’s homepage. The
user is offered the album, video’s and merchandise and MySpace links. According
to The Pirate Bay, the album was downloaded more than 100,000 times in the first
24 hours after the posting, |
|
24-10-07 |
Music file-sharing Web
site OiNK shut down
UK-run music file-sharing Web site OiNK. has been closed as a result of a
criminal investigation by IFPI (International Federation Of The Phonographic
Industry), BPI (British Phonographic Industry), Cleveland UK’s police and the
Fiscal Investigation Unit of the Dutch police, into suspected illegal music
distribution. Also a criminal investigation was announced into the identities
and activities of the site's users. The site was described by the IFPI as the
world's biggest source of pirated pre-release albums and has been the subject of
a two-year investigation overseen by Interpol. A 24-year-old man was arrested in
the UK on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and copyright infringement. The
site's servers, which were based in Amsterdam, were seized in a series of raids
last week too. According to police, OiNK provided illegal downloads of
pre-release music and media to its members, who had joined the site on an
invite-only basis and were asked to contribute donations via debit or credit
card. According to the IFPI, albums had been posted on the OiNK Web site, and
download by its users that passed the content on to other Web sites, forums and
blogs, where multiple copies were made. OiNK utilized peer-to-peer technology
BitTorrent to distribute music and had become one of the more popular
file-sharing sites on the Web. |
|
05-10-07 |
Recording industry wins
first P2P trial against music downloader
A Minnesota jury has decided that Jammie Thomas is liable for infringing 24
recordings she shared over online peer-to-peer service Kazaa. The verdict for
$222,000 came in the first trial held in a suit filed against a consumer by
major labels for P2P file sharing. Six labels sued for infringement of 24
recordings, a sample of the 1,702 audio files they claimed Thomas shared over
Kazaa, which included titles by Janet Jackson, Richard Marx, Journey, No Doubt,
Green Day, Sarah McLachlan and Godsmack. Thomas had denied that she was involved
in any file sharing and declined an earlier settlement proposal of the recording
industry for a few thousand dollars. |
|
03-10-07 |
New Radiohead album
available as download
Radiohead have officially revealed that their new album is ready and
that it will be available for download in a few days. The new effort will be
titled “In Rainbows” and the band have not set a price for the download version
of the album. The band wil let the customer decide how much they want to pay for
the release. The download version will be available on October 10, while the
discbox will be out December 3. |
|
26-09-07 |
Starbucks to give away
free digital songs
Starbucks are planning to give away 1.5 million free songs every day starting
October 2. The company has teamed up with iTunes to give away tracks by Bob
Dylan, Joni Mitchell and Band Of Horses, amongst others, with the number of
songs available set to reach 50 million by November 7. Customers can get a free
'song of the day' card throughout the promotion which will also feature material
from Paul McCartney, John Mayer and Joss Stone. The chain is also implementing
their 'Wi-fi Music Store' service, which will start in New York and Seattle. The
service will enable customers to buy tracks wirelessly from the chain's Hear
Music label at the shops. |
|
20-09-07 |
Radiohead makes albums
available online
Radiohead will for the first time ever make digital downloads of their music
available. Albums by the band such as "The Bends" and "OK Computer" will be made
available through online music service 7digital from the UK. Only full albums
will be available, and not any individual track downloads. The catalog will be
sold without any DRM protection. |
|
13-09-07 |
Amazon online music
service
Amazon’s upcoming music service is expected to go live soon. The company has
been testing the service internally for weeks now. The service has generated
high expectations and interest for several reasons. The digital addition to its
regular CD shop is expected to be a serious competitor to Apple's popular iTunes
service and Amazon has taken the step of selling music only in unprotected MP3
format. This also means that only tracks from EMI, certain releases from
Universal Music Group and a number of independents will be available. |
|
15-08-07 |
John Lennon music
available via iTunes
John Lennon's solo music catalogue is available via iTunes. 16 of Lennon's solo
albums can be downloaded with the “Lennon Legend” and “Acoustic” compilation
albums making their worldwide digital debut. For a limited period, some
exclusive video footage will be included with some of the downloads. |
|
07-08-07 |
AC/DC make their music
catalogue available online through Verizon Wireless
AC/DC is selling its music digitally through Verizon Wireless. The company has
bought the exclusive rights to sell the band's entire back catalog through March
2008, becoming the first and only digital music store to legally offer AC/DC
content. The deal is limited to full-album downloads, which is one of the main
reason's AC/DC's music has not appeared in digital form to date. The only
exception is the group's biggest hit, "You Shook Me All Night Long," which will
be available as an over-the-air download. Verizon has also gained the rights to
sell ringtones and ringback tones of 18 new tracks not available from any other
operators. |
|
01-08-07 |
AT&T and partner eMusic
make full-song mobile downloads available
AT&T Wireless has unveiled its over-the-air full-song music download service
through a partnership with eMusic. AT&T subscribers will have access to the
entire 2.7 million-strong eMusic catalog though a service dubbed eMusic Mobile.
Users can buy tracks in bundles of five for $7.50. Once their five-track limit
is reached, they can buy another bundle of five for an additional $7.50, and so
on, working out to $1.50 a track. Each track is a “dual-download,” meaning one
copy formatted for the mobile phone will be sent over the air, while another
copy is available for download to the PC. Unlike other services, eMusic Mobile
contains no DRM protections, just like the company’s online service. AT&T has
four phones available with the service, three from Samsung and one from Nokia (technically
any AT&T phone with a WAP browser can access the service). |
|
11-07-07 |
Q-Tip makes new single
available online for free
Q-Tip plans to make his new single "WorkItOut," the first from his new album,
available as a free download. The track is available now from Q-Tip's MySpace.com
site. The new album "The Renaissance" is due in the fall. The new effort
features a live band and, with the exception of Common, Outkast's Andre 3000 and
D'Angelo, minimal collaborations.
Q-Tip also features on the track "Kids With Words" on the new Wu-Tang Clan album
"The 8 Diagrams," which will also be out in the fall.
Rhapsody makes song lyrics available online
Rhapsody will be making legally licensed, accurate lyrics available online in a
deal with LyricFind. The online music service will deliver add free, searchable
lyrics to more than 200,000 songs. Rhapsody Online is the free version of the
Rhapsody music subscription service that allows users to listen to 25 songs a
month for free, without needed to download the full Rhapsody application. By
adding the LyricFind application to it, Rhapsody Online users can now search for
songs by its lyrics, in addition to by artist name, track name and other search
criteria. After finding a, users can then stream the track for free, although it
does require users to download the basic Rhapsody music player. |
|
04-07-07 |
Russian music site
Mp3Sparks.com replaces Allofmp3.com
Russian music site Allofmp3.com appears to have ended its online business.
Meanwhile another site, Mp3Sparks.com, has appeared and lists the same operator,
MediaServices, as that of the former site and offers many of the same hit tracks
for download but at 10% of the previous low price. Earlier, major labels had
called Allofmp3.com the most notorious of the Russian enterprises that offered
pirated music, film and software. Last November, US and Russian governments
reached a market access agreement requiring Russia to take action to address
piracy. Allofmp3.com looks like a legitimate American music store, claims to be
legal and sells downloads of hit albums for slightly more than $2. However,
major record companies did not authorize these sales. MediaServices claims it
does not need permission to license music from anyone other than Russian
collecting societies. The new online store Mp3Sparks.com sells tracks for about
20 to 30 cents each and makes essentially the same claim of being legal as made
by Allofmp3.com. |
|
31-05-07 |
New Manu Chao single
available as free download
Manu Chao’s new single "Rainin In Paradise", the first track from his upcoming
album "La Radiolina," is available as a free MP3 download from this Web site.
The new album is due on September 4. Meanwhile, the artist has just started his
US tour.
Apple selling high–quality DRM-free downloads
Apple have started selling songs on iTunes free from copy protection. Thousands
of tunes from the EMI label are now available for purchase without the digital
rights management (DRM) software which prevents songs both from being copied and
played on non-iPod devices. It also means that tunes can be transferred easily
from one computer to another.
The DRM-free tracks, available as iTunes Plus, will cost 30-cents more at $1.29
each, but the companies promise that the sound quality will be superior to the
standard 99-cent tracks already offered. It was also announced that customers
can also upgrade their previously purchased tracks by paying the 30-cent
difference. The sound files remain in the AAC format, and are 256k in size,
double the size of the standard files. |
|
23-05-07 |
Illegal downloading down
by 24% over last three years
A recent study has found that the number of young people between ages 8 and 18
who have illegally downloaded copyrighted digital content has dropped 24% over
the last three years, falling from 60% in 2004 to 43% in 2006 and to 36% in
2007. When respondents were asked what most worries them about illegally
downloading copyrighted music, movies, software and games, 62% cited fear of
accidentally downloading a computer virus, 52% said they feared getting in legal
trouble, 51% said they're afraid of spyware, and 48% said they fear getting in
trouble with their parents (up from 40% in 2006). Regarding downloading music,
30% of respondents admitted to downloading music without paying for it, which is
down from 32% in 2006 and from 53% in 2004. |
|
16-05-07 |
RIAA starts fourth round
of pre-lawsuit notices
The RIAA has started its fourth round of sending out "pre-lawsuit" letters of
copyright enforcement. This process allows the accused to settle at a discount
rather than face the potential of a heftier fine. Last week, the RIAA sent 402
pre-lawsuit letters to 13 schools. Since revealing their new strategy in
February 2007, three significant rounds of copyright enforcement have been
attempted. While seemingly not very different from the RIAA's previous strategy,
the main impact has been the reaction of the colleges and universities. Since
the school is the student's ISP, the school must track down the student via the
IP address/time stamp. When the student is identified, the alleged pirate
receives the "pre-lawsuit" letter. The reaction from school campuses has varied.
Some have refused the RIAA, while others, such as Ohio University, have severely
curtailed P2P usage.
Paul McCartney’s back catalogue available online
EMI has announced that Paul McCartney's entire back catalogue will be made
available online. The catalogue will cover his first solo album “McCartney” from
1970 and ranges to his recent “Chaos And Creation In The Backyard” album.
McCartney's new album “Memory Almost Full” will be available separately as
McCartney has now departed EMI for Concord Music. McCartney’s online appearance
may now also pave the way for The Beatles finally being available for download. |
|
04-05-07 |
Grooveshark signs deal
with V2 Music Group for providing content
P2P music service will soon offer content from an extensive music library that
includes music by Dave Matthews Band, Cold War Kids, Bloc Party, Aimee Mann,
Grandaddy, Chromeo, and Stereophonics. The Grooveshark P2P music sharing network
compensates users and copyright holders for offering content for download.
Grooveshark will pay the appropriate royalties to music copyright holders by
taking commissions from users' transactions and then also compensate users with
free music for community participation such as uploading songs, fixing song tags,
flagging unwanted files or reviewing music. Grooveshark has now signed a
licensing deal with UK-based V2 Music Group.
Peter Gabriel launches ad-supported music download site
Peter Gabriel and others have teamed up to create a new technology and online
music site called We7 that will offer ad-supported, DRM-free, MP3 downloads.
Each track will container a 10 second or less advertisement and proceeds will go
towards paying the artists, musicians, actors, filmmakers, comedians and bands.
The ads will apparently be placed on the front of music tracks and albums based
on a consumer's personal demographics such as age, location and gender and can
be extended into personal preferences. The ads will not remain attached to
downloaded MP3’s forever, as after a period of time users will be able to have
an ad-free version of the track. |
|
21-03-07 |
Wippit to make rare
Beatles footage available online
UK download service Wippit will make rare footage documenting the rise of the
Beatles available for download as part a deal with archive specialist ITN Source.
Through the international agreement, content from the British Path, Reuters and
ITN collections will be offered online through Wippit for the first time since
it originally aired. A range of Beatles interviews and news stories are covered,
including an interview with guitarist George Harrison on his 21st birthday, the
band meeting Queen Elizabeth, and interviews with the group on the set of the
feature film "Help!" Among the other footage is Paul McCartney's admission to
taking LSD, Harrison's arrest on drug charges and the backlash to Lennon's
controversial comment to the Evening Standard newspaper that the band was "more
popular than Jesus." Wippit will offer the video downloads to all territories
except for the US. |
|
16-03-07 |
Beatles download rumor
denied
The Beatles' record label Apple has denied rumors that the band's music is about
to be made available online. The band is one of the last acts to license their
back catalogue to online music stores. Recently UK download site Wippit claimed
it would be the first to sell the songs, which immediately prompted The Beatles'
record company EMI to issue a statement denying the link-up and asked that the
download site removed its claims. Also a potential deal with iTunes was
suggested last month after the band's own label Apple settled a long-running
trademark dispute with Apple Inc. |
|
09-03-07 |
RIAA starts anti- piracy
website
P2Plawsuits.com is designed to cut back on the number of lawsuits filed by the
RIAA, which it says will reduce the legal cost to those found guilty of
downloading music illegally. The RIAA has already sent 400 pre-litigation
settlement letters to 13 universities and has asked them to forward those
letters to the appropriate network users.
With this new approach, a student, or other network user, can settle the record
company claims against him or her at a discounted rate before a lawsuit is ever
filed. Next up, the RIAA will target Ares and Gnutella-based peer-to-peer
networks such as LimeWire, which are gaining in popularity. |
|
31-01-07 |
New Silverchair single
available online
The single “Straight Lines” is the first Silverchair song from their upcoming
new album “Young Modern” and will be available from the band's website and
MySpace page this on Friday. The new effort, which is produced by lead singer
Daniel Johns and Nick Launey, is in the final stages of production in Canada.
The CD version of the new single will be released in March and will also include
their cover of Midnight Oil's “I Don't Wanna Be The One”. |
|
09-01-07 |
US album sales down in
2006 but downloads up again
US album sales have continued to decline in 2006 and were down nearly 5 percent
from the previous year. However, total music sales were up due to a large
increase in digital downloads. Year-end sales figures released by Nielsen
SoundScan show that 588.2 million albums were sold in 2006, which is a 4.9
percent decline from 2005 but digital track sales increased by 65 percent, with
582 million tracks sold and digital album sales more than doubled, with nearly
33 million sold last year. The top-selling album of 2006 was a soundtrack
inspired by the Disney Channel movie "High School Musical" which sold more than
3.7 million copies. For the first time ever a digital song, "Bad Day" by Daniel
Powter, sold more than 2 million copies in one year. Country group Rascal Flatts
was the best selling artist of 2006, with nearly 5 million albums sold and
nearly 4 million digital track sales. |
|
06-01-07 |
Music downloads sales
increase UK singles sales by 50%
Music download sales have increased UK singles sales with 50 percent over the
past three years. Total UK singles sales for 2006 reached over 65.1 million
units, according to the chart compiler, which represents more than twice the
quantity sold in the whole of 2004, when 32.3 million units were sold. In 2005
48 million units were sold. Downloads sold represented about 79 percent of total
singles sales in 2006. |
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