I didn’t post any news recently because work kept me busy. That’s a good thing, right? So here is a brief summary of what I would have blogged on, if I’d had the time.
- Most likely the most interesting bit of news came from Topspin CEO Ian Rogers who presented at the Grammy Northwest MusicTech Summit. As always with Ian, a very smart synopsis of where the business is at currently, and some nice hands-on examples of how to deal with it. Some others blogged about that, too.
- Microsoft refreshed the business model for the Zune and the Zune Pass service. I wonder, if and how this will affect the power balance in the digital music field. First guess: probably won’t move the needle at all. Chris Stephenson, GM of global marketing for Microsoft’s entertainment business, likes to think differently, of course.
- More bad news from the retail world, Part 1: Trans World Entertainment/f.y.e. widened its losses in Q3 by 99 percent to $28.4 million on sales of $195.2 million (minus 25 percent). Same store sales were down 14 percent. For Q1-Q3 net loss was up 78 percent to $59.5 million on revenues of $643 million (down 21 percent). Comparable store sales for the first nine months were down 9 percent. Music slid 22 percent and represented 38 percent of TWE’s business. That is slimmed from 40 percent last year. Management said this slide is in line with the struggles all retailers are having with physical CD sales.
- More bad news from the retail world, Part 2: Hastings Entertainment reported a $3.6 million loss for Q3 on sales of $114.3 million (down 6.5 percent). In Q3/2007 the company still had a net profit of $73,000. For Q1-Q3 sales were down 1.1 percent to $371.9 million, while net loss was $7,000 compared to profits of $4.4 million in the year-ago period. Same picture here: the music product category was hurt most with a 19.5 percent decline.
- A little bit of good news from the retail world: eMusic has sold 250 million MP3 downloads since establishing its current subscription business model in 2003. The download retailer also said it boosted its catalog past the 4.5 million track mark with the addition of a new batch of independent record labels. According to the company, the most recent 100 million downloads happened in 453 days, while the first 100 million required 1,122 days.
- Germany’s public-private music funding program Initiative Musik will have more money to spend in 2009. Both, German Parliament (Bundestag) and Minstry of Culture and Media (BKM) are doubling their funds, giving Initiative Musik €2 million ($2.58m) for next year.
- The Culture Secretaries in the member nations of the European Union are not exactly crazy about France’s 3-strikes rules.
- iTunes could go all DRM-free soon, according to this report based on rumors.
- The number of Europeans willing to pay for online content is expected to grow, driven by the increasing acceptance of legal and commercial music services, says JupiterResearch.
- Mexican billionaire Ricardo Salinas Pliego could save Circuit City.
- Yahoo! Music’s final attempt?
- EMI’s new CEO, Elio Leoni-Sceti, has a message for ISPs, his team and his customers.
- Vivendi CEO Jean-Bernard Lévy won’t make any predictions on how the sluggish economy will affect Universal Music and its corporate sibblings.
- Tennessee might the be the hub of country music. It might also pride itself for having a Democrat Governor in an overwhelmingly red state. But they sure as hell don’t understand digital media and modern technology. Why else would state legislators pass a law like this?
- Just call her the EMI maverick: Sid McCain, daughter of a U.S. Senator who tried to become President, has been appointed as VP of label services, North America, for EMI Music.
