Buzzsonic.com

Sony launched another salvo in the increasingly busy hard disc drive music portable ‘wars’ today in Amsterdam with the release of the 20GB capacity Sony Walkman NW-HD3 , Sony’s first MP3 compatable hard-disk music player. The world’s biggest consumer electronics maker aims to make up for the lost ground it has conceded to Apple in the portable music device market.

The NW-HD3 will be available in Great Britain and Japan before Christmas and elsewhere in Europe in early 2005. The Walkman is 30 pounds more expensive than Apple’s 20-gigabyte product selling for 219 pounds ($476). The device comes in five colors, plays 2.5 times longer on one battery charge than iPod’s 12 hours and can contain 10,000 to 13,000 songs, at least twice as many as an iPod because of Atrac’s better compression technology, claim Sony.

Sony has sold 340 million Walkman devices since they were originally introduced in 1979. Sony’s first attempt at a hard-disk player in July, the NW-HD1 didn’t threaten Apple’s complete domination in the portable digital music player market, it was more expensive and only came with native support for Sony’s propriatory ATRAC3 format. Fans of the more popular MP3 format had to use a messy workaround to enable MP3 playback.

Putting MP3 playback capability in the new Sony Walkman NW-HD3 means consumers can directly import and export tracks in the MP3 format. Sony said it will produce software upgrades for earlier players with hard disk storage so they can play MP3s too.

Sony have got their work cut out cutting into Apple’s domination, especially in the USA where Apple are said to have a massive 92% market share. In Japan the Sony 20-gigabyte Net Walkman is only the seventh best seller.
According to a report by one Wall Street analyst , the popularity of Apple’s iPod is exceeding that of Sony’s Walkman during the 80’s and 90’s. “iPods are being adopted faster than Sony Walkmans were back in the early 1980s,” the report claims. A graph accompanying the report reveals that after nearly 2.5 years, iPod shipments are approximately 1 million units ahead of the Walkmen’s pace after being on the market for the same period of time.

Related Links

Sony Unveils Potential iPod Buster [ZDNet.co.uk]
Sony Unveils New MP3 Hard Disk Walkman [MacObserver.com]
Challengers Nip at Apple’s iPod [CBSNews.com]
iPod Killers for Christmas [MP3Newswire.net]
Apple iPod Holds Sway in Japan [International Herald Tribune]
iPod Adoption Rate Faster than Sony Walkman [AppleInsider.com]
King of Music Players [LATimes.com -reg.req.]

Jean-Ren� Fourtou, the CEO of Vivendi Universal met in Paris last Friday with more than 70 business executives, brought together by the International Chamber of Commerce from a broad range of companies and trade associations to unveil a plan to create an international organization called BASCAP, or Business Action to Stop Counterfeiting and Piracy.

Vivendi are the parent company of Universal Music Group who have had high profile battles against piracy and Fourtou’s message was stern, “”This illegal activity is spiraling out of control. It is a major threat. It’s like a cancer”. Fourtou and the International Chamber of Commerce are trying to initiate a global offensive to combat the darker side of commerce and promised that the new initiative would “take the fight against intellectual property theft to a new level”.

“Globally, it’s hard to believe,” Fourtou said, “but two of every five recordings are pirate copies.” One of his ambitions, he said, is to explain to customers the devastating results, particularly in countries like Germany or Brazil, where the fakes have drained away local investment in music. Fourtou wasn’t just talking to music industry executives but an eclectic and global mix of industries. Piracy is practically the only issue that could draw a tobacco manufacturer and a music producer like Vivendi, to the same meeting.

Fourtou took over the helm of the then flailing Vivendi from the ousted Jean-Marie Messier in 2002 after the company recorded losses of 23.3billion euros ($30.8billion), a record for a French company.

more [International Herald Tribune]

Related Reading
Corporate Anti-Piracy Battle Goes International [GlobeandMail.com]
BASCAP Programme 16pg PDF [Iccwbo.org]
Who Owns What:Vivendi Universal [CJR.org]
Speaking of Music Piracy.. [Wired.com]
Federation Against Copyright Theft [Fact-UK]
What is Piracy? [IFPI.org]

The long running saga of the music industry’s copyright battle against the worlds most popular peer to peer file sharing software Kazaa moved to Australia today as case number NSD 110, Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd got underway in the Federal Court of Australia in Sydney.

At the start of a trial over the legality of Kazaa software, the court was told today that Kazaa had 100 million users worldwide, sharing three billion music files a month. Five major Australian record companies-Universal, EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music, Festival/Mushroom and 25 other North American, European and Australian record companies -are suing Sharman Networks, which develops and distributes the software, for copyright infringement.

The labels contend that Sharman was fully aware of how the software was used and did nothing to stop copyright infringements. Lawyers for Australia’s recording industry branded the popular Kazaa file-swapping network “an engine of copyright piracy to a degree of magnitude never before seen”. Kazaa’s owners, Sharman insist that while they urge users not to commit music piracy, they have no control over what people do with the popular “peer-to-peer” software they provide.

Tony Bannon, representing Australia’s major record labels dismissed Sharman’s defense, saying Kazaa’s owners actively take steps allowing users to filter certain files from the network such as those that could contain viruses or pornography but not the files containing copyrighted songs. Bannon said the owners of the P2P software were seeking to get rich from advertising revenue based on the volume of traffic on the Kazaa network, while painting themselves as crusaders for music fans. Mr Bannon said Sharman’s actions were “all a charade” because it was interested only in making money from the copyright-infringing behavior of its users.

Each file traded on Kazaa has a unique digital fingerprint in the form of an MD5 hash a mathematical signature produced by running an algorithm across the contents of a file. This signature allows Kazaa to identify how many users are sharing the same file so that it can be downloaded from many places at once with complete integrity. If Kazaa were really trying to become a legitimate service, an obvious first step would be to block the MD5 hashes for known pirated files, argues the music industry. The reliability of P2P filtering technologies are still conclusively unproven however and are still under constant development.

Kazaa already has one major court victory under its belt, with the Dutch Supreme Court ruling in December 2003 that Kazaa’s then Swedish owners could not be held liable for copyright infringement. A possible difference in the Australian case is the recording industry’s invocation of the controversial, Anton Pillar Law that allows litigants in civil copyright cases to gather evidence. An Anton Piller order is granted when a judge is persuaded that there are reasonable grounds evidence may be destroyed if advance notice is given.

In February, after a six-month inquiry by the Music Industry Piracy Investigation unit of the Australian Record Industry Association, the record labels, organized under a cloak of absolute secrecy secured the Anton Piller order permitting a surprise search of Kazaa premises, to avoid any potential loss or destruction of evidence and legal authority to gather evidence without police being present. The information gathered has yet to be revealed.

The true owners of Sharman remain a mystery. Although it has offices in Australia, Sharman was formed in the island state of Vanuatu, a no-tax haven where the secrecy of private companies is sacred, improper disclosure of financial information to others is subject to criminal prosecution and tax information is not shared with any outside jurisdiction.

The Federal Court case, before judge Murray Wilcox, is expected to stretch over three weeks.

Related Reading

Universal Music Australia Pty Ltd v Sharman License Holdings Ltd (March-Copyright Suit) [Federal Court of Australia]
Anton Pillar Order [Wikipedia.org]
Kazaa Trial [Google News]
Trial to Unmask Kazaa Owners [Wired.com]
Net Music Swop Firm a ‘Pirate’ [the Australian]
Australian Music Industry Decries Kazaa [ABCNews]
Huge Music Piracy Encouraged [HeraldSun.com]
Kazaa Gears for Next Showdown [News.com.au]
Kazaa Heads to Court for File Swop Trial [CNet.com]
Hide and Seek (July) [APCMag.com]
Sharman Fails to Deliver Evidence Again:MIPI (May) [ZDNet Australia]
Kazaa Tripped up in Aussie Court (March) [Wired.com]
Telstra Attaks Music Industry Raids (Feb) [ZDNet Australia]
Kazaa Fights Court Order (Feb) [PCWorld]
Record Industry Commences Court Proceedings Against Kazaa for Breach of Copyright (Feb)[IFPI press release]
Inside the Kazaa Raid (Feb) [APCMag.com]

Since Apple introduced the iPod digital audio music player in December 2001 the demand for the device has been nothing short of astonishing, now coming into peak Christmas gift buying time company experts estimate that Apple will shift close to two and three quarter million copies of the highly coveted portable player next month alone.

Sales have climbed to 13.3million units up from the 9.5million mark a year ago and the Cupertino, California based company, despite being late to market currently boast close to a 80% share of the world market in hard disc drive based music players. Wall Street analyst Charles Wolf predicts that there will be 100 million iPod owners by the year 2008.

All kinds of companies are riding along on the crest of the wave too. Companies that provide the components, companies that sell after market accessories, add-ons and iPod clones. Major record labels, which at first failed to embrace the digital entertainment revolution are now aligning with legal digital music services with Apple’s iTunes currently sweeping ahead with a 70% market share of the paid download market.

Some of the major beneficiaries are makers of after market accessories like the iBoom ghettoblaster from Digital Lifestyle Outfitters. The enticing looking DLO iBoom is a 20-watt per channel, four-speaker boombox system with built-in digital FM radio. Users simply drop iPod or iPod mini into the iBoom dock, hit play and enjoy their music anytime and anywhere. The unit retails for $149.99.

Just as the black and beige look for the PC has become a running clique, anyone bored with the uniform white of the iPod can get a custom paint job on the unit at places like Minnesota based Colorware PC. And it seems the most interesting developments are happening away from Apple itself with a flourishing line of independent companies queing up to grab a share of the iPod boom. Online stores like Everything iPod will supply you with everything from a black jacket for the similar clad
U2 special edition iPod , a transmitter that’ll plug the iPod into your car stereo and an action jacket workout case that’ll attach the player to your arm.

If you have trouble keeping track of everything thats around, leading independent iPod resource website iPod Lounge introduced an 80 page “2004 iPod Buyers Guide” at the beginning of the month. Its available as a free PDF download on the iPodLounge site and is also being distributed via peer to peer file sharing networks.

Related Links

iPod Gains Ghettoblaster Accessory [the Register]
the Superstore For Your iPod [EverythingiPod.com]
iPod and Apple [MLAgazine.com]
iPod Killers for Christmas 2004 [MP3Newswire.net]
All Things iPod [iPodLounge.com]
iPod Custom Painting [ColorwarePC.com]
iPod Sales Hit 23.5million by 2006-Analyst [MacWorld.co.uk]
The iPod Economy [Forbes.com]
iPod Buyers Guide (44pg free PDF download) [OverMused.com]
Apple Release iPod [Slashdot.org 2001]

One of the undoubted ‘limitations’ of music downloads from the current explosion in paid digital music services is that tracks downloaded from major stores like iTunes (in AAC format), Rhapsody (RA), Sony Connect (ATRAC) and all the WMA formatted stores (just about all the rest) is that all the music on offer is, to grossly understate matters, of greatly inferior quality than what you would expect if you purchased the same track on CD. All these services provide only “lossy” compression audio files.

AAC, WMA, ATRAC, MP3 and RealAudio (or RA files) are all by differing degrees, heavily compressed ‘lossy formats’ compared to the quality you’d expect from an original CD recording that is, some frequencies in the original signal are lost in the encoding process, and can’t be restored in playback. All lossy compression codecs work by removing portions of the original signal which are determined to be essentially inaudible a technique known as “perceptual coding.”

So in effect music retailers are grossly misleading the public into thinking that the music they are downloading is of similar quality to the equivalent CD. “CD Quality” is often claimed for music ripped at bitrates of 160kbps or 192kbps, but considering that the actual CD bitrate is 1400kbps its plainly misguided to repeat the mantra that the relatively low bitrates hawked by major stores are the same as buying the CD.

The main problem for the consumer in downloading uncompressed music is file size. With a minute of CD audio taking up around 10mb compared to 1mb of MP3 audio, lossless audio delivery will only be feasible when high bandwidth availability improves drastically.

As much faster internet connections become more affordable and widespread some music punters are looking for better quality downloads at much higher bitrates. Catching on in popularity with online distributors and audio enthusiasts alike right now is the relatively new (compared to the ageing MP3) FLAC. FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec) compresses audio like ZIP compresses files — it doesn’t lose any quality but it does result in about a 50% reduction in file size compared to a full-sized WAV or AIFF file. What’s more, FLAC files can easily be converted to WAV or AIFF formats — thus you get a full CD-quality audio file that you can use on any media device, including standard CD players.

Ironically one of the bands promoting the use of the high quality FLAC codec is Metallica, the band still reviled by many for their much publisized legal battle with the original shackle free Napster. Most of their live shows are now available for download as either MP3 or FLAC files. Mindawn.com is an online download store specializing in progrock and independent bands and all tracks are offered in the option of both “lossy” compression in the Ogg Vorbis format–Ogg Vorbis is an open source, licence free music codec that gives similar results to the popular MP3 format.–, or lossless files in FLAC format and more importantly for the customer, no DRM limitations. Royalty rates for artists range from 55-75% in favour of the artist.

Another early adopter of FLAC is internet only label and distributor Magnatune who offer all their tracks in a wide variety of audio formats, again DRM free and available in lossy or lossless quality downloads. Florida based digital dance distributor EDM Digital are another store that have the option of FLAC. DiscLogic.com, MusicToday.com, and AliveAudio.net are joining the early movers too and although the overall choice is limited, its getting broader. The FLAC format is increasingly favoured by live music traders, who prefer the full audio experience in comparison to the stripped down MP3 version. If your looking for a free comparison test head over to the bulging collection of live downloads at the Live Music Archive where you can grab a huge collection of concert recordings from the obscure to known ‘trade friendly’ names like: And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead, the Grateful Dead, Phish, Hank Williams III, String Cheese Incident and 100s more. All free of DRM shackles, the threat of lawsuits and with a choice of lossy (Ogg/MP3) or lossless (FLAC) audio flavours.

Related Reading

Mindawns Role Model for Digital Music Purchases [the Inquirer]
Giving Apple Some Flac [MacWorld.com]
Flac Etree Wiki [Etree.org]
Live Music Archives (Freeand legal Flac Downloads) [Archive.org]
Flac Wikipedia [Wikipedia.org]
Music Everywhere-It’s all About the Algorithm But Which One Will Win? [IEEE Spectrum Online]
Lossless Compression of Audio [FirstPr.com.au]
Monkeys Audio [MonkeysAudio.com]
Shorten Audio [UMBC.edu]
Live Lossless Music Traders Database [ETree.org]
Audio Coding Wiki [AudioCoding.com]
Audio Data Compression [WikiPedia.org]
Lossless Codecs Forum [HydrogenAudio.org]
the DRM Debacle [TBray.org]

There were early sightings of the ‘mysterious’ Qoolqee(ie: nobody had a clue what it was) on gadget spy Engadget just over a week ago where photo’s revealed a device that looked like it could be another clam shell cell phone.

According to Engadget the Qoolqee website went live last Thursday (Nov 25th) and further details were revealed. The Qoolgee is a flash-based player that looks a lot like a clamshell cellphone that doesn’t flip open, comes in 128MB, 256MB, 512MB, and 1GB versions, supports playback of MP3, WMA, and Ogg Vorbis audio files, and has a 65,000 color LCD screen.

Though it resembles a generic looking Samsung cell phone the Korean parent company behind the device is said to be Hantel a company usually known for its phone systems and two way messenging devices. No word on availability or prices.

Audio Gadget Links

Engadget Portable Audio [Engadget.com]
Pocket Lint [Pocket-Lint.co.uk]
Future Technology News [i4u.com]
MP3 Newswire
Design Technica Portable Audio [DesignTechnica.com]
CNet MP3 Players Buyers Guide [CNet Reviews]
Portable Video Player News [PVP4u.com]
Tech Digest MP3 Players [TechDigest]
Gizmopedia MP3 Players [Gizmopedia.com]
DAP Review [DAPReview.net]
Gizmodo Portable Media
[Gizmodo.com]

PC Magazine called QNext the “swiss army knife” of P2P when they reviewed the ‘Beta’ version released back in August. Though it isn’t a stand alone P2P application, QText is more a universal Instant Messenging client which can trade messages with any of the other leading clients, including AIM, ICQ, MSN, and Yahoo. It is also a secure P2P communications suite that offers video conferencing, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), file transfer, file sharing, group text chat, online games, photo sharing, and remote PC access.

If you’re already using AIM, ICQ, MSN, or Yahoo, Qnext will automatically import your existing buddy list, your friends and colleagues needn’t be running Qnext to trade messages with you.

According to the Canadian company behind the software QNext incorporates all the best features of apps like Trillian, Skype, Grouper, P2P Photo & File Sharing networks, GoToMyPC and FTP clients and puts them all together. The hefty 22mb Java based software is currently free and available for Windows and Linux systems. There’s an as-yet unpriced premium version in the pipeline that could be out sometime next Spring.

QNext Download

Related Links

Category Bursting P2P Client [P2PNet.net]
PC Mag QNext Review
Sun Showcases QNext on Java.com [GlobeTechnology.com]
Music Activists Secure P2P [MusicbizNews24.com]
Wirehog. P2P Meets Social Networking [MusicbizNews24.com]

A new search engine launches Monday (November 29th) aimed at helping potential buyers find legal digital content across the growing number of legal download services. In essence GoFish.com is another shopping metasearcher though with a narrower target. It fetches feeds from merchants’ media catalogues, indexes them and makes them searchable. The company is getting feeds from iTunes, Napster, Musicmatch, eMusic, Streamwaves and a host of other online merchants, allowing users to search across all the services from one place. The site also looks for audiobooks, video, ring tones and games.

San Francisco based GoFish, was started by Michael Downing, founder of the ill-fated “music locker” service Musicbank.com. Musicbank was originally designed to compete with (pre-Universal and CNet) MP3.com’s streaming locker service — known as My.Mp3.com — that allowed users to stream music from a database of music the company stored on its servers. Downing sold his music-player software company Sonique to Lycos in 2000.

GoFish will make a 9 percent to 15 percent commission from merchants for every sale it sends their way. The site also will earn commissions when users sign up for monthly music subscription services offered by Napster and other online stores. Given the already wafer thin margins operated by merchants its hard to see anyone getting rich from that revenue model though the company are pinning their hopes on licensing out the technology to other websites and search engines.

Downing said he already has talked with most search engines about partnerships and hopes to announce a deal before the end of the year. In an interview with the Mercury News he said the prospective partnership is with a second-tier search engine rather than a top site like Google or Yahoo.

In the sparse detail on the GoFish website they report to have indexed 12 million media files and claim to be the largest, deepest reaching, and most expansive search platform for digital media in the world. If the project sounds alarmingly familiar, late last year SingingFish.com another audio video search specialist from Seattle sold out to AOL for an undisclosed sum. Though Singing Fish relies on their own indexing technology rather than plugging into third party databases and also outsources the search service.

Related Reading

Fishing For Music With GoFish [SiliconBeat.com]
Napster, My.MP3.com, Digital Music, and the Future [NetFreedom.org]
Musicbank Calls it Quits [Wired.com]
Eric Gibb’s Musicbank Portfolio [Chromatic.net]
Musicbanks CEO: Hitting the Right Notes [BusinessWeek.com]
Singingfish Grows As Multimedia Search Provider [SearchEngineWatch.com]

Despite some near hysterical predictions, rumours and reports in the press about the effect of file sharing on CD sales this year, todays Q3 sales figures from the UK record companies trade association, the BPI suggest that despite of rampant music file sharing on P2P networks UK record companies are celebrating their best ever year for album sales, with a record 237.2 million sold in the 12 months to September and a figure of 51.5m CD albums shipped in Q3, both all time highs.

Figures showed a slight drop in revenue as retail prices continue to decline, with 60% of CD albums now selling at less than �10, and this has had an effect on overall sales value, which fell by 1.5% to �221m in the third quarter. Annually, however, positive growth
continues to be recorded with CD revenue increasing by 2.3% and total album value by 2.1%.

CD Singles sales dipped 21.6% over the quarter, whilst twelve inch singles continue to slide with a 6.8% dip. The popularity and revival of the seven inch single continued unabated however with the eleventh consecutive quarterly rise. Sales of the ‘vintage’ singles format much beloved in the 70s and 80s were up a massive 86.5% over the quarter and up 74.8% over last years corresponding yearly totals.

The market for legal downloads grew rapidly in the third quarter following the launch of Napster, iTunes and Connect. Had digital sales been added to the third-quarter figures, the singles market would have shown a 9% increase instead of a 12% decline. Around 1.75 million individual tracks were purchased from new and existing services such as MyCokeMusic and Wippit, compared with 7.3 million physical singles, and download sales
are currently running at up to a quarter of a million units a week. The BPI said download sales, currently recorded in their own chart, would be integrated into the top 40 by “early next year”.

The increasing range of repertoire available to buyers is reflected in the fact that more than 40,000 different tracks each week are being downloaded. Chris Green, BPI’s Research Director said, “The level of legitimate downloading in the UK clearly demonstrates that consumer demand for music on a track by track basis remains strong”.

Last week, the world’s third-largest music group, EMI, said the industry was rebounding as the firm’s digital music revenue more than quadrupled in the six months to September 30 and as it tackled illegal online file exchanging.

The BPI also said music DVDs were flying off the shelves, with sales leaping 52 percent year on year during the traditionally quiet third quarter. The format now accounts for 4 percent of the music market, almost as big as the singles sector.

Related Reading

BPI Quarterly Market Review Nov 26 2004 [BPi pdf]
UK CD Album Shipments Break Q3 Record [the Register]
UK Music Sees Record Album Sales [BBC News]
Online Sales May Prove Singles Saviour [ Guardian Unlimited]
British Association of Record Dealers [Bardltd.org]
Is Downloading Really Bad? [Guardian Unlimited]
Its Black and Back, the Vinyl Single Spins Back into Favour [the Independent]
Elastic Pricing is Killing the Singles Star [the Guardian]
Industry Facts and Figures [MusicTank.co.uk]
the Day the Music Shop Died [Guardian Unlimited]

We had heard a few reports of a German manufactured ‘iPod-a-like’ this week but any definitive details were pretty hard to dig out. Still, with the help of Google and some cod English translation we managed to eek out some concrete details on the ‘mystery’ digital music player.

The Medion MD 95200 was released on Wednesday but apparently in only very limited amounts and only in some branches of the German discounter Aldi. All available copies were snapped up within the hour, though this could well be some clever PR on the manufacturers part. Mysteriously there was no mention of the new model on Medions German website but we did find several copies of the digital audio player for sale on the German Ebay (naturally).

The charcoal black player boasts a 20gb hard drive, which is just about standard issue nowadays and the unit retails for 199 Euros ($265). It has touch wheel menu navigation, like the iPod and a 160×128 pixel display. In addition it has a SD/MMC slot and an easily exchangable battery. The audio chip and management software inside the player are made by Portal Player, who also run the inside of Apple’s iPod.

Related Reading

Aldi Mp3 Player-iPod Inside [Heiss.de]
First Pics of the AldiPod [DapReview.net]
Aldi Mp3 Player Sold Out in Under 1 Hour [Tekrati.com]
Buy Aldi iPod Not With EBay ! [Tomorrow.MSN.de]

Napster today stepped up the retail distribution of the Napster download vouchers in the UK by announcing the availability of the ‘top up’ cards in over 1000 newsagents across the country owned by the TM Retail group. The new deal will see the increasingly ubiquitous cards in branches of McColl’s, Martin’s, Forbuoys and Dillon’s across Britains high streets.

‘TM Retail is an excellent partner for Napster because it gives our localised UK online music service a high street presence in hundreds of smaller shops around the country. Our retail roll-out is gathering pace and shows the tremendous appeal of the Napster brand to traditional offline retailers,’ said Napster UK general manager Leanne Sharman.

Napster Music Vouchers are colour coded. Green vouchers offer access to Napster’s online music subscription service for two months and cost �20, or �35 for four months. Blue vouchers entitle the bearer to take their pick of permanent downloads from Napster in bundles of 10, 22, and 33 tracks at a cost of �10, �20, and �30, respectively.

The announcement follows other recent deals with the Post Office and the Dixons chain of electrical stores.

In the US. earlier this week Napster rolled out a joint promotion with video rental chain Blockbusters. The new “Digital Duo” card will offer consumers access to the Napster subscription service for one month, along with two free a-la-carte downloads. Movie rentals are also part of the offer, with cardholders receiving access to a Blockbuster`s new Netflix-style service. The card will retail for $20, and is currently only available at RadioShack outlets during a trial period.

Related Reading

Napster Nips into Newsagents [the Register]
Napster Vouchers on Sale at Newsagents [Web-User]
Napster in 1000 UK Newsstands [MacWorld.com]
Napster Expand UK Distribution Partnerships [MusicbizNews24.com]

Three of the four biggest record companies in the world have signed “a pact” with peer-to-peer start up company Peer Impact it was revealed today. Universal Music, SonyBMG and Warner Music have all agreed to licencing agreements with Wurld Media, the Saratoga Springs, New York company developing the Peer Impact system for launch in the new year. Wurld Media are said to be in negotiations with the remainder of the ‘big four’ major labels, EMI.

The announcement continues the general thawing in the major labels reticence to work with P2P companies. Top label executives have increasingly said they are willing to support file-swapping networks, as long as no pirated songs appear alongside authorized works, something which seems to have blocked any agreements with Altnet (the KaZaa/Sharman subsiduary). This month alone there has been talks and deals and rumours of talks and deals between EMI and Universal (Snocap) and SonyBMG (Mashboxx, powered by Snocap).

Back in May of this year, US royalties organisation the BMI inked a royalties deal with Australian P2P software company QTrax which made it the worlds first licensed Gnutella based file sharing network.

Not a lot was revealed about Wurld Media, either in the press release or on the companies website. A cursory search in Google (bless ‘em) for “wurld media spyware’, however returns some interesting results and reveals that this is not Wurld Media’s first foray into the world of P2P. Back in 2002 Wurld Media were getting busy with another popular (though not with the major labels) P2P company, Morpheus. A Browser Helper Object (BHO), developed by Wurld Media was one of the ‘bundled extra’s’ that piggy-backed into a users computer along with the Morpheus software.

Morpheus automatically installs Morpheus Shopping from WURLD Media, which monitors your on-line shopping, redirects your web browser to alternate sites when you attempt to visit certain shopping sites, and diverts redirects sales commissions belonging to other referring sites. Morpheus also installs Cydoor and IPinsight, which monitor your Internet usage and display advertisements. Uninstalling Morpheus does not automatically remove these applications. from Wellesley College ResNet

Related Reading

Three Big Music Labels Sign up for Peer Impact [Reuters.com]
Peer Impact Signs 3 Major Labels [Slashdot.org]
P2P Start-up Gets Record Label Deals [CNet News]
Corporate P2P Network? [P2PNet.net]
Music Rebels Seek to Tame P2P [ZDNet News]
Pest Encyclopedia-Wurld Media [PestControl.com]
Toe to Toe Over Peer to Peer [Wired.com]
Internet Companies Legitimize File-Sharing [RedNova.com]
Is the Mood Changing Towards Legitimate Use of P2P Networks? [the Register] Feb 2004
QTrax to Launch BMI-Licensed File Sharing Network [DRMWatch.com]

As we suggested on Sunday BT (aka British Telecom) today unveiled full details of their latest online digital music venture.

Using Digital Rights Management specialist, Blueprint’s technology, BT plan to jointly develop a new service for hosting, managing and distributing digital music and related content online using Blueprint’s ‘Open Royalty Gateway’ and ‘Song Centre’ services.

The Open Royalty Gateway (ORG) service allows rights holders to actively manage all aspects of their content, including setting business rules, pricing, electronic contract creation, sales tracking and royalty reporting. In addition to handling ‘major label’ music content, the ORG will enable thousands of independent labels and artists, many of whom control their own rights, to encode, package and upload their content to the service, and then manage contracts using the ORG.

Song Centre will give retailers the ability to offer new experiences to consumers, combining in-store, internet and mobile. In addition, powerful referral and reward programmes, using viral recommendation, mean that consumers can earn back the cost of the music they purchase by rewarding them with a commission each time one of their friends buys recommended content.

The service has already been trialled successfully for Robbie Williams’ recent No.1 hit single ‘Radio’ with Australia’s and New Zealand’s leading music retailers, Sanity and Sounds and the service will be powering the global Robbie Williams ‘Greatest Hits’ digital download store.

Richard Bron, CEO of Blueprint, said, “The time is right for the music industry to embrace new technologies and new partners to propel itself forward. Growth is dependent, however, on consumers being able to choose from the widest possible selection of digital media content, provided by artists from all the record companies, both major and independent.”

“At the same time, we understand the clear industry requirement to be able to manage rights and digital licences, report royalties and sales to rights holders, and to offer a wide variety of digital media to consumers, using variable pricing structures.”

BT and Blueprint are hoping the package will appeal to companies keen to sell music online - be they retailers, the artists themselves, or labels - but lack the resources to build the back-end financial and rights management applications themselves. The service will use Windows Media Player and content will be encrypted with Microsoft’s Janus encryption.

Related Reading

Press Release [Yahoo Finance]
BT to Launch Online Music Site (Again)? [MusicbizNews24.com]
BT to Power Robbie Williams Back End [Silicon.com]
BT Music Site Uses WMA [the Inquirer]
BT Preps Pre-Fab Digital Music Store Service [the Register]

Universal Music today had the much trumpeted launch for what they are billing as “the World’s First All-Digital Download Label from a Major Music Company”, UMe Digital. All UMe product from individual tracks, EPs and full length albums will be exclusively distributed online.

Said Bruce Resnikoff, President of UMe: “UMe Digital is another significant development in the expansion of our business and our efforts to reach more consumers in more creative ways. Last year the music industry sold fewer than 5,000,0000 downloads; this year the industry will exceed 100,000,000. I think every label will have a download-only imprint at some point; UMe wants to be sure that it continues to be an industry leader and innovator.”

One of the first signings is Tennessee based the Shazam who rather than see their releases in traditional music retailers will see their music on digital download stores like the MSN Music Store, iTunes, Rhapsody, Virgin Digital and Napster first.

UMe New Media director Jay Gilbert anticipates that the number of recordings and artists will progressively expand from the launch roster of seven artists. Also, he added, “When artists find success with downloads, we may opt for a physical release as well.”

To be considered for Universal’s digital label, Gilbert said an artist needs to have an established fan base and a tour. “We’re really not looking to develop brand-new, unknown artists,” he said.

Certainly it could be hailed as a move in the right direction for the majors but an artist roster comprising of seasoned rockers like Dan Reed, Black N Blue, John Jorgenson and Rusty Anderson could hardly be called cutting edge in itself.

The royalty split is said to be 75/25 in favour of the label and works out at roughly 15c per download to the artist, given that the label share of a standard 99c download equates to something like 65c. In contrast, an artist taking the independent distribution route via someone like the established indie CD Baby can look forward to something closer to 50+c per download, so as in the case of a physical record deal the only benefits an artist can hope for is the unquestioned marketing muscle of a major label and the promise of possible TV and ad placement.

Some critics argue that this new digital label is more about music economics than about lending a helping hand to artists. Greg Scholl, CEO of The Orchard, a major global distributor and marketer of independent music, told technology news website TechNewsWorld

“This is a way of laying off risk when figuring out what acts they should really invest in rather than trying to have a vibrant small- to mid-artist tier business. The major labels have created a marketing and radio promotion machine that requires an artist to constantly sell significant units and garner significant air play, he explained. Once an artist’s popularity wanes, a label will drop them. “The horses that don’t perform get shot,” he said.

“What this is doing,” he continued, “is laying off some of the risk so they don’t have to invest so much to determine if it makes sense to invest more.”

Todays launch came two weeks after a similar set up was announced by Universal in the UK, where the major announced a number of similar ‘incubation’ and digital distribution deals with independents in that territory.

Related Reading

Official Press Release [Business Wire]
Universal Music Debut’s Digital Only Label [TechNewsWorld.com]
Universal Music’s Budget Route to Stardom [International Herald Tribune]
Universal Music Group Creates Digital-Only Music Label [Digital-Lifestyles]
Universal UK To Offer Digital Distribution To Indie Labels [MusicbizNews24.com]
Digital Distributors Open The Door For Independents [MusicbizNews24.com]

If you had to name the P2P file sharing applications that have sent seismic shockwaves through the music industry (and as broadband catches on, the film industry) in terms of column inches and court appearances, Napster (in its original untethered form) and KaZaa would be the names that came to mind. Next down the list would quite possibly be Gnutella and some of its variants, including Bearshare, Limewire and Morpheus.

Gnutella was written by Nullsoft founder (makers of Winamp and Shoutcast) Justin Frankel who Rolling Stone magazine once called “the worlds most dangerous geek”.

Just as geeky but not quite as ‘dangerous’ is Ian Clarke another P2P software pioneer and the man best known for Freenet which, unlike other peer-to-peer networks, is primarily intended for decentralized content redistribution, to combat censorship and allow people to communicate with near-total anonymity rather than act as a search engine for free Eminem and Britney Spears downloads.

Clarke has recently unveiled his latest project, Dijjer a new open source P2P content distribution tool designed to allow the distribution of large files from Web servers while virtually eliminating the bandwidth cost to the file’s publisher.

The work in progress is aimed at anyone who needs to distribute large files to large numbers of people but who can’t afford to pay for the bandwidth that this would normally require .

Dijjer also offers ’sequential downloads’, so if you tried to download a video through Dijjer you could start watching the video before the download completed. This is because Dijjer behaves like a web server, pieces of a file are download in-order and fed to your web browser when they arrive, allowing your browser to start displaying content before it has completely downloaded. Kind of like a Bit Torrent that streams, though one of the reasons behind the project was Clarkes dissatisfaction with apps like BitTorrent.

Related Reading

Ian Clarke’s New P2P Tool [P2PNet.net]
The World’s Most Dangerous Geek [Rolling Stone]
The Free Network Project [Sourceforge]
Free Radical: Ian Clarke Has Big Plans For the Internet [OpenP2P.com]
FreeNet’s Ian Clarke Answers Privacy Questions [Slashdot.org]

An audio format that is gradually gaining in popularity in recent months is Weed. Weed is a proprietary digital music codec that allows interested music fans to download a song and play it three times for free. They are then prompted to pay for the “Weed file” the fourth time. A no risk try before you buy set-up.

Each time the song is downloaded by a new listener, the Weed file resets itself so the same rules apply: three free plays, then pay. The music can also be transferred to any Windows portable media devices.

Songs cost about a dollar and can be burned to an unlimited number of CDs, passed around on file-sharing networks and posted to web pages.

Seattle based Shared Media Licensing, launched the Weed format in December last year and in laymans terms Weed is small piece of software that ads Digital Rights Management or fingerprinting to audio tracks in the Windows Media format.

Weedshare allows users to distribute songs in a manner that resembles P2P. However, all songs distributed by Weedshare are licensed from rights owners and protected by the Microsoft DRM technology to stop unauthorized reproductions. In many ways its not unrelated to the audio finger printing technologies being developed by companies like SnoCap, Audible Magic and Relatable, amongst others.

In addition to distributing Weed Files (which number over 80,000) from its home website, Weed recently joined eBay’s digital music distribution program trial with its own store on the auction giants website. There was also a distribution hook-up with leading independent distributor CD Baby back in June and amongst the artists signed up to use the burgeoning distribution format are Chuck D, Heart, Sir Mix-A-Lot, Built to Spill, Kristin Hersh and one Sananda Maitreya, previously renown as pop star Terence Trent D’Arby.

Related Reading

File Sharing Growing Like a Weed [Wired.com]
Its a . Wrap [MusicbizNews24.com]
What is the Term Super Distribution? [MusicDish.com]
An Intriguing Business Model: Superdistribution and Weedshare [DigitalMusicNews.com]
96 Decibels
[96Decibels.com]
A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System [Philipsstudy ] 9pg PDF

Sydney, Australia based P2P company Sharman Networks today launched version 3 of its of controversial file sharing software Kazaa, this time integrated with VoiP application Skype which enables users with the software (and a headset and microphone) to make free phone calls worldwide. The newest edition of the file-sharing software, also sports enhanced search capabilities and a trial membership with blog service provider TypePad.

Kazaa claim that over 300 million people have already downloaded the Kazaa application and are using P2P technology legally to purchase licensed music files, videos, games and ring tones, though the percentage of that 300 million that actually use Kazaa to buy legal content wasn’t released. Recent research from Comscore Media Metrix suggest that Kazaa’s once all conquering user base of 30 million has dwindled down to 16 million in the face of the increasing legal action and the popularity of more anonymous P2P apps like Bit Torrent and eDonkey.

Kazaa has been heamoraging users in their droves in the last year under sustained legal action from the RIAA who have been targetting users of the software for illegally sharing music files with other users of the software.

Luxembourg based Skype was created by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, who famously also authored Kazaa, part of the underlying FastTrack file sharing network (which included Morpheus and Grokster) before selling the Kazaa software to Sharman in January 2002 after being blocked by copyright action in the Dutch courts in December 2001.

Related Reading

Kazaa’s Latest Version Enables Free Internet Voice Calls [NewsFactor.com]
Kazaa Offers Unlimited Free Internet Phone Calls [ZDnet News]
Kazaa Most Scanned in RIAA Subpoena War [P2PNet.net]
Peer to Peer Kazaa’s Offices Raided [TechWeb.com]
Kazaa Raid Stirs up P2P Rivalries [PCWorld.com]
Kazaa Loses P2P Crown [CNet News]
Putting the Hype in VoIP [the Register]
How Not To Get Sued By The RIAA For File-Sharing [EFF.org]
Kazaa Owner Complains of Copyright Infringement [Chilling Effects]

Motorola have unveiled a ‘mid-range’ audio player to add to the growing ranks of rivals after a chunk of the portable digital audio player market, currently ruled by Apple’s range of iPods and iPod Mini’s. The Motorola M500 takes a shot at the Mini iPod market with its 5gb hard drive though the M500 gains an FM radio and a removable battery. The design of the m500 borrows heavily from the similar sized Rio Carbon, unsurprisingly since it was engineered by Rio Audio.

The Motorola is also slightly bigger than the Carbon but both boast 20 hour battery life per charge. The m500 is only available at the moment from Radio Shack for around $229, the Carbon clocks in at $249. Other models in the 4-5GB player market include the Creative Zen Micro and the Dell Pocket DJ, both sporting 5GB hard drives and prices hovering around $200-250.

Related Links

Review of Motorola’s 5GB M500 [Engadget.com]
DAP Review [DAPReview.net]
Portable Audio [Engadget.com]

The Guardian newspaper have started chins wagging via a little snippet on their ‘Media Diary’ page, online today. There’s a rather large hint that BT (thats British Telecom, not Bit Torrent by the way) are to announce the launch of a new online music website at a press release in London this coming Tuesday (23rd).

“Something big is going down at BT, which is holding a high-profile press briefing on Tuesday attended by Tony Wadsworth, chairman of EMI, Robbie Williams’ manager Tim Clark and Paul Burger, chairman of SoHo artists and former managing director of Sony Europe. Sounds like the launch of a flashy new digital music site to us, although BT refuses to comment. “

BT’s Openworld online brand were actually early movers in the online music space. In 1999 they launched the now defunct GetOutThere, a platform aimed at unsigned bands and young film makers and an early attempt at cashing in on the hype around MP3.com and the pioneering early MP3 sites, including a young upstart called Napster.

More recently BT sold the DotMusic.com music portal (which they purchased for a million pounds from United Business Media in March 2002) to Yahoo in October 2003, which has now been merged into Yahoo’s Launch brand. DotMusic were offering downloads through a technology partnership with OD2.

Last month BT revealed that it was in talks with a leading provider of digital music content about a deal which would transform many of its phoneboxes into virtual jukeboxes. Under the plans, anyone owning an iPod or portable music player would be able to go into a phonebox and download a song while out shopping or on a lunch break.

Related Reading

Hanging on the Musical Telephone [BBC News]
Yahoo Joins up Dots For UK Music Site [Guardian Unlimited]
Spotlight:BT GetOutThere [Adobe.co.uk]
BT Accused Over Music Piracy [BBC News]

EMI, the worlds third largest record company with acts including Coldplay, Radiohead, Nora Jones, Robbie Williams, Starsailor and Kraftwerk announced a drop in first half yearly revenue this week.

EMI’s digital music revenues more than quadrupled in the six months to September 30 on the success of mobile phone ringtone sales and online stores like Apple’s iTunes. Digital sales of 12.2 million pounds in the first half, up from �2.1m a year earlier, now represent more than 2 percent of group turnover of 851 million pounds, which was down 11.4 per cent on the year-ago half.

EMI shares surged upwards 10 per cent on Friday on the London Stock Exchange the days top percentage gain. EMI Chairman Eric Nicoli said: “We have already seen a significant year-on-year pick-up in our sales since the end of September. “This, along with the strong growth of music DVDs and the explosive growth in our digital market activity, leaves us well placed to maintain our market share for the full year.”

“We have seen an improving trend in the global recorded music industry. The industry decline of 1.3% for our first six months represents a significant improvement on the 9.6% decline seen in the same period of the previous year. The legitimate digital music market continues to expand rapidly and we remain confident that digital represents a key driver for future industry growth.

EMI, as a progressive and innovative music-content company, remains committed to embracing and maximising the opportunities presented by advances in technology and changes in consumer trends.” Said Nicoli in a statement on the EMI Groups website.

Related Reading

EMI’s Download Music Sales Soar [BBC News]
EMI Sees Music Market Improving [Reuters.com]
EMI Boosted By Digital Music Sales [the Guardian]
EMI Looks to Digital as Download Sales Quadruble [the Register]
Stars Light up in the Christmas Sky For EMI [Business Telegraph]
EMI Cuts Artists and 1500 Jobs [BBC News]

EMI are the latest major record company said to be in talks with SnoCap, joining rivals such as Universal Music Group and SonyBMG in embracing a legal version of the internet file-swapping technology behind most online piracy. Last week Universal were the first major record company to officially announce a deal with Snocap, while SonyBMG also admitted preliminary talks with former Grokster president Wayne Rosso about his latest venture, tentatively titled ‘Mashboxx’, which is also said to use the new technology being developed by the former Napster developers at SnoCap.

In the Times Online this morning journalist Nic Hopkins revealed that, “Alain Levy, chairman of EMI’s recorded music division, said the company was in advanced negotiations with Snocap, a San Francisco company launched by Shawn Fanning, the Napster founder and former internet music pirate which has created a legal version of peer-to-peer (P2P) file swapping.”

“We are in discussions with Snocap. We are very close to a deal. We think its a very interesting technology. There’s definitely something in it,” Levy said. But he added that while P2P would fill a gap in the market for digital music distribution, it would not replace subscription services and internet stores.

Snocap is a technology embedded in a P2P network to block sharing of unauthorized works, including unlicensed music and pornography and facilitate commercial transactions. Snocap has been working on ways to identify songs, as they are traded through a file-swapping network, including using a technique called audio fingerprinting, which monitors the sonic characteristics of music files.

That fingerprinting tool could be integrated into the file-swapping software itself in several different ways, sources said. When a file is being downloaded, the software could check its fingerprint and then compare it against a database Snocap operates, for example. Once an identification is made, the download could be blocked, unless the computer user pays a fee, as if they were downloading a song from iTunes or another digital song store.

Up to now the major record companies have opposed licensing their content to file-sharing software firms, refusing to offer their artists’ music for sale while unauthorized, CD-quality versions of the songs are being traded for free over the same networks. Still, the recording industry is interested in turning millions of computer users now swapping music online into paying consumers on ready-made online distribution networks.

Related Reading

Record Companies Join Online Domain of Top Pirates [Times Online]
Universal Music Licences Catalog to Snocap [DRMWatch.com]
Fanning Snocap Saga [P2PNet.net]
Shawn Fanning is Back into Digital Music [Slashdot.org]
Music Rebels Seek to Tame P2P [CNet News]
Grokster Sony/BMG to do Legal P2P Service? [the Register]
Sony-BMG, Grokster Deal [P2PNet.net]
Sony Eyes P2P Venture [Digital Lifestyles]
File Sharer Eyes Major Label Coup [Wired.com]
Napster to Use Audio Fingerprinting [Internet.com-2001]

The MPAA, better known as the Motion Picture Association of America ( a conglomerate of Universal Studios, Disney, Sony Pictures, Warner Bros, MGM, 20th CenturyFox and Paramount ) have been having talks with the ultra high speed Internet2 consortium according to CNet News today.

The MPAA are hoping both to test next-generation video delivery projects and to monitor peer-to-peer piracy on the ultra high-speed network. Internet2 is essentially a vastly faster version of the Internet, “run by a consortium led by 207 universities working in partnership with industry and government to develop and deploy advanced network applications and technologies, accelerating the creation of tomorrow’s Internet.” (according to the i2 website).

One of the applications that i2 have been working on is the Digital Video Initiative who have been working on a new generation of digital video applications that take full advantage of the potential of high performance networks.

Not surprisingly, student file-swapping traffic has also has found its way onto the network, and in the light of lawsuits announced this week by the film body and a more vigorous anti file sharing stance, the MPAA are taking a serious look at the connotations superfast bandwidth brings for digital delivery, legal and illegal files. Using ordinary broadband connections, movies can take many hours to download, particularly if a network is congested. In tests earlier in the year researchers from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and Geneva-based CERN transferred data across nearly 11,000 kilometers at an average speed of 6.25 gigabits per second. The achieved speed is about 10,000 times faster than a typical home broadband connection according to CERN.

“We’ve been working with Internet2 for a while to explore ways we can take advantage of delivering content at these extremely high speeds, and basically manage illegitimate content distribution at the same time,” said Chris Russell, the MPAA’s vice president of Internet standards and technology in the CNet article.

The MPAA has been talking with the research consortium for several months, with an eye toward possibly joining the Internet2 group as a member, or simply opening up a collaborative relationship. At least one studio, Warner Bros., is already a member of the group, as is the Napster online music service.

In the light of recent lawsuits by both the RIAA and the MPAA, there has been some concern at the involvement of both entertainment bodies in the role of P2P police. Also in the last year, more than 20 schools have signed up for deeply discounted access to music services such as Napster, MusicNet and RealNetworks’ Rhapsody.

Internet2 is part of the Abilene network, a proving ground for high-bandwidth technologies. The cross-country backbone is 10 gigabits per second, with the goal of offering 100 megabits per second of connectivity between every Abilene connected desktop. Speaking to Tech Republic recently Steve Corbato, the director of backbone network infrastructure for Internet2 said “Abilene has become a necessity for research universities,” and, “It’s not just about building a really fast network. University members rely on it to collaborate with colleagues and students around the world.”

To put that into more perspective a very fast broadband connection from Comcast for example would be around 3.5 megabits per second, a mere fraction of the Abilene target.

One of the biggest groups of users on the Internet2 network is the supercharged student file sharing project, i2Hub. i2hub arose early this year as an on-campus alternative to older swapping services such as Kazaa, offering speeds that far outstripped its rivals.

To connect to this extremely fast network students need to download a free client from Direct Connect who’s website states, “Unlike other impersonal, server-driven file-sharing networks, Direct Connect offers a community-oriented, open, user-controlled network. Moreover, Direct Connect’s network architecture is built on a peer-to-peer foundation; users run, control, and maintain the network.”

Many colleges in the United States and Europe allow student communications to default to the Internet2 network, which connects universities at speeds much higher than the ordinary Internet can provide. The i2hub software takes advantage of this to let students at participating universities swap files using this bandwidth bonanza.

Related Reading

Hollywood Seeks Internet2 Tests [CNet News]
MPAA P2P File Share Weapon [P2PNet.net]
Internet2 Activities at Georgia Tech [Gatech.edu]
Internet2: File Swopping Heaven? [NewsFactor.com]
Internet2 at Stanford [Stanford.edu]
Colleges Shut Down the Network to P2P Users [Copyfutures]
the Internet2 Project [Cisco.com]
College P2P Use on the Decline? [ZDnet News]
Internet2:2004 and Beyond [Tech Republic]
Why the RIAA Targets College Students [Boycott-RIAA.com]

The Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) is the latest rights association to take action in the ongoing and increasing global war against illegal file sharing.

The trade group has asked eight internet service providers to disclose the names of 12 subscribers suspected of illegal p2p file-sharing. Jiro Imamura, an RIAJ spokesman, stressed to Digital Music News that “the action was not a ‘lawsuit’ against individuals by RIAJ. That is the procedure taken by each record company to request disclosure of the information of each individual, such as the names and addresses, to ISPs”.

The RIAJ has been investig