Buzzsonic.com

Its been a good few months since Buzzsonic heard anything of note on the yet to be fully operational Snocap, the legal P2P download service founded by (original) Napster founder Shaun Fanning. Music blogs Hypebot and Coolfer were the first people this week to spot that a new Snocap technology was being used by new (to us) band the Format, selling tracks via their MySpace profile using the Snocap service Linx.

The Format tracks are available as MP3’s at 79c each and use Paypal as the merchant for payment, though Snocap Linx works with MP3 as well as content encrypted with WMA DRM according to the Snocap website. Bands can cut and paste the Linx code into their MySpace profiles (or any website for that matter) much like other online services like YouTube, Slide and Photobucket and are offering code to MySpace users to promote their own services.

Snocap’s Linx service is also designed to let online retailers sell music from the companies huge selection of songs. Snocap has distribution deals with Universal Music, Sony BMG, EMI Group and Warner Music, along with a number of independent labels.

David Berlind at ZDNet had an interesting point on the news on his blog this week.

“Actually, it’s the independents that will really benefit from MySpace as a sales channel (while the traditional labels go the iTunes, etc. route). While I don’t believe were at a tipping point yet, the idea of commerce-enabling MySpace for music sales could position indies for an interesting offensive against the entertainment establishment. And, with no DRM, it’s definitely a step in the right direction.”

Related Reading

Napster Founder Commerce Enables Unprotected MP3s on MySpace (ZD Net Blogs)
Snocap Looks Beyond P2P (MP3.com)
Napster Guru Fanning Breaks Snocap Silence (Buzzsonic.com) Dec 3 2005
Mashboxx and Snocap Get Busy (Buzzsonic.com) May 6 2005
EMI Records Join the Snocap Queue (Buzzsonic.com) Nov 20 2004
Napster Founder in Major Label P2P Talks (Buzzsonic.com) Nov 13 2004

As a recording artist myself I’m always looking for new distribution outlets but so far I’ve been slow to exploit digital sales at all. Two mixes from my latest UK released 12 inch vinyl (yes they do still exist) single, ‘I’ll Be There’ are actually available at underground dance store Xpress Beats but with Apple’s iTunes store dominating 70-80% of the download market (depending on who you believe) its the one place you really want to be if you want to get in the online shop window.

I’ve been aware of digital music distribution aggregators for a while and have had a look around well known outlets like CD Baby and IODA so I was very interested in the news of newcomer TuneCore (tip via the essential Moses Avalon). Tunecore works much the same as most digital music aggregators in as much as they sign up artists and label content and place music on the all important download majors like iTunes, Napster and Rhapsody. The difference with Tunecore (FAQs here) is that there is no lengthy terms, no exclusivity and the killer for me, no percentage share of revenue (other outlets range from 8-15%).

There’s a very informative podcast interview with founder Jeff Price at the 75 Minutes blog which is well worth an hour of your time and needless to say Jeff is blogging about the whole thing here. I’ll be commenting further on this as we prepare to upload our first digital release to Tunecore very soon.

Founder Jeff Price is the owner of Spin Art Records other board members include the former head of RykoDisc, George Howard and Toolshed Inc. owner Dick Huey.

Related Reading

Digital Distributor Comparisons (MosesAvalon.com)
Back From Canadian Music Week (BradSucks.com)
Digital Music Report 2006-24 page PDF (IFPI.org)
Digital Music:Industry Answers (BBC News)
The Long Tail (Wired.com)
99th Floor Elevators (Floorelevators.com)
iTunes Outsells Traditional Music Stores (CNet News) Nov 21 2005
Apple Touts iTunes 80% UK Market Share (The Register) Sept 7 2005

Its been a while since we featured any posts on musical mash-ups here. Since the last mention (the excellent Green Day mash) the word mash up has taken on a slightly different meaning. Now the term is more likely associated with the latest Google Maps Api mash up rather than the latest frankenstein pop remix flying out of some digital DJ’s laptop studio.

Latest renegade remixers to join the fray are the Brooklyn based DJ duo Sound Advice who have ironically (see DJ Dangermouse) chosen to weld the music from the ubiquitous Gnarls Barkley album ‘St Elsewhere’ to the vocals from deceased rapper Biggie Smalls biggest hits.
The result is Gnarls Biggie a hit and miss collection of eleven tracks (all available as MP3’s naturally). ‘Smilie Faces Hypnotize’, ‘Gimme The Online Loot’ and ‘The Last Nasty Boy’ are worth more than one spin but the simple A vs. B formula is not nearly as inspired as the more elaborate examples of the ‘art’ like DJ Dangermouse’s (half of Gnarls Barkley) groundbreaking Beatles vs Jay Z mash up the ‘Grey Album’ or the aformentioned Green Day (or Dean Gray) remix project.

The guys have already got themselves banned from MySpace (though another ‘fan page’ has already sprung up). The cease and desist is in the post.

Related Reading

Gnarls Barkley Mashed Up with B.I.G (Spin.com)
Green Day Mash Up Leads to Cease and Desist Order, Grey Tuesday Style Protest (MTV News)
Grey Album Poducer Danger Mouse Explains How He Did It (MTV News)
Gnarls Barkley (Wikipedia)
Sound Advice Blog (Blogspot)
Party Ben (PartyBen.com)
Mark Vidler (GoHomeProductions)
Grey Tuesday:A Quick Overview of the Legal Terrain (EFF.org)
Grey Tuesday-Free the Grey Album (GreyTuesday.org)

The brilliant Green Day mash-up album we mentioned a few days ago has already had the plugged pulled by Warner Bros music officials apparently.

You can follow the subject at mashers hang out Get Your Bootleg On. Naturally the old download link is now dead but there’s a growing groundswell of support for the project just as there was for the famed (and similarily outlawed) DJ Dangermouse mashup, ‘The Grey Album’. You can, as of this minute grab the album here and read up further on the planned music activism set for December 13th.

Elsewhere this week we’ve stumbled across a Madonna mash-up project (‘the Immaculate Concoction’), one from Radiohead and a 50 Cent/Queen ‘co-lab’. Of course the artists themselves are blissfully unaware of all the DiY remix activity going on.

Related Links

Dean Grey Tuesday (Alt.fm)
RIAA Targets Mash-Ups (BoingBoing.com)
Grey Tuesday, Online Cultural Activism and the Mash up of Music and Politics (FirstTuesday.org)
Raiding The 20th Century, the History of the Cut-up (Musicalbear.com)
The Grey Album by DJ Dangermouse (BannedMusic.org)

The expected new update of Apple’s all-in-one music jukebox software, iTunes 4.8 was released today and adds new video playback features, including the ability to drag and drop movie clips from your computer into the iTunes Library for easy cataloging and organization. The video clips appear with a new movie camera icon in your library.

There’s three options for video playback under the preferences tab which gives you the choice of full screen, separate window, or main window playback. You can drag the borders of the video to change the size of the screen. There’s also a new iTunes store preference with a choice of 1-click buying (though not sure Amazon will be too pleased with Apple’s use of that term) and ‘buy now’ shopping cart puchasing . Its all pretty seemless and using my Paypal account plugged into iTunes its made buying music the easiest its ever been for me in over thirty years of musical fanatasism, going back to the days of the 8 track cartridge.

Download iTunes 4.8

Related Reading
Apple Releases iTunes 4.8 [iPodLounge.com]

We covered early developments on the forthcoming legal P2P services, from Mashboxx and Snocap back in November of last year. Napster (MK 1) founder Shaun Fanning’s new legal P2P (ie:major label friendly) service Snocap had agreed a deal with the Universal Music Group to distribute the major labels content using the digital fingerprinting software being adapted from a Philips blueprint.

At the same time Sony/BMG had been in talks with Mashboxx boss, ex-Grokster and Blubster president, Wayne Rosso.

Snocaps talks with the EMI Group began almost six months ago and an official deal with the UK major was announced to the press yesterday.

David Munns, Chairman and CEO for EMI Music, North America said in a statement, “This deal with Snocap underscores EMI’s commitment to developing legitimate ways to deliver our music in more ways to more fans, including peer-to-peer distribution models that ensure creators are compensated for their works.”

He continued, “This sends a signal to music industry critics who claim we are technophobic. If anything, we are embracing technologies like Snocap, which allow the P2P community to share music legally. It’s a big step forward for fans, artists and copyright owners.”

Mashboxx, who are going to be using the Snocap technology for their own P2P service started signing up beta testers on their website today, for the yet to be seen music delivery service.

Snocap is a technology embedded in a P2P network to block sharing of unauthorized works, including unlicensed music and pornography and facilitate commercial transactions. Audio fingerprinting provides the digital ‘fingerprint’ of an audio recording by deriving unique features that can be used to identify the music by comparing it with reference fingerprints stored in a central database.

That fingerprinting tool could be integrated into the file-swapping software itself in several different ways. 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.

Mashboxx’s P2P app will use Fanning’s technology to reveal which shared songs are being monitored on behalf of Snocap’s label customers. Download a track that is, and Mashboxx’s software slips in a DRM-protected version that invites you to pay, to listen, to burn or whatever usage the copyright holder permits.

Background Reading

EMI Signs Up For ‘Authorised’ Online Music Sharing [Reuters]
Mashboxx Opens Beta Test Scheme [theRegister.com]
EMI Signs on With Snocap [Slyck.com]
Content Identification:Audio Fingerprinting [Philips Research]
Napster Founder in Major Label P2P Talks [Buzzsonic News]
EMI Records Join the Snocap Queue [Buzzsonic News]
Napster Guru Fanning Breaks Snocap Silence [Buzzsonic News]
Grokster [Wikipedia]
The Major Labels [PBS Frontline]
Wayne Rosso on File-Sharing Frontiers [TechNewsWorld.com]

We ran a report on the uber-fast Internet2 college broadband network back in November last year. At the time the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) were said to be in tentative talks with the administrators of Internet2, hoping both to test next-generation video delivery projects and to monitor peer-to-peer piracy on the ultra high-speed network.

No great surprise that today the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) filed lawsuits against 405 students at 18 colleges in the U.S. , alleging that they are using the private-research network to trade pirated songs. According to the RIAA, students with access to Internet2 are increasingly using a file-sharing application called i2hub to “steal copyrighted songs and other works on a massive scale,” the organization said in a statement released yesterday.

“Students find i2hub especially appealing because they mistakenly believe their illegal file-sharing activities can’t be detected in the closed environment of the Internet2 network,” it continued.

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.”

Internet2 is part of the Abilene network and is essentially a vastly faster version of the Internet, a proving ground for high-bandwidth technologies. Speaking to Tech Republic last year 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.”

The network used by Internet2 was launched in 1998 by a nonprofit consortium of 206 universities, 70 corporate partners (including IBM and Microsoft) and a number of government agencies, including the Library of Congress, to develop the next generation of Internet technologies.

The RIAA has sued more than 9,000 people for distributing songs using peer-to-peer software like Grokster and Morpheus in the past two years.

In a seperate action announced yesterday the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), the world governing body for the international music industry said they were launching the biggest wave of legal actions against internet music file-sharers yet. New cases were launched against 963 individuals in 11 countries across Europe and Asia. Netherlands, Finland, Ireland, Iceland and Japan pursued illegal song-swappers for the first time

Related Links

RIAA Targets New Piracy Epidemic On Special High-Speed Campus Network [RIAA]
High-Speed US Net ‘Pirates’ Sued [BBC News]
RIAA Sues More Than 400 College Students Over Internet2 Downloads [MTV]
New Wave of Lawsuits to Hit ‘Illegal File Swappers’ [the Register]
Music File Sharers Face Biggest Round of Legal Actions Yet [IFPI]
Internet 2: 2004 And Beyond [Tech Republic]
MPAA Eyes Internet2 P2P Traffic [Buzzsonic News]

New York based ‘culture meets technology’ activists IPac are , according to their website, dedicated to preserving individual freedom through balanced intellectual property policy. Their latest project is Jailed For A Song which looks at the US Congress’s brushes with copyright law in 2004 and examines several of the craziest items on Big Content’s wish list.

Being Jailed For A Song is what a proposed law would allow. “Skipping commercials is stealing? That’s what some copyright holders think. And spending millions of taxpayer dollars to hunt down file-sharers? Congress nearly passed not one, but two bills that would have done just that in 2004.”

Included in some of the scary looking all encompassing law’s was, S.B. 3021. The bill (passed by the U.S. Senate on November 20, 2004 though still not passed as law due to procedural problems) specifically said that sharing a single pre-release work (song, movie, etc.) carried a possible five-year prison term for even first-time offenders. The two others we all read about last year were ‘The Piracy Deterrence and Education Act’ (PDEA, H.R. 4077) and ‘the PIRATE Act ‘(S.2237) which would have diverted law enforcement agencies to the pursuit of file-sharers at a time when the RIAA’s suits are paying for themselves.

“Copyright infringement is a problem, but the radical political agenda of copyright holders is far beyond what normal Americans want. We need constructive proposals for how to pay artists, protect technical innovation, and end the record & movie companies’ crazy litigation campaign. Congress isn’t listening to the public, and we need to be loud if we want to be heard over the Hollywood lobbyists and record label flunkies.” Points out the site. IPac are urging supporters to get involved and make a stand in the 665 days leading into the next federal election and make every day count.

Related Links

Electronic Frontier Foundation [EFF.org]
Banned Music [BannedMusic.org]
Downhill Battle [DownhillBattle.org]

The Record Industry Association of America unleashed another barrage of lawsuits at file-sharers illegally trading in music using P2P software this afternoon. The 754 new lawsuits were filed in federal district courts across the USA, including 20 alleged file-traders using university computer networks.

With the latest round of legal action, the RIAA has now sued more than 7,700 alleged file-traders since September 2003, including more than 3,000 lawsuits since Oct. 1 of this year.

As in previous cases, the new lawsuits were filed against “John Doe” defendants identified only by their numeric Internet protocol addresses. Music company lawyers must obtain the identity of defendants by issuing subpoenas to Internet access providers. Last month the recording industry body issued suits against 761 alleged illegal file sharers.

RIAA President Cary Sherman, said in a statement that: “With legal online retailers still forced to compete against illegal free networks, the playing field remains decidedly unbalanced, That’s why continued enforcement against individuals stealing and distributing music illegally is essential, as is holding accountable the businesses that intentionally promote and profit from this theft.”

Despite increasingly high profile suits from both the RIAA and the film industry association the MPAA, recent studies measuring the effect of the legal action suggest that it has had little or no deterrent in stemming the actions of file sharers using P2P networks.

Latest figures from P2P monitor Big Champagne reveal that in November, the average number of people simultaneously logged on to the P2P file sharing networks at any given moment increased significantly from 6,255,986 in October to 7,452,184. The number of users on P2P networks in the US went up from 4,435,395 in October to 5,445,275 in November.

“While these increases are consistent with the trend we’ve observed in Q4 in previous years, strong growth in the USA in particular has yielded an active (logged-on) P2P user base that’s more than one-third greater than it was in the fourth quarter of last year,” Big Champagne CEO Eric Garland told news site P2PNet earlier this month.

Related Reading

Record Industry Sues 754 for Internet Song Swaps [Reuters.com]
Computer Users Sued for Swopping Music [SiliconValley.com]
Chilling Effects Clearinghouse [ChillingEffects.org]
File Share Top 10 [P2PNet.net]
New Survey Indicates Musicians Split On File Sharing [MusicbizNews24.com]
Big Music P2P Stats Dont Tally [P2PNet.net]
How File Sharing Works [HowStuffWorks.com]
Big Champagne’s Burst Bubble [bIPlog]
New P2P File Sharing Stats [P2PNet.net]

Musicians believe the internet is an essential tool to help create and market their work, but at the same time more than half of artists say file sharing of unauthorized copies of music should be illegal, according to a new report. The study titled, “Artists, Musicians and the Internet,” by US. researchers suggests that musicians do not wholeheartedly agree with the tactics adopted by the music industry against file-sharing, artists are divided on the issue but not deeply concerned. 60% said they did not think the lawsuits against song swappers would benefit musicians and songwriters.

In Spring of this year, the not-for-profit Future of Music Coalition and the nonprofit, non-partisan think tank the Pew Internet & American Life Project worked with an array of other musician and songwriter organizations including Just Plain Folks, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, CD Baby, the Nashville Songwriters Association, Garageband.com, and the American Federation of Musicians. to conduct an online survey to gauge musicians’ opinions of copyright and the internet in general. Over 2700 musicians completed the survey, the results of which were revealed yesterday.

“Even successful artists don’t think the lawsuits will benefit musicians.” “We looked at more of the independent musicians, rather than the rockstars of this industry but that reflects more accurately the state of the music industry,” research specialist and author of the report Mary Madden told the BBC News website.

52% of all artists and 55% of Paid Artists believe it should be illegal for internet users to share unauthorized copies of music and movies over file-sharing networks, compared to 37% of all artists and 35% of Paid Artists who say it should be legal.

Songwriters Eric Lowen & Dan Navarro, who wrote the Pat Benatar hit “We Belong” said free file sharing can have tremendous promotional value, but artists should be able to decide if they want to give away their music. “I want the ability to choose whether it goes out there for free or not,” Navarro told Wired. “When people start taking (the music for free), it takes the control away from us. I don’t think that’s fair.”

Makers of file-sharing software like Kazaa and Grokster may be unnerved to learn that nearly two-thirds said such services should be held responsible for illegal file-swapping; only 15 percent held individual users responsible.

The report continues to say that 87% of the musician respondents say they promote, advertise or display their music online, and 83% provide free samples or previews of their music on the internet. 69% of the respondents say they sell their music online. 63% say that they sell their music online someplace other than their own Web site.

56% sell CDs through online stores like Amazon.com or CDBaby, 28% sell downloadable files through digital stores like iTunes, and 18% sell their music someplace else online.

“Some in the policy community and in media companies have feared that the internet would bring financial Armageddon to musicians and other artists,” said report author Madden, “What we hear from a wide spectrum of artists is that, despite the real challenges of protecting work online, the internet has opened up new ways for them to exercise their imaginations and sell their creations. To many, this feels like a new Digital Renaissance rather than the end of the world.”

For independent musicians, in particular, this newfound ability to bypass traditional distribution outlets and geographic boundaries has been a watershed. One musician explained that having the ability to sell music online was the most significant impact of the internet.

“A huge positive benefit is being able to have my music available for sale to anyone in the world who wants it. Ten years ago there was absolutely no way to sell your CD except through major distribution deals or at your own shows.”

The survey found that musicians were overwhelmingly positive about the internet, rather than seeing it as a threat to their livelihood. Almost all of them used the net for ideas and inspiration, with nine out of 10 going online to promote, advertise and post their music on the web.

The survey is the first large-scale snapshot of what the people who actually produce the music that downloaders seek (and that the industry jealously guards) think about the Internet and file-sharing. The Recording Industry Association of America, the trade group for the major music labels, declined to comment on the study.

Download the 61page PDF. report.
‘Artists, Musicians & the Internet’

Related Reading

Study:Musicians Dig the Net [Wired.com]
Musicians ‘Upbeat’ About the Net [BBC News]
Pew File Sharing Survey Gives a Voice to Artists [NYTimes.com-reg. req.]
How do Musicians Feel About File Sharing? [USAToday.com]

Further Reading

The WIRED CD: Rip. Sample. Mash. Share.[CreativeCommons.org]
File-Sharing Getting Bad Rap? [Rolling Stone] April 2004
Download This! Chuck D Interview [CBCNews.ca] March 2004
Grey Album Fans Protest Clampdown [Wired.com]
Killing the Music [CommonDreams.org] Feb. 2004
An Eagle Almost Gets it [A Networked World blog]
Musicians United for Strong Internet Copyright [MusicUnited.net]
RIAA Radar [Magnetbox.com]
Downhill Battle-Music Activism
[DownhillBattle.org]
Feeding the Mouth that Bites [ChrisVreeland.com]
Let the Music Play [EFF.org]
Recording Industry Association of America [Wikipedia.org]
Model & History of File Sharing [InfoAnarchy.org]
Tracking the Downloading Revolution [BigChampagne.com] PDF
Privacy & Piracy: The Paradox of Illegal File Sharing on Peer-to-Peer Networks and the Impact of Technology on the Entertainment Industry [US.Senate Study] 169pg PDF
Rappers in Disharmony on P2P [Wired.com] Oct. 2003
Changing Industry:Moby [Moby.com] Sept. 2003
Moby on File Sharing [Moby.com] Aug. 2003
the Internet Debacle-An Alternative View [JanisIan.com] May 2002
Lars Ulrich’s Death Wish: Metallica v their Fans [Disinfo.com] Oct 2000
Chuck D: Gotta Share the Tunes [Wired.com] Oct 1999
Downloading the Future. The MP3 Revolution & the End of the Industry as We Know It [LAWeekly] March 1999
Negativland and the RIAA
[Negativland.com] 1998

After months of quiet background development and some (mainly) unsubstantiated stories more recently, ex-Napster founder and P2P poster boy Shawn Fanning finally broke the veil of silent mystery surrounding his new P2P start-up Snocap today with the official launch of the company with a press release and the unveiling of the company website which filled in some of the blanks about their proposed plans for the much talked about new venture.

Fanning and major record labels are hoping that the peer-to-peer filtering software that his company have been developing will legitimize the revolution Napster started back in 1999. Snocap claims to be the first music licensing platform that will allow music download services and P2P networks alike to allow any track to be delivered or shared in the knowledge that the copyright holder gets paid. The software works by attaching a digital fingerprint to media that determines whether it can be shared and at what price.

Snocap has developed a proprietary content identification service system using technology licensed from Philips Research Labs which uses audio fingerprinting and scans downloads as they pass through the Snocap system and compares them to music in the company’s database. If there’s a match, the royalty rate is decided and usage rights applied. Philips have been working on the fingerprinting technology for a number of years and it is already in use by mobile music specialist Musiwave and music recognition database Gracenote.

“There are some good authorized online music services but they have limited content and a comparatively small number of users. There are unauthorized services that have content and users orders of magnitude higher, but the service they provide is inferior and they are at odds with rights holders. Snocap is the means to bridge that divide for the consumer.” said Fanning.

The company also confirmed rumours that it has signed a landmark agreement with Universal Music Group to provide technology and database services for the online distribution of the company’s entire catalogue. Universal has already begun to register its catalogue with Snocap. EMI and Sony BMG are reportedly in active negotiations.

Snocap received a $10 million round of financing led by WaldenVC, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm that has a strong focus on digital media companies, and Morgenthaler Ventures, a leading national venture capital firm focused on information technology, internet services and life sciences. According to WaldenVC General Partner Art Berliner, “Snocap represents the future of online music. We are excited to work with Shawn Fanning and his team in greatly expanding the boundaries of the digital media universe.”

The Snocap team is comprised of three of the old coding team from the Napster days, Fanning himself, Ali Ayder and Jordan Mendelson and headed up by venture capitalist veteran Ron Conway, who also invested in the original Napster.

The Snocap system will incorporate its technology into various P2P clients, In order for it to work, peer-to-peer networks must agree to build Snocap’s technology into their software, wether that will include current market leaders like Kazaa, Grokster, eDonkey and Morpheus depends on those companies agreeing to dumping their old ‘revenue model’ of free. So far the first P2P application using Snocap technology is expected to be Mashboxx, with an early 2005 launch date.

‘Rival’ P2P filter Audible Magic CEO Vance Ikezoye told the L.A. Times, “There will be peer-to-peers that are able to make that transition and compete, but technology is not the problem; it’s the business model, how do you convert somebody who’s getting something for free?”

Related Stories

Shawn Fanning’s Snocap Touts Vision of P2P Heaven [the Register]
Napster Founder Goes Legit [MercuryNews.com]
Napster Founder Basks in Funding, Label Support [CNet News]
Shawn Fanning’s New Tune:Snocap [BusinessWeek.com]
Napster Creator Touts Legal File Sharing [Forbes.com]
Napster Creator Reveals Next Step [BBC News]
SNOCAP Melts Barriers to Growth in the Digital Music Marketplace [BusinessWire.com-Official Press Release]
EMI Records Join the Snocap Queue [MusicbizNews24.com]
Napster Founder in Major Label Talks [MusicbizNews24.com]
Paid P2P Options Gain More Traction [MusicbizNews24.com]
Content Identification Audio Fingerprinting Technology [Philips Research]
A Highly Robust Audio Fingerprinting System [Philips Research] 9pg PDF

Napster Background

Napsters Back, What Did Silicon Valley Learn? (Oct 2003)
the Download on Napster (August 2003) [Alwayson-Network.com]
Napster Becomes Dot-goner After Sale Blocked (Sept 2002) [MercuryNews.com]
Napsters CEO Splits on Sour Note (May 2002) [BusinessWeek.com]
Inside Napster (August 2000) [BusinessWeek.com]
It’s a Rad, Rad Napster World [Darkridge.com]
All the Rave : The Rise and Fall of Shawn Fanning’s Napster [JosephMenn.com]

According to the latest digital music research undertaken by analysts at JupiterResearch their latest survey strongly supports two critical JupiterResearch forecasts: subscription services will eventually outpace a la carte downloads and CDs won’t be replaced by digital music in the next five years.

The study, “Consumer Survey Report: Music, 2004“, was based on a survey of over 2,300 online adults, and also compares results with a survey of over 2,100 online teens, ages 13-17 and suggests that by 2009 digital music sales will still represent just 12% of consumer music spending.

The majority of online adults, 51%, think physical music is more valuable than digital. “CDs offer higher sound fidelity, aren’t burdened with awkward copy protection and are compatible with pretty much every way people listen to music,” said JupiterResearch VP and Senior Analyst David Card. “MP3 players and portable rentals could turn around that value perception, but it will take time,” added Card.

“Digital music is a young person’s game,” said Josh Green, Analyst at JupiterResearch. “Forty one percent of 18-24 year-olds burn CDs and 31% use file sharing. For the over 25 crowd, those numbers are only 14% and 4%,” added Green.

A seperate study conducted by the Online Publishers Association in partnership with comScore Networks earlier in the month revealed that online music sales, seriously came into fruition in the beginning of 2004, and pushed the entertainment and lifestyles category of online content up by 78.3% in the first half of 2004 to a grand total of $182.8 million in spending.

It was the first time that the OPA had included online music in its online content measurements. The OPA report also noted that nearly all online content spending in the US is attributable to subscription payment programs, at 90% of sales.

In another report, published a week before the Jupiter study, Simon Dyson, editor of the ‘Music on the Internet’
survey for the Informa Media Group confirmed predictions that it’s going to be a long time before digital music downloads challenge CD sales, even in the online world. The IMG report says that by 2010 global online music sales will exceed $6bn. An impressive number, but still only 15.2 per cent of total spending on music worldwide.

Dyson, told BBC News, 2004 had been an “important” year for the digital music sector. But he warned that converting illegal peer-to-peer file sharers was central to the industry’s long-term success. He added that legal action being taken by record companies against illegal downloaders had so far failed to make an impact. But the IMG report differed from Jupiter in its predictions regarding subscription music services saying that digital downloads would continue to dominate (in terms of the value of sales) against subscription-based services.

Related Research

JupiterResearch Full Press Release [Yahoo Biz]
Subscription Services to Drive Digital Music [CNet News]
Digital Music a Long Way From Displacing CDs [the Register]
Inside Digital Media Interviews [InsideDigitalMedia.com]
TEMPO:Keeping Pace with Digital Music Behavior [Ipsos-Insight.com] PDF
Researching the Digital Music Landscape [Ipsos-Insight.com]
Can Music Move Online Content Mountain? [E-Marketer.com]
Online Publishers Assoc. Online Paid Content US. Market Report Nov.04 [online-Publishers.org] 18pg PDF
CDs Still Overshadow Digital-Music Downloads [NewsFactor.com]
Industry Focus:Music [Forrester Research]
Online Music Report-2004 [IPFI.org] 20pg. PDF
Digital Music Research Network [Queen Mary, University of London]
CDs May Soon go the Way of Vinyl [CNN.com]
CD Prices Sing the Blues [CNet News]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]