Digital Trends
Microsoft is making more moves to make its Zune line of portable media players attractive to holiday shoppers. In addition to rolling out new application software and dropping prices on flash-based models yesterday, Microsoft has introduced a new Zune Pass subscription plan that not only lets subscribers listen to as much music as they want during a month: they can also permanently keep up to 10 tracks per month, and those tracks will be usable even if a user’s Zune Pass subscription expires.
MySpace Music—the joint venture between the social networking giant and the major record labels—has announced a new partnership with the Independent Online Distribution Alliance (IODA) to add more than a million tracks from independent artists into MySpace Music. IODA’s catalog brings a diverse range of over 50,000 independent and international artists to MySpace Music’s selection, including musicians from more than 50 countries and performers from a variety of respected independent music labels.
At the Midemet music conference this weekend in Cannes, France, a new licensing agency named Merlin representing the independent music sphere launched itself, and announced it had forged an agreement with Sean Fanning’s Snocap to offer music from independent record labels for sale via MySpace and other popular online destinations. The move would put the social networking site—one of the Internet’s most-visited destinations—into direct competition with other online music services like Apple’s iTunes. And, just to make things more interesting, the downloads will be available in straight MP3 format, unencumbered by digital rights management technology, so they’ll work in essentially any media player.
Apple Computer Inc. has struck licensing deals with three of Europe’s largest independent music labels, ending a discord that would have kept many local favorites off the new iTunes Music Store inBritain, France, and Germany.
Apple officials said Wednesday it had reached deals with Sanctuary Records Group, Beggars Group, and V2, and that it now had a standard agreement with the Association of Independent Music, a trade group representing a variety of independent labels.
Now “tens of thousands” of tracks, such as songs from Basement Jaxx, The Crystal Method, and the Pixies, will be added to the online music store’s library of more than 700,000 songs in each country, Apple said.
From Apple’s press release:
Apple today announced that it has signed licensing agreements with three of the largest European independent music labels, Beggars Group, Sanctuary Records Group and V2, adding tens of thousands of additional independent tracks from leading artists to the iTunes Music Store in the UK, France and Germany. With three of the most influential independent record labels on board, iTunes Music Store customers in Europe now have access to an impressive catalog of independent artists including Basement Jaxx, The Crystal Method, Interpol, The Libertines, Morrissey, the Pixies, Prodigy, Stereophonics, Paul Weller and The White Stripes.
From Apple’s press release:
Apple today announced that music fans have purchased and downloaded over 50 million songs from Apple’s iTunes Music Store, not including songs redeemed from the currently-running Pepsi iTunes promotion. The 50 millionth song, purchased last Thursday afternoon, was “The Path of Thorns†by Sarah McLachlan. iTunes users are now downloading 2.5 million songs per week, which is an annual run rate of 130 million songs per year.
“Crossing 50 million songs is a major milestone for iTunes and the emerging digital music era,†said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “With over 50 million songs already downloaded and an additional 2.5 million songs being downloaded every week, it’s increasingly difficult to imagine others ever catching up with iTunes.â€
The iTunes button will immediately launch Apple’s iTunes Music Store, the world’s number one download music service, and automatically select the featured track for preview or one-click purchase anddownload. In addition, AOL members can use their AOL Wallet or card-on-file to conveniently purchase and download songs from iTunes. Starting today, AOL is also offering iTunes Music Store customersthe opportunity to purchase exclusive and original music from its popular music programs Sessions@AOL and Broadband Rocks.
“Now for the first time millions of music fans on AOL, who watch their favorite artists perform in an intimate studio setting on Sessions@AOL, have the option to purchase the song digitally viaiTunes and then download it right to their iPod,” said Evan Harrison, vice president and general manager, AOL Music.
The 25 millionth song, purchased last Friday afternoon, was “Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!†by Frank Sinatra.
Apple also announced that over $1 million of iTunes online gift certificates and allowances have been purchased since the features were added to the iTunes Music Store on October 16, 2003.
“With over 25 million songs purchased and downloaded to date, the iTunes Music Store is hands-down the most successful online music store,†said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Music fans are buying and downloading almost 1.5 million songs per week from the iTunes Music Store, which is a rate of 75 million songs per year.â€
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