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Outrage! Michael Arrington has branded Britons as ‘..having all the crazy-stupid ideas about how to screw up the music industry’. Surely not sir? You are a cad of the first order sir and I challenge you to a duel. Pistols at dawn. Outside right now, the honor of the British nation is at stake.

So what has caused this great champion of capitalism to insult the very soul of Britishness? Apparently Billy Bragg (you remember him, the socialist musician with a face like a bloodhound at a funeral whose extensive back catalogue includes such musical classics as ‘Tank Park Salute’, ‘Sulk’ and ‘There Is Power In A Union’) has said that Bebo should share some of its buy-out windfall with the musicians who have posted their music to the site.

“The musicians who posted their work on Bebo.com are no different from investors in a start-up enterprise…Now that the business has reaped huge benefits, surely they deserve a dividend.”

photo credit: p_c_w

He also argues that the social networking sites are adding to the declining sales in the music industry by encouraging free streaming and downloading.

Predictably, MA has come down on the side of the capitalists, leveling that Billy is talking a load of old bollocks (I paraphrased a little here). MA’s counters Social networks have absolutely nothing to do with the decline in music sales. The fact that recorded music can be reproduced at a zero marginal cost is why music sales are declining.

He goes on to say that Recorded music is nothing but marketing material to drive awareness of an artist.

Gentlemen, sometimes it is better to keep ones’ mouth shut and have everyone suspect that you are a fool rather than open it and show everyone you are. Certainly damning the entire British nation on the strength of the words from a single demi-musician seems a tad harsh.
Until dawn then Michael.

Tags: Bebo

According to British press reports, Sir Paul McCartney has sanctioned the release of the Beatles‘ back catalogue on iTunes in a deal that is expected to bring in £200million (around $400million). With albums such as the White Album, Help! and Sergeant Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the catalogue is by far the biggest prize released for on the Internet and will surely dominate the download charts for some years.

The deal must have been a nightmare to pull together with rights to the catalogue owned across the surviving Beatles Sir Paul and Ringo Starr, the families of John Lennon and George Harrison, and through deals done in the past, EMI, Sony and Michael Jackson. A dispute between Apple and the Beatles‘ original record label EMI over royalty payments was settled last year, paving the way for a download deal.

Good news for Sir Paul who is enduring the final throws of an expensive and acrimonious divorce with Heather Mills. Good news for Heather Mills  who will no doubt want to factor in future earnings somewhere in the settlement. Good news for MJ who is reportedly cash strapped. And finally good news for Apple who will no doubt see this as a further consolidation of the iTunes store as the webs premiere download facility.

Tags: Apple, Beatles, EMI, Sony

Reuters are reporting that Warner Music has signed a deal with digital media site 7digital.com to provide its catalogue in the MP3 format, which can be played on nearly all music devices.

Warner Music International, a division of Warner Music Group said its catalogue — with hits from James Blunt and the Red Hot Chili Peppers — would be available to 7digital.com customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany. The site is the first major European download store to offer Warner’s tracks in the DRM-free MP3 format — 7digital offers EMI’s catalogue in the MP3 format and aims to sign more labels soon.

Founded in 2003, 7 Digital’s singles service distributes singles to over 200 partner sites such as AOL, MSN, Yahoo, and NME. 7 Digital is established in the music industry by providing the download capability for all the major record labels and over 200 independents. In addition, 7 Digital helps artists such as Gorillaz and Coldplay make downloads available directly from their own websites.

Investors: Balderton Capital, Sutton Place Managers

Tags: 7Digital, AOL, Balderton Capital, MSN, NME, Sutton Place Managers, Warner Music International, Yahoo

The video-on-demand portal audiotube Ltd., has announced that it has acquired hip hop and rap online community Big Music Board.

Big Music Board caters to music enthusiasts who are interested in urban hip hop and rap music. It is home to the monthly ‘RapAttack’ competition where members showcase their lyrical talents by submitting their own raps and lyrics for judging by the community of users. This gives members the opportunity to show off their rapping prowess to the online world and the chance to win the latest in music technology and gadgets.

The acquisition significantly expands audiotube’s online reach by capitalizing on Big Music Board’s search engine ranking and traffic. It will also fuel the growth of the audiotube network by linking the communities. Big Music Board will be integrated into audiotube’s next generation social-networking platform, which is currently under development.

“In the Web 2.0 world, rich media and community go hand in hand, and audiotube is constantly striving for convergence of the two. The acquisition of Big Music Board will bring thousands of music enthusiasts to the audiotube music video-on-demand network where they can communicate their passion — Music,” said Scott DeMercado, CEO audiotube.

Original Story

Tags: AudioTube, Big Music Board

EMI has licensed Jamba to provide what the News Corp. and Verisign-owned mobile entertainment JV says is the label’s first DRM-free repertoire in Europe to cross both mobile and the PC, we’ve learned. Though tracks may not appear online for another couple of months, the deal was signed off late today. EMI is giving access to the copyright protection-free catalog it introduced almost a year ago now. Jamba Music will give customers MP3 files to the PC and the smaller, compressed AAC+ files to the mobile handset. Prices are not yet known.

Jamba Music is a music rental and purchase store, offered over both the desktop web and mobile, with synchronization of the music archive carried out over a data cable, Bluetooth or the net. It currently operates in Jamba’s native Germany though the outfit is keen to grow it through white-label deals with ISPs and in other countries this year. Previously, Jamba Music’s major-label repertoire had come in WMA format for PC but still AAC+ for mobile. Though Jamba claimed this deal is a European PC-and-mobile first for EMI, if you stretch it, you could say the iPhone/iTunes Store combination already offers DRM-free PC/mobile tunes.

Just as the labels have begun experimenting with DRM-free more generally, that notion is on some music industry lips in Barcelona. RealNetworks SVP Larry Moores told a session on the topic earlier today: “We’ve taken the dream and turned it in to a nightmare through DRM. Consumers expect their music to play everywhere. We’ll be offering DRM-free in some of our services this summer.” HP’s content, media and entertainment VP and CTO Brian Levy acknowledged DRM had posed serious problems but maintained artists had the right to earn money from protecting their wares.

Original Story

Tags: EMI, Jamba, News corp, Verisign