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Business News Week In Five
CMU Digest – 19 Oct 2012
By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 19 October 2012
The five biggest stories in the music business this week…
01: Microsoft launched its latest music service, its third attempt to take a slice of the digital music market. Xbox Music replaces the IT giant’s Zune venture, which only ever reached eight territories, and was originally based around the Zune player that was only ever sold in North America. This time the service will be available in 22 markets at launch, will be a key feature in the new Windows operating system, and will include a streaming service as well as a download store. You sense Microsoft top guard are taking it all a bit more seriously this time. The new platform launched on the Xbox network this week, and will arrive on Windows PCs and phones in the coming weeks. An iOS and Android version is expected next year, which is presumably when it will have real potential to take off. CMU report | Guardian report
02: Grooveshark and MegaUpload revealed innovations. The biggest new element of the all new Grooveshark, due to launch on 1 Nov, is monetised artist profiles. Artists can set up their own page on the controversial streaming service’s website, and users will be able to make donations to their favourite artists via the Flattr system. The all-new MegaUpload, to be called simply Mega and revealed to Wired this week, will be another file-transfer and storage platform, but files will automatically encrypt on upload, making it more secure for users and, the Mega owners hope, will remove their liability for any copyright infringing material on their servers. There’s no launch date as yet for the new Mega, or the sister direct-to-fan platform being planned, MegaBox. Mega’s founders, of course, are fighting extradition to the US to face criminal charges over the original shutdown MegaUpload operation. Grooveshark report | MegaUpload report
03: Virgin Live launched with the announcement of four Rolling Stones gigs. Richard Branson’s latest music venture, a partnership with Australia’s Dainty Group, will stage four 50th anniversary shows for the Stones, two in New York and two in London. Tickets for the latter start at £95 plus booking fee, though many tickets will set you back a lot more than that. And tickets for the shows were soon reselling on the auction sites for over £11,000, even though primary ticket sales don’t kick off until today, except for American Express customers. Meanwhile Branson told the Financial Times that while Universal Music had not sold Virgin Records as part of its acquisition of EMI (which at one point we thought they would, and Branson was linked to a bid to buy it), he hoped to work with the mega-major to “reinvigorate” a label that has been “left to languish”. CMU report | FT report
04: AEG’s ticketing platform announced a new seat-reservations-for-friends function, meaning that ticket-buyers can block out seats next to theirs when booking, and then alert friends to that fact via social networks, so that mates separately booking tickets to allocated-seat events can sit next to each other. The new service will be available via AEG’s AXS.com site in the US, initially for certain AEG-owned venues only. Meanwhile, Music Week has reported that AXS.com is soon to launch in the UK. There is already a UK-specific AXS site promoting events at AEG’s The O2 complex, though it currently links through to Ticketmaster to sell tickets. AXS.com is AEG’s attempt to compete with Ticketmaster, now owned by rivals Live Nation. CMU report | AP report
05: It was revealed XL Recordings’ profits were up tenfold because of the success of Adele’s ’21’. The independent label said in its annual accounts for 2011 that the £41.7 million profits last year were exceptional because of that one record. A dividend of £8.5 million was paid out to the label’s two shareholders, founder Richard Russell, and the Beggars Group. The boss of Beggars, Martin Mills, told the New York Times that his company would use its share of the profits “to invest in our future”. CMU report | New York Times report
At CMU this week, we’ve been getting ready for the Association Of Independent Music’s big awards show a the end of the month by interviewing some of the indie label chiefs nominated this year – namely Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde, Alcopop!’s Jack Clothier and Hyberdub’s Marcus Scott. Approved were Mac DeMarco, Joanna Newsom, Holly Herndon and Jon Hillcock’s ‘All Back No Front’ podcast.
