President Interrupted By 'Duck Ringtone' During Speech

Obama to the press corps: "Where do you guys get these ringtones by the way?

[via Wonkette]

British music boss: we should have embraced Napster

Geoff Taylor, head of UK major label trade group BPI, wrote an op-ed piece for the BBC today in which he called Napster the "Rosetta Stone of digital music," said it was "simple to understand and use," and said that the music industry should have "embraced Napster rather than fighting it." ars technica reports.

According to Taylor, the world of 1999 wasn't ready for such a deal. "To make music fully and legally available on the internet meant clearing the rights in millions of tracks for a huge number of countries," he said, "agreeing how the revenue should be shared, implementing workable DRM (which everyone considered fundamental at the time), developing technology to track all the downloads for royalty purposes, as well as creating a quality user experience people would pay for."

Napster famously didn't bother about those things, and when it finally did get around to talking to the labels about actually compensating them and their artists for all that music being traded, the industry was insulted by the amounts offered.

Napster wasn't "prepared to pay fair royalties or to partner in a business model that could sustain investment in new music," said Taylor. That's too bad, since otherwise everything would have worked out great and we would now be living in a blanket-licensed digital music paradise.

Read full article.

Sales Are Strong for Michael Jackson’s Music

From Media Decoder:

It is awkward, to say the least, to suggest, as the media critic Michael Wolff did on CNBC Friday, that Michael Jackson’s death “is the ultimate comeback” for the singer.

Awkward, yes, but not necessarily wrong.

Mr. Jackson’s albums are topping the moment-by-moment best-seller charts on Amazon.com and Apple’s iTunes Store.

Amazon.com said Friday that sales of Michael Jackson CDs and MP3s increased 721 times overnight from typical daily sales, Sharon Otterman and Liz Robbins report.

A ringtone version of “Thriller” also ranked among the top ringtones on iTunes.

Verizon To Refund Millions For Unwanted Ring Tones

As part of an agreement with Florida's Attorney General, Verizon and Alltel (now part of Verizon) will have to deliver roughly $30 million in refunds to consumers for ringtones and other services that customers either didn't want or didn't understand they signed up for. According to a statement by Attorney General Bill McCollum, Verizon is also required to adopt new guidelines preventing customers from getting snookered by such promotions in the future.

[via Broadband]

Shazam Now Tweets, Maps Your Music Journeys

The Shazam app for iPhone - that listens to songs playing out loud, telling you its name and artist - has gotten an update and allows you to send electronic postcards to friends, as well as sending tagged songs to Twitter.

You can also view your tags on a map and see your musical journey unfold by location

[via Gizmodo]

ASCAP and Copyright Doublespeak

Just a few days ago, the EFF pointed out that ASCAP is arguing in federal court that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.

Now, reports the EFF in a follow up article:

ASCAP has fired up its spin control machinery and issued a statement to Billboard, including this talking point, doubtless meant to be reassuring:

To be completely clear, ASCAP’s approach has always been to license these businesses – not to charge listeners/end-users.

This is an archetypal example of copyright doublespeak. What ASCAP should be saying is: "It's not infringing when your ringtone goes off in public." That's because the Copyright Act specifically provides in Section 110(4) that public performances "without any purpose of direct or indirect commercial advantage" are "not infringements of copyright."

Instead, ASCAP's statement essentially amounts to "you're all pirates, but don't fret, we'd never sue you for it, just every company that provides you with services."

Read full article.

Damages of $1.9 million could backfire on music industry

The recording industry secured a resounding victory last week when a Minneapolis jury awarded the four major labels $1.92 million in damages after unanimously finding that a 32-year-old mother had willfully infringed on their copyrights by downloading and sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa peer-to-peer network. Reuters reports.

But a question arose after the verdict about whether the sheer size of the damages could lead to a backlash against an industry that is already portrayed in some quarters as overreaching. Sony BMG attorney Wade Leak, who testified at the trial, said he was "shocked" by the damages award.

ASCAP Wants To Be Paid When Your Phone Rings

According to the EFF, ASCAP appears to believe that every time your musical ringtone rings in public, you're violating copyright law by "publicly performing" it without a license.

At least that's the import of a brief it filed in ASCAP's court battle with mobile phone giant AT&T.

This will doubtless come as a shock to the millions of Americans who have legitimately purchased musical ringtones, contributing millions to the music industry's bottom line. Are we each liable for statutory damages (say, $80,000) if we forget to silence our phones in a restaurant?

ASCAP's outlandish claim is part of its battle with major mobile carriers (including Verizon and AT&T) over whether ASCAP is owed any money for "public performances" of the musical ringtones sold by the carriers. The carriers point out that the owners of the musical compositions (i.e., songwriters and music publishers) are already paid for each ringtone download, but ASCAP claims that it's owed another royalty for the "public performances" (i.e., ringing in a restaurant) of those same ringtones.

Read full article.

Music Labels Win $2 Million in Web Case

The Universal Music Group, owned by Vivendi, and other record labels were awarded $1.92 million on Thursday in the retrial of a Minnesota woman accused of swapping music over the Kazaa Internet service. Bloomberg reports.

The federal jury in Minneapolis said the woman, Jammie Thomas-Rasset, 32, of Brainerd, should pay $80,000 for each of the 24 songs that were posted on the site so others could download them.

The first time the case went to trial, in 2007, a jury awarded $9,250 a song, or $222,000.

The Recording Industry Association of America brought more than 35,000 legal actions against people it claimed were illegally sharing music before changing its policy in December. This is the only case that has gone to trial.

Judge Michael J. Davis of United States District Court threw out the first verdict, saying he had given the jury incorrect instructions.

After the verdict, Ms. Thomas-Rasset, a natural resources coordinator for the Mille Lacs Band of the Ojibwe, said she was disappointed that she had not been able to convince the jury that she had not posted the songs. “The only thing I can say is good luck trying to get it, because you can’t get blood out of a turnip.”

“The disproportionate size of the verdict raises constitutional questions,” said Fred von Lohmann, a lawyer with the consumer group Electronic Frontier Foundation, which has criticized the music industry’s tactics.

At the four-day trial, lawyers for Ms. Thomas-Rasset argued that the labels could not prove that she had posted the songs on the Kazaa file-sharing site.

Ringtone sales fall blamed on music downloads

Sales of mobile phone ringtones have collapsed in Australia over the past two years according to a new report from business consultants. News.com.au reports.

According to the latest IBISWorld report, ringtone sales fell by 17.3 per cent in 2008, up from 3 per cent in 2007.

Senior analyst Edward Butler said the poor performance of ringtone sales was likely due to increased sales of digital music.

"The biggest driver is that now people have the capacity to download songs on their phone," he said.

"With the release of the iPhone and things like BigPond having whole libraries of songs that you can download and the capacity to manipulate those songs and turn them into ringtones, there’s much less motivation to download a thirty second grab of the song."

Mr Butler also believes there has been a backlash against ringtone providers.

Sites like iTunes, Bigpond and Amazon that have downloads of MP3s available are seen as more reputable and safer."

Sales of mobile master ringtones hit a high in 2006, with 10 million ringtones sold – up from 3.7 million in 2005.

Research Labs intros Ringer 1.0 iPhone ringtones software

Pixel Research Labs has introduced Ringer 1.0, a new iPhone ringtone creation and editing tool for Mac OS X.

Users can choose any non-protected file from their iTunes library or any media file on their system that can be opened by QuickTime - MP3, AAC, MOV, MP4, M4V - and turn it into a ringtone.

[via MacWorld]

Universal Music and Virgin Reach a Download Deal

The Universal Music Group and Virgin Media said on Monday that they had reached a deal that would offer consumers unlimited downloads as part of a partnership that steps up antipiracy enforcement. The New York Times reports.

Universal, the largest recording company in the world, said it would offer its entire catalog — which contains works by artists like Amy Winehouse and U2 — to customers of Virgin Media for a monthly subscription.

The music will be free from copy protection, a feature that distinguishes the service from most existing subscription offerings. The cost of the service, which will probably start by the end of the year, was not disclosed.

In return, Virgin Media, the British cable television and broadband provider, agreed to take steps to reduce piracy on its network, something that other broadband providers have resisted.

The measures could include temporary suspensions of offenders’ Internet connections, the company said.

SingTel launches music service for mobile phones

SingTel, Southeast Asia's largest telco, on Sunday launched in Singapore a service that lets mobile subscribers download music files and videos which it hopes to introduce to other parts of Asia.

Developed with Universal Music, SingTel hopes the web-based facility, called AMPed, will help it attract new customers as well as get existing subscribers to upgrade service plans.

[via Reuters]

Universal Music contracts Tapulous for iPhone games

Universal Music has contracted Tapulous to develop iPhone apps based on the label's most popular groups or artists, according to mocoNews via Macnn.

The game developer, known for such titles as Tap Tap Revenge, has already produced a number of apps featuring bands such as Dave Matthews, Coldplay, Nine Inch Nails, Weezer, Rise Against and Lady Gaga.

Tapulous CEO Bart Decrem claims the Universal negotiations involve roughly a half dozen new apps, including titles for Eminem and Black Eyed Peas.

Relateld: - Record labels eye mobile music games

Palm Pre's Zen ringtones

During the 15-month gestation of Palm's new cellphone, the Pre, the company's designers and engineers drew inspiration from Japanese Zen gardens and grassy fields. Forbes reports.

The nature theme extended to the phone's audio sounds as well. Palm commissioned a new set of ringtones and alerts for the phone.

... When recording the audio's base notes, the company opted for actual musicians playing simple instruments like Tibetan bells over synthetic gizmos that generate "electronic blips and bloops," says Matias Duarte, Palm's vice president of human interface and user experience.

"We wanted to have tones that would be part of the Pre's aesthetic whole," Duarte says. "The phone's hardware, software and audio experience needed to be coherent."

Bing Tones

To further publicize Microsoft's Bing search engine, the company is offering branded ringtones for your cell phone called, you got it, BingTones.

[via MalekTips]

Judge Sotomayor-themed ringtones

The mobile music site mSpot has come up with the perfect playlist in honor of Sonia Sotomayor’s appointment to the Supreme Court.

mSpot says, "the beauty of these ringtones is that mSpot.com allows you to edit up to 30 seconds of your favorite law-abiding tone – you don’t have to download what the carrier pre-selected."

[Politico.com via Infrastructure]

Please Hold

Please Hold is an app with a sense of humour - It lets you play some of the most common on-hold music.

Next time when you are enjoying a conversation with your friend and have to put them on hold. Open up Please Hold and play on of the on-hold song to let them know that you are still there but not really.

mSpot Reaches 6 Million Mobile Users

Mobile music and entertainment provider mSpot said its downloadable content now reaches 6 million cell phone subscribers, up threefold from July 2008. [via Mediapost]

The Palo Alto-based company has struck partnerships with wireless operators including AT&T, Verizon Wireless and US Cellular to offer its Make-UR-Tones custom ringtone service with music EMI Music, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group.

Started in 2004, mSpot reports over 1 million downloads of the Make-UR-Tones app and 3.5 million users of its Movies on Demand service. The company also has mobile radio deals with AT&T, Verizon and Sprint Nextel, among others.

Beatles come together for premier of Video Game

The karaoke-style game lets users use adapted game controllers - lead guitar, base guitar and drums - to play along to various songs. The BBC reports.

Both Ringo Starr and Paul McCartney were at the event - along with Yoko Ono and George Harrison's widow, Olivia.

The game marks the first time any Beatles music has been licensed to a third party.

The game, which goes on sale on 9 September, will feature 45 songs, along with a bonus track - All You Need is Love - which can be bought online via Xbox Live.

Microsoft says all proceeds from the sale of the bonus song will go to Doctors Without Borders, the US branch of the charity Medecins San Frontieres (MSF).

AT&T offers a free Dave Matthews Band song

For fans excited about the upcoming Dave Matthews Band concerts at Fenway Park, AT&T is offering a bonus: A chance to get a free download of a song today from the new album that the band is set to release next week. The Boston Globe reports.

The album - "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" - is set for a Tuesday release, but starting today and for a limited time, AT&T wireless customers can get a free mobile MP3 download of one of the album's songs, an AT&T spokeswoman said in an e-mail.

AT&T is working with Napster Mobile on the promotion, she added.