Apple to credit song purchases towards full album sales?

Apparently, Apple is finally working out a new type of deal with the major labels to allow for the purchase of single songs on iTunes to act as “credit” towards the purchase of the full album - at least within a limited time frame of the original download. This type of deal has been rumored before in the past, but the news comes from the New York Times, citing "people involved in the negotiations.” Still not sure what kind of time period Apple has in mind or how many labels it has on board, but this makes a lot of sense to me!
[Via Ars Technica]

EMI Moves Into Online Video?

Gotuit is among scores of new sites that are being compared to YouTube - the big difference is that it serves up mainstream music videos, news and sports, and does not include any user-generated content. They also don’t allow external embedding on sites like MySpace, hi5, Friendster and blogs. Gotuit is supported by 15 second ads between clips, and no doubt EMI is getting a good cut of that revenue. They have some social features too, like sharing a link via email and creating a list of favorites, but in reality the social aspect is much less apparent than on the YouTube contenders - Metacafe, iFilm and the rest. Copyright holders probably love the fact that Gotuit is so locked down, but for the users, it’s not such a good deal.

What’s not clear is whether this rules out a deal with YouTube - could EMI partner with both video sites, or have they already made their move into online video?

Here’s the press release.

Questionable Statistics For mp3 Players & Mac Marketshare

While a bit long, both of these articles are well written and make some pretty valid points.

MARKET SHARE MYTHS:

Market Share vs Installed Base: iPod vs Zune

Market Share Myth 2007: iPod vs Zune and Mac vs PC

Sony Introduces New Online Mastering Services

Sony Music Studios recently announced a new audio mastering service that is only available online. Any audio track that you upload is quickly mastered by award winning Sony engineers and returned digitally in 2 business days for only $99 a song; physical deliverables are also available for an additional cost.. (According to the website, the service is still in beta...)

It seems to me that they're trying to tap into the exploding social networking market because their FAQ section states, "SIM is designed to be a smooth, efficient, and affordable service for any artist using online services like MySpace or PureVolume" and as a result - only allows 4 songs per project...

IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2007

RESOURCES - IFPI publishes Digital Music Report 2007

Digital sales now account for around 10% of the music market as record companies experiment and innovate with an array of business models and digital music products, involving hundreds of licensing partners.

SUMMARY:

- Digital music sales estimated to double to around US $2 billion in 2006
- Single track downloads estimated up 89% at 795 million
- Available tracks double to four million, via 500 online services in over 40 countries worldwide
- Portable music players help drive digital music consumption
- New revenue streams and business models emerge
- Lawsuits impact illegal file-sharing, but "gatekeeper" ISPs must act to curb digital piracy

Favorite Quote of The Week

...In the digital realm, the differences between performances and distributions,downloads and streams, push and pull, they all begin to blur into one immutable fact: The digits that constitute a phonorecord have been transmitted from one point to another. Period.

What differences exist -- intentions and results-oriented, after-the-fact analyses of whether or not the content was buffered along the way, how many times, and for what reasons -- are not easily measured or monitored for purposes of public policy. The digital delivery of art is inherently anarchistic, and itis hard to argue for or against any one hand reaching into the pool for compensation...."

Jim Griffin - Pho List