MAY 2007
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MUSIC - BILLBOARDKEEPING IT IN THE HOUSE: Canada's Indie Distributors Get Labels Of Their Own by Larry Leblanc, Billboard 31may07 -- Canada's leading independent distributors are attempting to increase their retail batting averages by stepping up to the plate with their own new labels.Recent arrivals have included Toronto-based Koch Entertainment Canada's imprint Koch Records (rock, country and urban music); Hamilton, Ontario-based Sonic Distribution's joint venture with EMI Canada, Labwork Music (alternative); and Montreal-based Distribution Fusion III's Secret City Records (roots/alternative). Simultaneously, other distributors have significantly stepped up A&R at existing in-house labels.According to Nielsen SoundScan, independently distributed labels have jointly accounted for 19.1% of Canada's retail sales so far in 2007, ahead of every major except Universal (37.5%).The indie distributors say they are preparing the ground for their future digital businesses, where Fusion III president Jim West predicts they will be involved as "record label, in management, publishing-everything."West's son Justin now heads Secret City Records, home to alternative rock band Patrick Watson and alternative rock/pop act Miracle Fortress. Fusion III has also operated jazz label Justin Time since 1983."Part of the future is having the ability to control copyrights," Toronto-based Outside Music president Lloyd Nishimura says. "Our label has become a real priority for us." Launched in 2002, the Outside Records label roster includes roots-styled acts the Sadies and Oh Susanna.The 2006-launched Koch Records label's releases to date include albums by Jeff Martin, fiddler Natalie MacMaster and rock act Brandon Paris Band."We used to push artists [toward] labels we were distributing," Koch Entertainment Canada president Dominique Zgarka says, "but realized we were doing all of the work. We decided to keep things under one roof."Despite the added competition for signings, Canadian indies seem largely sanguine about the distributors' moves. "They're just protecting their rear ends," Toronto-based True North Records president Bernie Finkelstein says. "In five years, acts might not need a distributor if the business is all digital."Sonic co-owner Tim Potocic says adding Labwork to its wholly owned labels Sonic Unyon Records and Goodfella will mean 20 album releases in 2007, its highest in-house total yet. "There's lot of opportunities around," he says.Those opportunities have partly risen through Canada's majors reducing domestic signings in recent years. Universal Music Canada's most recent direct domestic signing was 18 months ago, although senior VP of A&R Allan Reid says the company is increasingly inking licensing deals as "more artists are coming forward with finished masters, seeking to retain master ownership."Warner Music Canada VP of A&R Steve Blair confirms the domestic roster shrinkage. "When I started here nine years ago," he says, "we had 22 [Canadian] bands. Now we have 12."Independents have also been affected by changes in the administration of Department of Canadian Heritage funding for new recordings.In 2006, those changes saw larger independents like Nettwerk Productions, True North and MapleCore switch from funding under the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records scheme to another program, the Music Entrepreneurial Component.FACTOR's annual $12.9 million Canadian ($11.65 million) budget provides loans/grants for individual recordings, regardless of that project's success.However, MEC's $8.5 million Canadian ($7.7 million) budget goes directly to labels annually as loans/grants to cover overall operating costs. Importantly, it employs a sales target-based formula-and missing targets can mean reduced or revoked funding."I have signed less acts [with] MEC than if I was in FACTOR," Vancouver-based Nettwerk president Ric Arboit says. "Before I could take a chance on an act. Now, I have to know it's going to be a winner."However, some insist the MEC system has benefits. "What's the point of companies signing more acts," Finkelstein says, "if their infrastructure is weak and they can't produce results?"MEC leaves it to me to decide how I spend my money-providing I get results."
BOOKS - BOOK SUMMIT 2007 in NYC. will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St, New York City. See http://www.BookSummit.com
BOOKS - FRANKFURT INTERNATIONAL BOOKFAIR - This is the largest book fair in the world, see: http://pma-online.org/exhibits.cfm
MUSIC - EMI bought out - article by C.Kowaliski of Tech Report, May 23, 2007 -- Just over a month and a half after announcing plans to make its music catalog available online free of digital rights management protection, EMI has agreed to a takeover by a private equity firm. As PC World reports, the lucky buyer is a company called Terra Firma, which will pocket the British record label for £3.2 billion ($6.36 billion). Neither Terra Firma nor EMI have expressed what the buyout means in terms of EMI's DRM-free commitments, but this is better news than it sounds: the Warner Music Group was one of the bidders hoping to acquire EMI, and Warner is known for its strong pro-DRM stance. EMI's portfolio includes music from artists like The Beach Boys, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, Janet Jackson, Pink Floyd, Queen, Robbie Williams, and The Rolling Stones, and that music is now likelier to stay DRM-free. If EMI doesn't change its mind, analysts believe other major labels—including Warner—will attempt to ditch DRM, as well. In fact, Apple is presumed to be negotiating DRM-free agreements with other labels as we speak. Such agreements would fit in with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' statement back in April that he expected half the music on the iTunes Store to be DRM-free by the end of the year.
BOOKS - BookExpo Canada -- The BookExpo Canada trade show is coming to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 10 and 11.
MUSIC - Amazon to sell digital music (AP) May 17, 2007 -- AMAZON.com will launch a digital music store later in 2007 with millions of songs, free of copy protection technology that limits where consumers can play their music. The Seattle-based company said music company EMI Group Plc, home to artists ranging from Coldplay to Norah Jones to Joss Stone to Pink Floyd, has licensed its digital catalog to Amazon, the second such deal in a month. Amazon, the world's top online retailer of music on compact discs, is poised to move into the online download market now dominated by Apple Inc's iTunes store. With all music companies struggling from a drop in the sale of physical albums, EMI had announced its first deal with Apple and the iTunes online music store in April. Also today, EMI announced similar deals with VirginMega in France and with various online retailers across Scandinavia. "Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said in a statement. Digital Rights Management, or DRM, has been demanded by the music industry to rein in piracy by preventing users from making multiple copies; but its critics say it restricts consumers and therefore hinders the growth of legal music uses. Earlier this year, Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, called on the world's four major record companies, including EMI, to start selling songs online without DRM copy-protection software. He said he saw no benefit for the record companies in selling more than 90 percent of their music without DRM on compact discs, while selling the remaining small percentage of music online encumbered with DRM. Last month, EMI said it would make its music available online without anti-piracy measures, becoming the first major music group to take the risk in a bid to grow digital sales. Warner Music Group Corp has said it sees no logic to dropping DRM but is still testing music without it, while Vivendi's Universal Music has said it, too, is still testing tracks without DRM.
Amazon said its music store will include 12,000 music labels but the retailer is only disclosing the partnership with EMI initially. The company declined to comment on whether other major music labels would be participating in the store. "We anticipate that there will be more (labels) by the time we launch," Bill Carr, Amazon.com's vice president of digital media, said in a phone interview. Amazon's copy-protection-free MP3s will allow customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices including Apple's iPod music players and Microsoft Corp's Zune music players. ITunes said its deal with EMI would charge a higher price than US$0.99 ($A1.18), the standard price of a copy-protected song on iTunes. Copy-protection-free music will cost $US1.29 ($A1.55), 1.29 euros or 99 pence for every track of EMI's catalogue available online in a higher-quality format without DRM, it had said. Carr declined to comment on whether Amazon planned to charge a similar premium for copy protection-free versions of songs, saying that pricing per song or per album is yet to be determined. Amazon declined to name a specific launch date, but when asked whether the store would be in operation ahead of the year-end shopping season. "It is reasonable to assume that that would be true," Carr said. EMI's deal with Amazon covers its entire digital catalog. The highest-profile exception is The Beatles, which traditionally refused to allow online sales by EMI, the band's long-time distributor. On Monday, EMI said it had agreed with Paul McCartney to release his entire solo catalog in both digital and physical formats.
BOOKS - DOES YOUR BOOK COVER SELL YOUR BOOK IN 3 SECONDS? by Kathi Dunn -- Recently, a well-known literary agent said about his agency's "3-SecondRule" which they use in evaluating any book submission. If the book'scover doesn't grab them in 3 seconds they pass on it. Only 3 seconds! Bookstore browsers spend an average of 8 seconds looking at the frontcover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before deciding whether tobuy your book. If your book cover doesn't instantly hook their interestand eyeballs S and then convey the right message about you - your chanceto make a sale is gone. And you don't just lose the sale. You lose a potential long-term, highly profitable customer. Most authors, experts and consultants use their books as the introductory product in a funnel of increasingly expensive products and services. When prospects don't buy your book, you lose the $19.95 sale - and the thousands of dollars they could have spent on your audio programs, seminars, and coaching/consultingservices. PROMOTE YOUR BOOK BY COMMENTING ON BLOGS by Patrice-Anne Rutledge -- Even if you don't have a blog yourself (yet), you can still generate publicity for your books in the blogging community. To do so, find several high-traffic blogs that serve your target audience and add interesting and insightful comments to current postings. To generate results from thistechnique, you have to do more than just say "nice post." You need tooffer some additional information of real value, provide your ownmeaningful insight into the topic, or provide an alternative view togenerate some excitement.You can state that you're the author of a related book and include a linkback to your site, but avoid direct promotion. In other words, don'tparticipate in comment spam. You want to use your comment to provideuseful information and illustrate your background as an expert and author.The right combination of blog, post, and comment will send a stream ofinterested traffic to your site. Source: Publishing Poynters Newsletter: May 15, 2007
MUSIC - New album marketing concept/Nouveau concept marketing -- projet de Sylvain Cossette: 70's - Participez au concours Choisissez le premier exttrait de l'album 70's, cliquez ici
MUSIC - The International Music Managers Forum is an international not-for-profit association that was founded in 1992 in the U.K. Its formation was intended to give managers an opportunity to discuss, educate each other and create a much-needed voice within the industry. Inspired by the UK example, the MMF Canada was launched as an ad-hoc organization in 1994, and was federally incorporated as a not-for-profit association in 2000. To date there are fourteen affiliated countries that have joined the MMF family. The International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), the umbrella organization overseeing all individual MMF affiliates, holds council meetings three times a year at MIDEM, SXSW and Popkomm. The president of the each affiliated MMF branch sits on the IMMF international council.
COPYRIGHT & INTERNET - Web sites ramp up piracy protection: 'Fingerprint' technology is latest weapon in online video copyright battle by Kevin J. Delaney, Wall Street Journal May01, 2007 -- Can "fingerprinting" bring a truce to the Web's video-copyright wars?The technology is based on the premise that any video content has unique attributes that allow it to be identified even from a short clip -- just as a human fingerprint identifies a person. Proponents of fingerprinting technology say it can help spot TV shows and films that are posted on video-sharing sites such as Google Inc.'s YouTube without their owners' permission, so the sites can remove them or share advertising revenue.That's a significant development amid copyright battles between media and technology companies, including Viacom Inc.'s $1 billion suit against Google filed in March. But a series of legal, technical and financial issues remain to be solved even as video sites including Google, News Corp.'s MySpace Video and Microsoft Corp.'s Soapbox, amid pressure from media companies, are testing fingerprinting or putting it in place.Google's YouTube every day takes in hundreds of thousands of video clips, from amateur pet videos to clips of commercial movies and TV shows, that are uploaded by consumers.The company has struck deals with some copyright holders, such as the United Kingdom's British Broadcasting Corp., to run their videos and share some ad revenue. And it says it will remove any content that is posted without the copyright holders' permission when it receives specific complaints. But Google has said it needs media companies' involvement because on its own it can't distinguish between video that the copyright holders want posted and material posted without the owners' permission.That's because Google doesn't know if the user uploading the video truly holds the copyright to a work or if the description the individual provides of the material is accurate. Some consumers, for example, spell the names of TV shows backward in the titles of pirated clips they upload in order to thwart detection by media companies.Fingerprinting technology, by analyzing the audio or video tracks of a clip, could alert YouTube to the presence of material that a media company has registered as its own -- regardless of who uploads it or what they title the clip.General Electric Co.'s NBC-Universal says it plans to participate in a test of fingerprinting on YouTube that it expects to start shortly. Technical staffs from the two companies are working together and they hope to have results by this summer, according to NBC.People familiar with the matter say that Google is using fingerprinting technology from closely held Audible Magic Corp. of Los Gatos, Calif., as it separately pursues an internal effort to build its own. NBC was chosen for a Google test, which NBC expects to take place from April through June, partly because it understands the difficulties of such technology, according to one person familiar with the matter.A YouTube spokeswoman said it looked forward to working with a variety of content owners on "content management technology," but declined to comment on the specifics of any tests, timing or technology being used. YouTube announced last fall it planned to introduce content-identification technology by the end of 2006 as part of partnerships with CBS Corp. and others. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt later said fingerprinting technology was an answer to copyright concerns, but that it was difficult, which prompted some media companies to complain Google was dragging its heels.NBC has been agitating for Google to move faster to put a fingerprinting system in place, contending in recent months that the Internet giant hasn't made battling piracy a priority. Now that Google is starting a test, the media company has for the moment tabled any plans to join Viacom in pursuing legal options. "We see progress," said NBC General Counsel Rick Cotton in an interview. CBS says it is also having "constructive conversations" with YouTube about fingerprinting.Cotton and other media executives believe the fingerprinting pendulum has started to swing in their direction. In particular, they cite the piracy-protection component of a new NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture to distribute TV shows and movies on the Web. In return for allowing viewers to watch their programming on Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Microsoft, MySpace and Yahoo, the two big media companies got the Internet firms to agree to proactively screen for pirated video. "That removes entirely the notion that this is so technically difficult that it can't be done on a large scale," says Cotton.AOL says it isn't using fingerprinting technology, but is willing to do so once a standard emerges. Yahoo isn't currently, and declined to comment on any future plans.At the same time, some media executives say Google's plans don't go far enough, because Google has said it won't use fingerprinting to block clips from being placed on the site, something known as "filtering." Instead, Google is expected to use fingerprinting to flag pirated clips to the content owners, which then have to request they be removed. "It sounds like some kind of crazy lost and found," a senior executive at one of the big media companies says. "It's not going to be enough," says another.Lawyers for the media companies say that Google finds itself in a conundrum: It wants to appease the content owners it views as important partners for YouTube but is concerned that filtering might increase its liability for copyright infringement claims. The YouTube spokeswoman said, "The law is clear, copyright owners have the responsibility to identify infringing material they want removed," adding that YouTube will continue to exceed its own responsibilities under the law while letting people upload video easily and quickly to the site.Video-sharing sites such as YouTube say they are protected from liability for copyright claims under "safe harbor" provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. But, under the DMCA, sites that have "actual knowledge" or control of infringing content can lose such protections. "What these filters do is potentially create more knowledge, more awareness of what's going on," says Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual-property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "There is some residual risk that you could lose the safe-harbor protections if you have too much of that kind of knowledge."von Lohmann said Google's expected approach of flagging content for owners to review and request removal is a plausible middle ground. Some fingerprinting companies such as Audible Magic say their role as an independent third party could also resolve sites' concerns about having knowledge of piracy that could endanger their protection from liability. Microsoft, for one, says it is using fingerprinting technology from Audible Magic to proactively block clips from being posted to its Soapbox video-sharing site without permission and also providing content owners with tools to request removal of clips that slip through.With Audible Magic's system, media companies provide copies of their music, TV shows and films that it analyzes, adding their fingerprints to a central database. Video-sharing sites can use Audible Magic software to extract fingerprints for clips that users upload, and then look in Audible Magic's database for a match. Other fingerprinting systems work similarly.Some sites have raised questions about the efficacy of current filtering technology, particularly when it's used on a mass scale and applied to the clips of varying length and quality users upload. A person familiar with the expected NBC-Google test says the Audible-Magic-based technology being used is imperfect and could frustrate media companies when clips slip through.The Motion Picture Association of America, a proponent of fingerprinting, has been testing technology from 12 organizations. "One of the things we've been impressed with is it actually works," says Dean Garfield, chief strategic officer at the MPAA, the Hollywood lobbying group.Audible Magic Chief Executive Vance Ikezoye says his company's fingerprinting technology, whose users include MySpace Video, Sony Corp.'s Grouper, Break.com and GoFish Corp., is more than 99 percent accurate when it's used to examine a clip where the image and audio quality aren't degraded.Audible Magic's fingerprinting, originally designed for use with music, looks primarily at the audio tracks and requires a TV or film clip to be about 20 to 30 seconds long at minimum to reliably analyze it. The company says it is testing technology that also examines the video component of the clips.Audible Magic charges sites a monthly fee for its service, which it says can add up to about $1 million annually in some cases. But it and other fingerprinting companies say the business models for their services aren't totally worked out.Yangbin Wang, chief executive of Vobile Inc., a closely held Santa Clara, Calif., video-fingerprinting start-up, says the video-sharing sites that pay to use the technology aren't always motivated to fork over premium fees for the best services. Wang believes the issue could be resolved when fingerprinting is used as part of licensing pacts where video sites and content owners share ad revenue on clips they identify.Even fingerprinting proponents, however, acknowledge it's not a silver bullet to media companies' copyright headaches. For starters, users could find pirated videos on sites without it."I suspect people will try to find -- and will find -- a workaround," says the MPAA's Garfield.
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MUSIC - BILLBOARDKEEPING IT IN THE HOUSE: Canada's Indie Distributors Get Labels Of Their Own by Larry Leblanc, Billboard 31may07 -- Canada's leading independent distributors are attempting to increase their retail batting averages by stepping up to the plate with their own new labels.Recent arrivals have included Toronto-based Koch Entertainment Canada's imprint Koch Records (rock, country and urban music); Hamilton, Ontario-based Sonic Distribution's joint venture with EMI Canada, Labwork Music (alternative); and Montreal-based Distribution Fusion III's Secret City Records (roots/alternative). Simultaneously, other distributors have significantly stepped up A&R at existing in-house labels.According to Nielsen SoundScan, independently distributed labels have jointly accounted for 19.1% of Canada's retail sales so far in 2007, ahead of every major except Universal (37.5%).The indie distributors say they are preparing the ground for their future digital businesses, where Fusion III president Jim West predicts they will be involved as "record label, in management, publishing-everything."West's son Justin now heads Secret City Records, home to alternative rock band Patrick Watson and alternative rock/pop act Miracle Fortress. Fusion III has also operated jazz label Justin Time since 1983."Part of the future is having the ability to control copyrights," Toronto-based Outside Music president Lloyd Nishimura says. "Our label has become a real priority for us." Launched in 2002, the Outside Records label roster includes roots-styled acts the Sadies and Oh Susanna.The 2006-launched Koch Records label's releases to date include albums by Jeff Martin, fiddler Natalie MacMaster and rock act Brandon Paris Band."We used to push artists [toward] labels we were distributing," Koch Entertainment Canada president Dominique Zgarka says, "but realized we were doing all of the work. We decided to keep things under one roof."Despite the added competition for signings, Canadian indies seem largely sanguine about the distributors' moves. "They're just protecting their rear ends," Toronto-based True North Records president Bernie Finkelstein says. "In five years, acts might not need a distributor if the business is all digital."Sonic co-owner Tim Potocic says adding Labwork to its wholly owned labels Sonic Unyon Records and Goodfella will mean 20 album releases in 2007, its highest in-house total yet. "There's lot of opportunities around," he says.Those opportunities have partly risen through Canada's majors reducing domestic signings in recent years. Universal Music Canada's most recent direct domestic signing was 18 months ago, although senior VP of A&R Allan Reid says the company is increasingly inking licensing deals as "more artists are coming forward with finished masters, seeking to retain master ownership."Warner Music Canada VP of A&R Steve Blair confirms the domestic roster shrinkage. "When I started here nine years ago," he says, "we had 22 [Canadian] bands. Now we have 12."Independents have also been affected by changes in the administration of Department of Canadian Heritage funding for new recordings.In 2006, those changes saw larger independents like Nettwerk Productions, True North and MapleCore switch from funding under the Foundation to Assist Canadian Talent on Records scheme to another program, the Music Entrepreneurial Component.FACTOR's annual $12.9 million Canadian ($11.65 million) budget provides loans/grants for individual recordings, regardless of that project's success.However, MEC's $8.5 million Canadian ($7.7 million) budget goes directly to labels annually as loans/grants to cover overall operating costs. Importantly, it employs a sales target-based formula-and missing targets can mean reduced or revoked funding."I have signed less acts [with] MEC than if I was in FACTOR," Vancouver-based Nettwerk president Ric Arboit says. "Before I could take a chance on an act. Now, I have to know it's going to be a winner."However, some insist the MEC system has benefits. "What's the point of companies signing more acts," Finkelstein says, "if their infrastructure is weak and they can't produce results?"MEC leaves it to me to decide how I spend my money-providing I get results."
BOOKS - BOOK SUMMIT 2007 in NYC. will be held on Wednesday, September 26, 2007, at the Small Press Center, 20 W. 44th St, New York City. See http://www.BookSummit.com
BOOKS - FRANKFURT INTERNATIONAL BOOKFAIR - This is the largest book fair in the world, see: http://pma-online.org/exhibits.cfm
MUSIC - EMI bought out - article by C.Kowaliski of Tech Report, May 23, 2007 -- Just over a month and a half after announcing plans to make its music catalog available online free of digital rights management protection, EMI has agreed to a takeover by a private equity firm. As PC World reports, the lucky buyer is a company called Terra Firma, which will pocket the British record label for £3.2 billion ($6.36 billion). Neither Terra Firma nor EMI have expressed what the buyout means in terms of EMI's DRM-free commitments, but this is better news than it sounds: the Warner Music Group was one of the bidders hoping to acquire EMI, and Warner is known for its strong pro-DRM stance. EMI's portfolio includes music from artists like The Beach Boys, Depeche Mode, Iron Maiden, Janet Jackson, Pink Floyd, Queen, Robbie Williams, and The Rolling Stones, and that music is now likelier to stay DRM-free. If EMI doesn't change its mind, analysts believe other major labels—including Warner—will attempt to ditch DRM, as well. In fact, Apple is presumed to be negotiating DRM-free agreements with other labels as we speak. Such agreements would fit in with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' statement back in April that he expected half the music on the iTunes Store to be DRM-free by the end of the year.
BOOKS - BookExpo Canada -- The BookExpo Canada trade show is coming to the Metro Toronto Convention Centre on June 10 and 11.
MUSIC - Amazon to sell digital music (AP) May 17, 2007 -- AMAZON.com will launch a digital music store later in 2007 with millions of songs, free of copy protection technology that limits where consumers can play their music. The Seattle-based company said music company EMI Group Plc, home to artists ranging from Coldplay to Norah Jones to Joss Stone to Pink Floyd, has licensed its digital catalog to Amazon, the second such deal in a month. Amazon, the world's top online retailer of music on compact discs, is poised to move into the online download market now dominated by Apple Inc's iTunes store. With all music companies struggling from a drop in the sale of physical albums, EMI had announced its first deal with Apple and the iTunes online music store in April. Also today, EMI announced similar deals with VirginMega in France and with various online retailers across Scandinavia. "Our MP3-only strategy means all the music that customers buy on Amazon is always DRM-free and plays on any device," Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and chief executive, said in a statement. Digital Rights Management, or DRM, has been demanded by the music industry to rein in piracy by preventing users from making multiple copies; but its critics say it restricts consumers and therefore hinders the growth of legal music uses. Earlier this year, Steve Jobs, Apple's co-founder and chief executive, called on the world's four major record companies, including EMI, to start selling songs online without DRM copy-protection software. He said he saw no benefit for the record companies in selling more than 90 percent of their music without DRM on compact discs, while selling the remaining small percentage of music online encumbered with DRM. Last month, EMI said it would make its music available online without anti-piracy measures, becoming the first major music group to take the risk in a bid to grow digital sales. Warner Music Group Corp has said it sees no logic to dropping DRM but is still testing music without it, while Vivendi's Universal Music has said it, too, is still testing tracks without DRM.
Amazon said its music store will include 12,000 music labels but the retailer is only disclosing the partnership with EMI initially. The company declined to comment on whether other major music labels would be participating in the store. "We anticipate that there will be more (labels) by the time we launch," Bill Carr, Amazon.com's vice president of digital media, said in a phone interview. Amazon's copy-protection-free MP3s will allow customers to play their music on virtually any of their personal devices including Apple's iPod music players and Microsoft Corp's Zune music players. ITunes said its deal with EMI would charge a higher price than US$0.99 ($A1.18), the standard price of a copy-protected song on iTunes. Copy-protection-free music will cost $US1.29 ($A1.55), 1.29 euros or 99 pence for every track of EMI's catalogue available online in a higher-quality format without DRM, it had said. Carr declined to comment on whether Amazon planned to charge a similar premium for copy protection-free versions of songs, saying that pricing per song or per album is yet to be determined. Amazon declined to name a specific launch date, but when asked whether the store would be in operation ahead of the year-end shopping season. "It is reasonable to assume that that would be true," Carr said. EMI's deal with Amazon covers its entire digital catalog. The highest-profile exception is The Beatles, which traditionally refused to allow online sales by EMI, the band's long-time distributor. On Monday, EMI said it had agreed with Paul McCartney to release his entire solo catalog in both digital and physical formats.
BOOKS - DOES YOUR BOOK COVER SELL YOUR BOOK IN 3 SECONDS? by Kathi Dunn -- Recently, a well-known literary agent said about his agency's "3-SecondRule" which they use in evaluating any book submission. If the book'scover doesn't grab them in 3 seconds they pass on it. Only 3 seconds! Bookstore browsers spend an average of 8 seconds looking at the frontcover and 15 seconds studying the back cover before deciding whether tobuy your book. If your book cover doesn't instantly hook their interestand eyeballs S and then convey the right message about you - your chanceto make a sale is gone. And you don't just lose the sale. You lose a potential long-term, highly profitable customer. Most authors, experts and consultants use their books as the introductory product in a funnel of increasingly expensive products and services. When prospects don't buy your book, you lose the $19.95 sale - and the thousands of dollars they could have spent on your audio programs, seminars, and coaching/consultingservices. PROMOTE YOUR BOOK BY COMMENTING ON BLOGS by Patrice-Anne Rutledge -- Even if you don't have a blog yourself (yet), you can still generate publicity for your books in the blogging community. To do so, find several high-traffic blogs that serve your target audience and add interesting and insightful comments to current postings. To generate results from thistechnique, you have to do more than just say "nice post." You need tooffer some additional information of real value, provide your ownmeaningful insight into the topic, or provide an alternative view togenerate some excitement.You can state that you're the author of a related book and include a linkback to your site, but avoid direct promotion. In other words, don'tparticipate in comment spam. You want to use your comment to provideuseful information and illustrate your background as an expert and author.The right combination of blog, post, and comment will send a stream ofinterested traffic to your site. Source: Publishing Poynters Newsletter: May 15, 2007
MUSIC - New album marketing concept/Nouveau concept marketing -- projet de Sylvain Cossette: 70's - Participez au concours Choisissez le premier exttrait de l'album 70's, cliquez ici
MUSIC - The International Music Managers Forum is an international not-for-profit association that was founded in 1992 in the U.K. Its formation was intended to give managers an opportunity to discuss, educate each other and create a much-needed voice within the industry. Inspired by the UK example, the MMF Canada was launched as an ad-hoc organization in 1994, and was federally incorporated as a not-for-profit association in 2000. To date there are fourteen affiliated countries that have joined the MMF family. The International Music Managers Forum (IMMF), the umbrella organization overseeing all individual MMF affiliates, holds council meetings three times a year at MIDEM, SXSW and Popkomm. The president of the each affiliated MMF branch sits on the IMMF international council.
COPYRIGHT & INTERNET - Web sites ramp up piracy protection: 'Fingerprint' technology is latest weapon in online video copyright battle by Kevin J. Delaney, Wall Street Journal May01, 2007 -- Can "fingerprinting" bring a truce to the Web's video-copyright wars?The technology is based on the premise that any video content has unique attributes that allow it to be identified even from a short clip -- just as a human fingerprint identifies a person. Proponents of fingerprinting technology say it can help spot TV shows and films that are posted on video-sharing sites such as Google Inc.'s YouTube without their owners' permission, so the sites can remove them or share advertising revenue.That's a significant development amid copyright battles between media and technology companies, including Viacom Inc.'s $1 billion suit against Google filed in March. But a series of legal, technical and financial issues remain to be solved even as video sites including Google, News Corp.'s MySpace Video and Microsoft Corp.'s Soapbox, amid pressure from media companies, are testing fingerprinting or putting it in place.Google's YouTube every day takes in hundreds of thousands of video clips, from amateur pet videos to clips of commercial movies and TV shows, that are uploaded by consumers.The company has struck deals with some copyright holders, such as the United Kingdom's British Broadcasting Corp., to run their videos and share some ad revenue. And it says it will remove any content that is posted without the copyright holders' permission when it receives specific complaints. But Google has said it needs media companies' involvement because on its own it can't distinguish between video that the copyright holders want posted and material posted without the owners' permission.That's because Google doesn't know if the user uploading the video truly holds the copyright to a work or if the description the individual provides of the material is accurate. Some consumers, for example, spell the names of TV shows backward in the titles of pirated clips they upload in order to thwart detection by media companies.Fingerprinting technology, by analyzing the audio or video tracks of a clip, could alert YouTube to the presence of material that a media company has registered as its own -- regardless of who uploads it or what they title the clip.General Electric Co.'s NBC-Universal says it plans to participate in a test of fingerprinting on YouTube that it expects to start shortly. Technical staffs from the two companies are working together and they hope to have results by this summer, according to NBC.People familiar with the matter say that Google is using fingerprinting technology from closely held Audible Magic Corp. of Los Gatos, Calif., as it separately pursues an internal effort to build its own. NBC was chosen for a Google test, which NBC expects to take place from April through June, partly because it understands the difficulties of such technology, according to one person familiar with the matter.A YouTube spokeswoman said it looked forward to working with a variety of content owners on "content management technology," but declined to comment on the specifics of any tests, timing or technology being used. YouTube announced last fall it planned to introduce content-identification technology by the end of 2006 as part of partnerships with CBS Corp. and others. Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt later said fingerprinting technology was an answer to copyright concerns, but that it was difficult, which prompted some media companies to complain Google was dragging its heels.NBC has been agitating for Google to move faster to put a fingerprinting system in place, contending in recent months that the Internet giant hasn't made battling piracy a priority. Now that Google is starting a test, the media company has for the moment tabled any plans to join Viacom in pursuing legal options. "We see progress," said NBC General Counsel Rick Cotton in an interview. CBS says it is also having "constructive conversations" with YouTube about fingerprinting.Cotton and other media executives believe the fingerprinting pendulum has started to swing in their direction. In particular, they cite the piracy-protection component of a new NBC Universal-News Corp. joint venture to distribute TV shows and movies on the Web. In return for allowing viewers to watch their programming on Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Microsoft, MySpace and Yahoo, the two big media companies got the Internet firms to agree to proactively screen for pirated video. "That removes entirely the notion that this is so technically difficult that it can't be done on a large scale," says Cotton.AOL says it isn't using fingerprinting technology, but is willing to do so once a standard emerges. Yahoo isn't currently, and declined to comment on any future plans.At the same time, some media executives say Google's plans don't go far enough, because Google has said it won't use fingerprinting to block clips from being placed on the site, something known as "filtering." Instead, Google is expected to use fingerprinting to flag pirated clips to the content owners, which then have to request they be removed. "It sounds like some kind of crazy lost and found," a senior executive at one of the big media companies says. "It's not going to be enough," says another.Lawyers for the media companies say that Google finds itself in a conundrum: It wants to appease the content owners it views as important partners for YouTube but is concerned that filtering might increase its liability for copyright infringement claims. The YouTube spokeswoman said, "The law is clear, copyright owners have the responsibility to identify infringing material they want removed," adding that YouTube will continue to exceed its own responsibilities under the law while letting people upload video easily and quickly to the site.Video-sharing sites such as YouTube say they are protected from liability for copyright claims under "safe harbor" provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. But, under the DMCA, sites that have "actual knowledge" or control of infringing content can lose such protections. "What these filters do is potentially create more knowledge, more awareness of what's going on," says Fred von Lohmann, senior intellectual-property attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation in San Francisco. "There is some residual risk that you could lose the safe-harbor protections if you have too much of that kind of knowledge."von Lohmann said Google's expected approach of flagging content for owners to review and request removal is a plausible middle ground. Some fingerprinting companies such as Audible Magic say their role as an independent third party could also resolve sites' concerns about having knowledge of piracy that could endanger their protection from liability. Microsoft, for one, says it is using fingerprinting technology from Audible Magic to proactively block clips from being posted to its Soapbox video-sharing site without permission and also providing content owners with tools to request removal of clips that slip through.With Audible Magic's system, media companies provide copies of their music, TV shows and films that it analyzes, adding their fingerprints to a central database. Video-sharing sites can use Audible Magic software to extract fingerprints for clips that users upload, and then look in Audible Magic's database for a match. Other fingerprinting systems work similarly.Some sites have raised questions about the efficacy of current filtering technology, particularly when it's used on a mass scale and applied to the clips of varying length and quality users upload. A person familiar with the expected NBC-Google test says the Audible-Magic-based technology being used is imperfect and could frustrate media companies when clips slip through.The Motion Picture Association of America, a proponent of fingerprinting, has been testing technology from 12 organizations. "One of the things we've been impressed with is it actually works," says Dean Garfield, chief strategic officer at the MPAA, the Hollywood lobbying group.Audible Magic Chief Executive Vance Ikezoye says his company's fingerprinting technology, whose users include MySpace Video, Sony Corp.'s Grouper, Break.com and GoFish Corp., is more than 99 percent accurate when it's used to examine a clip where the image and audio quality aren't degraded.Audible Magic's fingerprinting, originally designed for use with music, looks primarily at the audio tracks and requires a TV or film clip to be about 20 to 30 seconds long at minimum to reliably analyze it. The company says it is testing technology that also examines the video component of the clips.Audible Magic charges sites a monthly fee for its service, which it says can add up to about $1 million annually in some cases. But it and other fingerprinting companies say the business models for their services aren't totally worked out.Yangbin Wang, chief executive of Vobile Inc., a closely held Santa Clara, Calif., video-fingerprinting start-up, says the video-sharing sites that pay to use the technology aren't always motivated to fork over premium fees for the best services. Wang believes the issue could be resolved when fingerprinting is used as part of licensing pacts where video sites and content owners share ad revenue on clips they identify.Even fingerprinting proponents, however, acknowledge it's not a silver bullet to media companies' copyright headaches. For starters, users could find pirated videos on sites without it."I suspect people will try to find -- and will find -- a workaround," says the MPAA's Garfield.
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