| Singles no. 1's |
| US |
Maroon 5 & Christina Aguilera
Moves Like Jagger |
| UK |
Sac Noel
Loca People |
| AU |
Gotye & Kimbra
Somebody That I Used To Know |
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| 28-07-00 |
MP3.com rumoured to have reached settlement with EMI
Apparently, EMI is about to announce a settlement agreement with MP3.com over its My.MP3.com music streaming service. EMI will thus become the third major to have settled with MP3.com, which was judged in April to have violated copyrights by not securing licenses. A hearing on motions over damages and "willfulness" by remaining plaintiffs Sony Music Entertainment and Universal Music Group is set for July 28 in New York.
ScrewMetallica.org supports RIAA boycott
Boycott-riaa.com was recently launched by 51-year-old Bill Evans encouraging a boycott of all Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) labels for the month of August. ScrewMetallica.org supports this initiative. With recent actions of the trade industry and various major labels designed to destroy any third party distributors of digital music for the benefit of their own over-priced downloads, they say they are losing any faith that the industry will ever think of consumers or artists as the people that feed their pocketbooks. ScrewMetallica.org has always been about finding a reasonable solution to online piracy concerns, however, it is clear to them that the RIAA has no intention of finding a reasonable solution but rather has intentions to rid the world of any form of competition.
Tapster offers one free Spinal Tap download only
Just as Napster has been ordered to remove all unlicensed tracks from its music file-swapping service, Spinal Tap has launched its own new music sharing service, Tapster. The site offers the exclusive free download of the never-before-heard Spinal Tap song "Back From The Dead." The classic rockumentary "This Is Spinal Tap" will be re-released on September 12 in select theaters and on a special edition DVD/VHS with additional footage. |
| 27-07-00 |
Napster must shut down
Napster was ordered to shut down by a federal judge yesterday. Dr. Dre and Metallica sued the Internet company earlier this year for copyright infringement. Lawyers for the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) said Wednesday that an immediate injunction should be filed against Napster in order to stop illegal downloads. |
| 26-07-00 |
New 98 Degrees single available for one day as free digital download
98 Degrees new single, "Give Me Just One Night (Una Noche)" from the group's new album, called “Revelation,” will be available as a free download for just one night courtesy of Universal Records. The offer begins July 29 at 12:00PM ET and continues until 12:00PM ET on July 30 at the label's band website, www.universalrecords.com/98degrees/. 98 Degrees recently shot the music video for the new single with director Wayne Isham in Mexico. The single will be released to radio at the end of July and the album Revelation is due out September 26.
Napster acknowledges that artists should be compensated
In the next phase the legal battle between Napster and major music labels Napster has indicated that the company is trying to move toward a business model that recognises intellectual property, which means that artists get compensated. The company is therefore licensing tracking technology from Liquid Audio that would allow Napster to set up user audit trails by monitoring music file origination and ownership. Additionally, Napster announced a marketing agreement with Chris Blackwell's Palm Pictures, starting with the promotion of the single "Sundown" from Palm artist Elwood. Under terms of the pact, visitors to the Napster Web site will be alerted to the track's file-sharing availability. There will also be a link to Palm's e-commerce website www.sputnik7.com. |
| 25-07-00 |
Jupiter report expects online music growth to $5.4 billion in 2005
Despite the fact that major labels still seem reluctant to take their business to the web, consumers have turned online music into a phenomenon. US online music sales are expected to reach $5.4 billion in 2005, according to Jupiter Communications, a worldwide authority on internet commerce. While individual downloads will continue to be effective marketing tools, the majority of digital music sales will come in the form of online subscriptions. Labels looking to prevent market erosion by digital music consumption must actively license their catalogs to third-party digital music providers and be prepared to market the resulting services in tandem with media and commerce partners. Jupiter projects that the online music market will secure approximately one-fourth of the total US music market in five years. The success of networked music sharing, such as Napster, reveals a consumer readiness for subscription services, which is expected to account for $980 million in 2005 vs. a la carte
download music, which will grow to $531 million in 2005. However, one of the challenges for subscription services will be to get consumers to shift to them from existing services such as Napster and Gnutella.
EMusic launches online licensed music service
EMusic.com launched a subscription service that will charge users $10 a month to get unlimited downloads from its library of 125,000 MP3’s. EMusic will split the after-cost revenue with its artist and indie label partners. Revenues will be distributed based on the percentage of music downloads during a certain time period. |
| 23-07-00 |
Napster reaches 20 million users mark
The ongoing problems experienced by file-swapping application seem to have done little to dent the Internet company's popularity as the users number has exceed 20 million. This figure is double what it was only three months ago The company has been established for a little over a year. In November 1999 they recorded their millionth user and since then ongoing battles between the company and some of the world's biggest bands over copyright issues have kept the Napster name in almost daily news headlines.
Napster users buy more music
People who use Napster and other file-swapping networks to trade MP3 files are more likely to boost their music spending than those who don't use such services, according to a new study from Internet research firm Jupiter Communications. Earlier research, released by Soundscan in May, showed declining CD sales at stores near universities, which some have taken as evidence that Napster has already cut into music industry revenues, despite sales growth of 8 percent last year. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) submitted the Soundscan study as evidence of economic harm in its recent lawsuit against Napster. Jupiter's report concludes the opposite, finding that Napster usage is a leading indication of increased music spending compared with other factors including age, income and gender. |
| 22-07-00 |
Napster variant Scour next to be sued by recording industry
The Recording Industry Association Of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association Of America have filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Scour, which operates a file-sharing system similar to Napster, provides software that enables users to exchange music and movie files. The suit charges that Scour is engaged in "large scale internet piracy and has built a business on copyright infringement." The suit seeks an injunction stopping any further distribution of unauthorized copyrighted material and damages of as much as $150,000 per infringement. |
| 21-07-00 |
Bertelsmann after CDnow
With an eye on the coming market for digitally downloadable music, Bertelsmann AG, the German parent of RCA and Arista Records, has announced that it intents to purchase CDnow, the pioneering internet music retailer. Under the deal, Bertelsmann will pay $117 million. According to a statement, CDnow will continue to operate after the Bertelsmann deal is completed and will become the international media giant's primary engine for all music commerce across online, mobile and broadband platforms and evolving technologies such as digital downloading and streaming. Bertelsmann's current entry into the online retailing, GetMusic, a joint venture with fellow music major Universal Music Group, is not considered a significant e-tail player and actually has changed its mission to focus on content creation and distribution. CDnow has faced huge marketing costs and lost more than $200 million, including $28.2 million in the quarter ending March 31. |
| 20-07-00 |
U2 give fans online peek in studio
U2 is inviting fans into the studio to have a look at the recording process of the new album. Fans can look at U2’s recording efforts in the studio through a web cam, that is expected to begin showing the recording process in the coming weeks, according to the band’s own website. On the group’s site there is a studio where the webcasts of the recording sessions can be seen, the control room for information on the recording and the site itself, which includes a lounge where gossip and articles will be posted. For hardcore U2 fans there will be a "green room," where the band will share their thoughts about the songs they're currently working on and where fans may even get to hear clips of new tracks as they're finished. U2 is currently working with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois on the as-yet-untitled album.
Two more Prince downloads available
After Prince’s newest track "Cybersingle" was recently made available, he has now added two more tracks to the "Vault" section of his website. The first one is called "Mad," and the other song is "Funky Design," which is opened by Prince rapping. "Mad" runs just over 1:25, while "Funky Design" clocks in at about 1:30. To check them out, go to www.npgonlineltd.com, and click on "The Vault." |
| 19-07-00 |
MP3Board files counter claim against RIAA
MP3Board.com has announced that it has filed a counter claim, seeking a remedy against the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for their role in temporarily shutting down the MP3board.com web site for merely providing hyperlinks to other web sites, pages, and files the RIAA considers infringing.
MP3Board’s claim also seeks a declaration from the Court that mere hyperlinking to other publicly accessible web sites and files, created by automated processes, does not constitute direct or contributory copyright infringement even if the destination of a hyperlink is a web site, page, or file containing infringing content. The RIAA alleges that the MP3Board.com site assists web users in locating music related web sites, pages, and files, including the popular MP3 type files. The MP3Board site includes automated hyperlink lists and search engines that seek out and index massive amounts of mp3 and music related content on the internet. The suit alleges that MP3Board does not store on its web site any MP3 files, as such files are only available by visiting other sites not owned by MP3Board. |
| 18-07-00 |
Napster founder forms new file-exchange company AppleSoup
Early Napster founder and investors, Bill Bales and Adrian Scott, has announced the formation of AppleSoup (www.applesoup.com), a next generation peer-to-peer network that lets content owners distribute "anything digital" via the Internet while giving them a way to control and monetize their intellectual property. Due to the viral nature of peer-to-peer networks, content distribution is more efficient and cost effective, providing a safe way for content owners to give consumers desktop access to the content they want to consume, share and distribute. AppleSoup will give consumers broad access to material currently not available on the Internet, without endangering intellectual property rights, by technically assigning rights management rules and procedures to copyrighted content. These technical advances allow content owners to control, distribute and even sell their content via AppleSoup’s extremely scalable and viral peer-to-peer
network. AppleSoup’s peer-to-peer solution connects members’ hard drives to create a global, virtual library of non-infringing content. When a member requests a specific piece of digital content, AppleSoup sends him or her directly to another member’s hard drive within a matter of seconds to retrieve the file. The platform makes a plethora of specific, valued information available to the masses, without the cumbersome scalability issues of the central server model. |
| 17-07-00 |
New Craig David single to be previewed online
Craig David's new single "7 Days," the follow-up to his current hit "Fill Me In," will be made available through special promotional preview download versions online, previous to its July 24 commercial release. David, guest vocalist on various Artful Dodgers' recordings, got his break through last year singing on The Artful Dodgers' hit "Re-Rewind The Crowd Say Bo Selecta." David's debut album, "Born To Do It," will be released late summer. |
| 16-07-00 |
European musicians against internet piracy
European music stars urged the European Union on Thursday to get tougher with internet piracy of their material, saying the future livelihood of many artists was at stake. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, which represents the global recording industry, backs the star-studded campaign against internet music sharing through companies such as Napster, whose service allows computer users to make perfect copies of digital recordings over the internet. The IFPI wants to see the strengthening of a proposal on new copyright rules for the 15-nation EU to ban free Internet downloads of copyrighted music. The EU executive commission first proposed to update copyright rules in 1998 to take into account the digital revolution. Its proposals have been discussed at length in the European Parliament and by EU governments. If approved in the fall, private copying would be allowed unless individual governments specifically outlaw it. Exemptions will also be made for educational
purposes and the disabled. |
| 15-07-00 |
EMI releases 100 albums and 40 singles online
EMI Recorded Music, will sell Frank Sinatra and Pink Floyd online. EMI will become the first major music company to sell a large selection of its recordings online on Tuesday when it releases more than 100 albums and 40 singles from acts like Pink Floyd for fans to download from their computers. The offering will also include music from Everclear, Bonnie Raitt, Snoop Dogg and The Spice Girls. EMI's downloading trial comes as legal battles rage over copyrights and digital music distribution between the recording industry and online music providers like Napster and MP3.com. EMI plans to release its music in the secure Windows Media format, Windows Media Player 7.0, the newest version of the player. EMI's music will also be available in the future in software company Liquid Audio's secure format, after that company developed a player that supports that format. With the Liquid Audio format and player, consumers will additionally be able to e-mail part of the song. |
| 14-07-00 |
Recording Industry reacts to Napster's defense
In a final response to Napster before meeting in court later this month, the Recording Industry Association of America today dismissed the start-up's legal defense of its music-swapping business as "patently baseless." The industry group said Napster is trying to hide its users' music piracy behind a metaphor of "sharing." The brief reiterates the industry's appeal to the court to pull all major-label content off Napster while the two sides move into what could be a lengthy trial. The two sides will meet in court again on July 26, where a federal judge is scheduled to hear arguments for and against the proposed Napster injunction.
EMI, Sony and UMG still after MP3.com
The RIAA and MP3.com exchanged legal motions on Tuesday, despite settlement and licensing pacts reached last month between MP3.com and two of the original plaintiffs in the RIAA action, BMG and Warner Music Group.
The RIAA motion, served on behalf of remaining plaintiffs EMI, Sony Music, and Universal Music Group, argues that the MP3.com infringement of their copyrights was "willful," said a source. An RIAA spokeswoman said its motion will be filed with the judge in the case on July 21, and a hearing on the motions will be held on July 28 in U.S. District Court in New York. |
| 13-07-00 |
Canadian survey says Napster users buy CD's
A study of Canadian users of music file sharing site Napster finds the majority are active music buyers as well. The "In The Name Of Cool" report of consumer trend information conducted in May by Toronto-based Solutions Research Group, found that 15% of all Canadian Internet users 12 years of age and older, approximately 1.8 million people, have used Napster at least once to download MP3 files. While the average user downloaded seven MP3 files in the last week, 73% purchased four or more CDs in the past six months. The study also found that Napster users in Canada -- 72% male, 28% female -- are not only made up of the college demographic: 39% are 25 or older; 32% are in the 18-24 range; and 29% are teens (12-17). |
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