Tag: warner-music

23
Sep
2008

SanDisk & Big Four Labels Unveil microSD ‘slotMusic’

TrustedReviews: Yesterday Flash memory giant SanDisk has announced ‘slotMusic’: a new physical music format where 320kbps encoded, DRM-free music will be sold on 1GB microSD cards. The seemingly antiquated plan also has the backing of all four major record labels (EMI, Sony BMG, Warner Music and Universal) so widespread support is expected but will anyone be convinced?

The theory is simple: most mobile phones are united in their adoption of the microSD format so users will simply be able to pop down to their local store, buy a slotMusic album and insert it into their handsets.

SanDisk’s Sansa Fuze and View MP3 players also carry microSD expansion slots.

Of course the problem with all this is we have seen something virtually identical try and fail before. TrustedFlash was announced back in September 2005 and proposed DRM-protected albums and video content sold on microSD cards.

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Posted by About Electronics in Audio, Corporate | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment

05
Mar
2008

Warner drops locks across Europe

BBC News: Warner Music has signed a deal with media site 7digital.com to offer its music without copy protection.Customers in the UK, Ireland, Spain, France and Germany will be able to download albums by artists such as Madonna and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

The MP3 files can be played on nearly all music devices including Apple’s best selling iPod.

7digital.com is the first European site to offer Warner’s music free of Digital Rights Management (DRM) systems.

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Posted by luk in Audio | Tagged: , | 1 Comment

04
Dec
2007

Digital developments could be tipping point for MP3

Reuters: Warner Music Group (WMG) and Sony BMG Music Entertainment are feeling increased pressure to follow EMI and Universal Music Group’s lead in distributing music in the MP3 format, which forgoes restrictive digital rights management technology.A yearlong download promotion planned between Pepsi and Amazon is among several developments forcing WMG and Sony to consider the format, Billboard has learned,

News of the Pepsi promotion, which is expected to be announced February 3 during the Super Bowl, coincides with Wal-Mart’s ultimatum that major labels supply walmart.com with their music in MP3, sources said.

Labels said they have been watching the success of an MP3 test that Universal Music Group (UMG) began in August. The major label continues to allow the sale of 85 percent of its current catalog as MP3s. Sources said UMG is on the verge of permanently embracing that digital format. But a source close to the testing insisted that the decision is still up in the air while the company awaits conclusive results from the trial, which are due in mid-January.

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Posted by luk in Audio, Corporate | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment

30
Oct
2006

“The CD is dead’ says EMI

MarketWatch: EMI Music Chairman Alain Levy recently told an audience at the London Business School that the CD is dead, saying music companies will no longer be able to sell CDs without offering “value-added” material.

“The CD as it is right now is dead,” Levy said, adding that 60% of consumers put CDs into home computers in order to transfer material to digital music players.
But there remains a place for physical media, Levy said.
“You’re not going to offer your mother-in-law iTunes downloads for Christmas,” he said. “But we have to be much more innovative in the way we sell physical content.”
Record companies will need to make CDs more attractive to the consumer, he said.
“By the beginning of next year, none of our content will come without any additional material,” Levy said.
CD sales accounted for more than 70% of total music sales in the first half of 2006, while digital music sales were around 11% of the total, according to music industry trade body the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.
Levy said EMI is continuing to hold talks with Google on an advertising-revenue sharing partnership with the community video Web site YouTube.
EMI’s rivals, Warner Music Group Corp., Sony BMG – a joint venture between Sony Corp. (SNE) and Bertelsmann AG – and Universal Media have all signed content deals with YouTube.
“The terms they were offering weren’t acceptable,” Levy said, adding that EMI continues to be concerned about copyright issues.

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Posted by ryan in Corporate, Portable Music Players | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

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