3.1.09

Album Sales Drop in 2008

In 2008, album sales went down in contrast to the digital business, which showed growth but also slowed in comparison to last year.

Reuters reports that total album sales fell 14 percent to 428.4 million units during the 52-week period ended December 28. This follows the downward trend for the industry in the since 2000. This year, the industry as a whole faced an economic recession. Although digital downloads have gained ground over the years, digital track sales rose 27 percent to a record 1.07 billion units, but the growth was slower than the 45 percent jump in 2007.

But what do they expect people to do when times are tough?

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1.1.09

Björk Invests in Greener Iceland

Björk has partnered with a Reykjavik-based venture capital firm to set up a fund that will invest in socially and environmentally responsible companies that will help repair Iceland’s beat-up economy.

The Icelandic singer launched the venture fund with Audur Capital, which has put down the initial investment of 100 million Iceland kronur ($826,000) and is seeking investors to participate in the fund until March 2009.

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Led Zeppelin Frontman Honored by the Queen

Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant has received a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in the UK’s 2009 New Year’s Honors List, for his services to music.

Also honored this year are Scottish singer-songwriter and maverick guitarist John Martyn (awarded an OBE) and jazz saxophonist Courtney Pine (CBE).

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31.12.08

RIAA Appeal Denied in Copyright violation

A federal judge is denying the Recording Industry Association of America’s (RIAA) request to appeal his decision granting a retrial in the RIAA’s only file sharing case to go to trial.

The U.S. District Judge, Michael Davis, of Minnesota, declared a mistrial in the Jammie Thomas case, months ago, and nullified the jury’s $222,000 award against the Minnesota woman for sharing 24 songs on the Kazaa network. The RIAA tried to appeal; a motion the judge rejected for the same reason he declared a mistrial.

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30.12.08

MTV New Year’s Resolution: Layoffs and Cutbacks

MTV UK, part of Viacom’s MTV Networks division, is to cut up to 80 jobs - around 10% of its workforce - as part of Viacom’s global plan to save $250m in 2009.

This is predictable after Viacom announced 850 worldwide layoffs earlier this month, and regional detail has surfaced through Guardian.co.uk, on what, for many media workers, is the big New Year’s resolution.

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27.12.08

Facebook Bans Project Playlist Widget

Social network Facebook banned Project Playlist on Tuesday, just days after MySpace also removed the fast-growing music-sharing startup over a copyright infringement scare.

Facebook has removed the Project Playlist app from Facebook and all embedded playlists from user profiles. The company said in a statement that it hopes Project Playlist can come to an agreement with the labels so the app can return to the website.

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23.12.08

Arcade Fire Scores Movie Soundtrack

Arcade Fire has written the score for Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly’s new film The Box.

Frontman Win Butler told Pitchfork: “It’s kind of Hitchcocky, movie, orchestral, Mellotron stuff. It’s instrumental music. No songs. It’s interesting.”

“We didn’t really think we were going to do the whole thing, and then it just kind of was easier once we got in… It has so much to do with the editing, and your job is just to help the director. It’s a very different experience.”

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Warner Music Pulls Videos off YouTube

On Saturday, Warner Music Group ordered Google, the present owner of YouTube, to remove from its site all music videos by its artists, after licensing negotiations broke down the previous day.

Warner said: “We simply cannot accept terms that fail to appropriately and fairly compensate recording artists, songwriters, labels and publishers for the value they provide,” reports Reuters.

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21.12.08

Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop, Moby to Star in Vampire film

Alice Cooper, Iggy Pop and Moby are among the musicians set to star in a new vampire film called ‘Suck’, reports The Guardian.

Slated to be a vehicle for comparison between the music industry and blood-sucking, the movie also is rumored to be ridiculous. Moby plays character Beef Bellows, lead singer for the band Secretaries Of Steak, and has 45 “important” words before getting eaten.

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19.12.08

‘iTax’ to hit iPod users in New York

If you’re in New York and happen to own an iPod, count on paying an ‘iTax‘ for every song you download.

The Guardian reports that Governor David Paterson has slapped a 4% tax on “digitally delivered entertainment services” next year to help tackle the financial crisis. Music, video and e-books will be hit with higher taxes as part of a larger effort to close the state’s $15.4bn budget gap.

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