— Live Nation‘s “No Service Fee Wednesday” is underway and people are finding out that “service fees” are separate from other fees consumers will still have to pay. This isn’t much of a revelation. Live Nation said select lawn tickets would be free of service fees, not free of all fees. When purchasing tickets at LiveNation.com, buyers can see a breakdown of the ticket price, service fee, charity fee (if applicable) and facility fee (if applicable) before completing the transaction. Some may feel Live Nation was misleading the public by not being more specific, but “No Service Fee Wednesday” is accurately stated, and in small print below the logo consumers are informed that “parking and other fees may apply.” (CNN.com)
— Engadget has a quick review of “the Beatles: Rock Band” and some pictures. “We have to say, Harmonix has absolutely outdone themselves with this bundle — from the Ringo-style Ludwig drum set to Paul’s unmistakable Höfner Violin bass… it’s all here, and it all looks brilliant.” (Engadget)
— If you have not seen the trailer for “the Beatles: Rock Band” you can view it here and the game’s cinematic introduction here.
— P2P developer Muze conducted a survey that found that BitTorrent users buy more movie tickets, rented more films and bought more DVDs than does the general online population. Surprising? Not at all. It stands to reason that people who are passionate enough about movies to spend time on P2P services will express their passion in this manner. Same goes for music. What this, and the many surveys like it, should do is attempt to quantify how much more or less P2P users would purchase/view/listen in an absence of P2P. Such findings would do more to either justify or contradict P2P services’ claims that they are a benefit to the entertainment industry. (Ars Technica)
— Nokia’s music manager in Brazil talks with Music Ally about the Comes With Music service in the country. There are a few details about the differences between the service’s launch in the UK vs. Brazil, and how Comes With Music may affect Brazilian music sales. (Music Ally)
— Simon Fuller‘s 19 Entertainment and Tricky Stewart‘s RedZone Entertainment have launched a new joint venture. The collaboration will concentrate on uncovering new vocal talent. More details will be revealed in the summer, according to the company.
— MySpace Music has hired former AOL exec Sam Wick as senior VP of strategy. He’ll be responsible for developing monetization strategies and streamlining existing sales operations, among other things. Prior to AOL he also held positions at MP3.com and Sony Music.
Glenn Peoples, Antony Bruno and Chris M. Walsh contributed to this post.
