— NPD Group found that 87% of U.S. digital music buyers used iTunes in 2008 versus 16% who used Amazon.com’s MP3 store. Those figures do not indicate volume of purchases, just the percent of consumers who have purchased music at each store. Given the advantages borne from the popularity of the iPod, as well as the multi-year head start, Amazon.com’s market share grab has been impressive. No other retailer until now has been able to make much of a dent. (CNET)
— Senator Herb Kohl, chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition Policy and Consumer Rights, spoke out against the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger in an op-ed sent to Wisconsin newspapers. “This deal raises many serious questions about the future of competition in the concert business. This merger could change the way concerts are run and could increase the price and hassle to purchase tickets to see your favorite bands. Be assured, I will continue to examine the consumer implications of the merger and monitor the Justice Department’s investigation into the merger.” (SF Examiner)
— Stubhub, a secondary ticketing service that is a rival of Ticketmaster, met with U.S. regulators about the proposed Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger. Rather than fret about how the deal would impact consumers – the typical tactic taken by Ticketmaster competitors – the company spoke out against anti-competitive results of the deal. Said StubHub’s CEO, “Our concern is the new Live Nation would create a closed loop where only they could do secondary ticketing. You can start to set controls on how ticketing is done and how secondary ticketing might be done.” (Bloomberg)
— Dan Herrington, founder of Dualtone Records, and Mitchell Fox, former manager the Kentucky Headhunters, have started a hybrid artist- and project-management firm called Herrington/Fox Management. (Music Row)
— TrueAnthem, the startup that offers free music with audio ads (words spoken by the artists themselves), has introduced ad-tracking tools so brand managers can follow their ads’ effectiveness. (VentureBeat)
— This overview of a recent Department of Justice legal brief for a file-sharing case is worth reading. The heart of the matter is all the way at the bottom in a quote by the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Fred von Lohmann: “The DOJ is generally required to defend the constitutionality of duly enacted statutes passed by Congress, whatever the administration may think of the wisdom of the policies contained therein. So there is nothing new or special about them coming in to defend the constitutionality of statutory damages in copyright. It would be different if they were intervening to endorse a particular interpretation of a statute.” (IP Watch)
