— Nokia’s VP of Music in the UK says the company is “happy” with Comes With Music‘s rollout and added the company has learned a lot from the experience (such as the impact an out-of-date handset can have on a service’s uptake…which is a predictable outcome that seems to offer few nuggets of insight). He did not argue with the reported number of Comes With Music customers in the UK, 23,000. Seeking a positive note, he said the music industry is “pretty encouraged” by the heavy involvement of subscribers. This begs the question, Would you rather have few hardcore users or many average users? (The Telegraph)
— In the already renowned Joel Tennebaum file-sharing case, record labels are using the words of the emailed, internal legal discussions in the case. An excerpt: “…Lawrence Lessig, founder of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society opined to Defendant’s counsel, in no uncertain terms: ‘I am surprised if the intent is to fight this case as if what joel did was not against the law. of course it was against the law, and you do the law too much kindness by trying to pretend (or stretch) “fair use” excuses what he did. It doesn’t.’ … Professor Lessig also proclaims that ‘P2P filesharing is wrong and kid’s shouldn’t do it,’ and informs Defendant’s counsel that there is no ‘honest frame for joel’s case’ other than jury nullification.” (Copyrights and Campaigns)
— Live Nation will launch the Bay Stage at the Nikon at Jones Beach Theater complex on Long Island, N.Y. The stage will be the area’s largest general admission venue with a capacity of 5,000. The venue will be opposite the amphitheater and will operate on the amphitheater’s off days. (Newsday)
— In an interview with USA Today, IAC/InterActiveCorp CEO Barry Diller talked about the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger. Not surprisingly, he sees a lack of competition between the two companies and does not foresee an increase of ticket prices if the merger goes through. The more interesting comments were about ticketing fees, transparency and a prediction of legislation to force transparency upon the ticketing business. “The problem with the ticketing business is: It’s the essence of non-transparency. And the reason is that everybody has an ax to grind. Artists do not want consumers to know that they have a take of different parts of the ticketing package. People who own venues want to put in service charges. So I think there’s going to be legislation which is going to force transparency, and I think that would be great for everybody.” (USA Today)
— The upcoming Windows 7 operating system will include a feature that will allow users to stream their home PC music collection from another computer via an Internet connection. Other products allow for a similar function – MP3Tunes is an online storage locker that streams the user’s music files, and browser-based Lala stores the user’s online collection that can be accessed from any Internet-enabled computer. Windows 7, however, uses the Windows Media Player, not Internet Explorer, to remotely stream music. (Digital Noise)
