— David Lammy, the UK minister in charge of intellectual property does not endorse a three strikes plan for fighting illegal file-sharing. Lammy endorses commercial solutions and educating the public about copyright. “We are moving into an environment where so many people have to be aware of being on the right side of the law, but at the moment accessing those rights is not a straightforward process for the consumer.” (The Register)
— Not only does popular opinion say the CD is dead (even though it still accounts for most recorded music revenue), so is the record label. But when asked what value a record label has today, many indie label owners had no problem explaining their value. Said Mike Schulman from Slumberland, “I think labels are as important as ever. With the increasing fragmentation and atomization of genres and scenes and markets, customers rely on labels as a curatorial enterprise, a shorthand signifier for what they’re into, and a useful tool to help sort through the mountain of new music.” The same could be said of music blogs, but there is a lot of work that tends to go unnoticed to outsiders. Labels, said Joel Leoshke of Kranky, still do a lot of work artists cannot do themselves. “There may be some brave new world wherein the artists can do all the work themselves, but I think that notion, at least from the current perspective, is a pipe dream,” he said. “Can you name three artists that work without a label at the moment? I think not.” (SF Bay Guardian)
— A Warner Music Norway exec started the Twitter meme @warnerfail after he replied to a Twitter post that complained the new Dave Matthews album was available only in the U.S. by calling the person a brat. (TwentyFourBit)
— Spotify now has over one million users and is signing up 40,000 new users every day. (Brand Republic)
— Nashville veteran Chip Peay has relaunched Chip Peay Entertainment with three new publishing companies: Big Wide Pants Music, Blue Canary Music and Bogey Blue Music. (Music Row)
— Apple approved – on the sixth try – an iPhone app that streams MP3s from music blogs (via a WiFi connection). The iHeartNewMusic app costs $2.99 and got a mixed review at Digital Noise. “In short, if you regularly check music blogs to find new music, this is a reasonable purchase for $2.99–it’s the easiest way I’m aware of to play MP3 samples from blogs on an iPhone. Otherwise, it’s probably a pass.” (Digital Noise)
— Internet radio service Slacker announced its BlackBerry application has surpassed 1 million downloads on the BlackBerry App World. (PRNewswire)
— Simply Music introduced an iPhone application that allows users to stream music stored in their digital music library, as well as the libraries of up to 30 friends. The service also includes lyrics, playlisting services and streaming to other Internet connected devices.
Additional items by Antony Bruno.
