3.0.0 A música e a indústria discográfica

Música digital contraria a crise

«While sales of physical albums continued to plummet during the first nine months of 2006, big increases in the sale of digital tracks and albums have kept the overall music business in line with last year's totals.
According to Nielsen SoundScan figures for the week ending Oct. 1, marking the end of the third quarter, physical album sales so far this year totaled 370.5 million, down 8.3% from the 404.2 million units racked up in the same time period last year.
However, digital album sales climbed 115%, with 22.6 million sold through September. Downloaded tracks soared 72%, with 418.6 million sold in the first nine months of the year.
Adding digital albums and track equivalent albums (with 10 digital tracks equaling one album) to physical sales, a total of 434.9 million albums have been sold in 2006. The total is short of last year's nine-month tally of 439.2 million units by a slight one-tenth of one percent.»Fonte: Digital Sales Are Soothing For Record Biz Oct. 05, 2006 By Chris Morris, The Hollywood Reporter

Rádio, fonte primária de música

«There's a new survey available on Radio listening which was commissioned by American Media Services, a radio brokerage, engineering and developmental engineering firm in Charleston, South Carolina. (...) The survey found that Americans rate radio as their primary source to learn about new music. When asked which ways they learn about new music, 63 percent said by listening to the radio. In comparison, 43 percent said it can be through talking with friends, 41 percent cited watching television, 24 percent cited reviews in newspapers or magazines, and 16 percent cited the internet. (...) The telephone survey of 1,008 Americans adults was conducted Aug. 11-13, 2006, by the national polling firm of GfK NOP of Princeton, N.J. The survey is considered accurate within plus or minus 3 percentage points.»

fonte: Survey: 50% Haven't Changed Radio Listening Habits in Past Five Years, RadioABout, From Corey Deitz,09/18/06

A perda de influência da rádio musical

[Médiamétrie results for November-December 2005] “The fall of the music radio, therefore listening of young people also worries us,” grumbled Radio France president Jean-Paul Cluzel, stating a fear common to all public broadcasters. “Today, radio is no longer the only hot media.” (fonte: Follow the Media,Nasty Trends for French National Radio, Michael Hedges January 22, 2006

(music channels down, youth channels down. Blame TV. Blame the internet.)

O dilema da rádio musical face à nova oferta

Um ponto da situação:

«The announcement of two new online music services points to what the radio industry is facing. Given a choice, which way will the public go? Listening to a "local" radio station that's offering plenty of music with little relativity (as the majority of stations do today), or listening to an online music source with plenty of music and little relativity.

We've reached a state where radio has diminished it's local content to a point that's matched by the jukebox delivery of online music sites. Both, radio and these web sites that feature music, play popular songs. Both stay away from additional elements which cost money to produce, and both create a bond with the audience»
fonte: «Online Music Services vs Radio», Audiographics, 30-08-2006

Rádio serve para conhecer nova música

«The survey found that Americans rate radio as their primary source to learn about new music. When asked which ways they learn about new music, 63 percent said by listening to the radio. In comparison, 43 percent said it can be through talking with friends, 41 percent cited watching television, 24 percent cited reviews in newspapers or magazines, and 16 percent cited the Internet»

fonte: «Radio Listening Remains Strong», 14/9/06, Radio Ink

A rádio musical continuará a ter lugar na rádio do futuro

«Nadie imagina la nueva radio digital sin que la música aparezca como uno de sus contenidos sustanciales, aunque las posibilidades que se derivan de los nuevos contextos comunicacionales son demasiado amplias para hacer balances apriorísticos» (Martí in Esteban, 2000: 243).

As consequências da revolução digital na música

"listening to music is no longer a pastime but has become more of a habit. People are taking music for granted."

Esta é uma das conclusões de um estudo feito por um grupo de investigadores da Universidade de Leicester, que inquiriram 350 pessoas de várias ocupações e idades. O texto original saiu no jornal Scotsman: "New research on the listening habits of music fans has revealed that many now plug in their ear-phones out of habit rather than for enjoyment".

O consumo de música, a sua produção (e, já agora, a rádio)

"A internet alterou drasticamente a produção, a distribuição e o consumo de música. A disponibilização ilegal de ficheiros de música - ficheiros não licenciados pela indústria fonográfica e que não respeitam os direitos de autor - através de canais peer-to-peer tornou-se numa das actividades on-line mais populares em termos mundiais
De acordo com a IFPI, o índice de crescimento de downloads ilegais efectuados a partir das redes P2P tem aumentado exponencialmente. Inversamente, as receitas oriundas das vendas de música têm caído acentuadamente, sendo esta evolução atribuída essencialmente às já referidas redes, à pirataria off-line (produção e contrafacção), à conjuntura económica e à alteração dos hábitos/prioridades de consumo da população mais jovem.
Por outras palavras, as mutações tecnológicas e a insatisfação dos consumidores tornaram os modelos de negócio tradicionais obsoletos, forçando a indústria fonográfica a desenvolver novas estratégias e por conseguinte, novos modelos.
Segundo um estudo – The evolution of business models and marketing strategies in the music industry – levado a cabo por investigadores da State University of New York e da Yeshiva University, as alterações e repercussões passíveis de serem atribuídas à internet estender-se-ão, a uma escala global, não só à indústria fonográfica, mas a toda a indústria de entretenimento (cujo conteúdo possa ser digitalizado, descarregado e comercializado on-line)"
(Via Obercom).

Mais música nos telemóveis

Ericsson And Napster Team Up For Mobile Music Service

Mike Slocombe

After a long cuddle on the sofa, Napster and Ericsson have announced a global partnership to offer a fully integrated new digital music service aimed at mobile phone customers around the world.
The service - yet to be given a snappy name - will combine elements of Napster's popular PC offering and Ericsson's personalised music service and serve up iTunes-like song downloads with a monthly subscription plan.
Scheduled to go live in Europe over the next 12 months, the service "accommodates mobile operator participation in all revenue streams" and will initially be offered to operators in selected markets in Europe, Asia, Latin America and North America.
"Ericsson's world-leading wireless and telecommunications solutions experience, along with their exceptional client base, make them the ideal partner to deepen Napster's presence in the global mobile arena", entoned Chris Gorog, Napster's chairman and CEO.
"Ericsson and Napster are uniquely suited to offer mobile operators a simple, cohesive and personalised digital music experience for their consumers", he added.
The new joint service will let users coordinate wireless and PC downloading of digital music (in both subscription and a la carte models) with songs downloaded via the phone playable on the user's home PC.
The service works on most suitably equipped handset models and networks, with next-generation phones being able to support the digital rights management stuff.
The service is designed to deliver a "complete digital music solution under one brand", with users benefiting from a consistent user interface and integrated billing from their mobile operator.
The two companies hope that their service will allow mobile operators to get their grubby mitts on the "growth opportunities for personalised digital entertainment on the mobile phone and PC" and will, no doubt, include the usual slew of lucrative, downloadable offerings like ringtones, master tones, images, wallpaper and video content.
With doe-like eyes, Ericsson CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg praised Napster as "the strongest digital music brand in the world", adding: "With Napster we are uniquely positioned to deliver the easy to use, complete suite of music offerings our customers are asking for."
It's anticipated that the announcement could stir things up in the accelerating mobile music sector, driven ever-onwards and upwards by the growth of high-speed networks in Europe and Asia.
More and more mobile operators are already cutting themselves a slice of the mobile digital music services pie, with the largest Korean mobile phone operator recently purchasing a controlling stake in the country's biggest record label.
Napster's no stranger to the world of mobile music either, offering limited access to its service through selected US phone networks and operating a ringtone download store.
If the joint venture manages to persuade mobile phone operators that customers are going to lurve the integration between handsets and online services, the two companies could be on to a winner.

A música digital na Europa

(via Reuters)
EU seeks pan-European license for online music use
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The European Commission will push for measures to establish a pan-European copyright license for online music use by October to allow EU industry to compete better with the United States, it said on Thursday.
Right now there are 25 different licensing bodies in the 25-nation European Union and anyone who wants to open an online store for music faces the trouble and expense of approaching the royalty collector in each member state.
"The absence of pan-European copyright licenses makes it difficult for new European-based online services to take off," Internal Market and Services Commissioner Charlie McCreevy said in a statement.
"This is why we are proposing the creation of Europe-wide copyrights clearance."
Tilman Lueder, head of the copyright unit at the Commission's internal market services, said the EU executive was now consulting interested parties about the initiative, which could result in legislation or a set of recommendations.
"We hope that something can be adopted in October," he told a news briefing.
Lueder said the direct cost of negotiating a single license is currently 9,500 euros in Europe.
U.S. online music revenue in 2004 came in at 207 million euros ($249 million) compared to 27.2 million euros in Europe, he said. Forecasts for 2005 put the U.S. figure at nearly 500 million euros compared to Europe's 106.4 million.
"The gap is very wide. We need to do something about this," he said. "We don't make any money from the Internet in Europe."

Música e internet

Um casamento que promete...

"Yahoo to push Clear Channel concerts

Published: July 8, 2005, 8:09 AM PDT
By Dinesh C. Sharma
Special to CNET News.com

Clear Channel Music Group will use Yahoo to promote its summer concert series, the entertainment company said Friday.
Under the agreement, Yahoo Music will promote 150 of Clear Channel's concerts, and information about the music events will be made available throughout the Yahoo network.
In addition, information on ticket availability for concerts will be sent to Yahoo users. Alerts will be tailored based on geographic and demographic data, Clear Channel said.
Previous Next Among the artists and groups that are part of the program include Coldplay, the Dave Matthews Band, Eminem, 50 Cent, James Taylor, John Mellencamp, John Fogerty, Ozzfest and Avril Lavigne, among others.
Clear Channel also said that in a recent survey, 70 percent of respondents reported that they get information about concerts online.
"The Internet has become a primary information source for concert fans, and that prompted us to shake up traditional concert marketing," Michael Rapino, CEO of Clear Channel Music Group, said in a statement.

Saudades da rádio ou a ditadura das playlists

«De vez em quando – infelizmente, cada vez mais raramente – falam-me de rádio. Da rádio. Recordam-me os “dias da rádio”, não em filme, mas nas vidas reais de uma geração que cresceu a ouvir, a consumir, a conversar sobre rádio, e escolher os seus heróis e as suas estações. Uma geração a quem foi dada, mais tarde, a última oportunidade de “fazer” rádio – isto é, imaginar, conceber e produzir programas onde o som das palavras, das músicas, e dos silêncios, eram conjugados, trabalhados, e pensados para resultarem em algo mais do que um gira-discos.
Havia música, sim senhor, mas havia mais mundo para lá da música. Havia autores e programas com autoria. Havia estilos. Havia formas de assumir o comando de uma emissão. Distinguiam-se as vozes. Nalguns casos, bastava ligar o aparelho para se perceber que “estava no ar”. Havia ambientes sonoros que só alguns sabiam criar. Enfim, havia rádio (…)
Daqui a um ano terão passado dez anos sobre o último programa que pude imaginar, conceber e produzir numa estação. É redundante perguntarem-me se tenho saudades… (…)»
Pedro Rolo Duarte, no DNA de sábado, citado por Jorge Guimarães Silva. Ver também os comentários.

As playlists

O que pensa alguém que sabe o que diz sobre o papel das play lists nas rádios (portuguesas).
(obrigado Pedro)