Sure you want that Spotify spotlight, Rdio? All it took was a comical bit of unanticipated marketing overreach, and the rest was an avalanche of Reddit upvotes. Image below; here’s the raucous debate.
We’re hearing some very mixed signals coming out of EMI Music Publishing, especially as its purchase by Sony et. al. gets cemented. The $2.2 billion, regulator-approved purchase gives the Sony consortium control over roughly two million ditties, including 750,000 administered by Sony/ATV under a complex ownership arrangement. Marty Bandier controls the empire, and recently promised the New York Times “one homogeneous company with one person — myself — running it.”
Adele is now pregnant with boyfriend Simon Konecki, according to the artist herself. Konecki is a cofounder of Life Water.
The MegaUpload situation continues to grow more thorny. The US Government’s case – and possibly, extradition attempts involving Kim Dotcom – appear complicated by a recent New Zealand High Court ruling that the raid itself was illegal. Separately, Dotcom’s assets remain completely frozen. Back across the Pacific, a US District Court judge will soon issue a ruling related to user access to millions of gigabytes of seized data.
Which brings us to the Beverly Hills Courthouse, where Digital Music News continues to wrangle with Grooveshark over complicated issues related to data preservation. The preservation step was ordered in May by LA Superior Court judge Richard A. Stone while the prickly step of inspection is deliberated (case background here). The only issue is that preservation freezes large blocks of information and server space, which introduces a myriad of operational problems and risks. An emergency issue related to routine site backups has been solved, though on Friday, Stone underscored the importance of freeing space for ongoing business operations, software updates, product expansion, and other normal business operations. The parties will now be working out details for effectively resuming this status quo; more as it unfolds.
Just moments after selling virtually all of its assets to Najafi Cos., CD, DVD, and Blu-ray manufacturing company Cinram International has now filed for bankruptcy protection. The company listed $500 million in debt; the Toronto-based Cinram has handled a number of major label accounts as these once-core manufacturing operations were steadily outsourced. The bankruptcy filing actually occured June 25th.
Elsewhere, longtime Fontana leader Ron Spaulding has left the company. The purchase and integration into INgrooves Fontana seems to be moving along well; Billboard noted that INgrooves is now planning a move into artist services, citing a letter from CEO Robb McDaniels.
And, just how much are major label artists actually getting from Spotify, that is, after payments pass through the label filter? We’ve been looking at some very interesting contract language involving a major superstar over the weekend; stay tuned. –Digital Music News
