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The Yankee Group today released a new study that examines the viability of webcasting, even as online-only broadcasters such as Live365, RadioWave, ClickRadio, and NetRadio suffer losses, announce layoffs, and face the specter of shuttering operations altogether. Ryan Jones, the analyst who authored the report, said in the executive summary, “The challenges facing Internet-only webcasters are significant enough to keep broadcasters in the lead for the foreseeable future. But a growing listener base, falling streaming costs and an increasingly cooperative advertising community are all aligning to mark webcasting as a soon-to-be profitable complement to broadcast radio.” The report indicates that… Read more »

MusicNet, Pressplay working out kinks in technology, licensing – now they need paying users. Although the major labels have been making strides in their efforts to deliver music to listeners’ desktops while collecting money for themselves and their artists, the road ahead is still littered with questions, and the labels’ long-promised services still are not a reality. When will music fans see them? When they do, will they be willing to pay for something they now can get for free? Can the industry shoot down all the new hotshot – and free – file-trading services? And whatever happened to Napster,… Read more »

While choosing new tunes for her upcoming album, one of Whitney Houston’s old hits inspired some feelings of patriotism. According to her label, Houston, who had been in the process of picking songs for the LP with Arista CEO L.A. Reid before last Tuesday’s terrorist strikes, decided to do her part to help the country recover by agreeing to have her rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” re-released. Houston has waived her royalty rights to the recording and instead the proceeds will be split between the New York Firefighters Disaster Relief Fund and the New York Fraternal Order of Police Fund,… Read more »

Music by Britney Spears, ‘NSYNC, the Backstreet Boys and Tool will be legally available online this year, thanks to a deal announced Tuesday (July 24) between the artists’ record company and the fledgling subscription service MusicNet. Zomba, which boasts the Jive imprint, home to Spears, Aaron Carter, Mystikal and other hot acts, is the fourth record company to join MusicNet, which is scheduled to launch in the fall. MusicNet is set to be available through America Online, RealPlayer software and even the planned subscription version of Napster. “People ask, ‘will there be compelling major-label content available through MusicNet?’ ” the… Read more »

Napster has become so effective in blocking the trade of copyrighted material that the sharing of songs on the service has virtually ground to a halt, research firm Webnoize said on Wednesday. Webnoize said users of Napster’s latest software, which incorporates file identification technology, had an average of 1.5 song files to share at any given time as of Wednesday, down from a peak of 220 songs in February. The newest version of the once-phenomenally popular song-swap software includes audio fingerprinting technology, developed by Relatable, which helps Napster filter out copyrighted songs in order to comply with a court injunction.… Read more »

While Janet Jackson’s new album, All for You, is expected to top next week’s Billboard 200, the title track is still holding strong as the #1 song in the country. Like most of Janet’s album, the song is produced by the singer/songwriter with the Flyte Tyme team of Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis, and it includes an inventive sample – from Change’s 1980 disco cut “The Glow of Love,” which featured Luther Vandross on lead vocals. “It was Jimmy’s idea,” Janet told MTV Europe of the sample. “I hadn’t heard the song before. He thought that he was going to… Read more »

Maybe the Recording Industry Association of America had better watch its back. The Recording Artists Coalition – which counts founder Don Henley, Sheryl Crow, and Alanis Morissette among its members – is making strides toward becoming a formidable opponent. The RAC, which claims that the RIAA doesn’t always operate in the best interests of artists, has recently hired an executive director, laid out plans for offices in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., and folded another high-profile artists’ rights group under its wing. In March, Henley said the RAC boasted 57 high-profile members, including Billy Joel, Eric Clapton, and Bruce Springsteen.… Read more »

Straight from mainstream radio into your CD player, the sixth installment of Sony/Epic’s compilation series “Now That’s What I Call Music!” blasted its way to the top of the album charts this week, knocking late rapper Tupac Shakur back into the hereafter. “Now 6,” as it’s commonly called, sold more than 525,000 copies for the week ended Sunday, according to rankings data from SoundScan. The album includes such heavy-rotation faves as Britney Spears’ “Stronger,” U2’s “Beautiful Day” and Shaggy’s “It Wasn’t Me.” The “Now 6” debut is the strongest yet for the series, all of which have gone platinum. “Now… Read more »

Eminem avoided jail time when a judge sentenced him on Tuesday to two years’ probation for carrying a concealed weapon. But the rapper must refrain from excessive alcohol or drug use for those two years, undergo counseling, avoid “assaultive behavior” and can’t own or possess firearms or other weapons. Macomb County Circuit Judge Antonio P. Viviano also told Eminem he must get the court’s permission if he wants to leave the continental United States during that period. Prosecutors had sought a jail sentence of four to six months after Eminem pleaded guilty to the felony in February in a plea-bargain… Read more »

On Monday (February 12), the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered the wildly popular song-swap service Napster to stop its millions of users from trading copyrighted material. Calling the decision a major victory, recording industry officials and legal experts said the ruling by a three-judge panel could destroy Napster as a free song-swapping service. Napster, a company formed around a computer program developed by a teenage college dropout, was gloomy. “Napster is not shut down, but under this decision it could be. We are very disappointed in this ruling by the three judge panel and will seek appellate review,”… Read more »