Amazon.com’s greatly hyped music store launched today: Read hear for an in- depth first impression.

Will Album art still have a place in digital marketplace? Fans want digital album art but labels and digital music services are slow making it available because they lack capabilities. Also, the diminishing profit from digital downloads does not motivate the labels to provide fans with extra art due to cost. (Reuters)

‘What’s the Future of the Music Industry’? Check out this post from the writers New York Times’. Steve Gottlieb, president of TVT Records and George Drakoulias, music producer/A&R at American Recordings look at the past, present and future of the music industry….(via coolfer)

Check out the band Fiction Plane. I was listening to G-Rock (106.3) and I thought I heard a new Sting track. My goodness, it sounds like Sting from the Police. In fact, Sting’s son Joe Sumner was on the mic. Dad passed down the vocal genes and the hook-ups as Fiction Plane is the opening act on the current Police Tour.

Giant advertisements set for world’s busiest airport runways: Imagine a photo of Nickelback the size of three football pitches seen by plane passengers coming in to land. Although it would require a bucket-load of marketing dollars, it now remains a possibility.

Upcoming big releases include: Bruce Springsteen, Dashboard Confessional, Matchbox Twenty, Alicia Keys, Jay-Z, Garth Brooks, Britney Spears, Celine Dion, and Mariah Carey.

Vivendi blasts iTunes Contract: Vivendi chief executive Jean-Bernard Levy pointed to a lopsided iTunes contract, and suggested revamped terms. “The split between Apple and producers is indecent,” Levy said. “Our contracts give too good a share to Apple.” Apple gives roughly 70-cents to majors per 99-cent download, a figure that also includes publishing royalties. “We should have a differentiated price system,” Levy said. (DMN)

Authorities have seized ‘art porn’ owned by Elton John: The image, which featured two young girls one of whom was sitting down with her legs wide apart has been seized by police from a gallery on suspicion it may have breached child pornography laws. Please tell us you’re not shocked…

Starbucks Giving Away Music For Free…
On Oct. 2, Starbucks customers at more than 10,000 Starbucks coffee shops will be able to pick up free cards that can be redeemed for a specific song at Apple’s iTunes music service. Two of the four major record companies — Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — chose not to participate. Some executives are leery of large-scale giveaways, arguing that they diminish customers’ perception of the value of their music. I don’t want a FREE Beck song – I want a FREE Latte. (NYT)

A drummer who spent four years in the Ramones, filed a federal lawsuit claiming he is owed nearly $1 million in royalties on songs sold over the Internet.

Madonna who is expected to walk away from Warner Music is close to signing
a £50million contract with her tour promoters Live Nation – to cover
her concert AND her record releases.

People Choose Rock: Modern Rock stations had the highest percentage of listeners heading to stations’ Web sites, with males making up 61.6 percent of that format’s listeners. (FMQB)

I think emo’s a pile of shit…. Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance

Check out Mute Math performing the track Typical completely backwards, a concept the Louisiana quartet conceived, rehearsed and executed in three weeks. Mute Math are exciting to watch as they encompass and interpret the music as it sounds and how it should feel. Mute Math is a multi dimensional artist that KOAR described in a previous post.

According to a survey conducted by American Media Services 63% of American adults listen to the radio every day. The number among 25-34 adults is even stronger: 79 percent tune in to radio at least once a day.

Seventy-two percent of Americans say they’re listening to the radio as much or more now than they did five years ago, and they’re still tuning in in the car: 74 percent of Americans turn on the radio when they get in the car, including 72 percent of 18-24 adults and 80 percent of 25-34s.

Satellite radio subscriptions steady at about 11 percent — but 89 percent of respondents said they are unlikely to subscribe to satellite radio in the next 12 months.

“Many analysts seem to be enthralled with the technology of satellite radio, but the buying public isn’t,” said AMS President/CEO Edward F. Seeger. “Satellite radio continues to fill only a small niche in the marketplace.”

AMS also asked what would prompt respondents to listen to radio more. The top answer: More music and fewer commercials. (via Idolator)

The Bottom Line – We can’t verify the accuracy of the study. Some kids claim they only use the iPod and rarely listen to the radio except for XM satellite radio. Maybe more adults are tuning in on talk radio. Unfortunately, it’s overly fragmented to get a proper understanding, but radio has no doubt lost influence. Who really holds influence today?

Warner Music Group chairman and CEO Edgar Bronfman remains optimistic by eyeing industry growth potential. He sees a future for digital rights management and physical product in the music industry, although maybe not in their present forms.

Bronfman also said they will now invest in new and mid-tier artists with the expectation that it will share in all the artists’ revenue streams that could include touring and merchandising through helping to build other revenue streams, whether that be hosting and selling off of an artist’s Web site. He also said major music labels did not not create a website to offer music because the profit margins are not attractive.

TV turns to internet and will offer Free Downloads…
NBC Universal, acknowledging that viewers are increasingly moving away from traditional television viewing, announced plans for a service that will make popular NBC programs available to download free to computers and other devices.

It appears that California based band Thriving Ivory has signed to Wind Up Records. This band has put in their duties. Check them out in KOAR’s New Music and Recommended Listening Column.