It appears controversial site AllOfMP3 will appear in the near future. AllofMP3 sells non-protected audio formats at a significantly lower cost than other online music stores — it also operates illegally and engage in music piracy. Of course AllofMP3’s previous CEO was not guilty of breaching Russian copyright laws, and therefore the AllofMP3 service was legal. Russia receive royalties for the use of foreign artistic works, but never pass on that money to the artists or music companies, according to the International Confederation of Societies of Authors and Composers. These collecting agencies are thieves and frauds because they accept money while pretending to represent artists,” said Eric Baptiste, director general of the confederation. “They play off a bizarre aspect of the Russian law that we are lobbying to change.”

The Escape Frame have signed with Immortal Records. (AP)

CD Baby is now selling MP3 album downloads at its website.

It looks like Apple will release a new IPod September 5th….

Father-In-Law: Boycott Winehouse Albums….

Reviews and ticket sales have been mixed for the old time rockers including The Rolling Stones, Aerosmith, Genesis, the Who, the Police and Black Sabbath who have been hitting Germany’s concert circuit.

Older rockstars touring Germany are part of a wider trend as bands try to compensate for falling record sales, but never before have so many old-established acts swept the country, known for its loyal rock fans, efficient organization and high ticket sales.

“You can see the trend most clearly in Germany,” said Christian Diekmann, chief operating officer at Deutsche Entertainment — one of Germany’s main concert organizers

“It’s got Europe’s biggest economy and the most purchasing power,” he told Reuters. “There are good-sized cities across the country and they all have football stadiums or good venues.”

“The question is ‘why are they bothering?’,” said Harald Peters, culture editor and music critic. “Some of these groups are just plain burned out. Others are just old and boring.

“They’re getting torn to shreds in reviews. I’m not saying all of them should have stopped at 40. But with some, it’s so bizarre and you wonder why. Do they need the money? Didn’t they get an education? Can’t they do anything else for a living?” CONTINUE READING

Trans World has posted another loss. CD sales have dropped another 15.1% in the U.S. according to Nielsen Soundscan. This has forced many stores including Trans World, Hastings, and Virgin Megastores to think of new business opportunities. “Trans World has 950 stores and we would expect them to continue to deemphasize music over the next 12-24 months,” said Richard Greenfield of Pali Research during a recent investor note.

The new Mya record apparently was delayed again. On March 5, 2007 the album’s first single “Lock U Down,” a collaboration with Lil Wayne, was sent to U.S. radio but failed to chart or sell noticeably, and thus the album was delayed once again, with a current schedule for a September 18, 2007 .

in2une Music is a new company that offers music promotion and marketing services, artist development, and digital music marketing.

Kyambo “Hip-Hop” Joshua has been named president of Columbia’s urban department.

Mark Cuban the 2.3 billion dollar internet entrepreneur has now claimed the internet is “dead and boring”. “We have reached the point of diminishing returns with today’s internet. The speed of broadband to your home won’t increase much more in the next five years than it has in the last five years. That is not enough to work as a platform for new levels of applications that will require much, much higher levels of bandwidth.”

KOAR recommended artist Cene will be signing to Asylum Records/Atlantic.

American Idol runner-up Blake Lewis signs a record deal with Clive Davis’s Arista.

Major record labels and SoundExchange have reached a deal with webcasting services over covering royalty rates that webcasters must pay to stream sound recordings through 2010.

Commercial webcasters including AOL, Live365, MTV, RealNetworks, Pandora and Yahoo! will not have to pay more than $50,000 per service as a per-station or per-channel minimum royalty to webcast sound recordings.

Large webcasters will not be required to implement any kind of technology to prevent the streamed music from being ripped, i.e. copied, by users, — but, the services have agreed to cooperate and discuss implementation of anti-stream ripping technology on their services with labels and artists. (Billboard)

Total U.S. Market:

Online radio (Yahoo!, AOL, Clear Channel, and Live 356) – 29 million people listen each week.

Terrestrial radio – 230 million weekly listeners

Satellite radio – 14 million weekly listeners

Charm Offensive by The States

Car Crash by Matt Nathanson

Angels on the Moon by Thriving Ivory

Sunlight by Matt Pond PA