Apple IPhone Hype Machine in Overdrive:
Apple has mastered the art of HYPE. Die-hard Apple fans are expected to line up overnight or longer outside retail stores to get their hands on an iPhone for either $500 or $600. Skeptics wonder whether even the most innovative product could live up to the iPhone’s lofty expectations – and whether the pre-launch anticipation has spiraled too far out of control.
Scrutiny of the product is so great that any small disappointment could send Apple’s stock plunging, experts say.
The hype began when Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off the iPhone at the annual Macworld Conference and Expo in early January.
The iPhone has already generated a thriving cottage industry online, with more than 1,100 peripheral iPhone items currently for sale on eBay, including colorful holsters, touch-screen protectors and car adapters.
But the hype has also hurt Apple.
The launch is being so closely watched that Apple’s share price plunged more than 4 percent in a matter of minutes last month after a rumor about a delay was reported on Engadget.com, an electronics Web site.
Die-hard fans are expected to camp out in front of Apple and AT&T stores to get a shot at snagging one of the iPhones, which are being sold on a first-come, first-serve basis starting Friday evening.
“God knows what’s going to happen when the reviews come out,” he said. (myway)
Review: The iPhone Matches Most of Its Hype
KOAR Briefs……………..
The caffeine pusher Starbucks and Universal Music Group are now priming a release from Sonic Youth. (DMN)
An increasingly large number of consumers are listening to music on their PCs, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.
Thrice who was heavily anticipated in 2003 with “Artist in The Ambulance” have parted ways with Island Records. Vagrant Records has signed indie act
Dr. Manhattan.
New acts starting out should read these two articles Yahoo articles including Digital riches await savvy indie bands and Five touring tips for developing bands. (AbsolutePunk)
The Donnas who have departed ways from Atlantic Records start their own record label. Even though the Donnas entered talks with other majors after its departure from Atlantic, the group ultimately wanted more control and profits from its records. The new Redeye deal guarantees a 50/50 split from sales, plus co-ownership of the masters and a record-to-record contract. Redeye’s deal is for North America, leaving the Donnas to choose international distributors. (Billboard)
Read the LA Times article “Kelly Clarkson’s dispute with Clive Davis has made her music hard to hear”.Unlike most first time successful artists, Clarkson doesn’t have the urge to claw her way back on the charts.
Sanctuary Records Group will have let go their entire Radio Promotion Department come June 30. Names and contact info of exiting employees can be found here.
 
The Future of Music Coalition, an artists’ rights group, is accusing Clear Channel Communications of forcing musicians to give up their digital copyrights in order to get the airplay that the broadcaster is required to give under the payola consent decree.
The Coalition claims that Clear Channel is forcing independent musicians to sign a contract that gives up the artists’ right to a performance fee when their music is broadcast over the Web.
This is outrageous,” Coalition Executive Director Jenny Toomey said, according to the Hollywood Reporter, Esq. “This is like the fox getting caught in the henhouse a second time and arguing that he shouldn’t get in trouble because he was leaving the hens alone. He was just eating all their eggs.”
Clear Channel tells a different story:
Michele Clarke, according to the Reporter. “The artists are in complete control of their musical work. They control whether they just want it considered for broadcast over the air, whether they want it considered for streaming online, whether they want it to be available for download or all three, and (most importantly) they have the right to terminate their license at any time upon notice to us.”
In March, the Copyright Royalty Board voted to increase the rates that Webcasters must pay each time a song is played, and the stiff increase has been a hot button issue among Webcasters ever since. (FMQB)
 
Music file-sharing service Qtrax is about to hit the market with catalogs of all the 4 major record labels. Not only that, Qtrax will be traded publicly under a shell company called Flooring Zone.
Qtrax will have access to between 20 million and 30 million copyrighted songs at launch in October. Some sources claim that Qtrax could be considered a legitimate threat to Apple’s iTunes, which only features 5 million songs, but also a better economic proposition as well (record labels collect about 70 cents on each iTunes sale).
Qtrax has the support of the four major record labels – EMI, SonyBMG, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group
More than 5 billion songs were swapped on peer-to-peer sites last year while CD sales, the industry’s core revenue-producing product, continue to decline, dropping about 20 percent this year alone. According to a recent report from Jupiter Research, things are only going to get worse.
“Consumers clearly aren’t willing to pay for music, but advertisers are the one group that still will,” said Brilliant Technologies CEO Allan Klepfisz, who added that Internet advertising is growing at a 30 percent clip per year. (NY Post)
Qtrax’s initial revenue projections range from a low of $20 million to a high of $175 million. Record labels will get an equal split of advertising revenue in addition to the royalty fees it collects from Qtrax.
 
According to research from the NPD Group, Apple iTunes is now the third largest music retailer in the country in any format, digital or physical. Based on first quarter figures, Wal-Mart is the biggest single music retailer with 15.8% of the market, Best Buy second at 13.8% and iTunes third at 9.8%.
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