The BBC and Digital Music News (and I’m sure others as well) have articles about the results of some research by Jupiter Research.  The research shows how little iTunes use gets, compared to the number of iPods incirculation and the alternative sources of music to load onto them. The report indicates that people draw the bulk of their music on their iPods from CDs that they own and to an extent P2P file sharing.

The most interesting point that the BeeB highlights is the fact that people who tend to have these devices also tend to purchase more CDs.  So, despite the integration of iTunes and iPods – people at the end of the date like to have something real that they can touch and feel.

Well, another hectic weekend, which means I’m a bit behind on the news.  But an number of articles have been popping up about Universal licensing their music catalogue to a company (Spiralfrog) who will provide a legal download service.  The download service then make money from advertising, sadly the service is only available to US and Canada. 

It leaves me asking the question, can website advertising generate enough revenue to pay for a download – i.e. 99c??  Or, is this a implicit consession that 99c is a bit expensive?

Blogging a medium to keep people informed of events etc is now well established. But off the back of this there seems to be a trend of collective blogging on a common theme. This seems to be happening where multiple people can author on a blog for example Behind The Sofa site (and BlogCritics.com), or a site which aggregates multiple blogs on a common theme for example at Sun.

The interesting thing is that podcasting like blogging uses the same basic technologies (i.e. RSS/Atom) but doesn’t appear to have developed the trend of collectives providing podcasts. This is a little surprising in many respects as podcasting requires more commitment and effort to produce, so sharing the work to keep a steady series of podcasts going seems an obvious approach. If you’re interested in exploring this idea – then please let me know.

On the subject of podcasting; in terms of music podcasts outside of the corporate entities it strikes me that the podcasts are the 21st Century equivelent to the mix tape. Both podcasts and mix tapes are usually a collection of songs that the caster considers worthy of sharing put on to a medium by which the experience can be transfered easily. With your good old mix tape you’d write down on the cassette case the track information and maybe some words as to the significance of the song – this is now simply done by recording a bit of speech or adding an blog entry to go with the cast.

The only serious difference is mix tapes take time to make multiple copies for each of your friends the time a lot more time.

The politics of the podcast against the mix tape I believe simply boil down to the fact that the RIAA/ARIA and associated can more easily track the movement of the podcast over the net where as the mix tape passing from hand to hand or through the post can’t.  The interesting thing is that the RIAA don’t appear to have really gone for podcasters in the same way as people sharing files despite the fact that both break the same laws.  Perhaps they have quietly recognised the free artist promotional effects of podcasts?  Time for some clarity of position here I think, as my speculation on the RIAA is true there is certainly a little incosistency; so what if I shared my podcast as share of mixed tracks?

Last Friday () saw French legislation requiring music download stores to provide interoperability unless the artists affected approve the absence of interoperability. French legislature has fudged the law giving Apple (and others) this opt out. If it wasn’t for the fact that the Danish and Scandinavian countries are also addressing the same issue I’d say that Apple will have it easy. As by far the largest download service Apple wouldn’t be difficult to pressure artists into the sign off so meaning that Apple have a small administrative overhead. But maybe the risk of losing several more countries in the EU might force Apple to being do more than just a paper exercise.

At the other end of the spectrum, a coalition of the major record companies have started proceedings against another P2P network – this time Limewire. Given that Kazaa has finally completed its roll over with $100M payout, I can not see Limewire holding out very long.

Interestingly, I wonder how much of the $100M that Kazaa have coughed up will find its way into the pockets of artists – given that the money is payment for lost revenue, which means artists royalties? Not to mention how the money will be divided amongst the artists, if that actually happens.