The music industry globally is set for major structural transformation, as the sales of music CDs continue to fall faster than the rate at which digital downloads are rising. The contracting recorded music industry will be forced to embrace radical changes in business models and practices.
With Ad revenues falling, content owners are looking to develop alternate revenue streams more closely tied to their users' online behaviour. In a slowing worldwide economy, these initiatives are key to their survival until growth returns to the market. YouTube exemplifies the challenges that the sector as a whole faces in the coming months.
Michelle Wong, 26 April 2009
Falling revenue growth and pricing pressures mean that ad-supported business models cannot compensate for declining music revenues.
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Sarita Jones, 31 March 2009
Warner Brothers Entertainment will release its films online in South Korea before they are released in the country on DVD, in a major break from the established Hollywood distribution model which could lead to a big increase in movie downloads. The film studio, which is part of Time Warner, has...
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Sarita Jones, 15 October 2008
The US Copyright Royalty Board has published its ruling which effectively imposes a truce between the demands of songwriters, music labels and digital music services by keeping royalties on CDs, music downloads, online streaming services and ringtones broadly unchanged. The ruling gives none of...
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Michelle Wong, 14 October 2008
MySpace has launched it music store at long last with all the major record labels on board but it will only be available in the US to start with. The focus of the store will be on full-length audio streaming, with music downloads provided by Amazon MP3, so the service is not really a direct...
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Sarita Jones, 25 September 2008