From today’s Digital Music News:

Sources Point to Discussions Between Google, Napster

Speculation has recently focused on a possible digital music store play from Google, especially following the release of Google Video. Now, well-placed sources have pointed Digital Music News to discussions between the search giant and Napster, though the sources were unable to share additional details. Meanwhile, sources to the New York Post offered the possibility that “Google is considering an extensive alliance with Napster, which could include an outright acquisition”. Earlier, sources from within Napster told Digital Music News that the company is considering a sale or liquidation, though a Napster representative denied those claims. Napster is unlikely to respond to the most recent information, due to a quiet period ahead of an upcoming earnings call on February 8th.

Having built a digital music store from scratch I can tell you that it is a Herculean task. Mix that with the anachronistic business practices and models of the major labels and you get an extremely high barrier of entry into the digital music store business. If your goal is to get into the business quickly and with a minimum of fuss (read: dealing with the labels) the only path is to buy an established player.

This ‘news‘ (life-essence-sucking registration required), if true, would fast-track Google into the digital music space by granting them access to an established catalog with download and subscription rights from the labels. However, if they hope to leverage the dMarc acquisition they had better read those label deals carefully to ensure that streaming rights are included on the in-place agreements.

Update: Turns out, not so much.

Now this I get big time. This project has created a platform upon which folks can build their own VoIP clients into all sorts of things; stand-alone apps, browser extensions, dedicated HW devices, etc and it’s cross-platform and CPU. Did I mention it was open source?

Sweet.

home – openzoep.org

Secure Digital Container is a Java based DRM that has begun to get some traction in the mobile market. It proports to work with any device that includes a Java JVM with ‘the Java Media Environment’. According to stats on their website, SDC claims that 80% of mobile phones and 90% of PCs sold in 2003 qualify. I’m more than a bit skeptical of those numbers; 8 of 10 mobile handsets purchased 2-3 years ago have a JVM? That seems like a stretch to me. And, what 10% of new PCs do not?

What they do have going for them is a platform independant (Mac, Windows, Symbian, Palm, etc) solution that has been ‘blessed’ by the major labels. They also have real commecial deployments, albeit exclusively in Europe.

However, it is not the holy grail of DRM as it does not support the ubiquitious iPod. In my mind, the world certainly does not need yet-another-DRM techology. What we do need is an open standard ([cough] OMA [cough]) with the support of the major content providers (labels and studios) and device manufacturers. Without it the market, both for devices and content, will contiue to be fragmented and limited. In a modern economy markets flourish not because I’ve built the best widget but because my widget works the best with the Acme thing-a-ma-gig and the MorbidCo pop-o-matic.

Rich Media Realities | Union Square Ventures

Although it should be taken with a grain of salt the size of newborn’s head, the IFPI have released a report on digital music sales in 2006. I’ll summarize:

• Record company revenues (trade revenues) reached $US 1.1 billion in 2005 showing a threefold increase on 2004 ($US 380 million).
• Digital music (online and mobile) represents approximately 6% of overall music sales
• 420 million single tracks were downloaded in 2005 globally – more than double the number downloaded in 2004 (156 million).US: 353 million single tracks downloaded (up from 143 million) [Nielsen SoundScan]UK: 26.4 million single tracks downloaded (up from 5.8 million) [OCC]Germany: estimated 21 million single tracks downloaded (up from 6.4 million) [IFPI Germany]France: estimated 8 million single tracks downloaded (up from 1.5 million) [SNEP]
• The number of users of subscription services, such as Rhapsody and Napster, increased from 1.5 to 2.8 million globally in 2005.
• Globally there are now over 335 legitimate online services, up from 230 in 2004 and 50 two years ago. In Europe alone the number of services reached 200 in 2005, up from 150 in 2004.
• Mobile sales in Japan totalled $US 211 million, or 96% of digital sales in the market, in the first nine months of 2005. Single track downloads reached 4.3 million during the period.
• Mobile phone subscriptions reached 1.5 billion in 2005 – a 50% increase on 2002.
• Satellite radio subscriptions reached over 9 million in the US alone – three times as many as the number of global subscription services users. Over 475 million people globally receive Digital Audio Broadcast services (DAB).
• The number of infringing music files available on the internet at any one time is estimated at 885 million. This is slightly up on January 2005 (870 million) but down compared to June 2005 (900 million). By contrast, broadband uptake rose by 26% in the past year. Total infringing music files are down 20% on the 1.1 billion peak in April 2003.

More background and analaysis are available here and more analysis here.

Global digital music sales triple to US$1.1 billion in 2005 as new market takes shape

Interesting article, from the Economist of all places, about the decline of the ‘big media empires’.

Old media | King content | Economist.com