The IFPI have release some very interesting figures with regards to growth in 2011.
Digital trade revenue was up 8 percent to $5.2 billion.
That was the first year the growth rate increased since IFPI records began in 2004. Previously, growth rate of 10 percent in 2009 had sunk to five percent in 2010.
Globally, digital is now 32 percent of labels’ income, up from 29 percent (that is 52 percent in the U.S. and 71 percent in China). Download volume grew 17 percent to 3.6 billion.
Adoption of subscription services grew 65 percent to 13.4 million consumers. Remarkably, in Sweden, subscription contributes an impressive 85 percent of digital music revenue generally, thanks to its local hero Spotify.
HMV has been struggling a lot with its mounting debt, pressure from banks and fall in overall sales. HMV has now announced that they will be giving equity worth 2.5 percent to its key suppliers – music and movie studios – to avoid breaching its banking covenants. This saw HMV shares rise 100% in a matter of minutes. I find it very interesting that HMV can give away 2.5% of their company for writing off old debt and shares can increase. I know their bottom line looks a lot better, but it really doesn’t draw away from the fact that the CD music market is in decline and HMV isnt adapting very well to this changing market!
HMV are also in talks to sell their profitable live music company, Mama Group, plus selling off their 50% stake in 7Digital. I can only see tough times ahead of this high street giant who didn’t move with the times (sounds very much like the Kodak story!).
Fantastic Animals is my favourite release on RouteNote Direct at the moment. Fantastic Animals is from the very talented Tam Johnstone who has been in many bands throughout the years.
This is by far my favourite track at the moment. Natalia Kills – Mirrors (Omega Remix). Im a huge fan of Dubstep and our Dubstep catalogue here at RouteNote is growing daily!
Ian Rogers just interviewed Jon Irwin the Rhapsody President. In the interview he seemed to spend a lot of time talking about Rhapsody competitors and how their products were really limited.. and not talking about why Rhapsody actually stands out from these other service.
Here at RouteNote we have been trying to sign with Rhapsody for about 3 years and in that time they have been refusing to add new partners. I can’t really see Rhapsody ever leaving the USA, thus its a bit of a waste of time!
Moog Music ha released the Minitaur, which is in the Moog Taurus Bass Synthesizer family. Minitaur is a compact and powerful analog bass synthesizer.
Features:
» Compact rugged steel chassis
» One knob per function interface
» Two stable oscillators with Sawtooth and Square waveshapes
» Classic Taurus Style Moog ladder filter
» Two Minimoog-style Envelope generators for modulating VCF and VCA
» Midi-syncable LFO with Controls for Rate, VCO LFO Amount, and VCF LFO Amount
» DIN MIDI and MIDI over USB
» Analog Control inputs for pitch, filter, volume and gate
» External audio input
» Headphone output
The Moog Minitaur costs $679 and will be available sometime this Spring.
The Tied are an up and coming band from Kent in the UK. They have been gigging a lot and have even found some success in a battle of the bands contest recently. The Tied has joined RouteNote and their music is available via RouteNote Direct.
