A report from business analysis firm Ovum says they think UK based Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) could bundle a silver bullet with their broadband contracts by adding a digital music service to their offerings. They argue that this would increase customer loyalty (Ovum call it reducing consumer churn), generate additional revenue per customer, reduce online music piracy and increase music industry revenue. They estimate (and they don’t say how they arrived at the figure) that direct revenues from selling music-inclusive deals could be around £103 million by 2013, representing 41% of 2009’s market.
Commenting on the report earlier this week the BPI’s Geoff Taylor said “It’s increasingly clear that it isn’t smart to be a ‘dumb pipe’. This report shows that the revenue potential of digital music services alone makes sound economic sense for ISPs.”
Fair enough. But take note that Universal Music Group sponsored the report, the same UMG that are desperately worried about the collapse of their revenues, and the same UMG that are invested in Spotify, a music service that could very easily sell premium subscriptions bundled with an ISP package. This is by all indications a great idea, and would go a long way to helping the ISP community appease big music – who are accusing it if not of complicity then at least negligence in the article of stopping access to copyright infringing sites and torrent trackers like the infamous Pirate Bay – but an awareness of possible bias might encourage conservatism when looking at Ovum’s estimated numbers. There are a lot of solutions vying for the fast growing digital music dollar, it’s a market in which we’re currently diversity and innovation, and a big move like the one the BPI are advocating could seal the future of music online.
Good news for French musicians, bad news for internet search giants. French Premiere Nicolas Sarkozy is deliberating the recommendations put forward by a select committee to combat the deleterious effect new methods of music consumption are having on the French music industry. With Gallically direct logic, the report advocates sidestepping the whole tricky process of charging ISP’s and banning file-sharers and taxing the easy targets, those who make most from internet traffic, the big search engines and websites. If enacted the French would charge Google, Facebook, Yahoo and anyone else who makes money from advertising on computer screens in France between 1% and 2% on each ad or sponsored link clicked or displayed. The sidestep may not be as neat as M. Sarkozy could hope, however, as taxing websites whose financial base is in another country raises a whole slew of other legal problems. It seems unlikely that Google et al will allow themselves to be milked in this way, given that they are already under fire from the British Government for not declaring their UK taxable income properly.
If the proposals are enacted, and revenue starts flowing, the French Government hopes to raise between 20 and 40 million Euros a year, which it will pump into the music business in various ways, such as Government subsidised vouchers and cards for purchasing music online.
A hot new addition to RouteNote.com this month has been the “eagerly awaited” release of Steph’s ‘Chasing Butterflies’. The catchy, up-beat (strangely familiar) track is mainly recognised from its radio and TV time for a CSL commercial, which aired in 2008. A release of the song had been insisted on by adoring fans.
“At last! This song has been stuck in so many people’s heads since it appeared on a certain TV advertisement last summer, and its kind of strange to finally hear the whole song. But worth waiting for. I really hope her other song ‘Beautiful’ appears on iTunes soon.”
“This artist is going to be another huge product of lancashire. I can’t wait for her second song to be released.”
If you like well produced, melodic, modern pop ‘Chasing Butterflies’ comes with high recommendations.
Check it out on 
Acclaim has decided that they didnt want to battle Guitar Hero and Rock Band and instead have launched an online music game called Rockfree. Players can battle it out with up to seven other people over the internet, and it”ll feature licensed tracks including Iron Man, Fat Lip, and Woman. A closed beta kicked off this weekend, with a full launch scheduled for the first quarter of next year.
WMG, Sony and EMI are on board for licensing – which indicates that Acclaim is ponying up a decent amount of cash for song rights, since WMG is apparently playing hardball on this score with games publishers right now.
Currently, the game is free to play so it is going to be very interesting to see if Acclaim will make money from advertising, or even push though affiliate sales to iTunes and Amazon. All I know is that this is a very interesting idea and it is good to see that Acclaim is moving away from just being a console publisher and now turning into a real games publisher.
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