RouteNote Blog » universal http://routenote.com/blog The World of Music Licensing and Distribution Thu, 09 Feb 2012 21:52:08 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.2 Bob Marley’s Family Lose Court Battle Against Universal Music http://routenote.com/blog/bob-marleys-family-lose-court-battle-against-universal-music/ http://routenote.com/blog/bob-marleys-family-lose-court-battle-against-universal-music/#comments Tue, 14 Sep 2010 14:52:19 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=5410

Bob Marley’s family has just been blocked by a New York judge on obtaining copyrights from his most famous recordings from Universal Music Group.

Judge Denise Cote ruled the major owned the copyrights to five albums recorded by the late reggae singer and his band, The Wailers, between 1973 and 1977 for Island Records.

Marley’s family had accused UMG of intentionally withholding royalties from their Fifty-Six Hope Road Music company and claimed Universal had failed to consult with them on key licensing decisions, among them the use of Marley’s music on ringtones.

However, the judge ruled that the recordings were “works made for hire” as defined under US copyright law which entitled UMG to be designated the owner of those recordings as the parent company of Island Records.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/bob-marleys-family-lose-court-battle-against-universal-music/feed/ 0 Universal and UKs Official Chart Company Launch TimeWheel iPhone Application http://routenote.com/blog/universal-and-uks-official-chart-company-launch-timewheel-iphone-application/ http://routenote.com/blog/universal-and-uks-official-chart-company-launch-timewheel-iphone-application/#comments Mon, 16 Aug 2010 11:09:09 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=4757 Universal Music Group has launched its latest iPhone app, in partnership with the UK’s Official Charts Company. The app is called TimeWheel and is a very simple music time machine.

TimeWheel is a database of Top 40 singles and albums since 1955.

The app has also roped in UMG artists like Lady Gaga, Tinchy Stryder, Kelly Rowland, Take That, and Chase & Status to contribute their own lists of favourite songs from the past 55 years.

The app naturally ties into the iTunes Store for users to buy songs (not just Universal artists).


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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/universal-and-uks-official-chart-company-launch-timewheel-iphone-application/feed/ 0 American Idol Leaves Sony Partnership and Jumps into Bed with Universal http://routenote.com/blog/american-idol-leaves-sony-partnership-and-jumps-into-bed-with-universal/ http://routenote.com/blog/american-idol-leaves-sony-partnership-and-jumps-into-bed-with-universal/#comments Wed, 11 Aug 2010 03:19:34 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=4619

There are a lot of big changes within American Idol at the moment. Ryan Seacrest still has a job, Simon Cowell has left and today they announced that they have signed a deal with Universal Music Group as the label for the show’s performers starting next season (this is probably why Simon Cowell left, because he is tied to Sony).

The move kicks Sony Music out of the bed after nine-seasons with the Fox show, a successful partnership that has sold more than 100 million CDs and 120 million digital downloads by performers such as Carrie Underwood and Chris Daughtry.

As part of this multi-year agreement, UMG’s Interscope Geffen A&M will market, promote and distribute albums globally from American Idol’s finalists and winning contestants across a broad array of retail and new media platforms.

“With Idol celebrating our tenth season I wanted to inject some new power and weight behind our brand,” said Mr Fuller.

“It is exciting to have the world’s biggest show partnered with the world’s biggest music company.”

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/american-idol-leaves-sony-partnership-and-jumps-into-bed-with-universal/feed/ 0 2010 Quarter 1 Marketshare for Major Music Labels http://routenote.com/blog/2010-quarter-1-marketshare-for-major-music-labels/ http://routenote.com/blog/2010-quarter-1-marketshare-for-major-music-labels/#comments Fri, 26 Mar 2010 10:47:32 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=3110 Record industry trade Hits Daily Double has gone through the numbers for Q1 of 2010 to see how the major label marketshare is shaping up. Sony has been gaining some great marketshare from Universal, Im guessing that is mainly because of the huge success of Simon Cowell’s record label. Hits has more analysis.  Free registration is required.

2010 major label marketshare

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/2010-quarter-1-marketshare-for-major-music-labels/feed/ 0 Guvera Announce US Launch Date http://routenote.com/blog/guvera-announce-us-launch-date/ http://routenote.com/blog/guvera-announce-us-launch-date/#comments Tue, 23 Feb 2010 15:30:31 +0000 Dashiel http://routenote.com/blog/?p=2908 guveraAd-supported music and digital content service Guvera has set the date for going live in the States as 30th March. The service, named for the bloody-handed revolutionary icon Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara [wiki here, tl;dr we should all strive for personal fulfilment and be nice communists, but sometimes it's ok to shoot people in the head if they betray you] – aims to instigate a ‘revolution’ in the media industry by getting advertisers to pay for content delivered to consumers, who have chosen the advertiser whose branding they find least offensive/interruptive. This may not be quite the paradigm shift that they seem to think, but their beta service has been up and running for a couple of months in Australia now, and has been successful enough for them to roll out the full scale launch. They have deals in place with Universal Music Group, EMI Music and IODA offering consumers ‘free but paid for’ legal downloads from their full music libraries, but concerns abound as to whether they’ll be able to pay for them in the long term and on the grand scale that they hope for. Another streaming service in the States means that Spotify, bogged down making their platform profitable in Europe, will find the marketplace that bit more crowded if and when they finally get their stall laid out in the US, but they will have had the headstart in refining the user experience and gathering advertisers to their service. There is a future for online ad-supported music streaming, the appetite is strongly apparent, but it will be a hotly contested race to become the dominant provider, and Guvera have yet to prove themselves against the competition.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/guvera-announce-us-launch-date/feed/ 0 Universal Music Group and Google Partner for Vevo http://routenote.com/blog/universal-music-group-and-google-partner-for-vevo/ http://routenote.com/blog/universal-music-group-and-google-partner-for-vevo/#comments Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:08:33 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=688 vevo-logo-universal-music-and-google-video-streaming-mtv

The rumours are true and Universal Music Group and Google have announced their joint venture, Vevo – a video site offering UMG’s music videos, with advertising revenues shared between the two.

The full press release is below for you to digest, and naturally we’ll have more analysis next week.

UNIVERSAL MUSIC GROUP AND YOUTUBE TO LAUNCH REVOLUTIONARY PREMIUM MUSIC AND VIDEO SERVICE

VEVO – UMG’s Premium Music Service Powered By YouTube To Launch In Coming Months

NEW YORK, NY and SAN BRUNO, CA, April 9, 2009 – Doug Morris, Chairman & Chief Executive Officer of Universal Music Group (UMG), the world’s leading music company and Eric Schmidt, Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer of Google Inc., today announced that UMG and YouTube, a Google subsidiary, are working together to launch VEVO, a music and video entertainment service that will feature UMG’s premium video content.

In addition to VEVO, YouTube has renewed and extended its successful partnership with UMG that allows users to continue creating and watching user-generated videos containing UMG sound recordings and Universal Music Publishing Group’s compositions on YouTube through various territories around the world. The two companies will also share advertising revenue on YouTube and VEVO.

Launching later this year, VEVO will be a premium online music video hub built for consumers, advertisers and content owners that will blend UMG’s broad catalog of top artists and content with YouTube’s leading edge video technology and user community. YouTube will provide the technology infrastructure that will power VEVO and host UMG’s extensive library of professionally-created music videos on the new site. On YouTube, this content will be exclusively available through VEVO.com and a new VEVO channel through a special VEVO branded embedded player.

“VEVO will bring the most compelling premium music video content and services to the world’s single largest online video audience,” stated Mr. Morris. “We believe that at launch, VEVO will already have more traffic than any other music video site in the United States and in the world. And this traffic represents the most sought after demographic for advertisers, especially as advertising dollars continue their shift from old media to new. VEVO will be uniquely positioned to monetize this opportunity and a host of others as we grow it to become “the” destination for premium music video content online. For music lovers who want the best in music videos, the VEVO experience will be second to none. At the same time, VEVO will expand the premium video marketplace, generate new revenue streams for content creators, and provide brand advertisers an unprecedented opportunity to get in front of a highly engaged audience. We couldn’t be more excited about the huge potential we see in the VEVO service.”

“Technology has allowed fans to discover music in endless ways while creating new business opportunities for artists and labels alike,” said Mr. Schmidt. “At Google, we are committed to promoting greater innovation and choice and are thrilled to be working with UMG in what will surely be an exciting new service for consumers, advertisers, content creators and the music industry at large.”
At launch, people will be able to access UMG’s entire catalog of premium music video content, including professionally-created and full-length videos on VEVO, as well as artist-generated content and user-generated content hosted on YouTube. VEVO will also serve as a syndication platform, expanding the reach of the VEVO brand. This innovative platform is aimed at providing consumers the very best in digital music content while further extending UMG’s lead in the direct-to-consumer market.

Presently, UMG’s YouTube video channel has more than 3.5 billion views, making the UMG channel the most watched on YouTube.

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]]> http://routenote.com/blog/universal-music-group-and-google-partner-for-vevo/feed/ 6 Amazon Mp3 Has Finally Launched Its UK Music Download Store http://routenote.com/blog/amazon-mp3-has-finally-launched-its-uk-music-download-store/ http://routenote.com/blog/amazon-mp3-has-finally-launched-its-uk-music-download-store/#comments Wed, 03 Dec 2008 20:03:12 +0000 Finchy http://routenote.com/blog/?p=363
Amazon has just launched their Mp3 Music store in the UK. The store can be found at http://mp3.amazon.co.uk. The simple-to-use digital music store offering over 3 million DRM-free (Digital Rights Management) songs which will work on any MP3 player including the iPod™- with top-selling albums from just £3 and individual songs from 59p.

Amazon Mp3 UK has all four major labels signed up, SonyBMG, Universal Music, EMI Music and Warner Music – and leading independents such as Cooking Vinyl, Harmonia Mundi, Beggars Banquet, The Orchard, Concord and IODA.

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