In a slightly changed format for my Blog and something that I will continue to do bi-weekly is give, in a nutshell, a round up of some of the key stories and developments within the world of Digital Media, Entertainment Retail as well as the Music & Movie industry...
So without further a do lets crack on with the very first DMN...
Labels News...
EMI - and Guy Hands still tinkering with what the company should look and feel like inside.. As my readers know I'm not a fan of Guy Hands, not from a business perspective, I admire him as a financier and business head! However EMI being a UK institution that spawned some of the countries best loved artists, is being driven into the ground and a lack of new talent and direction is turning the company into an unrecognisable business, rather than a record label. So what has happened now? Several Terra Firma senior executives, namely Chris Roling (EMI's COO and CFO), Ashley Unwin (COO for UK and North America) and Francois van der Spuy have gone! As well as Riaz Punja and Stephen Alexander who are meeting Terra Firma and Guy about their next move within the business. In a final and bizarre twist the deal that Terra Firma did with CitiGroup (£2.6bn) to fund the deal has now been rolled up into Citi’s $23bn leveraged loans portfolio, which was recently underwritten by the US government! So the ongoing twists and turns of the British institution could end up being bailed out and a liability for the already downtrodden US taxpayer..... 
Taking the downturn and the ongoing music industry dilemma and traumas in a much more dignified manner is Warner Music Group. Who, unlike EMI, decided that they should not have such a severe knee jerk reaction by having a clear out internally or restructure the company in such a way that it becomes confused and unrecognisable! In fact apart from the odd market and industry analysis that keeps blowing the value of WMG further down, they seemed to be bracing themselves for the long haul and hope to weather the storm. WMG has taken the calm approach by cutting costs, acquired some companies, even invested in some new start up companies, followed suit into the digital initiatives that are sprouting daily as well as reviewing their artist portfolio and not going over the top to keep them (look at the cost of Madonna & Nickleback to Live Nation) WMG announced their Q4 and fiscal results, read here... and although net loss overall doubled to $56 million, I think reading between the lines of the report is that as long as they keep their nerve and keep what they are doing by investing, developing and enhancing their portfolio in a way that is representative of WMG - they are not for the scrap-heap just yet! Some of the key highlights.. recorded music down and weary, publishing, as you would expect, up and looking healthy, digital showing some signs of life but worryingly the growth is slowing already. The Q4 revenue dipped 1.5% to $854 million, operating income from their continuing operations dropped 20% and net income gained slightly to $6 million. 
Onto some news from Atlantic Records which announced that it reached a digital milestone of 50% digital share - which when looked at the overall digital market is something to be proud of, however low the margin is.. Atlantic Records have said that over half its revenues now comes from digital - which compared to the previous news and parent company WMG, who's digital share was reported at 27%. Atlantic's milestone has been greeted with optimism and the fact that the digital revenue stream came from album and track downloads, ring tones, ring backs, satellite radio and subscription services! Julie Greenwald, president of Atlantic Records, did expand on how this was achieved "It used to be that you could connect five dots and sell a million records. Now there are 20 dots you can connect to sell a million records." So what WMG need to do is find some more of those dots and start connecting them up.... 
Never a week goes by than I am inundated with new services to try, new business models to review, new strategies and propositions that would like my opinion or view on! Will this be the killer Store | App | Model | Service (you delete as appropriate) So the latest one that arrived in my inbox from a journalist for me to review and feedback on is Finnish ISP operator DNA. Who have just launched yet another broadband-music download bundle - you will see so many more of these next year... This one costs the user €39.90p/m and is twined with downloadable music that it runs with.... UMG. Rob Wells is busy doing these deals - but at least Rob is trying out new ideas and models. 
Sneaking onto UK shores without as much as a "cor blimey guvn'or" Amazon's long awaited MP3 store touched down in the UK today and with heavy discounting - as only Amazon can do! Just as the US service it is very simple to use and apart from having to manage the device transfer yourself - it will be a welcome addition to the UK MP3 market and will start to fight initially with Tesco, Play, HMV, 7Digital... before thinking of Apple - however Apple did have a nice price cut in advance of the Amazon arrival!!
Live | Concerts
The ongoing "adventure" of Live Nation has interested me since it began. I sort of got it when I spoke with Bob Ezrin last year - however now it looks like a rudderless ship that is drifting off into unknown waters and with the ongoing stand off with Ticketmaster, tying up massive deals with aging artists in an age where as we have seen with WMG, publishing good and recorded music is listless - what can Live Nation bring to the table? I have a few ideas that could springboard Live Nation into a worldwide player - but that's not for me to say or to instruct. So instead I will continue to look in aghast at what else Live Nation decide to do next... enter a 3 year deal to sell their tickets through...... Blockbuster!! Why? Only reason is that it is a sign of desperation for a footfall driver into Blockbuster stores as I see no other benefit for Live Nation?? Free popcorn with every ticket purchased?? 
Still on Live Nation - one of their jewels in the Live Nation crown is the Madonna Tour - recent reports just out show that the the U.S. leg of The Sticky & Sweet tour had a gross of $91.5 million based on 550,000 tickets. Using my calculator I make that an average ticket price of $166. However the average ticket price from her last tour 2 years ago worked out at was $183 slightly down, but what i don't have to hand is the merchandise costs where it is reported that the average (I do mean average as the top tier to see Madonna is $£50!! - but combined of everything.. t-shirt, drink, travel..) cost to a Madonna concert is $250!! I guess if your a big Madonna fan she is worth it. But looking at the Top 10 Concerts for last week in the US and you will see that Live Nation has 9 out of the 10 Promotion spots - with only AC/DC in Minneapolis going with Jam Productions.
...and Finally
At last my friends in San Francisco have reached the milestone of a v1.0 release of their open-source customisable music player. Well done Rob, Steve, Ethan and all the team... Anyone who knows me will know that I have been talking about the Songbird boys for a very long time now - and glad to see that they have reached that 1.0 milestone which always a great relief when you are on a start-up out the front door to the wider world and not just friends, supporters and followers. Songbird are creating a non-proprietary, cross platform, extensible tool that will help enable new ways to playback, manage, and discover music - and is under active development all the time. Download, play, share, enjoy, feedback and get involved - they'd love to hear from you!!
