Digital Music Group Merges With The Orchard

Well, this is big news to me, because Sick Room is distributed digitally by DMI...

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This is a living example of Long Tail Economics, by the way.

U.S. H1 Album Sales Down 15.1%

More dismal news about record sales...

The mid-year ended with the U.S. music industry still reeling from the downturn in physical goods. According to Nielsen SoundScan, album sales were down 15.1% for the year to nearly 230 million units in the six-month period ended July 1.
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Howard Hello & Greenness

Today marks the official release of the Howard Hello & Greenness split double CD on Sick Room Records. This is truly an incredible piece of work. One disc is five new songs from Kenseth Thibideau (Howard Hello, Rumah Sakit, Sleeping People, Pinback, Goblin Cock) under his moniker, Howard Hello. The other disc contains 4 new songs from Greenness (featuing Sick Room co-founder Mitch Cheney) as well as 11 collaborative tracks from a number of talented folks. All artist proceeds will go to Childrens' Musical Education in St. Augustine, Florida...

Howard Hello & Greenness

Global Music Market Shrinks by 5%

Global Market Shrinks By 5% In 2006, Says IFPI
July 03,2007

By Lars Brandle, London

The global recorded music market in 2006 slipped by 5% year-on-year, according to new figures published by the IFPI.

The combined market of physical and digital music dropped to $19.6 billion last year, down from $20.7 billion in 2005, the IFPI reports in "Recording Industry In Numbers 2007."

Against a backdrop of shrinking CD sales and piracy, however, the value of physical music shipments was down 11% to $17.5 billion last year.

The results "reflect an industry in transition," IFPI chairman/CEO John Kennedy said in his opening message.

Read the full article...

Anger at Prince Free CD Giveaway

The music industry has reacted angrily at a decision to give away the new album by US musician Prince with a tabloid newspaper.

Basically, dude is giving away copies of his new CD free with the newspaper, weeks before it even comes out in the store...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6256732.stm
http://www.billboard.biz/bbbiz/content_display/industry/e3icab172bb79f71a07c1500a8b204a430c

In the news...

UK Retailer Fopp Shutters
From www.billboard.biz (6/29/07)

HMV Full Year Profits Drop Sharply
From www.ap.org (6/28/07)

iPhone May Not Rock Music Industry
From www.ap.org (6/26/07)

iTunes No. 3 Music Retailer in US
From www.ap.org (6/24/07)

In the news...

A couple of interesting articles...

The Record Industry's Decline
from Rollingstone.com (6/19)

Music Biz to slip for next 5 years
From www.billboard.biz(6/21)

Lawsuit against the RIAA
from www.ilrweb.com (6/26)