Music Ally

The most entertaining music piracy story this week concerns the leaking of four new U2 tracks online. Why? Because the source of the leak was allegedly Bono himself. Not in the way you think, though. Apparently the frontman was playing the music loud in his South France villa, and a passerby recorded them and uploaded Read the rest of this entry »

Sit down for this news: Guns’n'Roses might actually be preparing to release their “Chinese Democracy” album. No, really, Reports even suggest the band is at the stage of discussing exclusive distribution deals Read the rest of this entry »

We reported yesterday on how Virgin Records is suing 30 Seconds To Mars for $30 million for alleged breach of contract. Now the band has responded with a post by its movie-star singer Jared Leto on its website. He describes the suit as “ridiculously oversized, totally unrealistic and pretty silly”, and claims that it’’s due to Read the rest of this entry »

“If Pandora had a love child with Last.fm, its name would be Grooveshark Lite,” says Mashable, about Grooveshark’’s new music streaming service. It’’s the latest personalised music service, which lets you type Read the rest of this entry »

We wrote yesterday about reports that Playlouder has signed a deal with a UK ISP that will allow users to download music using peer-to-peer applications, with the ISP compensating the rightsholders. However, CEO Paul Hitchman has now labelled the reports “pure speculation” and said it has no announcement to Read the rest of this entry »

Financial marketwatchers have been pointing out that Apple’s market capitalisation has just reached $158.84 billion - significant, because it’s overtaken Google’s $157.23 billion. It’s more because Google’s Read the rest of this entry »

As a quick extra to our coverage of Warner Music Group’s latest quarterly results last week, the company’s official filing has put a number to its investments in music websites Imeem and Lala. WMG invested $15 Read the rest of this entry »

UK firm Radiopaq is launching a standalone internet radio device, the Rp5. It connects to Radiopaq’s website via Wi-Fi, and allows listeners to stream thousands of net radio stations from around the world, as well as including traditional FM and DAB radio tuners. Radiopaq is describing the product, which costs £250, as Read the rest of this entry »

Nashville-based blues artist Von Johin has signed a record deal with Reality Entertainment. Not particularly interesting in itself, but the way he was discovered is. See, Johin made his name playing virtual gigs in his own venue in Second Life, where he was spotted by Reality Entertainment’s scouts. The company says he’ll Read the rest of this entry »

Shock horror, but nowadays it’s just not as fashionable simply to blame the labels for not “getting the internet”. So, as part of a series of regular features Music Ally will over the next few issues spotlight some leading North American managers to get their views on how the labels are learning to deal with the challenges of digital. Read the rest of this entry »