Music Ally

Universal Music Group and mobile tech giant Qualcomm have announced a partnership to develop a load of direct to consumer mobile services in the US. The platform will not only help UMG to sell mobile content through artist mobile portals but it will also provide tools for the label to manage mobile campaigns.

2008 is proving to be another good year for the Japanese digital music market. According to data published yesterday by the Recording Industry Association of Japan (RIAJ) digital sales from mobile and PC-based downloads totalled USD $215m in the first quarter, an increase of 28% from the same period last year. Ringtone sales fell, but the overall mobile sector was up thanks to growth from full track downloads and ringbacktones.

EMI has licensed 25,000 tracks and videos to a music kiosk company which aims to take over airports across Europe. The first installation is in Italy’s Fiumicinco international airport in Rome where travellers will be able download tracks from EMI’s frontline catalogue in MP3 format. The kiosks are being rolled out by UK firm MEDIAnywhere which claims that it will open another 350 kiosks in 26 European airports within the next two years.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: Keynote interview between Terry McBride, CEO and Co-Founder, Nettwerk Music Group and Jeremy Silver, ex head of new media, EMI and now Managing Director, Avid Education / Sibelius. Part 3 of 3 videos.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: Keynote interview between Terry McBride, CEO and Co-Founder, Nettwerk Music Group and Jeremy Silver, ex head of new media, EMI and now Managing Director, Avid Education / Sibelius. Part 2 of 3 videos.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: Keynote interview between Terry McBride, CEO and Co-Founder, Nettwerk Music Group and Jeremy Silver, ex head of new media, EMI and now Managing Director, Avid Education / Sibelius. Part 1 of 3 videos.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: The Leading Question & Music Ally Research Findings. Part 3 of 3 videos.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: The Leading Question & Music Ally Research Findings. Part 2 of 3 videos.

Music Ally TV presents The Great Escape 2008: The Leading Question & Music Ally Research Findings. Part 1 of 3 videos.

UK retail chain Woolworths says it”ll stop selling CD singles in-store this August - an important decision, given that it currently accounts for a quarter of CD single sales in the UK. Instead, the retailer is launching a new downloads store run by RealNetworks. Called Woolworths Download, it”ll offer music, video, games and mobile content. The music element consists of more than 1.2 million tracks, as WMA or MP3 files depending on availability.