Music Ally

Earlier this month, U2 manager Paul McGuinness was causing a stir again, this time with comments about Radiohead’s `In Rainbows’ album, claiming it had “backfired” because most people had downloaded it illegally, despite the band’s honesty box pricing model. However, he’s now been contradicted by… Bono! In a letter to today’s NME, he openly disagrees with his manager, calling Radiohead “courageous and imaginative in trying to figure out some new relationship with their audience”. It’ll be interesting to see whose view prevails when it comes to releasing the next U2 album.

UK guitar-boyband McFly are the latest band to look outside traditional distribution channels for their new album.  Specifically, they’re doing a Prince, signing a deal to give away three million copies of `Radio:ACTIVE’ with the Mail On Sunday newspaper next month. The band left their old label Island Records earlier this year, and have set up their own label Super Records, which will give `Radio:ACTIVE’ a traditional CD release in September this year.

Amazon is finalising the plans for a global rollout of its MP3 store, with reports claiming that it’ll be launched in the UK by October, before transferring to other European countries. Like the US version, it’ll offer DRM-free MP3 tracks, and will seek to take on iTunes through pricing and exclusive content. (more…)

There’s been a fair amount in the press recently about music being used as a weapon or even as part of torture routines - which sounds like a joke, but isn’t if you’re an alleged terrorist cooped up in a cell with Slayer blasted at you regularly. Anyway, Listening Post has an article on a Magnetic Audio Device, (more…)

There’ve been rumours of a Beatles-themed Guitar Hero ever since comments earlier this year by Sony/ATV Music Publishing boss Marin Bandier, but it seems it’s edging closer to reality. The FT reports that Beatles representatives are actually in talks with both Activision and MTV Games - the publishers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band respectively - over some form of licensing deal worth several million dollars. The report suggests it could be agreed in a matter of weeks, although it would require buy-in from Apple Corps and EMI, which owns the Beatles master recordings.

The rumours were true: a week on,  Live Nation chairman Michael Cohl has resigned. However  he’s tied in as a consultant until 2012, with a non-compete clause running until 2016. The company has played down the reports of a clash between Cohl and CEO Michael Rapino over Live Nation’s 360 deal strategy, and it seems it’ll continue - Rapino says the firm is close to signing “another superstar”, and may reach 5-6 such deals by the end of the year.

Digital distributor The Orchard has emerged as the winning bidder in the auction for the assets of bankrupt label TVT Records, reportedly paying $6.05 million. The Orchard will now assume control of TVT’s master recordings, artist contracts and physical distribution infrastructure, but not its music publishing subsidiary. (more…)

Universal Music Group has agreed a licensing deal to make thousands of its music videos available through Last.fm, on-demand. UMG and its artists will get an undisclosed fee every time a video is streamed using the service, although as per our report last week, it remains to be seen if Last.fm is pulling in the necessary ad revenues to fund these licensing deals. “We want to offer a video library that rivals our unparalleled music catalogue, as we work towards Last.fm becoming the only place you need to go for all music-related content,” says co-founder Martin Stiksel.

Telefonica has announced an agreement to make independent digital distributor IODA’s catalogue of over a million tracks available to mobile users in 24 countries, both as paid-for downloads and through Telefonica’s subscription services. Latin music appears to be a big element in the deal, judging by IODA CEO Kevin Arnold’s comments: “In the last four years, we have built the largest roster of independent Latin music labels available in the industry. IODA’s partnership with Telefonica reflects both our commitment to mobile as a growing part of our business, as well as our passion for Spanish, Latin and World music.”

Remember that partnership between Vodafone and Warner Music Group around Madonna’s ”Hard Candy” album, and the fact that it included a webcast of Madge’’s gig at the Roselands Ballroom in New York, which would be streamed to PC and mobile users in 13 countries? Well, we”ve been talking to Vodafone, (more…)