Music Ally

There’s a theory that ISPs launching their own music services could be quids in when it comes to reducing the number of customers that ‘churn’ to rival providers. But how much?

Billboard has been crunching the numbers, based on US ISP Comcast, and claims that if the ISP launched its own music service and reduced churn by 10%, over five years the positive impact would be $162 million. Reduce it by 20%, and it’d be $325 million.

“These numbers show that broadband providers have reason to place a large value on a music service that is properly integrated into its product offering,” claims Billboard’s Glenn Peoples. “For this reason, record labels have ample reason to pursue deals with broadband providers.”

Kanye? Schmanye! Country star Taylor Swift has been digging out more gold via a partnership with US cable giant Comcast, which is launching a dedicated video-on-demand collection of her songs.

It includes music videos, behind-the-scenes clips, and the recent episode of Saturday Night Live that she hosted. “Taylor Swift is hugely popular on demand, consistently having the top-performing music videos on the service,” says Comcast senior VP and GM of video and entertainment Derek Harrar.

She joins existing partnerships with Green Day and U2 for Comcast, which says music is racking up 50-60 million on-demand views a month on its network.

Yahoo has suffered a huge brain drain of executives in recent months, against a background of unrest over Microsoft’s offer to buy the company. The latest to pack their bags is Karin Gilford, the GM of Entertainment at Yahoo. She’s off to a job at US telco Comcast. (more…)