Music Ally

Is there a demand for better-quality digital downloads than MP3? US firm Topspin Media says there is, and has stats to back this up.

The company ran the online stores for recent albums by David Byrne and Brian Eno, and Paul McCartney’s The Fireman project. In each case, fans were offered the chance to get higher quality FLAC and/or Apple Lossless versions. 12% of people buying the Byrne and Eno album chose FLAC, while 21% of the people buying The Fireman album chose lossless.

“I’m surprised and somewhat encouraged to see such a large number of consumers interested in the lossless formats,” says Topspin boss Ian Rogers. 2009 could be a big year for lossless music – digital music stores like 7digital have also said they’re keen to move into higher-quality downloads.

The appearance of The Beatles’ back catalogue on iTunes (or, indeed, any digital music service) is as far off as ever, judging by comments yesterday from Sir Paul McCartney.

But here’s the thing – for once, it’s nothing to do with Steve Jobs. Instead, the negotiations to digitise the Fab Four have stalled between the band’s own Apple Corps and label EMI.

“It’s heavy negotiations,” said Macca. “We are very for it, we’ve been pushing it. But there are a couple of sticking points, I understand. So the last word I got back was that it had stalled, the whole process. They [EMI] want something we’re not prepared to give them…”