So what’s news? Well, this in fact:
Universal Says No To Apple
Universal Music Group has declined to renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes. The label has instead chosen to adopt an approach that allows it to market music to Apple at its initiative.
At the heart of the development appears to be a dispute over the entrenched 99c price point that has been a feature of the iTunes store since its launch. The move is seen by many as a indication of Universal’s intention of pulling its content from iTunes altogether, a move that would effectively see the digital store lose access to almost a third of new US releases.
New York Times has more
Previous iTunes coverage
EMI To Sell Through 3rd Parties
EMI Announced on Friday that it had reached an agreement with Snocap to enable is music to be sold through third party websites like blogs and social networks. The move makes EMI the first major label to step outside the boundaries of recognised online retailers like iTunes.
We’ve previously reported that Snocap and Myspace have partnered to enable the sale of digital music over the social network and that a coalition of indie labels have already signed up to Snocap
Deadline For EMI Sale Extended
Still on EMI, the private equity firm that agreed to buy EMI back in May has extended the deadline for shareholders to accept a cash offer recommended by the label’s board.
The announcement leaves the door open for a rival bid from Warner Music Group which rumoured to be in the offing.
Business Week has more
Band Of Horses Album Out In August
After 2006’s surprise success, Everything All The Time, Band of Horses have completed their follow up album despite only vocalist Ben Bridwell staying on.
The band released the following on their myspace blog today:
RECORD IS DONE!!!
That’s right folks. That little bastard’s in the can and soon will be set free on the Sub Pop record label. We’re looking at doing that sometime in October if CD’s and Records still exist in 4 months. And although this is a spoken word record with no musical accompaniment, we believe you’ll be happy after 100 listens or so. xoboh
RIAA Get Sued
After hara**ing a disabled single mom and her 10 year old daughter, RIAA found themselves on the receiving end of a lawsuit for a change. All quite insane really.
Crowdsource Your Album With SliceThePie.com
British band Gilkicker have become the first band to successfully fund their album through a combination of their fanbase and start up Slice The Pie. The four-piece managed to raise the necessary £30,000 in just 10 days.
Slice the Pie provides the platform for fans to pre-purchase albums in order for bands that don’t want or can’t get a record label to get hold of the necessary capital to record their album. The site is in direct competition with german start up Sellaband in commercialising a concept that as far as I know was pioneered by our very own Verity.
Prince Now Giving It Away
To quote Paul Quirk, co-chairman of the U.K.’s Entertainment Retailers a**ociation, “If it turns out to be the case, The Artist formerly known as Prince should know that with behavior like this, he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores.”