New York Times
In 2010, about 95 percent of music downloads were unlicensed and illegal. A previously defunct free-music listening program, one among seemingly millions of ephemeral start-ups, has had the life breathed back into it. Qtrax offers not just free music, but refuge from the risk of viruses, poor sound quality and prosecution. Unlike players such as Pandora and Spotify that require strong internet connection, Qtrax listeners download the program from the Qtrax site, so they can curate their tunes where there is no Internet. The main catch, one that prevents a listener from granting it saintly status, is the advertisements linked to the music player.
WEBCASTERS, MUSIC INDUSTRY AGREE ON ROYALTIES
Wired
Artists and record labels have reached agreement with Internet radio companies over royalty rates, resolving a dispute that dates back more than two years over how to divvy up revenue from streaming music on the Web. The deal establishes a two-tier royalty payment system for companies — such as the popular service offered by Pandora — that broadcast music over the Internet. The agreement calls for large webcasters to pay artists and copyright owners a percentage of all U.S. revenue up to 25 percent or on a per-song basis, which ever is greater. Smaller webcasters — with revenue of less than $1.25 million — will pay a smaller percentage under a different formula. The agreement was announced Tuesday by SoundExchange, a nonprofit group designated by the U.S. Copyright Office to collect and distribute digital music royalties. The group’s members include large record companies such as Sony BMG and Warner Music Group, as well as more than 2,500 independent labels.
PANDORA PREDICTS FIRST-EVER PROFIT
Wired
Having followed Pandora’s progress for nearly a decade, I’ve seen the company do just about everything one can do with interactive radio — except for turn a profit. That will change in 2010, according to Pandora founder Tim Westergren. He told Bloomberg on Monday that Pandora could make as much as $40 million in revenue this year — and that it will become profitable for the first time next year on the strength of its seemingly ever-expanding user base and an iPhone app that attracts around 20,000 new users each day.
