Almost six in ten consumers had watched music videos on their computers in the last three months while less than 2 in 10 had bought a digital download in the same time.

iTunes Store is the biggest payout partner for record labels but the research shows the preference of the listeners is for the music videos posted on YouTube and Vevo.

However, the report by Nielson also showed that music videos are still just behind digital downloads in the list of formats listeners are most willing to pay for.

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A little known pop group comprised of school friends from the north of England have become the world’s slowest overnight smash thanks to making their music available via iTunes.

The Beatles, from Liverpool, who self release their music via their own record label Apple and who cite their influences as “Oasis, Wings and peace”, have sold a staggering two million individual songs and more than 450,000 albums in their first week of release via Apple’s (no relation) iTunes store.

Their most popular song is Here Comes The Sun, which was inspired by a holiday that drummer and sometime voiceover artist Richard ‘Ringo’ Starkey took in Porthmadog, Wales as a child.

The Beatles began playing rock ‘n’ roll cover versions while still in their teens and at their height enjoyed a residency in a Hamburg nightclub, while their most famous member, Pete Best, has also enjoyed a successful twenty year career as a civil servant.

“We’re dead chuffed,” says founder member Paul ‘Paul’ McCartney. “We originally tried the MySpace route but it just didn’t seem to happen for us. We’ve always maintained that we make the music we want to make and that if anyone else liked it, then it was a bonus. People like it. It’s a bonus. Mega.”

Reporter: Warren Street

The 52-year-old star stood by his anti-digital views in a rare interview with The Daily Mirror.

“The internet’s completely over. I don’t see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won’t pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can’t get it.

“The internet’s like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated. Anyway, all these computers and digital gadgets are no good.

“They just fill your head with numbers and that can’t be good for you.”

Refusing to allow his music to be distributed via iTunes or other digital channels, Prince is releasing his new album, titled 20TEN, only in the CD format as a free giveaway in the Daily Mirror this Saturday.

In his ongoing war against the internet, Prince has even closed down his own website.

Source: The Mirror, The Telegraph

The search giant is expected to roll out a music download store, directly linked to its search engine later this year. The “interim step” would be followed by an online subscription service in 2011.

The new service would target Apple’s iTunes as its biggest rival, upping the stakes in the battle between the companies. The two technology giants have previously clashed over mobile platforms after Google launched Android to take on iPhone software.

Rumours about Google getting involved in the online music business have been going around for a while. Last year Google started linking to partner websites, such as iLike and Pandora through its search, allowing people to stream songs with only one click from the search results.

The current plans are still reported to be on the vague side, and it’s said to be unclear whether any deals have been struck with record labels so far.

Source: The Wall Street Journal

The service, which was launched 26 November, enables Absolute Radio listeners to tag songs straight on their iPods.

The tagging is done simply by holding down the centre button of your iPod while a song you’re interested in is being played. The song will then be listed in iTunes the next time the iPod is synced to it and the decision can then be made to buy the song or leave it.

As well as making buying of the songs easier, the new service also provides a simple way to find out what the track being played is called and who it is by.

Marketing Week quoted Absolute Radio DJ Christian O’Connell saying: “Never again will people face the humiliation of trying to sing a song to their friends that they don’t know the name of. We can all be clued up music experts at the touch of a button and the new tagging service is such a simple but genius idea.

“You can tag songs on the go then put off doing boring jobs at the weekend by creating a playlist of your favourites and downloading the tracks you like.”

The venture saw Absolute Radio co-operate with Unique Interactive, part of UBC Media, and Jump2Go.

Sources: Marketing Week; Media Week

The announcement came at a management strategy meeting in Tokyo on 19th November and the new service, temporarily dubbed “Sony Online Service” is planning to take on Apple’s iTunes store (who presently dominates with over 70% of the global digital music market).

The manner in which, Sony plans on undertake this is that the service plans to bridge premium content with social networking, allowing user generated content onto personal online accounts.

Having “digital lockers” and space to share videos and photos would bring a unique edge, and adding in the possibility of third-party apps in the mix it certainly would boost the opportunity for new mobile and camera products.

One thing to consider however is this isn’t the first time Sony has taken on iTunes. Sony’s first foray into digital content was the Sony Connect store, which was launched in 2005. The problem with Sony Connect was its creators assumed everyone would jump onto the closed system bandwagon. The system had the ATRAC DRM codec for its music content and we all know how that worked out. The store closed down after three years.

After that, there was the UMG-Sony collaboration of Total Music in 2007. Total Music was a subscription between device manufacturers and service providers (like Comes With Music), which users didn’t buy into and it shut down in February.

The problem is, it doesn’t look like Sony is attempting this even on its third shot, as one of the major reasons for creating the service is to support the hardware. A BusinessWeek article reported, “Analysts say that creating software to sell an array of online services and content is Sony’s best hope of improving its fortunes.”Sony has been too focused on hardware,” says Tokai Tokyo Research Center analyst Osamu Hirose. “It has to focus on networked products [and] delivering digital entertainment to consumers”.

According to the same article, executive vice-president for networked products and services Kazuo Hirai says the service would be based on Sony’s PlayStation Network, and hinted at the possibility of it starting off as a part of it; “There’s some debate as to whether all PlayStation Network users would migrate to the new service,” Hirai said. “We would target quite a few of them.”

via Sony Online Service: The Next iTunes Killer? By Cassandra Callais