News

Today the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) implemented changes to its gross domestic product (GDP) calculation, including counting – for the first time ever – the money that is invested in recorded music and other creative works.

By now, many of us in the music business, as well as Jay Z fans, know that Samsung has purchased one million “Magna Carta Holy Grail” digital albums to be given away to the phone maker’s customers. It is a novel and creative marketing move and it has rightly stimulated a healthy conversation about the sale’s meaning and implications for the modern music business.

The announcement earlier this week of a new music streaming service by Apple has yet again drawn attention to the rapidly emerging digital music space. Based on the announced description, iTunes Radio sounds like a great new entrant. And it joins a long list of services that give fans almost any type of listening experience they are looking for, and often for free.

Apple’s announcement of the launch of its iTunes Radio service is understandably generating a lot of attention on the expanding number of streaming services and what it might mean and say about the online music marketplace. Here are some initial thoughts from my perspective.

WASHINGTON – Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman today announced the promotion of Steven M. Marks to the newly created position of Chief, Digital Business & General Counsel.  Previously Marks served as Executive Vice President & General Counsel.  Marks will continue to report to Sherman.

55-Year-Old Program Recognizes Non-Sales Format For First Time Ever...56 New Certifications Announced Today...Emeli Sande, Cher Lloyd and Jason Derulo to be Recognized by RIAA Tonight...At NARM & digitalmusic.org's Music Biz Awards in Los Angeles

There’s been an interesting confluence of news in the last week, all interrelated and all complementary: We reported our 2012 year-end sales and shipment numbers, including the increasing importance of streaming music – so-called “access models” which now total $1 billion in revenues New data from NPD finding…

WASHINGTON D.C. – Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) Chairman & CEO Cary Sherman today requested that the United States House of Representatives lift its reported block on music streaming service Spotify