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Tag: Rhapsody

  • Shemaroo Entertainment extends deal with The Orchard

    Shemaroo Entertainment extends deal with The Orchard

    MUMBAI: Shemaroo Entertainment has announced the extension of its alliance with the international distributor of digital content, The Orchard, for the distribution and marketing of Shemaroo’s music catalogue on iTunes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

    Earlier this year, Shemaroo had entered into a strategic alliance with The Orchard to distribute its music content in Latin America, North America, Europe and Asia Pacific. This enabled them to utilise Shemaroo’s music catalogue on more than 100 international digital platforms like iTunes, Spotify, Rhapsody, eMusic, Virgin FR, Amazon Digital Services Inc, Xbox Music, rDio, MediaNet, etc. The vast repertoire of audio includes film, non-film across multiple genre like folk, pop, sufi, qawwalis, kid’s music and regional music.

    With this initiative, Indians living outside the country will no longer miss the desi (Indian) music. They can also enjoy a variety of regional music in more than 22 languages including Punjabi, Marathi, Bhojpuri, Gujarati and Bengali among others that are available on these platforms. Shemaroo Entertainment has been working with leading online streaming platforms in India like Saavn, Gaana, Hungama, Nokia MixRadio, etc to distribute content.

    Shemaroo Entertainment director Jai Maroo said, “Shemaroo has already been distributing its vast music catalog directly in India through all the telecom operators and music streaming services. For Global distribution of our content, we have already entered into a strategic alliance with The Orchard earlier this year. We are pleased to extend this partnership with the company to distribute our content on iTunes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The development will empower audience from MENA with a variety of content across different genres.”

    “Shemaroo’s vibrant catalogue of Indian music is already available to consumers worldwide through our international network of digital retail outlets. This amendment will help us serve Shemaroo’s content in MENA also now. We look forward to a creative and inventive partnership with Shemaroo, given their foundation as an early adopter of digital media,” added The Orchard director South Asia, Clint Cabral.

     

  • Apple has a 75% share in digital music globally

    Apple has a 75% share in digital music globally

    MUMBAI: A lot of places cater to digital music, but all of them are minions to iTunes.

    Dediu, incorporating new numbers released from Apple yesterday, pegs iTunes music spending at $6.9 billion a year. Peoples, riffing off numbers provided by the music industry‘s international trade group, pegs total consumer spending on digital music at about $9.3 billion a year.

    Apple owns about 75 per cent of the digital music market; leaving the rest for a group that includes subscription services like Pandora, Deezer, Rhapsody and assorted retailers like Amazon.

    That domination shows you why the music labels are still very eager to see anyone and everyone compete with Apple, as long as they can pay up for advances/royalties.

    Conversely, the fact that Apple no longer has the digital music market entirely to itself, as it used to at the beginning of the iPad era, shows why Apple is watching the advance of competitors like Spotify with a wary eye.

    Apple doesn‘t worry about making money from digital music, but it does benefit from music‘s lock-in effects. Or at least it used to. The more that platform-agnostic rivals like Spotify grow, the weaker that lock gets is what experts view says.

  • Eros Intnl’s music downloads on Apple iTunes, Real Rhapsody

    Eros Intnl’s music downloads on Apple iTunes, Real Rhapsody

    MUMBAI: Eros International, an integrated media and entertainment Company,announced that tracks from its recent Bollywood music albums- Omkara, I See You, Kudiyon Ka Hain Zamana and Namastey London will now be available for download on Apple’s iTunes on a worldwide basis and on Real Network’s Rhapsody for North America.

    Eros International Plc chairman & CEO Kishore Lulla said, “This is a significant milestone as far as our new media distribution is concerned. We remain focused on identifying and securing strategic distribution partners to showcase our Bollywood content to a wider audience.”

    He further added, “The Mauj Telecom deal for mobile content license announced this January and now the iTunes and Real Rhapsody deals make our recent move into music publishing all the more exciting. We remain positive about the opportunities presented by new media in this digital era.”The original sound tracks from Eros’s forthcoming film Eklavya, a Vinod Chopra Films Production, releasing in cinemas on February 16 will also be available for download.

    Eros launched the Bollywood video on demand services with cable giants Comcast and Rogers cable and has online movie download services with Movielink and RTL.
     

  • Music industry ponders digital future

    Music industry ponders digital future

    MUMBAI: Who wants free music? Well as a matter of fact everybody. The spiraling downward trend of global music sales for a seventh straight year was the topic of discussion at MIDEM, the IFPI annual industry meeting in Cannes, France.
    Although the popularity of music is as strong as ever, global sales are expected to be down again for 2006 despite digital sales almost doubling to $2 billion.

    The IFPI has met with criticism from some of the major players who insisted that they had been distracted by the fight against piracy which may have also hindered the growth of the legal business.

    In a counter to this allegation IFPI head John Kennedy reportedly told Reuters in an interview that, “Many people around the world tell me that we’ve handled our problems in an incorrect manner but no one tells me what we should have done.

    The industry debated the concept of digital rights management or DRM which can restrict the use of music bought online and was introduced in a bid to contain piracy.
    Its supporters say DRM also offers alternative methods such as subscription or advertising-supported services as the music cannot then be offered onto peer-to-peer networks.
    One drawback of DRM is that tracks bought legally from Web sites such as Rhapsody cannot be used on the market-leading iPod as they are not compatible, potentially restricting the growth of legal sales.

    “DRM is like polonium to some people,” Kennedy said. “Digital rights management is exactly that, it’s the management of digital rights and if we weren’t managing it the headlines would be ‘irresponsible music industry … creates anarchy.’”

    eMusic chief executive David Pakman is a major critic of DRM. His service is the delivers tracks in the MP3 format, meaning they can be played on any portable music player, including the iPod.However, none of the four major labels are ready to supply to this service.

    “It’s the same model that was used for the CD and DVD, universal compatibility, and we think it’s the principal thing holding back the growth of digital today,” he told Reuters.
    EMI Music head of digital Barney Wragg talking to Reuters said that digital was revolutionizing the way they work.
    “I was just talking to (British singer) Joss Stone who is very excited about the opportunities this offers,” Wragg said. “We’re not constrained to the plastic CD box any more. It offers the possibility to do things that could never be done before.”