Defender
21 May 2002, 19:41
Napster's End May Be Near
Jim Bessman, 16 May 2002
Napster may be ready for the Big Sleep. CEO Konrad Hilbers has
resigned, and the file-swapping service is reportedly on the verge of filing
for bankruptcy, even as Bertelsmann, its chief investor, is said to have
offered a full buy-out. Dormant since last July because of a court
order resulting from the RIAA's copyright infringement suit, Napster's
plans for a relaunch as a subscription service remain on hold, as it
remains unable to secure enough licensing deals with the major labels.
But Bertelsmann, which has already loaned Napster some $85 million, did
express its continued belief in "the value of peer-to-peer technology."
Competing major Sony Music, meanwhile, has struck a deal to distribute
promotional downloads from artists including Macy Gray and Five For
Fighting on Scour.com-its first submission via a peer-to-peer
content-distribution network.
As the dissension between record companies and Webcasters over the
Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel's proposed royalty rates and reporting
standards relating to Webcasted music heads toward a May 21 decision by
the Library of Congress, Utah's Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, the former
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, came up with his own interesting
proposal regarding other online music matters when the committee met to
advise the two sides to compromise. Hatch wants to submit an artists'
rights and non-discriminatory licensing bill that would include an
out-of-print recording right allowing artists to make available their
out-of-print recordings via online streams or downloads. I don't know about
you, but there's a ton of great music that I know from old vinyl albums
that I can no longer hear because it was never released on CD, and
Hatch's idea would give me legal access.
In other digital news, DataPlay has scheduled summer releases of albums
by Arista artists including Pink, Sarah McLachlan, Outkast, Usher, and
Adema. These are the first major-label artist releases in the new
coin-sized, 11-hour-plus capacity digital media format. As for the DVD
format, it's now so strong in the marketplace that 85% of the Columbia House
record club, which deals heavily in DVD, is being bought by the
Blackstone Group for $420 million (the rest will be shared by current owners
Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group).
Also in the acquisition game is EMI Recorded Music, which has bought
the London-based Mute Records-one of Europe's leading indies--for $33
million. Mute has Moby, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and
Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman). Also in London, Eurythmics founder Dave
Stewart is launching Artist Network, an "anti-establishment" entertainment
company to be operated by and for people in the music, film, art,
television, and literature communities. Its record label has signed nine
artists, including reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
But artist news, of course, has been dominated of late by Ozzy
Osbourne, thanks to his huge MTV hit reality series "The Osbournes." Besides
signing a multi-million dollar deal for a second season, the Osbournes
now have a soundtrack album and two books on the way: a trade paperback
tie-in to the TV show coming in the fall and a hardcover family memoir
due next spring. Whether media overkill will have tarnished the family's
charm and naïveté (and more important, their commercial prospects) by
then is anyone's guess.
On the other end of the spectrum is Bruce Springsteen, who's being
urged by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's campaign manager to run for the
U.S. Senate out of New Jersey, his home state. Springsteen, long an
L.A. resident, is working on his next album and presumably has no interest
in anything else.
But a superstar of a different genre declined the urgings of thousands
of well-heeled New Yorkers (some of whom paid $1,875 for a ticket) when
an aging Luciano Pavarotti bowed out of his final Metropolitan Opera
performance due to illness. The no-show was truly historic, as it ended
the legendary 66-year-old tenor's career at the Met, where he debuted in
1968, on a silent note.
Jim Bessman, 16 May 2002
Napster may be ready for the Big Sleep. CEO Konrad Hilbers has
resigned, and the file-swapping service is reportedly on the verge of filing
for bankruptcy, even as Bertelsmann, its chief investor, is said to have
offered a full buy-out. Dormant since last July because of a court
order resulting from the RIAA's copyright infringement suit, Napster's
plans for a relaunch as a subscription service remain on hold, as it
remains unable to secure enough licensing deals with the major labels.
But Bertelsmann, which has already loaned Napster some $85 million, did
express its continued belief in "the value of peer-to-peer technology."
Competing major Sony Music, meanwhile, has struck a deal to distribute
promotional downloads from artists including Macy Gray and Five For
Fighting on Scour.com-its first submission via a peer-to-peer
content-distribution network.
As the dissension between record companies and Webcasters over the
Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel's proposed royalty rates and reporting
standards relating to Webcasted music heads toward a May 21 decision by
the Library of Congress, Utah's Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch, the former
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, came up with his own interesting
proposal regarding other online music matters when the committee met to
advise the two sides to compromise. Hatch wants to submit an artists'
rights and non-discriminatory licensing bill that would include an
out-of-print recording right allowing artists to make available their
out-of-print recordings via online streams or downloads. I don't know about
you, but there's a ton of great music that I know from old vinyl albums
that I can no longer hear because it was never released on CD, and
Hatch's idea would give me legal access.
In other digital news, DataPlay has scheduled summer releases of albums
by Arista artists including Pink, Sarah McLachlan, Outkast, Usher, and
Adema. These are the first major-label artist releases in the new
coin-sized, 11-hour-plus capacity digital media format. As for the DVD
format, it's now so strong in the marketplace that 85% of the Columbia House
record club, which deals heavily in DVD, is being bought by the
Blackstone Group for $420 million (the rest will be shared by current owners
Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group).
Also in the acquisition game is EMI Recorded Music, which has bought
the London-based Mute Records-one of Europe's leading indies--for $33
million. Mute has Moby, Depeche Mode, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds, and
Richie Hawtin (aka Plastikman). Also in London, Eurythmics founder Dave
Stewart is launching Artist Network, an "anti-establishment" entertainment
company to be operated by and for people in the music, film, art,
television, and literature communities. Its record label has signed nine
artists, including reggae legend Jimmy Cliff.
But artist news, of course, has been dominated of late by Ozzy
Osbourne, thanks to his huge MTV hit reality series "The Osbournes." Besides
signing a multi-million dollar deal for a second season, the Osbournes
now have a soundtrack album and two books on the way: a trade paperback
tie-in to the TV show coming in the fall and a hardcover family memoir
due next spring. Whether media overkill will have tarnished the family's
charm and naïveté (and more important, their commercial prospects) by
then is anyone's guess.
On the other end of the spectrum is Bruce Springsteen, who's being
urged by Minnesota Governor Jesse Ventura's campaign manager to run for the
U.S. Senate out of New Jersey, his home state. Springsteen, long an
L.A. resident, is working on his next album and presumably has no interest
in anything else.
But a superstar of a different genre declined the urgings of thousands
of well-heeled New Yorkers (some of whom paid $1,875 for a ticket) when
an aging Luciano Pavarotti bowed out of his final Metropolitan Opera
performance due to illness. The no-show was truly historic, as it ended
the legendary 66-year-old tenor's career at the Met, where he debuted in
1968, on a silent note.