Tag Archives: amzn

Apple Music, Pandora Stoke Digital Music In Face Of ‘Value Gap’

Buoyed by Apple ( AAPL ) Music, Spotify and other subscription streaming services, sales of digital music vaulted past physical music sales for the first time in 2015 to become the main revenue stream for recorded music, according to a new industry report released Tuesday. But there’s also a widening “value gap,” as music listening on Alphabet ( GOOGL )-owned video wing YouTube and other free, legal sites don’t bring as much revenue for the industry, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry trade group said. Digital music sales worldwide contributed 45% of industry revenue in 2015, overtaking the 39% share from sales of CDs and other physical formats, the IFPI’s report said. “After two decades of almost uninterrupted decline, 2015 witnessed key milestones for recorded music: measurable revenue growth globally; consumption of music exploding everywhere; and digital revenues overtaking income from physical formats for the first time,” the IFPI said. The group added that “revenues, vital in funding future investment, are not being fairly returned to rights holders. The value gap is the biggest constraint to revenue growth for artists, record labels and all music rights holders.” Revenue growth came from subscription music streaming services such as Apple Music, Pandora Media ( P ) and Spotify. Others in the subscription sector include Amazon.com ‘s ( AMZN ) Prime Music and Google Play Music. Besides its free YouTube site, Alphabet subsidiary Google in December launched YouTube Red, a video-subscription service that offers ad-free and offline viewing. Music download sales dropped 10.5% in 2015, the report said, while sales of CDs and other physical formats fell 4.5%. The so-called “value gap” arose because some major digital services “are able to circumvent the normal rules that apply to music licensing,” the report said. “User upload services claim they do not need to negotiate licenses for the music available on their platforms, or conclude licenses at artificially low rates, claiming protection from so-called ‘safe harbor’ rules that were introduced in the early days of the Internet and established in both U.S. and European legislation.” IFPI CEO Frances Moore said in a statement that safe harbor rules were designed for the Internet of the past and “should no longer be used to exempt user upload services that distribute music online from the normal conditions of music licensing.” Apple, Alphabet and Amazon stocks were all up a fraction in afternoon trading in the stock market today . Pandora stock was up 2%, near 8. Image provided by Shutterstock .

Details Of New Amazon Kindle Leaked Ahead Of Release This Week

Ahead of the expected launch this week of the newest  Amazon.com ( AMZN ) Kindle e-book reader, details of the device have been leaked, according to  online magazine Motherboard . The new device is going to be called Oasis and will be slightly wider than prior models, Motherboard reported. The device will have the same pixel density — 300 pixels per inch — as the Kindle Voyage but will be more than 20% lighter than prior models. The Verge, a tech news site, says that the new model will include a rechargable battery case  that will give the new Kindle 20 months of standby time. The report also noted that the leak could be a fake, but it “would be a pretty extensive one.” Seattle-based Amazon.com did not immediately return a request for comment. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos last week tweeted that the device would be introduced this week. Amazon stock was up nearly 1% in afternoon trading on the stock market today , near 600. The company has an IBD Composite Rating of 79, where 99 is the highest. The CR tracks major metrics such as earnings and sales growth.

European Leak Shows Officials May Blackball U.S. Data Transfer Pact

European advocates might blackball a compromise allowing American companies like Facebook ( FB ), Google ( GOOGL ) and Amazon ( AMZN ) to continue trans-Atlantic data transfers, according to a leaked document. The Article 29 Working Party is set to unveil its official decision Wednesday, but portions of a leaked document — since deleted — suggest the privacy officials are hedging on approving the European Union-U.S. agreement. Privacy advocates have railed against the initial agreement, released in late February, calling it too flimsy. The agreement would replace the 15-year-old Safe Harbor accord monitoring data transfers between the U.S. and EU. A European court struck down the Safe Harbor agreement in October, saying U.S. privacy laws aren’t up to snuff with their EU counterparts. Now, the EU needs approval from the Article 29 Working Party to move forward on formalizing the new agreement, which would allow the U.S. intelligence community to collect “bulk” intelligence for six specific purposes. German lawyer Carlo Piltz posted the leaked document, which says, in part, “some of the clarifications and concerns — in particular relating to national security — may also impact the viability of the other transfer tools.” “Therefore, the WP29 is not yet in a position to confirm that the current draft adequacy decision does, indeed, ensure a level of protection that is essentially equivalent to that in the EU,” according to the document. Austrian grad student Max Schrems brought the original case against Facebook that shuttered the Safe Harbor law. In a statement following the new framework’s release, Schrems questioned European authorities’ view on the situation. “I unfortunately feel that the current policymakers within the European Commission have not seen this situation as an opportunity to work toward an improved framework that would protect the fundamental right to privacy, but instead as a problem that shall now be swept under the rug,” he wrote.