THE BLUE PIE GLOBAL MUSIC BIZ BLOG !

APPLE GETS A CLOUD FOR A MUSIC LOCKER ?

2011-04-22T09:31:00.000+10:00

Yep. Apple is planning a cloud-based music locker service, which will let users stream their music, over the Web, to different devices.

Which may sound a lot like what Amazon rolled out last month.

From the music industry’s perspective, however, there’s a big difference: Amazon started its service without getting approval from the big music labels. But Apple is actively seeking licenses for its service, and will pay the labels for the privilege.

And sources tell me that Apple has already procured deals from at least two of the big four labels (Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group, Sony and EMI) within the last two months. One source tells me Apple content boss Eddy Cue will be in New York tomorrow to try to finalize remaining deals.

“They’ve been very aggressive and thoughtful about it,” says an industry executive. “It feels like they want to go pretty soon.”

Reuters reported earlier today that Apple has “completed work on an online music storage service,” but said the company had not obtained licenses from any labels so far. I’ve asked all four labels for comment; an Apple rep declined to comment.

The industry executives I’ve talked to haven’t seen Apple’s service themselves, but say they’re aware of the broad strokes. The idea is that Apple will let users store songs they’ve purchased from its iTunes store, as well as others songs stored on their hard drives, and listen to them on multiple devices.

Amazon’s service does the same thing, but label executives have argued that a license would allow Apple (or Google, if it moves forward on similar, but stalled, plans) to create a more “robust service” with better user interfaces, sound quality, and other features.

I’ve never understood how a license would affect things like product design, but there’s at least one practical benefit from Apple’s perspective: The deals it is signing will allow it to store a single master copy of a song on its servers, and share that with multiple users.

Amazon’s service, by comparison, works much more like an external hard drive, where users are required to upload a copy of every song they’ll want to get via remote access.

Amazon offers its user a limited amount of storage for free. I don’t know if Apple intends to charge its users for the service, or will absorb the storage and licensing costs on its own.

GOOGLE MUSIC ...Will this ever happen ?

2011-04-22T09:20:00.002+10:00

Google has spent a year trying to build a music service that could compete with Apple’s iTunes. But those efforts seem to have stalled again.

Google’s negotiations with the big music labels are “broken,” says a source familiar with the search giant’s thinking: “There’s definitely a problem with the Google music conversations.” Another industry source says Google’s top executives are reconsidering their music plans altogether. “They’ve gone backwards,” I’m told.

That may be news to some corners of the music industry. Google had representatives in New York last week to talk to the labels, and several label executives I’ve spoken to in recent days told me that they believed their negotiations were progressing smoothly and that they felt confident they would strike deals with Google soon.

But others contended that Google has changed its terms in the past few weeks and that has held up negotiations.

Google officials, who have yet to formally acknowledge their music plans in public, haven’t responded to requests for comment. Wayne Rosso, who once ran the file-sharing service Grokster, wrote a blog post earlier this week asserting that Google was “just about at the end of their rope” with the labels.

One issue that could have complicated Google’s discussions with the labels is Amazon’s launch of its own music service last month. The online retailer, which already sells digital music it licenses from the big labels, launched a cloud-based storage service without getting approval from any music owners.

That service is fairly limited, and Google had envisioned a more robust offering with the labels’ participation. But it’s possible to imagine a scenario in which Google launches something similar without label buy-in, too.

In that scenario, Google wouldn’t be able to sell music, but it would at least be able to offer online storage that users could access from their PCs or phones. Lack of a decent music service has been a notable weakness for Google’s Android platform, and Android head Andy Rubin has been the driving force in Google’s music efforts.

Big Engine Rock Ya Bones ! - The Boys are Back in Town

2010-10-09T16:54:00.000+11:00

Big Engine Rock Ya Bones ! - The Boys are Back in Town
Big Engine kick up a storm with their killer live version of the Thin Lizzy classic. Check out this great track on iTunes for the world. Download this one NOW by clicking on the purchase link below.

Click here to go to iTunes to get this hot track.

Fat Opie are out there getting that FAT inta ya Rayyyddeeeiiiioooo!

2010-09-05T15:35:00.003+10:00

I do not ofen write about our acts but in recent times one of our alternative acts "Fat Opie" have been gaining more and more radio air time in the US, Canada and UK. The band were song of the day last Mondahy on FM 102 www.y102fm.com in San Francisco. The band and are on high rotation for " Said + Done " - Great work lads. The band are now being played on over 100 + stations including some of these ones.

KCCQ Des Moines, IA
KFTE Lafayette, LA
KNXX Baton Rouge, LA
KRUA Anchorage, AK
KRXP Colorado Springs, CO
KSPC Claremont, CA
KXNA Fayetteville, AR
NV Reno
WARQ Columbia, SC
WBRU Providence, RI
WBTZ Burlington, VT
WCYY Portland, ME
WKRL Syracuse, NY
WKRL Sarasota, FL
WRRV Newburgh, NY
WSWI Evasnsville, IN
WTZR Johnson City, TN
WUPX Marquette, MI
WUTK Knoxxville, TN
WVBU Lewisburg, PA
WVIC Jackson, MI
WVUA Tuscaloosa, AL
WWCD Grove City, OH
WWCT Peoria, IL
WWWX Appleton, WI
WXDX Pittsburgh, PA
WXEG Beaver Creek, OH
WXNR Greenville
WXSR Quincy, FL
WYBB Charleston, SC
WYIR Baugh City, IN
Check out the latest on Fat Opie at www.fatopie.com

Blue Pie Records Pass 2.5M in Downloads !

2010-09-05T15:22:00.003+10:00

It has been a long and often very hard road to drive down but the hard times seem to be passing us by as we drive to greener pastures. We have now passed the 2.5M download mark from our catalogues with over 350,000 downloads happening last month alone. The label continues to expand through the acquisition of catalogues all spurred on through the strategic alliances that I have set up over the past 6 months with partners like Full Entertain Music and Out Of The Box Records now being acquired and Stephen Wrench now coming on board to head up the new Global Content Acquisition Team under my leadership, things are looking great.

We are being asked to look after more and more administration and back end reporting services for labels due to the investments that we made into the development of world class reporting and accounting systems. Transparency in business is something that has been close to non existent in the music industry as a whole over 10 years ago now is the way of business for the leaders in the rush to secure market share. As the major labels all grapple with how to deal with the new Music.Dot.Com market and how to monetise this new market the leaders in the independent space like IODA, The Orchard and of course smaller labels like Blue Pie will continue to grow and lead the way forward.

I would like to thank my team for the hard work and in particular the many great artists that are now enjoying solid growth in their downloads with acts like:
Sunny Neji, Black Face, Burning The Day, Dale Bozzio, Sahra, Bone Angel, Barry Crocker, and icons like Peter and Gordon, Gordon Waller all continue to sell consistently the world is now enjoying more and more Blue Pie music. This is what we all strive to achieve. I am looking forward to the next 12 months of growth as we are so close now to breaking into the mainstream charts in several markets simultaneously that I can hardly wait to write what the next twelve months of sales will be. For more information on the label you can check out our website at www.bluepie.com.au

ABOUT THE GLOBAL MOBILE INDUSTRY - SOME FACTS TO NOTE !

2008-08-18T23:35:00.002+10:00

ABOUT THE GLOBAL MOBILE INDUSTRY - SOME FACTS TO NOTE !

In 2007, operators worldwide generated more than USD 800 billion in mobile revenues. This is expected to reach USD 1,094.9 billion by year-end 2012, growing at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of approximately 6.4 percent. The USD 1-trillion mark is expected to be reached by year-end 2011. Although a rapidly growing subscriber base has led to growth in revenue for the mobile industry, operator margins have shrunk over the years.

Operators worldwide, faced with declining average revenue per user (ARPU) due to falling voice tariffs, are now looking at ways to counter smaller margins by building alternative revenue streams through mobile data services. Voice services still make up the lion’s share of mobile services revenues; in 2007, voice services accounted for approximately 81 percent of operators’ total mobile service revenues worldwide. However, with an ever increasing focus on non-voice mobile services, this figure is forecast to decline to a little over 74 percent by year-end 2012.

In 2007, revenue from mobile data services accounted for approximately 20 percent of total service revenue in Western and Northern Europe; 15 percent in Central and Eastern Europe; 24.5 percent in Asia Pacific; 18 percent in North America; 10.5 percent in Latin America; 7 percent in Africa; and 11 percent in the Middle East. The contribution of non-voice mobile services to total mobile services revenues is expected to increase significantly over the coming years, across all regions.

Rather unsurprisingly, SMS contributes the largest share to total non-voice revenues and in 2007, SMS accounted for approximately 49 percent of worldwide mobile data services revenues. However, as other data services such as mobile music, mobile games, mobile e-mail, mobile instant messaging (IM) and mobile video gain popularity, the percentage contribution of SMS is expected to decline in the future, even though SMS traffic volumes will continue to grow worldwide.

In 2012, SMS is expected to contribute approximately 37 percent to overall data services revenues. Worldwide mobile data revenue is expected to increase at a CAGR of 16.2 percent, reaching USD 251.9 billion by end-2012 from USD 102.4 billion at end-2006. Although revenue from all data services is expected to increase, the fastest rate of growth is forecast to come from mobile video services (CAGR of 68.2 percent), followed by mobile IM (CAGR of 58.3 percent).

Video is the new media for the music industry and one that will see new bundled content delivered. Blue Pie is at the forefront of video and has completed agreements with over 10 of the global leaders for our catalogue to be serviced via our digital systems. This will expose all of our artists and labels to a greater depth of license opportunities and develop new fans much faster than we have enjoyed to date.

If you want to know more about the impact of video and what this can mean for you and your content then email us at sales@bluepie.com.au

Thanks for reading this blogg.

US internet users watching 11 billion web videos a month !!!

2008-06-24T21:31:00.001+10:00

According to comScore's latest figures, 134 million US internet users watched a total of more than 11 billion videos during April this year. That's an average of 81 videos each. More stats: 71% of the total US internet audience viewed online video, the average viewer watched 228 minutes of it during the month, and 18-34 year-olds are the heaviest viewers. YouTube accounted for a whopping 4.1 billion video views, while MySpace snagged 481 million.

With this kind of shift to the web we expect to see video downloads to increase rapidly with all forms of mobile devices and carriers. We have been steadily growing our digital catalogue now for the past 3 years and will be expanding into film and short films.

So whats this all mean ?
To me this is just the start of the total emersive technology evolution with all content now being driven to your handset and desk top PC.

Think about it for a moment and ask yourself how much time to you spend at the keyboard. Well for myself I spend over 60 + hours staring at a screen and then on the weekends I may end up spending another 10 hours staring at a flat screen TV or go to cinema.

No matter which way you look at it the market will move to snack content and video on demand. For Blue Vault Digital it is all about making the delivery of the content super easy for our customers.

Thanks for reading my Blog

Damien

My Blue Pie Music & MP3 Downloads:

2008-05-11T11:41:00.002+10:00

My Blue Pie Music & MP3 Downloads:

Mp3 downloads are responsible for probably the biggest change in music buying habits since the invention of vinyl. Whether it will be good or bad for the industry is a matter of some dispute, but it has happened, and a period of adjustment is inevitable whilst the old guard find their feet.

With a philosophy of community spirit and openness, Blue Pie and our digital store My Blue PIe Music we connecting to our customers in new and exciting ways.

This direct connection is crucial, both to consumer and retailer, and this has not changed since the days of physical record purchases. What has changed, however, is the amount of choice available to mp3 purchasers. This is best explained by the theory of “The Long Tail”, first theorised by Chris Anderson; to paraphrase, the internet is about selling small amounts of many goods, rather than large amounts of a few goods.

To help customers through this huge amount of independent and often undiscovered content, Blue Pie has been creating a true community network.

Selling to the “Long Tail” or niche market is where Blue Pie really comes into its own. With a large collection of back catalogue mp3’s, some unavailable anywhere else, and indie labels clamouring to join the the My Blue Pie Music stores, there is music from Every Genre for Every Generation.

Music is offered in non-DRM high quality mp3 format. High quality mp3’s are worth paying for, and we believe this coupled with our diversity of content, value for monty service and promotions from labels all over the world place us in a unique place to be able to look after the most important aspect of the business food chain ... THE CUSTOMER.

Check out the store and our 14,000 + labels that we have represented from majors to indies. wwww.mybluepiemusic.com

Thanks for taking the time to read my Blogg

Damien

Losses widen for WMG as mobile revenues slacken !

2008-05-10T21:06:00.002+10:00

Losses widen for WMG as mobile revenues slacken !

This is time for the boys up top to take note from the leaner and meaner digital labels.

Warner Music Group has announced revenues of $800 million for the first quarter of 2008, up 2% from Q1 2007. However, the company's losses grew to $34 million from $27 million year-on-year. Digital revenues were up by 47.6% to $155 million for the latest quarter, and are now accounting for 23.8% of WMG's total music revenues. 65% of WMG's digital sales are in the US, with 35% international. However, WMG described mobile music revenues as "soft", with ringtone sales on the slide, and full-track mobile downloads failing to make up for it.

In Q1, WMG's mobile music revenues were $46.5 million, down from the $56.4 million in Q4 last year.

To me this all means opportunity. WMG will continue to struggle until they stick to a set strategy. At the moment the top is being led by the market and scrambling to adapt, move to its demands as opposed to tapping into the rich veins of digital business that exist in the market by forming strong alliances with the Telco and mobile handset makers.

Damien Reilly

Source: Musically
Source: PaidContent
Source: MocoNews

BLUE PIE ADDS SOME SONIC POWER AND OPENS UP IN THE USA.

2008-04-26T19:09:00.000+10:00

BLUE PIE ADDS SOME SONIC POWER AND OPENS UP IN THE USA.
WINSONIC AND BLUE PIE TEAM UP TO COMMERCIALISE THE BLUE PIE PRODUCT RANGE INTO NORTH AMERICA

PRESS RELEASE - EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY

The 21st century is the decade when broadband networks bring significant telecommunications capabilities to the World. Broadband telecommunications are bringing about change, both for the network operator, business and residential users. This is opening up new and exciting digital entertainment, digital commerce and mobile commerce markets that never existed 10 years ago.
Blue Pie and WinSonic are now poised to capitalize on these new and rapidly growing markets.

Blue Pie & WinSonic Digital Media Group today announce a new partnership that will see the expansion of Blue Pie and its product range into the greater North American markets. The new agreement provides WinSonic with the exclusive rights to the Blue Pie Productions and its subsidiary Magic Blue Creatives product line, source code library and digital entertainment content libraries.

WinSonic will become the “Hub” and gateway to North America for all things Blue Pie and Magic Blue Creative.

Business today seeks to provide new rewards for consumers and seek out new ways to engage their target customers to create:
Sticky websites;
Increase customer retention rates;
Deliver new income streams and capitalize their existing databases;
Increase sales and provide reward for consumption.

The Blue Pie product range includes a library of digital entertainment content of over 5 Million music files, over 5000 digital video files, 10,000 mobile games, social networking products, data mining systems & tools and a source code library of proprietary software.

The source code library combines over 10 years of development experience from Blue Pie and Magic Blue Creative with product development in, mobile Commerce, eCommerce, digital entertainment content management systems, social networking systems and digital entertainment retail systems.

WinSonic and Blue Pie are focused on the following 4 pronged strategy to deliver long term revenues from the North American marketplace:
Create, acquire and expand the Blue Pie content libraries;
Build Communities utilizing the Blue Pie social networking products;
Monetize and commercialise content rights across multiple platforms to deliver long term royalty income streams;
Build youth market databases to provide leverage for our consumer brand customers.

The agreement will provide Blue Pie with a direct doorway to the USA and Canadian markets. WinSonic will be the processing and management face for all things Blue Pie.

Both companies are extremely excited about the future and have already commenced discussions with several fortune 500 companies to build digital entertainment channels and provide access to both firms expanding content libraries.

Blue Pie has a 5 man sales team working in the USA and the leadership of Mr. Jon Taber. Under the new agreement both Blue Pie and WinSonic will combine their sales team and share resources along with administration and management systems to process and manage all sales. Blue Pie has an extensive sales pipeline and has already secured a number of lucrative systems, development and digital entertainment software development contracts. WinSonic will take over the day to day management of all customer relationships and all things Blue Pie for North America.

As Blue Pie's CEO Mr. Damien Reilly says:
“ This is an extremely exciting time for our company. We have been a part of the Export Market Development Program with Austrade now for the past 3 years and it has been through the help of organisations like Austrade and the EMDG program that new markets like this can be developed. For emerging exporters like Blue Pie and our partners, this represents a great opportunity that will see long term commercial opportunities developed for many Australian artists. This will provide commercialization of our artists and content rights into the greater North American markets. This agreement will also provide similar opportunities for many US and Canadian artists. We look forward to a very bright future with WinSonic.”

As WinSonic's CEO Mr. Winston D. Johnson says:
“ I am delighted that we have been able to partner with a great company like Blue Pie. This will provide great income streams for our company. This new agreement provides fantastic new job opportunities for the young talent now in Atlanta. We will be expanding our combined catalogues and seeking out commercial opportunities on the back of our existing contracts. Both companies share common values and beliefs along with the desire to help and develop new and emerging talent. We extremely pleased that our two companies have been able to put this agreement together and we look forward to many long years of success.”

ABOUT WINSONIC: ( STOCK CODE for the OTCBB: WDMG)
WinSonic Digital Media, Ltd., is a Nevada corporation and headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia (“WinSonic” or the “Company”), is a digital media distribution company that owns, develops, manages, and digitally distributes content.

The Company has communication licenses, rights and agreements that allow it to cost effectively and reliably deliver its products and services. WinSonic’s library of digitally formatted music, video, print and other media is made available to its customers through innovative web based browsers and distribution platforms. In addition, the Company provides high-end consulting in the areas of digital media production and content distribution, plus related network implementation, integration and communications services.

WinSonic’s lineage can be traced back to the early 1980’s when the CEO, Mr. Winston Johnson founded WinSonic Enterprises and several affiliated companies (“WE”) to provide contract production services to the music, film and recording industry. Prominent artists and corporate clients included Michael Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Kenny Rogers, Stevie Wonder, Motown, Sony, MCA, Warner Brothers, A&M and many more. As a result of these entertainment industry relationships, WinSonic has a rapidly expanding digital entertainment content library and master library.

ABOUT BLUE PIE:
www.bluepie.com.au
Blue Pie Productions is a new media company with expertise in technology and new media, to maximize returns from the new, global Internet-based digital entertainment business.

We are:
A Record Label - The Record label is called " Blue Pie " see www.bluepie.com.au
A Publishing House - The Publishing business is called " Blue Pie Publishing "
A media shop - The Media shop is called " Magic Blue Media " www.magicbluemedia.com
A creative entertainment house - The Creative House is called " Magic Blue Creative " www.magicbluecreative.com
Blue Pie the record label is the embodiment of Damien Reilly’s years of experience with the Internet and the music business. It has grown into a digital record label with a wide range of alliance-partnerships which it calls upon to create digital delivery systems quickly and cost effectively. The label represents over 14,000 labels worldwide.

Blue Pie's artists include Peter Noone, Oohlala, Belasco, Marvel, Alexx Calise, the bLEED, Sheva, MLU, Burning the Day, Erik Simins, and Sahra to name a few.

Search on "blue pie" in Google for more information.

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MEDIA CONTACT DETAILS:

Dan Speak
General Manager Media and Public Relations
Blue Pie Productions Pty Ltd
The Technopark
Unit 37 No 6 Herbert Street
St Leonards NSW 2065
Australia
p: + 612 9310 0155
f” + 612 9310 0166
e: dan@bluepie.com.au
w: www.bluepie.com.au
w: www.mybluepiemusic.com
w: www.magicbluecreative.com

Katie C. Ashcraft
Vice President Media and Public Relations
WinSonic Digital Media Group, Ltd
WinSonic Digital Cable Systems Network, Ltd.
101 Marietta Street, Suite 2600
Atlanta, Ga. 30303
p: 404-230-5705 ext 2239
f: 404-230-0300 fax
e: kashcraft@wdcsn.net
w: www.winsonic.net

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