Music

Survey: 17% of U.S. teens own iPhones

And a record 37% expect to buy one -- or get their parents to -- in the next 6 months

In the spring of 2009, Piper Jaffray's biannual survey of American teenagers reported that 8% already owned iPhones and 16% planned to buy one in the next six months. Half a year later, when the PJC surveyors went back out into the field, the teens had made good their word: 15% MORE

Could Apple lose an antitrust case?

That depends on how broadly or narrowly the market at issue gets defined

The news that the Justice Department and the FTC are eying Apple's (AAPL) new subscription rules for possible antitrust violations has got experts taking a closer look at the markets in which the company competes.

"Typically when a firm reaches 60% or 70% of a given market is when authorities get interested," says Brett Gordon, an assistant professor at MORE

Meet The Beatles' bestsellers

One day after Tuesday's release, their 15 albums and 1 box set are all in the iTunes' top 50

It was often said during Apple's (AAPL) protracted negotiations with Apple Corps. and EMI to put The Beatles' catalog on iTunes, that anybody who cared about the music had already ripped the CDs.

Apparently that's not the case.

Apps set to overtake songs

Based on current download rates, the crossover could come before the end of the year

The chart at right, drawn by Asymco's Horace Dediu, compares two of Apple's (AAPL) signal developments: the growth of legal digital music downloads and the growth of downloadable mobile apps.

Graphed on top of each other, by months since launch, the chart shows traffic on the App Store reaching in 2.2 years the same total -- nearly MORE

Google hits up Harry Fox for Christmas music store launch?

A new rumor today says Google is frantically putting together a deal which would grant the company license to sell music directly.

Google  is said to be in "accelerated" talks with the Harry Fox Agency, which is the largest owner of mechanical music licenses in the Unites States, to build out its Music store.   A mechanical license is described as:

Within the music industry, a mechanical licence gives the holder permission to create MORE

Live Nation's Azoff goes on the defensive, again

Revenue is down, the music business is a mess and the scalpers just won't let up

by Laura Rich, contributor

Irving Azoff has his back up against a wall. The Live Nation (LYV) CEO faces declining ticket sales at the concerts his company produces and his company's 2009 revenue was down well below expectations at $365 million from $450 million the year before.

What's more, he doesn't trust the numbers about concert tours MORE

YouTube launches music discovery site

Youtube.com/Music is Google's next step into the music business.

As I pontificated last month, Google already has a big music store and it is called YouTube. Today Google (GOOG) formalized that idea with a new gateway at http://youtube.com/music.

If you want easier ways to discover music on YouTube, just start here. Our revamped music page -- part of a redesign that started with our shows and movies pages -- showcases the most MORE

The failure of mobile music downloads

The carriers' combined market share shrank to 4.9% last year as Apple solidified its lead

Songs streamed directly to cellphones, once touted as the next big thing in digital music, failed to take off and is now rapidly losing ground to Apple's (AAPL) iTunes Store.

That's the conclusion of a survey in the May 22 issue of Billboard. Based on interviews with distributors representing roughly 90% of the total market, Retail MORE

Beaming tunes to Apple's secret cloud

It took Lala's Music Mover more than a week to upload my modest iTunes library

If Michael Robertson is right -- and I believe he is -- Apple (AAPL) is about to use its $85 million purchase of Lala to create a browser-based music service that will let users access their iTunes music collections from the Web.

The service could become available as early as next Wednesday, says Robertson, a 12-year MORE

Apple's growing slice of the music business - in pie charts

The NPD Group on Tuesday issued what at first appears to be a pair of contradictory facts:

Apple (AAPL) now controls the largest share of the music business, its iTunes Store accounting for 25% of unit sales in the first half of 2009, up from 14% in 2007.
Compact discs are still the most popular format for paid music, accounting for 65% of unit sales.

How can this be? The trick is that MORE