Much-hyped music service Spotify’s CEO Daniel Ek took to the stage at music-biz conference Midem and again tried to remind onlookers - it’s a mixed model of free and paid, not just free tunes on tap. That view of Spotify as a too-good-to-be-profitable, free-music Shangri-la has two roots - users…

Talk about ballsy. The German co-inventor of MP3 and a Norwegian company called Bach have teamed to create a new audio format they reckon is “the successor to MP3”. Bach is touting the format, called MusicDNA, as a way to make buying legal downloads more attractive. At the launch event,…

Spotify has over 250,000 paying subscribers, SVP Paul Brown confirmed on stage at Midem, as streaming services fall over themselves to downplay free in favour of premium. Pre-conference chatter had it that U.S. labels, in particular, are done with licensing any new sites that still insist on the former. This…

The music industry stands at a critical juncture (no, really this time) - but some people don’t think it’s capable of making leaps bold enough to avoid financial oblivion. Two years ago, Midem-goers fretted over whether dropping DRM would satisfy consumers frustrated at digital limitations on their purchases; last year,…

—7Digital: The online music retailer and white label store service says download sales were up 260 percent for Q4 2008; unclear if that’s up from the previous quarter or from the corresponding 2007 period; also unclear - the actual figures. Just as it’s rolled out in the US, 7Digital is…

Europe’s music biz will reach a digital tipping point in 2013, when the majority of sales (53 percent) will be from online, mobile and ringtones for the first time - but overall sales will still be nearly half what they were in 2001,  according to a new Forrester report. Digital…

Robbie Williams’ manager has accused the UK government of “wimping out” in the fight against illegal P2P downloading. ie:music MD Tim Clark told the MidemNet music industry conference in Cannes: “In France, Sarkozy is doing something about it. In the UK, as you’d expect, our government is completely wimping out.…

UK ISPs are lurching awkwardly toward launching next-generation music services - but, typically for the tail-chasing music business, splits remain about the best way forward. Last summer’s accord struck between labels and service providers seemed to pave the way for new offerings including unlimited downloads bundled with broadband and perhaps…

Trade bodies for both UK ISPs and the music business have used high-profile speeches to warn ministers against legislating to tackle illegal downloading - rumoured to be a recommendation in Lord Carter’s upcoming Digital Britain report. Internet Service Provider Alliance (ISPA) secretary general Nicholas Lansman told the MidemNet conference in…

Most people would stop downloading illegal music if sent a warning letter by their ISP, a second set of research has shown. The survey of 1,300 US, UK and French music fans showed 64 percent would quit if warned, The Leading Question analyst Tim Walker, who conducted the survey, told…

Nokia (NYSE: NOK) will roll out its Comes With Music bundled mobile music initiative in Australia and Singapore in the next few weeks, and hopes to launch in the US and globally later this year. Entertainment and communities EVP Tero Ojanpera revealed at the MidemNet conference in Cannes, France, the…