Blisstunes

Amount Microsoft paid for Skype, 2011: $8.5 billion. US-based Recording Industry Revenues, 2010: $6.85 billion.       Technology eviscerates again? Skype was originally created by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis (among others), also the original brains and entrepreneurs behind Kazaa. The distributed, peer-to-peer architecture of Kazaa heavily informed the Skype architecture - in fact, the [...]

It's free for a limited time, but you need an invitation (request one here). But Music Beta by Google has all the beginnings of a serious music cloud service, without those pesky major label deals.  At Google I/O in San Francisco this morning, the company shared details on the beta launch, including a preliminary upload [...]

Microsoft has confirmed a collosal, $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, the largest in company history.  Early reports indicate that Microsoft massively outbid rivals - particularly that of Google - by an embarrassingly large amount. It's Blavatnik's problem now.  Warner Music Group posted a sizeable $38 million loss during the latest quarter, a deterioration from year-ago losses of $25 [...]

How about some music startups to go with that order? Microsoft has just confirmed a collosal, $8.5 billion acquisition of Skype, the largest in company history.  Early reports indicate that Microsoft massively outbid rivals - particularly that of Google - by an embarrasingly large amount. It's Blavatnik's problem now.  Warner Music Group posted a sizeable $38 million [...]

Unsurpringly, Tunecore artists have been unenthusiastic about huge distribution cost increases, especially when presented with little advance notice. But Tunecore founder Jeff Price says the extra services are worth the 150 percent increase. "It costs money to create improvements, new features and upgrades," Price responded on the Tunecore blog. "We can be an old, stale [...]

Look what Amazon started. Now, a frustrated Google has opted to push forward with its much-anticipated cloud music launch - without major label approval.  One Google source to Digital Music News pointed to a formal unveiling at Google's I/O presentation on Tuesday (ie, now), and several major outlets - including the Wall Street Journal and New [...]

It's a brutal reality, but also a major opportunity. "Most people go to one concert a year," said Ian Hogarth, cofounder and CEO of Songkick during a SF MusicTech Summit panel on Monday. "And when they find that concert they want to go to, they want to go with two or three really close friends. [...]

Music-focused branding company VerveLife has now acquired music technology firm AppliedSB, part of an aggressive expansion strategy.  The move was confirmed by VerveLife president Victor Siegel.           In addition to SF MusicTech Summit, San Francisco is also playing host to the latest Music Hack Day.  And, Rdio has offered one of the biggest [...]

If you thought the buyout process surrounding Warner Music Group was complicated, try the post-buyout process. After the $3.3 billion acquisition by Russian tycoon Len Blavatnik was confirmed, a few more developments have surfaced. The parties are still awaiting closure on customary merger formalities, but ahead of the weekend, Bloomberg leaked a possible counter-offer by [...]

Ever since Cisco abandoned Warner Music Group, proprietary solutions are getting a totally different look at labels. Actually, one connected source told Digital Music News that Warner is currently considering another proprietary partnership, though post-sale, things are understandably in the air. But this time around, the risks of that direction are much easier to see, [...]