50 Cent defends file sharing in interview

No stranger to controversy, 50 Cent has taken his act overseas, stirring up plenty of hullabaloo on a European tour. A week after inciting an Internet debate about whether or not he was snorting something on a table in the background of video news report in Zagreb, Fiddy has now come out and defended file sharing, long deemed as Public Enemy No. 1 by 50's label Interscope/UMG and all of the major record labels.

In an interview with Norwegian site kjendis.no, translated by TorrentFreak, Fiddy said artists and the industry need to adapt. "What is important for the music industry to understand is that file-sharing doesn't hurt artists," he said. "A young fan may be just as devout and dedicated, even if he didn't buy my recording."

Fiddy also addressed the specific problems with hip-hop, endorsing the recent trend of 360-degree business models, which broaden the revenue sharing between artists and labels to include merchandising, concerts, and endorsements.

"The advances in technology impacts everyone, and we all must adapt," he said. "The main problem is that the artists are not getting as much help developing as before file-sharing. They are now learning to peddle ringtones, not records. They don't understand the value of a perfect piece of art."

MySpace launches live music performances

With bands spending more time than ever on the road and with new major music festivals popping up all over the place, live music is as vital as ever. Social networking giant MySpace is looking to harness that power on the Internet through a new program called Transmissions.

The program--think an online version of MTV Unplugged--invites musicians to choose a studio and select the songs they want to perform. MySpace will show and sell videos of the performance, with participating bands setting the price at which the recordings are sold and controlling who handles the transaction.

James Blunt is the first artist to participate in Transmissions, introducing five songs, including a new single, on MySpace last week. In Blunt's case, the sales are powered by the same Lala widget used to sell his Atlantic album, All the Lost Souls, when it debuted in September.

Imeem nabs Universal support

Faced with lawsuits and threats of legal action earlier this year, imeem has now stemmed the tide and inked deals with all four major labels to stream their entire digital music and video catalog for free. The last agreement was announced today, with imeem agreeing to terms with Universal Music group, the world largest record company and home to a catalog that includes, 50 Cent, U2, Kanye West, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, and Maroon 5.

The deal, a new model for the music industry, calls for imeem to share advertising revenue with Universal in exchange for access to the label giant's full catalog. Imeem, which claims 19 million unique visitors each month and 50,000 new registered users each day, allows users to upload their favorite music, videos, and photos, search for and stream videos, find new content through social discovery, and create custom playlists to share with friends on and off the site.

"imeem has developed an innovative way to make our artists' music a central part of the social networking experience," Doug Morris, chairman and CEO of UMG, said in a statement. "More importantly, they've done so the right way--by working with UMG to provide an exciting musical experience for consumers, while ensuring that our artists are fairly compensated for the use of their works."

Limewire antitrust case dismissed

A federal judge last week threw out the antitrust lawsuit filed by LimeWire against the major record labels, dealing a blow to the peer-to-peer file-sharing software distributor's ongoing battle with the major record labels. LimeWire alleged that the major labels' refusal to license their works to LimeWire, and other issues like price fixing among labels, was anticompetitive.

In his 45-page ruling, US District Judge Gerard E. Lynch said LimeWire's claims "fail to allege an adverse affect on competition market-wide," and granted the labels' motion to dismiss the case. LimeWire filed the lawsuit as a counterclaim to the copyright infringement lawsuit the major labels filed against the company last year, which is still pending.

LimeWire contended it sought to reach an agreement with the labels so that it could field a licensed music service, but the record labels refused to broker a deal, insisting it use a filtering system approved by the labels or reach an agreement with iMesh Inc., a rival file-sharing service that has been operating with the blessing of record labels since settling a copyright infringement case in 2004. Lynch concluded that LimeWire didn't prove that the tactics amounted to anticompetitive practices.

Nokia and UMG team for "Comes With Music"

Looking to boost sales of its line of music phones, Finnish phone maker Nokia said last week that it has struck a deal with Universal Music Group to offer unlimited free downloads of Universal songs to buyers of certain Nokia phones.

The new program, called "Comes With Music," let users download Universal's entire catalog at no cost for 12 months, and keep the songs at the end of that time. Users will be able to download the songs to new Nokia phones or to their computers via mobile or fixed-line broadband connections. Universal will get a portion of revenue from sales of the phones.

The program will kick off in the second half of 2008, and Nokia said it is negotiating with the other three major record labels to get them to join the program as well.