Users of "free" music buy more music, too - study

There's long been a defense - moral, if not legal - of people sharing music on peer-to-peer networks on the basis that they're probably the sort of people who buy more music than average anyway. Sure, it might be soft-stealing, but it's still your best customers.

Now, a survey has confirmed that to be true - at least in Canada. The Impact of Music Downloads and P2P File-Sharing on the Purchase of Music: A Study for Industry Canada has studied 2,100 Canadians and concludes:

our analysis of the Canadian P2P file-sharing subpopulation suggests that there is a strong positive relationship between P2P file-sharing and CD purchasing. That is, among Canadians actually engaged in it, P2P file-sharing increases CD purchasing. We estimate that the effect of one additional P2P download per month is to increase music purchasing by 0.44 CDs per year

It's important to note that they don't find filesharing increases CD sales as an absolute, but filesharing appears to make filesharers more likely to buy more music.

In effect, it's something the labels should at least see as a positive good, if not actively encourage. Based on this survey, anyway. And anecdotal evidence. And common sense.

Avril Lavinge "surprisingly popular in Europe": MTV Europe awards

The MTV Europe Awards were mostly notable for the tale of two screw-ups: Winehouse and Doherty. Amy barely managed to make it through her song:

She accepted her award with a brief "Thanks" before walking off stage. Minutes later she stumbled through her song with a thin, wailing voice instead of the rich growl that has won her so many fans.

Winehouse appeared to have trouble remembering the words to her own song, her dancing was stilted and out of step and she was unsteady on her feet.

Babyshambles, though, were as polished as the Osmonds:

Pete Doherty, in the headlines for his self-confessed drug addiction and affair with supermodel Kate Moss, led the Babyshambles in a haunting rendition of "Delivery".

Asked what was behind this apparent change, he told Reuters: "Yeh, it's all different now. I don't know ... God, and melody."

Munich music fan Ina Rousseau and her friend Ana Jordan particularly liked Doherty's performance. "He was here. He was singing and not falling down," said Jordan, 26.

Not falling down isn't exactly setting the standard that high, though. Even Amy didn't quite fall down.

For European awards, the prizes went to a surprisingly surburban American idea of what's good music. Avril Lavigne won two, for example, despite her near-eclipse on this side of the Atlantic.

The winners in full:

ROCK OUT

- 30 Seconds to Mars

BAND OF 2007

- Linkin Park

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

- Nelly Furtado - Loose

ULTIMATE URBAN

- Rihanna

MOST ADDICTIVE TRACK

- Avril Lavigne - Girlfriend

INTER ACT

- Tokio Hotel

HEADLINER

- Muse

SOLO ARTIST OF 2007

- Avril Lavigne

VIDEO STAR

- Justice - D.A.N.C.E

ARTISTS' CHOICE

- Amy Winehouse

Any prize ceremony in which 30 Seconds To Mars leaves clutching a trophy has contained within itself the detail of its own failure.

Shape up, musicians: EMI crack the whip

The new approach to the music industry from Terra Firma is now starting to roll out to the artists, as Guy Hands issues a memo calling on his roster to work harder. Presumably if they don't, Robbie Williams will find his job offshored:

Guy Hands, chief executive of Terra Firma, promised “fundamental change” in how EMI approached the music business, but warned that artists would have to meet their side of the bargain.

“While many spend huge amounts of time working with their label to promote, perfect and endorse their music, some unfortunately simply focus on negotiating for the maximum advance . . . advances which are often never repaid,” he wrote in an internal memo this week.

Once EMI’s own standards had been raised, he said, it could be more selective: “It will be open to us to choose which artists we wish to work with and promote.”

Of course, there's no reason why EMI shouldn't choose to work like this - dumping the model of signing as much as possible, and cross-subsidising the failing artists from the monies made by the top acts. But whenever the RIAA complain about filesharing, they always stress how their labels need to sell the big artists in order to pay for the ones who don't hit. So that'll be a line they need to drop, then.

More importantly, if EMI aren't chasing new, young artists and choosing only to work with "hard-working" (i.e. proven) acts, where do they propose to find them? The only attractions of signing with a major have been the advances and the distribution - clearly, you don't need EMI for its network of CD plants and warehousing any more; if they take the support for artist development out of the mix, why would anyone want to do a deal with them?

Led Zep give gig the finger

The long-awaited Led Zeppelin reunion gig is going to be slightly longer-awaited: Jimmy Page has broken a finger.

It's all a bit strange, though:

A spokesman said the band had not revealed which finger was affected or how the fracture occurred.

They're not even revealing if Page has broken one of his own fingers, or one on someone else's hands.

Mills dumped by PR advisor

You know, it's kind of curious that Heather Mills should rail quite so strongly against Rupert Murdoch's papers when she'd been paying for PR services from Phil Hall, who had worked for Rupert as News of the World editor.

Had been paying, mind: Hall has walked away now, opting to not be part of the current campaign:

"We are still mates but I am not working with her any more," Mr Hall told MediaGuardian.co.uk.

"Yesterday, she said she wanted to do this TV campaign attacking newspapers, but I have a good relationship with newspapers and my business depends on feeding that good relationship," he added.

"She wanted me to orchestrate this campaign and make calls to newspapers but I have got friends and mates in national newspapers and it didn't seem right to make those calls and attack them."

Interesting he was there in the first place, though, isn't it?

Heather Mills, sobbing on GMTV about how she was an "ordinary person" while having a former tabloid editor advising her on media relations?

Heather Mills, disgusted by the Sun, while employing the former editor of their sister paper.

Heather Mills, comparing her treatment by the press to the way Diana Windsor was treated, while employing a man who told ITV he felt he had a "huge responsibility" for what happened to Diana?

Heather Mills, crusader for public protection from the worst excesses of the tabloid press, while having her PR handled by a man who cheerfully admitted using pretty girls ("Hall's angels") in entrapment set-ups to "expose" the behaviour of Tom Parker-Bowles?

No wonder Hall is backing off from the latest campaign. As humbug goes, this is something of a gobstopper.

Rockies settle ticket claim

The Colorado Rockies had a few problems with their ticketing for their World Series run when they put them on sale last week - in a disaster that recalled the worst days of Glastonbury, the server fell over (or, if you believe the baseball team, "fell victim to a malicious DOS attack") and there was great upsetment.

Jeff Sobieck was one who was upset; he'd got a confirmation that his purchase of 12 tickets had been successful before the system went down and he launched a lawsuit. The Rockies have settled this out-of-court. The size of the pay-off hasn't been revealed, but Sobieck had been seeking money to cover the amount he could have sold the tickets on for as damages.

In other words: despite the resale of tickets for higher-than-face-value being illegal in Denver, the club has paid off a scalper for loss of earnings on tickets he never received.

Even more curiously, the team has done this despite a 1917 law in the city which would have made it illegal for them to grant entry to anyone who they knew had bought Sobieck's tickets from him:

Denver's ordinance also has prohibited the operator of a ticketed event from selling tickets to anyone who would resell them at a premium, and has made it operators' responsibility to refuse to honor tickets purchased from scalpers, brokers or speculators if the operator "has knowledge of the unlawful purchase of such ticket."

And Harvey Goldsmith thinks the UK ticketing system is unworkable. Surely by revealing that he intended to resell them, Sobieck had effectively made the tickets he hadn't bought in the first place totally valueless?

Not in Nottingham again: Arcade Fire bottled

Nottingham is unlikely to see a gig by the Arcade Fire in the future, after the band were hit by bottles during their Nottingham Arena show. Although it's possible Win Butler was hit by a shoe rather than a bottle, but the point remains the same.

More on Mills...

Heather is currently on NBC, complaining about the way the media rips into people's reputations while - simultaneously - suggesting that Paul McCartney is a bit mean when it comes to his charitable donations and hasn't done enough to protect her from the beastly press.

Meanwhile, does Mills really think that You Care is the best way to air her grievances against The Sun? It's somewhat histrionic, calling the paper "the so-called Sun", as if - amongst the real problems with some of its content - it's somehow passing itself off as a giant fireball at the heart of a solar system.

It's been put together by Mills' sister, and finds time to buff Heather's halo a little on the way:

It is high time we took a stance and made a decision not to accept modern day stoning of anybody, never mind someone that has only tried to help the lives of animals and men, women and children for the last 17 years.

More to the point, if you're claiming the moral high ground and calling for unbiased reporting, shouldn't you at least mention that The Sun has apologised for its coverage of the Hillsborough deaths? You may wish to add you feel it was an economically-motivated apology, you might also choose to say it was too little, too late. But not even mentioning it might look a little like... oh, could it be misrepresentation?

Mills - she doesn't even speak proper, either

A slightly bashful Times explains this morning why it couldn't find the website Heather Mills was talking about:

— Thanks to GMTV for providing soft southern journalists with a transcript of yesterday’s interview with Heather Mills. We were all, obviously, confused by her continual reference (in her thick, Geordie brogue) to the “uk.com” website. “Please note,” says a press release, “the website Heather Mills refers to in h