How to Save Record Labels

(NEWSER) - The album is dead. Touring is on the fade. File-sharing is killing download profits. Adieu, music biz? Not so fast, reports The Wrap, which offers five fixes:

• Drop the price. Ninety-nine cents for a song? Try 10. "Lower the price point, and you undercut the very foundation of illegal downloading."

Clarkson explains fiasco, didn't mean to copy Knowles

(NEWSER) - Kelly Clarkson is battling her record label again, this time for releasing a song that appears to copy the Beyoncé single “Halo,” the New York Post reports. When Clarkson realized that the backing track songwriter Ryan Tedder had given her for “Already Gone” was the same as the one on “Halo,” she “fought and fought” to stop her version from being released, she told Canada’s CBC radio network—but to no avail. More»

(NEWSER) - Apple has joined forces with four major record labels on a mission to get music buyers to start buying albums again instead of just single tracks, the Financial Times reports. The project—codenamed "Cocktail"—will bundle album downloads with lyrics sheets, sleeve notes, photos, and assorted interactive features in an effort to lure consumers into buying the whole package. More»

Trade group wants its chunk of $7.8M acquisition

(NEWSER) - The music industry wants its money back from those copyright vigilantes at Pirate Bay, and now it sees a decent chance to get it, reports CNET. An industry trade group plans to go after the $3.6 million in damages awarded by a Swedish court now that a software company has announced it will buy the file-sharing website for $7.8 million. More»

(NEWSER) - Nashville really is Music City, Richard Florida writes in the Atlantic. Charting the demographics of the music industry from 1970 to 2004, Florida found that “Nashville was the only city that registered positive growth. In effect, it sucked up all the growth in the music industry.” It’s not just stars and bars, either: The city is home to a staggering 180 recording studios and 80 record labels, across many genres. More»