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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
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Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

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  • King James Version

    • 4 out of 10
    • Harvey Danger
    • The sophomore effort from Harvey Danger, I was really looking forward to this followup to "Where Have All the Merrymakers Gone?" Unfortunately, "King James Version" failed to deliver any of the bri

  • Music Has The Right To Children

    • 10 out of 10
    • Boards of Canada
    • This one will haunt you. From the first notes to the last, their sound surrounds you. BOC has put out a fantastic catalogue, and this album is a great starting point for a new listener. Jump straight
  • Wolfmother

    • 8 out of 10
    • Wolfmother
    • Black Sabbath, The White Stripes, The Stooges. There aren't many bands worth their salt that want to be compared to other bands, but when I listen to Wolfmother's self-titled American debut, I can

  • Cocked & Loaded

    • 8 out of 10
    • Revolting Cocks
    • It's hard to believe it's been more than a decade since Ministry founder and front man Al Jourgensen's side project Revolting Cocks released any new material. 2006 brings us Cocked and Loaded

  • Rock Spectacle

    • 8 out of 10
    • Barenaked Ladies
    • These guys know how to put on a live show, and whomever recorded this knows how to capture one. Rock Spectacle is one of the warmest-sounding recordings I've ever heard, and totally fills a room at a

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News

Record Labels See Digital Music Sales Hit a Plateau

While the introduction of the iTunes Music Store was seen as a boon for record labels weary of fighting the peer-to-peer networks, sales have plateaued in recent months despite the presence of evermore iPods. Charles Goldsmith, writing for Bloomberg News, covered the phenomenon in an article published on Wednesday.

According to Mr. Goldsmith, "digital music sales in the U.S., the world's biggest market, have hardly budged in the past five months. They almost tripled to 6.6 million downloads a week in the year through May, and were at 6.7 million in the week ended Oct. 23." Meanwhile, global CD sales revenue will shrink again this year, the sixth straight year of such a decline.

SG Securities media analyst Simon Baker, who's based in London, told Mr. Goldsmith: "Digital optimism seems to be crashing in on itself. This has devastating implications for predictions that digital sales would grow exponentially.''

Mr. Goldsmith also cited numbers from research firm Fulcrum Global Partners, which said in an Oct. 17 report that average downloads per iPod dropped from 25 annually to 15 during the past year. While iTunes Music Store revenue is such a small part of Apple's overall sales that such a development has hardly bothered investors, music label stocks have taken a beating, including EMI, which is currently trading below its May IPO (initial public offering) price.

The question now is whether or not the current trend can reverse itself. Mr. Goldsmith pointed to the burgeoning sales of cell phone ring tones as one potential long-term moneymaker for record companies, while music industry analyst Russ Crupnick told the reporter that Christmas iPod sales should help download revenues, which is what happened last year.

"There's been a lot of download activity from what's known as the early adopters,'' Mr. Crupnick said. "The challenge is: how do you maintain this? The industry has to do a stronger job of reaching out to more mainstream consumers.''

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