The amount that the RIAA paid out to its lawyers in 2008? $16,000,000. The amount that the RIAA recovered as a result of their efforts? $391,000.

"So all in all, for a 3 year period," Ray Beckermann reports "they spent around $64,000,000 in legal and investigative expenses to recover around $1,361,000."

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The U.S. single-track download market slipped 0.2% to 597.4 million tracks in the first half of the year according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The data may suggest that the digital music singles market has reached a saturation point. Variable pricing, which has set top new releases at $1.29 rather than the more standard $.99, may have also contributed to flat sales.

On a more positive note, download sales of the more profitable album format grew by 12.7% to 42.2 million. Digital albums now make up 27.4% of all album sales. That's encouraging news, but not nearly enough to offset the continuing decline in CD sales.

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A new NPD Group study based on just under 4000 consumer image from www.splicelicio.us interviews predicts that between 7 and 8 million...

... iTunes users in the U.S. have a strong interest in paid music subscription options. Those surveyed indicated a willingness to pay a minimum monthly fee of $10, either for streaming music or access to their personal music libraries on multiple devices. There are an estimated 50 million iTunes users in the U.S. and according to NPDs research, a model that offers iTunes users free access to their own music libraries would attract 13 to 15 million subscribers.

A $1 Billion Opportunity

The numbers are all based on a limited survey but the future of streaming music looks promising.  "After the services launch, user numbers could conceivably rise substantially, as they upgrade to newer connected devices and actually experience the benefits of cloud-based music," said Russ Crupnick, VP and senior entertainment analyst for NPD. "The market opportunity is close to $1 billion in the first year, which is roughly two-thirds the revenue garnered by the current pay-per-download model."

"We dont yet know what, if any, effect these services might have on the traditional pay-per-download music model, or whether consumers will ultimately spend more on digital music overall, if or when any of these options eventually rolls out," Crupnick added.

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A U.S. District Court has issued a summary judgment in favor of YouTube in the longstanding $1 billion case brought by Viacom.

The decision granted YouTube safe harbor under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). It follows similar court decisions that grant online services like YouTube protection as long as they work with copyright holders to  manage infringment.

Viacom may appeal, but given similar recent judgments in other courts, could choose not to. "This is an important victory not just for us, but also for the billions of people around the world who use the web to communicate and share experiences with each other," wrote Kent Walker, Vice President and General Counsel of YouTube parent Google on the company's blog.

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Just as when Apple recently bought Lala.com, yesterday's purchase of music streaming service Melodeo by computer giant Hewlett Packard...

... points straight towards a cloud based media offering. But unlike Steve Jobs, HP executives were not so silent:

"Melodeo is one of the only companies which possess the technology to aggregate a consumers digital media, manage it in the cloud and stream it to the user on any device, along with additional streams of content," said HP spokeswoman Mylene Mangalindan in a statement. "While it is premature for us to unveil specific plans as it relates to Melodeo, we expect to use this technology to deliver digital content across multiple devices and platforms."

Melodeo's Killer App: Effin Genius

"Pandora on steroids" is how Melodeo's Dave Dederer recently described the company's Effin Genius iPhone app.

"It looks at all of the music files and playlists on your iPhone or iPod and then uses our own proprietary collaborative filter to generate new playlists based on the music you already have," said Dederer, a former member of the indie rockers Presidents of the United States of America. Melodeo also has also developed custom mobile apps for bands and music oriented games.

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Hip Hop pioneers Public Enemy has been forced to drop their fundrasing goal on fan funding site Sellaaband from $250,000 to $75,000. Six months into their campaign they have raised $56,000. On Sellaband, Public Enemy posted:

We now firmly believe that it is time to rethink and restructure our fund raising efforts here, as well as our goals and pursuits.

We have learned that the fan funding model is still not fully developed and, as a result, a $250,000 fund raising effort, while possible, will take too long to accomplish....

We also have reached the conclusion that we will no longer include expenses for sales and marketing in our fund raising budget and goals.

As a result of our SellaBand experience and all that we have learned, we now believe that a $75,000 fund raising target will fulfill the needs for a new recording project and is much more appropriate for the strength of the existing SellaBand model and the current economic climate.

Today, we are announcing that we are now offering a total 3,000 parts for Believers at a value of $25.00 each to raise a total of $75,000. The $75,000 will be used to fund the complete recording costs and expenses for our next album. As of April 10th, we have already sold 2,225 parts. As a result, we only need to sell 775 additional parts to reach our new goal.

More here.

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JPMorgan Chase is facilitating an auction for Indie music publisher Bug Music with an asking price of $300 million. As reported by the New York Post, Bug has already received the first round of bids from numerous interested parties.

Among this list are several of the majors, including Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group, Sony/ATV Music and a partnership between KKR and BMG. The next round of bids is due on June 18.

With a going price of $300 million, Bug is a seeking a higher multiple of their price to earnings ratio than other music companies in similar sales. According to the Post, the $300 million sale price would put Bug at 12 times the net publisher's share. Bug's annual revenue is estimated to be $70 million.

"Typical music publisher multiples currently range from 8 to 10 times net publisher's share for quality assets. Historically they've trended more toward the 10 to 15 times range." Lisbeth Barron, a Berenson & Company banker with expertise in the music industry told the Post.

Privately owned, Bug is one of the largest indie publishers in the world, holding copyrights to more than 250,000 songs, inclduing "What a Wonderful World," and "The Real Slim Shady." as well as current chart toppers by acts such as The Kings of Leon's "Use Somebody" and Brad Paisley's "American Saturday Night." - CelebrityAccess Staff Writers

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