Major record labels will allow iTunes to sell all its music stripped of digital rights management (DRM), removing a barrier to digital music buying, while iTunes will introduce in April the tiered pricing the industry wants

We expect no real bounce in demand, however, as Apple’s DRM was not a restriction for iTunes customers as most owned iPods, the dominant music player in a market which is almost fully matured – we expect few iPod customers to pay to upgrade their libraries to DRM-free

News of peace breaking out between iTunes and the recorded music industry was overshadowed by reports of the continued steep decline in CD volumes sold in the US market, down almost by one fifth in 2008 from 2007, with digital increases again failing to offset the decline

Project Canvas is the BBC/ITV/BT backed proposal for next generation Freeview and Freesat services that embraces IPTV reception, new EPG, home storage and HDTV applications

Setting up Canvas as a not-for-profit consortium and making it non-exclusive to content providers should avoid the competition issues which killed Kangaroo, but many questions remain and technical and regulatory delays could push back the launch to 2011

We do not expect Canvas to make a major difference to non-linear viewing of audiovisual content – its importance lies much more in future-proofing the ‘Free TV’ viewing experience on the terrestrial and satellite platforms

This report updates our ongoing coverage of the UK commercial radio sector (UK Commercial Radio Q2 2008 [2008-84]), and includes our latest revenue forecasts for the period 2009-2013 (Table 1)

In the context of a UK recession that is proving to be deeper and longer than official forecasts had anticipated in 2008, we have severely downgraded our advertising forecasts. We now anticipate that, following the 6.4% decline in 2008 to £560.2 million, commercial radio advertising revenues will decline by a further 14.6% in 2009, to £478.2 million (compared to the peak of £641 million reached in 2004)

Highlighting the challenges of the ad-supported digital music model, SpiralFrog, the first licensed service to launch in the US, collapsed recently in a sea of red ink and failed promises

Newly licensed ‘cloud’ jukeboxes like Spotify or We7 are struggling to make sense of the ad-supported model whose licensing costs far outweigh their potential revenue at present

Digital Britain’s proposed Digital Rights Agency could improve the licensing environment for cloud jukeboxes, but we expect copyright owners will take particular care to avoid substitution of music consumption from pay-for to ‘free’ (but ad-supported), unless the financial rewards are commensurate

Steep declines in CD sales in major recorded music markets continued in 2009 as we had forecast last year (Recorded Music and Music Publishing [2008-39])

Sales of recorded music continue to be decimated by physical and online piracy, plus the disintermediation of the album purchase by the digital purchase of ‘cherry-picked’ tracks

A further knock-on effect on CD sales is the reduction in retailers’ shelf space devoted to music, including as a result of the bankruptcies of major chains (Circuit City, Woolworths and Zavvi) – what we have called the ‘perfect storm’ for the CD

By 29th September, all submissions on the government’s anti-piracy proposals will need to be in to the Department of Business Innovation and Skills (BIS), with furious lobbying taking place in the lead up to the tabling of the draft Digital Economy bill in November

Under the proposals, content owners are to identify IP addresses of file-sharers and communicate them to their ISPs, which would be required to write letters to the account holders, and also release this information to content owners in the event of continued file-sharing activity to allow legal proceedings to be initiated

Opportunities for retreat abound, but if the proposals become law (rather than shelved for the next government), the UK’s new online piracy regime will generate economic benefits for the content owners (and the creative industries), which will share costs with the ISPs under the government’s latest proposal

Just-launched Sky Songs offers a ‘new’ online music model, combining on- demand streaming with credit towards DRM-free downloads, for a single monthly payment

Sky Songs combines the best features of Spotify and iTunes, with lower average per track prices for in-bundle downloads, which will appeal to the music purchaser, and drive industry revenues provided regular use is made of the service

Sky Songs is backed by the power of Sky’s brand, serving the UK’s most entertainment-conscious clientele, with initial promotions targeting Sky’s 2.2 million broadband customers

Spotify is among the leading providers of legal online music streaming services in major European markets such as the UK, France and Spain. Entry to the US is rumoured and would make sense to establish the brand as a global one

As this report details, the commercial viability of the ad-supported ‘free’ service in a market that is five times the size of the UK will depend crucially on the royalty structures agreed by licensors, including recorded music companies and publishers

Apple’s hardware-driven strategy for music recently passed two major milestones, with 10 billion paid track downloads and 250 million iPods sold

In 2009, Apple ‘returned’ to record labels and publishers roughly $1.9 billion, while generating gross profits in the region of $3.2 billion from the sale of iPods and music

Of wider significance to Apple is the music strategy’s contribution to building a mass market brand and expanding its customer base, helping to drive adoption of their computers and, more recently, the iPhone

This report updates our coverage of the commercial radio sector. In Q1 2010, RAJAR data showed that the average number of hours listened per listener and the total number of hours listened, across both the commercial sector and the BBC, fell by 2.7% and 1.2% respectively compared to Q1 2009. This continues the long term trend of gradual consumption decline we have highlighted in the past. Another consistent trend is the relative robustness of listening to BBC radio, whilst the brunt of the decline is borne by the commercial sector

Whilst BBC radio is funded by the licence fee, the commercial sector relies on advertising, which was severely impacted by the recession in 2008-09, on top of the structural shift of advertising to the internet. Oversupply of radio inventory continues to cause downward pressure on ad rates. As the UK economy exited recession in Q4 2009, commercial revenues rose 6.3% over Q4 2008, after six consecutive quarters of revenue decline. Q1 2010 is expected to come in at approximately 7-8%, with more modest positive growth in Q2

Public sector advertising, which includes procurement by the Central Office of Information (COI), has proved to be a significant source of income for radio (18.9% of revenues in 2009, COI itself accounting for 11.5%). On 24 May George Osborne announced that, with the exception of previously committed and “essential” campaigns, further COI advertising will be put on hold until March 2011. Based on this understanding about COI spend, which will translate to a small negative impact in H2 2010, we expect H2 2010 to be flat. Overall, we forecast small, positive annual growth of commercial segment revenues of 2.5% for 2010

Whilst income is being compressed, the cost of serving dual analogue and digital transmission remains a strain. Ofcom’s ongoing deregulation will have a small positive impact on costs. However, further station closures are entirely possible, especially if COI spend continues to be squeezed