The death of the CD is not nigh, despite the rapidly growing popularity of online digital music, the chief executive officer of Universal Music's parent company, Vivendi SA said on Saturday.
Jean-Bernard Levy told a music conference in the southern French city of Cannes he expected the market for CDs to last for "many years."
PIRACY STRIKES
Record companies are reeling from the decline of the CD market, fueled by music piracy, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI).
"We still believe there is a big market to sell records physically for many years still," Levy said in a question and answer session with delegates at the Cannes conference.
`DIVERSIFIED BUSINESS'
"It's not the migration of one physical format to another, I think it's a transition into very diversified business models of which CDs will remain a part. I don't believe at this stage for the next few years we will see a complete showdown [elimination] of CDs," he said, speaking in English.
Record companies' revenue from online digital music sales rose 40 percent to US$2.9 billion in the past year, but the growth has thus far failed to cover losses from collapse of the CD market, the IFPI said last week.
CD sales fell 11 percent between 2005 and 2006 and are likely to have dropped further last year, the federation said.
Digital downloads account for 15 percent of the world's music sales.
More than 500 legally licensed music Web sites offer around 6 million tracks of music, the federation said.
DIGITAL MUSIC
Asked about moves away from copy-protection safeguards on downloaded digital music -- previously championed by the recording industry as a bid to prevent piracy -- Levy sounded a cautious note.
"We are still testing it -- but I want to recall our policy that is still we are strongly attached to DRM, especially for advertising-based models and subscription-based models," he said, referring to Digital Rights Management, which includes software coding that prevents copying downloaded music.
DRMs can frustrate consumers by limiting the type of device or number of computers on which they can listen.
Last year, Universal Music began testing an unlimited music download service in France offered through broadband provider Neuf Cegetel. It is also giving Nokia customers a year's unlimited access to millions of songs.
"We don't want to make too many comments at this stage," Levy said of the trials.
REMINDER: Of the 6.78 million doses of flu vaccine Taiwan purchased for this flu season, about 200,000 are still available, an official said, following Big S’ death As news broke of the death of Taiwanese actress and singer Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), also known as Big S (大S), from severe flu complications, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and doctors yesterday urged people at high risk to get vaccinated and be alert to signs of severe illness. Hsu’s family yesterday confirmed that the actress died on a family holiday in Japan due to pneumonia during the Lunar New Year holiday. CDC Deputy Director-General Tseng Shu-hui (曾淑慧) told an impromptu news conference that hospital visits for flu-like illnesses from Jan. 19 to Jan. 25 reached 162,352 — the highest
COMBINING FORCES: The 66th Marine Brigade would support the 202nd Military Police Command in its defense of Taipei against ‘decapitation strikes,’ a source said The Marine Corps has deployed more than 100 soldiers and officers of the 66th Marine Brigade to Taipei International Airport (Songshan airport) as part of an effort to bolster defenses around the capital, a source with knowledge of the matter said yesterday. Two weeks ago, a military source said that the Ministry of National Defense ordered the Marine Corps to increase soldier deployments in the Taipei area. The 66th Marine Brigade has been tasked with protecting key areas in Taipei, with the 202nd Military Police Command also continuing to defend the capital. That came after a 2017 decision by the ministry to station
TRIP TO TAIWAN: The resumption of group tours from China should be discussed between the two agencies tasked with handling cross-strait tourism, the MAC said President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday reassured China-based businesspeople that he would follow former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) cross-strait policy to facilitate healthy and orderly exchanges with Beijing and build a resilient economy. “As president, I have three missions. First, I will follow president Tsai’s ‘four commitments’ to ensure that the country continues to exist and survive,” Lai told participants at a Lunar New Year event in Taipei hosted by the Straits Exchange Foundation (SEF). Lai said his second mission is to uphold the “four pillars of peace” by bolstering national defense, developing a growing and resilient economy, building partnerships with
‘INVESTMENT’: Rubio and Arevalo said they discussed the value of democracy, and Rubio thanked the president for Guatemala’s strong diplomatic relationship with Taiwan Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo met with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Guatemala City on Wednesday where they signed a deal for Guatemala to accept migrants deported from the US, while Rubio commended Guatemala for its support for Taiwan and said the US would do all it can to facilitate greater Taiwanese investment in Guatemala. Under the migrant agreement announced by Arevalo, the deportees would be returned to their home countries at US expense. It is the second deportation deal that Rubio has reached during a Central America trip that has been focused mainly on immigration. Arevalo said his