Black Friday Week Deals
The Black Friday sales have begun at Amazon.ca 
, EntertainmentEarth.com
, JR.com
, Musician’s Friend
, Tigerdirect.ca
and Tigerdirect.com
.
The rest of the online retailers I buy from appear to be waiting for Friday itself to offer up their Black Friday sales.
It Makes You Think, Again !
It appears that the pending lists affair is not over.
In January 2011, the major labels in Canada had settled a class action lawsuit against them for the unauthorized use and distribution of recordings, as well as unpaid mechanical and video royalties.
EMI Music Canada Inc., Sony Music Entertainment Canada Inc., Universal Music Canada Inc. and Warner Music Canada Co. had later in May 2011 agreed to pay approximately $50.2 Million dollars to songwriters and music publishers that had not been compensated the use of their works in certain compilations and live recordings.
Well, Universal Music Group and Universal Music Canada is now suing the National Union Fire Insurance Company of Pennsylvania, their insurer, for their share of the settlement and other related expenses in the Supreme Court of the State of California in Los Angeles.
According to their November 8th, 2011 complaint found on HollywoodReporter.com, Universal Music Group had paid $14.4 million in damages and approximately $1.06 million in attorney fees and costs.
CRTC Rules Against Caps
The CRTC has ruled against the capping of wholesale bandwidth.
“Under the CRTC’s new capacity-based approach, large telephone and cable companies will sell wholesale bandwidth to independent ISPs on a monthly basis. Independent ISPs will have to determine in advance the amount they need to serve their retail customers and then manage network capacity until they are able to purchase more. Alternatively, large companies can continue to charge independent ISPs a flat monthly fee for wholesale access, regardless of how much bandwidth their customers use. Both billing options give independent ISPs the ability to design service plans and charge their own customers as they see fit.“
The CRTC has decided there should be two wholesale pricing models, neither of which include “provisions that would require independent ISPs to impose bandwidth caps on their retail customers“.
The first is a “Capacity-based model”, would contain a monthly access rate for each of the independent ISP’s retail customers, a monthly capacity charge, offered in increments of 100 megabits per second, and any applicable ancillary charges, such a monthly interface charge and associated service charges.
The second is the existing “Flat-rate model”, would of course contain a monthly access rate for each of the independent ISP’s retail customers, and any applicable ancillary charges, such a monthly interface charge and associated service charges.
Gartner Predicts Higher Online Music Sales
Gartner Research predicts that with the decline of the physical format (like the compact disc) that subscription services and music downloads will flourish.
In a press release issued yesterday the Connecticut based information technology research company estimated that online music sales would reach $6.8 Billion worldwide in 2012 and $7.7 Billion Worldwide by 2015.
The company also predicts a decline in compact disc sales from $15 Billion last year to $10 Billion in 2015.
Best Buy Wants Lower CD Prices
Billboard reports that Best Buy wants to reduce their CD prices to $9.99 in the states this holiday season but the labels are fighting the $7.25 wholesale price.
Best Buy had reduced the space dedicated to CDs and DVDs in their stores in Canada and the United States.
Astral To Launch Online Service In December
Astral Radio will be launching a online music service in December, which will be followed by a mobile compatible service in January.
The bilingual on demand streaming music and music video service will feature major and independent recordings and will be compatible with the major social media sites.
Additional information on this service can be found on this press release.