Warner Music Group was reported its fourth quarter sales, and while they stayed consistent, at $780 million, revenue from digital music sales increased by 17 percent. What's more, it is now a 28 percent slice of the pie of all sales. This is a sign of the changing way music lovers access their music, and the label provided a further breakdown of these sales.
Sister Sledge has filed a lawsuit Thursday against Warner Music Group. The San Francisco complaint caught by the Hollywood Reporter accused Warner of cheating the "We Are Family" singers of revenue on iTunes, Amazon MP3, and other stores through purportedly deceptive terms. By counting a download as a one-time sale rather than a license, Warner was taking the group down from a 25 percent cut to much less.
A Boston University student has been found guilty of violating copyright laws after he admitted to illegally sharing music could face as much as $4.5 million in fines. In court, Joel Tenenbaum admitted he downloaded and then shared 30 tracks from artists like Nirvana, Green Day, The Smashing Pumpkins and more, says a Friday report. The statement leaves the court primarily to decide whether or not the infringement was purposeful or unintentional and assign Tenenbaum's penalty. The sum could range from $750 to $30,000 per infringement, or shared song, but a ruling by the jury could bump that number to $150,000 per song.
