Avid, the makers of Pro Tools, have unveiled a new line of their flagship interfaces. There are three new pieces of hardware available: the HD I/O, HD OMNI and HD MADI. Avid is claiming a ground up redesign of the platform, with features never before seen. Though not a Pro Tools HD user myself, i must admit that some of the new features sound remotely interesting (my best attempts to avoid being singled out as an endorser or band-wagoner).

New features include a new clocking and filtering system, and more interestingly, a proprietary new soft knee analog limiter (HD I/O and HD OMNI).

HD OMNI – Filling the “Mid Level” Void for Avid?

The HD Omni looks like it could be a great option for pro-sumer studios, or overdub/edit rooms at professional facilities. It includes HD conversion, 2 mic preamps, 4 Line In, surround monitoring and a 14×26 software mixer. Looking at it reminds me of a trusty old Edoril UA1000 card i had kicking around for ages. I’d love to hear what the Omni sounds like, especially when it comes to the preamps. Avid could be making a wise move to tackle that mid level market with this piece. If you are one of the thousands of people out there that doesn’t need loads of analog I/O, and you want to get into the PT|HD market, this could be worth checking out.

H.E.A.T. – “Analog Warmth And Colour for HD”

I put the title in “quotations” because I am not convinced that this is the revolution that AVID is pitching it as, but its interesting none the less. H.E.A.T. stands for Harmonically Enhanced Algorithm Technology, and as far as I can tell, is similar to existing products such as PSP’s MixSaturator or URS’s Saturation plugins. The clip’s i listened to on the AVID website illustrated very subtle applications of the effect, which when purchased for an additional $500 on top of your HD system, integrates its self into the HD interface. It apparently applies it self across every channel, which provides convinience, but detracts from the freedom of using your own third party plugins to taste around your projects. From what audio I heard, this is nothing new, but could work well into the work flow of those who want to use a saturation/tape style effect in their DAW environment. Have a listen to the clips for your self HERE.

What does this mean?

I am not sure. Like I said, I do not use Pro Tools HD, but i do think it’s good the recent success at cracking the HD protection sceme (and subsequently exposing AVID’s lies that HD was somehow hardware dependand beyond DSP) has put the pressure on the company to bring something new a fresh to the market. Even though I use a different DAW system, I always enjoy healthy competition amongs developers in the market.

Jamie Kuse
Follow me on twitter! @jamiekuse

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12 Albums Released in 2009 Sold More than One Million Units
Of the 97,751 albums released in 2009, only 12 of them sold more than one million units last year, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The number of titles to reach one million units in previous years was 35 in 2006, 27 in 2007 and 22 in 2008. Clearly it is getting more difficult for an album to sell one million units.

The new releases that do sell over one million units in the year of their release, however, are maintaining their average. Between 2006 and 2009, the average annual tally for titles reaching the one million mark has ranged from a low of 1.42 million in 2008 to a high of 1.61 million in 2009. In years past, there were far more titles in the one million to 1.4 million range. Now such titles would probably not reach the one million mark and as a result would not be included in these calculations. So, the average of the titles in this million-plus ground stays about the same even though there are fewer sales and less revenue from these million-plus sellers.

A side note: Albums routinely sell well after their year of release. In the case of Taylor Swift, her 2006 debut sold over one million units in both 2007 and 2008 after selling less than 300,000 units in the year it was released. Zac Brown Band’s The Foundation, released in 2008, sold over one million units in 2009. And Michael Jackson’s catalog sold millions in 2009 but was not counted in these figures.

CORRECTION:Only 2,050 of 2009’s New Albums Sold Over 5,000 Units
The numbers are enough to make you stop and think. Only 2.1% of the 97,751 albums released in 2009 – or about 2,050 unique titles – reached a threshold most people would assume is within reach of just about any artist.

The Number of New Albums Actually Dropped in 2009
If 97,751 new releases seems high, consider it’s actually a lower number than the 105,000 new releases that came out in 2008. Expect the number of new releases to hold steady or decline in the coming years. In recent years, digital distributors flooded online retail with foreign catalogs being licensed to new territories. In effect, these distributors are catching up to all the music that’s available from around the world. As with most games of catch up, this one won’t go on forever. As fewer and fewer old recordings find their way to U.S. retailers for the first time, the unique number of titles released in a given year will fall. There may be an increase in the number of domestic recordings, but it may not be enough to make up for the fall in new foreign catalogs.

Albums’ Second-Week Fade Are Getting Bigger
The median second-week fade was 62.8% in 2009 and had steadily dropped each year from 33.9% in 2000. Nielsen’s explanations are good ones: marketing budgets are more limited, pre-sales are more common, core fans are more aware of new releases, piracy may be eroding sales of casual fans.

These are the results of the last decade’s shift from physical to digital sales. Internet sales – both physical and digital – mean a greater percentage of total sales will come from pre-orders that SoundScan counts as first-week sales.

Here are a few other thoughts. Because radio plays less of a role in album sales, few albums get the lasting benefits of radio promotion that helps sales after the initial push. And because there are fewer marketing dollars being spent at physical retail, there are fewer titles enrolled in price-and-placement programs that used to position a sale-priced CD for the first two or four weeks of release.

These factors combine to create a retail environment in which it is easier to get core fans’ attention but difficult to market beyond those core fans.

From Glenn Peoples / Billboard.biz

To read some good insight on how to thrive in today’s industry, check out Bob Lefsetz’s article “The Long Haul“.

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Music

The major’s “Velocity” pricing program responds to the continuing plunge in CD sales, taking aim at brick-and-mortar retail stores that have scaled back on floor space dedicated to music. The pricing adjustments will also bring CD prices more in line with what consumers pay for digital albums at online retailers like iTunes and Amazon.

“We think it will really bring new life into the physical format,” Universal Music Group Distribution chairman/CEO Jim Urie says.

Universal, which accounts for 28.7 percent of year-to-date U.S. album sales, according to Nielsen SoundScan, will cut UMG’s main wholesale price point of $10.35 to about $7.50 or less for front-line releases, which are generally by established current artists. It’s also breaking with prevailing industry practice by putting suggested retail prices on CDs, ranging from $6 to $10.

UMG is betting that it can offset the loss in revenue per CD with increased sales volume and the rollout of greater numbers of higher-priced, higher-margin deluxe editions of albums. The new CD pricing structure could also spur UMG imprints to find ways to reduce CD costs, such as embracing less elaborate packaging on standard single CD releases or placing fewer songs on albums in order to reduce mechanical royalty payments to songwriters.

Most new releases will carry the new price points, although there will be the occasional exception, UMG sources say. The Velocity program will begin in the second quarter and run through most of the year. Sources say the first titles to be released under Velocity are expected to include new albums by Godsmack, Game and Taio Cruz.

RETAIL REACTION

Retailers should respond well to the new price points, given that many of them were already pricing many new releases at $10 and absorbing the loss to generate foot traffic to their stores.

But their enthusiasm may be tempered by the narrower profit margins expected under the new pricing structure. According to sources, front-line UMG releases will carry a 25 percent profit margin, down sharply from the customary 35 percent. That means CDs with a suggested list price of $10 would wholesale for $7.50, those with a $9 list for $6.75 and so on.

The move may not go over well with retailers that buy from wholesalers and already reap a narrower margin than those that buy direct from labels. And merchants accustomed to having free rein in setting retail prices may chafe at the suggested list prices. Meanwhile, UMG artists and their managers may grumble about the pricing initiative, since royalty payments, usually a percentage of sales, will be calculated based on the lower price points.

“We are happy to see that a major music vendor has made a decision to lower its price substantially,” Bob Higgins, chairman/CEO of retail operator Trans World Entertainment, says, “because it’s what the customer wants today, and (because lower pricing is needed) if we are going to see a viable CD business continue.”

Similarly, Newbury Comics CEO Mike Dreese says he gives the initiative “two thumbs up,” but adds that the industry still needs the other major labels and independents to make similar reductions in front-line pricing to boost overall CD sales.

Merchants have long clamored that lower pricing alone would prolong the life of the CD, sales of which are down 15.4 percent in the United States so far this year from the same period in 2009, according to SoundScan. With retail Sunday circulars and the home page of Apple’s iTunes store touting hit titles at $9.99, it became conventional wisdom among merchants that $10 was the magic price point that would induce consumers to buy more CDs.

UMG was the first major to cut wholesale CD prices when it initiated its JumpStart pricing program in 2003. The other majors initially condemned the move, but eventually began reducing prices on their own catalog titles. Such initiatives have brought wholesale prices down to the $6-$8 range for midline and full-priced titles. Front-line pricing, however, remains a mixed bag, with UMG’s main wholesale price point at $10.35, Sony’s at $10.50, EMI’s at $12.04, and Warner Music Group’s at $12.05.

Last year, Trans World enlisted the participation of UMG, Sony and EMI in a pricing experiment to sell every CD for $9.99, an initiative that it has extended to more than 100 of its stores.

“Things are not going to get better for CD sales unless the price point is addressed,” a senior retail executive says. “One thing that the Trans World test shows for sure: $10 will drive sales and traffic.”

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Being an aggressive competitor is nothing new for Apple. It’s also common for labels for show a preference for their largest retailer. But this particular skirmish reveals both Apple’s hypocrisy as well as just how much the major labels fear Steve Jobs.

Anatomy Of The Daily Deal

The Daily Deal is, for all practical purposes, a free promotion subsidized by Amazon. If accepted into the program, artists and labels are asked for a one day exclusive. During that 24 hours Amazon aggressively discounts the title to between $1.99 and $3.99. In part, to keep each sale eligible to be counted on the major charts, Amazon actually reimburses the labels at the normal wholesale price. In effect, subsidizing about $3 of each purchase. Amazon MP3 also features the title on its web pages and to the 1.4 million that follow the Daily Deal on Twitter.

Unlike the old price and positioning charges at brick and mortar retail, Amazon and most other online retailers do not charge labels for these promotions. In the case of the Daily Deal, artists and labels are only asked to promote the release via their web sites, email lists and social networks.

Some label executives worried that deep discounts cannibalized early sales that would have happened at full price. But one major label group recently told its labels that its own studies had shown that as much as 95% of all Daily Deal sales were incremental and would never have happened without the discount.

Apple Fights Back Steve Jobs has often attempted to position himself as a champion of music and Apple as music’s savior. But not this time. iTunes may have built its reputation by leveraging exclusive content, but that doesn’t mean someone else can.

Jobs & Co. doesn’t care that the Amazon Daily Deal helps struggling labels sell more music. iTune’s 65-75% share of the download market is apparently not enough. Using both threats and actions, iTunes staffers made it clear to almost every major and indie record label that participation in Amazon’s Daily Deal would cost them dearly at iTunes.

The Labels Give In

Since iTune’s inception, labels have complained that Apple and iTunes hold too much power. Steve Jobs, a music industry outsider, was in control of what was fast becoming the preferred distribution channel for music. Jobs demanded and got single track sales that had decimated profits from albums. He publicly berated labels to stop using DRM and then iTunes was among the last stores to drop it. The label executives believed in variable pricing, but it took years for Apple to allow it.

Steve Jobs had to be stopped, the label chiefs demanded. The dominance of iTunes must end.

So when Amazon entered the marketplace as iTune’s first worthy competitor, the label rejoiced. Here was the partner they had been looking for. Amazon sold DRM free mp3′s compatible with any device. Variable pricing and full album sales were available the day the retailer went online. Exclusives were encouraged. Creative promotions flowed freely.

The most effective weapon in Amazon MP3′s arsenal is (or was) the Daily Deal. It’s free. Amazon subsidizes every purchase. It could boost total first week sales by as much as 20%. But apparently, that was not enough to stop the record labels from caving within days of Apple’s complaints.

Game Over

Neither Apple or the record labels have commented publicly on the battle. Only Billboard got a few scared executives to speak anonymously. But the proof of Apple’s tactics and the labels’ acquiescence can be found within the Daily Deals themselves.

Gone are most of the new hit makers. There are a fraction of the one day exclusives that there were just a month ago; and the label executives are back to complaining about iTunes instead of helping an alternative compete with them.

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