FORD DITCHING CD PLAYERS IN NEW VEHCILES

Fumbling around the car for a new CD to listen to on the road could soon be a thing of the past. Ford hopes to usher in a digital age for in-car entertainment by scrapping CD players in its new models. The company plans to help drivers to access their libraries of digital music via the internet.

It has become the first mainstream manufacturer to scrap the in-car CD multichanger.
The car maker’s latest Focus model will instead include a USB socket allowing digital music players to be plugged in.

The new cars will have the Sync ‘infotainment hub’ that lets drivers access their music library through the internet by plugging in a device called a dongle, which enables Wi-Fi.
This would facilitate using devices such as iPods, iPhones and other digital music players.
The in-car computer ‘hub’ can then access digital libraries stored on the internet, be it through Spotifiy or Apple’s iCloud.

Sheryl Connelly, Global Trends and Futuring manager at Ford, said the move was necessary if the company wanted to keep up with the needs of its customers. 'In-car entertainment technology is moving digital more rapidly than almost any other element of the vehicle experience,' she said. 'The in-car CD player - much like pay telephones - is destined to fade away in the face of exciting new technology.' Ford said sales of in-car CD players were declining rapidly, in line with falling sales of the discs.

SPOTIFY SIGNS FIRST US DEAL WITH SONY

MediaMemo is reporting Spotify, a music streaming service popular in Europe, has signed its first music deal in the US with Sony. The terms of the deal are said to be very similar to Spotify’s European deals, which would give U.S. users access to ad-supported streaming to a computer for free or ad-free streaming to a variety of devices for a monthly fee. The deal does not mean that a U.S. launch of the Spotify service is imminent, however. The company still needs to get additional labels on board, and it has had a great deal of trouble wooing U.S. labels thus far. Theories as to why labels are so reluctant include fear of further cannibalization of CD sales and fear of upsetting Apple, the top music retailer in the country.

NOKIA SHUTS DOWN OVI MUSIC UNLIMITED SERVICE

Citing lack of interest by consumers Nokia will be shutting down its Ovi Music Unlimited, aka Comes with Music, service except for in Brazil, China and South Africa. Reuters reports that the use of DRM to lock down content to less-than-cutting-edge devices was a major stumbling block in the rollout of what was originally supposed to be a major iTunes competitor. Those who are already signed up will continue to have access to their music libraries indefinitely, but won't be able to access new tracks once their current subscription expires.

UNLIMITED MUSIC DOWNLOADS COMING TO CRICKET

Cricket, a low cost mobile service provider, is adding unlimited music downloads to its unlimited data plan. Besides the unlimited music downloads, the new plan will include unlimited text, calling and data.

Cricket customers will have to use the companies Muve Music service, but will have access to full music tracks from the Universal, Warner, Sony, and EMI labels. Free ringtones and ringback tones are also included in the unlimited plan.

Doug Hutcheson, the company’s president and CEO said:

“Cricket was the first to introduce an unlimited wireless rate plan and now we are the first to introduce a new unlimited wireless rate plan that includes unlimited music. With Muve Music, Cricket is bringing together the best of wireless and music in a way no one has ever done before"

The new unlimited music plan will launch on the Samsung Suede for only $55 per month. Cricket will officially unveil the plan at the Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show in January. [BGR]

APPLE'S iTUNES INCREASES DIGITAL MUSIC MARKET SHARE

According to market research firm NPD Group, Apple's iTunes has increased its digital music market share from 63.2% to 66.2% year over year. Amazon, iTunes biggest competitor, has 13.3% of the market. Music label executives give Amazon a more conservative market share of only 6% - 10% with the rest going to Apple and smaller music sites.

Pricing does not appear to affect market share of digital music as much as it does in retail sales. Amazon has tried to undercut Apple's pricing, often having much lower prices than Apple's $9.99 =- $14.99 price on albums. Despite Amazon's efforts Apple's iTunes continues to grow, bumping out WalMart for the number one spot in music sales in 2008. [BGR]

LIMWIRE SHUTTING DOWN

A new report Thursday suggests that legendary piracy pioneer LimeWire may soon call it quits. LimeWire was hardly the first network of its kind, but along with services like Kazaa, LimeWire played a major role in bringing file-sharing to the masses. This past October, LimeWire was forced to shutter its file-sharing service following a court order. Now, the company’s recent attempts to jump from seedy to sanctioned appear to be for naught. According to an alleged email to vendors obtained by All Things Digital, LimeWire will soon cease its attempts to run a legitimate online music store. The site also stopped accepting payments for its current offering according to a note on its homepage. LimeWire has supposedly been working on a new legal music service for the better part of 2010, but those plans are nixed as well. From the look of things, LimeWire will be no more as of January 1st, 2011. [BGR]

DIGITAL MUSIC SALES FLAT

Nielsen has released a report showing U.S. digital music sales have been flat in the first half of 2010, showing no positive growth.  In contrast, digital sales rose 28% from 2007 to 2008 and 13% from 2008 to 2009.  While it is still possible to have an increase for the entire year, the report should still be concerning for the music labels. Nielsen cited lack of consumer confidence and confusion over the plethora of ways to acquire your digital music online as possible reasons for the sudden slowdown.

Tell us what you think the reason for the plateau may be. [BGR]