Web blamed for music sales decline

Web blamed for music sales
decline

A worldwide music industry trade group reports sales of recorded
music fell 1.2 percent last year. "We saw the first evidence of
the impact of free online music, as well as the damage being done by
unauthorized CD-R copying in some major markets," said Jay
Berman, chairman of the International Federation of Phonographic
Industry. A sharp reduction in sales of cassettes and singles in the
U.S. cut unit volume by 4.7 percent. "There was also a dramatic
39 percent fall in sales of CD singles, which was attributable in part
to the availability of free online music," Berman said.
Worldwide, he added, CD album sales were up 2.5 percent to 2.5
billion.

E-Stamp, Learn2.com to merge

Learn2.com (LTWO) and E-Stamp Corp. (ESTM) said they will combine
resources to develop a business in the corporate e-learning market.
"The merger with E-Stamp will allow us to increase our market
presence by investing in additional sales professionals and
accelerating our product development initiatives," said
Learn2.com CEO Stephen Gott. E-Stamp shareholders will own
approximately 50.1 percent of the new company. Originally formed to
sell postage over the Internet, E-Stamp has recently offered companies
services to alert customers on the status of order shipments.

Spam begins at work

As much as a third of the e-mail you get from co-workers could be
considered spam, according to technology analysts at Gartner Inc.
"Employees are e-mailing their co-workers in higher frequencies
in an effort to be helpful and more communicative," said Maurene
Caplan Grey, a senior research analyst. "In reality, they are
cluttering e-mail in-boxes, filling up servers and sapping
productivity with the volume of these messages." Her survey also
found employees spend an average of 49 minutes a day on e-mail. Among
Gartner’s recommendations, show restraint when using "reply
all" to e-mail. "Send e-mail only to people who need the
information," Grey said.

AOL Time Warner deal for Business 2.0
near

AOL Time Warner (AOL) is expected to confirm Friday it is buying
Business 2.0 magazine for $50 million, considered a bargain-basement
price, according to the Industry Standard. The owner of Business 2.0,
Future Network, has come on hard times this year and has closed 20 of
its publications and cut staff by almost 20 percent. AOL Time Warner
is expected to take Business 2.0’s assets and fold them into its own
new media/technology title, eCompany Now.

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