As revealed earlier this year, iTunes became one of the first online stores selling music published by EMI without copy-protection. EMI artists include Roxette, Per Gessle, Marie Fredriksson and Son of a Plumber (links open iTunes Store). Many albums and singles by them are now available as "iTunes Plus." This means that the songs can be burned and copied without restrictions after purchase. The songs also have a better bit rate. Individual songs cost a bit more (in Europe 1.29 Euros instead of 0.99 Euros), but full albums are available for the same price as the protected ones.

The DRM-free releases include the new Per Gessle single, "En händig man/Vet du vad jag egentligen vill?" To get the songs in iTunes Plus format, view an album or a single In iTunes Store and click the iTunes Plus link to see the list of DRM-free songs.

LONDON (Updated) - Wall Street Journal reports that EMI Group will today announce that it will start selling music on Apple's iTunes Store without copy-protection. EMI, the world's third largest music label, will be the first major record company to ditch digital rights management (DRM) from its catalog. The announcement is scheduled to be made in a press conference featuring the Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs.

EMI Group had reportedly attempted to sell DRM-free music in the past but met resistance from online music stores who demanded "insurance" payments to guard against potential increase in piracy and lost sales.

It was already reported earlier this year that EMI will remove copy-protection from its CDs.

Update: EMI has published a press release stating that they and Apple will indeed start to sell DRM-free music on iTunes Store. The DRM-free tracks will have twice the quality compared to the ones with copy-protection, but they will cost €0.30 (or $0.30) more. Old iTunes users will be able to "upgrade" their existing songs to the better quality by paying just the price difference. EMI's DRM-free songs and music videos will be available on iTunes in May. EMI is planning to expand the programme to variety of digital music stores "within the coming weeks."

According to Dutch NVPI, EMI Music stops using copy protection technology on the CDs the company releases. Copy protection, or Digital Rights Management (DRM) as these technologies are also called, have caused a lot of anger among the people who have bought their records legally but are unable to listen to them in the player of their choice. To prevent illegal copying of music, the protected CDs have limitations on the types of players they can be played in. As a side effect, many protected CDs don't work in car stereos.

Now it seems that EMI has realized that the price of adding DRM to the products is too high comparing to its benefits to the company. Recently one of the biggest developers of DRM solutions, MacroVision, stopped the sales of its TotalPlay system. TotalPlay, previously called CDS or Cactus, was used on Roxette's "Ballad Hits."

Boing Boing has an English translation of the article. DRM technologies were not included in the latest European Roxette releases "The Hits," "The RoxBox" and the "One Wish" single, as well as Marie's "Min bäste vän" album.

STOCKHOLM - According to Dinapengar.se Roxette has, as expected, appealed the tax evasion case since the German tour 1995 once more. This time to Regeringsrätten, the highest administrative court in Sweden. Mats Nilemar, Roxette's financial advisor says in the documents filed that this case should be tried once more as the previous court's ruling is based on "apparently serious disregard or a serious mistake."

• Dinapengar.se

STOCKHOLM - A 44-year-old Swedish man is being prosecuted for illegally sharing thousands of music files on Direct Connect network. He’s the first person to appear in court for such activities in Sweden making this a test case for the Swedish copyright law.

  According to the music industry body IFPI, the accused has made 13,000 MP3 files available online. However, the prosecutor is focusing on just four songs: “It Must Have Been Love” by Roxette, “There Must Be An Angel” by Eurythmics, “Sarah” by Mauro Scocco and “Vara vänner” by Jakob Hellman.

  The man claims that he intended to upload just a few individual songs to be shared, but instead uploaded his whole collection of songs. He believes the case against him is unfair. “It’s wrong to find someone guilty for something that millions of people do,” he told Borås Tidning.

• The Local article

STOCKHOLM - Per Gessle and Marie Fredriksson have been involved in what’s been labeled by the Swedish government as tax evasion.

  After the “Crash! Boom! Live!” tour in Germany back in 1994-95, Per and Marie used their holding company Roxette Productions to account for this income. The Swedish income tax authority disagrees with this bookkeeping method and wants them to pay taxes personally on the income. The authority claims they were employed by tour company EMA Telstar and should therefore pay normal income tax on the 5.6 million kronor (€590,000) paid for the 19 concerts in Germany.

  Per and Marie have been fighting this for almost ten years via their financial advisor Mats Nilemar of Desert AB.

  Per owes 2.3 million kronor in back taxes and Marie owes 2.2 million, according to Swedish press reports.

  When the tax authority first issued it’s claim against them, both Per and Marie appealed the decision to Länsrätten, the first administrative court, which ruled in favor of the government in 2004. Roxette appealed again, to a higher court named Kammarrätten. In rulings issued during the past few days, this court upheld the lower court’s decision.

  Nilemar says that they will appeal once more, this time to Regeringsrätten, the highest administrative court in Sweden. Regeringsrätten will only decide to hear this case if they find it necessary to set a new precedent in this specific part of Swedish tax law. If this high court decides not to take the case, then the current ruling will be considered final.


Additional reporting by Thomas Evensson

By Nate Mook

  Mashboxx, a legal peer-to-peer (P2P) system founded by former Grokster CEO Wayne Rosso, announced Friday it had signed an agreement with music label EMI to license its digital library, including songs from Roxette. Mashboxx is preparing to launch in beta, and has previously signed deals with Sony BMG and Universal.

• Mashboxx

Read more…

LONDON - Warner Music, has rejected a US$4.2 billion (£2.2bn; €3.3bn) bid by rival EMI.

  A merger between the two has long been on the cards, in an attempt to compete more effectively with larger rivals Universal Music and Sony BMG.

  Warner Music said it had carefully examined the offer, but decided it did not benefit shareholders.

  “This is disappointing, as we believe the logic for combining the two businesses is compelling,” said Lorna Tilbian, an analyst with Numis.

  If the two had merged, the combined company would have held about 25% of the recorded music market, based on figures from the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry.

  Artists recording on the Warner label include Madonna and James Blunt, while EMI’s list includes Coldplay, Robbie Williams and Roxette.

  EMI unsuccessfully bid to buy Warner from its previous parent, Time Warner, in late 2003 before losing out to an investment group led by it’s current CEO. Before that, European regulators blocked a proposed merger of the two media giants.

NEW YORK -   “Nordic Rox,” a new program debuting April 30 on U.S.-based Sirius Satellite Radio, will be produced under the creative guidance of Per Gessle, one of the world’s most successful songwriters, producers and musicians. As a member of the band Roxette and other performing bands, Gessle has sold 45 million albums worldwide and written dozens of songs that have been blockbusters on European and American radio, including “It Must Have Been Love,” which has been aired more than 4 million times on US radio, according to BMI, and is one of Roxette’s four #1 US singles.

  The program will be hosted and programmed by Radio Stockholm on-air personality Viktor Petrovski, a prominent figure in the Swedish music scene. Also contributing to the program will be the lead singer of The Hives, Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist, and highly respected ABBA historian Carl Magnus Palm (on behalf of ABBA’s Benny Andersson and Björn Ulvaeus).

  The first episode of Nordic Rox will be broadcast on Sirius channel 18 this Sunday, April 30 from 8 pm to 11 pm EST.

  “The wave of high-quality bands coming out of Sweden today rivals anything since the big UK music movements,” said Scott Greenstein of Sirius. “The launch of Nordic Rox, together with our recent addition of BBC’s Radio 1 channel, further establishes Sirius as the leader in discovery of new popular music around the world.”

  Gessle said, “I’m very honored to be part of presenting Swedish and Scandinavian music outside our borders. The music scene in Sweden is certainly very creative and it will be a pleasure to present the best of it to the listeners of Sirius Satellite Radio. Pump up the volume!”

  Nordic Rox will place a spotlight on the quality and depth of Scandinavian artists and music, which have never been exposed in this manner in the US. The show will also be the first place in the US to hear exciting new music emanating from Sweden and Scandinavian countries.

  Historically, Sweden is the third largest exporter of music, after the US and Great Britain. It is a creative hotbed for musicians, songwriters, producers and technicians that, since the 1970s, have significantly contributed to the global pop music community. The success of the blockbuster musical Mamma Mia! has proven the enduring popularity of Swedish hitmakers ABBA’s music. Scandinavian music producers Max Martin (Britney Spears, Bon Jovi, Kelly Clarkson), Anders Bagge (Madonna, Jennifer Lopez, Jessica Simpson) and Tore Johansson (The Cardigans, Franz Ferdinand), among others, are responsible for many US hits, as well as the worldwide “Crazy Frog” phenomenon.

  Nordic Rox will expand upon this success by showcasing established as well as up-and-coming Swedish and Scandinavian artists, ranging from ABBA, Roxette, Ace of Base, and Cardigans to The Hives and other current artists such as The Ark, Whyte Seeds, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, The Sounds, Turbonegro, Sahara Hotnights, The Hellacopters, Madrugada, H.I.M. and many others.

• Sirius

HALMSTAD - The record label Westcoast Studios in Halmstad wants to show the politicians and record company moguls that you can get a big hit without marketing budgets in the million krona range. Therefore they have recorded a summer hit (?), with the band Solsting (Sun Stroke) called “Nu är sommarn här igen” (“Now Summer is Here Again”). The song is available for download at the homepage, in two versions, all for free. The lyrics and the chords are also available on the site “for your bar-b-que parties.”

  TDR has listened to the song and finds it very Halmstad, very summery and it even has a little Gyllene Tider feel to it.

• Solsting’s homepage (In Swedish)