Hollywood in turmoil as DVD sales drop and downloads steal the show -- Dan Sabbagh

The sale of DVDs has been falling since 2007, but the Digital Entertainment Group (DEG) reported that physical sales collapsed 19% to $2.2bn (£1.3bn) in the first quarter, while high-street rental also plunged by 36% to $440m, in a period when Blockbuster was in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Online downloads and streaming through services such as Netflix, by contrast, grew quickly, although not enough to avert a 10% decline in the total home entertainment market to $4.2bn.

Ephemeralization of movies will lead to huge swaths of the entertainment marketplace collapsing, like Blockbuster. Redbox and its competitors have a way to go, but they are strictly transitional, too.

Just as big will be the death of DVD/Blu Ray players, as streaming becomes the principal distribution, and then TVs, as more and more of streamed movies and entertainment is watched on mobile devices and PCs.

Sell everything, like Sony, Panasonic, and all the others. They are walking dead.

Last.fm Partners With Sony: Should Have Been Apple

Recent announcement of Last.fm partnering with Sony:

[from Last.fm Partners With Sony: WebProNews]

Online social music network, Last.fm has partnered with Sony BMG Music Entertainment.

As part of the partnership Sony BMG will offer its catalogue of recordings to the 20 million users of Last.fm’s radio streaming service. Users will be able to find new artists from the Sony catalogue using Last.fm’s recommendation system.

I had suggested in past posts, prior to CBS’ purchase of Last.fm, that Apple should acquire the product and build into a socialized version of iTunes (which is still desperately needed, btw).

Looks like Last.fm is destined for a strange collection of deals, rather than a strategic role in a contender to the iTunes/iPod/iPhone triumvirate. Although I am not sure who can mount a credible attack on that. Even Microsoft hasn’t got a chance. Nokia?

Well, its moot, since Last.fm is part of CBS. It has to make it or break it based on its own merits, and maybe some better economics for users acquiring music, not on some integration with other major software partners.