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music downloads
Qtrax Promises Legal P2P Music Sharing Service, the Impossible
We have long thought the acronym P2P was the very antonym of the word legal, but Qtrax, a new P2P music sharing service, has plans to rewrite the geek dictionary. Here's the skinny: The service is free, completely. Qtrax offers an unlimited service. It is supported by the four major labels, as well as smaller, niche music groups, and that means it will have a start-up music library of over 25 million songs. That is about four times bigger than iTunes, and about 100% cheaper. We know what you are thinking; is this all smoke without fire? Short answer; we're not sure, but Qtrax is hitting soon. Very, very soon. More »
drm
Will Digital Watermarking Rise From DRM's Ashes?
Okay, so DRM is dead dead dead. Hurray, right? Well, Wired says it's simply being swapped out for digital watermarking, which will lay out breads crumbs for the labels to follow as songs make their way across P2P networks, and the bundle of evidence will allow them to place pressure on ISPs to engage in large-scale network filtering. More »
contracts
Imeem Inks Deals With Big Four for Free Music, Its Soul [Updated]
The media-sharing/social networking site Imeem has inked a deal with Universal Music, making it the first site of its kind to forge unholy bonds with all of the Big Four. Update: The WSJ's issued a correction of the original source article. Under the deal, Universal gets a "payment each time a user listens to a given song only if related advertising revenue falls short of a contractually stipulated benchmark." In other words, Imeem cuts Universal a check whenever the ad dollars don't make it to a set amount. So, Imeem's still basically bleeding out for its users to simply embed and stream music (i.e., promote artists for the labels). More »
satire
This webcomic's almost more like a webtragedy. Why? Its depiction of Wired's conversation with the confused CEO of the world's largest record label, Universal, isn't all that exaggerated. I mean, sometimes it seems like they're still searching for this whole "internet" thing. [Hijinks Ensue via Boing Boing]
Comic Mocking Universal Music CEO Sadly Not Far From Reality
This webcomic's almost more like a webtragedy. Why? Its depiction of Wired's conversation with the confused CEO of the world's largest record label, Universal, isn't all that exaggerated. I mean, sometimes it seems like they're still searching for this whole "internet" thing. [Hijinks Ensue via Boing Boing]
surprise
Warner Music Profits and the Sky Are Down, Digital Sales and Pigs Are Up
As much we like to joke about the new music economy stripping rappers of their fourth Bentley and downgrading their 60-inch plasmas to 42-inchers, Warner Music actually did take a hard beating this past quarter, losing almost $7 million in profit versus last year's—more than half, for a take of $5 million. While profits were down, digital sales shot up 25 percent to pull in $130 million, though that didn't particularly mollify the industry-wide 14 percent plunge in CD sales this year. Raise your hand if you're shocked, shocked. More »
death of an industry
Universal Music CEO is Like Your Cranky, Out-of-Touch Grandpa Who Happens to Run a Huge Record Label
If you picture music industry CEOs as cranky old white men who are completely out of touch with technology and mad at the world for changing around them, you're pretty damn spot-on. Wired has an upcoming profile on Universal Music CEO Doug Morris, and the guy seems as fit to run a newly tech-based company as a dog is fit to pilot a submarine. He basically sees technology as his enemy, wishing his days away for a simpler time where he could control every aspect of a record's distribution. Oh, and he compares the music industry to a character in "Li'l Abner," a comic strip that stopped running in 1977. 1977! I can't wait to read the entire profile, but there is one choice quote available now: More »
waffler
Warner Music CEO Fesses Up to Music Industry's Mistakes, Slams Mobile Operators, Pats Self on Back
Talking to suits at the GSMA Mobile Congress this week, Warner Music CEO Edgar Bronfman Jr. admitted the music industry is at least partly to blame for the woes it's been mired in for years now as well as the fact that they've been "at war" with their customers:We expected our business would remain blissfully unaffected even as the world of interactivity, constant connection and file sharing was exploding. And of course we were wrong. How were we wrong? By standing still or moving at a glacial pace, we inadvertently went to war with consumers by denying them what they wanted and could otherwise find and as a result of course, consumers won."More »
skeezy
Misleading EMI Ad Touted New Radiohead Album, Directed Clickers to Own Store
EMI's efforts to ride Radiohead's wave of rainbow-y vibes didn't stop with their cute but obscenely priced USB drive loaded up with Radiohead's back catalog. If you Googled "Radiohead" last week, the top ad promised to bring you to a boxset of their new album "Rainbow" (like a bad Chinese knockoff) only to push your browser to EMI's overpriced back catalog options. Classy! [Guardian via Idolator]
me too
Sony Ericsson Upgrading PlayNow to Real Live Music Store With 5 Million Tracks From the Big Four
In addition to the trio of new handsets they intro'd today, Sony Ericsson also announced plans for an upgraded PlayNow music service. Launching this spring, it could feature up to 5 million tracks in "MP3 and Windows Media digital rights management, or DRM-enabled formats" from all of the Big Four, though no track price has been relayed. On the upside (or downside, if you spend compulsively), you can have your tab tacked onto your cellphone bill. Interestingly, SE's planning to cut service providers in on revenues from OTA downloads. Sounds like it's off to a better start than Nokia's competing venture at any rate. [WSJ]
3:45 AM on Wed Nov 7 2007
By Matt Buchanan
1,169 views,
2 comments
Latest by fragglepac: When do we get a date for the w960i? From everything I have read it is Q4 2007, but we still don't even have a release date. Or did I miss it? If their music store really more »
cop out
After basking in adulation from music lovers and RIAA haters for being enlightened poster children of the new way of doing business in the music industry, Radiohead has pulled an about-face that feels like a betrayal and a dirty cop-out: They're releasing In Rainbows on CD in January through one of the Big Four (all of whom they're in negotiations with right now), and it might contain extra material not found in the digital version. Yeah, it was a cheap marketing ploy, according to their management: "If we didn't believe that when people hear the music they will want to buy the CD, then we wouldn't do what we are doing." Update: As lots of you have pointed out, drowned out by the hooplah over the disruptive potential of their direct downloading plan was the fact they'd been planning on dropping the album in CD form in '08 the entire time.
More »
Radiohead Selling In Rainbows on CD Via One of the Big Four in January
tuning out
Universal Music's decision to deliver DRM-free tracks to pretty much everybody but iTunes in its "test"—Amazon, Google, RealNetworks, Wal-Mart and other smaller stores—continues its wary, passive-aggressive stance toward Apple. Officially, a Universal rep told us in an email that it's "a scientifically designed research study over the next six months" that's using iTunes (their "Apple sales") "as a standard control group" to serve "as the baseline for comparison." But, what's really being tested is the viability of non-iTunes online sales.
More »
Why Universal Shut Out iTunes on DRM-Free Music
Universal Music's decision to deliver DRM-free tracks to pretty much everybody but iTunes in its "test"—Amazon, Google, RealNetworks, Wal-Mart and other smaller stores—continues its wary, passive-aggressive stance toward Apple. Officially, a Universal rep told us in an email that it's "a scientifically designed research study over the next six months" that's using iTunes (their "Apple sales") "as a standard control group" to serve "as the baseline for comparison." But, what's really being tested is the viability of non-iTunes online sales.
More »
portable media
Gracenote Exec: Music Industry ThisClose to Giving In on DRM
Ty Roberts, CTO of Gracenote—the company that runs CDDB, among other endeavors—said at a conference on DRM this week that record labels are "about to cave in the next six months" when it comes to DRM and downloads, giving credence to Jobs' claim that half of iTunes tracks will be available DRM-free by the end of the year. At the same time, he's not sure that it "would be a good thing for the digital content industry in the long term." More »
home entertainment
Apple Set to Steamroll the Big Four at the iTunes Bargaining Table
According to Reuters, it's Apple that's going to be pressuring the Big Four for concessions as contract renewals take place over the next month, not the other way around. While they might be begging for an iTunes subscription service, Apple will be shoving them in EMI's footsteps, toward selling more music without DRM. More »
apple
Big Four Asking Apple for Subscription Service
The Big Four's contracts with Apple are either up for negotiation or are coming due, and MarketWatch is reporting that next week, the biggest label, Universal, is expected to push for a subscription service—as well as renew the push for "variable pricing," i.e., higher prices for more popular tracks after Jobs shot it down very publicly last year. More »
home entertainment
