Amazon's digital music catalogue is all set to go global, and although a launch date has not yet been settled, it shall hit sometime this year. Given Amazon MP3 offers DRM-free tracks, which are generally cheaper than iTunes limited, equivalent offerings, we cannot help but think an epic battle between the big As is…
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…
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…
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…
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]
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…
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…
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:
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…
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…
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…
Click to viewUniversal 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…
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…
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.
Click to viewThe 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…
This week, an imprint of Universal, one of the "Big Four," is going to start dropping DRM-free videos with acts like Weezer onto unnamed "file-sharing networks." A stunning new turn in direction in the fallout from Jobs' "Thoughts"? Shnope: You only get half of the video before it directs you to the label's web site…