Audio

Verizon Hub gets Internet Radio (plus ads?)

I swung by the Verizon mall kiosk today to play a bit with the Verizon Hub ($200). Unfortunately, I only had my iPhone with me and wasn’t able to take stellar photographs. But it should be clear (enough) that the promised streaming Internet radio has arrived. Verizon’s initial music source/partner is iheartradio.com, a Clear Channel … Read more

Digital Media Bytes: Last100 Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: Spotify, a very compelling music streaming service My music streaming weapon of choice used to be Pandora until it stopped being accessible from the UK a while back. Enter Spotify, a new music streaming service, which this week publicly launched in the UK. Since … Read more

The iTunes Consolidation Project

On the day Apple implemented single track iTunes Plus upgrades, I decided to take our entire library DRM-free. In fact, frustration with Apple’s (prior) DRM-encumbered system pushed us onto Amazon MP3s. However, while most of our music has been ripped from CD, we have made a number of iTunes purchases over the years. I’m unaware of exactly how much Apple music we own or what the per-track upgrade cost is. In the end, it didn’t even matter. Freedom is priceless.

The first task on my computer was to locate the upgrade option in the cluttered iTunes Store interface, which I found linked in a right-hand sidebar. From there, converting my davezatz@mac purchases tracks was a breeze. Unfortunately, I’ve also made purchases under a davezatz@yahoo account – which led to unforeseen frustration. For example, while I could license iTunes to play music from both logins on a computer, my iPhone will only take one. And I never did discover how to merge two accounts. So I logged out of davezatz@mac and attempted to log into davezatz@yahoo, to unlock those tracks, only to discover the account or password had been disabled. While searching the iTunes Support site for a way to gain access to this second account, I was pleasantly surprised to discover Apple offers live chat. The rep I ended up with was exceptional – she quickly reset my password and walked me through upgrading the remainder of my iTunes. The last step was unlocking Melissa’s iTunes, via her computer and account, which was painless.

In the end, we spent around $45 and the process actually took less time than it will to write this post. The next step is centralizing our music library. I’m thinking of consolidating the collection onto the networked 750GB Maxtor OneTouch 4 hanging off our Airport Extreme Base Station (AEBS). I believe this would provide access to all tracks from every computer in the home while also enabling us to create our own custom playlists (that I can sync to my iPhone and she can sync to her iPod Nano fatty). Has anyone gone down this path – am I on target?

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The 1yr Slacker Radio Plus Subscription Giveaway

To celebrate Slacker’s updated Blackberry software, which brings support to the Verizon Storm, we’re giving away one year of Slacker Radio Plus. Like Pandora, Slacker offers free Internet music streaming to both desktop browser and mobile clients. However, a Radio Plus subscription ($3.99/mo) does away with all graphical and audio ads, plus it enables unlimited … Read more

Digital Media Bytes: Last100 Edition

A periodic roundup of relevant news… from our friends at Last100: Distribution is King and other takeaways from Netflix Q4 earnings call The downside of our CE partners adding the Amazon Pay-Per-View service is more competition for Netflix but the competition is pretty indirect because of the Pay-Per-View business is in big new releases that … Read more

Comcast’s Crossed Wires

I’m somewhat concerned to learn that the RIAA may be enlisting broadband providers, such as AT&T and Comcast, to police their networks for content theft. While I don’t condone software or media piracy, I’m uncomfortable with Comcast tracking my every move online. Especially given their apparent inability to keep their records straight. As John Aprigliano discovered when Comcast misidentified him as a movie pirate:

Waiting in my snail mail box for me was an unassuming letter from your favorite cable provider, and mine, Comcast. Contained in this letter was information pertaining to an alleged torrent download called “Cadillac Records.” I have come to learn that “Cadillac Records” is a movie with Adrien Brody and that their marketing for this movie must have really sucked because with what ever thousands or millions of dollars they used to promote this movie, I have never heard of it

We’ve heard cases like these before, where customers are assumed guilty until proven innocent. Fortunately, John knows a bit about networking and helped Comcast discover their “alleged infringement” error. As it turns out, the offending cable modem, identified by hardware MAC address, was no longer in his possession. Having been redeployed by Comcast after he moved.

I can also speak firsthand of Comcast’s inability to handle customer moves… and confidential data. My post last April documents how we ended up with the former resident’s email account and password. Leading back to my privacy concerns. What exactly did Comcast do with John’s account and personal information after (incorrectly) flagging him for a DMCA violation… Was this data provided to a studio or distributor? What about law enforcement? And how did they follow up with those entities once it was determined this was a false positive? Further, has his account been cleared of this inaccurate transgression?

We’re going to need a lot more transparency in how these issues are handled.

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The Cost of Music

We’ve finally seen some definitive proof (above) that Sirius XM will begin charging for online streaming ($3/mo), Pandora has brought audio advertising into their web player/experience, and Apple, along with their studio partners, is implementing variable track pricing. Obviously, there’s also a sizable contingent of people who feel free to help themselves. In light of … Read more

ZNF ‘Round The Web

Leaving comments across the blogosphere… Senate OKs DTV Delay, Still Needs Money for Coupons While I don’t favor a delay and have said repeatedly the entire transition has been a cluster on multiple levels, local affiliates being permitted to flip the switch prior to to June 12th might make things even more chaotic. I’m sure … Read more