Audio

DRM-Free Tracks On iTunes

Apple and EMI will begin offering DRM-free songs via iTunes in May. I honestly never saw this day coming… Not on a voluntary basis without the might of several European countries behind it. There’ll be a 30 cent premium here in the US for unprotected tracks, but with it comes higher audio quality (256kbps versus … Read more

The RIAA – No More Cuddly Puppies

Brian Biggs has an “article” up over on BBspot on the RIAA’s new mission statement and innovative communications strategies. Instead of fostering a supportive climate, Brian suggests the RIAA is codifying a different, less cuddly approach: Our mission is to maximize hatred for the music industry by using creative legal and innovative technological methods which … Read more

Barenaked and DRM-Free

According to TechCrunch, Amie Street has licensed Nettwerk’s catalog. First to launch will be the new Barenaked Ladies album. Amie Street provides DRM-free MP3s with an escalating pricing scheme: Tracks are initially free and increase in price in relation to download numbers, capped at 98 cents a pop. I wonder what Dale Dietrich’s take is? … Read more

The Day the Music Died

Many, many people have covered this story, but in case you haven’t seen it here, here or here, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) has made a significant change in its rate scheme which, if upheld, will result in substantial royalty increases – enough to kill off most Internet music services.

From GigaOM, here’s what Tim Westergren of Pandora had to say:

“Left unchanged, it’s over for us and every other internet radio service, period. Makes it un-viable,” Pandora co-founder Tim Westergren wrote in an email. “We’re staying online because we’re hopeful that sanity will eventually win out. This is a ludicrous ruling.”

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FM Strikes Back

Turns out FM isn’t dead after all… The Nokia N800 Internet tablet has a hidden FM receiver, while the forthcoming Motorola SLVR L9 FM allegiance is a bit more public. I actually dropped XM a few months ago when the amount of commercials seemed to increase and my niche stations were expanded to appeal to … Read more

Apple Just Says No To Vista

Apparently iTunes, iPods, and Vista don’t play nice just yet. A variety of issues have been reported, including: purchased tracks not playing, synchronization glitches, and computer gremlins “may corrupt your iPod.” Apple warns: iTunes 7.0.2 may work with Windows Vista on many typical PCs. Apple recommends, however, that customers wait to upgrade Windows until after … Read more

Windows Vista: Stream Media PC to PC

wmp11.jpg

In case you hadn’t heard (yeah, right), Windows Vista is now shipping. One of the more interesting features is Windows Media Player’s ability to stream media, not only to Xbox 360s and Media Extenders, but to other LAN PCs running Vista. Though WMP 11 has been available on XP for some time, this particular feature is not supported. Yes, I know, iTunes enables library sharing as well.

Microsoft writes:

You can share nearly any digital media file in your Player library, including protected Windows Media files that you have downloaded from online stores. To share a file in your library, the original file must be stored in one of your monitored folders.

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