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College Students Get Free Music
2007-01-23 05:51:01
In another attempt to fight digital music piracy, the four major record labels and some independant labels have agreed to licence their music for free to college students through Ruckus Network. Ruckus had originally hoped universities would pay a fee to offer free downloads to their students, thereby reducing the legal risks and some of the network expense associated with the use of illegal file-sharing networks. Only 20 universities agreed. Last year, however, Ruckus decided to switch to a free, advertising-supported approach, although it still required universities to agree and to install a server on their campus networks. That increased participation to about 100 schools, with ?several hundred thousand? active users, said Michael J. Bebel, chief executive of Ruckus. The new service, which is available now, does not require a university to participate. Rather, it will be made available to those who have an e-mail address ending in .edu, the top-level domain associated with educat...
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  Napster will be the exclusive music subscription provider
2007-01-15 11:38:01
  Napster will be the exclusive music subscription provider for AOL Music in a deal announced Friday, a development that spells the end of a relationship with Music Now. Napster will inherit approximately 350,000 subscribers from Music Now, who are being notified of the switch by email. “We are pleased to provide our subscribers the opportunity to seamlessly transition to Napster, which will become the only music subscription service integrated into AOL Music,” said Mike Rich, vice president of AOL Entertainment. The departure of Music Now follows the disintegration of Virgin Digital in the United States, a casualty of tepid consumer demand and executive turmoil. Napster has acquired the stable of subscribers from both providers, bolstering its customer base. “This transaction firmly positions Napster to be the unequivocal global leader in the premium music subscription sector and the number two overall in digital music revenue,” said Chris Gorog, chairman a...
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  Very good music related comic strip at Bassist Wanted by A
2007-01-14 17:36:01
  Very good music related comic strip at Bass ist Want ed by American artist Porter Mason.
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Very good music related comic strip at Bassist Wanted by Am
2007-01-14 05:35:01
Very good music related comic strip at Bass ist Want ed by American artist Porter Mason.
More About: Comic , Music , Trip

Hello iSuit
2007-01-12 17:34:01
  Cisco Systems sued last night Apple over its use of the iPhone trademark. The move comes a day after Apple unveiled its sleek mobile phone using the name claimed by Cisco. Apple chief executive Steve Jobs debuted the long-rumoured iPhone at the start of Apple’s annual Macworld conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, and both companies had said a deal on the “iPhone” name was near. “We think this is silly,” said an Apple spokesman. “There are already several companies using the name iPhone for voice over IP (internet protocol) products.” Cisco said it wanted to keep Apple from “infringing upon and deliberately copying and using” the trademark, which the network equipment maker obtained in 2000 after acquiring Infogear. Infogear had previously owned the trademark and had sold devices called iPhones for several years, it said. Cisco lauched already several phones on the iPhone family through its Linksys division.
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Hello, iPhone
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Consumers will finally get the chance to own an iPhone , a mobile phone that plays iTunes and surfs the Web, electronics maker Apple announced yesterday on the Macworld Expo, in San Francisco. Company chairman Steve Jobs revealed the iPhone will be available in June and called it a “revolutionary mobile phone” that will feature an iPod, phone and what he called an “Internet communicator.” The phone is rectangular, and the entire front surface is a touch screen. All of its functions are activated by touch, but when you bring your iPhone to your face, a proximity sensor will turn off the touchscreen so you don’t accidentally face dial. The phone, which runs the Mac OS X, will be able to download and play both music and movies. It will come in two models: a $499 version with 4 gigabytes of memory and a $599 one with 8 gigabytes. Cingular, a unit of AT&T, will be Apple’s sole U.S. partner. It’s an exclusive multiyear agreement, which means n...
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Motorola and Warner Music Strike Mobile Partnership
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Mobile music represents a lucrative and growing arena, and that is driving deeper label relationships. Just recently, Warner Music Group joined forces with Motor ola on a broad-based mobile partnership, one that will include a wide range of assets.  As part of the deal, Motorola will receive exclusive and early access to Warner content, and assets will be distributed as over-the-air (OTA) songs, ringtones, ringback tones, mobile music videos, wallpapers, and more. Pre-loaded songs will also be part of the arrangement, and the team intends to work closely with various carriers to promote featured artists.  “Exclusive access to content from Warner’s world-renowned roster of artists enables our mobile phone consumers to further enrich and personalize their mobile multimedia experiences,” explained Scott Durchslag, a top executive at Motorola Mobile Devices. Mobile consumers are responsive to high-powered hits, and genres like rap and hip-hop dominate ringtone and ring...
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iTunes court battles continue for Apple
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Apple is facing a slew of legal challenges to its iTune s and iPod businesses, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Four of the cases disclosed in Apple’s most recent Form 10-Q include pending legal actions challenging the legality of the digital rights management technology used in the iTunes music store. The company revealed for the first time that a San Francisco district court recently denied a motion by the company to dismiss a complaint lodged in July 2006. The suit alleges that Apple violated federal and state anti-trust laws with the bundling of music and video from the iTunes store with its iPod portable media player. The suit seeks to prevent Apple from tying music purchased from the iTunes store exclusively to the iPod, and requests that monetary damages are awarded to anyone who purchased an iPod or music from the iTunes store after 28 April 2003. Older iTunes/iPod cases continue to dog the company as well. The c...
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US Album Sales Down in 2006 While Digital Music Rises
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Album sales in the United States dipped 4.9% last year, according to figures published by Nielsen Soundscan. The total tally, which includes CDs, digital album downloads, and LPs, moved to 588.2 million units for the period. The downturn is part of a steady decline in album purchases, and follows a year-over-year dip of 7.2% recorded at the tail end of 2005. According to the figures, the highest-selling album for the year was the High School Music al soundtrack, which sold 3.72 million units. That falls below the 4 million threshold, part of a softening market for nosebleed blockbuster releases. Other yearly chart-toppers came from Carrie Underwood, Nickelback, Justin Timberlake, James Blunt, Hinder, and the Dixie Chicks. Dragging the average down was a weaker-than-expected final week. After Christmas, sales reached 12.9 million units, a near-20% drop from year-ago figures. The lackluster result came during a critical window, as sales traditionally bulge during the holidays. Pr...
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Will 2007 See the End of DRM?
2007-01-12 17:34:01
  The anti-digital rights management bandwagon is getting more crowded by the day. Even some major-label executives are pushing for the right to sell digital downloads as unprotected MP3s. In 2007, the majors will get the message, and the digital-right management (DRM) wall will begin to crumble. Why? Because they’ll no longer be able to point to a growing digital marketplace as justification that DRM works. Revenue from digital downloads and mobile content is expected to be flat or, in some cases, decline next year. If the digital market does in fact stall, alternatives to DRM will look much more attractive. Revenue from digital music has yet to offset losses from still-declining CD sales, and digital track sales remain a cause for concern. Month-over-month download figures were largely flat through 2006, even in the face of year-over-year gains. If the expected post-holiday spike in download numbers that has occurred in the past two years is weak, look for the glass on the p...
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Music biz hopes to profit from consumer content
2007-01-12 17:34:01
  If 2006 was the year of user-generated content, 2007 will be the year the music industry learns to generate new revenue from the hugely popular trend. The Washington Post reports that labels are striking licensing deals with sites like YouTube so that fans can post copyrighted content or include it in videos they make themselves. Additionally, labels are expected to start releasing new types of content - such as unused clips or video montages - specifically created for fans to manipulate in new ways. By doing so, record labels can then share in the advertising revenue these sites collect. Rather than just suing YouTube and its ilk for how their sites are used, the music industry can now profit from them, not to mention reap the promotional benefits. “They’re doing it anyway,” says Ted Cohen, former EMI Music Group digital executive and now founding partner of consulting firm TAG Strategic. “There’s a chance to monetize this behavior.” Additional...
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Universal Launches Classical Site
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Universal Music Group has just launched a classical and jazz website in the UK. The site, appropriately titled classicsandjazz.co.uk, is heavily focused on paid downloads. “We expect sales to begin with to be relatively modest, but by the third or fourth quarter of the year to be making a positive contribution to the business,” said Mark Wilkinson, a marketing director for Universal’s classics and jazz division. “I think (the market for digital downloads) can only grow, and as the Apple iPod generation grows, they start to discover the classics,” he added. The site currently has more than 100,000 classical and jazz tracks and nearly 8,000 CDs. Universal expects to increase its tracks by 1,500 per month. Downloads on the site start at about $1.50 (79 pence) each, in line with the industry norm. The launch of Universal’s new site follows the company’s best year for classical and jazz-related sales, a trend boosted by a globally growing digit...
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Music Sales Jump For Christmas
2007-01-12 17:34:01
Predictably, album sales rose substantially during the pre-Christ mas week in the United States. Christmas landed on a Monday this year, opening a nice shopping weekend that aided CD sales. In the week leading up to Christmas, the Top 200 albums sold a combined 13.1 million copies, a 42% increase over the previous high mark of the year, 9.2 million in the week ending Dec. 17, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The brisk pace is expected to continue during the next weeks as consumers hit the year-end sales and cash in the gift cards they received for Christmas. However, total album sales of 105.3 million for the six-week period ended December 24 is still 4.1% down from 2005’s total of 109.8 million. And 2005 was considered the weakest holiday selling season in memory. But for the troubled music industry, flat sales are the new up for retailers. In fact, music label executives may cheer the volume of purchases: when digital track, music video and singles sales are included, sales t...
More About: Music , Sales , Sale

BMW Blends Digital Radios Into Upcoming 3-Series Convertible
2007-01-12 17:34:01
BMW will soon offer a digital radio option within its 2007 3-Series Convert ible, a move that continues the company’s front-running embrace of the technology. According to information released by the automaker, the factory-installed receivers will support multicasting, a compelling capability that enables multiple station streams over the same frequency.  The HD Radio option will be offered for $500. Over one-thousand stations currently broadcast in HD within the United States, and 500 deliver multicasting capabilities.  That number is projected to surpass 3,000 within the next few years, and in-dash installations will play a critical role in the growth curve. For BMW, the latest announcement follows similar moves involving the 5, 6, and 7-series models.  Other automakers are likely to jump on board later this year, and various terrestrial radio conglomerates will continue their aggressive expansion of the format. Meanwhile, BMW also packages Sirius receivers and tr...
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