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The Usual Suspects
Digital Media News
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Digital Audio NewsSponsored Post: ParnterUp’s Weekly OpportunitiesLink: venturebeat.com Below you’ll find this week’s PartnerUp Opportunities of the week. PartnerUp is an online community for entrepreneurs and startups that help them find people for their business such as co-founders, business partners, advisors, board members, and skilled technical people. In addition, PartnerUp helps entrepreneurs ask for and offer up advice, find commercial real estat, and find resources for their business. You can find thousands of additional opportunities by signing up for PartnerUp or browSeeqPod Adds Search Visualization as Warner Suit ContinuesLink: blog.wired.com As SeeqPod fights off the prerequisite major label lawsuit, which acts as a sort of coming-out party for innovative music services, the company apparently isn't spending all of its money on lawyers. The main page on the site now features a World Search Map depicting each SeeqPod search on the site in real time, like a little global fireworks show of music searches. A full-screen version is also available. The map doesn't help or hinder your ability to find, stream and save playlists of musJoy Division Documentary To Be Preloaded on Joy Division ZunesLink: blog.wired.com More details have come to light about the Joy Division edition of the Microsoft Zune, which will feature a a modified version of the album cover of the band's debut, Unknown Pleasures. The device will coincide (roughly) with the June 10 release release of "Joy Division The Documentary." A Zune spokeswoman confirmed earlier that the Joy Division Zune will feature the famous "pulsar CP 1919" design, and now comes word that the special edition player will come with the documentary preloaded so JNews: Beach Boys Box Classic Singles, Brian Wilson ToursLink: pitchforkmedia.com With digital music files fast taking over the audio marketplace, the time for compact disc nostalgia is nigh! (No really, just play along with me here.) And few acts know how to milk nostalgia for all it's worth more than the Beach Boys. Hence we have The Beach Boys: U.S. Singles Collection - The Capitol Years (1962-1965), weighing down a record store shelf near you on June 10. The limited edition Capitol/EMI box set contains an absurd sixteen compact discs, each standing in for a classic BSpeaking of MusicLink: akma.disseminary.org I bought a few downloadable music files the other day, and the experience reminded me of one of the baffling aspects of the digital-music controversy. Why is it that, when the format(s) for digital music files are now well-established, music sellers don’t take full advantage of the medium? Why (for instance) do some sell files without full documentation and cover art? Why do no distributors (that I know of) include lyrics with the digital file? It’s not as though these can’t be tracked down els$50 gadget claims to "clean the sound waves of MP3"Link: musicthing.blogspot.com Clari-Fi is a little passive $50 gadget which goes between your iPod and your headphones, and makes some huge claims about digital music: "This technology allows for real-time compression of digital audio, removing harmful digital artifacts and 'spikey-ness,'... Clari-fi's semiconductor was developed with custom silicon with the sole purpose of quasi-logarithmically compressing audio sources having earphone load impedances of 25 to 50?. The compression algorithm continuously limits digital artiiRiver E150, E200 to go aluminium and lose speakersLink: crave.cnet.co.uk iRiver E150, E200 to go aluminium and lose speakers Related entries: MP3 & Digital Music Tags: iriver, model, kids, lcd We've just had some top-secret, hot-off-the-press exclusive news about iRiver. You know the E100 we just reviewed? It's going to be getting a serious overhaul for the next two versions, known as either the E150 or the E200. iRiver's getting rid of the plastic chassis, replacing it with an iPod nano-esque aluminium casing. Also, the E100's LCD screen -- which didn't imWill Music Become A "Modest Niche Business"?Link: hypebot.typepad.com FORGET ABOUT STOCK OPTIONS & IPO RICHES Earlier this week Silicon Alley Insider reviewed a survey showing distrust of record labels, took a quick look at the state of the industry and declared that music was fast becoming a "modest niche business". Even if SVI is right, there is still money to be able in the niches. (Remember the Long Tail?) So they asked readers what opportunities they saw to make a buck on music. "....the artists will win...There's only one party that has any coherentThe Future Of Music: Like Water, Feels Free, Ubiquitous, Full of Marketing Opportunities - Music 2.0 Is ComingLink: masternewmedia.org The future of music, music 2.0, has now some clear definition and reference points on which it characterizes itself away from traditional commercial, sold-via-expensive-CDs, music. Gerd Leonhard, the author of The Future of Music (which I personally recommend to everyone), has just published a new book, entitled Music 2.0 (available also as a free PDF download) in which he explains in greater and more specific detail what the future of music is like and why he likes to call it Music 2.0. In thBad RIAALink: rising-hegemon.blogspot.com Speaking of Karma below, it is funny how things change. And how damn much they stay the same in the music industry. For a moment we will assume that politics has some small possibility for change. Three recent court decisions show us something hopeful. Something that might shift the balance of power over the fight on digital downloading. We are seeing, perhaps for the first time, a real increased scrutiny over one of the RIAA's -- Recording Industry Association of America (or as we know itMusic industry in good idea shockLink: blogs.telegraph.co.uk Pinch yourself. I've just found an announcement from the music industry that isn't completely insane. In fact the Entertainment Retailers Association have come dangerously close to making sense. I've been mean about the ERA before, most notably when they criticised Prince for his decision to give away a Sunday newspaper with his last album. However, their call - made two weeks ago - for a series of reforms to the digital music business is very smart. ERA Digital, the computerised wing ofInterview: Microsoft's Rob Bennett defends DRM decisionLink: webware.com Rob Bennett knew people were going to be angry. Bennett is the Microsoft executive who notified former customers of the now defunct MSN Music service on Tuesday that the company would no longer issue DRM keys for their songs after August 31. This means that, while former customers can listen to their music on authorized computers for as long as the hardware lasts, they won't be able to transfer songs to a new PC after that deadline. "Had we had the ability to deliver DRM-free tracks at theSony buys music data service Gracenote for $260 millionLink: venturebeat.com Sony has bought Gracenote, an Emeryville, Calif.-based company that among other things owns the database of albums, artist names and song titles used to identify music in digital media services like Apple’s iTunes. The sale price is $260 million plus other compensation based on future performance; the deal is expected to officially close in late May. Gracenote had previously received around $50 million in funding from Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, and others. Formerly knownQuestion of the Day: How Big is Your Digital Music Collection? [Question Of The Day]Link: gizmodo.com I get tired of music quick, and I'm not much of an archiver, so I don't need a lot of hard drive space or a high capacity MP3 player to store my music. However, there are plenty of folks out there that have taken to collecting digital music with the same voracity as people once did with CDs and vinyl. Fortunately, these days a music collection doesn't require you to add on to your home. So, the question is: how big is your digital music collection? Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if yLink: daringfireball.net ? Gracenote owns the CDDB database iTunes uses to supply song and album names for CDs you rip. $260 million sounds like a lot to me, but at least now Sony can claim to have something to do, however tangential, with a popular portable digital music player. Microsoft to Pull Plug on MSN Music DRM License ServersLast.fm Says Full Track Previews Increase Song SalesLink: blog.wired.com Since Last.fm's label deals allowed them to stream over five million full tracks for free, the site has seen its CD and MP3 Amazon referrals increase 119 percent. Some of the effect is due to an increase in overall traffic since the full songs showed up, but existing users of the site purchased 66 percent more music during the same period. Last.fm's conclusion that free music on its site has led to increased sales appears to be valid. Critics within the music industry who see free streams asVB On The Radio: Talking MySpace Music on WNYCLink: blog.wired.com Listening Post appeared live on WNYC's Soundcheck program yesterday to discuss a potentially huge problem with MySpace Music, which is partially owned by the major labels and yet will include music by unsigned and indie label artists. Other topics covered included Madonna and Mariah Carey besting Elvis Presley's sales records, Live Nation's "360-degree" deals with Jay-Z and others, the Muxtape phenomenon and more. You can listen here: After my segment, OK Go! lead singer Damian Kulash disHonda's Robot Will Conduct Detroit Symphony OrchestraLink: blog.wired.com Yo Yo Ma and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will soon submit to a robotic overlord in the form of Honda's Asimo robot, which will pick up a baton to conduct the orchestra in a performance of Frank Sinatra's "Impossible Dream," which has become something of an anthem for Honda. The irony of a Japanese car maker trotting out an advanced robot in the auto-making city of Detroit will likely be lost on most of the attendees, who will be students from the Detroit School for the Arts. The concert taNews: Richie Ramone Royalties Lawsuit DismissedLink: pitchforkmedia.com Looks like it's back to the drawing board for onetime Ramones drummer Richie Ramone (born Richard Reinhardt), whose previously reported lawsuit against Apple, RealNetworks, and Wal-Mart over royalties has been dismissed by a federal judge in New York, according to reports from The Associated Press and Wired. Richie, as you may recall, served in the Ramones from 1983-1987 and was seeking some $900,000 from the digital sale of six Ramones tunes he penned, as well as an injunction prohibitingBeijing 2008: Hyundai debuts facelifted ElantraLink: autoblog.com Filed under: Economy, China, Hyundai Click above to view high-res gallery of the 2008 Hyundai Elantra in China As we learned last week, Hyundai used the occasion of Auto China in Beijing to debut its slightly refreshened Elantra. Its face now features a wider grille flanked by larger headlights, and a new lower air intake has also been reshaped. The overall effect is that the Elantra's friendly face has been been given a healthy dose of attitude. Likewise, the Elantra's rear also gets reshaped |
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