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It's a sad day for Podcasters and podcast listeners who enjoyed the podsafe music from GarageBand.com. I got this email this morning: It’s been over ten years since we started helping discover independent music on the ol’ interwebs. Things have changed a lot since then. Most of those changes have been good and some of them have been bad. Some
Last night, I downloaded some music from Amazon for the first time and I was both irritated and pleasantly surprised by the experience. I'd gone to Amazon because I'm not an iPod owner and wanted to get some DRM-free music for playing via a DLNA media server and also my Palm Pre. (I know this is a tech site but just
The IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry) has published its annual review of the music industry and there's some pretty interesting stuff. The headline figure is that music sales fell 7.2% in 2009, mainly in USA and Japan but many other countries, such as Australia and the UK, saw growth. Overall, the industry was worth US$ 17billion. The larger
The UK's Performing Rights Society (PRS) announced their financial results for 2009 today and for the first time, the growth in royalties from on-line music exceeded the fall in revenue from the sales of CDs and DVDs. The PRS reports that on-line revenues in 2009 grew to a little over £30m, which was an increase of just under £13m, but
The London-based think tank Demos has concluded that illegal downloaders spend more money on music. The headline figure, based on the survey of over 1000 people between 16 and 65, is that the average spend per annum on CDs or vinyl was £75 (GBP) for file-sharers compared with only £51 for all surveyed. The notion that illegal downloaders actually spend more
I’m a long time XM Radio customer, starting over five years ago with a $9.95/month plan. Since the merger with Sirius, I’ve seen my plan increase to $12.95/month. A few days ago I received an “Important Information About Your XM” email from XM Radio saying that my monthly rate will increase by $1.98/month for a “U.S. Music Royalty Fee.” (I guess they didn’t make it $2.00 because they thought I would notice the increase.) So, now it will cost almost $15/month for a service that has increased 50% over the past five years. This is after the merger with Sirius that was going to make the service more affordable for everyone.
I have been a consumer of Amazon MP3's for at least two years. Probably longer. I choose to buy music through the Amazon MP3 downloader above almost anything else. One simple reason: no DRM. Amazon MP3's can be downloaded for great prices, and they can then be burned to a CD, moved to an MP3 player, transferred to another computer,
When U2's new album was "accidentally" released on an Australian website of Universal music a week before its official release I had some immediate suspicions. This is not the first time a U2 album has hit the download sites before its official release. In fact the previous album, 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" got out early after Bono played
The RIAA has decided to cease prosecution of file sharers directly, and instead force ISP's to become the new copyright police. The RIAA wasn't even able to truly determine if people were sharing music, so a ginormous ISP is supposed to be able to figure it out? I have BitTorrent loaded one one of my machines. I've used it to
As the holiday season approaches, I'm starting to look at technology toys as gifts. Since I have teenagers, and a barely-technologically capable husband who want the same fun toys I have, I'm currently looking at ways to give them the toys without the expense. I'm cheap like that. I'm also a practical thinker. If I bought them all $300 iPods,
It seems like the RIAA is unstoppable in its crusade to sue music lovers into oblivion. They are using the courts to get their way with ridiculous judgments being handed out. A single illegal downloaded song can cost a person thousands. The RIAA really does not want to go to trial; they hope to scare people into paying up when
The war to free the music rages on...and we're winning, folks!
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