Category: Digital Music
Nokia to ditch DRM by 2010
While most had their eyes on Stephen Fry at the Nokia N97 launch, some keen bods were busy pumping the execs for information and it seems they pumped well. It turns out that Nokia is planning on phasing out the DRM on their Comes With Music package meaning that users will be able to download tracks as MP3s and actually keep their tunes.
It’s always been the desire of the mobile giant to go DRM-free but ultimately the decision has always been down to the labels who have never exactly been first to come round to new digital ideas.
It seems, though, that the big wigs have softened/modernised their attitudes since deals like the DRM-free one between Virgin and Universal and it looks as all with CWM will reap the rewards as of 2010.
A Nokia spokesperson said: “Nokia is committed to going DRM free on the Nokia Music Store in 2009”.
“Comes With Music offers great value and even with the DRM in place, it continues to have great appeal to our consumers. We are constantly discussing with the music industry about how to evolve Comes With Music and further enrich the proposition we currently have”.
It’s not clear if this evolution will continue to involve an all you can eat service if it is to be DRM-free but, given the extent of the CWM catalogue, I’m looking forward to finding out.
(via ME & Pocket Lint)
Spotify to offer more paid for services
Spotify have responded to the news of Virgin Media’s team up with Universal Music by announcing that they are planning a whole bunch of new features to add value to its premium service.
Currently users who pay £9.99 a month (or 99p a day) can have ad-free access to the three million tracks that are available in the UK. The premium side of Spotify will be expanded to include:
- Mobile access, as revealed by this very blog last month
- Recommendations and ticketing
- Bundled downloads
- A social networking aspect to the service
- Better quality audio streams than the current 160kb/s ogg vorbis q5 codec
Spotify’s UK MD Paul Brown said: “The idea is to have a service with more features and functionality that will draw people in.”
It isn’t clear yet whether there will be additional subscription packages or whether the new features will be included within the current £9.99 fee. Either way, along with the Virgin/Universal announcement, it’s an exciting time for digital music.
(via NMA)
Virgin and Universal team up to offer unlimited music package
Virgin Media has announced that they have signed a deal with Universal Music to offer their customers an unlimited digital music service.
The move, which sounds a darned sized better than previous digital music services such asNokias Comes With Music, would mean users get unlimited access to DRM-free mp3s of Universal artists for a monthly fee, rumoured to be around £10-15. Users would be free to store these mp3s on any players of their choice.
Universal Music owns a huge number of record labels and artists available in the service will include the likes of Kanye West, Jack Johnson, U2 and Elton John. Virgin are also said to be in talks with other record companies.
The only snag is that you have to be a Virgin broadband customer in order to use the service. If successful though, hopefully other ISPs will get involved or similar services will be set up.
This news comes a day before Lord Carter’s digital review is due to be published. In it, he is expected to call for ISPs to offer more attractive options to music fans than illegal downloads. Virgin’s package will seemingly do just do that.
Virgin has also announced that it would be doing more to prevent illegal downloads via its network. They’re talking about educating users and may suspend Internet access for persistent offenders.
It will be interesting to see how other ISPs respond to this news and how they respond to Lord Carter’s report in general. It’s obvious that illegal downloading is a big issue at the moment.
Hats off to Virgin for being the first out of the blocks in response.
(via Reuters)
VIDEO: Spotify application on Google Android
We’ve heard it from head office and we’ve seen it on the iPhone but there’s something very warming about this video of Spotify in action on the Google Android platform. It might be the way they’re using a Mac as the computer while flaunting the non-Apple software on the non-Apple touchscreen smartphone, but then it might just be that the app looks like it’s running pretty damned smooth. See what you think.
We knew the cache potential of Spotify already but I’d be interested to see how many tracks you could have in an off-line playlist before you phone falls over. Loving the instantaneous syncing with laptop and the OTA search looks pretty good too although, let’s face it, that won’t have been a demo over 3G.
Still work in progress, as the man says, and no release dates yet but what do you think on first impressions? Would you pay the premium for Spotify Mobile?
(via Spotify Blog)
Second judge removed from Pirate Bay appeal
What is it with Swedish judges and their obsession with the Swedish Copyright Association and the Swedish Association for the Protection of Industrial Property? It turns out that her honour in charge of the Pirate Bay after-trial to decide whether the first hearing was presided over by a biased judge has been removed for, yes, you guessed it, bias. Nice.
Judge Ulrika Ihrfelt was relieved of her position on Wednesday and despite this further set-back and level of ridiculousness, the appellate court’s president, Fredrik Wersall, said the case would be sorted “in a few weeks at the maximum” – provided they can find someone with now preconceptions on copyright infringement presumably.
(via Wired)
iTunes Festival London 2009 acts announced
The headline acts for the third annual Apple iTunes Live festival has been announced. Oasis, Flo Rida, Kasabian, Paolo Nutini, Snow Patrol and The Saturdays will be among the folk rock/popping it out at the Roundhouse in Camden throughout the month of July.
Now, you can’t buy tickets to the event. You have to join the iTunes Festival Facebook group and jump through a series of hoops until you win yourself access. If you’re not lucky enough to be chosen to see the some of the 62 bands on one of the 31 nights, then don’t worry. Apple will sell you the experience at the iTunes Store in all 22 countries that it operates because each and every performance will be recorded. Thanks, Uncle Steve!
Spotify coming to your mobile phone – but at a price
Good news: Yes, Spotify is indeed coming to mobile phones. Bad news: we’re going to have to pay for it. These were the words from the horse’s mouth when Spotify CEO Daniel Ek spoke at The Great Escape music conference over the weekend.
The word is that very few people – certainly in the UK – have signed up for Spotify’s £9.99 a month Premium service and this is just the kind of value content that’ll make people change their minds. Ek also dropped a large one that there’ll be some other bits and pieces to beef the package up in terms of social networking, exclusive track access and, most interestingly, music recommendations. He said:
“We definitely want to have music recommendations, but we would never recommend tracks ourselves.
“I’d love to work with someone like Last.fm and in a couple of days you’ll see an announcement for something like that.”
Well, the best way to work with some like Last.fm is to actually work with Last.fm and I’ve got a tenner down says that’s what we’re going to hear.
So, what do you think? Will you pay for Spotify on the go, given that it’ll probably work out side of connectivity too? Or has it just become the same as any old service with this announcement. Let us know in the comments – YES! THEY’RE BACK ON!!!!!
(via Brand Republic)
Activision announces DJ Hero, Guitar Hero 5 & Band Hero
It’s long been mooted and now it’s official. Activision is releasing a dance music version of their music games called DJ Hero. It’s coming out this autumn and just in time for the Christmas rush.
The turntable controlled title will be accompanied by the fifth version of Guitar Hero and a family friendly incarnation of the rock classic simply called Band Hero. GH5 sounds pretty much identical to World Tour except with a new track list. You’ll be able to change difficulty levels, band members and swap in and out of songs on the fly but that doesn’t seem like ground breaking stuff. Still, looking forward to it nonetheless.
Band Hero will feature poppier top 40 hits and is generally designed not to scare off mums, dads and a few girlfriends too, whereas is DJ Hero is for hip-hop, R&B, Motown, electronica and dance. Looking forward to the track lists. Got my fingers crossed for some gangster rap.
(via Slashgear)
Last.fm launches visual radio
It’s important for Last.fm to do some shouting at the moment to prove there’s more to life than Spotify and Comes With Music. There is, and to prove what an excellent service they still are, they’ve launched a visual radio player.
At the heart of it, it’s still the same beast except now you get pretty pictures in a slideshow of whoever it is you’re listening to. They’ve also added combo stations whereby you can add more than one artist, tag or genre to your radio choice to receive a stream of more specific, more tailored music. So, now there’s no excuse not to listen to 80s, Pirate Metal, featuring Dolly Parton radio apart from the obvious.
Finally, Last.fm has added a history to the radio player so you can see exactly what you have and haven’t been playing. All good reasons to return what is still the best music discovery service on the web.
(via Last.fm blog)
8-bit FM – chiptune and video game music, 24/7
Do you like old-skool videogame music and chiptune acts like Pixelh8, Neotericz and Receptors? Then you’ll be pleased as punch about the launch of 8-bit FM, an internet radio station dedicated to the bleepy sounds of days gone by.
Although they’re currently working out some bugs, the plan is for the station to be live 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year. There’s a web-based flash player, and you can also listen in Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, Winamp, and iTunes. There’s even a live request system if there’s a particular choon you wanna hear.
8-bit FM (via Technabob)
