Category: Digital Music
Learn to play guitar with LASERS
I’m afraid, before you get too excited, that this is a concept product. It’s an awesome idea, though – using lasers to teach people songs, highlighting the appropriate frets to press down.
Of course there’s the small issue of your fingers blocking the light, and it’d have to be clamped onto the guitar very tightly indeed to prevent the lasers going astray, but with those caveats aside, this could be a great way to nail those tricky solos.
(via Dvice)
More laser action: Raygun testing begins – 100kW electro-laser nearly ready for battlefield use | Do a Jean Michel Jarre with your very own Laser Harp
Pioneer's DEH-P4100SD – a car stereo with an SD card slot to aid choice and/or piracy
Pioneer’s just revealed its latest in-car entertainment solution for the businessman trapped in a snow drift with no mobile signal or radio reception – the DEH-P4100SD.
The big selling point of the P4100 is its SD Card slot, allowing you to do away with the middle man (DJ, CD writer, iPod, cable) and load up your MP3 collection to a cheapo SD Card and whack it straight into your car via the slot hidden behind the removable faceplate.
Pioneer’s “rotary commander” dial-slash-joystick lets you navigate through tunes while still managing to pay some attention to the road, while there’s also full support for iPod playlists if you’re the sort of person who likes to spend your spare time painstakingly sorting all your music into very tightly-organised playlists…
NOISE GATE: Napster 4.6 – the return of Napster?
Ahhhh, Napster. Back in 1999, I sat there for days, on a 56kbps connection, downloading music. As a result of that, and Audiogalaxy, I became an enormous music fan and I’ve spent thousands of pounds on music over the years that I’m very convinced that I wouldn’t have spent if it hadn’t been so easy to ‘try before you buy’.
Today the news broke that Napster’s relaunching in the UK. Of course, it’s not the real Napster – it’s what was formerly Roxio – a DRM-based subscription service. The company has just released version 4.6 of its player, which purports to allow subscribers to access and play their music on any internet-connected computer, without downloading any software.
Top 10 Tuesday Wednesday: Free, Legal, Music on the Internet
I’m going to take a break from gadgets today, like Dan did yesterday for Technology Deathmatch, to tell you about some of my favourite sources of free, legal music on the internet. It’s entirely possible, contrary to what major record labels would have you believe, to live completely free of paying for recorded music.
Not all offer downloads that’ll work on your MP3 player – some just stream – and not all these sites are going to be around forever, due to the turbulent nature of the digital music market around now, but if you can live with both those caveats, then click over the jump for my top ten sites where you can get free, legal, music.
Virgin's P2P music service scrapped amidst labels' anti-piracy concerns
A new legal peer-to-peer music sharing service due to be launched by Virgin Media within the next couple of months has been put on hold indefinitely due to last minute whining by a few well-known record labels, according to a report in The Register.
“Virgin Music Unlimited” would have allowed Virgin Media’s broadband subscribers to share music and keep tracks while the company aimed to make money from these P2P users and presumably pass some of that revenue back to the record labels…
NOISE GATE: How to create an awesome office jukebox in five easy steps
If you work in an office, then how does the music work? Is it a tinny radio in the corner blaring out Radio 1? If so, I feel sorry for you, and I suggest you take control.
We moved offices over Christmas, and switched from a benevolent musical dictatorship run by Stuart from My Chemical Toilet to a much more democratic approach using communal playlists in Spotify. It’s very simple, and all you’ll need is some speakers, as well as someone volunteering to take charge. Click through to the post to find out how.
Last.fm releases Android client application
Personalised radio service Last.fm has launched an Android version of its software, meaning that T-Mobile G1 owners will be able to get streaming music recommendations on-the-go. Previously the application was only available to iPhone owners and on Last.fm’s website on a computer.
That’s all well and good, but where’s my Symbian client? I want to use Last.fm on my N95! Last.fm’s biggest threat right now, Spotify, is recruiting for an S60 engineer with the aim of building a phone client. With the 5800 just launched, and the N97 just around the corner, now would be a great time to develop an alternative to Nokia’s egregious “Comes with Music” service.
Last.fm Android App (via @fakesensations)
Related posts: Video surfaces of the Android-based Dream G2 | Last.fm music service comes to Vodafone
Isle of Man gets free, legal, P2P downloads
Residents of the Isle of Man, take note. You may soon be able to download all the music you like, from wherever you want, but you’re going to have to pay a little extra on top of your broadband bill for it. The Manx government wants to enforce a blanket music consumption license, tied to broadband bills.
“At the end of the day, we are not going to stop piracy, so let’s embrace it,” says the remarkably sensible Inward Investment Minister, Ron Berry. Surprisingly, the BPI endorses the move as well, with head honcho Geoff Taylor saying: “If ISPs take the position advocated in the Isle of Man, we’d be in an enormously better position.”
Denon introduces the DN-S3700 CD Deck
Although Pioneer’s CDJ-1000MK3s are the standard CD player in every nightclub across the UK, Denon produces a range of DJ-standard CD players, too. They’ve just announced a new iteration, too – the DN-S3700. It’s got a rotating 9″ platter on the top with vinyl emulation, so if you can’t mix CDs with the buttons, then you can do it using the platter.
Additional features include USB and MIDI control, internal USB sound card, five built-in effects, and loop functionality, as well as your standard pitch/speed adjust and slot-loader. It certainly competes with the CDJ-1000 on features, but it lacks a lot of the style of Pioneer’s rival player – the DN-S3700 is covered with garish buttons and flashing lights. It doesn’t compete much on price either, costing £900 new, compared to £770 for the Pioneer. I’d love to give it a spin and see how it compares when actually ‘in the mix’. You can buy it ‘soon’ from from HTFR.
Denon (via Akihabaranews)
Related posts: Denon announces top-end AH-D7000 headphones | Denon shows off super-high-end DVD-3800BD Blu-ray player with “wonder” DVD upscaling
RUMOUR: Sky launching its music subscription service in April
Many have tried to make the all-you-can-eat subscription model work for music, but it’s never taken off due to incompatibilities between different portable music players and the lack of any big companies really getting behind it. Well, we’re hearing a rumour that Sky will finally launch its previously-announced subscription service in April.
Last we heard, we were promised a mix of both streaming and downloadable tracks. Over Christmas, pricing was allegedly leaked – unlimited free streams, plus a set number of MP3 downloads each month. £5.99 for 5 downloads, £7.99 for 10 and £9.99 for 15.
I’ve asked Sky for more details, and I’m waiting to hear back. I, for one, am convinced that it’s not only possible for a subscription service to work, but it’s actually the future of mass-market music consumption. There’s too many people who don’t care about anything beyond the top 40 for that not to be the case.
Related posts: NOISE GATE: Why music subscription services will eventually work | Sky and Universal Music partner to launch subscription music streaming and download service
