Category: Digital Music
95% of music downloads in 2008 were illegal, says IFPI
The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, or IFPI, is basically an international version of the RIAA and BPI, who claim to act as a trade body for record labels, but seem to only exist in reality to head up the music industry’s anti-piracy campaign. True to that role, last night it released a statement claiming that 95% of music downloads in 2008 were illegal.
However, there’s some bright news for the labels hidden in there too – download sales are up 25% on last year, and now make up a fifth of all recorded music sales. The IFPI reckons that it’s worth £2.5 billion.
Comes with Music hits the bargain bins
Well, if we needed further confirmation that Nokia’s all-you-can-eat digital music service wasn’t selling too well, then this is it. Despite a massive advertising campaign, Carphone Warehouse has discounted the service by £45, over a third of the price, so you can now get “Comes with Music” on a Nokia 5310 XpressMusic for just £82.18.
It might sound good – that works out at 23p a day for a year of unlimited music – but the catch is that you can only listen to the songs on that phone, and on one Windows PC. For most people, who transfer music between a multitude of devices, that’s useless.
If you need a new phone, you’re happy to listen to a mostly mainstream selection of music on bad earbuds (no 3.5mm jack, so you’re stuck with the included earbuds), and you don’t mind paying £80 for the privelege, then this is a good deal. Otherwise, steer clear.
Comes with Music (via ITProPortal)
Related posts: Nokia’s “Comes with Music” DRM cracked | The lowdown on Comes with Music – not unlimited, comes with DRM
Universal digital chief: Android's selling bucketloads of Amazon MP3s, litigation is not a long-term fix to piracy
I haven’t exactly hidden my contempt in the past for Doug Morris, CEO of Universal Music Group. For many years, UMG has ridden the coattails of the other record labels, particularly the trailblazing EMI, when it came to digital music. It was with mild trepidation, therefore, that I began to read Cnet’s interview with UMG’s Digital Music head honcho, Rio Caraeff.
There are a number of interesting nuggets of info in the interview – that Android’s driving “a ton” of sales for Amazon MP3, that litigation is not “a definitive or long-term fix” for piracy, and another confirmation of the “tens of millions of dollars” that Rio had previously claimed the label was getting from YouTube.
Most interesting of all, though, is the way that Rio sounds like a guy who’s really got his head screwed on. He speaks very knowledgably about digital music, but the most telling statement is when he says “We’re trying new things constantly. There is nothing we won’t try.” Trying new stuff was one of the central themes of my Six Tenets series about how the next generation of music companies will work. Good to hear someone so high up in the ‘traditional’ industry echo those sentiments.
Cnet’s Rio Caraeff Interview
Related posts: Universal Music: We’re getting heaps of cash from YouTube | Dell fills its PCs with Universal MP3s
CES 2009: Sansa slotRadio – 1000 "hand-picked" songs, you'll hate 95% of em
I’m developing a bit of a love/hate relationship with Sandisk. They swing wildly from releasing great, innovative stuff, to wasting plastic on awful products. Unfortunately slotRadio falls into the latter category.
Sansa slotRadio is an MP3 player that comes with 1000 songs pre-loaded. It’s essentially a music player for people who’ve got absolutely no interest in what music playing, as long as there’s something in the background. The songs come on a Sandisk microSD card, but they’re tied to the card with DRM, so you can’t do anything else with them. If you work your way through the thousand, then you can buy 1,000 more for $40 (£26).
My advice? Save your cash and stick to Last.fm. In the meantime, go check out our other CES coverage here.
(via PC Mag)
Apple releases the chains on iTunes DRM
The final announcement at today’s Macworld 2009 keynote was indeed the hoped for, predicted and downright too long in the coming release of the DRM on iTunes downloads.
iTunes Plus is the name of the format which comes at a 256 kbps…
Try Spotify – the best digital music service in the world – from anywhere in the world
Spotify, the steaming service that’s by FAR my favourite piece of software of 2008, is currently invite-only and limited to UK, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Spain and France. However, there’s a sneaky way of getting in anyway, that TechCrunch spotted in a Digg comment.
It’s pretty simple. Visit a proxy site, like DaveProxy, and from there, go to this URL. Sign up with a UK postcode (how about the BBC’s postcode: W12 7RJ), and you’re all set. The best on-demand digital music service out there is yours. Try it out, and share a playlist in the comments below. I’ll start you off with my Best of 2008.
Oh, and if you have problems with accessing the site after 14 days, then FileShareFreak’s got you sorted out. More proxy fun.
Spotify Signup (via TechCrunch)
Related posts: Spotify – stream all the music you could ever want | Last.fm music service comes to Vodafone
BREAKING: Zunes worldwide hit by mystery crash
This morning, I woke up and turned on my beloved Zune MP3 player. It got to the end of the loading bar, then just stopped. After the regular “hold back and up to reset” trick didn’t work, I did what any self-respecting citizen of the modern age would do, and turned to Google. Turns out there’s a lot of people with the same problem.
Across the internet, there’s a variety of threads on forums complaining that Zunes have frozen in exactly the same place, at exactly midnight PST. Given that we’re so close to the New Year, it’s likely to be a bug in the code, but I’m sure it won’t stop thousands of Mac fanboys across the land cooking up conspiracy theories along the lines of “Microsoft never expected to last this long in the market”.
More info, and a fix, as we get it.
Zune is frozen (via Google)
Related posts: New Zunephone Rumours | Zune 3.0 firmware – heavy on “the social”, light on the “useful in the UK”
Apple giving away music and downloads during the iTunes 12 Days of Christmas
Apple’s 12 Days of Christmas campaign is eating away at 2008’s profitability figures by giving away one free iTunes download a day between December 26 and January 6th.
The songs and TV shows, some of which may be by people you’ve even heard of and are interested in, will pop up on the site each day, along with some interesting facts about the material in question, which may come in handy if you’re planning on attending a Christmas pub quiz.
You don’t get a choice. Today’s is ‘Video EP’ by Jason Mraz.
The idea is no doubt meant to promote edgy new artists you otherwise wouldn’t bother listening to on the radio for free…
Soundcloud makes sharing music files easy peasy
Do you work in, or closely with, music? Do you regularly find yourself trying to send music files to people, and having difficulty due to the multi-MB nature of most music files? Yeah, I know, email sucks – but so does linking someone to a MySpace, especially if it’s a file that you don’t necessarily want on public release.
Or perhaps you’re a DJ, and you want to share mixes with people you know. Not publicly, just to close friends, or people on a mailing list. In either case, what you need is a recently-launched site called Soundcloud.
We7 goes ad-free between Christmas and New Year
In an attempt to grab some of the marketshare back off Spotify, web-based ad-supported music streaming service We7 has announced that between Christmas and New Year, all their ad-supported music won’t have.. er… ads. It’ll basically be un-supported music. A big money sink, I should imagine, but hopefully a big draw to their audience.
The company has assured us that it’ll still be paying royalties, so if you’re a songwriter, then don’t worry, you’ll still get your December cash to pay for those presents. However, even We7 without ads probably won’t tempt me away from my beloved Spotify. Sorry guys.
Related posts: EMI adding over 400,000 new tunes to We7’s free streaming library | Spotify – stream all the music you could ever want
