Category: Digital Music
NOISE GATE: Lala launches idiotic "web song" concept
After the joy (and surprising popularity) of Spotify the other day, my palm is firmly back on my face thanks to Lala and their launch of “web songs” – cut price music that’s locked up tighter than a… actually I probably shouldn’t pursue that simile any further.
Lala is offering music for 10 cents a track. “Great!”, you cry. But wait a sec. The only way they’ve got the record labels to agree is to limit you to only listening to that song in your browser. You’re essentially paying 10 cents for something that you can get for free on Spotify, Last.FM, MySpace, or even YouTube, for god’s sake. As the unnamed head of a digital music service once said, “you want the world’s best on-demand music service? Go to YouTube and close your eyes…”
Virtual Orchestra – 64 musicians replaced by 64 speakers
“Autumn Fantasy 2008” sounds like a porn film, but in actual fact, it’s the name of a concert that’ll be taking place between Oct 11th and 21st in Kanagawa Science Park in Kawasaki, Japan. The system uses 64 speakers to replace the 64 musicians in an orchestra, and each speaker plays just one instrument…
Radiohead "pay what you want" numbers released
Ever since Radiohead’s revolutionary “pay what you want” experiment on their most recent album, “In Rainbows”, the band has steadfastly refused to release any figures on how successful it was.
This led some to conclude that it was a massive flop with millions paying nothing. However, the band’s publisher, Warner-Chapell, has just released figures proving doubters wrong. Across all mediums, physical and download, the band sold three million albums. Considering their previous three albums sold in the low hundreds of thousands, that’s not too bad…
NOISE GATE: Doug Morris must be replaced at Universal
Doug Morris, pictured over the jump, is the chairman of Universal Music – the biggest record label in the world. His contract has just been renewed, but given that the recorded music industry is in freefall and he’s admitted in the past that “there’s no one in the record company that’s a technologist”, is he really the right person to be heading up the careers of artists like The Killers, Elbow and Girls Aloud?
I say no. Morris has a long history in the industry – he headed up Warner Music before moving to Universal – but at the moment, one of the biggest issues with record companies face is that the old, traditional way of doing things simply doesn’t work anymore…
Carphone Warehouse and Best Buy launching MEGAHOUSES to flog the UK electronics this year
The UK phone-shifter and the American technology super-chain will soon publish their plans for selling us lot in the UK cheap electronics.
Over 100 electronics warehouses will launch in the UK under the Best Buy brand, as the tech-seller pushes out of its homeland to crush the likes of Currys and Comet over here. The plan is thanks to Best Buy’s deal to buy half of Carphone Warehouse earlier this year to push its expansion in Europe…
Legal vs Illegal music downloads now 51% to 49%. Hopefully stats for "not murder vs murder" not quite so close.
It has only taken ten years, but legal music downloads have finally overtaken illegal downloads – according to one survey, at least.
A survey by Entertainment Media Research suggests that 51% of web users now download music legally, through services such as iTunes rather than the virtual equivalent of the dodgy man in the pub with a long coat who has a long coat full of mobile phones.
Spotify – stream all the music you could ever want
Gosh. I can get a bit jaded with all the rubbish new music services I get bombarded with every day, which is why it’s such a breath of fresh air when something comes along that ticks every single box. For me, Spotify is that thing. Spotify is a streaming service. It just streams, but by golly does it do it well. It has three things that set it apart from other, similar offerings – catalogue, speed and social functions…
Play.com joins 7digital in the DRM-free corner
Play.com has just become the second digital music retailer to join the DRM-free parade. The site, which previously sold CDs, DVDs and games, has added MP3s from Sony Music, Warner, and Universal. They join DRM-free tracks from EMI and a bunch of indie labels that were already on the site…
EMI launches download store of its very own
I’ve long been puzzled why each major label didn’t set up some sort of digital music store of its own on its own website, where people could get the latest songs, but that wonderment is a topic for another day. Major label EMI, home of Queen, the Beatles and Coldplay, are launching their own download store…
NOISE GATE: Record Labels vs. Guitar Hero – who owes who?
Over the last month or so, there’s been an almighty argument between music labels and makers of rhythm games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band over who owes who. Major labels claim that the games wouldn’t exist without the music, but the games developers point out that the music in the games gets a massive promotional benefit. Who’s right? Click over the jump for my opinion…
