Category: Digital Music
F400 Share competition – give Samsung your hard work for free
It’s interesting to see how the different phone brands are going about keeping up with the Jobs’s as computers become mobiles and mobiles computers. Whereas Nokia has decided to go down the gaming route with N-Gage, it seems Samsung has decided that music will be their thing and has announced a competition to go with the launch of their F400 handset.
The idea behind F400 Share is that unsigned bands are encouraged to upload one of their tracks to the Samsung website where they can be listen to and voted on the public…
TinySong – the musical equivalent of TinyURL, and dead useful, too
I’ve just been informed about TinySong, which has quickly been added to my bookmarks list for those occasions when you really need to hear a song but can’t be bothered downloading it/YouTubing it/waiting endlessly on Last.fm for it to play.
It’s being marketed as the musical version of TinyURL, that site which shortens lengthy URLs, and is remarkably simple to use. Just type in the song you want to send your friend, and it will give you a TinySong URL for that particular track. There’s no need to download a program to play it, it streams the track flawlessly using Grooveshark Lite. I tested it with some of my favourite songs, which…
Prince covers Radiohead's 'Creep', bans videos being uploaded to YouTube.
Prince, he who took on The Pirate Bay and YouTube last year, has once again waved his anti-piracy colours in the air, by ordering the take-down of videos on YouTube over the weekend of him singing ‘Creep’.
That’s ‘Creep’, made famous by Radiohead. Who still own the copyright of the hit song. Thom Yorke isn’t too bothered by Prince covering their song, describing it as “hilarious”, but is disappointed Prince’s record label NPG has taken the videos down, saying “surely we should block…well, tell him to unlock it. It’s our…song”.
Perhaps Prince was…
iRiver SPINN – coming to the UK this August, with new DAB tuner powers
We were, like, all about the iRiver SPINN when it was revealed during January’s CES 2008 gadget EXPLOSION – and now the silvery thing has an actual UK release date.
It’ll be out here in August and, for the UK market because we’re so special, we’re getting an enhanced model complete with fashionably DAB tuner…
Channel 4 embracing old-school "radio" technology and bringing DAB to mobiles
Here’s a thoroughly educational update packed with things you probably didn’t know. For starters, telly company Channel 4 has a digital radio station license and will be launching “E4 Radio” alongside a stack of new stations later this year.
Channel 4 Radio, in an attempt to broaden its reach, is apparently sounding out manufacturers about making a C4-branded dongle to bring DAB capabilities to mobile phones and iPods. The company wants to charge about £20 for this…
Motley Crue single downloaded FIVE TIMES more in Rock Band than on iTunes
If you pay attention, read regularly and maybe even take down some notes every once in a while, you may recall an update we did based around reformed dad-rockers Motley Crue releasing a single in the game Rock Band.
This was clearly a clever marketing ploy designed to help the ageing band reach “the youth” – and boy, did it ever work. The play-along Rock Band version of Motley Crue’s single sold FIVE TIMES as many…
New Last.fm beta – unlimited listening service
Last.fm is running a beta of a new subscription service it plans to launch that will offer unlimited access to its vast catalogue of music.
Currently the social music site allows users to listen to the same tracks three times before you can only to listen to them via the Last.fm radio and it looks like the new subscription service will remove this bar…
Opinion: why Napster can't fail with their new DRM-free venture
Katherine Hannaford writes…
Can we call 2008 the heady days of digital music yet – can we? Can we? Sure, 2007 had its fair share of digital movers and shakers, with Radiohead pioneering the music release formula, but with today’s news that Napster is going DRM-free, surely things can only pick up in speed?
Beginning life as an illegal P2P service in 1999, it was acquired by Roxio in 2003 after numerous legal battles with the RIAA and, err, Metallica. I’m sure there’s a generation of kids who only know of Metallica as those baddies who shut down their favourite way of downloading 50 Cent.
Napster’s move to go DRM-free, and offer MP3 file formats encoded at 256kbps, has led a lot of people to draw even more comparisons between them and iTunes and Amazon. However, there’s no ignoring the facts, that iTunes currently has just EMI feeding them DRM-free tracks, and whilst Amazon, like Napster, has support from the four big record labels, it doesn’t have anywhere near the size of catalogue as Napster, who can also boast all the indie labels in addition to EMI, Warner, Sony BMG and Universal…
Apple could use iPhone 3G to intro new mobile music services
Apple may use the highly anticipated launch of a iPhone 3G to expand its mobile music offerings, in a bid to hold on to its lucrative lead in online digital music.
At present, iPhone users can either use a Wi-Fi hotspot to purchase and download music from iTunes, or simply “side-load” it from iTunes running on their PC whenever they synchronise their iPhone.
A iPhone 3G’s faster cellular connection could allow users to purchase music over the air.
B&W collaborates with ex-Genesis frontman Peter Gabriel for Music Club community
A hardware company launching a music store? Who do they think they are – Apple?
Not Bowers & Wilkins (or B&W as you probably know them), as the high-ish-end audio company has announced their collaboration with Peter Gabriel for the launch of their B&W Music Club, a community offering music fans a DRM-free, lossless album once a month, in exchange for £23.95 for six months of your support, or £33.95 for a year’s membership. That works out to less than three quid an album!…
