Tag: Digital Music
Vodafone UK launches "Vodafone Music" – it's a bit like iTunes
Vodafone has announced that is new “Vodafone Music” service is now live in the UK, allowing its mobile customers to buy and download songs from the Vodafone live! Music Shop.
The service features a new user-friendly interface which includes a smart search allowing users to find music based on track name, artist, album, or genre; free 30-second previews of songs, album art, and improved charts listing new releases and top downloads…
Sky and Universal Music partner to launch subscription music streaming and download service
Sky has partnered with Universal Music to launch a subscription-based music service offering both streaming music and “keep forever” download tracks.
The venture has just been announced, and the service doesn’t appear to have a name yet — at least, not a public one. Claiming the model is a world first (a claim I’m sceptical about), Universal Music will give it a flying start by making its entire catalogue of music (including U2, Kanye West, Amy Winehouse, Mika, the Killers, Snow Patrol, Luciano Pavarotti, ABBA, Rihanna, Eminem, Andrea Bocelli, Elton John, and Duffy) available, while Sky continues to negotiate with both major and independent music companies…
AmazonMP3 music service may finally be coming to the UK
Great news for those who were specifically waiting for Amazon’s music download service to cross the Atlantic, or who just want to see more competition in the UK online music scene, as Amazon is likely to launch its Amazon MP3 service in Britain later this year.
Though the company has not officially confirmed the service, nor a launch date, it is believed that executives from Amazon have visited London to strike deals with record companies…
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…
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…
Downloads FTW: iTunes now bigger than largest US music retailer
CDs are on their way out. Yeah, we knew that ages ago but it takes a little while for the great buying public to catch up. The battle between digital downloads and CDs just passed a major milestone though as Apple announced that iTunes has overtaken retail giant Walmart to become the largest music retailer in the U.S. Pretty soon it’ll even be bigger than Woolies…
Apple won't allow music apps to interfere with iTunes on the iPhone
The new iPhone SDK is getting quite a bashing from developers who say that it doesn’t go far enough. For a start, it doesn’t allow applications to run in the background, and the licence agreement also seems to prohibit developers from installing software that changes low-level things like file structures and the original applications.
That’s led to concern that Apple has effectively banned any alternative music applications from running on the iPhone — at least, any that want to run on a par with iTunes…
Apple may offer unlimited iTunes access for more expensive iPods
According to recent reports, Apple may be considering unlimited access to their massive iTunes music collection for anyone who pays a premium price for an iPod or iPhone.
Now, I know you’re probably thinking that Apple already charges a premium price for their kit, but the idea is that an extra one-off fee when purchasing an Apple-branded media player or phone would then give unlimited access to streaming music from their online store…
Over at SXSW, Lou Reed had a Perfect Day moaning about digital music
The curmudgeonly Lou Reed Walked On The Wild Side yesterday at the Texas SXSW conference about digital music, shocking no-one with his audiophilic opinions about how “technology is making things worse”. We always knew he was a moaner.
He went on, telling the audience of tech-savvy hanger-ons that “if you are one of those people like me who like ‘good sound,’ you need good speakers, a good stereo, and (as an artist) your price of recording goes up, because you need a good mic, good cables…If you don’t like good sound, go with MP3.” Ouch, Lou, you really do have a Rock And Roll Heart, eh?
According to Lou, “people have…
Opinion: Free music file sharing was never going to hit the right notes with record firms
Jonathan Weinberg writes… You don’t get anything in life for free. So the saying goes.
And so, I’m not surprised that a website which promised us the world’s first legal file-sharing service has had to backtrack on the plans after the record companies said they were not yet supporting it.
Qtrax made a big song and dance about their launch over in Cannes with stars including James Blunt there. They secured quite a bit of coverage in all the national newspapers too in Britain.
But maybe it would have made sense to secure the record firms first, after all, as the gatekeepers of the industry, they are pretty important don’t you think? It’s like saying you’ve got a No1 song, without actually having the lyrics written or the musical score penned…
