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Warner Music-Tap Tap Deal Confirms the Power of the App

Warner Music Group is trying a new tactic to promote its music in the digital age, and it's a move that demonstrates the rising power of the App: Its new partner is Tapulous, makers of the runaway success Tap Tap iPhone music games. ...READ»

RHAPSODY   |  Comment

Rhapsody First Subscription Service in U.S. to Offer Offline Music on iPhone

Streaming music service Rhapsody is claiming a first for the iPhone: It's the first to "let people enjoy subscription downloads on the iPhone." It's a score, for sure, but also a strong indication of the way you may consume mobile ...READ»

PIRACY   |  Comment

Failblog: Following France's Tough Piracy Law, Piracy Rates Go Up

Here's one of those fabulous stats that basically explodes an argument people thought was done and dusted: New data shows that online content piracy has risen in France despite the nation's super-tough three-strikes Net ban law. ...READ»

Music Licensing Goes Pan-European, With Perfect Timing for Apple

Apple may just have gained an amazingly powerful tool for the future of its iTunes music business: A new deal could allow pan-european licensing of digitally downloaded music. It's perfect timing for the iTablet too, don't you ...READ»

Google Readying Music Service. What the Hey?

Here's one you probably weren't expecting: There's a rumor Google's poised to leap into yet another business sector--music. Actually, given Google's expansionist habits it's probably not a surprise. But it is confusing. The rumor's ...READ»

MP3s Drive the Music Biz Into Multiple Personality Spin

Ah, the music biz--source of fun for the masses, and craziness for businesspeople. We all know about the first part of that, but the second bit's been highlighted by some odd news this week, hinging on MP3s. The American Society of ...READ»

Are Slipping iPod Sales Bad News for the Recording Industry?

Over at PaidContent they're making a bit of noise about some thinking by analyst Mark Mulligan that says a slip in rising iPod sales is bad news for the record industry. It's an interesting idea, but basically misses the point. The ...READ»

Is the Album Dead? Radiohead Abandons It for Single-Track MP3s

Radiohead's an interesting band--musically the guys seem to follow their own path to innovative sounds. And now they're also following their own path to publishing music, and ditching the album format in favor of single-track ...READ»

Pirate Bay Pulls a Napster: Sells for $8 Million

Just like Napster, the music sharing site that was sold in the midst of its legal woes, Pirate Bay has just been bought by Global Gaming Factory for $7.8 million. So while its creators still face jail time, the Bay's about to go ...READ»

PALM PRE   |  Comment

Palm's Pre Syncs With iTunes, but Apple May Squash the Link

Palm's Chairman, speaking at the D7 conference yesterday, confirmed that the Palm Pre has a neat trick: It syncs with iTunes just like an iPod would. While that's handy, Apple isn't likely to tolerate the situation for too ...READ»

Europe Loosens Digital Downloading Rules While U.S. Suffers Audible Magic's Wire-Sniffing

Yesterday Europe moved to smarten-up its legal music downloading rules to dissuade piracy, but today we learn that P2P illegal content-sniffer Audible Magic is being adopted by more U.S. universities--the punitive flip-side of the ...READ»

MP3 Players to Get Emotional, Play Mood-Sensitive Tracks

If a couple of new ideas on the personal media player front become mainstream, then it's possible that your next-gen MP3 player will be able to sense your mood. And, in a limited way, it'll empathize by choosing appropriate ...READ»

NAPSTER   |  Comment

Napster Returns as Best Buy's Streaming Music Muscle [Updated]

Napster, the original file-sharing site that set the digital music world into a tailspin, is making yet another phoenix-like return to life from the ashes of its former self. This time it's as a music streaming site, and it's got Best ...READ»

Yahoo Revamps its Online Music Portal, Aims For Number 1 Spot

Yahoo has just refreshed its Music Pages service with bunch of new band-configurable widgets that sort of turn it into the MySpace of the Music Industry: an interesting move, considering how many bands use MySpace for self-promotion ...READ»

LOSSY   |  Comment

Will Kids and MP3s "Ruin" Music Recording Quality?

A Stanford professor conducted research on perceptions of recorded audio, and he discovered that today's youth actually prefer the "imperfect" sound of a digitized MP3 recording over a more perfect audio reproduction of the ...READ»

MUSIC   |  Comment

SanDisk SlotRadio: MP3 Playing The Wrong Way

Apple's dropping of DRM in iTunes means full freedom of choice for music fans to do what they wish with their MP3s. But SanDisk's newest SlotRadio device just doesn't work like that: It comes pre-loaded with 1,000 songs...which you ...READ»

DRM   |  Comment

Apple's iTunes Drops DRM, Adds Tiered Pricing, 3G Downloads

This morning's rumors were almost exactly bang on. As a surprise "one more one more thing" at the end of his Macworld Keynote, Phil Schiller dropped the news that iTunes was going to drop digital rights management for its music track ...READ»

2009: The Year Gadgets Stop Being Life Add-Ons?

I was reading about Vuzix's new VR projection glasses--actually looking pretty snazzy, versus a prop from Star Trek--when a thought struck me. It seems that the gadget as a nice-to-have bolt-on to modern life is dead. Instead, the ...READ»

RIAA To Stop Suing Individuals For Music Piracy

'Tis the season traditionally associated with goodwill, but I'm not sure I could've predicted this piece of good news: the Recording Industry Association of America is going to stop suing individuals for music piracy. There are ...READ»

Foxit's eSlick Is The Cheapest E-Book Reader

The Kindle may be good, if aging, and Sony's Reader may be groovy yet expensive, but Foxit's upcoming eSlick has a killer advantage over both: its price. Sneaking in at a launch price of $229 makes eSlick nearly half the price of ...READ»