MP3s

Google Readying Music Service. What the Hey?

Kit Eaton — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 06:26:54 -0400

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.

MP3s Drive the Music Biz Into Multiple Personality Spin

Kit Eaton — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 12:06:47 -0400

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.

Are Slipping iPod Sales Bad News for the Recording Industry?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 11:09:35 -0400

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.

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

Kit Eaton — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 08:16:58 -0400

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 downloads.

Pirate Bay Pulls a Napster: Sells for $8 Million

Kit Eaton — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 05:57:36 -0400

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 semi-legit.

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

Kit Eaton — Fri, 29 May 2009 05:46:36 -0400

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 long.

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

Kit Eaton — Thu, 28 May 2009 06:05:21 -0400

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 online music-sharing coin.

MP3 Players to Get Emotional, Play Mood-Sensitive Tracks

Kit Eaton — Fri, 22 May 2009 06:29:28 -0400

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 music.

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

Kit Eaton — Mon, 18 May 2009 06:12:01 -0400

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 Buy's muscle behind it.

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

Kit Eaton — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 07:45:04 -0400

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 already.

Will Kids and MP3s "Ruin" Music Recording Quality?

Kit Eaton — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 11:05:21 -0400

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 same music.

SanDisk SlotRadio: MP3 Playing The Wrong Way

Kit Eaton — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:48:27 -0500

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 can't delete or move off the special microSD memory card.

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

Kit Eaton — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 13:41:03 -0500

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 library.

Schiller started by pointing out that iTunes is the number one music retailer, the world's largest media library, and has sold over six billion songs in six years to over 75 million iTunes account holders.

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

Kit Eaton — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 08:06:42 -0500

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 gadget as a ubiquitous, fully-integrated, seamless augmentation to modern life has been born, and 2009 is when the transition may become complete.

Let me start with the technology.

RIAA To Stop Suing Individuals For Music Piracy

Kit Eaton — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:47:18 -0500

'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 35,000 actions against individuals in the murky legal history of the RIAA, and it has created an equally murky public opinion of an industry now seen to be bullying, money-grabbing and lagging behind technological developments.

Foxit's eSlick Is The Cheapest E-Book Reader

Kit Eaton — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 07:21:14 -0500

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 Sony's $399 e-book reading machine.

And it's not far off being a third cheaper than the full-price Amazon Kindle at $359.