Search Results for: Limewire

The U.S. music industry is becoming more open-minded about working with online music stores from the tiniest start-up to Amazon.com, hoping to boost digital music sales and erode the dominance of Apple Inc’s iTunes. U.S. music companies, once paranoid about the wide-scale piracy enabled by Web-based companies like Napster and KaZaa, are now embracing new business models such as giving away free song downloads. Their goal is: to increase digital revenue as CD sales drop more sharply than anticipated; and to create alternatives to iTunes to boost their negotiating power against Apple when licensing contracts are renewed. “Any viable music… Read more »

Media industry executives and analysts have expressed surprise and alarm at last week’s decision by EMI, the record label, to start selling music videos without the protection of anti-piracy software. The decision was a little-noticed part of the company’s ground-breaking deal with Apple that made all of EMI’s catalogue available on iTunes in a format that can be copied and played on any digital device without restriction. That deal, announced with fanfare by EMI chief executive Eric Nicoli and Apple founder Steve Jobs, was hailed as ushering in a new digital music era. EMI is expected to begin announcing deals… Read more »

JUST days after the European launch of Apple Computers’ online music store, a chorus of customers are voicing their complaints. The lack of songs from artists on independent record labels – which account for a quarter of the UK market – has left iTunes looking like a poorly-stocked American import store, lacking local talent such as Travis and Franz Ferdinand. “Most Scottish acts are on independent labels,” says Alison Wenham, chairman and chief executive of the Association of Independent Music (AIM), which represents the majority of the UK’s indie labels. “Celtic acts typically start off very strong in their home… Read more »

Berklee College of Music, the world’s largest independent music college and the premier institution for the study of contemporary music announce the launch of Berklee Shares. This groundbreaking new program provides free music lessons and encourages musicians to share and distribute these music lessons online. The Berklee Shares lessons are available at no charge and are made up of a growing catalog of MP3s, QuickTime movies and PDF files derived from curriculum developed at the college by its world-renowned faculty. The lessons are available today for free download on http://www.berkleeshares.com/ affiliate partner sites and peer-to-peer networks including Limewire and Kazaa.… Read more »

File traders, Madonna has a question for you: “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” That’s the message you’re likely to get if you try to download songs from the singer’s upcoming American Life, due April 22, on peer-to-peer networks such as Limewire or KaZaA. The spoofed file – a planted fake meant to thwart illegal downloading – recently began flooding P2P networks. Madonna’s spokesperson could not be reached for comment. Other spoofed files containing Madonna’s salty tirade appeared on KaZaA in versions of the new songs “Nobody Knows Me” and “X-Static Process.” If you don’t get the foul-mouthed… Read more »

Some popular online services are using a new kind of software to divert sales commissions that would otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites like Amazon and eToys. Critics call the software parasite-ware and stealware. But the sites that use the software, which is made by nearly 20 companies and used by dozens, say that it is perfectly legal, because their users agree to the diversion. The amounts involved are estimated by those in the industry to have mounted into the hundreds of thousands of dollars and are likely to continue to grow – in part because… Read more »

If you’ve tried to download a song using Morpheus lately, you probably know that the most popular file-swapping software doesn’t work. Although an operable preview of a new version was made available Saturday, the shuttering of Morpheus on February 26 shattered the commonly held belief that file sharing without the use of a central server couldn’t be stopped. Software like Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster was thought to be shielded from the kind of plug-pulling that brought down Napster in July. Unlike Napster – which cataloged its available files on a central server that, if disabled, rendered the program impotent –… Read more »

Striking another blow in its fight against unauthorized music downloads, the record industry on Tuesday sued Morpheus, Kazaa and Grokster, three of the services music fans have used to trade files over the Web since the shutdown of Napster. “We cannot sit idly by while these services continue to operate illegally, especially at a time when new legitimate services are being launched,” Recording Industry Association of America president and CEO Hilary Rosen said in a statement. Each of the five major record companies is backing either MusicNet or Pressplay, two services that are promising to offer subscription downloading services by… Read more »

Napster’s legally challenged song-swap service went dark last week and sentiment among many former users grew even darker. Napster suspended file-sharing July 2 for a self-imposed shutdown as it battled technical glitches related to its latest upgrade, which is intended to help it comply with a court order barring it from offering copyrighted material on its service. No time for a resumption had yet been given as of Sunday. Many habitual music downloaders seemed to agree that Napster’s latest technical woes were the nail in the coffin of the once phenomenally popular service. “Napster was dead six months ago. They… Read more »

Napster’s still down, and there’s no telling when it’ll be back up again. As the file-sharing service headed for the fifth day of its longest service outage ever on Thursday (July 5), the company couldn’t say when users would be able to start swapping songs again. Since early Monday morning, Napster has blocked all file transfers, blaming problems in assembling the database needed for its new filters, which use acoustic fingerprinting technology. The new filters should allow Napster to block files based on musical content instead of simply relying on user-provided filenames. “Napster’s goal is to start file transfers again… Read more »