Search Results for: soft play

Apple Computer Inc. is readying to launch an online service that will cut straight to the core of digital music distribution, winning the praise of some record executives who see it is as a weapon against online piracy. Music executives who have seen Apple’s upcoming service said it is simple to use, offers single songs from a deep catalog and – unlike Kazaa and the other pirate services that have picked up where the now-defunct Napster left off – it pays royalties to the troubled record industry. Apple’s new service will feature songs from all five major record labels, link… Read more »

Whether or not Steve Jobs is interested in owning a record label, he clearly wants to be in the music business. For months, the man best-known in the recording industry for the slogan “Rip, Mix, Burn” has been seeking a new identity: the saviour whose online-music service could represent the future for an industry struggling with the devastating effects of new technology. The pitch has worked: Mr Jobs’s Apple Computer Inc will be launching its own music service in coming weeks, with songs from all five major record labels. The new music service will be integrated with Apple’s iTunes music… Read more »

In a pairing that would alter the architecture of the music business, Apple Computer Inc. is in talks with Vivendi Universal to buy Universal Music Group, the world’s largest record company, for as much as $6 billion, sources said. Such a seemingly unlikely combination would instantly make technology guru Steve Jobs, Apple’s co-founder and chief executive, the most powerful player in the record industry. Universal, which reaps about $6 billion in sales annually from artists such as 50 Cent, Shania Twain, U2 and Luciano Pavarotti, would be controlled by a maverick who revolutionized the computer market and coined the mantra… Read more »

Independent music company FullAudio Corp. on Wednesday launched MusicNow, the latest digital music service to enter the race to woo music fans from the tempting free, song-swapping services inspired by Napster. Boasting an easy-to-use magazine-like format, FullAudio, which has been developing the service for several years as it has obtained licensing from the big five major labels, said that MusicNow is designed around 36 channels. “MusicNow is on the forefront of a dramatic market paradigm shift beyond the labor-intensive ‘search and browse’ database model developed by Napster,” said Scott Kauffman, president and chief executive officer of Chicago-based FullAudio, which is… Read more »

Clad in skimpy tank tops, teenage pop stars Lena and Yulia giggle and clasp hands on a Russian television talk show as their hit music video is played for a studio audience. The camera pans over the audience, lingering on a Russian Orthodox priest who grimaces and crosses himself when the video shows the girls kissing. The pop duo Tatu – Russian slang for “This girl (loves) that girl” – has long been causing a sensation at home. But now that the teenagers are also climbing charts around the world, their scanty schoolgirl uniforms, flirtations with lesbianism and in-your-face sexuality… Read more »

Top executives at the major record companies have finally found an online music service that makes them excited about the digital future, sources said Monday. The new service, developed by Apple Computer, offers Macintosh users many of the same capabilities that are already available from services previously endorsed by the labels. But the Apple offering won over music executives because it makes buying and downloading music as simple and nontechnical as buying a book from Amazon.com, one source said. “This is exactly what the music industry has been waiting for,” said one person familiar with the negotiations between the Cupertino… Read more »

Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc. announced today that five additional major recording artists have agreed to provide music and video content for the upcoming rhythm-action game, Amplitude, developed exclusively for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system. Expanding upon a top-tier music roster covering hip-hop, rap, electronica and rock, the newly signed bands include blink 182, P.O.D., Mekon, Freezepop and Dieselboy. These artists will join other major recording artists on the Amplitude roster that include David Bowie, Garbage, Weezer, Quarashi and Logan 7. Developed by Harmonix Music Systems, Amplitude allows players to become a rhythmical DJ and jam with more than 20… Read more »

Six retail record store chains ? hurting from competition from CD burning, online music and large discount stores ? are teaming to offer consumers digital music downloads in their stores and over the Internet. The stores have formed a joint venture called Echo that will provide technology and allow them to offer individual tracks for downloading to portable devices and computers. The stores are Best Buy, Tower Records, Virgin Entertainment Group, Wherehouse Music, Hastings Entertainment Inc. and Trans World Entertainment Corp., operator of FYE, Strawberries and Coconuts stores. “We’re trying to make digital music work in a mass market way,… Read more »

Technology companies and advocacy groups announced a new lobbying organization Thursday to counter Hollywood in the battle over access to digital music, movies and books. Founding members of the Washington-based Alliance for Digital Progress ? which one Hollywood executive demeaned as “a bit strange” ? include Microsoft Corp., Dell Computer Corp., Motorola Inc. and the Information Technology Association of America. The group wants to fight Hollywood efforts to require anti-copying technology in digital entertainment devices. Technology advocates say embedding such technology in computers and software would crimp product innovation ? and trample consumers’ rights. “Hollywood leaders… would have organized the… Read more »

In its harshest indictment yet of Internet piracy, a top official of the music industry said Sunday Europe’s 600,000 music professionals risk losing their jobs unless the industry fights back. “They are all potential victims of online music piracy,” Jay Berman, the CEO of the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) told music executives in his annual address at the Midem music conference in southern France. “In truth, online music piracy is not about free music. The music creators and rights holders, denied the right to choose how their music is used and enjoyed, are in fact paying the… Read more »