Search Results for: sting

The Zune, Microsoft’s portable music player that attempted to wrestle away some of Apple’s digital music dominance, may be ready to “throw in the towel.” The Financial Times spoke to Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer, who said the company might discontinue the device after it failed to achieve a fraction of the popularity the iPod has attained. Instead, Bill Gates and co. will focus on developing a “general purpose” device, kind of like an iPhone or that Blackberry we see so many commercials for. The Zune arrived with high hopes in November 2006, boasting Wi-Fi capability and FM radio –… Read more »

After years of watching music fans flood online social networks to interact with their favorite recording artists, the music industry is starting to get serious about adding community features to its own websites. Hoping to become a big player in that effort is networking giant Cisco, which during the Consumer Electronics Show January 8-11 in Las Vegas introduced its Eos platform — a set of hosted online tools designed to enable media and entertainment companies to build social networking functions into websites. For record labels that means adding fan community services to artist sites. Warner Music Group (WMG) is the… Read more »

Apple® today announced several changes to the iTunes® Store. Beginning today, all four major music labels—Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI, along with thousands of independent labels, are now offering their music in iTunes Plus, Apple’s DRM-free format with higher-quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings. iTunes customers can also choose to download their favorite songs from the world’s largest music catalog directly onto their iPhoneâ„¢ 3G over their 3G network just as they do with Wi-Fi today, for the same price as downloading to their computer. And beginning… Read more »

Smith who will become the eleventh, and youngest, incarnation of the Time Lord was unveiled during a special episode of Doctor Who Confidential on BBC One. Steven Moffat, the producer of the forthcoming fifth series of the sci-fi hit said Smith was perfect casting because he was someone who was old and young at the same time. The announcement, which was heavily trailed by the BBC in the run up to the broadcast, ends months of speculation sparked by Tennant’s announcement in October that he will step down as the Doctor. Of his casting, Smith said: “I’m flabbergasted. I haven’t… Read more »

The Warped Tour, the annual traveling festival that targets the Vans-wearing, emo-loving youth of America, has recently announced the lineup  for their 2009 caravan. As usual (and because the event is celebrating its 15th anniversary), the lineup combines older acts like NOFX, Less Than Jake and Bad Religion with newer artists like 3OH!3 and Black Tide. Other notables on the bill include the hard-rocking Gallows, the Ataris, Thrice, Underoath, Bayside and a bunch of other bands that are currently blasting on Hot Topic stereos. At first glance, the bill lacks the big names of past fests, the Paramores and Gym… Read more »

LOS ANGELES — The group representing the U.S. recording industry said Friday it has abandoned its policy of suing people for sharing songs protected by copyright and will work with Internet service providers to cut abusers’ access if they ignore repeated warnings. The move ends a controversial program that saw the Recording Industry Association of America sue about 35,000 people since 2003 for swapping songs online. Because of high legal costs for defenders, virtually all of those hit with lawsuits settled, on average for around $3,500. The association’s legal costs, in the meantime, exceeded the settlement money it brought in.… Read more »

Deleted Scenes admit to being meticulous about their multi-layered music, and the group’s debut CD, “Birdseed Shirt,” took about a year to record and mix. “We’re a very slow-working band,” said singer-guitarist Dan Scheuerman. “The mixing process was long and exhaustive and exhausting; my brain was mush by the end of it. [Recording engineer L Skell] is the most detail-oriented, verging-on-obsessive person I’ve ever met.” But his obsessiveness gives “Birdseed Shirt” (What Delicate Recordings) a haunting sonic depth, with a sound that is big but not cavernous. The band’s patience and attention to detail paid off, too: “Birdseed Shirt” is… Read more »

The record label co-founded by Bright Eye’s Coner Oberst, Team Love, is giving away its catalog along with new material on a rotating basis via a newly launched Team Love Library. Oberst and company’s playful concept has planted a field of viral marketing potential, but they forgot the fertilzer to help it grow. “When Team Love started we had the simple and possibly self-defeating notion that posting all our albums on the website as free downloads would be a good detour around the wreckage of the music industry…”   reads a post on the Library’s site. “Five years later and… Read more »

The industry gets upset when anyone calls this a “tax” so I’ll use the “voluntary license” term, even though tax is much more accurate. A true voluntary license wouldn’t require everyone having a certain provider to opt-in, but that’s exactly what this plan would require. In fact, as the slides indicate, eventually it would basically require all ISPs to “opt-in” forcing all of their members to “opt-in.” Suddenly, everyone has to pay. That’s not a voluntary license. It’s a tax. However, even if we step back and pretend it’s really a voluntary license, and even if we grant the premise… Read more »

You’ve played the iPhone app. Now get the soundtrack. EMI Music has become the first major label to line up multiple artists for an edition of Tapulous’ popular iPhone game application Tap Tap Revenge. The new version of the rhythm game, called Tap Tap Dance, features songs by five EMI acts — Moby the Chemical Brothers Digitalism Daft Punk and Basement Jaxx — as well as independent acts Justice, Junkie XL Soul Magic Orchestra and Morgan Page Tapulous will release all 10 tracks included in the game by the end of the year as a digital soundtrack that will be… Read more »