Search Results for: system of a down

EMI is teaming up with U.S. new-media company Roxio to become the first major music label to create a legitimate online business for burning music onto compact discs. Consumers will be able to download music from EMI’s catalog online and use Roxio’s decryption software to transfer songs to CD. The pair hope the easy-to-use system will undercut the popularity of burning pirated music. As it typically does in its new-media deals, EMI is taking a small equity stake in Roxio, which is based in Milpitas, Calif. EMI has more than 40 deals in place with new-media companies.

Napster, the former music industry bad-boy, is close to inking a distribution deal with three major record labels that are launching a music subscription service this summer, sources familiar with the matter said Tuesday. An agreement between Napster and the members of MusicNet, which could be announced as soon as Wednesday, would be the biggest step Napster has taken so far toward legitimacy. MusicNet is a venture between record label owners AOL Time Warner Inc., Bertelsmann and EMI Group, as well as Seattle-based RealNetworks, whose software allows users to listen to music and watch video via streaming technology over the… Read more »

RealNetworks is scrambling to stem investor jitters that the online streaming-media giant is about to lose its exclusive agreement to provide streaming media services to users of AOL, the world’s most popular ISP. The company’s stock tumbled nearly 20 percent early last week on speculation that AOL Time Warner is poised to dump Real and provide Microsoft the opportunity to replace RealNetworks’ technology as media player of choice for AOL’s estimated 29 million subscribers. Analysts believe that AOL is unlikely to dump RealNetworks anytime soon, but ongoing talks between AOL and Microsoft over a key co-distribution deal within Microsoft’s new… Read more »

Napster’s CEO remains defiant despite increasing legal pressures from the recording industry and an apparent exodus of users from the system. On the heels of Recording Industry Association of America CEO Hilary Rosen declaring that working with Napster’s style of file-trading (free and unsecured) was a dead issue for the record companies, a research report found that Napster users were beginning to look elsewhere for their music. Napster’s Hank Barry insisted that, despite the new filtering technology, the file-trading company remains the market leader. He cited a report from PC Pitstop, which found that Napster was installed on 40 percent… Read more »

Since the release of their first album in 1972, the year of the Watergate break-in, the Residents have perpetuated a cover-up that would have astonished Richard Nixon. To this day, no one outside their business management knows their names; they like it that way and maybe it keeps them sane. They’ve lost neither their weird edge, nor their rabid cult of sometimes wildly costumed fans, nor their ability to baffle those on the outside. Yet for a band with such gleefully anti-commercial tendencies, their marketing machine has gone into overdrive. East Side Digital is issuing new Residents albums and re-releasing… Read more »

Songbird, the software brainchild of a 20-year-old Internet entrepreneur, was launched on Wednesday with song-swap company Napster firmly in its sights. The technology, billed as the first offered to everyone as an Internet search tool, enables artists and musicians to track down who has done what with their compositions. The software, invented by Utah-based Travis Hill, won the backing of the record industry’s IFPI watchdog and 10 organizations representing artists, songwriters and publishers. Songbird was introduced at IFPI’s London headquarters. “Songbird gives music copyright holders a completely new insight into how Napster is using their music and, if they want… Read more »

KS95-Minneapolis OM/PD Leighton PeckIn an age of radio where “localness” is being de-emphasized, one example of a station stepping up and serving its community, and a stellar example at that, is KS95 (KSTP/FM)-Minneapolis’s Third Annual “KS95 for Kids Radiothon.” Held last month at the Twin Cities’ Mall of America and hosted by KS95 morning duo Van Patrick & Cheryl Kaye, the 84-hour (!) event helped raise an astounding $1.54 million, breaking the national record for a fundraiser of this type. Amazingly enough, the record the Hot A/C broke was their own, set at last year’s Radiothon. What’s even more amazing… Read more »

A federal judge overseeing the case against Napster on Friday essentially threw up her hands and appealed for help in stopping the exchange of copyrighted songs. For the moment, her ruling guarantees Napster users can continue downloading copyright music at will. Major record labels want the online music-swapping service to remove any copyrighted songs from its Internet site, a position U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel has strongly endorsed in a series of rulings. But removing the songs has proved exceptionally difficult, since Napster users constantly make them reappear under different file names. Napster has said it cannot keep up… Read more »

If you’ve noticed that it’s getting increasingly hard to find just about anything on Napster lately, the file-sharing service has an explanation: it’s called “overblocking.” Napster has been incrementally improving its filtering process since March, when a judge ordered it to remove copyrighted songs cited by labels, artists and publishers. But the service’s most recent improvements seem to be blocking large chunks of the English language, taking down indie-label music, concert recordings and other material that no one has asked to be removed. In a statement posted Thursday on Napster’s Web site, the company blamed the problem on its efforts… Read more »

The American ear has been both excited and soothed, thanks to the crystal clear sound of CDs and digital music downloaded from the Web. So that makes the hiss, crackle and static of the AM and FM radio even less appealing, and more frightening for those who make a living in radio. Facing the reality that consumers are demanding better quality audio, broadcasters gathered here at a convention are looking to retool by moving from analog to digital. The result of this, say industry leaders attending the National Association of Broadcasters meeting, will be FM radio in CD-quality and AM… Read more »