TrackDropper For Android - Putting The Booty Back Into Piracy

Think of how exciting it must have been back in the swash buckling days of yore when pirates sought riches and buried their treasure in chests, with maps marked with X's. arrrgh!

Today pirates are much less scary, mostly geeks who choose to acquire their audio files in less than acceptable ways, at least according to the real pirates who run the music industry. If the thrill of a potential lawsuit is not enough for ye thrill seekers there is a new way of looting your music. Trackdropper is an Android app that lets users "drop" songs in physical locations. Then, other users of the application can go on a treasure hunt to find and play the dropped songs. The goal is to make music piracy much more like old-fashioned nautical piracy. Here's how it works, courtesy of one of it's coders Yves Raimond:

TrackDropper from Yves Raimond on Vimeo.

Source: cnet

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Google Music Search Roll Out - Music Onebox

Finding your favorite tune via Google has just become a whole lot easier with the un-boxing of Music Onebox. Entering the name of a song, an album name, or bands name into a Google search box will now yield results from Lala and MySpace Music. Clicking on either of these links will in most cases, present a pop-up window that enables you to play the song once in it's entirety, for free, and also presents a link to buy the song.

“The intention is not to turn the partners on Google into a free streaming music service. This is about providing a richer experience for users looking for a particular song,” said R.J. Pittman, Google’s director of product management. Music searches often account for two of the top ten searches conducted via Google, within the US.

Source: Bits Blog

Impressive Vodafone Commercial - Wows Geeks

Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture was a master piece but Vodafone has taken it to a whole new level that may just give us geeks a little appreciation for classical music, or at least the technology that went into producing this version!







Kudos to Engadget for this find.

France To Track And Punish Illegal Downloaders

French law makers have passed a lower house bill on Tuesday that would give the government of France the right to cut off the Internet access of repeat offenders in the illegal downloading battle. "Warnings to culprits would begin with two e-mails followed by a certified letter. If the piracy continues within the following year, access can be cut from two months to a year — while the user keeps paying for the service." according to this article published in the Globe and Mail. The law has its challengers however as some view it in conflict with a measure passed by the European Union a week ago, that would prohibit such measures. At the heart of the controversy is the illegal downloading of music and movies.

YouTube - Calling All Musicians

If you've ever aspired to play your music in front of a large audience on a world stage, then YouTube is looking for you. Yesterday YouTube put the call out for musicians to join the YouTube Symphony Orchestra. According to the Official Google Blog "This is a chance to perform alongside world-renowned conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, learn from composer Tan Dun and many members of the London Symphony Orchestra, and consult with pianist Lang Lang." Video entries will be combined into a collaborative virtual performance, and people around the world will choose their favorites to perform at Carnegie Hall in April 2009.

Check out the YouTube Symphony Channel.

U2's Bono Responsible For Leaked Music

In an interesting twist of fate, Bono is said to be responsible for the recent unauthorized release of 4 tracks from U2's upcoming album. According to this article in The Sun, Bono was blasting the tunes at his villa in the South of France when an alert passerby heard and recorded the music. The clips made it to youtube but it seems as though they have since been removed. Interestingly, U2 manager Paul McGuinness has been an outspoken opponent of tech companies like Apple and of some record labels saying "through lack of foresight and planning allowed a range of industries to arise that let people steal music."

CNet's news.com

Radiohead's No Camera Video

Radiohead has produced a new video for their "House of Cards" track from their most recent album release "In Rainbows". The exciting thing about this video is that it was created entirely without a camera using two scanning technologies to capture 3D images utilizing structured light and laser techniques. Check out the Official Google Blog post here and the video plus the making of video here. Also available is the data used under a license that allows remixing.

Radiohead Turns To iTunes

Radiohead, who had balked the establishment and offered it's 7th album In Rainbows digitally on a pay-what-you-will basis, has finally permitted iTunes to sell music from its first six albums, both in whole and on a track-by-track basis. The band's former record label EMI in the past had argued that the band chose to withhold its music from iTunes because they preferred to present whole albums to their fans as opposed to single tracks. Other long time hold outs, Garth Brooks and AC/DC used the same argument and went on to sign exclusive deals with a U.S. cellphone operator to sell full-album downloads. Time will tell which approach is best but the question is, how much revenue has been lost during the holdout? CBC story here.

Nine Inch Nails Says Thank You With Free Record

In a post on the nine inch nails website on Monday, Trent Reznor writes "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me". The most recent offering titled 'the slip' is available for free download here. The record is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license. The site reads "we encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc." While Radio Head may be viewing their web experiment as a one off, it looks like Reznor has embraced the web with yet another digital distribution exercise.

Radio Head Abandons Pay What You Want

When Radiohead offered their most recent album "In Rainbows" to their fans via a pay what you want digital download they set the music industry on it's head. There has been much speculation about the success of the experiment and the move has spawned a number of experiments by other big name acts, Nine Inch Nails for one. While Radiohead declines to comment on the actual success it appears as though it was a one time thing for the band with lead man Thom Yorke telling Reuters "It was a one-off response to a particular situation," While Radiohead may be backing down, expect to see more variations of the move as according to this story on the CBC website "On Monday, British rockers Coldplay announced a single from their new album, Viva La Vida, or Death and All His Friends, was available for one week as a free download. The group's website crashed the next day because of huge demand."

Interesting Talks Between Apple and Big Music Labels

How much extra would you pay for an iPod or an iPhone if it came with unlimited access to music for the life of the device? This is reported to be the nature of talks between Apple and the big music labels, according to the Financial Times. FT.com is reporting that "One executive said the research had shown that consumers would pay a premium of up to $100 for unlimited access to music for the lifetime of the device, or a monthly fee of $7-$8 for a subscription model." It is rumored that Apple is offering something in the neighborhood of $20 per device. The record labels are struggling to remain relevant as bands are opting to go it alone as their agreements run out. The price that they settle on, if a deal is to be made, should be an indicator of just how bad things really are.

Nine Inch Nails In The Coffins Of The Record Labels?

On the heals of an arguably successful "pay what you want" music download campaign by Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails is leveraging BitTorrent sites and releasing songs under a Creative Commons license that permits purchasers to remix the tracks, according to a recent Wired article. The bands latest offering is Ghosts I-IV, contains 36 songs and split into four volumes. The first volume was uploaded to Pirate Bay by band leader Trent Reznor (and/or his representatives) where it can be downloaded for free. The entire 36-song version can be purchased digitally in MP3 format for $5 from Amazon MP3 or the Nine Inch Nails website, NIN.com. The move is possible because the band is no longer tied to a label and it has allowed them to get creative with how they sell and market their music. Besides the $5 downloads NIN are offering other packages such as a now sold out $300 "ultra-deluxe" limited-edition package (2,500 copies) that included four 180-gram records each numbered and signed by Reznor. Just wait until other contracts start to expire, it's probably not a good time to be holding shares in record labels.

Digital Music Sales up 40% Over Last Year

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) has said that digital music sales rose 40 per cent to $2.9-billion (U.S.) over last year but that the increase does not cover the losses suffered by declining CD sales. According to the IFPI illegal downloads outnumber the number of tracks legally purchased by a factor of 20-to-1. This Globe and Mail article points out that revenues from legal downloads was a mere $380-million in 2004. That sounds like a healthy increase to me, and I'm sure that the cost of selling those tracks are much less than the cost of selling CDs! If the music industry had not gouged us all for so long perhaps they'd find a little more sympathy from consumers!

Songwriters Association of Canada proposes P2P solution

The Songwriters Association of Canada is proposing a similar solution to the P2P issue as was imposed when the recordable media tax was introduced many years ago. The proposal would have Canadian ISPs (Internet Service Providers) charge each subscriber $5 a month for the right to legally trade music, the fee would then be distributed amongst the artists and content owners. According to Ars Technica "The proposal also hopes to encompass all forms of not-for-profit sharing under the same legal umbrella, whether sharing is done via P2P, wireless networks, e-mail, CD trading, or exchanging hard drives. The proposal excludes tracks obtained from music services like the iTunes Store and PureTracks, since these tracks are governed by their own licensing and value-added incentives." So basically all Canadian Internet subscribers will pay for the thieving ways of the P2P users! I'm not so sure this will go over too well with consumers, but if it becomes reality expect people to want to get their moneys worth...

Gibson's Robot Guitar!

You don't have to be a musician to appreciate this... it's Gibson's Robot Guitar! While it doesn't play music as I imagined when I heard the name, this guitar tunes itself and it's coming soon to select Gibson dealers. I'm pretty useless when it comes to musical instruments but I'd sure love to demo this guitar. Check it out - with video!

Paul McCartney says Beatles works going digital soon

Billboard.com is quoting Paul McCartney as saying "it's all happening soon. Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go -- there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long. It's down to fine-tuning, but I'm pretty sure it'll be happening next year, 2008." Saying that the delay in bringing the Beatles online is due mostly to contractual details and getting the timing right, McCartney says "You've got to get these things right," Just get it done Paul! The world is waiting...

Apple drops price of DRM-free music

Feeling the pressure of new rival Amazon, Apple has decided to drop the price of it's DRM-free music from $1.29 to $0.99, bringing it's prices in line with the competitors offering. In this Globe and Mail article an Apple spokeswoman is quoted as saying "It's been very popular with our customers and we're now making it available at an even more affordable price,". While they may deny that the move is motivated by competition, it's hard to ignore the fact that the music industry is in flux and with more competition and bands going it alone, it will be interesting to see what happens over the next little while.

More music related lawsuits

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Hollywood insider/gossip website PerezHilton.com is being sued by Britney Spears Label Zomba for leaking 10 tracks from Spears' yet to be released new album. The law suit seeks real and punitive damages as well as court costs, this is a music related lawsuit that most would agree makes some sence, as opposed to the many file sharing suits brought on by the RIAA.

How indie bands make it big online

Wired Magazine's Geekipedia (with a name like that you know I had to post from it!) has a list of Indie bands gone big, with a little help from the Web! It's brief, but it goes to show you that don't need to sign with a big record label to promote your talents, and you are probably a lot better off in the end! hmm, is there a lesson to be learned here for bloggers? ;-)

SpiralFrog taking it's acts on the road

A music downloading service that opened in Canada earlier this year is now hitting the road to offer its music in the U.S. The ad supported service, SpiralFrog, features more than 700,000 tracks mostly from Universal music and independent labels. There is a download manager which is not compatible with iTunes, and users are required to keep their membership current or they are cut off from the service. If a membership is not renewed within 30 days, download privileges are cut off and after 60 days the songs will no longer play. Membership is free and completely supported by ads. CBC Story here. To be honest, I haven't tried the service so I'll have to reserve judgment. The titles seem a little limited but then again so are Amie Street's and I'm liking that service.