[music] Forum Topics

Radiohead are a band which does not need to prove anything to anyone. Their seminal album 'OK Computer' is consistently voted one of the greatest recordings of all time, be it the critics or mere mortal music fans putting the crosses in the boxes. Which is perhaps why the latest …

I know that Apple has been expending a lot of hot air telling anyone who will listen that the new iTunes pricing regime is a good thing for consumers. I know that it reckons that for every song which is ramped up to the new 99p (here in the UK) …

Music sharing with Facebook friends just became easier, and if that isn't enough to distract you, how about a game of Internet pinball? Two manufacturers are banking that these innovations will keep Facebook users entertained 24/7. Facebook users that subscribe to [URL="http://www.thumbplay.com/"]Thumbplay Music's desktop app[/URL] can combine it with iTunes …

All the news and social media feeds seem to have overdosed on one story this week: will The Beatles be on iTunes after the big Apple 'Rock and Roll' event today? News at eleven: I don't give a stuff, and here's my top ten reasons why. [LIST=1] [*]Most people would …

[ATTACH=RIGHT]21680[/ATTACH]The British website for pop sensation Lady Gaga has been hacked, it's official. The website was targeted by the US SwagSec hacking group it would appear, a group which has a track record (if you'll excuse the pun) of hacking the official websites of pop stars having already hit Justin …

Teen pop sensation Justin Bieber has already conquered Twitter, and now it would appear he has become the undisputed King of YouTube after knocking Lady Gaga off of the 'most viewed video ever' spot. According to a posting on Twitter by YouTube, Bieber first overtook Lady Gaga on Thursday night …

Justin Bieber is, so my 10 year old daughter informs me, a pop sensation. Actually, her exact words when I asked just who the heck this Bieber bloke who keeps topping the Twitter trending chart is were: Oh My God, Justin Bieber, he's gorgeous. A little more journalistic investigation turned …

[ATTACH=LEFT]16727[/ATTACH]With the release of[I]Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock[/I] on September 28th, Acitivision has a tall order when it comes to winning back fans of the once coveted trail blazing rhythm guitar phenomenon. The franchise has been stagnant as of late, a redundant vessel too busy with its hands on all …

Nobody should have any reason to wish the fledgeling [URL="http://www.hmvdigital.com"]HMVDigital[/URL] music store, launching today, anything but the best of luck (unless you're an Apple shareholder). A bad business is in nobody's interests and a competitor to an obvious leader is a good thing. On the surface many of the omens …

According to a recent survey of Apple iTunes, iPod, iPhone and iPod Touch users, conducted by The NPD Group, more than a quarter of consumers participating had a strong interest in a free cloud-based music option. Many were willing to pay a subscription fee to access their own music libraries …

If piracy and illegal downloaders really are killing the music industry, how come more singles have been sold this year than ever before and people who file-share spend more money on legal releases than those who do not file-share? I have to admit, it's not been a good week to …

It has been a long time coming, but Apple has finally announced that iTunes is going DRM-free. As in, all songs on the iTunes site will ditch DRM. That's everything from Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, Warner Music Group and EMI along with thousands of indie labels. All with their …

Spotify is fast become the de facto way of listening to music online for millions of in the know users. Rather than buy a copy of a track which is downloaded to a player such as an iPod, Spotify users either pay a monthly fee (for a no advert service) …

What might kill illegal downloading do you think? The long ([URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story220692.html"]and mostly ineffective[/URL]) arm of the law perhaps, or maybe a sudden (and unlikely) [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story235178.html"]feeling of overwhelming love[/URL] for the poor music and movie industry? According to the [URL="http://www.globalwebindex.net"]Global Web Index[/URL] the answer could be simple and obvious: why bother …

A couple of months ago DaniWeb reported how British singer Lily Allen [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/news/story226113.html"]turned the music copyright debate into a copywrong farce[/URL] with some ill conceived blogging. Things went quiet soon after the media had swarmed all over Allen and her odd arguments, not least as she [URL="http://torrentfreak.com/lily-allen-deletes-pro-copyright-blog-and-ends-career-090924/"]closed down her blog[/URL] …

Jon Lech Johansen is perhaps best known as DVD Jon, the chap who cracked DVD movie encryption at the tender age of just 15. He may soon have to adopt a new nickname, how about iTunes Jon, as he releases software that takes iTunes out of the iPod music equation. …

Sky, better known for news and sport television broadcasting, has today announced that it is entering the online music business with an ad-free streaming download service. All of the four million songs accessible by users of the service will be available by way of unlimited online streaming as well as …

When singer Lily Allen posted a passionate plea for people to stop illegally sharing music files, and started a dedicated blog where fellow pop stars could voice their concerns over the 'theft' of their work, you might have been forgiven for thinking it would just turn into the usual bunch …

Apple introduced a new feature today that lets you buy an album from iTunes complete with extra material like bonus recordings, video footage, lyrics and more. This is the kind of package I was suggesting the record companies need to bring to CDs a couple of weeks ago in my …

Years ago [URL="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_medium_is_the_message"]Marshall McLuhan[/URL] uttered the famous phrase, "The medium is the message." He said this long before the World Wide Web. If he were alive today, he might have said something else: "He who controls the distribution method, controls the money." When you look at the Web's influence on …

Continuing on its charm offensive, the music industry is apparently not satisfied with the $675,000 fine for sharing 30 songs imposed on Joel Tenenbaum or the $1.92 million Jammie Thomas-Rasset was hit with for illegally downloading 24 tunes. Now it is going after the lyrics pirates. The what? Well, exactly. …

I'm not a great fan of the phrase 'total coincidence' and nor am I a fan of The Rt Hon Lord Mandelson, First Secretary of State, Secretary of State for Business, Innovation & Skills and Lord President of the Council to be formal. While I'm on the small matter of …

Today Dynamite Records, a fixture in Northampton, MA for more than 27 years shut its doors. Probably doesn't matter to most of my readers, but consider this news against the backdrop of [URL="http://www.npd.com/press/releases/press_090818.html"]figures released this week by the NPD Group[/URL] indicating that iTunes controls 25 percent of all US music …

This is just odd, for too many reasons. [URL="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8177285.stm"]A file sharer has been fined $675,000 for downloading illegal music[/URL]. He is a student. People have offered him money because they think it's an unreasonable amount to pay. He has turned them down. Why do I think this is odd? Well, …

Seems like a silly question, right? But $80,000 per track is exactly how much Jammie Thomas-Rasset, a single mother from Minneapolis, has been charged. Well, I say charged but actually she was fined this amount for each of 24 songs downloaded via a file-sharing site at the end of a …

File under strange but true, it would appear that 24 year old musician Gary Baker, better known as singer and songwriter Gary Go, is to play Wembley Stadium with his iPhone as musical accompaniment. As the supporting act on the Take That tour, Gary Go will be on stage on …

Just as the excitement started to hot up, first with the news that the controversial and increasingly popular legal free streaming music service Spotify was to open up with the release of a third party developer API, and then with the actual announcement of the availability of [URL="http://developer.spotify.com/en/libspotify/overview/"]Libspotify[/URL] itself, so …

The Pirate Bay is, without doubt, a huge thorn in the side of the music and movies business. As the [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry3479.html"]worlds largest bittorrent tracker[/URL] with more than 3 million users and well over 20 million peers it constantly flips the bird at The Powers That Be. Even the threat of …

Earlier this week Apple was adamant that it would close the iTunes Store if the Copyright Royalty Board raised the royalties paid to music publishers, rather than be forced into either accepting smaller margins on the music downloads it sells or be forced into hiking prices. The way these things …

Researchers tell us that, in the UK market, there were some 1.5 billion 'legal' music downloads last year. That's covering all bases, different devices and download services, but discounting the illegal file sharing trade. The Goddess alone knows how big the figure would be if you factored in dodgy P2P …