The digital music and video industries have been under increasingly scrutiny in recent weeks because of the US government’s SOPA anti-piracy legislation.  Now the UK’s British Phonographic Industry (BPI) have released figures that prove piracy is to blame for all their woes… or does it? The figures released today and reported by the BBC show [...]

If you are a Ubuntu fan, you know the change is coming. As of Ubuntu 11.04, the default media player will migrate from Rhythmbox to Banshee. When I first read this announcement, I have to admit I was a bit disappointed. I was a fan of last.fm and knew, in order to stream last.fm in Banshee [...]

It’s been on ongoing story and has produced the first ruling on file-sharing in the UK where Judge Birss said back in December 2010, ”The term used by those sections of the Act is ‘authorising’ and the difference may be very important if the allegation is about unauthorised use of an Internet router by third parties”.  Now the [...]

A study by anti-fraud company MarkMonitor has monitored 43 file-sharing websites and found that between them they had 53 billion visits in the last year, according to a report by the BBC. The top three websites were RapidShare.com, Megavideo.com and Megaupload.com which between them generated more than 21 billion visits. The study was commissioned by [...]

If you are a fan of Pandora Music and a user of Linux you know that Linux is a bit behind in the app space for this service. There are only a few possible clients and, until now, those clients simply were not options. The official Pandora client, due to flash issues, could bring your [...]

British law firm ACS Law has already come under fire this year after hackers broke into their computer system and stole copies of documentation of letters and demands for recompense to people who had been accused by them of illegal file-sharing. Now the firm has been dealt a further blow with a judge rejecting their [...]

The UKs leading Internet service providers, BT and TalkTalk are set to seek a judicial review of the controversial Digital Economy Act, as reported by the BBC.  The two ISPs are reported to want the UK’s High Court to clarify the legality of the act prior to it coming into force. The act was one [...]

If you have been playing around much with the Alpha releases of Ubuntu Lucid Lynx you may have noticed something special that was announced some time ago is actually coming to fruition.  Announced soon after the release of 9.10, the Ubuntu Music Store is a new addition to the Ubuntu Linux desktop and promises to [...]

I have a number of large music directories on numerous drives. The files in these directories have been added (over the years) from various sources. The biggest problem with my collections is the tags on the files aren’t all correct. Because of this, some music players won’t list the information for the file which means [...]

For most lovers of music on the go, the default seems to be the combination of iTunes and iP* (where * is either hone or od). This is great for Apple and Windows users. But where do Linux users get their new music? Oh sure you can purchase the CD, rip it, and copy it [...]

Downloading music is illegal, right? That’s what the Music Industry is telling us all the time. They sue people who download music and do everything in their might to keep up the image that music downloading is a major crime.This is however apparently not true in China where Google struck a deal with major players [...]

Digital music has come a long way. From just one or two portals, the present scenario has an innumerable catalog of stores offering music completely legally and at a reasonable price. Digital music is not without its pitfalls though, most notably DRM. Still, most online stores now offer DRM-free music, which is great news. One [...]

Ever so often, the people in charge try to get tough with those who break the law. Sometimes, the ‘bad guys’ get away but more often than not, they get caught. And that’s exactly what happened to Torrentvalley.com yesterday. Torrentvalley is different from other BitTorrent services in that it’s not a file tracker like Pirate [...]

Currently, if you want to purchase music legally, you can use a variety of online music stores from big companies like Microsoft, Apple, Yahoo, etc. The modus operandi of these sites is pretty much the same. You can either buy an individual song or pay for the entire album. Now imagine this scenario: what if [...]

Whenever I want to discover some new music these days I got to 1 of 3 places; Amazon, Wikipedia and Last.FM, in that order. Amazon has got perhaps the most useful database of user reviews on the web. Eg, most of them are actually half-coherent. Amazon also shows associated artists which are useful because once [...]

It can be hard at times to follow musicians if you are a fan of them: Where are they right now, when is their next live concert, when does their next CD come out, will they come to my town? Most people get their music business news from music magazines, band websites and music portals [...]

The internet has made it very easy to get access to music. You can stop by the innumerable music blogs, online radio stations, etc. for your daily fix. Plus, you can transfer music to your mp3 player or hard drive so that you can take your music with you. The internet has also raised an [...]

The RIAA, that is the Recording Industry Association of America, has claimed another victim in its fight against any form of music exchange that users and providers do not pay for. It hit Muxtape this time, a website that was reviewed not long ago here at Ghacks. Muxtape provided a great way to upload mp3 [...]

Music is one of the hot topics on the Internet. The battle between filesharers, privacy advocates and representatives of the Music Industry is still waging. What most users do not realize that there are lots of ways to increase the music collection free and legally. Before you go ahead and make use of the methods [...]

Last week, Martin posted about how Yahoo was planning to shut down its Yahoo! Music store on 30th September, 2008. The store would take its DRM servers offline on this date, in effect stranding all those people who had paid money for DRM-labeled music. Apparently, Yahoo have realized the foolishness of their decision and the [...]

I just send a letter to your ISP telling them that you are sharing files. I did not have to prove my claims because I’m in high standing. Your Internet Service Provider is now sending a DCMA takedown notice / a warning letter / a three-strikes-and-you-are-out letter to the owner of the IP that has [...]

After the fiasco that Microsoft experienced when they made the announcements that they would turn off the MSN Music servers one would have thought that other companies would not follow that lead and would have learned a lesson from it. Microsoft backpedaled quickly after it became apparent that the public was not that pleased with [...]

With the recent announcement that Britain’s largest cable Internet Service Provider Virgin Media will start warning its customers, or better the part they suspect to download files without having the proper rights to do so, that they will face prosecution if they do not stop the behavior. Virgin Media calls it educating their customers during [...]

Paramount apparently decided that it would be a great idea to deter and track piracy by silencing random parts of the movie Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. This seems to be a sort of watermarking technique to be able to identify the cinema the copy of the movie was made.. if [...]

Can you please hand over all electronic devices that you carry with you, Sir ? I need to check them thoroughly for copyright infringing material, terrorist activity and pornography. Is that a video of you and your wife, wow that looks hot. Is that the new song of Madonna ? Do you have a receipt [...]

I don’t own an iPod or any other music player so this post is not really something I’ve tried out yet. First it was Amazon, then iTunes, and now Napster. What am I referring to? DRM-free music of course. Everyone who’s ever experienced music with DRM knows just how frustrating things can get. You buy [...]

Mobile phone giant Nokia is looking for a foothold into the music distribution business. To that end, Nokia has introduced an online music service called the Nokia Music Store in Australia. Their aim is to provide a service that will take on Apple’s iTunes and win. There’s nothing wrong in wanting to beat iTunes. However, [...]

Those users who made purchases in online stores that were using DRM to “protect” the files from being copied and traded are slowly beginning to reap what they sowed. I never bought music or other files that were protected by DRM. The protection is not that hard to crack anyway if someone really wanted to [...]

There is undoubtedly a trend of releasing music albums for free / for donations / for what individuals are willing to pay on the Internet. The last months were full of stories about bands like Radiohead or Nine Inch Nails who managed to create lots of publicity by using these new distribution methods that would [...]

I loveYouTube, but you have to face it, specific genre sites can be much better. If you want music Imeem may be much better, if you want comedy then go to specific comedy sites like Ebaumsworld and such. Similarly, if you want jazz, go to a genre site like My Jazz Network. My Jazz Network [...]

In a move that can only be described as desperate the RIAA, or better Cary Sherman, its President, suggested at the State of the Net Conference to bundle filters that check for copyrighted data with programs that would benefit the user such as antivirus applications to counter the problem with encryption that they are currently facing. He did not stop there though and suggested that the ISP would monitor, ehm, filter, the user as well through the likes of the modem for instance.

I always asked myself what the main reason for DRM – digital rights media – really is. It – maybe – can be used to stop legit buyers from giving a song to their friends or relatives but it surely does not step the spreading of music at all. Music pirates do get the music before any shop has them in their inventory which in turn means that everyone with a little bit of knowledge about P2P services can get their hands on the music.

Seeqpod is a mp3 search engine. You type in a song name, artist or any other information you got and Seeqpod displays results found on other Internet sites. Much like Google does but only for music and with the difference that a player is available on the result page that can play videos and music found that way.

Last.fm is not offering playback of full length music tracks and entire albums on their online music community website for users from the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany with other countries to follow soon thereafter. Songs can be played for a maximum of three times before information about a soon to be coming subscription service pops up. Details about the subscription service which will will have options for unlimited playbacks are scarce at this point, it is only sure that it will cost more than the current subscription price of $2.50 monthly.

Lala used to be a CD exchange site until pretty recently. Since its launch, more than 500,000 CDs have been traded on the site. Now, the site has reinvented itself and has turned into a music store. Songs bought on Lala can be played on your iPod which makes Lala pretty unique as of now. [...]

Yogi send me an interesting article published at the Guardian Online written by Simon Napier-Bell who has been a part of the Music Industry for over forty years. In it he takes a look back at the beginning of his career, how the Music Industry evolved in the wrong direction to finally experience today’s meltdown.

I’m a big fan of online radio. There are lots of wonderful radio stations out there to cater to a variety of tastes and you can listen to your favorite music 24/7. Another massive bonus is that it’s all free. With the advent of online radio, a whole host of recording software has emerged too. [...]

The album Ever Changing Times by Steve Lukather got a 2.2 out of 10 over at Komodo Rock which is one of the lowest scores ever. The reason why the album got that bad rating ? No, it’s not the music, the lyrics, the artwork. It’s a new form of protection to avoid leaks of the album to the Internet.

I could not sleep well yesterday evening because I was thinking about the Music Industry which was directly related to the article I wrote on that day. I was to tired to pen it down but I would like to try and recap my thoughts. We all know that album sales are down and that it will most likely stay that way. I thought about the reasons for this and came up with the following.

So, what do we make of this ? The rumor is that Apple is launching a record label together with Jay-Z according to BSG who say they have confirmed it from a high-up person attached to Jay-Z. We do not have many details as of yet but we can make some assumptions. The deal makes perfectly sense if you consider that Apple already has a very popular distribution model in place which would profit the most from artists that sign under the new label.

Ars Technica are reporting that CD sales this Christmas, that is the period between Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, are down 20% compared to last year which means that 21.4 million CDs have been sold less than the previous year. This looks serious but is it ? We have to take a look at overall earnings to make a fair judgment.

Well, not really. They do sue Usenet.com though because of their service that “sells access to content that includes millions of unauthorized music files” which is exactly what Internet Providers are doing. They give you access to the Internet and it is up to you, the user, what he is doing there.

Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, Oasis, Jamiroquai and even Madonna have something in common. They all decided to turn their backs on the Music Industry and either market their albums directly or – in the case of Madonna – use a company that is not related to the Music Industry.

That is at least what Jennifer Pariser, the head of litigation for Sony BMG, said when questioned in court about her music piracy understanding. I think that this is one of the main reasons why the Music Industry is doing so badly. Their view collides with the demand of the consumers.

Server operators who happen to have songs on their servers that are distributed illegally will have to pay the fine of 20000 Euro ($28000) per song: at least in Germany according to the district court in Hamburg. Private downloaders get it much cheaper though. They only have to pay 6000 Euro for the first song, 3000 for the second, 1500 for the third and 600 for all remaining ones. A cheap bargain don’t you think ?

I would have never thought that a company like Sony would not learn from its mistakes especially after the first rootkit debacle which was a major public relations fiasco for Sony. The first rootkit was placed on several audio CDs that were distributed in 2005 and led to a $6 million settle case in the United States. While the rootkit was intended to make it impossible (albeit ineffectively) to copy music from the CDs it was effectively used by producers of malware, trojans and spyware to hide their code from antivirus software.

We had two reports last week that gave us the reason why DRM and WGA will fail in the long run. The first story was about Google Video who sold videos with DRM and closed down their service leaving everyone who purchased those videos standing in the rain because it will not be possible to play those videos after Google Video shuts down.

I just read an interesting article at Arstechnica by Ken Fisher who was commenting on the termination of Google’s commercial Video service. The termination takes effect in just two days which would not be a big problem if the users who bought or rented videos from the service would still be able to play their purchased videos after that date.

Many users were quite happy when Apple announced that they would be selling drm free music at their iTunes online store. It would finally be possible to make one purchase and be able to play the music in your car, mp3 player, computer and other devices. Prices for the drm free music were set higher than for music with drm which did not get the bad feedback that I expected it to get.

I’m always a bit worried when a respected news magazine tries to report about topics like Piracy for instance. Most of the time the articles are a bunch of assumptions taken from official biased sources like the RIAA to come to the conclusion how badly piracy affects businesses. Now it is Forbes trying to tell us why web pirates can’t be touched and it begins – who would have thought about that – with The Pirate Bay. They come to the conclusion that The Pirate Bay is shielded by Sweden’s lax copyright laws and international immunity. I personally think that it is a matter of perspective. The laws might be lax from the standpoint of an American company but tight for a Swedish one.