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Friday, 18 February 2005 |
A
new way to fund radio broadcasting - MP3 downloads
Wired - USA
The first step has seen MotorFM, launched Feb. 1, abandon on-air
commercials in favor of generating revenue from MP3 downloads and targeted
sponsoring of its programming. The next step will be streaming audio directly to
3G cell phones and letting listeners pay for downloads by SMS text message.
MotorFM grew out of the Motor record label, which introduced Germany to Eminem,
and introduced the world to the Teutonic heavy-metal mongers Rammstein.
Focusing on hip alternative rock and electronic music, the station was founded
by three former music executives who profess a real love and knowledge of music:
Tim Renner and Markus Kuehn both worked in senior positions at Universal Music,
and Mona Rübenstein founded MTV Germany.Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Friday, 18 February 2005 |
"We
Don't Have Any Limitations"
Techtree.com - India
Any mention of a competing brand makes him hot under the collar.
That's Rajshekhar Bhatt, sales and marketing manager, Creative Labs. Creative
won the User's Choice in sound cards, in both high-end and low-end speakers, and
Editor's Choice Performance awards in sound cards and in low-end speakers - but
no awards for Value.
Techtree: Why is it that though Creative scores high on the user's choice list,
brands like Altec Lansing or Artis end up being purchased? Has it to do with
those brands offering higher value at a particular price point?
Bhatt: Take a two-hour round in Lamington Road; you can't say then that Creative
is not a serious player in MP3 or in speakers. It won't make a difference if you
don't have a full understanding of the speaker market or if you have been
influenced by anyone who has not done his or her homework.Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Thursday, 17 February 2005 |
Subscription Music's Curious Silence
Technology Review
For Napster, these may be the best of times
and the worst of times. The company finally unveiled Napster To Go, which allows
subscribers to its streaming music service to put music on select portable
digital music players. But not long after the service was introduced, Napster
fell victim to a workaround that may threaten the company's new subscription
business model.
Napster now offers two music plans: Users can pay.99 cents to download a song,
or for $9.95 per month, they can get streaming access to over 1,000,000 songs.
The workaround requires the Winamp player, changing its user setting, signing up
for Napster's free 14-day trial period, and then recording the Napster-provided
music streams playing through your PC. It's an updated -- and higher quality --
version of putting a tape recorder up to your speakers and recording songs off
the FM dial.
News of the hack appeared first on various message boards, and was quickly
picked up by the Los Angeles Times, which had the dishy dirt of Apple Computer
chief executive officer Steve Jobs emailing the news around to record labels,
writing "I thought you should know if you haven't heard about this."
When informed of the Jobs' note, Napster'a chief executive officer Chris Gorog
allegedly dashed off a response to the record label heads, reassuring them that
Napster itself hadn't been hacked, while pointing out Apple's fallibility in the
digital rights management game as well.Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Thursday, 17 February 2005 |
Friday File: Napster inadvertently returns to free downloads
eChannelLine - North York,Ontario,Canada
By now you've seen the commercials. According to Napster, it's much cheaper to
rent your music than to buy it. But perhaps it's cheaper still to rent it, steal
it, and then stop paying for it.
Napster's new subscription model, which allows users to download all the music
they want and use it on their favorite MP3 player (so long as it's not an iPod,
although credit for that little bit of pettiness goes to Apple and not Napster)
for the price of $15 per month.
So goes the logic with Napster -- if you buy an iPod, it will cost you $10,000
to fill it with music, based on a 40 GB iPod, buying music at $.99 per song.
That is, of course, assuming that one is purchasing a brand new 40 GB iPod
without owning a single song in a digital music format, however acquired, and
without a single CD or other traditional music source that they intend to rip
and put onto their new player. If there's anyone out there who is willing to
drop in the neighborhood of $500 for a device that they can't do anything with,
please contact me -- I'm sure I've got a Commodore VIC 20 sitting around here
somewhere that will fill your needs.Write Comment (0 Comments) |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 01 March 2005 )
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