Steve Jobs a music visionary? Judge for yourself

Tags

Apple, Internet, Technology

Steve Jobs is a Bob Dylan fan because the folk singer is, in the words of Apple’s CEO, a “clear thinker.”

Jobs’ own lucid and careful contemplation of the music industry is apparent in a 2003 interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine’s Jeff Goodell. My colleague Tom Krazit pointed me to the story after stumbling on to it recently. We were bowled over by the preciseness of Jobs’ assessment of what the future held for digital rights management, music subscription services, the four largest recording companies, and Apple. The interview in retrospect is a fascinating read.

Jobs correctly predicted that attempts by the major labels to find a technological solution to piracy would fail. When it came to subscription music services, he said the public would reject them. He foresaw a day when iTunes would sell 1 billion tracks a year–a bold statement, considering that at the time, iTunes had only sold 20 million songs. ~ Source: news.cnet.com

Read the complete article here …

Music industry scrambles for cash

Tags

File Sharing, Internet, Music Downloads, Music Industry

The music business has finally come to terms with file-sharing, according to executives at the Midem conference in Cannes. But now they have a different problem.

Until recently, the music industry was in a blind panic about illegal peer-to-peer downloading.

Millions upon millions of fans are spreading music around the world, and the people who made and own it don’t see a dime.

A vast 95% of all digital music comes from unlicensed sources, according to a recent estimate from the global trade body the IFPI.

But the blind panic now seems to have stopped.

Windows 7 Beta Available Pulled; “No ETA” on Product Keys

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Internet, Microsoft, Technology

Windows 7

The 2.4GB Windows 7 public beta download is now no longer available from Microsoft, but the 2.5 million product keys Microsoft’s promised are not yet being distributed.

Update, 1:30PST: Computerworld reports that a Microsoft spokesperson said that the company is shoring up their servers to deal with the unexpectedly high demand for the Windows 7 Beta download.

iTunes Drops Most Copy Protection, Varies Prices

Tags

Internet, iTunes, Music Downloads, Technology

iTunes

Update: Gizmodo confirms the announcement. The good news: CNET has sources saying the three largest music labels will allow Apple to offer music downloads free of copy-protection. And the bad news might not be that bad.

In exchange for the DRM-free tracks, Apple will reportedly allow labels to push three tiers of pricing. Older songs from the archives will likely get cheaper than 99 cents, songs that are newer and “midline” (i.e. not big hits) will inhabit the familiar 99 cent mark, and newer, bigger hits will fetch higher, unnamed dollar amounts.

Broadband: Very Stimulating

Tags

Broadband, Internet, Technology

What’s up jazz lovers? Look, as frequent users of the Internet it’s vital that we pay close attention to what the lobbyist in D.C .  are attempting to do in reference to the end-users of the Internet. I’ve provided a link in the technology section of links to bookmark and check this blog regularly for updates.

Article: From great crisis comes great opportunity. At least if you’re a lobbyist in Washington.

And while Chrysler plants are shutting down and journalists are being sacked by the thousands, influence-peddlers inside the Beltway are gearing up to get a piece of what could be a $1 trillion — with a t — economic stimulus package.

The legislation is being written as you read this, and the new Congress wants to get it on President Obama’s desk right after he’s sworn into office in January. It’s a lot of money, it’s moving fast, and taxpayers must beware of profligacy and pork.

Source: Savetheinternet.net/blog

Go here, for the complete article. Also, be sure and check out the faq section.

Music sales for 2008 ride digital coattails

Tags

Internet, Music, Technology

Digital music, long the bane of the music industry, may finally be something that record label executives can smile about.

For 2008, total music sales rose 10 percent to 1.51 billion units sold, up from 1.36 billion units the year before, according to industry tracker Nielsen. Units tallied include physical albums, digital albums and tracks, and music videos. The biggest contributor to the growth was digital music, Nielsen reported. There were 1.07 billion digital tracks sold in 2008, up 27 percent from 2007, and there were 65.8 million digital albums sold, up 32 percent.

Those numbers square with recent reports on music downloads. For the third quarter, for instance, legal music downloads from sites such as iTunes and AmazonMP3 were up 29 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to NPD Group.

~ Source: C|Net.com

Additional link, Nielsen industry tracker.

ISP Owner Berates RIAA for New Copyright Protection Strategy

Tags

Internet, Technology

Recently, the Record Industry Association of America (RIAA) stated it would no longer pursue its fruitless strategy of prosecuting individuals for copyright infringement. Instead, it plans to put more pressure on Internet Service Providers (ISPs) for weeding out high-bandwidth downloaders.

Well, now ISPs have responded to that pressure by berating the RIAA for ignoring the expensive costs Internet providers must incur to pursue suspected peer-to-peer downloaders. Granted, although finding and shutting off downloaders saves ISPs necessary bandwidth space, the hunt is not a cheap one.

RIAA No Longer Prosecuting Individuals

Tags

Internet, Music Industry, Technology

RIAA

According to reports, the Record Industry Association of America, or RIAA, is changing its strategy for prosecuting illegal peer-to-peer downloaders. The group will now work with Internet Service Providers (ISPs) rather than attacking individuals.

A few years ago, it got very scary for those actively downloading illegal music online. In 2006, the Record Industry Association of America began picking off individuals caught in the act with often devastating results; we all remember the case of Jammie Thomas, the Minnesota single mother found guilty of downloading a handful of songs and subsequently fined over $200,000. (Source: wired.com)

Technology News 11/12

Tags

Internet, Technology

AT&T to Cap Internet Bandwidth

AT&T is reportedly considering limiting the bandwidth that subscribers are entitled to use each month, beginning with Reno, NV.

Internet providers across the country are are limiting bandwidth to curb a small number of “bandwidth hogs” who use a lot of the network capacity. According to an AT&T spokesman, 5 percent of AT&T’s subscribers take up to 50 percent of the capacity. Last month Comcast began limiting bandwidth to their customers. Interestingly enough, Verizon currently has no plans to limit their bandwidth.  (Source: aol.com)

Unlimited Internet Use Under Attack

Tags

Internet, Technology

The promise of unlimited high-speed Internet access could become a thing of the past with more and more carriers putting limits on monthly downloads. The issue has become a hot one since Time Warner began a trial scheme in Texas limiting users to 5GB of downloads a month, charging penalty fees for any extra use.

It’s looking as if rival firms may feel they can get away with similar tactics. One firm, Frontier, is already planning to mirror the 5GB limit next year. What makes that particularly concerning for customers is that in Rochester, Frontier’s biggest market, the main alternative is Time Warner.

At the moment, Frontier says the majority of its customers use less than 1.5GB a month. However, it also revealed that average use is doubling each year, meaning that within a year of the cap coming into force, the majority of users could exceed it. There’s no word on whether the firm would gradually increase the limit to mirror demand. (Source: scrippsnews.com) – Infopackets.com