The music industry industry has taken some questionable stances on digital technology over the years. To call it resistant to change probably wouldn’t be stepping too far out of line. That’s why, as music fans, we love to hear about cases in which the music industry demonstrates forward thinking and proactively constructs policy that takes new technologies and distribution media into account. → Read More
Apple is furiously negotiating with the record labels to finalize deals which will allow it to stream music from the Internet to mobile devices (iPhones, iPads, iPods) and computers. It just came to terms with Sony Music, according to a Bloomberg report, which means that of the four major labels it’s got three down (EMI, Warner, and Sony), and one to go (Universal Music).
Streaming rights are… → Read More
I have just about every song by The Beatles in my iTunes collection. As the best-selling artists of all time, I suspect a lot of people do. Of course, not one of those songs was actually bought through iTunes, because none of them are available through the iTunes Store. Instead, they’ve magically landed on my computer through other means. I’m not going to say how, but let’s just say that record… → Read More
Two years ago, a bunch of labels affiliated to music giant EMI Group sued both MP3tunes and its infamous founder Michael Robertson – former founder and CEO of MP3.com and currently running VoIP startup Gizmo5 – over alleged copyright infringement. A year ago, a judge did the sensible thing and tossed out the part of the case that could personally bankrupt the man.
Fast forward to about two weeks… → Read More
According to Chilean tech blog FayerWayer, music startup Grooveshark is about to announce that it has reached an agreement with recording industry giant The EMI Group. The news comes nearly three months after EMI sued the fledgling company behind the service, Escape Media Group, for infringement on its copyright.
Grooveshark is a web-based music application where you can go to listen to music… → Read More
Last month I wrote about a lawsuit filed by major record label EMI against Seeqpod, the questionably-legal free streaming music site. The suit isn’t Seeqpod’s first (Warner sued them last year), but it is notable for taking the music industry’s war against the web to a new low. Beyond naming a number of Seeqpod executives as part of the suit, EMI also decided to sue a hapless third party… → Read More
Lonely planet XM and EMI have finally settled a lawsuit over the Pioneer Inno. The Inno, if you don’t remember, is a portable XM radio that can record content onto its hard drive. Record companies had a problem with this, of course, for the same reason they complain about everything: it facilitated piracy, it denied them revenue, etc. Why buy a song, preferably in CD format, when you can… → Read More
One of my favorite bands from way back when has finally decided to unshackle their EMI catalog and distribute their music through iTunes. Before this, Radiohead (or EMI) was adamant about selling their music bundled and not per track whereas Apple refuses to sell albums as is. You can find all the EMI released albums, the new Greatest Hits album, and videos in the iTunes Plus store. All tracks are… → Read More
[photopress:nydn.jpg,full,right] The New York Daily News constantly plays second fiddle to the New York Post. The Post has the trashiest headlines you’ll ever see and the Daily News tries to play catch up. Not next Sunday! Next week, the Daily News teams up with EMI, the first record label to go DRM-free way back in the iTunes Plus days, and will give away three whole songs out of a… → Read More
Not so fast says Thom Yorke. In an interview with BBC Radio 4 Yorke said releasing an album in only digital format would have been “mad.” The Radiohead front man explained: We didn’t want it to be a big announcement about ‘everything’s over except the internet, the internet’s the future’, ’cause that’s utter rubbish. And it’s really… → Read More
Reuters reports that the British music industry biggie, EMI, is looking for ways to substantially reduce the amount of cash it hands out to those vicious child-suing trade groups known as the RIAA and IFPI. Times are tight, they say, and there is talk of saving and efficiency – and the so-called “copyright mafia” have been ineffective in curbing piracy. I guess they think that… → Read More
Say what you will about DRM. It was there for a reason and now the walls are slowly beginning to crumble. EMI has started the movement and the other labels are sure to follow. DRM hurt sales and everyone knows it. According to British retailer 7Digital, DRM-free sales have outnumbered DRM shackled music 4:1. But this isn’t to say that this is the sole reason for declining revenue in the music… → Read More
Steve Jobs is thisclose to getting the Beatles’ full catalog on his iTunes Music Store. For now though, fans can hit up the entire library of John Lennon’s music. Everything from “Working Class Hero” to “Sometime in New York” will be available in both regular iTunes format and iTunes Plus for $1.29 a track with 256kbps AAC quality (mediocre at best, but… → Read More
Sales numbers are coming in a few weeks after EMI’s foray into DRM-free music. The result? “Good”, says EMI senior VP Lauren Berkowitz. In fact, sales for several artists have increased, even as their CD counterparts have gone down in price. Sales for Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon are up 272% since the launch of iTunes Plus, which was the first service to introduce the… → Read More
Plenty of people looked disgusted with EMI’s decision to turn its catalog of music loose, free of DRM. Now it seems the tables have turned, as EMI’s DRM-free approach to selling digital music is working out quite well. According to reports, Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon has seen a sales increase between 272 and 350 percent, while OK Go’s Oh No has increased 77 percent. → Read More
I am proud to present the latest Apple rumor to you in all its glory. This week, the iTunes Music Store is the center of attention. It seems a “credible French-Italian source who knows my Dad’s mechanic” has indicated that Apple is set to launch EMI’s catalog of DRM-free music this week. The reason for the delay in Apple getting those tracks up? Apple wants to do it all at… → Read More
Oh boy. Apple and Amazon are about to have a huge showdown. Bezos and Crew are set to debut an MP3 downloading store that will feature DRM-free tracks. No word yet on what bit-rate songs will be encoded in, but if it’s anything less than 256kbps, Amazon stands no chance against Apple. As you might have suspected, EMI is backing up Amazon on this move and will be offering millions of songs… → Read More
EMI won’t be the only record label to offer higher quality, DRM-free music on iTunes. Apple sent out a little note yesterday to its music partners saying that they, too, would be able to offer DRM-free music and videos on its iTunes store. If the deal is anything like the EMI one, music fans can expect to pay slightly more for the DRM-free music. → Read More
Yay! The first EMI album to be offered for download free of copy protection, or digital rights management (DRM), is now available. “The Good, The Bad & The Queen” can be downloaded in the “new format,” aka 320Kbps MP3s, directly from the band’s Website. Apple’s iTunes Music Store also has a “Live from SoHo EP” with five tracks recorded, um, live… → Read More
The Inquirer‘s Charlie Demerjian thinks you’re all idiots (and dumb sheep and suckers…) for applauding the EMI anti-DRM stance announced yesterday. His main rationale is that you’re all celebrating being sold back rights that never should have been taken from you in the first place. Fair enough. But then he goes on and on about how a 30 percent price increase is… → Read More
Those Europeans are fast! Just one whole day after Apple and EMI announced they’d be offering DRM-free tracks on the iTunes Music Store, the European Union comes in to crap all over Apple’s parade. This time around, it’s accusing Apple and “The Big 4″ record companies over iTMS purchasing options. Those eurocats don’t like the fact that you have to buy from your… → Read More
Wow. Mere hours after April Fool’s Day — sorry, fanboys, for our attacks on your sacred cows yesterday — and we get work that Steve is hitting London-town to announce that EMI will start selling DRM-free music. In a major reversal of the music industry’s longstanding antipiracy strategy, EMI Group PLC is set to announce Monday that it plans to sell significant amounts of… → Read More
I was about to go snarkstorm on this product, which is some sort of video player. Now that I look at it, however, it’s abundantly clear that it’s a bit of viral frippery. The real value, I think, is the video which involves a set of dirty, ugly hippies getting all coked up and pressing buttons. Don’t go watch it, however, because, as I’ll explain, that’s exactly what… → Read More
I guess it was too good to be true. EMI is tucking its tail and sticking with DRM-burdened content. Of the “Big Four” music conglomerates we had some hope that EMI would turn the tide, but alas we were wrong! They have officially broken off talks with digital music download services. It isn’t hard to see why, though. EMI could be swallowed up by a major entertainment corporation in the… → Read More
Hot on the heels of Apple’s Steve Jobs asking the music labels to drop DRM requirements for selling their digital downloads, London-based EMI (the third-largest record company) has whole-heartedly started investigating making the music on its labels available for download in the MP3 format. The story comes from the Wall Street Journal, but got picked up by the Associated Press this morning… → Read More
A lot of music lovers try to avoid purchasing CDs and digital downloads with copyright-protection schemes. These DRM methods restrict your ability and right to fair use. If you want to put that Journey CD on your iPod, then dammit, you should be able to. Seems that the major record labels like EMI are catching on finally. Major labels are trying out an experiment with DRM-free MP3s to gauge… → Read More
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