Some rather inflammatory news has been making its way around the web today: a user posting on the Pirateweb message board has accused Google of removing copyrighted MP3 music files from a Gmail account — possibly using the scanning services that Google employs to block illegal content on YouTube, possibly using something else.
Shocking if true, so we went to Google to get a response. And the… → Read More
Looks like the cassette tape could be undergoing a renaissance thanks to Thanko. The Cassette Mate from Thanko, connects to a PC and rips cassette audio. The included software comes with all the features one would need to convert audio and split up tracks. The Cassette Mate costs only $30 and is available here. [via Ubergizmo] → Read More
Nokia’s Comes With Music will launch in the UK next month, before spreading to the Continent and to Asia next year. Comes With Music, you may remember, is Nokia’s scheme to include music from the top record companies (less EMI, for now) with its cellphones, slowly getting the company into the Apple-dominated music business. Nokia has not given any specific price points for Comes With… → Read More
Henry “The Animal” Blodget is positing that Amazon is losing traction to all of the other content providers out there including, but not limited to iTunes and piracy. The giant once made its money selling books, DVDs, and CDs but with the Internet, the Internet, and the Internet, all of those things are available electronically and Amazon didn’t quite make the cut. While… → Read More
Eliot Van Buskirk was sick — sick! — of paying for music download services. Now that Amazon is DRM-free and offers lots of music, he decided to cancel all of his music subscriptions. Yahoo was the easiest at about 1 minute but it took him 30 minutes to cancel Napster and 10 minutes to cancel Rhapsody. This reminds me of trying to cancel my XBox Live and MS SPOT subscriptions. Microsoft… → Read More
So now that Warner Music is on Amazon, I thought it might be a good idea to give their download service a whirl. I’m a Mac man, so these screenshots are all OS X. However, the process should be the same for Windows. → Read More
The big record labels are getting brazen. Really brazen. Today marks the opening of the first trial between the RIAA and a person it says illegally downloaded music. The problem for the RIAA is this person, and by person I mean damned hero, has decided to fight back. The RIAA has acted like a bully in most cases it’s pursued so far, so it’s great to see someone taking a stand. But… → Read More
The folks at PayPlay.fm dropped me a line discussing their huge indie catalog of DRM-free music. While you won’t find any Sting or Beatles hidden in their back pages, you can enjoy 32 Below and Elika. Clearly these boys aren’t going to take down the ITMS, eMusic, or even the selection at Goodwill (there’s always a something by the Stones or Devo in the record bin for the intrepid… → Read More
I always liked eMusic. Though second banana to iTMS, it still has a good amount of music worth downloading and every song is DRM-free. Now eMusic is trying to launch a subscription service without DRM that will allow users to download a set number of tracks per month. These new plans are being called “Connoisseur Plans” and involve the user paying a set price each month for a… → Read More
Back in September we reported that MySpace had begun allowing artists to sell music directly using SNOCAP MyStores. The service utilizes MP3s without DRM of any kind. Due to the DRM-free format, was unclear at the time whether or not MySpace and SNOCAP would strike a deal with any major labels, as they typically prefer to keep their tracks closer to the chest. All of that changed today, however… → Read More
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