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Technorati Tags: coachella, prince, radiohead

Defunct MSN Music has a DRM controversy on its hands
Posted by Greg Sandoval

Microsoft handed plenty of ammunition to the anti-DRM crowd on Tuesday by announcing it will no longer furnish authorization keys for songs purchased from the defunct MSN Music service.

For former customers of MSN Music–the service Microsoft operated before closing it in late 2006 and opening Zune Marketplace–August 31 will be the last day that they can move music to different computers. After that, Microsoft will no longer “support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased on MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,” the company said in an e-mail to former MSN Music customers.

It’s important to note that the music won’t disappear after the deadline. Songs will continue to play on authorized computers. What the announcement means is that former MSN Music customers will risk losing their music libraries if they try to transfer songs to unauthorized computers or swap operating systems after Aug. 31.

Read full story.

MSN Music customers lose *all* their music the next time they buy a new PC
Posted by Cory Doctorow, April 22, 2008 8:02 PM

People who bought music from the MSN music store have been royally hosed by Microsoft: as of today, if you buy a new computer, or refresh your hard-drive, you have to kiss all your music goodbye. Microsoft has shut down its DRM “license server” and left people who bought music — instead of downloading it from a P2P site — out in the cold. All those years the music industry spent insisting that the only way they’d sell music is with crippling DRM attached managed to totally discredit the idea of buying music at all…

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MSN Music DRM Servers Going Dark In September
Posted by kdawson on Tuesday April 22, @08:52PM

PDQ Back writes to tell us about an email Microsoft sent to former customers of MSN Music today. The company said it would be turning off the DRM servers used to authorize playback of music purchased from the now-defunct MSN Music store. “‘As of August 31, 2008, we will no longer be able to support the retrieval of license keys for the songs you purchased from MSN Music or the authorization of additional computers,’ reads the e-mail. This doesn’t just apply to the five different computers that PlaysForSure allows users to authorize, it also applies to operating systems on the same machine (users need to reauthorize a machine after they upgrade from Windows XP to Windows Vista, for example). Once September rolls around, users are committed to whatever five machines they may have authorized — along with whatever OS they are running.”

Read full story.

Technorati Tags: DRM, microsoft

You have to hand it to CSS. Last week, their bass player, Ira Trevisan, announced she was quitting the rudey Brazilian party starters. And she made few bones about why.

“I am a bit worried about climate change,” she said, though it’s apparent she’s more than a bit concerned. “People should care more and do something. I decided to fly less. CSS will always be in my heart.”

Which is kind of like saying, “The rest of CSS are planet-destroying war pigs and now the moral high ground shall forever be mine, mine I tell you!”

The consequences could reach far and wide. Will CSS be held up forever as green traitors for having the audacity to carry on? Does this point to a post-apocalyptic future where live music will be reigned in by the national borders of its heritage? And couldn’t Ira just have got herself a new TV without a standby function?

Read the full story at the Guardian.

Technorati Tags: css, Ira Trevisan

Top 10 music acts going green with compost and biodiesel

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Going green has become a focus in recent years for many artists who are trying to help save the environment with everything from carbon offsets, to giving away autographed compost bins, to philanthropy.

With Earth Day celebrated on April 22 each year to mark the anniversary of the modern environmental movement, music publication Billboard published a list of 10 acts that have tried to make a difference to the environment over the past 12 months:

1. JACK JOHNSON

Hawaiian-born singer/songwriter Jack Johnson, a lifelong surfer, recently built a recording studio insulated with used denim and powered in part by solar panels at the Los Angeles HQ of his Brushfire Records, a cozy single-family home. Trucks and coaches on his 2008 tour will run on biodiesel, and venues are required to comply with his rules on cutting waste and recycling.

Read the full story.

Technorati Tags: biodiesel, dave matthews band, earth day, jack johnson, kt tunstall, mana, missy higgins, pearl jam, radiohead, serj tankian, the roots

why the blogosphere is predicting the apocalypse or just plain grossed out by this coupling?

Their love makes perfect sense to me. Yes it’s true - I LOVE THEIR LOVE.

And look at those shoes on mr. new weird. I so APPROVE!!

Technorati Tags: devendra banhart, Gossip!, natalie portman, new weird america, romance, stereogum

Sony BMG joins Universal in offering catalog on Nokia phones
By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK - Sony BMG is joining Universal Music Group in allowing users of select Nokia mobile phones access to its entire music catalog later this year.
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Nokia Corp.’s “Comes With Music” program will allow users who buy select cell phone models to download any song from Sony BMG’s catalog onto their phone or their computers during the first 12 months of owning such a device. Nokia announced a partnership with Universal last fall, and now has brought Sony BMG aboard.

“When you give consumers the key to the candy store without any limitations, there’s a lot more opportunity for discovering music that you might not have found before,” Thomas Hesse, president of global digital business and U.S. sales for Sony BMG Music Entertainment, told The Associated Press on Monday. “We think this will energize the discovery of music.”

Read the full story.

Technorati Tags: comes with music, nokia, sbmg, sony bmg, umg, universal

New music video Web site features major label artists
By SOLVEJ SCHOU, Associated Press

LOS ANGELES - A company backed by investors including Will Smith and major record labels has launched a new Web site offering 10,000 free, high-definition music videos.

Universal Music Group announced Wednesday that it has joined EMI and Sony BMG in backing Santa Monica-based PluggedIn.

The Web site features music videos from artists such as Gwen Stefani, Green Day, Coldplay and Norah Jones and is powered by a new media player that supports full-screen high-definition video.

PluggedIn also announced a partnership with Smith’s production and management company Overbrook Entertainment.

pluggedin.com

***

Hilfiger, Sony BMG Fashion TommyTV…

Tommy Hilfiger and Sony BMG have now teamed on a tubular concept called TommyTV. The online video destination features concert footage, artist interviews, music videos, and other artist-related content, all within a 3D, flexible interface. The action, at TommyTV.com, already features concerts from Faithless, Good Charlotte, Bruce Hornsby, DJ Krush, Five for Fighting, John Legend, and Michael Jackson.

The beta release builds upon an earlier Hilfiger concept called Tommy Sessions, which features artists performing within smaller, studio environments. Now, Hilfiger is tapping YouTube to organize an audition and voting process for promising acts, and rewarding the winners with TommyTV slots. Sony BMG may pluck new talent from the concept as well, part of a quickly-shifting A&R process.

tommytv.com

Technorati Tags: emi, sony bmg, tommy hilfiger, tommytv, umg, universal, will smith

Ticketmaster Creates Fake Facebook Profiles to Look More Popular
April 14, 2008 – 9:38 am

When I saw that 156,000 people had become “fans” of Ticketmaster on Facebook, I got suspicious. Their fan page is now the 5th most popular on Facebook - they have more fans than Hillary Clinton. “Come on! There are not 156,000 people who would willingly display that they were fans of an evil corporation that bilks its customers for massive, inexplicable fees,” I thought.

So, just who is a fan of Ticketmaster on Facebook? I decided to take a look at some of the fans that pop up on their page.

I hid my actual friends who showed up to protect their identities… although really, I should’ve kept their pictures up there publicly shame them on here for declaring themselves fans of Ticketmaster.

Read the rest at the East Village Idiot.

I once had a client who asked me to set up and manage a fake “street team” on a social networking site as a strategy to raise awareness. Besides being dishonest, immoral and stupid - it’s a strategy that could NEVER work online. You need REAL people for word-of-mouth marketing to take root and work.

Take the time you’d spend on architecting the perfect fake street team and work on your songwriting - being good is what will sell you in the end and these days it’s really the only thing that will.

Technorati Tags: astroturfing, facebook, ticketmaster

UMG Says Throwing Away Promo CDs is Illegal
by Fred von Lohmann

In a brief filed in federal court yesterday, Universal Music Group (UMG) states that, when it comes to the millions of promotional CDs (”promo CDs”) that it has sent out to music reviewers, radio stations, DJs, and other music industry insiders, throwing them away is “an unauthorized distribution” that violates copyright law. Yes, you read that right — if you’ve ever received a promo CD from UMG, and you don’t still have it, UMG thinks you’re a pirate.

This revelation came in a brief for summary judgment filed by UMG against Troy Augusto. Augusto (aka Roast Beast Music Collectibles, eBay handle roastbeastmusic) buys collectible promo CDs at used record stores around Los Angeles and resells them on eBay. UMG sued him last year, claiming that the “promotional use only” labels on the CDs mean that UMG owns them forever and that any resale infringes copyright. EFF took Augusto’s case to fight for the proposition that a copyright owner can’t take away a consumer’s first sale rights just by putting a label on a CD (after all, the Supreme Court first recognized the first sale doctrine when a book publisher tried the same thing with a label stating “may not be sold for less than one dollar,” and we’ve seen patent owners trying the same trick on printer cartridges). In other words, EFF believes that if you bought it, or if someone gave it to you, you own it.

UMG seems to think that the “promotional use only” label somehow gives it “eternal ownership” over the CD. While this might make sense to a goblin living in Harry Potter’s world, it’s not the law under the Copyright Act. According to the first sale doctrine, once a copyright owner has parted with ownership of a CD, book, or DVD, whether by sale, gift, or other disposition, they may not control further dispositions of that particular copy (including throwing it away). It’s thanks to the first sale doctrine that libraries can lend books, video rental stores can rent DVDs, and you can give a CD to a friend for their birthday. It’s also the reason you can throw away any CD that you own.

Read the rest.

and the world simultaneously spontaneously combusts.

ok, not quite. but other than MIT, who else could launch their very own internet?

From digitalmusicnews.com:

Radiohead fans are now jumping into a dedicated social networking environment, one ostensibly created by the group. The network, called w.a.s.t.e. central, carried less than 1,000 members early this morning. The action is being hosted at waste-central.com, and incorporates a design that mirrors the recent album, In Rainbows.

The network is being powered by Ning, a company that creates customized social networks. Many of those networks are niche, and carry member levels in the 100s, though w.a.s.t.e. will undoubtedly multiply its current participation.

The destination contains areas related to touring, pictures, videos, blogging, as well as traditional networking features like friends lists. Radiohead has not officially confirmed the destination.

Technorati Tags: music marketing, music network, music news, radiohead, social networking, waste central