Nokia launched its ‘Comes With Music’ service in the UK in a fanfare of publicity, promising access to a huge host of music tracks along with free permanent downloads for a year – but now it looks like the company’s facing an unexpected problem – the DRM it uses to limit use of music acquired using the service has been cracked….
Electric Pig informs Nokia has chosen a Microsoft standard for its service, and new software called Tunebite can eliminate the DRM shrouded across Nokia’s ‘Comes With Music’ tracks.
We caught up with UK online music service 7digital’s chief executive Ben Drury this week. A seasoned digital music industry professional, he shared his insights on Apple’s music market challenges as competition proliferates, social networking in music, lossless music downloads and much more.
Distorted Loop:Why does music matter? Ben Drury: Although music is not defined in Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (ref: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maslow_hierarchy_of_needs), I believe it must figure pretty highly on most people’s lists. In all cultures, with the possible exception of some extremist religious societies, music forms an integral part of self-expression, social cohesion, worship etc
You’ve been waiting for DRM-free music from all the major labels through iTunes, right? We reported on a “blink-and-you-miss-it” moment when tracks from majors blipped briefly in Apple’s iTunes Plus line-up? Just WTF is going down?
Negotiations may be narrowing toward closure – though at this point nothing is certain – will the labels join in or not? It’s late-night stone-faced deal make/break hardball, we reckon…
Out on the perimeter, reports are now coming in which explain just why the majors haven’t crossed the ‘T’s and dotted the ‘i’s just yet – and, it seems, each label is hard-faced on closing the deal on different points….
Amazon opened up its iTunes competitor, the Amazon MP3 Store in the UK this morning.
Marking the launch of the store the company has launched a wave of aggressive price cuts on new albums from artists including Take That, Kings of Leon and Coldplay, making albums available for just £3.
The store, which offers music in the MP3 format free of stifling DRM, also offers flexible pricing – long a bone of contention between Apple and the music labels.
George Michael will release his latest single, ‘December Song (I Dreamed of Christmas) for free through his website on Christmas Day.
The Daily Mail first published these claims on Friday. A spokesman for the artist said the holiday single marks the first Christmas song from Michael since 1984′s “Last Christmas,” which he created when part of the ’80s duo Wham!
The unidentified spokeswoman said the new single was recorded and written by Michael and David Austin.
The news comes as the artist recently hinted to fans that he may be considering retirement.
The digital product now also has a name, RED(WIRE), and will be launched on World AIDS Day on December 1. All proceeds will go to help fight disease in Africa, and MSN will host the launch party on December 1, Billboard explains.
Apple’s research and development teams are hard at work on powerful new technologies which may debut in 2009, including a fully touchscreen iMac and wearable video displays (that latter perhaps under some kind of arrangement with Sony).
Mobile phones which play MP3s are outselling CD players by five to one to become the UK’s favourite music devices – at least that’s what the research claims.
The Entertainment Retailers Association (ERA) has released GfK data which shows that over the past two years over 44 million mobile phones have been sold in the UK that can play MP3s.
That compares with sales of just over 8 million CD players over the same period, ERA said.
Wolfgang’s Vault is the collector’s site for multimedia music memorabilia, offering a vast selection of some of the world’s rarest – and potentially most treasured – music and music-related “stuff”. And now it’s available in the UK, through your iPhone or your iPod touch.
We were in touch with Eric Johnson, President and CEO, Wolfgang’s Vault overnight, he describes his service as, “The only online site dedicated to telling the comprehensive story of the live music experience of the past five decades.”
Indie-flavoured music subscription service, eMusic, today announced that it has sold 250 million MP3 downloads since establishing its current subscription model in 2003.
Nokia launched its ‘Comes With Music’ service in the UK in a fanfare of publicity, promising access to a huge host of music tracks along with free permanent downloads for a year – but now it looks like the company’s facing an unexpected problem – the DRM it uses to limit use of music acquired using the service has been cracked….
in the UK this morning.
