I'm glad the iPhone didn't come out while I was away, but I did miss out on a few other developments. Here's a smattering of digital music news nuggets along with the best music-related videos that came my way over the past few weeks.
(On the iPhone front, by the way, I'm hoping to receive a review unit from Apple soon although they haven't given me a date or made me sign anything yet.)
-- AllofMP3, the discount MP3 store that's evidently legal under Russian law but annoys US copyright interests so much that Russia has to do something about the site before being allowed into the WTO, claims it has never been contacted by the Russian or US government. A representative of the company said,
-- If any musicians out there want to try to score music for a film, get in touch with jianda.
-- Last.FM's Martin Stiksel told me that he really wants to do something portablewith his music streaming/social networking site (this was before CBS bought Last.FM for $280 million), but his friendlycompetitors at Pandora could beat him to it. Pandora has created a prototypeof a portable hardware version of its service with Zing, a company created by former (not entirely gruntled) Apple VP Tim Bucher.
-- Hot Topic wants music writers?
-- Video: Joy Division Movie Trailer
-- A friend of mine helped make an interactive ad for Motorola's Bluetooth Automotive System T605, Bluetooth Headset H700, and MotoROKR S9 Headphones involving racecar driver Danica Patrick.
-- Extreme Tech reviews 5.1-channel headphones (mainly for gamers, but could make your music sound pretty sweet with the right card)
-- Justin Timberlake launched his own label?
-- James Brown's FBI files are revealed, having been obtained by Phyllis Pollack under the Freedom of Information Act.
-- The New York Times says (log-in required) that this is the last holiday season for strong CD sales. I'm not so sure. Sadly, the CD is still the best-sounding, most versatile digital format around.
-- My buddy John Alderman cowrote a really interesting-looking book about vintage computers called Core Memory
-- Video: Oddly charming YouTube rap about basketball players.
-- Apple launches iTunesPlus but the new unprotected $1.29 256 KBps AAC files come with your name and email address immutably embedded in the file. I can almost see where Apple was coming from here, since Steve Jobs has said on numerous occasions that he wants people to get away with only legal behavior. But the potential for falselitigation is far too great. What if someone steals your iPod andshares its music all over the internets? Try explaining that to theRIAA...
-- Microsoft launches "Ignition" to promote artists to Zune, MSN, and XBox users.
-- LaLa offers direct-to-iPod song sales, free on-demand streaming.
-- Video: Best music video ever?
-- Apple gets into live music with iTunes London Music Fest
-- Video: Opera singing cat
-- Apple makes
a deal with Bebo to sell iTunes tracks on its social network, which ismost popular in the UK. Could this be a test scenario for a play witha US-based network? SnoCap told me it would love to sell iTunes tracksvia MySpace, for instance...
-- Video: Bird's Blues
-- BurnLounge CEO Alex Arnold resigns after the FTC finally calls his annoying company what it has always seemed to be: a Ponzi scheme.
-- Video: Chris Rolls interviews Mandy Moore?
-- CBS's Last.FM is boycotting the "Day of Silence" boycott
(image from savebabygavin)
