Apple is reportedly pushing hard to re-launch their new and improved MobileMe service this April, but what hasn’t been mentioned is that they’re pressuring major record labels to have all of the music licenses in place for the long rumored locker service planned for launch at the same time. Informed sources say that Apple...
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Are major label record execs waking up in the morning finding horse heads in their beds? If not, then maybe there’s more going on than meets the eye. A couple of weeks ago CNET’s Greg Sandoval broke a story about Apple’s intention to launch a subscription service and, in their negotiations with the major...
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John Lennon would have been 70 years old this week. It got me thinking about one of his most famous lyrics, a line from “God”: “The dream is over.” Lennon may have been reflecting on the demise of the Beatles, but it seems to also apply to the once enthusiastic promise of digital music...
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The guys at Torrentfreak do a terrific job of covering the torrent and p2p scene. I’m always amazed at the stories they break and the excellent writing. And if I understand it correctly, they do it in their spare time when not at their day jobs. Last weekend they broke another story that I...
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Yes, I’m back. Apologies for the long hiatus, but I was busy with some knucklehead who had the world convinced that he was going to buy the Pirate Bay. Oy vey. What a story. I’ll get into all of the details in the coming months. It’s one of the weirdest chapters of my extremely...
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Many journalists have written about the lack of a business model for Twitter. It seems to boggle a lot of minds that Twitter has become so big and yet to make a nickel. In fact, many question the real usefulness of Twitter, finding the whole concept of Tweeting rather stupid. Remember when Stephen Colbert...
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The other day Billboard Magazine published an analysis on the effect of variable pricing using Nielsen SoundScan data on February-May sales of hits and a sample of popular catalog songs. They found that “while variable pricing made sales volume decline, higher prices compensate for that to create more revenue”. They note that results vary...
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God I know it may be getting old, but EMI just never fails to do stupid stuff to keep jerks like me interested. This time, they’ve started their own HR merry-go-round. Maybe musical chairs would be a better metaphor. A friend in London was telling me a crazy story. Everyone knows that EMI has...
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Much has been made about the new subscription service that Virgin Media is launching this coming December. And the timing of the announcement, the day before the Digital Britain Report was released, was no accident. That report, although mostly focused on broadband penetration, suggested that warning letters and “technical solutions” from the ISP’s be...
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