Category Archives: music

Facebook Music Platform Release Coming Late September

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What could Facebook possibly do next, for better or for worse? Well, at its f8 conference on September 22, they are going to announce a music platform. This comes from an anonymous source speaking to CNBC, though this source is apparently quite credible. The platform is not likely to be as much of a retail “store” such as iTunes, but more of a place that enables users to stream music like Pandora Radio.

The rumors about a Facebook music service have surfaced before. There are many companies that have tried things like this before, such as Best Buy and RIM. On the other side, there are dedicated services like Rdio, Grooveshark and Spotify that have absolutely flourished, though none have managed to surpass or come close to the sales earnings success of iTunes.

CNBC is estimating that Facebook will offer a “platform for third-party services to deliver music to their customers, rather than trying to directly compete with them.” Facebook currently has over 750 million users. That being said, with the music platform being introduced and the music being provided by third-parties, Facebook has only money to gain here. The profits will be immense, as advertising will have a promising way for services to reach new customers within Facebook.

Mark Zuckerberg has stated again and again that the “volume of content users are sharing” is definitely more important than the total number of users. As of right now, Facebook users can really only share their music interests through services like Last.fm from Microsoft. However, after September 22, we may see this type of sharing get an exponential boost of attention.

Source: Ars Technica

Walmart Pulling MP3 Download Store

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Walmart is going to be discontinuing its MP3 downloads store, but it will continue to support DRMed tracks that it sold before the store went DRM-free. This news come from a memo that was leaked that was supposed to go to Digital Music News and was later confirmed by a Walmart representative, who told music licensing partners that the store would close on August 28, 2011.

The Walmart Music Downloads Store, located at mp3.walmart.com, has been up and running for eight years. All of the content within the store will be disabled and will no longer be available for download. Walmart also reassured its partners that the sale of physical media through Walmart, such as the mp3 players, would be unaffected.

The Walmart music store was a DRMed venture in 2004, but later went DRM-free in the later end of 2007. Walmart was one of the first major names to get into selling DRM-free music. However, this trend really never caught on. Apple soon became the number one music retailer in the world, and Amazon managed to push past Walmart to earn the number two spot in part to its own MP3 music store. Both Amazon and iTunes offer a better user experience, too, with their software for multiple platforms and a large built-in user base.

In the end, Walmart’s memo didn’t go into detail as to why they were deciding to shut down their music store, but it seems pretty obvious that they just couldn’t compete without something more to offer, especially considering their competition was iTunes and Amazon. Walmart did mention that DRMed music files that were purchased before the store went DRM-free would continue to function even after the MP3 store shut-down. Walmart tried to kill its DRM servers in 2008, leaving its customers out in the cold if they were to need re-authorization to listen, but they later decided to leave the DRM servers online after receiving some very heated customer feedback.

Source: Ars Technica

iPhone Record Recorder

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Many people recognize the fact that music sounds the best when played from a vinyl record. Nothing can match the sounds, and whilst everything is in a digital age, at least it feels like you’re going back when you pull out the old vinyl. Well, obviously record players can’t make phone calls, but the iPhone can. And perhaps you’ve always wanted that old Beatles hit that you have on record as your ringtone, but don’t feel like paying for it. I mean, you already own it, why pay again?

Olivier Meynard is responsible for this new concept. This is technically an iPhone dock next to a “wheel of steel.” You can play your favorite songs through the built-in speakers of the dock, and as it plays it will encode the tracks as MP3s, which are simultaneously uploaded to your handset. And, this dock even charges your iPhone.

Source: Engadget

Unlicensed Public Performance of Music Fines are Less than Sharing

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Interesting piece from Ars Technica. This article points out that fines for a bar or something like that playing unlicensed music for commercial gain are actually less than what the fine of sharing music is on a P2P network. Massachusetts federal judge Nancy Gertner asks why:

“I cannot conceive of any plausible rationale for the discrepancy between the level of damages imposed in public-performance cases and the damages awarded in this case,” she wrote. “The disparity strongly suggests that the jury’s $675,000 award is arbitrary and grossly excessive.”

For example: A resort in Pennsylvania, was sued for not having a public performance license for playing music at their business, the fines: $6,750. Whereas Joel Tenenbaum was sued $675,000 for sharing 30 songs, AND he didn’t make any money off of it. Very interesting point. I’ve never thought of it that way. I can’t wait for lawyers and RIAA reps to say playing our music in bars is killing music.

Source: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2010/07/double-standard-unlicensed-bar-music-vs-p2p-users.ars