a multi-tasked stream of consciousness or perhaps just emails to myself
Apple is in the process of launching new applications and marketing tools for its iTunes Music Store that aim to make it easier for record labels and artists to sell and promote music on the service… [MacMinute]
This is very cool news and even includes a co-marketing budget if you reference the ITMS in your Google ad. Very Intel like… and very smart.
Now that it is open to Windows customers, Apple’s iTunes Music Store will spell doom for file-sharing networks — at least, that’s how Apple tells it. Others are more skeptical. By Leander Kahney. [Wired News]
I discovered that I can stream my home iTunes music to myself while at work… I’ve previously mentioned the SliMP3 which I still love and use both at home and on the go, but today I discovered I can stream my existing iTunes library.
A bit about the home setup…Our home iMac is set up to handle some sharing tasks so I can serve the occasional web page and share the external firewire drives we have connected. That connects over Airport which is then connected to a Linksys router. Our net connection is a cable modem.
There are two users on the iMac (me and my wife) and I set up a symbolic link from the usual location for iTunes music – ~/Music/iTunes/iTunes Music to an external Firewire drive. This allows each user to import music and for the other to automatically see that new music when iTunes is open on either account. There did not seem to be a way for this to work any other way. We have way too much music for me to carry it around on my laptop so I have a copy of the iTunes Library on my PowerBook which also refers back to the external firewire drive. This allows me to mount the home machine and drives and have access to stuff when I want on my laptop. It also allows my iPod to sync over the home network, something I rarely do since it takes much longer that simply connecting to the home computer.
Anyway…quite a bit of background to get to today. I used AFP (Apple File Protocol) to connect to my home system. I use a dynamic dns service (no-ip.org) which makes this easier that having to recall what your IP number is assuming it changes. Once the usual drives are connected I can open use my iTunes library as I would normally expect to… all my music is available and can easily stream.
Not sure why I did not try this earlier… it totally works! There is the occasional hiccup as to be expected in any streaming situation, but for the most part completely enables my music on the go.
The recording industry announced yesterday that it had begun its second round of lawsuits against people who swap music files on a large scale. But this time, there is a difference: the industry is notifying the 204 suspected pirates before suing them. [New York Times]
No more old ladies jamming to rap I guess…
New from Apple…
Welcome to iTunes Link Maker. Simpy enter a song name, album name, artist name, or any combination of the three to get started: [ITMS Link Maker]
You can also drag a link directly from the store if you are already there… For example Dave Brubeck’s Playlist
Apple launched ITMS for Windows today… nice work! Let’s hope it kicks some serious ass!
I am updating my iTunes, iPod and Quicktime software at the moment through Software Update and will report back…
Seems that essentially the revised iTunes is basically the same but with some nice enhancements in the music store itself. First, Allowances and Gift Certificates which I think are a great addition and make it feel more like a real store – at least the GC’s do. Allowances are clearly set up for families to allow kids to purchase but within reason…
The addition of audio books is also very cool. I am not (or have not anyway) been a big audio book user, but with everything nicely inside iTunes and the ITMS, I can’t see why I would not check it out. I’ve got at least 40 minutes of travel time daily that I could use to “read.”
I can’t speak for how the Windows version works as I am just on a Mac here. The store itself seems to have been redesigned with some additions in content, including celebrity playlists.
One additional point of interest from the Press Release:
Apple® and America Online, Inc., the world’s leading interactive services company, today announced an alliance to provide instant, one-click registration to the iTunes® Music Store for AOL’s more than 25 million U.S. members starting later this quarter. America Online will integrate links to iTunes artists, albums and songs throughout its leading music site, AOL Music, which will give members the option to link directly to the specific iTunes Music Store page to preview and buy music as they browse and read music news and reviews.
wow – that is super cool. Go APPLE!
The relaunch of Napster, which reinvented the music business, may come too late for the company to take part in the party it started. [RED HERRING]
Riddle me this: What would you get if you crossed a BlackBerry with an iPod? The answer: The future of the music business. Let me explain. Imagine, if you will, an iPod as a wireless digital ladle. It would dip into a nearly bottomless stream of continual music, scooping up any song you wanted, when you wanted, where you wanted. There would be no need for CDs, hard drives, or any other storage device. And trying to capture such music would be about as easy as trapping mist in a jar. Every song would contain a digital expiration date, so, over time, they would evaporate. [BusinessWeek]
The recording industry has withdrawn a lawsuit against a Newbury woman because it falsely accused her of illegally sharing music — possibly the first case of mistaken identity in the battle against Internet file-traders. [Boston.com]
Seems an open AP enabled a windows user to trade music over a Mac households network which confused the intelligence gathered by the RIAA. Perhaps the more who share the bandwidth the more likely the RIAA is to have to drop suits due to lack of evidence…
The music industry’s campaign against online piracy attacks the idea that everything in cyberspace can be free. [New York Times: Business]
Mike Stuto, the 36-year-old owner of Hi Fi and the co-creator of EL DJ, says it has the biggest selection of any jukebox in the world. “The reason it’s a great idea is because it’s a simple idea,” he said.
Mr. Stuto’s basic idea was to digitize his music collection and make it available in a jukebox that held far more than the standard 100 albums. EL DJ, or Extra Large Digital Jukebox, includes tracks from 1,798 full-length CD’s in Mr. Stuto’s collection. [New York Times]
The software for this baby is going to be made available for purchase. Seems that it will cost about $20 for the personal, not the commercial version and could be a very cool way to view and listen to your collection.
Battered by online piracy, the world’s largest record company said that it would cut prices on compact discs by as much as 30 percent.
Under the new pricing scheme, Universal would lower its wholesale price on a CD to $9.09 from $12.02. The company said it expected retail stores to lower CD prices to $12.98, from the $16.98 to $18.98 they now charge, and perhaps to as low as $10. When CD’s first arrived on the market they cost $15.98, and have climbed from there. [New York Times: Technology]
Virtual Delivery Seen as Death to Discs: CDs and DVDs may be on their way to extinction, even though Hollywood will win the war against illegal downloading, according to a new report from Forrester. The study predicts that in five years, CDs and DVDs will start to go the way of the vinyl LP as 33 percent of music sales and 19 percent of home video revenue shifts to streaming and downloading. [PaidContent.org]
Interestingly I finally purchased my first tracks… damn the ITMS is easy. My first track was Bob Dylan, Hurricane followed very quickly by Blonde on Blonde. This morning I scooped up Verve Remixed 2…
We’re still partial to spinning actual records, but Pioneer has updated the CDJ-1000, its CD player for DJs that let’s you cut and scratch CDs sorta like how you would on a turntable with vinyl. The CDJ-1000MK2 has pretty much the same design as the CDJ-1000, just better sound quality and improved response time. [Gizmodo]
iRATE radio is a “collaborative filtering client/server mp3 player/downloader.” [Scripting News]
Very clever scheme from Robert X. Cringely to legally subvert the current music distribution model – he calls it “Snapster”:… [Blogcritics]
This actually sounds like an idea a friend of mine and some buddies were working through. It makes huge sense to me. I wonder if Muse could pull this off since they are all about ubiquitous streaming… I did not see anything about sharing or extending your collection to a device – at least for now.
Wow, a chart that reflects the reality of what real people really want to hear? This could be something… [Blogcritics]
Billboard says that Apple, the most aggressive player in this market so far, is selling an average of 500,000 tracks a week. If that’s true, and it takes just 1,500 sales to be No. 1, then the variety of tracks that people are downloading must be extremely broad—particularly compared with, say, the variety of tracks that make up a typical Top 40 station’s play list
Hoping to reprise Apple’s early iTunes success, the company offers a catalog of more than 300,000 songs from major and independent labels–for computers using Windows. [CNET News.com Entertainment & Media]
Looks like an Apple rip-off service right down to the commercials on the bottom of the home page. You need Windows Media Player 9 which manages the rights through SMDI. It’s a combo package with download, transfers and burns. Seems to be more focused on the rights part than necessarily on the music part, but we all know who wants it that way…
Good for Buy, that as usual they win on price… though I wonder how much they paid Tommy Lee?
A new wireless digital audio system from Yamaha called MusicCast which consists of the MCX-1000, a digital audio server with an 80GB hard drive for storing MP3s, and the MCX-A10 (pictured at right), a digital audio client that can wirelessly stream music files off of the server. Unlike some of these other digital audio receivers, you can get MP3s onto the MCX-1000 both by ripping them from CDs or transferring them over from a PC. Read [Via The Gadgeteer]… [Gizmodo]
A more sophisticated approach to my SliMP3 system, though I bet it costs a great deal more. I like how you can rip and burn cds from the server… Then you hook in the wireless receivers either with our without speakers per room. 80GB drive standard though it is upgradeable as well.
Looks very slick…
The anonymity provided by wireless broadband access points is hindering the record industry’s fight to stop people from trading songs and movies online. [CNET News.com]
all good…