Seeqpod To Be Sold, Saved From Bankruptcy

After getting repeatedly sued by major labels, music search engine Seeqpod filed for bankruptcy in early April 2009. But now CEO Kasian Franks says Seeqpod will avoid shutting down because a large company is going to buy it. He told Wired that Seeqpod is now in “final acquisition talks” with a partner that “is in the [same] position” as Apple, Google or Live Nation.

Seeqpod was supposed to be protected by the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), which lets search engines link to any content, so long as they take down allegedly infringing links at the copyright holder’s request. But the recording industry seems to be oblivious to the Act, and has continued to pummel music search engines like Seeqpod, Muxtape and MP3Tunes with lawsuits. Continue reading...

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Apple Gets Sued, Accused of Censorship

Last year, a noncommercial, public Internet ‘wiki’ site operated by OdioWorks called BlueWiki was shut down after Apple lawyers claimed (pdf) that discussions on the site constituted copyright infringement. BluWiki users shared information about making other music platforms, like Songbird, Banshee, Rockbox and Winamp, workable on the iPhone and iPod instead of Apple’s iTunes.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has now partnered with OdioWorks to file a lawsuit against Apple for stifling free speech on BluWiki in order to restore the discussions on the site. Apple is obviously trying to maintain iTunes as the exclusive platform on the iPod and iPhone, but hobbyists and tinkerers should be able to share their thoughts on community sites like BluWiki. Read more...

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Rusko Remixes Andy Milonakis’ Let Me Twitter Dat

Comedian Andy Milonakis’ original track Let Me Twitter Dat has been given a professional electronic makeover with the new remix from Rusko. Judging by Rusko’s official Twitter account, the track was whipped up over this last weekend, and was hyped on several occasions through the micro-blogging service. Read more...

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Recording Industry Releases 2008 Sales Statistics

The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA pdf) and the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI pdf) both released statistics for 2008 sales. As expected, the numbers show that physical sales continued to drop in comparison to 2007, but digital sales grew to nearly 30 percent of the total market, and digital performance rights royalties went up 74 percent. Read more...

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New Disc Can Store Over 100,000 Songs

The way we listen to music has gone through regular changes, generally due to evolving technology in digital data storage. At first, there was vinyl. Then the cassette tape, the CD, DVD, and most recently the Blu-ray disc, which can currently hold between 25 and 50 Gigabytes (GB). Inevitably, science has produced the a new prototype in the field.

General Electric has unveiled their “micro-holographic” disc, which stores a whopping 500GB, and is the same size as a normal DVD. The new discs are able to contain data in three dimensions, rather than just on one the surface of the disc. The technology will initially be used for archiving, but the company believes it will eventually make its way to the consumer market and home use. Continue reading....

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EU Votes to Extend Music Copyright Term to 70 Years

The European Parliament has voted to lengthen sound recording copyright to 70 years, up from the previous limit of 50 years. If the proposal is passed by the EU states in the European Council to become a law, artists like The Beatles and the Rolling Stones will continue to receive royalties on recordings for another 20 years.

Sir Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey and Sir Paul McCartney are among the many musicians who argued in favor of the proposal. However, British singers Paul McCartney, Elton John and Mick Jagger lost millions of their personal fortunes last year due to the economic crisis, so it’s possible that they are looking to compensate for their losses with the new EU law. Continue reading...

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Justice Remixes Lenny Kravitz, Free Download

After Justice was hired to remix U2’s Get On Your Boots, Lenny Kravitz has done exactly the same thing with the track Let Love Rule from his upcoming album of the same name.

The French duo is quickly becoming the go-to remixers for popular bands. Besides U2, they have, in the past, given the Justice treatment to other songs from pop artists like Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake. They take the original Kravitz song and speed it up, while adding their customary funk beat and bassline. Listen to the track and compare it to the original after the jump: Read more...

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Shelter Red Strike A Mortal Terror Videos and Tour

Shelter Red is an progressive rock instrumental duo from Portland, Oregon, that recently released their second album Strike A Mortal Terror on Sound VS. Silence Records. The album is a follow up to their 2007 debut, Masters Of The Universe. Read more...

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Hulu Follows Vevo’s Lead, Wants to Host Music Videos

Hulu, the site that offers free streaming TV shows and movies, is trying to strike deals with major labels Universal, EMI, Sony and Warner to host music videos. The dealings indicate that Hulu is planning to compete directly with YouTube-backed music video site Vevo.com, which is expected to launch later this year.

YouTube has already teamed up with Universal Music Group (UMG) for Vevo, but is also interested in negotiating the addition of the remaining labels to the new video site. Ironically, if all goes as planned, Hulu and Vevo will both stream the exact same music videos licensed from the same labels. They will undoubtedly be contending with each other for our attention in the near future, but if they are offering the same content, how will we choose between the two? Continue reading...

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Just Hear It Streams Legal Music For Free

The newest music search engine Just Hear It! searches the web for any song, and lets you stream audio or video for free. To top it off, the company pays for licenses from all the major performing-rights organizations, so there’s no reason to worry about recent copyright lawsuits.

Just Hear It turns up complete and sometimes surprising results. Less known covers, remixes, and live performances are culled from YouTube and the web, and there’s always the option to either view the video, or continue searching while you listen. In fact, the core search function seems to consistently find music on YouTube; most likely because parent company Google is so friendly with the recording industry. Continue reading...

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Old Computers Play Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody

As a rule, music played by machines is perfectly synchronized and in tune, but this ensemble of old hardware sounds like a band in its early stages, just starting to play in unison. The band’s members are: an Atari 800XL was used for the lead piano/organ sound, a Texas Instruments TI-99 as lead guitar, an 8 Inch Floppy Disk on the bass, a 3.5 inch Harddrive as the gong and an HP ScanJet 3C on vocals.

There are software plugins which have the sole purpose of “humanizing” electronic music by introducing small imperfections in the note sequences. The musical incompetence of the machines in the video, added to the heroic melodies of Queen’s masterpiece make the performance depressingly human, and beautiful.

(Thanks to Robert Ashley)

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