18.5.09

Zune Pass Offers Unlimited Music, Until You Stop Subscribing

Penny Arcade is usually a gaming webcomic, but today, music is the focus after Microsoft aired a new commercial for the Zune Pass, which gives you unlimited music for fifteen dollars a month. The catch? If you stop subscribing to the service, all of your music gets erased. Penny Arcade says it best in today’s comic: “It’d be like you murdered all of your favorite artists.”

Granted, since a few major deals in Nov. 2008 (press release), the Zune Pass lets you choose ten songs to keep every month for your collection, but if you stop paying, the “obliteration” of the remainder holds true. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins owns a Zune, and said that the new marketing campaign is “dumb”, while the rest of the internet is more intent on bashing the new face of Microsoft’s Zune, Wes Moss, and his lack of musical credentials. Watch the infamous advertisement after the jump: Continue reading...

Read More...

New Warp Records Site: Warp.net

Warp Records has launched a new web site Warp.net, where you can stream songs of signed artists for free from a playlist, and have quick access to the latest Warp news, events and releases.

You can embed the Official Warp Playlist by copying the usual bit of html code. When Warp adds and changes songs on the Playlist, the embedded player will update correspondingly. It gets better; each Warp artist’s page has its own unique embeddable player, which is also updated with new releases. Now you can have your own official Aphex Twin or Grizzly Bear widget. Read more...

Read More...

Universal Music Parent Vivendi Reports Earnings Boost

Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group, posted a 16 percent rise in earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Philippe Capron said that they “can see some impact of the recession on our activities, but most are protected by subscriptions.” Primarily the millions of subscribers to World Of Warcraft, the online multiplayer game from Vivendi-owned Activision Blizzard. Continue reading...

Read More...

16.5.09

Manic Street Preachers Cover Art Banned In UK Supermarkets

The new Manic Street Preachers album, Journal For Plague Lovers, is being shipped to UK supermarkets without cover artwork, because the portrait by Jenny Saville is considered “inappropriate”. The band is annoyed at the setback, and singer James Dean Bradfield called the situation “utterly bizarre”. He told BBC 6 Music that:

“It is her brushwork. If you’re familiar with her work, there’s a lot of ochres and browns and reds and browns, and perhaps people are looking for us to be more provocative than we are being.”

Is “inappropriate” an unfair description? Let’s take a look at some of Saville’s other paintings: Continue reading...

Read More...

Music For Search Engines: SearchMe, Wolfram Alpha

Searchme is the new search engine that lets you share information instantly on Twitter and Facebook. It organizes your search into an animation that bring up each page and present s text associated with the page. You then have the option to share the page, zoom in to read it and click through to the original URL address. Continue reading...

Read More...

U.S. Congress Votes Radio Performance Royalty Fees

The Performance Royalties Act and the Webcaster Settlement Act were debated today by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. The Performance Rights Act, supported by Billy Corgan, would impose a “performance tax” on broadcast radio stations, which traditionally don’t pay artists and labels. In fact, some say that major labels have paid stations in exchange for airplay in the past. The Committee voted 21 to 9 to send the Act to full House for a vote.

The Webcaster Settlement Act would lower royalty rates for Internet radio services. Jonathan Potter, Executive Director of the Digital Media Association said that the Act will make sure “Internet radio royalties are determined using the same fairness-based balancing test that has always been the standard for setting cable and satellite radio royalties.” Read more...

Read More...

Stream Wilco (The Album) For Free!

Wilco are streaming Wilco (The Album) for free at Wilcoworld. The album won’t be out on Nonesuch until June 30, but you can stream one huge track of Wilco’s newest release in low 128k or high 256k quality. Continue reading...

Read More...

Primavera Sound Festival 09 Schedule Released

Excitement is hard to contain for the upcoming Primavera Sound Festival in Barcelona, Spain from May 28-30. The schedule has been released, and tickets are on sale right now. The schedule is ridiculous, with simultaneous shows of must-see bands spread out across no less than six stages. A quick look at the lineup immediately presents some difficult decisions. Read more...

Read More...

15.5.09

French Assembly Passes Three Strikes Bill

Today (12 May), French Parliament approved a bill that will cut Internet connections of repeat file sharers after “three strikes”. The legislation passed by a vote of 296 to 233 and goes before the French Senate Wednesday, where it is expected to pass. If adopted, warning messages from HADOPI should be sent to file sharing Internet users as early as this fall. The first disconnections will begin in 2010. Continue reading...

Read More...

Headbanger Hero: Moshpit Amp, Metal Head Orgasmatron

From the creators of the Painstation comes the newest addition to the upcoming surge of Guitar Hero and Rock Band titles, MoshPit: Metal Head Orgasmatron. The Moshpit amp detects your headbanging movements and converts them into guitars, bass, drums and vocals. The //////////fur//// website explains:

“As you mosh on, you can change the individual volume levels of the four instruments through your headbanging style and intensity. You can see how far you have pushed the level of each instrument on the four MoshMeters.”

And those MoshMeters go up to eleven. Continue reading...

Read More...

 
ss_blog_claim=e1f9e5fd0ea9078168878a791f7c6a58