Entries tagged as music

Today, July 15, is supposed to have been the date that thousands of internet radio broadcasters are sent to their final resting place. This is due mainly to the ten-fold increase in royalty payments that the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) plans to impose.

The heart of the conflict is that the internet broadcasters argue that such rates would put them out of business. At the other end, commercial artists and record companies, through their collection agent called Soundexchange, argue that the hike was necessary to ensure proper compensation for their work.

So it was basically a whirlwind week last week when court testimonies and arguments went back and forth regarding this issue. And then there were the private meetings and negotiations that ended up in Capitol Hill. When the dust settled, internet radio is still alive ... just barely.

One of the biggest global concerts in more than twenty years was staged yesterday and you'd really have been living in a cave if you hadn't heard of Live Earth. Some writers have already described it as bigger than Live Aid, perhaps the pioneer of multi-venue global concerts. It was twenty-two years ago that Live Aid, organized by Bob Geldof of the Boomtown Rats and Midge Ure of Ultravox, helped raise money and awareness for famine relief in Ethiopia.

This year, artists from all over the world stationed themselves in various venues throughout the seven continents with the objective of raising awareness on global warming. This makes Live Earth significantly different from Live Aid because it was not about raising money. Mother Nature is in trouble, so now we ask ourselves how are we going to respond to the call?

You may have read that there are some digital songs being sold online these days that are already DRM free. While this may be true, it only applies to the products from a specific music label that agreed to remove DRM from their music. This may leave you in a dilemma especially if you like to transfer music across several types of digital music players. Certainly not all the music you like will come from the label that is DRM-free.

To date, there really is no easy way to remove DRM, but it can be done. It just takes a little effort, the right tools and some creativity. For the tech-savvy, the process has probably been simplified down to a science with each step being achieved using the appropriate tools. For those who may have a little harder time understanding technical stuff but wish to enjoy their music across different platforms, the process can be confusing resulting in some resources being wasted along the way. Thankfully there are "all-in-one" programs out there that can help.

The artist known as Prince is giving away free copies of his upcoming album Planet Earth, but you have to be in the UK this weekend just to get it.

When Prince Rogers Nelson aka Prince aka Alexander Nevermind aka O(+> aka TAFKAP aka Prince again released his hit "Controversy" way back in 1981, he probably had a premonition of how his career path would go. Obviously he is no stranger to controversy or conflict.

The eagerly awaited new album, slated for release July 16 worldwide and July 24 in the U.S., is being launched as a free CD with newspaper The Mail. This practice is known as "cover mounts" and record companies naturally frown on this type of promotion. With a high profile musical royalty such as Prince involved, the move by The Mail has ruffled more than a few feathers.

Digital music players come in so many shapes and sizes these days it's impossible to keep up. Of course the name in personal digital music players is the iPod.

The iPod has become so universal that accessories are actually being built around it. There are iPod targetted accessories such the iDogs, iPets, and the iBaby! It's a stroller made by Kolcraft that has an iPod, speakers, and adapter built in so that the baby or toddler can enjoy music while being strolled about.

Getting accessories for your favorite mp3 player basically depends upon your needs. Here we'll enumarate five of the really essential accessories.

Recently an entertainment article asked the question "has the day of the audiophile come to an end?" I didn't even need to read the article. The answer is a big... "no".

Look at the numbers in music download statistics, whether legal or otherwise, and you see undisputed proof of how popular digital music is. These files are compressed to a fraction of the original file size and easily stored in personal music players, cellular phones or whatever gadget the user prefers. I refer to these as "castrated" files for lack of a better term, because simply put, it's not all there. But obviously, millions of digital music aficionados love their music castrated. Are they the new audiophiles?

It's been more than a hundred years since Guglielmo Marconi sent and received the very first radio waves from inside his house to his garden. Technology has since brought us so many improvements, one of the latest being HD Radio.

The initials "HD" in relation to radio has come to be known as "high definition" although in reality, it means nothing. It is very likely a marketer's spin to cash in on the growing popularity of HDTV because HDTV promises to provide specularly detailed images, so "high definition" radio is supposed to deliver crystal clear audio. Well, almost.