Songbird 0.7: Huge Improvements
Posted by James | Filed under Geek, Music, Social, Web
Songbird, the desktop music player powered at its core by Mozilla technology, has recently released a new version: Songbird 0.7 (RC). This release offers several new features for the player, including Last.fm support and a refreshed UI. For music lovers, this new version is definitely worth a look.
Tags: firefox, mozilla, Songbird, Songbird 0.7
Practice What You Preach: New NIN Album on BitTorrent
Posted by James | Filed under Music, Play, Web
It’s not like we doubted him, but Trent Reznor really meant it when he said that he hates the way the music industry operates and that he encourages sharing of his music on the Internet.
Nine Inch Nails have put up the first volume of their album ‘Ghosts’ on torrent sites, under a creative commons license. If you want to the whole package of the multi-volume album (36 tracks; ~ 2 hours!) though, you can go over to NIN’s official site and download it for $5. You can also order a 2xCD box set for a mere $10, "deluxe limited edition package" for $70, and you can get an "ultra-deluxe limited edition package" for $300.
Let me just stop here for a moment and say, if there’s one album I’m gonna buy this year (I usually go to concerts and buy t-shirts as I feel the band profits more directly from this), it’s going to be this one (just ordered the $10 package). Finally, you get really great value for money, and you get a fantastic number of options which cater to every pocket. I’m sure that fans will realise this and get the option they can afford, be it free, or the ultra-deluxe version.
Here’s what Trent has to say about BitTorrent:
Now that we’re no longer constrained by a record label, we’ve decided to personally upload Ghosts I, the first of the four volumes, to various torrent sites, because we believe BitTorrent is a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.
I couldn’t have said it better myself.
Tags: creative commons license, ghosts, music industry, music on the internet, nine inch nails, torrent sites, trent reznor
UK Retailers Join The Anti-DRM Crusade
Posted by James | Filed under Music
Digital Rights Management has long been one of the most hotly-discussed and widely-loathed technologies around, and whilst its grip on mainstream media providers seems set to continue, the wall of DRM is slowly beginning to crumble.
Recently we’ve seen plenty of activity against DRM, and even a change of tune with music executives making overtures about how ‘they were wrong to go to war with consumers’. Whilst it used to be just consumers who were the majority of DRM opponents, their cause has just been strengthened with new that British music retailers have added their voice to the campaign against DRM because they believe that horrendous amounts of copy protection is actually putting people off buying the very media they rely on.
Whilst it’s fair to say that in certain areas, particularly video, there’s plenty of progress yet to be made in changing industry opinion, the continuing demise of DRM is music to my ears!
Tags: british music, consumers, copy protection, digital rights management, drm, mainstream media, music retailers
Welcome to Jimmahdigital.com, personal blog of James Simm, Wigan/Manchester-based .Net developer.
