Filed under: Fun, Internet, Text, Web services Wondering what to get your less-than-tech-savvy friends? On a tight budget and can't buy them a PS3 or even a single Blu-ray title? Worry slightly less courtesy this cheapskates' guide to gifting content from the internet. Not everything is budget-friendly, but almost everything on the list is a terrific value. MUSIC Lee wrote up a lovely list of 35 places to download free, legal MP3's back in August. If you're still intent on forking over cash for tunes (and I don't blame you), here are a few other ideas:RhapsodyPossibly one of the best...
Will the music subscription business ever grow beyond its current niche? It looks increasingly doubtful. Today, eMusic announced that since it launched its current music subscription service in 2003, customers have downloaded 250 million songs. Apple’s iTunes, by comparison, has sold more than 5 billion songs since it opened the iTunes Store in April, 2003. That makes eMusic one twentieth the size of iTunes. The way eMusic works is you pay a subscription of between $12 and $20 a month and then you can download 30 to 75 songs a month and keep them. You can also purchase songs...
Microsoft, has increased the value of its Zune Pass music subscriptions adding 10 free mp3 downloads a month to its $14.99 package. The announcement also added Sony BMG and Universal to the other two majors offering their music as DRM-free mp3s making Zune 90% DRM free. Independent aggregators IODA, The Orchard and INgrooves have also joined the majors in the free download program.. Music subscriptions from Zune, Napster, Rhapsody and others have struggled to gain traction. Microsoft may have found a way to jump start the sector. If downloaded and valed at 99 cents each the 10 free tracks...
HYPEBOT FEATURES: A Third Path For Music Investors Zune Revalues Subscriptions With 10 Free Tracks In Support Of The Musical Middle Class MySpace Grabs Chinese Democracy Exclusive Sid McCain Named VP Label Services EMI NA MORE NEWS: eMusic has added the classic jazz labels Black Saint and Soul Note. Its the first time either label has been available digitally and eMusic has it exclusively for 2 months. The catalog includes 580 recordings from some Andrew Hill, Cecil Taylor, Dave Douglas, Anthony Braxton, and the World Saxophone Quartet and others. Indie digital sistributor INgrooves has partnered digital music store provider...
Seagate kicked out a couple of FreeAgent Go hard drives a few months back, but it's now gone all out and let loose an even more colorful batch in the hope of attracting a bit more attention among holiday shoppers -- as usual, Festivus revelers luck out year 'round with the ever-present, aluminum pole-matching silver option. From the looks of it, the drives are still available in the same 250GB, 320GB, and 500GB capacitiies as before for $120, $150, and $200, respectively, and those that register their drives between November 28th and New Year's day will get a bonus...
Some signs of how President-elect Barack Obama will use his massive Internet following are starting to surface. The President’s weekly radio address, a staple of American politics since the Franklin Roosevelt administration, will be posted to YouTube, starting this week with the Democratic address (the party not in power has also traditionally broadcast a weekly radio soundbite). The videos will also be posted to Change.gov, the President-elect’s transition site that launched last week. According to The Washington Post, the Obama administration is also likely to launch a YouTube Channel for The White House after taking power. As a candidate, Obama...
No one is immune to the econalypse. Not even “Specialty Retailer of the Decade” Best Buy (BBY). The company today joined the sad conga line of retailers lamenting the recent turmoil in the financial markets.Citing continued weakness in consumer spending, the company slashed its fiscal 2009 profit forecast. Best Buy had been expecting earnings for the year to be between $3.25 to $3.40 based on a same-store sales increase of 2 to 3 percent for the year. It now expects them to be between $2.30 and $2.90 a share on sales of between $43.7 billion and $45.5 billion. And here...
Nice and simple. The SanDisk Sansa Clip now comes with 8GB of memory for $99. It still has the same OLED screen, 15 hours of battery, and yes, a clip. Available now. SANDISK ROLLS OUT NEW 8GB VERSION OF THE POPULAR AND TINY SANSA(R) CLIP MP3 PLAYER Capacity increase doubles available space on tiniest player in Sansa line WHO/WHAT SanDisk Corporation, a leading seller of MP3 players in the United States, today announced a capacity increase for the Sansa(R) Clip MP3 Player. One of the most popular flash-based players in SanDisk’s Sansa line of MP3 players, this tiny Sansa(R) Clip has...
Details of the EMI restructuring emerge. (Variety) Dell may be dropping plans for a portable music and video player indefinitely and concentrating on delivering a media player that organizes downloaded music and movies via its purchase last year of Zing. (ars) Does the world really need another media player? For example here is.... A very positive "hands on" with the new open source Songbird 1.0 music player application. (ars) I may switch. What do you guys think? In support of the 5 cents download and $5 CD. (Inside Music Media) Pizza Hut gives away 75 free tracks with a purchase...
RouteNote is a music distribution startup in the UK which offers unsigned or independent artists from anywhere the ability to get their music distributed to a bunch of online stores. Artists upload tracks to the RouteNote catalogue and select partnered retail outlets that they wish their music to be available through (e.g. Napster, Snocap, Samsung Mobile). There are no sign up fees and the bands keep all rights which are non-exclusive to Routenote. That means it differs from Tunecore (as there are no signup fees) or The Orchard (which takes a cut of revenue). Instead it monetises by taking a...
The slowing economy has hit two more online based music firms. Sonicbids has laid off 9 of its 58 staff members. The cuts touched every department except Member Relations. Some came at the administrative level including technology human resources veteran Ellenmarie Rhone who was VP of People and Culture. CEO Panos Pany insists he's just being prudent telling Hypebot that "the economic environment has definitely been taken into account, though so far it has not affected Sonicbids." As for ongoing online criticsm of Sonicbid's pay for the opportunity to perform program which drives much of the company's revenue, Panay replies...
Yet another digital company is cutting back: eMusic, the digital music subscription service, is firing “about 10 percent” of its 100-person staff, the company says. eMusic explains the cut by offering what has become a stock answer: Things aren’t terrible, but the company is bracing for a slowdown and is cutting now so it can avoid doing it later. But eMusic chair Danny Stein, who runs the firm’s parent company, JDS Capital Management, offers some additional color: The specific problem the company is seeing is with its 2,000 retail partners–either chains like Best Buy (BBY) or electronics companies that were...
The online channel, originally considered a threat to the music and movie industries, has become an increasingly important distribution channel. Over the last several years, we’ve seen more and more industry-sanctioned content download sites. Services like eMusic, Napster (the legal version), Rhapsody, and iTunes have grown their inventories and membership. At the same time, companies that used to peddle hard copies of their respective media are turning to the online retailers. I’m a big fan of the hit AMC TV show “Mad Men,” but I’m not a cable subscriber, so I usually turn to the internet to stay up to...
Despite our bumpy history with TuneCore, we’re big fans of their business model: they help artists get digital distribution of their music on iTunes, Amazon, Rhapsody, napster, eMusic and other online music sites without the trouble of going through a distributor. A recent deal with iLike expands their footprint further. Basically, TuneCore is the place to go if you are unsigned but want people to have access to your music - a sort of CDBaby for the digital world. After a small setup fee, the artist keeps all proceeds from the sale. This model has also attracted established artists who’ve...
