Category: Content

Content

Major Labels: US$0.99 is Too Cheap!

Even though many listeners think that the current average price for a downloaded music track is a tad on the high side, the five major labels have got together to discuss putting the price up – by quite a bit, too.

At US$0.99 (€0.83), music is doing OK, if not exactly flying off the servers – yet a hike to US$1.25 or even US$2.99 per song is being talked about. Online music stores are expensive to run, say the industry, and most of them lose money. Apple does very well out of iTunes, and sells a lot of iPods because of it, but the labels don’t see much out of it.

The legal download business is only just starting to flourish – a price rise on this scale will surely kill it off completely.

Slashdot on the story

RealNetworks Talking to PC Manufacturers

RealNetworks are in talks with PC manufacturers regarding shipping their player software with new PCs. Since the EU ruling on Microsoft’s Windows Media Player, it looks like other software houses finally have a chance of getting their own players shipped with PCs – as was the EU Commissions intention.

“In a few very preliminary talks with computer makers we’ve discussed options, Europe is the first jurisdiction to rule on this,” said RealNetworks’ chief executive Rob Glaser. He believes that PC manufacturers are about to embark on a new course. Glaser is very proud of the capabilities of the latest Real Player, version 10, as it will play a wide variety of files and incorporates sophisticated DRM via RealNetworks Helix technology. RealPlayer 10 is capable, the company claim, of playing any file format on any device. It certainly is the only player at the moment that can play all major formats.

Additionally, RealNetworks are getting more heavily involved in mobile phone-based media, where there is much less standards fragmentation than with PCs. “The bulk of our business is still in the PC segment, but we’re focusing on both. We hope to see significant mobile growth”, Glaser added.

RealNetworks

New BBC Chair: Embrace the Net

In his first speech since getting the job, the new chairman of the BBC, Michael Grade warned broadcasters and programme makers that they could end up with the same piracy problems as the music industry unless they acted immediately and used the internet to distribute their content.

He said in the speech: “If I was a major content owner, I would be looking at what has happened to the music industry and I’d be very concerned. The lessons are you can’t be arrogant enough to believe any of the distribution methods available are going to win out. You have to play them all. I’d be availing myself of every possible opportunity to distribute my content and I’d let the consumer decide.”

Greg Dyke made noises about opening up the BBC archive last year, but there has been no further movement. Grade did not give any details on how the BBC hope to avoid the fate he was warning about. BBC Worldwide has been experimenting with digital delivery for the past couple of years now, but is mostly interested in using streaming to preview programmes to potential broadcasters, with its BBC Preview and Motion Gallery projects.

BBC News on Grade’s speech

Atari on Demand: So That’s What the Internet is For

Launching with 35 titles, Atari On Demand is a new service that allows subscribers to play unlimited Atari games for a $14.95 (€12.37) monthly fee. The games are specially packaged versions of back catalogue titles – and they use a special player application to protect their content, reduce download size and simplify the process. Subscribers don’t download and install titles – they’re downloaded to the player and it does everything else.

The Atari Player is by Exent Technologies Inc., and is based on their EXEtender application. EXEtender (Don’t. Make. Me. Type. It. Again.) technology is already used in game services in America, Europe and Asia. The service is Windows only – games are streamed to the subcriber’s PC and the Atari Player ensures that the destination PC can handle all the application-specific bits and pieces before the download begins.

Packaging the games in this way has another useful benefit aside from DRM and ease of installation – the binary files for the packaged games are 50% to 60% of the size of the full installer. It could be that these kind of sites might tempt users away from illegal P2P services just because the games take half as long to install, and are much less bother. We certainly hope so.

Before you hit the link and disappear from this article to the Atari site forever, the selection of games is a little weak at the moment. In fact, it really is very weak being comprised of recent titles from Infogrammes. Hopefully they’ll expand the range very quickly and get some old stuff in there as Infogrammes have abused the Atari brand to foist rubbish on the general public who only remember Atari’s proud arcade history. Consequently, we find it amazing that they chose to launch with a title like Trophy Hunter 2003 (shooting moose) and not Bezerk (shooting yellow robots).

Now Sega – are you paying attention?

Atari Unlimited

Atari Explorer – a beautiful site detailing the history of the company

GMail in Trouble Already

Privacy International have complained to the UK Information Commissioner about Google’s GMail service – specifically the technology that scans incoming emails and incorporates targeted advertising.

Google says on the GMail site that the process is automated and no human ever reads subscribers’ emails.

Regardless of whether it reads the emails or not, Google will be able to harvest a huge amount of metrics relating to the demographic profile, shopping habits and social behaviour about every one of its GMail subscribers. This information will be tremendously valuable when sold to third parties, who will then know what adverts you’ve seen on any particular day, what links you follow and how active you are on the internet. Long gaps in logging in might even be a good indication of which time of year you prefer to go on holiday.

Privacy International are also not impressed by the following statement in GMail’s privacy statement: “Residual copies of email may remain on our systems, even after you have deleted them from your mailbox or after the termination of your account.” However, this statement is true of almost every email service in existence – free or otherwise.

The only person who is going to look out for your privacy on the internet is you: if you use a service, always assume that the provider can access everything you write, store or read on there – and also assume that groups outside the service can also access it, whether you intend to or not.

Privacy International

Microsoft and Sun Kiss and Make Up

It came as a surprise to many, but Sun and Microsoft agreed to a settlement to their long-running anti-trust dispute on Friday. The dispute was centred around Microsoft’s treatment of Sun’s Java programming language.

Microsoft has never liked Java, seeing it as a direct competitor with many of its own technologies such as ActiveX and C#. Microsoft support for Java was always patchy – MS’s own Java virtual machine was not strictly standard, and Java implementation and integration in Internet Explorer was troublesome. For a while Microsoft tried to divide the Java community with its own, not strictly compatible J++ language, but is now promoting C# as a substitute for Sun’s write-once-run-anywhere platform. Whilst C# is syntactically similar to Java, and has a remarkably similar API, it does not have many of the benefits of the Java platform, nor is it so widely supported.

However, it was J++ that angered Sun Microsystems – further inflamed when Microsoft declared that they would stop supporting Java, forcing users to download a VM if they wanted to run Java applets. It was this dispute that kicked off the EU’s case against Microsoft – and led to rulings relating to including better Java support in Windows and the uncoupling of Windows Media Player.

“Our companies will continue to compete hard, but this agreement creates a new basis for cooperation that will benefit the customers of both companies,” said Steve Ballmer, chief executive officer of Microsoft in a statement, “This agreement recognizes that cutting edge R&D and intellectual property protection are the foundation for the growth and success of our industry. This is a positive step forward for both Sun and Microsoft, but the real winners are the customers and developers who rely on our products and innovations.”

Microsoft will pay Sun US$700 million (€578 million) to resolve the Java dispute, and a further US$900 million (€743 million) for patent issues. Both companies have agreed to pay each other royalties for the technologies that they license from one another, with Microsoft paying US$350 million (€289 million) up front.

Sun on the agreement

World’s First Customised Multimedia Mobile

Emblaze Mobile of Israel have produced a new multimedia handset, and it’s the first time that a network provider, in this case Partner Communications, has had almost complete control over the specification of a mobile and it’s applications.

Considering that the Alpha 8 is Israel’s first attempt at a mobile phone, the handset is amongst some of the most sophisticated handsets out there. Designed by Emblaze in tandem with Partner, the phone is based around video and gaming functions – it can record 30 minutes of video, play Java games and play MP3s. The user interface is via a 2.2 inch TFT screen which displays 65,000 colours.

Partner Communications, which trades under the Orange brand in Israel are hoping to provide a video on demand portal for subscribers – the phone can play back video at up to 30 frames per second, and can record at 15.

Emblaze are hoping to take the phone to other world markets – notably Europe and Asia: “It’s Israeli-based and we are producing cellphones, but we are selling across the world. Our intent is not just to work with Partner in Israel. We are looking at big names and all the number one (mobile) operators in Europe. We are talking to each one and we are in various stages and hoping to close deals,” said Emblaze’s Doron Cohen.

Emblaze Mobile

Prince Makes New Album Ready for Download

Prince has opened at new online music store – and has declared it the “first artist-owned, independent download store of its kind.”

The diminutive funkster’s company said in a statement: “The creation of The Musicology Download Store underscores Prince’s understanding and commitment to the convergence of technology and music. Instead of relying on iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, or any of the other corporate-run and owned music services filling the marketplace right now, Prince is building his own 99 cent pay-as-u-go service.”

None of his Warner-era music, i.e. any of his greatest hits, are available for download from the site, and probably never will because he doesn’t have the distribution rights for them.

Files are in Windows Media 9 format, and are priced at the usual US$0.99 per track. Entriq are providing the back-end billing, transaction processing and metrics. “Managing a direct relationship between artist and fan base is a growing phenomenon, and Entriq is fortunate to be working with NPG Music Club, a leader in this area,” said Jan Steenkamp, chief executive officer of Entriq. “Through the Entriq solution, NPG Music Club was able to set the rules for accessing specific music and can be confident that all content is delivered securely, quickly and easily to music fans. Entriq is thrilled to be the backstage partner for delivery of Prince’s music directly and securely to fans.”

Prince, believed to be 5′ 2”, has sold music over the internet with varying success in the past: Crystal Ball was not available for download but could only be ordered from the site, and Xpectations was download only. Sales were modest.

We must say that we’re delighted he’s changed his name back from his previous wiggly icon – whilst the USB symbol was a close match, we felt it didn’t quite have the same sexy feel.

We’ve tried the site and find the interface somewhat baffling – some words perhaps, describing what you’re clicking on, or perhaps an indication of what can actually be clicked, might not go amiss. Then again, with our complete collection of Autechre recordings, perhaps we’re not the target audience here.

With thanks to Ian Edgar for additional information on Prince.

New Power Generation Music Club

Sharing Copyrighted Works in Canada is Legal

In a surprising setback to record labels, a judge in Canada has ruled that downloading copyrighted works from peer to peer networks such as Kazaa and Morpheus is legal. Recording industry bodies have enjoyed success in a variety of countries by suing individuals for downloading and uploading music files, so this ruling must have come as quite a shock.

The ruling is specific to Canada, but will have far wider implications especially when other countries’ legislative bodies look too their peers for guidance – however, courts in Canada have yet to decide if the uploading of copyrighted files is legal.

The decision was made when Canadian record labels began the process to sue 29 alleged file swappers – and were denied authorisation to identify them. The ruling is based on legislation in Canada that states that most copying for personal use is permitted – this is possible because there is a levy imposed on all blank tapes, CDs and MP3 players to make up for potential lost revenue.

News.com on the story

Google Launch GMail – Never Thow Any Email Away Again

With a gigabyte of storage behind every mailbox, Google are launching a new free email service, GMail, and naturally it has powerful searching facilities built in. Google hope that contextual ads inside messages will pay for the service and not put users off too much – they are not planning on using popups or banners.

Microsoft and Yahoo offer only a microscopic 4mb of storage with their basic accounts and don’t have anything like the same search functions – though advertising is kept to banners on their portal pages. One gigabye is enough to store about half a million plain text email messages a page long. Messages are threaded into conversation threads automatically, reducing the need for users to spend time sorting mail

Larry Page said “Gmail solves all of my communication needs. It’s fast and easy and has all the storage I need. And I can use it from anywhere. I love it!” Well, we’re glad he likes it.

Thankfully, the service provides a spam filter, so you need only store the things you want.

We’ve signed up for a test account – we’ll let you know how we get on.

All about GMail