Music

In case you're just tuning in...

MTV has a rundown of events showing that 2007 was the year the music industry broke. Not broke as in "broke big," like "The Year Punk Broke." Broke as in "became broken." (Which I suppose is followed by "went broke.")

And in Wired, David Byrne explains the modern landscape and what musicians can do about it. I'm a huge fan of his music, his writing, and his art, so far be it from me to add anything to what he said, but I'll point out my favorite part: he begins … Read more

The music industry and Microsoft: A sign of bad things to come?

The Register ponders the question, "Why does the music industry make licensing its catalogs so cost prohibitive?"

For years, the Big Five (now Four) have preferred to litigate rather than license their catalogues, but we were told that was no longer the case.

"We have to license... and think like the publishers," said UMG's digital chief Larry Kenswil back in January, setting the tone for the year.

The problem is that the music industry sets its license fees so high that its licensees are doomed to fail, notes Michael Robertson (in "Imeem gets license and death sentence"). Could this be Microsoft's game plan in its patent initiative? Put on the guise of cooperating while pricing its competition into oblivion?… Read more

Study finds Mac users are more honest than Windows users

If you're a music industry executive, you should be praying that the Mac wins the desktop war. Why? Because, as Tom Krazit writes, a recent NPD survey finds that Mac users are much more likely than Windows users to actually pay for music. How much more likely? Consider:

The data says that 50 percent of all Mac users surveyed by NPD purchased at least one song during the third quarter, while only 16 percent of Windows users purchased a song from an online music store. And 32 percent of Mac users bought a CD during that same time, while … Read more

Open sourcing the music experience with Songbird

I've kept an eye on Songbird for a year or so now. The project defines itself as "a complete desktop media player or 'jukebox' with a uniquely open approach to Internet digital media network services." I like to think of it as the music experience...open sourced.

InformationWeek's review of Songbird is dead on: enormous potential but still quite a few rough edges:

The idea seems to be to create something that has the same extensible, developer-friendly framework as Firefox, so that people can write plugins to add all different kinds of functionality to the core program....… Read more

NPD: Mac users saving music business

It's a good thing the music industry has Mac users, according to The NPD Group.

That's because according to a survey conducted by the market research firm, Mac users are more likely to pay to download music--and buy CDs--than Windows users. "There's still a cultural divide between Apple consumers and the rest of the computing world, and that's especially apparent when it comes to the way they interact with music," said Russ Crupnick, an analyst with NPD, in a press release.

The data says that 50 percent of all Mac users surveyed by NPD … Read more

Hands-on with Tenori-On

All my ranting and whining must have finally paid off because this week I finally got some time with Yamaha's mystery-enshrouded Tenori-On music sequencer.

Prototypes of the Tenori-On have traveled the globe, popping up in the U.K. and Germany, but rarely in the United States. I couldn't believe my luck when San Francisco electronic musician retailer Robotspeak (my former employer) gave me the heads-up that Yamaha would be dropping by the shop for a rare demonstration.… Read more

Etymotic noise-isolating earphones, $69.99 shipped

Bundled earphones suck. I'm talking about the ones that came with your Zen, Zune, iPod, or whatever. (Exception: the Zune 80's "premium" set.) If you really want to enjoy your music, nothing beats a good pair of sound-isolating in-ear earphones. Like, say, the Etymotic ER6i Isolator, which Amazon currently has on sale for $69.99 shipped.

I've owned a set of these for a couple years, and I absolutely love them. (I'm not the only one: Check out CNET's review.) They're not only way more comfortable than earbuds, but they block out … Read more

MySpace Brazil launches, entering the Orkut jungle

MySpace.com announced Friday that it has launched a localized site in Brazil, making it the site's 20th regional edition and the first one to be entirely in Portuguese. To spearhead the new MySpace site, the News Corp.-owned social network has hired Emerson Calegaretti as general director of MySpace Brazil and Haryston Oliveira as marketing director.

In addition to the main U.S. site, there are already localized MySpace sites for Canada, Latin America, Mexico, Australia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the U.K., Denmark, France, Ireland, Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Japan and New Zealand.

As a kickoff … Read more

San Francisco sprouts a 'Chia' nightclub

A San Francisco nightclub installed on Monday what it's promoting as the city's first vertical garden. Several plant-filled boxes turned on their sides and bolted outside near the entrance are the first step in the Zen Compound's plans to cover the facade of the building in greenery.

"The hope is to have a living building," said Mike Zuckerman, director of sustainability at the 40,000 square foot complex. He spotted a butterfly hovering near native licorice ferns on Tuesday.

Green rooftops are in vogue in cities around the country. Hanging, wall-mounted gardens, on the other … Read more

CNET Live - Episode 33 - Show Notes

Hammer from DanceJam.com dropped in this week. We're really excited he could reschedule for us so quickly. Brian had a great conversation with him about online video.

Watch the show soon on CNET TV.

Things we Crave

Home theater PC case

Ford Mustang glass roof

First Look

Ion TTUSB10 USB turntable

Guest Hammer, former Oakland A's executive, musician and founder of DanceJam.com

Download of the Week

Electric Sheep screen saver.

Insider Secrets

How to use a firewall.

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