It's no secret that many people, from basic consumers to record labels to technology companies, have wanted Apple to open up their iTunes songs to more devices than just the iPod. The country of France is trying to enact a law to effectively compel this: under the proposed legislation, all digital music sellers would have to allow their sold songs to be converted for use with a range of MP3 players and not just the proprietary players they're normally associated with.

The intent behind the law is to help combat piracy, the thinking being that if people can buy a song from, say, iTunes but then convert it to play on a non-iPod device (this would also apply to songs purchased from, say, Rhapsody but then converted for the iPod). Some analysts think that, if this law passes, Apple might just shut down their French store entirely in order to prevent people from moving the converted songs outside of France. After all, once converted, it's not as if anyone can prevent the songs from being transferred outside the country. So far, Apple has no official comment on the pending French legislation. (Source: Reuters)

We're still trying to understand what exactly the new company lala.com will be doing. According to Coolfer.com, it's a "used CD trading service" and lala themselves describe their service (which launches in July) as "an online music co-op where members trade-in CDs they have for CDs they want from other members." If we understand this correctly, if you join lala, you can list what CDs you have for trade and see what others have to offer and lala will help facilitate a trade between users, asking for $1 per CD as their transaction fee.

Interestingly, lala feels compelled to explain: this is perfectly legal (we didn't realize it might be otherwise but in these days of severe rights management, we can appreciate the desire to make things clear). In any case, while artists are usually not paid off of used CDs, lala promises to set aside 20% of their fee that will go to the artist, a generosity that Coolfer suggests won't be enough, "to keep this company out of bankruptcy."

We think it's an intriguing model but in this age of file-sharing, people do this all the time already, just minus the physical packaging. Especially because lala wants to encourage people to, "remove songs from your iPod or PC if you've agreed to send the CD to another member," we really think they're asking too much from folks,and we're also confused because lala also plans to sell digital downloads. Basically, you're expected to trade CDs, but not make burns of the music to keep on your computer, unless of course you're buying a digital album through lala in which case, you can't trade that anyways (not legally anyhow). We don't want to trash an idea before the site has even launched but seriously, we just don't see how this is supposed to work. What do you all think? (Sources: Coolfer.com,lala.com)

Guess what's contributing to the fall-off of people listening to terrestrial radio in the car? Sure, there's MP3 players and satellite radio competing for people's attentions but as it turns out, conventional radio also has to look out for cell phone users: an obvious though often overlooked demographic. Digital Music News is reporting that the average commuter spends 13.49 minutes on the phone (in the car) a day, which seems surprisingly small given how many times you've probably almost been side-swiped by some jerk, yammering on the phone. That number is up 29% from 2003 however.

It's all bad news for radio operators: 79% of people turn the radio down while making a call while 19% turn the radio off completely (we assume the remaining 2% just yell really loudly). Especially as commute times in major cities only seem to be getting worse, the cell phone increase is only likely to follow as well. Looks like radio stations might need to find creative new ways to get people's attention. Like maybe they could incorporate cell phone blocking technology into their radio signals. Just a thought. (Digital Music News)

If MySpace was the site that really took off like a bullet in 2005, it's been YouTube's year so far – it's hard for a few days to go by before someone posts or emails a link to some video they saw on YouTube. Of course, this also creates problems for the site since they don't automatically filter what's uploaded, especially for copyright issues. That's why folks like TV networks, or ... Prince ... have to send out a quick cease and desist and get video material removed (which YouTube is very good about complying with).

Sooner or later though, some network was actually going to get smart about things and actually partner with YouTube, thus benefitting from that site's marketing potential. MTV2 has been the first to step up. As Reuters reports:

"MTV2 is seeding YouTube with multiminute clips from a pair of series promoting new seasons and DVD releases this month: "The Andy Milonakis Show" and "Wonder Showzen." The Web site already is home to dozens of other clips drawn from the network but uploaded to YouTube without the network's consent."

The question will be whether more networks (and other content-providers, TV or otherwise) join aboard. For some, YouTube will be seen as a competitor giving away content they would otherwise sell and for that reason, no collaboration would ever prove feasible. Still, we think this could be a turning point (not necessarily for better or for worse) for YouTube and its relationship to the entertainment industry. We suppose the worst case scenario is someone buying it up and turning it into a paid-accesss site; it's happened before. (Source: CNET)

Look, we really like Apple ok? I know that's slightly blasphemous to say on an MSN blog but there's no question they've made a phenomenal (not to mention popular) product with the iPod. But for Jobs' sake, don't rattle your cage about some big announcement and get press gathered just so you can debut ... an iPod boombox. To call yesterday's announcement anti-climatic would be gross understatement; the idea of an iPod branded boombox is about as sexy as the iPod Socks they sell. Sure, we understand that this means that Apple is starting to move into more iPod branded products that rely on third-party companies to fill in the gaps but this was not really an announcement that anyone was anticipating with baited breath.

No next generation video iPod. No Mac Mini DVR. No Movie iTunes. Just a hifi portable system that looks like a shrunken Scion and $100 leather cases. Boo. (Source: Digital Music News)

The NY Times ran a piece on Friday looking at the sudden explosion of music videos to be found on YouTube.com. The site really got a boost the other month with the whole "Lazy Sunday" aka "Chronic(les) of Narnia" rap skit that was popularized via the internet once someone had posted the clip to YouTube.com. Since then, the no-frills depository for streamed video downloads has become a prime site for people to upload all kinds of different music videos, from rare concert footage, to your mainstream MTV vids, to strange, off-the-wall performances and recordings. According to the site's marketing director:

"YouTube is now up to more than 10 million videos viewed daily ... streaming 115 videos a second."

This leads to an obvious question? Why isn't every industry lawyer suing YouTube.com's pants off right now? Well, this is where things get a bit technical. If you offer media for download that's copyrighted by others and do this without permission – that's illegal and prosecutable. If, however, you offer the same media but only make it available as a streaming download, as long as you agree to take down that media when the copyright holder asks you to, it's legal. Because YouTube only deals in streaming media, as long as it's willing to take down illegal uploads upon complaint (which is diligently has been, there's no problem on their end). As one example, Jay Smooth over at hiphopmusic.com notes that Prince has asked that any material related to his Purpleness be removed and YouTube.com has complied.

However, for other groups, they've taken to YouTube, just like they took to myspace.com:

"YouTube's simplicity has been an attraction for bands, too. Plenty of them, or their record labels, have been uploading video footage to YouTube for promotional purposes, YouTube says; they include current groups like We Are Scientists, Pretty Girls Make Graves, Early Man and Taking Back Sunday."

(Source: NY Times)

We don't know why today has proven so popular with digital music stories but sometimes, it just be's like that. For months now, people have been warning about the possibility of hearing loss that comes with excessive use of loud music over ear-bud style headphones. Not to be cynical, but it was probably only a matter of time before someone who had experienced damage to their hearing was going to sue over this (this is America, after all). Well, that time has arrived.

Digital Music News is reporting that Louisiana resident John Patterson has filed a "product liability suit" against Apple on the grounds that the iPod has damaged his hearing. Patterson is seeking class action status which would allow other users with similar complaints to join with his lawsuit. There are no dollar figures being mentioned yet but Patterson is suing for compensation for his hearing loss plus a demand that Apple re-engineer the iPod to make it safer.

So, just to float the obvious question here but: is there any liability involved? Last time we checked, iPods came with this feature called "volume control." What does it mean to make the iPod safer? Put in a prescribed limit on how loud you can play music? Isn't that for the listener to decide? Not like we're not sympathetic to Patterson's situation, but there's some common sense that should be taken into consideration when it comes to how loud one listens to music. Unless of course, Patterson can prove that the ear-buds that ship with every iPod were engineered to maximize damage even at "normal" volume levels. Expect much, much more to come out of this. (Source: Digital Music News)

Let the battle begin. A Canadian music label and management company, Nettwerk Music Group, has taken the rare step of defending someone who's being sued by RIAA for filesharing. Among Nettwerk's different clients include Avril Lavigne, Sarah McLaughlin, Barenaked Ladies and Sum 41. They are paying for the legal fees of the family of Texas' David Gruebel, whose 15 year old daughter Elisa was discovered by RIAA, sharing over 600 music files, including at least 9 songs by Nettwerk artists.

In providing the legal defense for the Gruebels, Nettwerk's stance is a big ol' slap in the face of RIAA whose random lawsuits have become an almost weekly occurrence and the source of increasingly bad blood between music consumers and the industry. Says Nettwerk's C.E.O. Terry McBride,

"Suing music fans is not the solution, it's the problem. Litigation is not 'artist development.' Litigation is a deterrent to creativity and passion and it is hurting the business I love. The current actions of the RIAA are not in my artists' best interests."

Charles Lee Mudd Jr., the attorney that Nettwerk hired on behalf of the Gruebels, added in his own statement:

"RIAA has misapplied existing copyright law and improperly employed its protections not as a shield, but as a sword. Many of the individuals targeted by the RIAA are not the 'thieves' the RIAA has made them out to be.

Notably, Nettwerk picked up on this case after Elisa wrote to MC Lars, also a Nettwerk artist, who has a song called "Download This Song." In informing MC Lars that her family had been targeted by RIAA, Lars' staff bumped her email all the way up to Nettwerk. And who says no one reads fan mail?

On a sidenote, Coolfer is surprised (as are we) that no major press outlets have picked up on the story; the most high-profile is likely MTV. (Source: Marketwire.com by way of Coolfer.com)

Just to show how the current market for digital media commerce creates strange bedfellows, we reported the other month how MTV and Microsoft are teaming up to release URGE, a digital music download site that hopes to compete with iTunes, drawing upon Microsoft's software making abilities and MTV's cache with young people. However, even though MTV will eventually be competing with Apple, that hasn't stopped them joining forces with them too.

The difference here is that Apple won't be licensing music from MTV but rather, video/television programming from MTV's many sub-stations.  According to Digital Music News:

"The deal will allow iTunes users to purchase and download videos from channels MTV, MTV2, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and The N. A total of 14 programs are part of the deal, including shows "Punk’d," "South Park," "Dora the Explorer," "SpongeBob SquarePants," and "Laguna Beach."

We hope The Daily Show and The Colbert Report are part of the deal. (Source: Digital Music News)

With all the chatter about new forms of digital DJing, it was inevitable that a backlash was coming. A collective of five members, calling themselves "DJs Are Alive" are going after so-called "laptop DJs" who have abandoned the traditional, vinyl-based methods of DJing in favor of digital, often-computer based alternatives. Dutch DJ The Scumfrog (Jesse Houk) leads DJs Are Alive and he hasn't held back a candid opinion about laptop spinners:

"Every live electronic music performance I’ve seen in the past year and half has been laptop based. The laptop DJs might be doing rocket science, and creating amazing soundscapes, but it’s totally boring for an audience to watch. To me, 2000 people staring at some guy behind his computer for four hours is crazy."

DJs Are Alive are trying to create an alternative by ... ok, we have to admit, at this part of the story, our eyebrows arched just a little bit ... performing as a group but not necessarily on turntables. Says member D:Fuse, "You know, don some mascara, bang on the drums, and sing a little to the crowd. Maybe even sling bottles of water on 'em."Uh ... wait, is that really better than the laptop dudes? (Source: DJ Magazine)

There had been some talk earlier in the week that Napster was facing some severe financial pressures that might even result in lay-offs; apparently their 3rd quarter earnings report was going to show that the company has been losing revenue. However, they just announced that they have a subscriber base of 500,000 – not small number – which represents a growth rate of 100% from the previous year. Says the company's CEO, Chris Gorog,

"Doubling our subscribers over the last twelve months demonstrates the mass market potential of our music subscription model and the powerful appeal of Napster to music fans who want it all.

There had been talk of even Microsoft being interested in buying out Napster, though with the new MTV/Microsoft URGE site set to launch later this year, it's not clear what Microsoft's interest would be since Napster's software would largely duplicate the same things that URGE is meant to do. For now, Napster's large subscription base suggests that the format has some wings even if Apple's iTunes dominates the market without one. (Source: Digital Music News)

Back in the day (like the late '80s), there was this service we remember using at the mall where you could create custom mixtapes of songs you wanted. (This is so far back, we don't even remember the name of the company). There was a master list of songs you could choose from, you'd input them into a computer and about 15 mintues later, this big machine would produce your custom tape. Voila!

This must seem incredibly anachronistic in an iTunes age where basically, you can do the same thing except 1) faster, 2) cheaper and 3) from the convenience of your own home. However, despite the popularity of home downloading, this hasn't stopped companies from rolling the dice with digital music kiosks, a phenom that's been building and that, according to Billboard's Antony Bruno, is facing a "make-or-break year."

Some patrons of Starbucks Coffee have likely already come into contact with the Hear Music kiosks: a million song library, custom-burned CDs that charge $8.99 for seven songs (and .99/song after that). This is just one example: newer kiosks will have support for digital music players and the fanciest have built-in wireless, allowing users to download songs directly to a computer or MP3 player.

The idea is to have these placed in areas of high foot traffic and attract impulse buyers; not just cafes, but bus stops, convenience stores, college book stores, etc.: "Go in for #2 pencils, leave with a CD!" What makes this model interesting is that it further abandons the idea that music needs to be purchased from a specialized, physical store. Why truck down to the mall if you can go to the corner store instead and get access to the same music?

This sounds all well and good but the obvious question is this: why go to the corner store when there are already easy and cheap ways of acquiring music at home? Kiosks might have made more sense 10 years ago, before the download-at-home revolution. Now with iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, eMusic, etc. all in play, it seems most convenient to just download whatever you want at home, especially when the music library at many of these sites dwarves what's currently available on the kiosks.

Just to note: that custom cassette thing? Didn't last very long at all. We don't expect the kiosks to either. (Source: AOL News)

What does it mean to be a blog darling? There's a perception that bloggers have a more forward and eclectic taste in music and that, unlike the soggy banality of so-called "mainstream" tastes, bloggers are more likely to turn to obscure or up-and-coming artists in order to maintain their hipster credibility.

Coolfer.com decided to test this theory out by looking at how often certain bands were mentioned on blogs (via Ice Rocket). He did searches first for two blogerati/hipster favorites, Morningwood and We Are Scientists. The two bands, respectively, averaged 362 and 1,190 mentions over the course of last month; not bad numbers it would seem. However, when Coolfer decided to pop Nickelback in there – and let's just be clear that no one ever associates Nickelback with being a "blog favorite" – that band had 12,689 mentions in the same time period (or almost 10 times what Morningwood and We Are Scientists amassed combined).

What this points out has less to do with whether or not blog hype is real or not but rather, that there's a visible blogosphere that gets validated and celebrated in the media for being forward-thinking and hipper-than-thou but underneath that are zillions of other blogs (think myspace pages or Xanga blogs, etc.) which tend to be ignored for being less than chic yet they're the ones pushing the Nickelbacks of the world even if the more visible blogerati are supposedly jocking the Artic Monkeys this month. (Source: Coolfer.com)

File this under the many ways music copyright laws make less and less sense with each passing month. In the UK, the BBC is reporting that DJs who play songs copied from CDs on either their laptops or a burned CD (i.e. in MP3 form) have to pay an additional licensing fee that amounts to roughly $300 for a year. This is where it gets kind of confusing so let's try to explain:

If you're a DJ and play a record or CD at a club, there's normally a public performance license that's required. (I'm not sure if this is uniquely a U.S. thing but as a practicing DJ for over 10 years, I don't know of any instance where an American DJ needed any kind of license so this might be uniquely British). Under this new digital performance law, if you take that SAME CD, burn a track onto, say, your iPod and then replay that song from the iPod at a club, you have to pay for the extra license. In essence, it's the same song but the fact that you've created a copy from its original source is what requires the extra licensing.

As you can imagine, UK DJs and promoters are balking. Says DJ Ritesh,

"I think it will be very difficult to enforce, mainly because so many people play out in clubs every weekend. There isn't actually very much money in DJing so to ask someone to shell out £200 is going to be a bit over the top"

Seriously!

Moreover, does the UK's version of RIAA really want to be out clubbing in Bristol on Friday nights, just to see which DJs have a license to play music off their laptops or not? (Source: BBC News by way of boingboing.net)

Trust that indie record labels are thinking of creative new ways to get around the challenge of selling records in a file-sharing age: labels like Saddle Creek and First Merge Records are offering a set of free MP3s for anyone who buys one of their artists' albums on vinyl. That way the consumer still gets the allure of the physical object but the convenience of a digitized format.

Obviously, this won't necessarily sweep the nation but for more boutique labels and their fans, vinyl releases are making a comeback, long after people declared the medium dead to everyone save DJs and hardcore collectors. It's not like these labels expect to go platinum (or gold. Or even bronze) off sales of these joints vinyl/MP3s but it's a far more creative route to selling records in a digital age than what the major labels are cooking up with their paranoid CD protection software and other bad looks. (Source: EFF.org by way of boingboing.net)

Has the digital age of music created too much of a good thing? According to researchers at the University of Leicester in Great Britain, the relative ease of having millions of songs at one's fingertips has lead to listeners becoming "apathetic" about music. In the words of study leader Dr. Adrian North,

"The accessibility of music has meant that it is taken for granted and does not require a deep emotional commitment once associated with music appreciation."

To put it another way (and perhaps not as negatively), North suggests that music has become part of the everyday fabric of people's lives rather than signposts to mark special moments, though this also leads people to have "a rather passive attitude towards music" according to him.

Honestly, we've been seeing more and more arguments like this being made and while we're not calling the overall insights of the study into question, it just seems a bit alarmist and quick to make a large assumption that might benefit from a more longitudinal study and analysis. Qualitatively speaking, is music any more ubiquitous now than in a previous generation raised on radio and MTV just because iPods have come along? And does this mean that people derive less pleasure from music? (Source: BBC)

For all the woes of the traditional record outlets, the digital realm ended 2005 on the highest of high notes. Fueled by new MP3 players, gift cards and other holiday incentives, people turned out in the millions to pay for downloaded songs during the last week of the year. Between 12/25 and 1/1, there were 20,000,000 downloads made. Yeah, 20,000,000.

Just to put this in perspective, the most downloads in a week was made the week before but that was only 9,500,000. The amount is triple the figure for the same week in 2004. Out of all those, D4L's "Laffy Taffy" came up hard. It was downloaded 175,000 times, easily crushing the previous record of 80,500 made by Kanye West for "Gold Digger."

Those end numbers mean that 2005 showed a 147% increase over 2004; there were some 352 million paid downloads last year. You think that's impressive: the increase in the number of MP3 players sold last year was 200% more than 2004. These are all linked of course: the more iPods being sold means there are more songs being sold to fill them. In the process, MP3 players are now selling better than portable CD players and shelf systems, a mini-revolution that most likely no one paid attention to, just like when CD players decimated the cassette market. (Source: Yahoo News)

In the chess game for digital music download domination (try saying that 10 times, really fast), HP has made a notable move. Their computers had been shipping with copies of Apple's iTunes pre-installed but they've decided to dump iTunes and instead, ship out with Real.com's Rhapsody music service software instead. This wasn't a huge surprise: HP already began to break ties with Apple after discontinuing its partnership over the HP-branded iPod (which frankly, never took off).

Rhapsody will now be the default program for music on all new HP laptops and desktop computers. It's a good sign for the upstart company; they're looking to create partnerships with other companies as well, including Cox Communications, the cable conglomerate, which follows on an older deal to work with Comcast, another cable giant. (Source: ZDNet)

For the last half year, doctors and scientists have all been giving the same warning: be careful on how loud you tune your headphones to. It's not like loud volumes have only just been discovered to cause deafness or other forms of hearing loss but the popularity of earbud-style headphones, such as the ones that come pre-packaged with Apple's iPods, have raised concerns higher because they direct more focused sound at sensitive eardrums.

In any case, just to push awareness of the dangers home, Pete Townsend, guitarist for The Who, has come out in public to warn people that listening too loudly can cause serious harm.

"I have unwittingly helped to invent and refine a type of music that makes its principal components deaf. Hearing loss is a terrible thing because it cannot be repaired. If you use an iPod or anything like it, or your child uses one, you MAY be OK ... But my intuition tells me there is terrible trouble ahead."

Townsend should know: his hearing problems – developed over years of prolonged headphone and concert exposure – is bad enough that after recording sessions, he has take a break of up to 36 hours to let his ears recover. (Source: MSNBC)

As if they weren't everywhere already, the Black Eyes Peas have been invited by computing giant Intel to perform at the launch of two new chips later this week ('cause nothing says "high speed processing" like the Black Eyed Peas!). This is part of a larger image makeover that Intel has been putting in motion over the last few weeks. The company has changed their logo and their motto – no longer will they go by "Intel Inside," now it's all about "Leap Ahead," which is presumably what the Peas will help them do. The group isn't simply performing, but they'll be one key part of Intel's marketing campaign to spread awareness of their new Vilv and Centrino chip brands.

Meanwhile, in other Peas' news, Will.I.Am is setting up his solo album and he's also overseeing the solo albums of the rest of the group. (Sources: Allhiphop.com, MTV News)