News
BBC News: File swappers ‘buy more music’
“Market research company Music Programming Ltd (MPL) said 87% of its respondents who downloaded music admitted they bought albums after hearing tracks through the internet.
An MPL spokesperson said: ‘Downloading is actually a ‘try before you buy’ tool for a significant amount of people.’”
“Software finds tunes you want to hear”
Matthew Daneman of the Democrat and Chronicle writes about Mitsunori Ogihara’s software that will “‘listen’ to songs and categorize them into specific genres and by emotional content.”
“iTunes and the Technology Beyond MP3”
Phillip D. Long, senior strategist for the Academic Computing Enterprise at MIT writes about the iTunes Music Store and gives a beginner’s lesson on audio formats titled “Audio File Formats 101.” Also included is a list of websites for further reading about AAC, MP3, MPEG-2 and MPEG-4.
ABC News: Music Labels Threaten to Sue Net Users
The Recording Industry Association of America, citing substantial sales declines, said it will begin Thursday to search Internet file-sharing networks to identify users who offer “substantial” collections of MP3 music files for downloading. It expects to file at least several hundred lawsuits seeking financial damages within eight to 10 weeks.
“The RIAA’s president, Carey Sherman, said tens of millions of Internet users of popular file-sharing software after Thursday will expose themselves to “the real risk of having to face the music.”
“It’s stealing. It’s both wrong and illegal,” Sherman said. Alluding to the court decisions, Sherman said Internet users who believe they can hide behind an alias online were mistaken. “You are not anonymous,” Sherman said. “We’re going to begin taking names.”“
Washington Post: Businesses Battle for Song Sharers
Staff writer, David McGuire writes about the state of digital downloading, P2P and music services vying for your business.
Illegal Downloading Hurting Music Sales
At this years R&R Convention 2003, trade publication Radio & Records and Edison Media Research unveiled the results of a national survey of 12 to 44 year olds showing that the illegal downloading of music is hurting music sales. (Click ‘Read more’ for the complete press release.)
“Among the heaviest downloaders, those who have downloaded more than
100 music files (about 16% of 12-44s), reported purchases of CDs has dropped an incredible 61% from last year’s study (28.9 CDs, on average per person, purchased last year compared with 11.3 CDs purchased this year). [...]
71% of heavy downloaders say that “Instead of buying a CD they have burnt someone else’s copy of a CD,” and 48% of them say ‘They no longer have to buy CDs because they could download music for free over the Internet.’”
AAC at 128kbps public listening test
Roberto Amorim of Rarewares.com is conducting a public test to find out which encoder is best at encoding AAC at 128Kbps CBR. Everyone is welcomed to particpate.
Enhance your MP3s with DFX
I just found a way to energize the MP3s on an iPod. I copied all of my iPod songs onto my hard drive and re-encoded the files with the DFX Audio Enhancement plugin at 192kbps. Now I can hear every detail in the music on my iPod. It makes even my MX400 Sennheiser in-ear headphones sound amazing. Tracks without the DFX plugin sound dull and boring. I also tried the Slic Sound add-on earpieces and they make my MX400s have an almost audiophile quality.
Editor’s Note: The DFX plugin is not available for iTunes, but supports most popular music management software on Windows like Musicmatch, Media Jukebox, WinAmp and more. DFX 6 is a free download with limited features, and DFX Enhanced is on sale for $19.99.
RealNetworks Launches New Music Service
RealNetworks has launched the RealOne RHAPSODY music service charging subscribers 79¢ to burn individual tracks.
