mediaor

Katy Perry Donates $250K to MusiCares | Forbes

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 19:04:36 -0500

Reposted from http://onforb.es/yBO9jw on February 11, 2012 at 09:13AM

With all the hub-bub last night at the mega McCartney show for MusiCares, here’s the money headline: Katy Perry was so overwhelmed by the experience of singing “Hey Jude”—with a “Live and Let Die” intro no less—that she pledged $250,000 from royalties from her newest single. The whole evening took in $6 million, a record because ticket prices were higher than usual and demand was out of control for a Beatles night. Katy by the way, wore a gigantic white rose on her head while she sang—and pulled off the whole thing.

Spotify, Shazam, Turntable.fm Are Hot Topics at Grammy Social Media Summit | Billboard

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 17:49:57 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/wyIlEp on February 11, 2012 at 06:30AM

The Grammys drew top-drawer names from the digital music world for this year’s edition of their Social Media Rock Star Summit series, with Shazam CEO Andrew Fisher, Turntable.fm Chairman Seth Goldstein, GetGlue CEO Alex Iskold, and Spotify’s artist-in-residence D.A. Wallach of pop duo Chester French on the panel, which was moderated by Ian Rogers, CEO of Topspin Media.

Protests erupt across Europe against web piracy treaty | Reuters

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 16:34:37 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/zvJMe3 on February 11, 2012 at 01:54PM

BERLIN/SOFIA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of protesters took part in rallies across Europe on Saturday against an international anti-piracy agreement they fear will curb their freedom to download movies and music for free and encourage Internet surveillance.

RIAA Still Complaining About Google And Wikipedia’s Actions Against SOPA | P2P News!

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 15:34:31 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/AmDH29 on February 11, 2012 at 03:16PM

CEO of the Recording Industry of America, and graduate of Cornell and Harvard Law, Cary Sherman proved to be a calculated leader of the group throughout the years. But when it comes to the interests of the industry, he seems to be just the same as his homologue Chris Dodd (MPAA’s CEO), as revealed in a New York Times article where he shared his thoughts on the matter and signaled by Ars Technica.

It is clear from New York Times’ article that Sherman desperately wants to revive SOPA, but adopting a position in which he insults Google and Wikipedia reminds us of Chris Dodd’s reaction to last month’s protests against SOPA, when he called them “an irresponsible response”, “an abuse of power”, “a dangerous and troubling development”, and lastly a “gimmick”.

“The digital tsunami that swept over the Capitol last month… raised questions about how the democratic process functions in the digital age”, says Cary Sherman at the beginning of his article.

Fact is that these concerns are indeed entitled, as millions of unhappy citizens, alongside with tech companies, university teachers, internet analysts, and many more, questioned the manner in which both the RIAA and the MPAA addressed the piracy issue, labeling it as “anti-democratic” and “abusive”.

Lawmakers “studied the [piracy] problem in all its dimensions, through multiple hearings”, wrote Cary.

The truth is that SOPA had a single hearing in which the single speaking-against SOPA voice was Google, while bombed by acid remarks spoken by Chairman Lamar Smith (R-TX). Meanwhile, the Senate’s version of SOPA (read PIPA) had no hearings whatsoever. As for the thoroughness of which Mr. Cary speaks, even members of the Congress agreed that experts with knowledge about the technical implications should be consulted.

“Misinformation may be a dirty trick, but it works. Consider, for example, the claim that SOPA and PIPA were “censorship,” a loaded and inflammatory term designed to evoke images of crackdowns on pro-democracy Web sites by China or Iran. Since when is it censorship to shut down an operation that an American court, upon a thorough review of evidence, has determined to be illegal? When the police close down a store fencing stolen goods, it isn’t censorship, but when those stolen goods are fenced online, it is?” he wrote.

Question is, since when, in file-sharing lawsuits, a “thorough review of the evidence” occurred? The hundreds of media reports on the subject tend to prove different. Not only that, but we may remember when dajaz1.com was seized by the US Government for a year, while the owner of the website could not find anything about the case – so that he can defend himself –and then released it back to him without an explanation. If that kind of abuse of power can happen, then what would happen if the RIAA would have it?

When Chris Dodd said “When the Chinese told Google that they had to block sites or they couldn’t do [business] in their country, they managed to figure out how to block sites” to Variety in December he unknowingly made quite a fair association – that of China’s totalitarianism and SOPA’s or PIPA’s censorship.

Ars Technica’s Nate Anderson further dissects Cary’s article thoroughly, concluding with a grim prediction:

“Rationality, you think to yourself as you hang up the phone, might have been possible once—but it’s going to be tough to find now.”

Rhinofy-American Gothic | Lefsetz Letter

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:34:45 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/wXiTtQ on February 11, 2012 at 01:31PM

Maybe I was too big a fan and was susceptible to anything remotely connected to Elton John. Or maybe it was the glowing review in “Rolling Stone”. Or the hype that said it was the Album of the Year. I bought “American Gothic” and dropped the needle and was completely confused. Bombastic, theatrical, it sounded like […]

A Bunch Of HTC Phone Owners Are Finally Getting Google's Newest Version Of Android (GOOG) | BusinessInsider

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:34:44 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/yK0feD on February 11, 2012 at 09:07AM

HTC is rolling out the first round of smartphone operating system upgrades to Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version of Google’s Android operating system, toward the end of the month, the company announced.

Here’s the full list of phones that are getting an upgrade toward the end of March, according to the company’s post on Facebook:

HTC Sensation

HTC Sensation 4G

HTC Sensation XE

HTC Sensation XL

The following phones are getting an upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich later this year:

HTC Rezound

HTC Vivid

HTC Amaze 4G

HTC EVO 3D

HTC EVO Design 4G

HTC Incredible S

HTC Desire S

HTC Desire HD

Please follow SAI on Twitter and Facebook.

Join the conversation about this story »

See Also:

MusicThinkTank.com Weekly Recap: Unbundling the Album | hypebot

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 13:34:42 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/yL1gQp on February 11, 2012 at 11:53AM

Where

The Music Industry

Thinks Out Loud

Bobby Owsinski: The Science Of Email Timing
Mark Doyon: Hear-Like-Buy: Why Spotify Is Marketing, Not Commerce
Frank Woodworth: Unbundling the Album: A Business Case for Releasing Single Songs
Brian Hazard: What Artists Should Know About Headliner.fm

Dad puts bullets into teen's laptop; parents worldwide applaud | LA Times

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 11:36:13 -0500

Reposted from http://lat.ms/wWSjYi on February 11, 2012 at 11:05AM

Best. Parent. Ever. Tommy Jordan for president.

Spotify iOS app update brings 320kbps music to mobiles | Engadget

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:50:09 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/yw0KyM on February 11, 2012 at 01:10AM

Enjoying your Spotify tracks on the go just got a little better, at least on iOS, where an app update to v0.4.23 gifts users “very high quality” 320kbps music streaming (for Premium subscribers) and syncing, up from the previous max of 160kbps. Enabling the higher quality streams — though heavy listeners may want to mind those bandwidth quotas — is as simple as ticking the “Extreme” box in the settings, as shown above by The Next Web to join in a quality that was previously only available via the desktop app or in the living room. If you’re just signing up or setting up the app again the one-tap Facebook log-in should also be a convenient addition (or not, if you don’t use Facebook and insist on telling everyone you don’t at every opportunity — we heard you the first ten times). There’s no word on updates for the other mobile platforms yet, but we’ll keep an eye out.

[Thanks, Pete]

Spotify iOS app update brings 320kbps music to mobiles originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:10:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | iTunes, The Next Web | Email this | Comments

REWIND: The New Music Industry's Week In Review | hypebot

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:34:46 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/yNN4nn on February 11, 2012 at 10:15AM

It’s Grammy Weekend in LA, but the new music industry action is already shifting northward as SF Music Hack Day begins its marathon followed by SF Music Tech next week. Hypebot’s Hisham Dahud will be there. Be sure to say hello and share what you’re working on.

Remember iLike? The Social Music Network Officially Died This Week
Spotify’s Ek On Royalties, Social Media & The Future
Warner Music Losses Grow 44%, Revenue Flat Despite Digital Gains
An Inside Look At The DJ Shadow, SoundCloud Remix Competition

MORE:

Zoe Keating On Subcultures, Social Media And Staying D.I.Y. [INTERVIEW]
Music Industry Insiders On The Creation Of Lana Del Rey
First Apple iTune’s Match Payments Arriving, TuneCore Gets $10,000
PledgeMusic’s Rogers On Going Beyond Fan Funding To Power Album Campaigns
Indie Artist Outsources Music Video To Bangalore, India With Surprising Results
Jack White’s Third Man Records: Embracing Both The Past & The Future
Songs Publishing CEO Matt Pincus Cries Foul: “VEVO pays us nothing.”
Drip.fm Creates Subscription Revenue Stream for Indie Labels
Concert Tracking App Bandsintown Used By 50,000 Bands, 3 Million Fans
The Week In Music Publishing 2.3.12
11 Top Ways To Create Compelling Music Video Content
There’s Just One Territory For Releasing Music Now: The World
CD Baby Artists Made $41.7M In 2011, Here’s How [INFOGRAPHIC]
TasteMakerX Raises $1.8 Million For “Fantasy Sports For Music Lovers” App
OneSheet Adds iTunes, Expands Management Team

Massive Street Protests Wage War On ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty | TorrentFreak

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:19:39 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/z7H1F4 on February 11, 2012 at 09:53AM

Last month the European Union officially signed the controversial “anti-piracy” trade agreement ACTA.

The EU followed in the footsteps of Australia, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and the United States, who already signed it last October. This brings ACTA a step closer to passing, but individual EU member states and the European Parliament still have to ratify the treaty later this year.

To prevent this from happening, hundreds of thousands of people across the world are taking to the streets today, and millions more are expected to do their part online. In Europe demonstrations are being held in more than 200 cities, the largest in Sofia, Bulgaria, with more than 50,000 participants.

These staggering numbers amount to the greatest offline protest against any type of copyright legislation, ever.

Anti-ACTA protests across Europe

Although ACTA has been discussed for four years already, it is only recently that the public got involved on such a broad scale. In part, the increased attention for ACTA has been sparked by the historic SOPA/PIPA protest last month, where Wikipedia, Reddit and many others blacked out their websites.

Thus far the anti-ACTA protests, which started in Poland a few weeks ago, haven’t been without result.

Several countries that were intended to ratify the treaty, have put their decision on hold. Poland was the first to cave in, followed by Slovakia, Czech Republic, Latvia, and yesterday Europe’s largest economy Germany backpedaled as well.

Within the European Parliament, whose members will vote on the ratification ACTA later this year, there is also a healthy resistance. In a guest article for TorrentFreak, parliament member Marietje Schaake urged fellow politicians to not let copyright law repress innovation.

“ACTA must not be passed. Let’s focus on reform to allow for the opportunities of the internet to bloom, instead of allowing outdated business models to limit the free market, and to criminalize audiences,” she wrote.

Today’s demonstrations show that there’s a massive opposition against ACTA, and that hundreds of thousands of people are willing to take to the streets to defend a free and open Internet.

Those who want to take action against ACTA but can’t join one of the demonstrations, can write their representatives through the Kill ACTA site.

Anti-ACTA protests in Lithuania

Source: Massive Street Protests Wage War On ACTA Anti-Piracy Treaty

VEVO CEO Tries To Explain Their Hypocritical Act Of Piracy At Sundance (Jason Kincaid/TechCrunch) | Techmeme

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 10:04:44 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/z56wIj on February 11, 2012 at 05:20AM

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:
VEVO CEO Tries To Explain Their Hypocritical Act Of Piracy At Sundance — Yesterday I reported on a bizarre incident I witnessed at Sundance last month: VEVO, the music portal owned by some of the biggest record labels in the US, had a pirated NFL playoff game playing on screens throughout its ‘PowerStation’ venue.

Madonna & Nicki Minaj Bowl Over Billboard's Social 50 Chart | Billboard

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 08:19:17 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/ytnVzO on February 10, 2012 at 01:20PM

Madonna’s flurry of media activity last week sparks her re-entry at No. 8 on Billboard’s Social 50 chart, her highest rank ever on the year-old tally. Her video for “Give Me All Your Luvin’” premiered Feb. 3 on YouTube, while she performed at the Super Bowl halftime show on Feb. 5. For the tracking week, she earned a 479% increase in YouTube fans and a 685% leap in YouTube views.

Busta Rhymes Waxes Enthusiastic On Google Music | TechCrunch

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 06:37:36 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/y1QYLs on February 10, 2012 at 08:56PM

When Google Music launched a couple months ago, there was some criticism regarding how the service was promoted. What many saw as just another music locker and streaming service (albeit a perfectly good and free one) others saw as a great new vector for music sales and distribution. But the music locker portion seemed to hog the spotlight, and the cool Band Camp-esque new artist hubs lurked in the gloom.

Busta Rhymes seems to be a fan of the latter, and not just because he’s in an official partnership. In an interview on MTV, he was positively effusive about Google’s new platform. Check out the short clip, from MTV’s Sucka Free:

I think he’s being truthful when he says that “with that power that they have, that it was almost blasphemous for them to not have their hands in music as well.” Google, via YouTube, is the world’s foremost player in video distribution on the web (though as far as purchased content goes, Netflix is king). One almost wonders why music didn’t come first.

In case you were wondering that, the reason is that the user-focused structure of YouTube makes it a platform for viral videos and self-expression, not studio-produced content. They’ve been trying to change that, but it hasn’t been very effective (people don’t think of YouTube that way, for good reaosn). Google Music lets them start fresh and try to build something that works both from the top down and the bottom up. So whether they “sign” guys like Busta or a dude recording on an 8-track in his living room, they can provide an end-to-end buying, listening, and sharing solution.

“Google ain’t really trying to just sell music” is about as capsule-sized a summary as you can get, and it’s true. Google hates selling things, in fact. And in the music world, it might be that in a few years, selling things like music tracks just won’t be something you do, and Google will have positioned itself well to be a non-purchase solution.

U.S. Air Force planning to purchase up to 18,000 iPads | LA Times

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:34:40 -0500

Reposted from http://lat.ms/zN6HpE on February 10, 2012 at 09:37PM

The U.S. Air Force is thinking about buying some iPads — somewhere between 63 and 18,000 of them.

LinkedIn stock soars after strong fourth quarter | LA Times

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:34:39 -0500

Reposted from http://lat.ms/zxnmim on February 10, 2012 at 06:09PM

LinkedIn is connecting with investors.

Google says its new privacy policy complies with FTC settlement | LA Times

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:34:39 -0500

Reposted from http://lat.ms/ArBiBW on February 10, 2012 at 07:19PM

Google is rebutting charges that its new privacy policy violates a settlement it struck with federal regulators last year.

David Choe's N.Y. media tour: Howard Stern, Barbara Walters, NMA | LA Times

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 02:34:38 -0500

Reposted from http://lat.ms/xdH1Hk on February 10, 2012 at 04:37PM

David Choe, the graffiti artist who made headlines for having an estimated $200 million in Facebook stock, spent the last week in New York, granting interviews to a lucky few media outlets.

Engadget Podcast 280 - 02.10.2012 | Engadget

Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:19:57 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/xU0fvq on February 10, 2012 at 05:39PM

You can pretend you care about cameras, tablets, and browsers all you want. But we’ll still know you’re here for the Lazer Tag news.

Host: Brian Heater, Dana Wollman, Terrence O’brien
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Orbital - Never

00:02:35 - Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 review (global edition)

00:14:09 - Kodak to shutter digital camera production this year

00:23:40 - Nikon confirms 36.3-megapixel D800, we go hands-on
00:29:03 - Sony Alpha NEX-7 mirrorless camera review

00:34:21 - Apple announcing iPad 3 first week of March? Anonymous sources think so

00:41:00 - Microsoft celebrating leap year right by launching Windows 8 Consumer Preview at MWC

00:49:45 - Google Chrome browser arrives on Android (video)

00:55:30 - Hasbro reinvents Lazer Tag for the smartphone generation, lets you live out your Doom-fueled fantasies

01:03:14 - HTC admits its bulky, quick-dying LTE phones kinda suck

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Filed under: Podcasts

Engadget Podcast 280 - 02.10.2012 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:39:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink | | Email this | Comments

This App Tells You All About Your Facebook Friends, But Will It Make You Smarter? | Read/WriteWeb

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 23:04:58 -0500

Reposted from http://bit.ly/xkCBlD on February 10, 2012 at 05:00PM

In the two weeks I have been using Wisdom, an iPad and iPhone app that gives you detailed demographic data about your Facebook friends, the number of users has gone from just over 4 million to just under 6 million. Part of that rapid growth is most likely attributable to an extensive advertising campaign on the iPad version of the New York Times (which is where I first heard about it).

Sponsor

Wisdom’s marketing slogan promises “Get Wisdom and Get Wiser,” and gives us the option of not only analyzing our own social network, but the entire Wisdom network (yes, to Get Wisdom you also need to give Wisdom your information, but they have a clear-cut, succinctly-explained and explicitly-presented privacy policy. I wish every online company and social network would use that bit of wisdom from the makers of Wisdom). “Best of all, the more people who get Wisdom, the smarter the application gets - and the smarter you become!” the apps Web site promises.

Well, maybe. Depending on your definition of “smarter.”

For example, does it make me smarter to know that New England Patriots fans on the Wisdom network like Narragansett Beer and New York Giants fans prefer Hennessy? Or that fans of both teams prefer Dunkin Donuts? And why is Wisdom still teasing its analysis of Super Bowl fans nearly a full-week after the game?

The U.S. Election breakdown is slightly more telling. Based on “likes” of candidates on Facebook in the last 12 months, it shows a handsome U.S. map showing which states favor which candidates, then shows the demographic makeup of each candidate’s followers (in other words, the same information found in almost any decent political poll).

You can also drill down and look at your friends. You can see who has posted on Facebook the most in the past 30 days, the average number of words they used in each post and other trivia.I now know that in the past 30 days Maya Angelou and David Sedaris were the most popular authors among my friends, and U2 and Johnny Cash were the most popular musicians. Nine of my friends have made a combined 27 trips to Fenway Park, and one of my friends has been to the same hospital six times (whoever it is, I hope everything is okay).

I can also look at whom I interact with most. There are loads of other data, but not as much as you’d think: I can generally check every chart and figure on Wisdom within five or 10 minutes. And even as the network increases in size, not much changes on a day-to-day or week-to-week basis.

Among other things, Wisdom lets you check where your Facebook friends have been checking in to find places you may want to go to.

Wisdom gives you a chance to do some very limited number crunching of your own, but not much. The design is beautiful, and it seems somewhat addictive the first time you play around with it, but then you realize there’s not much you can do with the data aside from look at it.

And that’s the problem: Every time I finish scanning through Wisdom, I’m left with that “Now what?” feeling we get when we don’t really know what else to do with an app. The data is interesting, but there’s not much I can do with it: I can’t download it, I can’t even access it from my desktop, making it harder to crunch.

Wisdom has some recommendations on how to use the app, including finding places to go when traveling and finding out what’s popular. I have loads of other apps that do all of the things Wisdom claims to be able to do, and, since they’re focused (finding the best place to eat, keeping me up-to-date on news and trends), the information in those apps comes off as being far more manageable than the artfully-presented glut I get in Wisdom.

Discuss

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