Thursday, May 31, 2007

Higher bitrates required for digital music converts?

An article in the New York Times today says that bitrates for music downloads must be significantly higher for listening to music at near-CD quality. Since CD quality does not compare to the rich quality of vinyl, are we degrading the quality of our music files?

I remain optimistic. The process is still sorting itself out. Download speeds are increasingly faster and storage is becoming cheaper and larger. All we need is for some standards to be set. Mp3, WAV, AAC?  We need a hi-res codec to produce a file that is not overwhelmingly large yet still efficient.


Where’s the Other Half of Your Music File? - New York Times

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Tennman Records - another imprint of Interscope

Seems like many successful r&b/hip hop artists get rewarded with their own record label these days. Is there some leveraging going on? Are artists given a label so they don't leave their current homestead in pursuit of a better deal?  Maybe it's an added value thing...or maybe I'm simply reading too much into it.

Timberlake Goes Corporate With Own Label

Monday, May 28, 2007

check out Flock

Flock is a new browser that I just discovered that makes it really easy to integrate social networks, blogs, pics, and all that shizz. Check it out.

Monday, May 21, 2007

Bye, Bye EMI

From Digital Media Wire...

EMI Accepts $4.7 Billion Buyout From U.K. Private Equity Firm
Submitted by Mark Hefflinger on May 21, 2007 - 12:22pm.

London - Major record label EMI announced on Monday that it has accepted a buyout offer of about $4.7 billion from British private equity firm Terra Firma.

The company had received a number of other offers, most notably from fellow major label Warner Music Group; other suitors included Cerberus Capital Management, Fortress Investment Group and One Equity Partners.

"Terra Firma's offer is the most attractive proposal received and delivers cash now, without regulatory uncertainty and with the minimum of operational risk to the company," said EMI chairman John Gildersleeve.

"The global music industry is undergoing significant change and, whilst EMI is confident in its ability to deliver its recently announced restructuring plans, significant uncertainty exists as to the timing and extent of future market developments."

The takeover announcement comes as EMI reported a $568 million loss for its fiscal year, as compared with a profit of $170 million in the year prior, and sales of $3.6 billion, down from $4.1 billion last year.

http://www.dmwmedia.com/news/2007/05/21/emi-accepts-4-7-billion-buyout-from-u-k-private-equity-firm

Thursday, May 17, 2007

The Howling Bells (click for myspace profile)



I found this band through what the record label brass calls hyperdistribution (or, a friend of mine) and can't stop listening to this single. Check out their myspace page for a nice remix by The Presets.

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

getting sued by the RIAA

Here's an interesting article about a student who got sued by the RIAA. The process is interesting...read it here