Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

A few days ago, our friends over at Appletell reported on a possible increase in royalty rates that could spell out a problem for iTunes, and possibly other digital music stores.  A meeting took place on Thursday, and royalties were set on digital downloads and ringtones for the first time ever.  The good news for those who buy songs and albums online: prices probably won’t be going up any time soon, at least not because of this.  The Copyright Royalty Board set the royalty rate for songs on albums and songs downloaded online at 9.1 cents, or the same rate it was.  This rate will remain into effect into 2012.

The interesting rates announced were actually those of master tones.  That rate is a comparatively astounding 24 cents.  Yeah, you read that right, 24 cents.  More after the break.

MORE »

Today, MySpace unveils the all-new MySpace Music alongside new BFFs: EMI Music, SONY BMG MUSIC ENTERTAINMENT, Universal Music Group, Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG), and Sony ATV/ Music Publishing. 

Users can do all the playlist making, swapping, downloading, streaming, etc. to their hearts’ desires.  Expect to be enticed by MySpace Music partners McDonald’s, Sony Pictures, State Farm, and Toyota.  We can expect free downloads from Mickey D’s, State Farm playlists and Toyota Tuesdays where anything can happen.

MORE »

Alltel, the owner of the world’s America’s (meaning USA) largest wireless network, announced today they will be offering the nuTsie service on select phones bringing customers their iTunes music wherever they are, just like an iPhone.  nuTsie says they’ve got over 1 million happy users and the Alltel deal gives them direct access to even more.  Alltel will become the first wireless carrier to offer the service to their customers. 

Forget syncing, nuTsie works via low-bandwidth streaming.  No downloading, sideloading or waiting.  Seems like a simple idea.  In addition to offering access to users iTunes music, a clever “Serendipity Slider” allows music recommendations to be be played as well opening up users to new music.  Customers can also share playlists, check out lyrics and view YouTube videos, if the phone supports these features.  Alltel is offering the service for $5 per month or $19 per year.

Find out if this deal is for you, click more…

MORE »

Seems folks like a bit of music with their mobile phone, who knew?  Sony Ericsson ("SE") announced they will join the growing list of manufacturers that offer some kind of music service with their phones.  Designed to compete with Nokia’s cleverly named “comes with music,” SE plans to begin the service in Sweden, then expand to Western Europe.

The service will be an all-you-can-eat unlimited music subscription and should roll out mid-way through 2009; Rome wasn’t build in a day.  Nokia’s service starts up next month in the UK.  Nokia’s plan is expected to cost 70 pounds extra, though there is some belief the cost will be rolled into a contract price.

Manufacturers chase customers

Hit more to see if this phenom is coming to the US

MORE »

Because there isn’t quite enough hoopla today surrounding the news of the Android G1...Amazon comes out and adds their version of the cherry on the cupcake. They confirmed today that a music store for Android-based cellphones does indeed exist, and it comes pre-loaded on the G1. (yes, Virginia..there is a Santa Claus).  With it, users have 6 million DRM-free songs to pick from, coming from all four of the top record labels.

You are able to browse and preview no problem anytime you’re connected to the T-Mobile network; but when it comes time to buy and download, you’ll have to have a Wi-Fi connection.  No, the songs aren’t free, (although wouldn’t that be a bonus?!), but they also don’t rack you with any extra “convenience” charges. It will still cost the same 89 cents per individual song download, unless otherwise indicated.

In their official press release, Bill Carr, Amazon.com Vice President for Digital Music and Video says

“Amazon wants to make it easy for customers to discover, buy, and play their music wherever they happen to be–whether sitting at their computer or on the go. We look forward to the release of the T-Mobile G1, which will put Amazon MP3’s vast selection of low-priced DRM-free music at the fingertips of even more customers in more places.”

Music that is downloaded from the site onto the T-Mobile G1 can also be played on PCs, Macs or any other MP3 music player.

via [techmeme]

Well, apparently SanDisk feels Joe Public likes their music hands on.  This thinking may well be what led to their new line of music-filled microSD cards. They managed to pull in all the big record labels like Sony BMG, EMI, Universal and Warner.  Although, I’m not sure what the labels were thinking with this one. The songs on the 1 GB cards will be DRM-free MP3s that are encoded at 320 kbps for the record.

The first stores they have in on the deal are Wal-Mart or Best Buy.  So, you simply stroll into one of those two stores, nab your rockin’, grooving, bopping-loaded slotMusic, and pop it into your phone, and voila...you’re set.  However, if you are one of the millions who would simply rather get your music by downloading it, then this little slotMusic thing is pretty useless.

MORE »

Nokia is poised to release its new “Comes With Music” phones on October 17th in Britain.  The phones will come with a subscription music service that will allow users to keep any song they obtain through it for 12 months.  The service will come with every phone, with nothing mentioned about payment.  So far, three major studios have signed on for the project: Universal, Sony BMG and Warner Music Group.  Seems like a fairly good push to start with.

According to the Reuters reports, the music companies are hoping this will diminish the popularity of Apple’s iTunes Music Store.  I don’t see why, but music publishers don’t seem to really like Apple too much lately.  Maybe they don’t like making slightly less money?  iTunes is the biggest music seller out there at the moment (well, in America at least, not too sure about worldwide), but this Nokia subscription plan may take a bit away from that.  If the iPhone and other lower-end phones have shown anything, it’s that people don’t mind listening to music on cellphones.

There are a few problems with the service that can be a bit off a turn-off with the service, though…

MORE »

Philips showcased their new home theatre device recently at IFA 2008.  Granted, it kind of looks like a cross between a pet’s feeding dish, a humidifier, and a soccer ball...and one might think “what can this really do?”...but it’s getting some decent feedback.

The CinemaOne is one of the smallest home theatre devices out there.  It contains a DVD player, a CD player, an iPod dock, a five channel amplifier, four speakers (featuring the same soundbar technology found in their Ambisound line) and a subwoofer which is built into the base.  It can output in just about any kind of format, including DivX and WMV, and you can control the iPod with the included remote. There is also a USB 2.0 port. The DVD player comes with 1080p scaling and Dolby Digital and DTS support as well. Not bad.

No confirmed release dates seem to be out at this point. I’ve seen rumors of September through January. Keep an eye out for updates of confirmation and pricing.

via [techradar]

Hey, if thousands of people are doing it, it can’t be wrong.....right? That’s the million dollar question about one of the newest music sites on the Web. Songza advertises itself as a “music search engine and Internet jukebox”. Ummm, ok.  Or, one might also say they are a site you can go to in order to search out music and be able to listen to and download it for free. I’m just sayin’.

With 28 million songs instantly playable on the site, 10 month old Songza is luring in the music-seeking crowd pretty nicely.  And they make their songs playable in a rather creative way. When you go on their site and enter the song or band title of your choosing, Songza will search the huge inventory of music videos on YouTube looking for it.  Then, it streams the audio of the song, while hiding the video in an unseen margin of the browser. Pretty dang tricky, but.....is it actually legal?

MORE »

We’ve already heard about the problems Pandora has been having with the upcoming RIAA royalty structure.  But we’re already starting to see the effects on smaller internet radio sites.  Muxtape’s main page hold’s a sad message reading;

“Muxtape will be unavailable for a brief period while we sort out a problem with the RIAA.”

While Muxtape insists it’s not closed for good, this can start to get scary for many people fairly soon.  As the RIAA starts tightening its grip, more services may be forced to shut down or start charging people to use the service.  It’s hard not to think that the RIAA is basically shooting itself in the foot with these new rules.  Online radio, while not exactly all that profitable, is a great way to find new music you may like but never heard before.  That could potentially lead to more record sales.  It’d be nice if maybe instead of basically trying to shut down internet radio, the RIAA tried working with it.  Or maybe the RIAA should hire some younger consultants on the matter, maybe some people just out of college that know how people like listening to their music in the internet age.

Read [Muxtape] Via [Boy Genius Report]