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Technology

Ticketmaster-Live Nation Merger Panned at Senate Hearing

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2009

Senators and independent concert promoters took turns at a hearing Tuesday slamming a proposed merger of two of the biggest forces in the music industry -- Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc. and Live Nation Worldwide Inc.

“It seems to be monopolistic, plain and simple," Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said. “This is not the American dream, as the companies' witnesses might have you believe."

The Senate's antitrust subcommittee grilled chief executives Michael Rapino of Live Nation and Irving Azoff of Ticketmaster and ...

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Technology

Google Backs European Case Against Microsoft Browser

Source: Michael Ricci
February 25, 2009

Google Inc. is joining forces with European regulators in an attack on Microsoft Corp.'s dominance of the Web browser market, injecting more bad blood between two of computing's most powerful companies.

The latest assault on Microsoft's Internet Explorer, announced Tuesday, comes as Google is trying to expand the use of its own Web browser, the 6-month-old Chrome. A complaint by Opera Software, maker of another Explorer rival, prompted the European Commission to open an investigation into whether Microsoft's bundling ...

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Kyte Offers Turnkey Framework for iPhone Music Apps Creation

Source: HypeBot
February 25, 2009

Mobile video service Kyte is now offering a turnkey framework that streamlines the creation of custom music applications for the iPhone and iPod touch. Similar apps are gaining popularity both with artists and fans. Using built in RSS feeds and links the apps deliver video, music, news, tweets, chat and links to purchase.

Interscope Geffen A&M is amoung the first labels to utilize the app creation system. “Kyte allows us to easily deliver iPhone and iPod touch apps that connect ...

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Apple, Depeche Mode Launch New 'iTunes Pass'

Source: PC Magazine
February 25, 2009

The 1980s Britpop band Depeche Mode has teamed with Apple to launch the first iTunes Pass, a sort of one-time subscription service to content that the band has and will create. Although the blogosphere is wondering whether Apple is using the concept of the iTunes Pass to evolve into an optional subscription model, the Pass seems more akin to a sort of RSS feed. Users also buy the Depeche Mode iTunes Pass for a one-time fee of $18.99 that covers ...

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A Conversation with the Hype Machine's Anthony Volodkin

Source: HypeBot
February 25, 2009

GUEST POST: Australian based digital strategist Nick Crocker sat down for Hypebot with The Hype Machine's Anthony Volodkin.

For music lovers, Hype Machine is an essential filter. With increasing ad-revenue and affiliate sales, the site's founder Anthony Volodkin has assembled a small team to manage the expanding Hype Machine community. Volodkin has been working on Hype Machine full-time since graduating from Hunter College in 2007. He took time out to discuss Hype Machine's growth, the sensitivity required to maintain an ...

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Daily D.I.Y. - Take Your Promo Old School

Source: HypeBot
February 25, 2009

As they should, every artist and label has an email list, blog and social networking pages. But the assault of online information is overwhelming and it's harder and harder to get your message heard above the chatter.

In addition to your online activities, why not also use some old school methods to reach your fans.

For example, do you collect your fans' mailing addresses? Maybe you should and then a couple of times a year send a postcard announcing a ...

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Technology

Beauty Affects Men's and Women's Brains Differently

Source: All About Jazz
February 24, 2009

Beauty is famously in the eye of the beholder; but it's also in the beholder's brain, and may work differently in the brains of men and women.

In men, images they consider to be beautiful appear to activate brain regions responsible for locating objects in absolute terms — x- and y-coordinates on a grid. Images considered beautiful by women do the same, but they also activate regions associated with relative location: above and behind, over and under. The difference could ...

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Infringement Case Against McCain Advances

Source: All About Jazz
February 24, 2009

John McCain says he was a puppet for the Republican National Committee and therefore should not be held accountable for a presidential campaign commercial that used the popular song “Running on Empty" by Jackson Browne without permission.

But the Los Angeles federal judge presiding over the copyright- infringement case was not buying it. The judge refused late Friday to remove the Arizona senator from the lawsuit in which he and the Republican National Committee are accused of violating the rights ...

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