Technology News

Music Industry Looks to Internet for Revival

Source: All About Jazz
December 28, 2008

A generation after the launch of MTV, major record labels are hoping to revive the music video business online by creating a single digital destination for their artists’ output.

Plans under discussion include: a partnership with Hulu, the online television and film joint venture between News Corp and NBC Universal; the creation of a premium service on YouTube, Google’s video sharing site; or, a standalone venture between some or all of the four largest recorded music groups. Industry members had ...

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Broadband Stimulus Plan: How About Some Data First?

Source: All About Jazz
December 26, 2008

During the Great Depression, the government tried to revive the economy with the New Deal's public work projects, and ended up paying people to dig unneeded ditches. In today's deep recession, digital age advocates are trying to persuade President-elect Barack Obama to put billions into a nationwide broadband build-out as part of his planned economic stimulus package.

Given that the internet has grown into an indispensable tool for the economy, for people's personal lives and for the nation's political discourse, ...

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Games May Revitalize Aging Brains

Source: PC Magazine
December 25, 2008

Turns out all of Nintendo's “Train Your Brain!" hoopla may not be hoopla after all. Reuters reports that a new study shows older adults who played a videogame for a month demonstrated improved scores on tests of their cognitive functions, including memory, reasoning, and multi-tasking. But here's some not-so-good news for Nintendo: The game they played was not, as you might initially expect, Brain Age. The study included 40 adults in their 60's and 70's, with half of them randomly ...

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EU Prefers iTunes 2 to 1 but Amazon Gaining Share

Source: HypeBot
December 25, 2008

European broadband consumers who regularly listen to music on computers and MP3 players are twice as likely to purchase music from iTunes than from any other online store according to research from Strategy Analytics.

The new report which is based on online interviews with broadband users in France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK, also notes that there is a significant difference between casual users and heavy users. “Heavy users show a much stronger preference for buying digital music from iTunes ...

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Kill the CD to Save the Industry, Study Advises

Source: HypeBot
December 25, 2008

The music industry must move away from the retail CD as its primary revenue generator before Christmas 2009, according to a new Gartner study which says the reliance on revenue from the sale of CD's is hindering the music industry from fully embracing online distribution opportunities.

“By propping up the CD business, rather than fully investing in online distribution alternatives, the major labels and the larger music industry have neither succeeded in stamping out piracy nor done much to recreate ...

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Facebook Joins Myspace in Project Playlist Ban

Source: HypeBot
December 25, 2008

Late last week MySpace responded to notices from the RIAA by banning all ProjectPlaylist widgets from its site. Yesterday Facebook followed suit.

“The RIAA initially contacted Facebook last summer requesting the removal of the Project Playlist application for copyright violation, and recently reopened those communications. We have forwarded the RIAA's letters to Project Playlist so it can work directly with that organization and music labels on a resolution. In the meantime, the application must be removed to comply with ...

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How Norad Tracks Santa

Source: All About Jazz
December 24, 2008

Santa Claus may be able to fly around the world in a sleigh, but even he can't cross North American airspace without NORAD knowing about it.

For more than 50 years, the joint American-Canadian air command that safeguards the continent against aerial attack has used its sophisticated tracking technology to follow Kris Kringle's journey and provide real-time updates on his location to children worldwide. The North American Aerospace Defense Command gave us a rundown of how it does the job. ...

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Rockers to Press Obama on Music Torture

Source: All About Jazz
December 24, 2008

Reprieve, a British human rights law group that represents over 30 Guantanamo Bay detainees, is planning to work with musicians to lobby President-elect Barack Obama to end the practice of sonic torture by military interrogators.

Earlier this month, Reprieve and the U.K. Musicians Union launched Zero dB, a “silent protest" over the use of music in interrogations. According to Reprieve, many of its clients have been subjected to hours of music played at deafening volume -- sometime for days or ...

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