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Technology

Tired of Being "Held to Ransom by Apple" - Could Sony Pull It's Track from iTunes?

Source: HypeBot
February 12, 2011

Statements this from a senior Sony executive hint that the end game for its new Music Unlimited service may not be just to compete with iTunes, but rather to replace it. Late last year, Sony unveiled its online store and music service in Europe and promises to bring it to many more countries in 2011. Music Unlimited is the entertainment and technology giant's late-to-market attempt to integrate content and devices as Apple has for a decade. ”If we do [get ...

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Technology

PayPal Goes Live with Micropayments: Sell Digital Tracks Direct and Keep More $'s

Source: HypeBot
February 12, 2011

An inability to profitably process small transactions has been a major impediment to growth in direct to fan digital music sales. A 99 cent track on iTunes nets an artist or label about 65 cents. Often a distributor takes another 10㬕% diluting the profit further to under 60 cents. Additionally, who bought the track and other transaction data remains is not passed on to the artists. PayPal and others have been working to make micropayments profitable and yesterday brought their ...

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Technology

Slacker Raises $3 Million, Preps on-Demand Launch

Source: HypeBot
February 12, 2011

Slacker has raised $3 million in debt funding according to a SEC filing. This adds to the growing number of music startups that have gained additional funds in 2011. While Slacker is known more commonly as a rival to Pandora in the coming months, they will be taking MOG, Rdio, Rhapsody, and Thumbplay Music head-on in the subscription music service sector. No launch date is confirmed yet, but there's a high likelihood that Slacker will go live before Spotify comes ...

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Technology

The Song Project celebrates Valentine's with the Web

Source: Mark Rapp
February 11, 2011

The Song Project, a jazz duo out of Brooklyn, NY known for their forward-thinking and out-of- the-box approaches to music and technology has released a web page optimized for the iPad and iPhone in celebration of this Valentine's weekend. They present a bit of dry humor with some choice quotes by Rosanne Barr to Plato and offer an original composition and a hauntingly beautiful version of My Funny Valentine. http://vday.thesongproject.net/ Their industry first product they coined as the “applum"—iPhone App ...

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Technology

Why Apple May Kill the iPod Classic

Source: HypeBot
February 10, 2011

The iPod Classic remains a symbol of the digital revolution. Its scroll wheel is iconic. The simple yet elegant design still resonates, but for how long? There's an interesting rumor making its way around the tech-world. It indicates that the iPod Classic is either getting a needed update or getting killed off. The Classic hasn't been updated since September of 2009 and has gone missing from retailers. Target and J&R don't have any Classics in stock and Amazon appears to have ...

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Technology

How a Little Hungarian Music Startup Scored $1.7 Million...

Source: Digital Music News
February 9, 2011

Digital music is technically a global industry, yet big funding often goes to companies in major hubs like Silicon Valley, New York,or Los Angeles. But Hungary? That's right: the latest funding round was actually grabbed by the Budapest-based 3G Multimedia, a backend, white label startup that specializes in streaming music services. The $1.7 million Series A, confirmed to Digital Music News by the company, comes from PortfoLion, owned by major banking group, OTP. This could be another fluffy chapter in ...

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Technology

A/B Testing for Musicians: A Study in Facebook Ads

Source: HypeBot
February 9, 2011

This guest post is written by Chris R. at CD Baby's DIY Musican blog. You can't trust your friends! Musicians are a suspicious lot. We tend to hold fast to our gut instincts. We heed the counsel of close friends and die-hard fans. We can be defensive and protective of our artistic “purity." We're afraid to do anything that smacks of out-and-out marketing. But sometimes you shouldn't trust yourself. Sometimes you should ignore the advice of loved ones. Sometimes you just need to get ...

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Technology

TuneSecure - "Let's Drive Music Piracy Underground, Make It Hard to Download."

Source: HypeBot
February 9, 2011

It's still good to know that some tech-companies still have their thinking caps on. The solution to music piracy is to make it hard for the average person to download. This revolutionary idea comes by way of the Australian tech startup TuneSecure. We've heard this one before. They figure that file-sharing is all about convenience and if the practice was driven underground, the average person wouldn't bother with it. Too much work. Rather than doing something like—I don't know—letting Google ...

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