Monday, November 2, 2009
Illegal Downloaders “Spend the Most on Music,” Says Poll
People who illegally download music from the internet also spend more money on music than anyone else, according to a new study.
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Grammy Judges Vet Nominees Online
Grammy judges will be listening to the upcoming award nominees online, thanks to a partnership with Yangaroo, a Canadian media-distribution start-up.
The company’s technology encrypts music files with a watermark and lets record labels share them securely with radio stations and other destinations. The watermark allows Yangaroo to identify each person who has downloaded a track, so if a song is leaked, it can trace its origin.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
Cheap Windows 7 Headed for College Campuses
Microsoft is about to find out whether it can prevent further defections to the Macintosh among college students by charging less for Windows 7 than a typical textbook.
On Thursday, the company announced on Twitter that college students in the U.S. can upgrade their PCs to Windows 7 Home Premium edition for only $29.99, as long as they have a genuine copy of Windows XP or Vista already installed on their systems.
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Why Google’s Free Music Deal in China Is So Important, and What It May Really Mean
I have mentioned Google’s music-related activities in China a few times during the past two years; and just yesterday this topic seems to have heated up considerably.
Friday, January 2, 2009
Hollywood’s Digital Dawdling
On Feb. 3, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment is going to make an honest man of me. Finally I will be able to buy a legal DVD of one of my favorite movies, Carol Reed’s 1959 “Our Man in Havana.” But there’s still no rhyme or reason to what films are available in any digital form.
Friday, August 22, 2008
So What Do I Know Now?–Part 2
Last year, here on the Voices blog, I asked you all for your thoughts on how to finance and put out my next record. I got some swell advice, as well as some good wishes. Many agreed that the patronage system–asking fans to donate money–was a promising idea.
Friday, April 11, 2008
Does Streaming Lift Music Sales?
Free streaming music turns people on to new music and encourages them to buy, says social-networking site Last.fm. In the music industry, this will not come as a huge revelation.
Last.fm, acquired by CBS last May, announced Wednesday that since the company launched its on-demand streaming service two months ago, CD and download sales through its partnership with Amazon.com have more than doubled.
So what does that mean?
Music discovery continues to be one of digital music’s greatest vulnerabilities. Nobody has come up with a sure or simple way to help people wade through the millions of tracks available on the Web.
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
File “Sharing” or “Stealing”?
A few days ago I came across an op-ed submission that called for file sharing to be decriminalized. The editors here decided not to run it, but it intrigued me for a couple of reasons. First, the author, Karl Sigfrid, is a member of the Swedish Parliament from the Moderate Party–a pro-business party that’s akin to this country’s Libertarians (except in Sweden they’re more than just a fringe group). Second, although he covered much of the same ground earlier this year in a Swedish paper, Sigfrid’s new piece added another provocative contention: that unauthorized downloading isn’t actually theft.
Thursday, January 31, 2008
A Rare Post About the Music Industry That Isn’t Completely Depressing
The Qtrax debacle is getting most of the attention this week, with Warner Music’s ridiculous CEO compensation close behind, but there is promising news in the music industry worth noting. Late last year, there was much fuss around Radiohead’s decision to eschew usual distribution schemes and release “In Rainbows” in a variety of formats, among them free downloads. It was no surprise that the marketing plan worked well and, more recently, helped the on-CD version of the new album top many sales charts. Radiohead is an extremely popular band; of course its experiment did well. But if there’s going to be a music industry anymore, it’s going to be because nonplatinum performers can make a living as musicians.
Friday, January 11, 2008
Hey Trent–a Music Tax Is a Dumb Idea
There’s a great interview with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails up at CNET, in which he talks about his experience with the Saul Williams album he recently released as a “pay what you want” download. … I say it’s a great interview, and it is–but Trent also says something that I think is pretty dumb: he says that he’s in favor of an Internet tax, in which everyone would pay their service provider $5 extra and that money would then be distributed to artists to compensate them for downloading.
Friday, December 28, 2007
Wal-Mart Cancels Video Download Service; HP Says Not Worth Powering
Yet another example of bricks-and-mortar scale not translating to online sales power and of grand plans deflating. Reuters reports that Wal-Mart, one of the largest sellers of DVDs, shut down its same-day-as-DVD video download service, citing Hewlett Packard’s decision to discontinue the service that powered it. The plug was pulled Dec. 21, far more quietly than the movie/TV download service began in February. No download details but you have to think if the service was successful, Wal-Mart would have found a new vendor to keep it going.
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Giving, Taking Pirated Carols
Chestnuts roasting on an open fire. Jack Frost ripping a CD.
Online piracy is creating a modern-day twist on “The Christmas Song.” Nat King Cole’s recording of the holiday standard is among the most popular downloads on file-sharing networks this year.
Featured Voices Posts
View All Jobs | Post a Job Job Listings
A sponsored service from SimplyHired
Voices Posts by Date
Voices Posts by Category
About Voices
This is a section of the All Things Digital Web site featuring posts from around the Web, from other Dow Jones properties and also original pieces we solicit. The section is now explicitly labeled that it comes "from other Web sites."
We are fully aware of the controversies around how linking and aggregating is done on the Web and we, in no way, are attempting to "scrape" original content created by others. Instead, regarding third-party posts, we are trying to point readers of this site to other posts from around the Web that we admire and are trying to do so in the quickest manner possible.
The Internet is full of terrific content that is not ours and we want to help our readers find it by making editorial suggestions--Look, Mom, no algorithm!--of posts we think are worth their time.
That is why we have made even more changes to Voices to ensure we do this in the most transparent and timely way. While we don't expect that everyone will agree with our policies, we have made changes that reflect our intent in pointing to content outside our site.
So here is exactly what we do: Read more »
About the Site
Because the site is wholly owned by Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, we aim to adhere to the journalistic standards of the best of the mainstream media. But, because it is run autonomously as a small online startup, we aim to exhibit the fresh thinking and nimbleness of the best of the new media. We want to be first, and sassy, but also well sourced and accurate. We will offer lots of opinion and analysis, but plenty of fact as well.
