Last.fm Expands Its Mobile Footprint

New Mobile Application Offers Millions of Streaming Tracks and Your Last.fm Music Profile On-The-Go

Last.fm announced its launch on the Android platform, offering an 'on-the-go' music application enabling users to access all the best of Last.fm from their mobile phones. Features include similar artists and genre-specific streaming radio stations, personalized streaming radio, up-to-date concert information and the ability to track users' listening habits to their Last.fm profile. The launch of Last.fm on Android marks the latest step in Last.fm's expansion into the mobile music space. The application is available for download through the Android Market www.android.com/market/#app=lastfm.

Using the Last.fm application, users can listen to streaming radio stations such as personal recommendations, similar artists, and genre-specific tracks. Users can also share tracks with their friends on Last.fm and stream other users' stations. The new 'Background Playback' feature enables users to listen to Last.fm's streaming music while accessing other programs, such as email, without interrupting the music experience.

Last.fm users can view an on-the-go version of their personal music profiles that includes mobile versions of Last.fm Charts page and Artist pages, with biographies, tags, similar artists and top listeners, all optimized for the Android platform. Users can access Last.fm's Events listings to browse artists on tour, search for events, view Last.fm recommendations and view mapped directions to music venues.

"We are thrilled to bring Last.fm even further into the mobile music space with the launch of this app. The Last.fm service on Android enables our listeners to use virtually every Last.fm feature on their mobiles," said Martin Stiksel, Last.fm Co-Founder. "It truly is a 'to-go' version of the site. Last.fm on Android takes the mobile music experience to the next level."

Last.fm on Android follows Last.fm's successful launch on the iPhone and iPod Touch last year, as well as integrations with Vodafone, T-Mobile, and the Three/INQ1 Social Mobile in Europe. More information on Last.fm's application on the Android Platform at www.last.fm/android.

Is downloading illegal? Or isn’t it?

Is downloading illegal? Or isn’t it?

Here's some food for thought on the question of whether you are breaking the copyright laws if you download music files from, let's say "non -payment" web sites.

Crosbie Fitch is researching and developing revenue mechanisms and business models for producers of digital art and in the process, “has" so it is claimed "discovered that copyright is not only an ineffective anachronism, but is unethical and unconstitutional“.

Now, on his Digital Productions blog he says, “Let’s get the legality of downloading established once and for all.”

• Downloading is, “the act of communicating a file from a supplier’s server computer to a recipient’s client computer, at the latter’s request, and at the former’s consent,” he says, going on
  
• Downloading a file (containing or representing an intellectual work) involves the manufacture of a copy.
  
• The copy is manufactured by the supplier (by their server) because they (unlike the downloader) are in receipt or possession of the source work, or have access to it.
  
• The manufactured copy is communicated by the supplier to the downloader (the recipient) via a computer network (whether electronically, optically, or by radio transmission, etc.).
  
• The downloader receives the manufactured copy, but does not participate in its manufacture (impossible without the source) in the download process.
  
• It is possible that ephemeral, intermediate copies were produced by the network and other devices during the transmission of the copy and its storage by the recipient.
  
• The recipient (their client computer) may have had to assemble the final file if the copy was transmitted in small fragments rather than in one piece, however, the act of such assembly does not constitute copying.
  

If the intellectual work is not protected by copyright no infringement can occur.

If the intellectual work is protected by copyright, and the supplier is not licensed by all copyright holders to the work to manufacture and distribute copies, then the supplier may infringe copyright in the process of manufacturing and supplying copies to downloaders.

In no case does the downloader, the recipient of a downloaded file, commit copyright infringement.

Having downloaded, the downloader may then commence the manufacture and supply of further copies to others, which is of course a potential infringement.

Culpability for copyright infringement lies not with who requests an act of copying, nor with who receives a copy, but with who performs the critical act of manufacturing a copy (and who distributes/transmits it).

Fitch adds, “Downloading may involve copyright infringement, but this is not an act committed by the downloader.”

Of course "Hitting The Right Note" hopes all our readers support the artists they download by making payment for the music, if the artist requires such payment, by using authorised online download stores.

www.digitalproductions.co.uk/

Kyte Announces Agreement With Sony Music Entertainment

SME to Utilize Kyte for Online and Mobile Video Production, Distribution and Monetization

Kyte (www.kyte.com), the universal digital media platform, announced that it has reached an agreement with Sony Music Entertainment (SME) in both the United States and Germany to provide an online and mobile video platform which will enable SME's artists and labels to engage with fans through the creation and distribution of digital content that can be monetized.

Kyte provides an end-to-end, online and mobile platform for the production, distribution and monetization of digital content. The Kyte Platform enables media and entertainment brands to:

• Produce - create or upload live and on-demand, online and mobile video and pictures
• Distribute - broadcast content to multiple online and mobile destinations simultaneously
• Engage - interact with an audience and build community through multimedia chat and branded user generated content
• Analyze - report and measure distribution and user engagement
• Monetize - create new revenue streams and monetize branded content

Artists such as Franz Ferdinand, John Legend and Raheem DeVaughn are using the Kyte Platform's flexible production tools to provide their fans with various types of content -- from authentic, raw video streamed live from a mobile phone while on tour, in the studio, or during a live performance - to professionally produced video that is uploaded to Kyte channels on various websites. 

John Legend recently used Kyte Mobile Producer to bring fans behind the scenes as he and fellow celebrities met President Barack Obama at an Inauguration Concert at the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

Fans are actively using SME Kyte channels and engaging deeply through unique interactive features, including multimedia chat, and the ability to comment and rate Kyte shows.

Overview Video

P2P Plans Shelved By Virgin

Rumours abound that Virgin Media caved in to pressure from the big players in the music industry, and shelved its plans to introduce a fully legal and above board music sharing service for their customers.

The service, due to be launched in a matter of weeks and named Virgin Music Unlimited actually represented a huge investment by the company and  it would have been the first fully legal file sharing service.

The project has been under the microscope since it was first announced, not by the music industry, but by other internet service providers and of course consumers, who would see this as an opportunity to go legal.

But if what we hear is true, Virgin Music Unlimited will not be launched. The reason is believed to be down to cost.

Tweet, Tweet: Musicians Who Twitter

The secret is out and the world has seemingly gone twitter mad and that includes the music world too with plenty of musicians taking up micro-blogging to keep us up to date on their latest projects or what they are having for lunch.

The music industry loves a good fad and it seems Twitter is following in the footsteps of Myspace, Last.fm and Facebook as a marketing tool for bands.

So, here's a list of  bands and band members, that "Hitting The Right Note" has found, who are currently tweeting away. Although the Nick Cave profile may not be the man himself, but it is pretty funny. If you find any more profiles for musicians please leave the url in the comments below.

• AC/DC
  
• Lily Allen
  
• Band of Horses
  
• Andrew Bird
  
• Bjork
  
• Bloc Party
  
• Bonde Do Role
  
• The Cardinals
  
• Nick Cave
  
• Coldplay
  
• Common
  
• Rivers Cuomo
  
• Dananananaykroyd
  
• Duke Special
  
• Snoop Dogg
  
• Funeral For A Friend
  
• Hadouken
  
• Calvin Harris
  
• Imogen Heap
  
• Hot Hot Heat
  
• Jimmy Eat World
  
• Dave Matthews
  
• Muse
  
• Oasis
  
• Pearl Jam
  
• Jack Penate
  
• Peter, Bjorn & John
  
• The Raconteurs
  
• Jay Reatard
  
• Trent Reznor
  
• Soulwax 
  
• Britney Spears
  
• Regina Spektor
  
• The Subways
  
• The Teenagers
  
• Tokyo Police Club
  
• Timbaland
  
• Tom Waits
  
• Lil Wayne
  
• Weezer
  
• Patrick Wilson
  
• The Wombats
  

Mixtapes let artists give freely

With the music industry increasingly more concerned about profit, some artists are finding labels less supporting and turn to free mixtapes as a form of promotion.

The term "mixtape" might conjure up the image of a 90-minute cassette with selection of carefully spaced tunes, for radio-like immediacy, to create a certain mood.  Or maybe  the 1980's old school hip-hop practice of self-distributing rap tapes, which continued until late 20th century, when CD-RW drives and mp3 availability killed the practice for everyone except the diehards.

No, the new mixtape is something else entirely. They are collections by one artist or producer that play like real albums, released without concern for copyrights or  hand-wringing record label, and beinging offered as free downloads.  Something that is proving to be a great selling point, or should that be giving-away point?

Canadian singer-producer Colin Munroe, who made an Internet splash in 2008 with his re-imagined version of Kanye West’s "Flashing Lights,” this month released "Colin Munroe Is the Unsung Hero.” 

Why is "Colin Munroe Is the Unsung Hero” a mixtape? These collections only exist as free downloads because most record labels don’t want to "clear” samples anymore. It costs a fortune to get the rights to snippets of songs, especially if multiple recordings show up in the mix. In Munroe’s case, he remixed a Bob Dylan song, quoted Joni Mitchell and covered U2’s "Sunday Bloody Sunday” as a banjo-fueled ballad, all of which would have cost a pretty penny to clear not to mention the time taken chasing all the rights holders.

Artists such as Munroe choose not to directly profit from mixtapes. They exist as products of pure creativity and calling cards for the artists’ talents.

www.myspace.com/colinmunroe

Disconnection U-turn for Music Pirates

The widely reported proposed crackdown on music pirates, including the parents of kids who download music and films illegally, which was launched last year, to stop the crisis which is hitting the recording industry has faltered. After many months of threatening to disconnect Internet users who break the law by illegally downloading music and films the UK Government has  admitted it would be 'impossible' to enact, it was claimed today.

It is estimated that about 6.5million Brits download music and films illegally each year, which would cost the industry £1billion over the next five years.

In a campaign led by the Government to reverse a slump in CD and DVD sales, thousands of warning letters were to be sent out to online surfers across the country who  are suspected of downloading music albums and films from PCs and laptops without paying for them,

But it was claimed today, in The Times newspaper, that internet service providers will not be forced to disconnect users who repeatedly flout the law by illegally sharing music and video files. David Lammy, the Intellectual Property Minister, said that the Government had ruled out legislating to force ISPs to disconnect such users.

Lammy was speaking ahead of the publication of a report on the future of Britain's digital industries, which was due out today (Monday 26th January 2009) but has been delayed until possibly Thursday.  Mr Lammy admits that there were very complex legal issues wrapped up in enforced disconnection and he hoped the 'heavy hand of legislation' would not be necessary. He added: "I'm not sure it's actually going to be possible."

The BPI, the body that represents the British record industry, and how having been pushing for the disconnection of repeat offenders, has not yet commented on this latest development.

Record time for records

Vinyl is back.

Are you old enough to remember vinyl records or do you have memories of those large black discs that many of our parents have rotting away in their closets are making a comeback. Well according to Nielsen Soundscan sales of vinyl have risen by 89 percent from 2007 to 2008 while CD sales continued their march downward by 14 percent.  So are we seeing an analog resurrection?

Occurring mostly in the indie music scene, with bands like Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Portishead and Neutral Milk Hotel all among the top 10 vinyl sellers of 2008. But we aren't seeing a resurgence of cassette tapes, 8 tracks or VHS tapes in the entertainment industry, so why records?

 Perhaps the first obvious reason for people buying records again is simply because it's seen to be cool. We see records used in movies and TV shows, and many of us have grown up listening to The Beatles or The Beach Boys revolving on turntables. Anything that reminds us of growing up and being a child has an automatic draw to it , and the doubling of vinyl may also be  an indication that a generation of music lovers wants it back.

Modern, young music fans been downloading their music for most of their lives, but many "older" fans feel unsatisfied with digital copies of music. Maybe even cheated when the act of making a few clicks and you get your music.

There's something almost magical about going to a store, for some people, and buying a physical copy of the music, and at this point CDs are simply out of style. The act of peeling off the shrink wrap, opening up the gatefold, putting the album on the turntable, and listening to a new album is an experience in itself.

Records can cost around the price of a CD and many come with a free download key to get a legitimate high-quality MP3 version for your portable mp3 player. For some the benefits for buying records can often outweigh the cost, especially if you're already a small-time collector. 

Perhaps this phenomenon can give lessons to the music industry and the movie industry regarding enforcement of illegal file sharing. The record executives should learn that the only true way to compete with a free product is to make a better, more-desired product. A product that people don't actually mind paying for. Since it already has a firm and growing cult base and with the flux of record sales, many record companies invest in the image and marketing of vinyl.

What better way to liven the atmosphere and relax with your music than listening to records in your home? Plus of course you can enjoy the artists' artwork and support your struggling musicians.

Finally there is one thing you can't do with a downloaded mp3 file that you can do with a discarded vinyl disk .... make a lovely fruit bowl.

Music Pirates Challenged by Rum Makers

At a time that the music industry is urged to learn from the ‘dark side of the internet’, Bacardi and dance artists Groove Armada have joined forces to release an EP that will be made available through an exclusive music sharing website .

"B-Live Share" is the rum brand’s  is a new online music application that has been designed to actually encourage and reward consumers who share music from Groove Armada through their own online communities such as social networking sites, MySpace, Facebook and Bebo.

Groove Armada's Andy Cato said, “Sharing music has always gone on. It's giving music away that's the problem. We wanted to come up with a 21st century version of what we used to do with cassette tapes. When you give music away for free it’s disposable. When you share it, it’s done with love.”

Recently music industry's critics said that executives need to relinquish more control of their music in the digital world. They could even pick up some ideas from the people who have created services to download music illegally, the very who they are now fighting. It must be remembers that Napster started life as an illegal file sharing site and led the way to the download revolution via legal sites such as iTunes, Amazon and of course Napster themselves.

The industry has moved to forge partnerships with online retailers as sales slump, after years of trying to protect its content and sue anyone who illegally downloaded it, Bacardi and Groove Armada are seizing the opportunity to cash in.

It is widely reported that in 2008, more than 40 billion files, that's 95% of the music downloaded from the internet,  was illegal, resulting in the overall music market down around 7 per cent on 2007.

The new website, www.bliveshare.com, aims to empower sharing as the future model for music content distribution. What makes sharing music via this method is legal because the rights owners  i.e. the artists, Bacardi B-Live Records and the publisher,  are all compensated for the downloads and shared files.

Groove Armada decided that when their last record deal expired to sign up with drinks firm Bacardi rather than stay with a normal label and this EP release highlights an eight-month first-of-its-kind collaboration between the premium rum brand and the music group. In April last year, Bacardi launched its ground-breaking global music agreement with Groove Armada. The music group side-stepped music industry tradition and worked with Bacardi in touring, recording, producing BACARDI B-LIVE -- the global experiential marketing programme.

It remains to be seen if this new business model of share/reward will encourage more people to turn away from illegal download sites.

www.bliveshare.com

greendragonuk has shared an exclusive Groove Armada track with 1 people on B-Live Share

Get the track for yourself and start sharing

Small firms have to face the music

Collection Agencies take shops and restaurants to court for fees

Your cornershop and local Chinese restaurant best be on the look out because they among a host of small businesses being targeted by the music industry for collection of “performance fees”.

Shop owners who play recorded music in their stores are being scrutinised by “music inspectors” from record companies and prosecuted if they do not have a licence to play background music.

Music executives are trying to boost their income as the industry loses out on traditional revenue sources because of internet piracy. Last year both Phonographic Performance Ireland (PPI) and the Performing Right Society for Music (PRS) initiated a policy of taking action against small firms that refused to sign up for its commercial background music licence.

The PPI like it's UK counter part, the PRS, has told its inspectors to examine company directories in all Irish towns and carry out spot checks. The agency collects royalties for record companies and has 15,000 businesses on its books. I

 The director of the Small Firms Association (SFA), Patricia Callan, said she had been inundated with complaints. “Businesses want to be compliant, but costs have increased over the past 12 months, and I know several have stopped playing music,” she said. According to Callan,  “Businesses can’t understand why they have to pay for multiple licences for what is essentially the same thing,” as most of the SFA’s members have already paid a fee to the Irish Music Rights Organisation (Imro), which collects royalties on behalf of composers. But PPI insists that it and Imro are separate organisations and businesses must have licences from both.

In Britain, the Performing Right Society for Music (PRS) has been accused of using aggressive tactics while targeting small companies and has forced more than 350,000 people to pay fees. In the last yeara lone it raked in more than £600m (€628m) in royalties, despite stagnating CD sales and widespread illegal downloading, an overall increase of more than 8% from 2007.

The PRS made calls to small businessmen and sent out 567,000 letters in 2008 seeking fees. Licences can cost from a few pounds to several thousand pounds depending on who is listening to the music. Pubs and clubs are obvious targets but thousands of letters and phone calls have gone to one-man businesses, including dog kennels and catteries, which play music to soothe their animals, and even police stations that help crack down on music piracy.

The PPI is even taking the government to court for granting hotels and prisons an exemption from royalties when they pipe songs into bedrooms and prison cells.