The Record Industry's Decline. "The record companies have created this situation themselves," says Simon Wright, CEO of Virgin Entertainment Group, which operates Virgin Megastores. Rosen and others see that 2001-03 period as disastrous for the business. "That's when we lost the users," Rosen says. "Peer-to-peer took hold. That's when we went from music having real value in people's minds to music having no economic value, just emotional value."
posted by geoff. on Jun 26, 2007 - 279 comments

Music's New Gatekeeper - From their Silicon Valley cubicles, Apple staffers have become music's unlikely power brokers.
posted by nevercalm on Mar 10, 2007 - 21 comments

Musicast turns your iTunes (mac only) into a music sharing server that conveniently spits out a podcast feed for your friends to subscribe and download all your mp3s from. Download this quick before the RIAA kills the server something might happen to this wonderful app.
posted by mathowie on Aug 30, 2006 - 37 comments

Cool (windows only) bit of software to allow those reading (with Windows pcs, wireless networks, itunes & a PSP) to stream their mp3 libraries over their wireless network to their PSP. I know this probably doesn't apply to too many people here, but hopefully those to whom it does find it useful.
posted by jonson on Apr 22, 2006 - 18 comments

"The fundamental goal of Oboe is to make all your music available to you on all devices." DVD Jon is onboard. Michael Robertson is behind the project. MP3Tunes has become an MP3Beamer.
via
posted by airguitar on Dec 7, 2005 - 27 comments

While the Grateful Dead were pioneers in the sharing of music, it wasn't too long ago that fans had to meet in-person with other DeadHeads at taping parties to grow their library of "bootlegs." In the late 1990s when CD burners became more prominent, The Dead again led the way. They went on record to say that fans were still welcome to copy, share and trade their music as long as no money changing hands—including no advertising on web sites with downloads. Yesterday, the band again made history when they announced they are releasing the contents of their vast vault electronically (and simultaneouly) on iTunes Music Store and their very own Grateful Dead online store, the latter making the songs available in mp3 (128 and 256kbps) and FLAC .
posted by terrapin on Mar 2, 2005 - 74 comments

Wanna join a class action suit? Is Fair Play fair? Guess the courts will decide this one. I know my iPod changes my life ;-)
posted by fixedgear on Jan 6, 2005 - 51 comments

11 cents cheaper than iTunes, WalMart enters the music download business.
posted by ColdChef on Mar 23, 2004 - 50 comments

Hey, shut up, I can't hear! What else will 99¢ get you from the iTunes Music Store? Nothin', that's what.
posted by marzenie99 on Feb 6, 2004 - 30 comments

An "insanely great" solution to MP3 piracy that users AND the recording industry will accept? While still only a rumor, Apple Computer may be developing a service in conjunction with all major recording studios to permit easy, inexpensive downloading of music through Apple's famed 'iTunes' music cataloging/burning software. Knowing Apple's penchant for ease-of-use and clean, solid design (combined with some hard-knuckle Steve Jobs negotiations with the recording industry), could a $.99 per song (or similar) service take off and bring legitimacy to downloaded music and acceptance from both the industry and users? If true, it's also good to see the consumer electronics industry taking some initiative and responsibility to provide solutions - not blame and accusations.
posted by tgrundke on Mar 4, 2003 - 61 comments

iTunes 2 was released recently. Some poor OS X users lost all their data after installing this seemingly innocuous software. (about a third of the way down)
Is being on the bleeding edge worth it? What responsibility does a software manufacturer have to prevent from damaging your data? Any other horror stories from installing just released software? Not bashing Apple, as I'm using a Mac myself.
posted by the biscuit man on Nov 5, 2001 - 25 comments