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Amazon Cloud Player, Muzak Making News Pt. 2

It’s funny to think of Amazon as old school, when mentioned in the same breath with Muzak, and perhaps funnier to mention them in the same breath at all. But it’s true; Amazon is old school, albeit as an online presence. Rolling into it’s second decade as an disruptor, Amazon is undoubtedly upsetting the music [...]

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Amazon Cloud Player, Muzak Making News Pt. 1

Is seems like there’s been a lot going on in digital music since I last wrote, so much so that I’m beginning to feel the air of a new revolution in our midst. Oddly, it’s a couple of old school companies that have been at the forefront of my mind. One of those companies is [...]

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Phil Collins Retiring to Be Full-time Dad

Phil Collins has long passed his prime of popularity, but the news of his retirement is meaningful to me. After his initial stint as lead vocalist for Genesis, he shocked the radio airwaves with In the Air Tonight. He did so by bringing drums to the forefront of a song, in a way that hadn’t [...]

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Patagonia Music Collective Gives to Environmental Organizations

The outdoor clothing company Patagonia recently launched the Patagonia Music Collective, a charitable organization that contributes proceeds from online music downloads. Songwriter musicians have the ability to designate a charity that benefits from downloads of its music. Among the artists who are contributing music are Jack Johnson, Bonnie Raitt, Mason Jennings, Pearl Jam, Maroon 5, [...]

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George Harrison Remembered by Streaming of Concert for George

I didn’t realize all these years that George Harrison’s birthday falls just one day before that of my own wife. When I saw the Washington Post article, George Harrison’s birthday celebrated with streaming concert, I took a moment to watch for the first time, the opening monologue by Eric Clapton and performance by Anoushka Shankar. I’m [...]

Music Execs Stressed

Music execs are stressed (again) about revenue loss, and the problem has been a moving technology driven target. This year at the Digital Music Forum East conference held Thursday in New York, industry execs are blaming free streaming services as the big reason behind revenue loss. While great services and sites like Rdio and thesixtyone offer [...]

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Roku Brings a New Music On Demand Source to Set-Top

The subscription based Rdio has brought a new on demand music source to the ever expanding world of music source choices. The device new device Roku,  not only gives owners set-top access to services like Pandora and Rdio, it streams all the cool stuff (Netflix, Hulu Plus, etc.). The prices are right too, ranging from [...]

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TheSixtyOne Joins the List of Free Streaming Sites

While the music industry has decided that the biggest culprit of declining revenues is free streaming music, The Kansas City Star (a most unlikely source) anoints Thesixtyone.com as site of the week. I must admit that it streams some great music. TheSixtyOne is also unique in terms of user experience. Like most streaming sites, it [...]

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Higher Quality Digital Downloads Further Threaten CD Sales

While most would argue that no one’s buying CDs, other sources tell us that CDs still make up 76 percent of album sales; but who’s into albums these days? In step with last week’s Radiohead release, iTunes and other download channels are beginning to offer higher quality downloads. The quality in some cases include WAV [...]

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Travis Barker Makes News with Frequency

This guy is a well known rock drummer, admired by many. I admire his choice in publicist. This pic first caught my eye, then I see he’s allegedly dating Rihanna. I see Travis Barker in the news every week. Granted, he’s not making world news headlines, he is a headliner in entertainment, music and drum [...]

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DW Bringing Jobs Back to California

DW recently announced that it plans to move all drum production to its facility in Oxnard, CA. This will bring a close to production that’s been done in its Ensenada, Mexico facility. The transition will begin in March. According to DW’s Director of Operations, the decision is, “the result of an ongoing campaign to improve [...]

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Music Services Cannot Afford to Pay Apple 30 Percent

Despite the fact that Swedish streaming service Spotify is raising a strong round of funding, Apple’s App Store subscription fee is said to threaten derailment of the companies business model. Without even trying, I’ve seen multiple subscription services complain openly about the 30 percent fee. What this likely means is that most subscription services wouldn’t [...]

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