Music Technology Posts from October, 2008



Is Piracy Good For Music?

Thursday, October 30th, 2008

Illegal downloading of music has been one of the most contentious issues in the music industry over the past few years. Major labels and distributors have invested a lot of effort into preventing such piracy, but draconian DRM and sporadic lawsuits seem to have had little (if any) positive impact. The question now should not be how to stop people downloading albums for free, but whether such activity can actually be good for music…
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Build Your Own Touch Screen Interface

Tuesday, October 28th, 2008

As computers become ever more like instruments in their own right (beyond simulating traditional instruments), it is important to devise appropriate interfaces for coaxing a truly musical performance from them. The use of touchscreen technology is one direction being explored in relation to improving this experience…
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Listening In Cloud Lala Land

Wednesday, October 22nd, 2008

Yes folks, it’s yet another online music distribution platform that aims to revolutionise the way we consume and purchase music in the digital era. Accompanied by much hype in the blogosphere, Lala has introduced its latest take on this troubled industry – music in the cloud…
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Little Big Fuss Over Game Music

Monday, October 20th, 2008

Sony were due to launch a new game, LittleBigPlanet, on October 24th. However, the background music used in the game caused the release to be postponed, as it was discovered that one of the tracks contains phrases from the Koran…
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Hitler’s Downfall Engineered By Digidesign

Wednesday, October 15th, 2008

In what has become a popular Web 2.0 meme, another re-subtitled version of the classic bunker scene from the movie ‘Downfall’ has emerged. This time around, Adolf is somewhat upset that the market share of superior Steinberg audio recording products is being eroded by Pro Tools…
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Raga Man Names Band

Friday, October 10th, 2008

Naming your band is a very important decision, for a number of reasons. First of all, your band is your brand, and having a memorable or interesting name might give you a slight edge in a very saturated market. Also, it’s important to ensure that nobody else is using your name already, as this can lead to legal troubles should you ever rise to prominence later on. But if you’re stuck in a creative rut trying to come up with that memorable moniker, here are a couple of suggestions…
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WordPress Music Plugins

Tuesday, October 7th, 2008

WordPress is an extremely popular website creation tool, and relatively simple to use. Although powerful and flexible in itself, its functionality can be further extended through the use of third-party plugins – and some of these are of particular interest to music blogs…
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Apple Threatens To Shut Down iTunes

Monday, October 6th, 2008

The debate regarding how royalties should be allocated for digital downloads has reared its head once more. This time, the National Music Publishers Association (in the US) called for a 66% hike in royalty rates paid to its members on downloads from sites such as iTunes. Apple declared that this would “significantly increase the likelihood of the store operating at a financial loss” and threatened to shut down its iTunes store if the hike was enforced…
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