TTL - The Tech Link Blog

Dell

Recently, Dell started offering pre-installed movies on their computers during online checkout. They are now pushing the media distribution further by offering pre-installed “music packs” on their PCs.

Dell’s agreement with Universal enables the computer maker to offer attractively priced music when a customer buys a new computer. A 50-song pack will cost $25, and a 100-song pack will cost $50. That’s half of what it would cost if the same amount of songs were bough on iTunes!

All songs will be DRM-free. Users will be able to use and listen to the purchased songs anywhere, anytime. As of now, the XPS One and Dell Mini 9 netbook are excluded from the offering.

The Boston Globe

P!nk: Funhouse

P!nk, along with LaFace/Zomba Label Group and Sony BMG, has entered yet another new kind of marketing with a free application available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The application is available on the Apple App Store. Once installed, users will be able to listen to 30-second samples of all tracks available on P!nk’s newest album, Funhouse, which is available today. The application also allows access to restricted fan material such as pictures, videos, biography, etc.

It will only be a matter of time before we see all kinds of applications like this for other artists and let’s bet that the future only holds even more original marketing ideas for the public.

PR-CANADA.net

Deezer

Music site Deezer has now released the first official version of their iPhone and iPod Touch player, and it’s available for download directly on the Apple App Store.

For those of you not familiar with Deezer, it is very similar to iMeem. You can search for songs, artists, albums and stream them directly on your computer without the need to download the song.

Deezer also offers web radios and something they call “SmartRadio” where the service lets you discover new music based on your listening taste. These two features will be the only ones available on the iPhone and iPod Touch at first but Deezer plans on releasing a full featured application that will allow the user to enjoy 100% of the features available in the future.

clubic.com (French)

Lala

Lala.com just launched a new service for its U.S. users called Music Mover.

The idea is simple and quite similar to blueTunes.net, where the service will scan you entire music library (it’s iTunes compatible) and upload only the songs that are not present in the Lala.com music catalog.

Once this process is complete, the user’s entire music library will be available for free and unlimited streaming over the Internet. The main difference between blueTunes and Lala is that Lala is completely free and blueTunes will make you pay if you send more than 100 songs to your account.

ars technica

Sansa slotMusic Player

Sandisk announced today the release of the first slotMusic player: the Sansa slotMusic Player.

The device will accept pre-loaded slotMusic albums on microSD cards as well as user-filled microSD cards up to 16GB (DRM-free mp3 or WMA). Consumers will have a choice of Sansa-branded or artist-branded players (ABBA, Robin Thicke, etc.)

The Sansa slotMusic Player will be available today at Wal-Mart and BestBuy (and others) at $19.99 for the Sansa-branded player and $34.99 for the artist-branded player which includes the specific artist’s album on a microSD card.

It weights in at 1.7 oz and measures 2.84″ x 1.45″ x 0.60″ and will come packaged with earphones (earbuds) and battery. One standard AAA battery should last for as long as 15hrs of playback.

Sandisk Press Release
Sansa

Wal-Mart

On September 26, Wal-Mart DRM music users received an email telling them to backup all of their music to CD since the company decided they would close down their DRM servers.

Not more than 2 weeks later, Wal-Mart changes their mind and send another email saying they would keep the DRM servers operational afterall. The decision has been taken “based on feedback from our customers”.

Seems we do have power afterall

Engadget

YouTube

Like what you see? Then “Click to Buy”. You will see a lot of this on YouTube from now on.

It’s no secret, Google has been loosing a lot of money with YouTube because it’s not profitable enough. Sure, it’s popular, but it doesn’t bring profits to the company. As a first step in transforming YouTube into a money-making venture, Google started integrating non-intrusive links within certain video pages that promote different type of products and media.

Users will be able to buy the music tracks of certain music videos they like to watch, or buy a game or movie right after watching the preview or teaser. Partnerships have already been made with iTunes and Amazon.

BetaNews

mySpace Music

Since MySpace Music launched on the 24th of September, 1 Billion songs have been streamed by its users. That is surely a record to base ourselves on for the next few years at least!

I’ve made some math here based on 1 billion songs in 13 days:

• 76,923,077 songs/day
• 3,205,128 songs/hour
• 53,419 songs/minute
• 890 songs/second

CNET

Zune

In an almost official statement, Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer indicated that a Windows Mobile version of the Zune software and Zune Store would be in the works.

We don’t know when and how but we know it’s coming. Next version of the Windows Mobile platform should come pre-loaded with Zune we hope.

Neowin.net

iTunes

The Copyright board spoke yesterday and decided to leave the current royalty rates unchanged for CDs and music downloads at 9.1 cents per song.

Web radios will have to pay the same 9.1 cents per song streamed never exceeding 10.5% of its total revenues in order not to completely usurp a net broadcaster’s profits.

If the decision would have been to raise royalty fees to 15 or 16 cents per song as suggested, online music stores like iTunes and AmazonMP3 would have had to increase their prices as they would not have been profitable anymore.

BetaNews

Apple

Apple’s business strategy for many of it’s products is based around the iTunes store. So why would they threaten to close it? Well, right now, Apple is paying 9 cents per downloaded song to the artists, they want 15 cents.

The Copyright Royalty Board in Washington, D.C., is scheduled to rule today on a request from the National Music Publishers’ Association to increase royalty rates paid to its members on songs purchased from online music stores like iTunes.

Apple says that they might be forced to close they iTunes store if the fees go up because they might not be profitable anymore.

MacDailyNews

Nokia Remix London

Nokia will soon be revealing their new “Tube” phone to the world. The launch is scheduled for 5:30 PM UK Time (that’s 12:30 PM EDT-NY time) and will take place in London.

It seems that the phone releases (iPhone, G1, Nokia, HTC) are now all called “special events” and “partys”. Nokia’s calling their event: “Nokia Remix London”.

You will be able to watch the live event directly on their website are they are transmitting live over the web.

Nokia Remix London - Live Event

Wal-Mart

Starting October 9, Wal-Mart will change their music format and become 100% DRM-Free. Music downloads will now be in MP3 format with no DRM whatsoever.

This is really good news for new users but less if you have downloaded songs that were covered with DRM at Wal-Mart as they will shutdown their DRM server very soon. Anyone that bought protected WMA music files, will have to burn them to disc.

TechRadar UK

RIAA

Good news! An agreement has been reached between The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the streaming radio industry. Since many months, a battle emerged between people that operate online streaming radio stations and the people that own the music being streamed.

This week, an agreement has been reached: in exchange for the right to stream music from major record labels, streaming web sites will have to give back 10.5% of their total revenues to them. This agreement covers only music that is streamed but doesn’t have any detail on music that is to be downloaded and played at a later time.

CD Freaks
RIAA’s Press Release

Hulu

Universal’s Hulu is a huge success both in terms of subscribed users and also in terms of revenues for the company.

As of now, Hulu is offering video-on-demand streaming of movies and tv shows and this content can be viewed for free over the Internet. Profits to Universal come from advertisement from various companies.

Universal is now looking into offering the same service but this time it would be focused on the music industry. From cNet: The new venture would offer professionally produced music videos as well as other original programming that features the label’s artists.

cNet
Hulu