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

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

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

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

mySpace Music

TechCrunch has a really nice article about the new MySpace Music website that is now online for all customers in the U.S.

MySpace will be offering free on-demand streaming of millions of songs for free. If the users would then like to download the songs they are listening to, there will be an option to buy the song that will direct the them straight to the AmazonMP3 web site where the purchase will be finalized.

TechCrunch
MySpace Music

Sony Ericsson Music Phones

In an effort not to loose too much market share to Nokia’s Come With Music service, Sony Ericsson announced a new service called PlayNow.

This service will be available at first only in the UK and will make it’s way around other global markets by 2009. From cNet: “Sony Ericsson will eventually offer users 5 million songs, which will be wrapped in digital rights management software, and keep them for the length of their contract. After their contract ends, the company will allow them to keep “a number” of DRM-free songs.”

cNet

AmazonMP3

There you go, it’s been made official by Amazon that an application will be pre-loaded on the new T-Mobile Android phone (the G1) due to hit the stores in October.

Users will be able to browse music samples over the 3G network and download full songs using integrated WiFi on the device. Price for a single song are around $0.89 and full albums are between $5.99 and $9.99.

engadget
AmazonMP3

slotMusic

Everyone knows that music CD sales are dropping year after year because of the new digital formats available (and piracy). In fact, CD sales dropped 19% last year and digital download are becoming more and more popular.

Starting just in time for Christmas, you will be able to buy your DRM-free music on a microSD card. This card will be packaged with a USB dongle that allows the music to be read in hardware that support microSD (cell phones and multimedia players like some of the Creative ones) as well as other devices that support USB only (computers, laptops, USB-equiped HiFi systems, etc.)

From TG Daily: A new format introduced by EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner Bros called slotMusic might be the solution to the increasingly slower CD sales market and will be available initially through a range U.S. retailers such as Best Buy and Wal-Mart. Sandisk is developing the hardware and software technology, which is based on the microSD format.

TG Daily
slotMusic

Creative Zen X-Fi

Creative are now shipping the new Zen X-Fi player.

Many people are saying that they are just not in the mp3 player market anymore and I would agree but for the really picky users that are looking for the best sound quality, this player might just be it.

Creative are really focusing on the audio quality with this product. The X-Fi audio processor in this player is designed to ”reconstruct” the lossy mp3 file format so that your music sounds closer to the original piece before it was ripped.

The player also comes with high-end earbuds.

Creative