music labels

Neil Young, the Donkey and Digital Music: The Full Dive Into Media Interview (Video)

Peter Kafka in Dive Into Media on February 7 at 8:00 am PT

Neil Young explains why today’s music sounds awful, why Steve Jobs agreed with him, and what he wants to do to fix the problem.

Game Off! Viacom Dumps Rock Band on Investment Group

Peter Kafka in Media on December 23, 2010 at 12:23 pm PT

Remember when music video games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band were red-hot? That was a couple of years ago.

A Store, a Cloud Service and Sharing: Here's What Google Music Might Look Like

Peter Kafka in Media on September 15, 2010 at 10:13 am PT

A download store, a music locker and the ability to share some of your music with your friends, for $25 a year. That’s what Google would like its music service to look like, according to a new report. There aren’t any deals in place yet, so the reality may look entirely different. But it sounds good on paper….

ITunes Music Update: Think Social, Not Streaming

Peter Kafka in Media on August 26, 2010 at 3:00 am PT

Odds are very low that you’ll see a new cloud-based streaming music service from Apple next week. But a Facebook-friendly one is a different proposition.

[UPDATED] The Spotify Song Has a Familiar Chorus: U.S. Launch Talks Back to "Square One"

Peter Kafka in Media on July 30, 2010 at 4:47 am PT

When will Spotify, the best music service Americans can’t use, finally make it to the U.S.? No time soon, according to a new report from Billboard. The good news for impatient people: There are plenty of substitutes available right now.

MSpot Launches Cloud-Based Music Ahead of Google, Apple

Peter Kafka in Media on June 28, 2010 at 6:00 am PT

What if you could move your music collection to the cloud so that you could listen to it anywhere, on whatever device you wanted, whenever you wanted? You may be able to get that via Google and Apple one day, and both companies have talked about the idea with the music industry. But in the meantime, mobile entertainment start-up mSpot says it can offer the same thing.

The Apple-Amazon Book War Heats Up and Claims Macmillan as a Casualty

Peter Kafka in Media on January 30, 2010 at 8:56 am PT

Apple has yet to sell its first e-book, but it is already engaged in a bruising battle with Amazon for control of the market. The most recent salvo: Amazon has stopped selling all books from MacMillan, apparently in response to the publisher’s plans to sell its books at a higher price point through Apple.

Spotify Expands Its Reach, but Still Can’t Get to the U.S.

Peter Kafka in Media on November 23, 2009 at 5:36 am PT

Another expansion for Spotify, the much hyped European streaming music service: It’s now going to be available on Nokia phones and other handsets that run the Symbian platform. That’s good, because the service is supposed to work best as a mobile play. But Spotify has yet to make a key expansion: To the U.S., where the big music labels worry that consumers will love everything about the site except paying for it.

Pirate Bay’s Would-Be Buyer Sinks, Blames Media

Peter Kafka in Media on August 27, 2009 at 4:32 am PT

A proposed deal to buy The Pirate Bay and turn it legit, which never made sense in the first place, now looks all but dead. The Swedish software/Internet cafe company that’s supposed to buy the file-sharing haven for $8 million now says investors that were supposed to finance the deal have disappeared. And it says this is the fault of the U.S. media, which supposedly spooked said investors. Sorry!