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Filed under: Audio, Internet

eMusic to offer DRM-free audiobooks

eMusic audiobooksLike downloading audiobooks, but don't like being told how to listen to them? Up until now, the biggest names in downloadable audiobooks have been Audible and iTunes. Now online music site eMusic has announced it will get into the game.

Unlike books purchased from Audible/iTunes, anything you buy from eMusic will be DRM-free. Want to listen to it on any computer or portable media player? No problem. All you need is a player that can handle MP3s. And a lot more media players can handle MP3 than AAC files with DRM.

And why should you care if you have an iPod? Because there are still limitations on how you can use Audible/iTunes audiobooks. Want to burn your book to several CDs so you can listen at home and in the car? No deal. You can only burn an iTunes audioboook to CD once.

eMusic also hopes to undercut Audible and iTunes on price. The New York Times reports that one launch title will be The Audacity of Hope by Barack Obama. On iTunes, the audiobook will cost you $18.95. eMusic will sell it for $9.99. On the other hand, Audible and iTunes have about 15,000 titles to choose from, while eMusic will have only about 1,000 when the service goes live.

Filed under: Audio, News

AT&T teams with eMusic to sell really expensive tunes

We love us some eMusic. The legal download service eschews DRM and still sells tracks for far less than any other popular service. So, it's come as a shock to us that eMusic is teaming with stodgy AT&T to sell music downloads to phones -- except the iPhone, no joy in Mudville for iPhone users. Music downloads will cost $7.49 per five songs, five times more than music costs when using eMusic's online subscription service and your portable music player.

Is convenience really worth 5 times the per song price? We don't think so. AT&T is pretty late to the music download to mobile game, and we applaud their choice of eMusic as a partner but, please, don't rip us off.

Filed under: Audio, Internet, Web services

The Unofficial Pandora/eMusic Mashup

Pandora eMusic MashupI'm not sure how I missed this when it came out, as I'm a big fan of both eMusic and Pandora. It seems that Jon Strunk, a product manager at eMusic, has created a terrific Pandora/eMusic mashup.

All the details can be found on Jon's blog, but the service works as you'd expect. While Pandora plays tracks, eMusic offers them up for download (if they're available). Because I have both Pandora and eMusic accounts, when I first visited the mashup I was auto-magically signed in to both services and my default station started playing. Genius.


Filed under: Audio, Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Web services, Apple, How-Tos

An alternative guide to free music online

Alternative guide to free music onlineOur sister site The Digital Music Weblog (she's the quiet emo one with the plastic-framed glasses) has a lengthy article on how to get the most from your portable music buying dollar.

Showcasing alternatives to iTunes, Napster and the riot of other DRM laden legal services out there, "Minor alternatives to major labels; a crash course in free music online" identifies non-DRM music services that work with any media player, and on any platform.

Thousands of artists are publishing music via the Internet, and a great number of them are finding out that, while it can help, they don't necessarily need a major label deal to find exposure and make money doing what they love.

[via The Digital Music Weblog]

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The World's Hardest Game 2.0 - Time Waster

So, just how good at time waster games are you? Think you've got the stuff? Well, The World's Hardest Game 2.0 doesn't think you do. Yes, amazingly, it's possible to have a sequel to a game called "The World's Hardest Game". It doesn't seem logically possible, since if the first one was actually the world's hardest, how could another one come along and share the moniker? It made me doubt the name in the first place. That is, until I tried the game. The mechanics of the game are very simple. You are a small red square, ...

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