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Posts with tag mp3

MediaCoder for Devices: Video conversion for your phone, PSP, iPod

MediaCoder 3gp
MediaCoder has been one of our favorite video conversion tools for a long time. The free Windows utility can convert pretty much any audio or video file from one format to another. Want to shrink the file size and pixel dimensions of a video so you can upload it to YouTube or fit it on your iPod? MediaCoder will do the trick.

But if you don't have the patience to wade through dozens of menus adjusting all the settings manually, you might want to check out MediaCoder for Devices. The MediaCoder team offers up four different versions. One is optimized for creating PSP-compatible videos, another creates 3gp videos for mobile phones, a third does H.264 files for the iPhone or iPod Touch, while a fourth version can create a variety of MP3/MP4 files.

There's also an audio version of MediaCoder if you just want a good utility for converting WAV files to FLAC or MP3s to OGG files.

[via Life Rocks 2.0]

Apple takes the #1 music retailer spot from Wal-Mart, or does it?

iTunes #1?
There's a rumor floating around this morning that Apple has surpassed Wal-Mart to become the top music retailer in the US. Ars Technica reports that Apple has sent a memo to employees showing the results of an NPD MusicWatch survey in January. There's just one problem. In February, Apple publicly stated that it was now the number two music seller in the US.

As Engadget points out, there may have been a spike in January because a whole bunch of people picked up new iPods and iPod gift cards for the holidays in Decemeber. Suffice it to say, if Apple was really the top music retailer in the country right now, they wouldn't be passing around an internal memo. They'd be sending out press releases with pictures of Steve Jobs stepping on a smiley face with blood poring out of its nose. Wait, smiley faces don't usually have noses, do they?

We're fairly certain that digital music will surpass physical media sales one day. That day just doesn't happen to be today.

Update: Nope, apparently that day is today. Apple has issued a press release stating that NPD's numbers show the company was the top music retailer in January and March.

Sony BMG could launch subscription music service

Sony BMG
In an interview with German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Sony BMG CEO Rolf Schmid-Holtz explained that the music studio is considering launching an all-you-can-eat style subscription music service. There aren't a ton of details at this point, and it's not even clear if this subscription plan will ever materialize, but here are a few highlights from the interview:
  • The service would probably cost between 6 and 8 Euros per month (or $9 to $12).
  • This isn't just idle talk. Sony BMG has conducted at least enough market research to set what theybelieve is a fair price.
  • Sony will continue to sell music through Apple's iTunes Store.
Now for the confusing part. Tracks would play on all MP3 players, including the iPod. We assume this means the music would have to be DRM-free, but Schmid-Holtz also explains that most of the music would no longer play if you stop paying your monthly subscription bill. Huh?
[via Engadget]

LimeWire digital music store launches

LimeWire Store
About half a year after announcing plans to open an online music store, LimeWire has followed through on its threat promise to go at least partially legit. The LimeWire store features about half a million tracks from a diverse set of mostly independent or minor label artists that you may or may not have heard of. There are a few big names featured on the front page, like Dolly Parton, Josh Rouse, Bell X1, and Gloria Gaynor. We really never thought we'd be writing a sentence with all four of those artists in it, but there you go. The site is currently in beta and the LimeWire team says it has plans to add "thousands of tracks daily."

All tracks are available as 256kbps MP3 files. Pricing is $.99 for a single track. Or you can get 25 downloads per month for $9.99, 50 for $14.99 or 75 for $19.99. At that last price, you essentially get 75 songs for $.27 each, assuming you actually download 75 tracks each month.

Currently the LimeWire store is completely separate from the LimeWire peer to peer file sharing application. There's no way to use the LimeWire client to speed up downloads, but the company does plan to offer some sort of integration in the future. How they plan to prevent users from buying songs and then sharing them with the world for free remains to be seen.

[via P2P Blog]

Amazon takes MP3 store global

Amazon MP3 Amazon has announced plans to take its Amazon MP3 store global sometime in 2008. No word on whether that means February or December, but we'll keep you posted.

Amazon currently offers DRM-free MP3 tracks from all four major music labels, something no other digital music store can boast. That's 3.3 million songs from over 270,000 artists. But if you live outside of the US, good luck actually purchasing any of that music.

Apple's iTunes Store is already open in several countries. But Apple charges a bit more for most songs than Amazon and doesn't have nearly as many DRM-free tracks available.

[via Techmeme]

Skreemr: yet another mp3 search engine

Skreemr mp3 search
Through our posts about Pandora and Google Hacks, our insightful readers have pointed us towards Skreemr, an mp3 search engine that actually doesn't use Google for its results. Skreemr says that they check their mp3 links to make sure they work, and they utilize "AudioRank" which helps rank results to ensure the highest quality, full-length songs are at the top of the list.

The Skreemr search page has a keyword search button and a similar artists search which is very useful for finding new music. A standard search results page provides detailed info for the mp3's returned: direct-download link, file size and duration, artist lyrics, and links to Wikipedia, Amazon, Gruvr, and Flickr for artist-related information.

Skreemr also provides an embedded Flash player so you can immediately play your search results without downloading the files. You can also build a playlist with different search results, but that functionality seemed sluggish.

[Thanks Timon and other readers!]

Yahoo! exploring DRM-free music service

Yahoo! Music
The Associated Press is reporting that Yahoo! could be planning a MP3 music service. It's not clear at the moment if Yahoo! wants to sell music downloads like Apple and Amazon or offer ad-supported downloads.

According to the AP article, two record company execs have said that Yahoo! has been talking with the major record labels. At this point, the four largest labels (Universal, Sony BMG, Warner, and EMI) have all agreed to make at least some of their catalog available as DRM-free MP3 files for other services including Amazon MP3. So it's probably only a matter of time before we see dozens of online services popping up with access to a large selection of DRM-free music from major label artists.

Yahoo! currently offers free and subscription online music streams rather than downloadable songs.

[via Techmeme]

Napster reborn: Another nail in the coffin for DRM

Napster screenshotThree little letters, about a year ago, had a death-grip on the music industry: DRM. Seriously, who thought this was a good idea? DRM limits the unauthorized copying and sharing of music. We can see that argument. It also limits what music can be played on certain devices. Should you get a new computer or device and need to transfer your licenses, all we can say is -- good luck with that. We speak from experience.

Recently record labels and at least a few online music sellers have moved away from offering DRM-laden music. And today, Napster announced it was making the move to DRM-free downloads. (The company's subscription service still includes DRM) Napster, the service that once offered DRM-free songs (illegally), and then legally sold DRM'd songs, has been reborn into the service it should have been all along -- legal music, DRM-free.

Moving to the MP3 format opens up Napster to a wider array of devices, including the ubiquitous iPod. We're not financial gurus, but we sense this can only mean good things for Napster, and for the music industry as a whole. Music that we can play on any device we might have, on any computer we might have? We might break our music boycott. We might even have the heart to upgrade the circa 2004 Zen Touch to something new. You know, now that we can actually own our music, and not just rent it for the life of the device.

[via Reuters]

DRM-free music arms race: Amazon has 2.9 million tracks

Amazon MP3
2007 has been something of a watershed year for DRM-free digital music. Well, legal DRM-free music sales anyway. First Apple announced plans to sell music that you could listen to on any player, and then Amazon beat them to the punch by launching a music store first.

While Apple continues to sell DRM-laden tracks in addition to unrestricted AAC files, Amazon sells only MP3 tracks which you can do pretty much anything you want with. That means Apple has always held an advantage in the selection department. But now it looks like Amazon is catching up.

Both Amazon and Apple launched their DRM-free music stores this year with one major label partner - EMI. Sure, there were also tracks from several minor labels, but the bulk of music that you've actually heard of on Amazon MP3 or iTunes Plus come from EMI. In October, Apple signed deals with several of the bigger minor labels including Sub Pop, Nettwerk, and Beggar's Group and announced that there were 2 million DRM-free tracks available via iTunes.

Now Amazon has announced a deal with Warner Music Group, which brings the number of Amazon MP3 tracks up to 2.9 million.

2 clicks: add MP3 files from the web to iTunes with Tunestor

2 clicks: add MP3 files fom the web to iTunes with TunestorTunestor is a Firefox and IE extension that allows music downloaders to add mp3 files from the web to iTunes in just two clicks. Normally, this takes a few more steps. You have to start the download of the song through a browser, and then you have to choose where to save the file. Finally, you have to wait for the file to finish downloading, which is when you add it to iTunes.

Yes, it's quite a bit of work for just a few songs off Seeqpod.com, which is why Tunestor reduces the process down to "right click" then "Download Directly to iTunes." If you're going to use this tool to download copyrighted files, keep in mind that it's illegal if you don't own the song. With that said, if you'd like to test Tunestor, you can download it from the official Tunestor site.

Tunestor is Windows only, and its biggest flaw is that it downloads files automatically to the My Music directory. If you don't like that, too bad. You can't change it.

[via freewaregenius]

Jamendo: Download and Share Music Legally

Who likes music by a wide variety of up and coming artists in many differing and unique genres? Who would like to be able to legally download that music to your computer and portable device? Who thought Spiderman 3 was the best of the trilogy?

If you answered in the affirmative to all three of those questions, we're afraid there's no hope for you, my friend. If you said yes to the above two, then read on!

Jamendo is one of the hottest places to legally download music, and they've just released a refreshed website. Updates include direct music downloads in http, more intuitive navigation, easier saving of tracks, albums, and playlists, and more.

All of the music on Jamendo is licensed by the Creative Commons license, meaning you can download, listen, burn, share, and talk about the songs as much as your heart desires. And though all the music is free, you can donate to the bands who have given you particular joy or satisfaction. Jamendo even shares 50% of its advertising revenue with artists who choose the "Revenue Sharing" program.

Jamendo also has a great community aspect; you can build customized playlists and share them with your friends and family.

Jamendo is currently running a contest in celebration of the release of their new version. The top 5 user playlists, as voted on by the users, will receive a free iPod Nano.

How sweet is that?

You can listen to free music, share what you like with your friends, and maybe win an iPod Nano. That's not just having your cake and eating it too. That's mixing the dough, putting it in the oven, frosting it, cutting it into pieces, and eating more than your fair share, all with a glass of ice cold milk.

So get cracking. Register for Jamendo if you haven't already and broaden those horizons.

Is Amazon's iTunes Killer growing up to be a big boy?

Is Amazon's iTunes Killer growing up to be a big boy?
It's been a little over two months since Amazon launched its MP3 Download store, and the site's still around. So how is it doing? Well, Amazon hasn't publicly announced any numbers yet, but billboard speculates Amazon's captured about 3% of the digital download market and 6% of the physical CD market.

Considering that it hasn't even been three months since Amazon's digital music store opened shop, that's pretty damn good. With Pepsi joining Amazon to give away free MP3s, word of Amazon's new DRM-free store will only spread. Silicon Valley Insider suggests Amazon must be reaching a mainstream audience if Fergie is a top seller at both Amazon and iTunes.

While many find switching download services a hassle, we would strongly recommend taking Amazon's MP3 Download store for a test drive. The Amazon software can be configured to automatically add any music you buy to iTunes, and, best of all, the music comes DRM-free in a relatively high quality MP3 format, allowing Amazon's customers to do whatever they want with their music. Besides, DRM sucks and shouldn't be supported. Isn't that reason enough?

Flipping the Linux switch: Amarok

Wikipedia Entry for Current Song and ArtistMaybe you've got older hardware. Maybe you've had enough of restrictive EULAs. Maybe you've just received a teeny tiny Eee for Christmas (thanks Mom!). Or maybe you've been thinking about making the switch to Linux, but you wonder how you'll live without certain applications.

A major obstacle in making the transition from Windows to Linux for many is music. Does Linux even play media files? While Linux can't play DRM-laden files, it handles unencrypted mp3s, and, with the proper codecs, Windows media files.

"So what?" you say, looking at your ripped mp3s, organized into perfect play lists on your iPod, "There's no iTunes in Linux!"

Enter Amarok. Sure, there are countless other music players in Linux. They do the job, and most do it quite well. Why single out Amarok?

Continue reading Flipping the Linux switch: Amarok

Amazon and Pepsi plan to give away 1 billion DRM-free songs

Amazon MP3Amazon and Pepsi are planning to launch a yearlong promotion to give away 1 billion MP3s from Amazon's recently launched MP3 download store. The promotion will launch during the Super Bowl on Feb 3rd.

Here's how it works. Pepsi will print a code on 5 billion bottle caps. You can use the codes from 5 bottle caps to buy one song at Amazon Mp3.

Right now, that means you can buy DRM-free tracks from artists signed to EMI, Universal Music Group, Hollywood Records, and a number of smaller labels. Warner and Sony have not yet signed up with Amazon. But Billboard reports that the promotion could be incentive for the holdouts to sign up. That plus Wal-Mart is urging the music labels to participate in its DRM-free MP3 store.

This isn't the first time Pepsi's gotten involved in a major music promotion. Pepsi and Apple partnered in 2004 for a Super Bowl campaign to promote the iTunes music store. Of course, the goal at the time was to give away 25 million tracks, while customers only redeemed about 5 million. So just because Amazon and Pepsi say they've got 1 billion songs to give away doesn't mean they'll actually be delivering anywhere near that number.

[via paidContent]

Apple:Over 2 million DRM-free tracks now on iTunes

iTunes Plus
Just one day after Apple announced it would be dropping the price of DRM-free music tracks from $1.29 to the iTunes-standard $.99, the company expanding its catalog of unencrypted music.

With the move, Apple can legitimately claim to have the largest (legal) library of DRM-free music available online. For a few weeks there Amazon held that distinction, but it looks like the war is on. And while there are still a number of major record labels that are not providing DRM-free tracks through any service, it warms our hearts to see a price war between two industry giants battling to offer high quality unencrypted tracks to music fans.

Apple's DRM-free tracks are all AAC files encoded at 256kbps. The company was already offering a huge library of tracks from EMI. New labels offering DRM-free music include Sub Pop, Nettwerk, Beggars Group, IODA, and The Orchard.

[via TUAW]

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