Music industry agrees to new mechanical royalty rates deal
There is little doubt that digital is the future of music. The CD may not be dead, but it might as well be.
Its replacement for millions of consumers has been digital music services of various kinds, ranging iTunes and the Amazon MP3 Store to Pandora and Spotify.
BBC to create paid-for digital download service?
The BBC is said to be planning a new pay-to-download service for both its new and old TV programmes.
As reported by paidContent, BBC executives want to make all shows available as download-to-own (DTO) for around £1.89 per show from a service that it hopes would rival iTunes.
Corbis launches digital music licensing service
If you're a consumer, finding a buying your favorite tunes is as easy as opening up iTunes or heading over to Amazon.com or Google Play.
But where do you go if your business is in search of the perfect song for a presentation, corporate video or trade show event?
Google rolls apps, movies, music and ebooks into Google Play
There are numerous differences between Apple's content ecosystem and Google's. One of the biggest: through iTunes, Apple offers a unified and arguably superior experience. Whatever you're looking for, be it music, apps or books, can be purchased and downloaded in a single place.
This apparently hasn't been lost on Google, which today announced that it's combining Android Market, Google Music and the Google eBookstore into a single entity dubbed Google Play.
Google Music faces early struggles
Late last year, Google finally jumped into the digital music market by launching its long-awaited Google Music service.
Despite skepticism and criticism, the search giant clearly had high hopes for its music service, which competes with Apple's iTunes and Amazon's MP3 store. Thus far, however, the skeptics and critics appear to be right.
Apple launches 'season pass' option for TV shows
iTunes is perhaps the best friend of countless music fans. It's easy to forget about the days in which you had to purchase an entire CD just to get one song, now thanks to Apple's service, millions of consumers today buy their music à la carte.
That's not to say that Apple and its record label partners don't want consumers to purchase albums.
To that end, Apple has for some time offered a 'Complete My Album' option that allows iTunes users that have purchased an individual track from an album to purchase the entirealbum at a discounted price.
Google finally launches Google Music
After what seems like years of rumors and speculation, Google finally launched a digital music service yesterday.
Dubbed Google Music, the service can be accessed through a mobile app and the Android Market website. Through deals with EMI, Universal, Sony and a multitude of indie labels, Google says that it's today offering upwards of 8m songs, with millions more coming soon.
Amazon's Android app store pricing model could be good for developers
It's no surprise that Amazon is launching an app store for Android. The ecommerce giant has come a long way since it started selling books online. Today, Amazon is rapidly evolving into a content company. And mobile apps are already a big part of the digital content business.
But despite Amazon's brand and size, there's no guarantee that it will become a successful player in the mobile app space. Apple is the 800 pound gorilla, and history isn't exactly conclusive when it comes to Amazon versus Apple. While Amazon's Kindle seems to be holding its own with the iPad, its MP3 store has hardly put a dent in the success of iTunes.
Can carrier billing save Android Market?
Google's Android operating syst
em may be a prominent fixture in the mobile world, but when looking at the app economy within it, Android is having a hard time competing with Apple and iOS.
One big reason: Android Market, Google's online marketplace for Android applications.
Berners-Lee: the most popular services are bad for the web
Candy and soda might, under certain circumstances, have a negative impact on an individual's health. But most of us would probably find it ridiculous to state that candy and soda threaten the existence of the human race.
The man who invented the web, however, might be accused of making an equivalent argument when it comes to the web's version of candy and soda -- all of those 'closed' services so many of us love, like Facebook and iTunes.
