Internet Music Services

Dangermouse and Girl Talk talk Copyright

Welcome Back to School, Now Stop the Downloading

Complete Led Zeppelin on iTunes, Mudshark Dildo Not Included

New Mars Volta Single Releases Today on iTunes

Apple, Cisco, Google, SF Weekly To Attend SanFran MusicTech Summit Feb 25

Flo Rida, Soulja Boy, Britney Spears Among Top Ten Downloads of the Week

Lyrics Born Releases Digital Single in Feb.

James Pants Drops Fresh Beats in SF

CD ripping services put record collections in the 21st century

Cell phones: the future of music broadcasting

Pretty cult machines: NIN and Deerhunter

iPhoney iDol?

SF Weekly iTeam investigates: Atheist best-sellers and Steve Jobsism

Giving the Indies a Spin

Small outposts rule online MP3 sales

One IODA

Welcome to the dark, scary forest of the digital music business. Here is your flashlight.

Polishing the Brass

Judging from last week's Music Law Summit West, the future of the music biz is unclear – but that's not what the RIAA wants you to think

Ransom Notes

Can one man convince millions of people to pay for their "free" music?

Riff Raff

Free Lars Ulrich!; New Groove; Sound Off

The business of selling used MP3s

Free Lars Ulrich!; New Groove; Sound Off

eMusic Raises Rates

As of yesterday, eMusic rates went up (the basic package is now $11.99, while the Premium package is now $20.75 monthly), while the number of songs subscribers can download has decreased (from 40 to 30 for Basic; from 75 to 50 for Premium). that basically amounts to less music for more money. The ... More >>

Sketchfest Q&A: Moshe Kasher

Frankie Norstad​SF Sketchfest brings together amazing comics in from all over the U.S., but the best news is we also get a couple of locally-grown superstars this weekend at the Punch Line when Brent Weinbach and Moshe Kasher take the stage (Thursday 8 p.m.; Friday and Saturday 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. ... More >>

Bleep.com Offers Best of '09 Tracks For One Day Only

S.F.'s Ghosts on Tape makes Bleep.com's Top 100 of 2009 list​If there's one thing the music world loves to do, it's make lists. Best ofs, worst ofs, personal faves, and what-have-you rundowns catch the public eye and add a little personality to whichever publication puts them together. One such li ... More >>

Five Shitty Things About Concerts We Need Apps For

​Keep those phone chargers handy, people. With a patent application filed last week, Apple let on that it's creating an entire e-ticket system for the iPhone and iTunes. Concertgoers will be able to buy tickets through the iTunes store, store them on anything from an iMac to an iPhone, and scan th ... More >>

Record Labels Suing Everything Good Into Oblivion

MP3Tunes' Michael Robertson: "The music industry is still suing ... anyone they even think is taking their business." ​"Geeks say greedy record companies hinder innovation" "Copyright licenses cramp our creativity, techies yelp at 'summit'" "NorCal biz dudes: SoCal biz dudes think we're shitting ... More >>

Five Features That Would Make iPod iTunes Better For Music Fans

​Even if we don't know what will actually happen at Apple's big music announcement next week, we know what we want to happen. The iTunes/iPod combination has long been the standard apparatus for music fans, but as much as we love it, there are things we hate about it, too -- and things we wish it ... More >>

The Case for Apple's 'Ping' Social Network

Ping lets Lady Gaga reach out to fans​Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced today that his company is hopping on the social network bandwagon with a service, called Ping, that will connect music fans, musicians, and their friends and followers. Jobs describes Ping -- which will be available on Apple mobi ... More >>

Napster's Sean Parker Showers $100K on Marijuana Measure

RamaScreenNapster's Sean Parker -- yes, the guy played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network -- put his pot money where his mouth is​The e-mail came Monday from Oaksterdam University's Richard Lee, the main driving force (at least publicly) behind cannabis semi-legalization measure Propos ... More >>

Stopping piracy: How ultracheap downloads could save the music industry

RamaScreenNapster's Sean Parker -- yes, the guy played by Justin Timberlake in The Social Network -- put his pot money where his mouth is​The e-mail came Monday from Oaksterdam University's Richard Lee, the main driving force (at least publicly) behind cannabis semi-legalization measure Propos ... More >>

The Beatles on iTunes: If It Happens, Should We Care?

From one Apple to another?​If the Wall Street Journal, Reuters, and the New York Times are correct, Apple will announce a deal tomorrow to sell the Beatles' music through the iTunes store. What would such a deal mean? Should we even care? A few thoughts below:- How big a deal is this? If you're St ... More >>

Official: The Beatles Now on iTunes (Yawn)

​So, as expected, Apple's big announcement today is that the Beatles' music is now available on the iTunes store. The band's albums are sold whole (regular albums are $12.99; the double-length White Album is $19.99) or by individual songs, which sell for $1.29. Also for sale now are three "bo ... More >>

mSpot Lets You Stream Your iTunes Library on Your iPhone

via VentureBeat​There are smartphone apps which give you access to millions of streaming songs. But sometimes they don't have those rare recordings that you spent months tracking down. And there are smartphone apps that kinda, sorta let you connect to your home-based server or hard drive. But the ... More >>

Pomplamoose Calls the Tune

No record deal? No CDs? No problem. How Pomplamoose is modifying the music industry.

Spotify Is Coming to the U.S. Soon -- You Should Be Excited

What Spotify looks like​Over the past few weeks, streaming music startup Spotify has quietly been signing deals with the major U.S. music distributors as it prepares for a U.S. launch. But now that the Swedish firm has locked up EMI and Sony (with Universal in tow), it's also begun to hire people ... More >>

The Bangerz, Workhorse Bay Area Rap Producers, Discuss Their Vegas Show, Chris Brown, and Carlos Mencia

If you've been at the Monte Carlo in Las Vegas recently -- and no, I wasn't expecting to start a sentence that way either -- perhaps you took in MüS.I.C., the critically acclaimed live show from masked B-boy crew JabbaWockeeZ. Or perhaps you saw it at the 2009 NBA All Star Game? Or maybe you're jus ... More >>

Claim: Limewire's Shutdown Reduced Music Piracy by 7 Percent

​The nationally-recognized market research nerds NPD Group just released their latest poll, which suggests the shutdown of the file-sharing application Limewire this past October reduced peer-to-peer-based music piracy in the U.S. by a significant 7 percent. Wait, that many of you were still ... More >>

Google to Launch Cloud-Based Music Service Today, Major Labels Not Included

​ The Google I/O Conference is in S.F. The confab's keynote speech is scheduled for this morning. And Google execs say today's the day that the Internet search giant is planning to unveil its long-awaited cloud-based music service -- without any licensing deals from the major labels. Music Be ... More >>

Apple Unveils iCloud, the Best-Seeming Music Locker Service So Far

Meet your new master, the iCloud​This news didn't shake the earth off its axis or anything -- only Anthony Weiner's semiflaccid member could do that -- but the cloud music service Apple unveiled today in San Francisco sounds at least cool and likely useful: The iCloud, as it's called, is a free 5G ... More >>

Apple Introduces iCloud at WWDC

What do you see in the iCloud?​As expected, Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today, announcing the company's new iCloud product, which will allow users to upload and sync data across nearly every Apple device, for free. Jobs, who has been on me ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

What do you see in the iCloud?​As expected, Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco today, announcing the company's new iCloud product, which will allow users to upload and sync data across nearly every Apple device, for free. Jobs, who has been on me ... More >>

Lil B Suddenly Drops New Album, I'm Gay; Hear New Song "Trapped in Prison"

Uh, thank you Based God?​ And so it was decreed. Last night around midnight, apropos of pretty much nothing, The Berkeley based rapper/provocateur/phenomenon Lil B released his much-anticipated new album, I'm Gay, on iTunes, and then Tweeted the announcement. Why did he do it so suddenly? Why ... More >>

Spotify (Finally!) Announces U.S. Launch

​ After years of waiting, Spotify -- the Europe-only music-streaming service that U.S. techies have been lusting after for years -- has finally announced its plans to enter the U.S. market. Yes, really. So break out the champagne and reefer, or whatever. Unless you work for Apple, Rhapsody, P ... More >>

Spotify Might Be Taking Over Your Facebook Feed Next Week

What the future of your music listening might look like.​ Alright, fine, so we've written that "Spotify is coming soon" post like a million times now -- pretty much like any other media outlet that's excited to get their hands on the music service that makes Europe smile. This is sorta like th ... More >>

Spofity Is Here -- Now! (Really!)

via EngadgetIf you can listen to Thee Oh Sees on Spotify, how bad can it be?​ After years of waiting, something finally came*: Spotify, the Europe-based music subscription service Americans have been drooling over for a long while, is up and running the U.S. as of today. You can go to that lin ... More >>

Top Five Reasons Spotify Kinda Sucks

​Yes, we know, everyone loves Spotify (even us). Yes, we know, free music is really sweet, and we feel pretty spoiled for even bringing this up. But Spotify has a ways to go before it's our favorite music app. Here are five things about the new-to-America streaming service that are kinda sucky ... More >>

Hey, When Did Metallica's Lars Ulrich Turn into a Cool, Funny Guy?

​Over the years, Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich just hasn't done a lot of things to make people like him. Let's recount: he's often an obnoxious interviewee; he pulls some of the most annoying faces in drumming history; he played a role in one of the most embarrassing music documentaries on earth, ... More >>

The Killers, Jane's Addiction, and Snoop Dogg Are Playing a "Secret Show" for the Gods of Tech Tonight

​After hearing rumors all day, it appears this is finally actually confirmed: Snoop Dogg, Jane's Addiction, Kaskade, and the Killers are playing a "secret" show after today's Facebook conference, hosted by Napster founder Sean Parker, according to SFist. So after spending the day hearing abou ... More >>

Snoop Dogg, The Killers, and Jane's Addiction Soundtrack the Opulence at a Facebook/Spotify Party (Photos)

Snoop Dogg. Photographs courtesy of Julie Schugard for Spotify​ Open bars of oysters, sushi, wine and cheese, and lots booze. Sound too good to be true? How about adding surprise musical entertainment by the Killers, Jane's Addiction, Snoop Dogg, and Kaskade? Yep, it happened. Last night's p ... More >>

Now You Need to Have Facebook to Sign Up For Spotify

​ Last week's Facebook f8 conference meant a windfall of new users for Spotify, after it teamed with Facebook to allow users to share their music listening. But the increased cooperation also comes at what some call a heavy cost: Starting today, newcomers to Spotify need have to have a Facebo ... More >>

Indie Labels Team Up to Launch Discovery Site the New Record, Which Doesn't Quite Work Yet

​Our curiosity was piqued this morning upon hearing that about 30 independent record labels -- including greats like Kill Rock Stars, Sub Pop, Anti-, and Daptone -- have partnered to create a new music discovery site called The New Record. Unfortunately, we've been trying to download MP3s fro ... More >>

Five Things Pete Townshend Got Wrong About iTunes and the Online Music Industry

Phyllis KeatingPete Townshend​Last night, Who guitarist Pete Townshend made a rousing speech at a British radio festival, blasting Apple's iTunes store for its treatment of musicians "whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire." His speech even included a list of things Townshend believes App ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Phyllis KeatingPete Townshend​Last night, Who guitarist Pete Townshend made a rousing speech at a British radio festival, blasting Apple's iTunes store for its treatment of musicians "whose work it bleeds like a digital vampire." His speech even included a list of things Townshend believes App ... More >>