Internet Music Services

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

Google To Announce New Streaming Music Service Wednesday, and It Won't Be Free

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 15, Google's annual I/O conference kicks off at the Moscone Center here in San Francisco. And according to tech site the Verge, the Internet giant will use the occasion to announce a new streaming music service designed to compete with Spotify and Rdio. Why a music subscrip ... More >>

Troubled Music Biz Draws More Venture Money

One in every 43 venture-capital dollars in 2012 was invested in music-oriented startups, according to Digital Music News. "Is this a simple case of dumb money," the site asks, "or the beginnings of a totally new industry?" Why can't it be both?

Napster-Hating Metallica Comes to Jesus, Er, Spotify

Nearly 13 years after suing Napster, the filesharing site that started it all, the grouchy old men of Metallica have had a come-to-Jesus of sorts with the power of the Interwebz: Today, drummer Lars Ulrich announced that Metallica's music will be coming to Spotify. He even gave Napster co-founder a ... More >>

Apple Updates iTunes, Offering Possible Relief to Music Fans Everywhere

The computer giant named after a piece of fruit announced a shiny new iPhone 5 in San Francisco today, one that comes with a .5-inch larger screen, better camera... and blah. Doubtless people are most excited (or not!) about the new iPhone, but for music fans -- at least those of us still bound to v ... More >>

San Jose Man Says Apple Is Double-Billing iTunes Customers

Apparently, Apple isn't just dodging taxes, it's also double-dipping from its customers. At least that's what one San Jose man claims after he says he was charged twice for one song he bought on iTunes.Robert Herskowitz filed a class-action lawsuit this week, claiming Apple's e-store refused to reve ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Center for Copyright Information: An Anti-piracy Measure That Makes Sense

About seven years ago, I read something online about a then-recent episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm. Overcome with the desire to watch the episode for myself, but without a subscription to HBO, I fired up LimeWire, the now-defunct file-sharing software, and quickly found the episode I wanted. An hou ... More >>

Music Labels Make Life Tough for Spotify

​Patrick Carney of the Black Keys is not a fan of Sean Parker, to say the least. Parker is an "asshole," Carney told NME.com on Monday. It's hard to blame Carney, though his rage might seem a bit misdirected -- or maybe just too concentrated on one person. Parker of course was the guy who brought ... More >>

In Defense of the CD: Why We Should Keep Them Around

In Print: Defending the Lowly CD From Oblivion

From the latest edition of SF Weekly: In Defense of the CD: No one loves CDs. The cool kids today want to either dig through crates of dusty old vinyl or pay four times too much for the new stuff. The even cooler kids spend actual money on godawful cassette tapes. And everyone else under age 40 has ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Pomplamoose Calls the Tune

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

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

Stopping piracy: How ultracheap downloads could save the music industry

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 >>

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 >>

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 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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

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 >>

The business of selling used MP3s

CD ripping services put record collections in the 21st century

Cell phones: the future of music broadcasting

Lyrics Born Releases Digital Single in Feb.

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

Complete Led Zeppelin on iTunes, Mudshark Dildo Not Included

iPhoney iDol?

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

Giving the Indies a Spin

Small outposts rule online MP3 sales

Dangermouse and Girl Talk talk Copyright

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