Consumerist
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we all live in a yellow boat
Company Sued For Selling Beatles MP3s Says They're Original Works, So It's Okay
Since the Beatles are notorious for refusing to release their music online, the mere fact that BlueBeat.com was selling them was kind of strange, which probably explains why EMI just sued them for copyright infringement. But BlueBeat has come up with a perfectly reasonable explanation. The songs aren't really Beatles songs, you see, but "psycho-acoustic simulations" and therefore original works. More » -
itunes
Man Loses All His iTunes, But Apple Gives Them Back
When Nathan switched computers he lost all the music he bought off iTunes, but he got it back by e-mailing Apple's iTunes support at iTunesStoreSupport@apple.com. More » -
get off my lawn
McDonalds Shakes Cane At Teens, Calls Police On Them For Rapping Their Order
Four teens in American Fork, Utah, have been issued citations for disturbing the peace after they drove up to a McDonald's and recreated this food order. Doesn't McDonald's know that they invented the food order rap genre in the first place? More » -
music
Google's New Music Search Launches, But Your Buying Options Remain The Same
The new music search capabilities that Google introduced today will make it easier to quickly find a song you can't remember the name of, or sample some tracks from an artist you're interested in. But it's not so much a new service as a more efficient combination of a bunch of services already scattered around the web. More » -
rumors
Google To Launch Music Search Service Next Week
You've probably seen Google Finance, where each company has its own page made up of content scraped from all over the web. Google is about to launch a similar service for musicians, says the Hollywood Reporter: "The music pages will package images of musicians and bands, album artwork, links to news, lyrics and song previews, along with a way to buy songs." More » -
greedy
Judge Tells ASCAP No Royalties For Ringtones
One of the weirder strategies by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) recently has been to claim that every time a ringtone played, a royalty should be paid. ASCAP sued AT&T earlier this year over the claim, but a federal judge has ruled that your phone ringing does not constitute a public performance. More » -
christmas creep
Kroger Begins Playing Christmas Music In September
Ah yes, the end of September. When the leaves are barely turning colors and the brand new college students are lazing in the thick green grass — you know Christmas is right around the corner. Reader Jake says Kroger has started playing Christmas music and has a Christmas "gift center." More » -
funny
"Don't Copy That 2" Might Scare You Straight, If You Have Never Heard Music Or Seen A Video
At first we thought this was a new Black Eyed Peas video, but then we watched from the beginning and realized that it's actually an attempt to convince you that you should not copy that. Our favorite bit starts at the 2:24 mark, when the little girl's criminal activity leads to government agents bashing down the door to her house and attacking her poor mama.
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that's my ticketmaster
Ticketmaster Mislabels Concert, Sells Music Fan Tickets To Wrong Show
The Minneapolis Star Tribune reports a Minnesota music fan named Chris logged onto Ticketmaster hoping to buy tickets to a show for a band called the Teen Idols, but what he got were tickets to a show of actual former teen idols from way, way back in the day. More » -
Here's an affordable, non-piratey way to round out your music collection for half (or less) of what you'd pay to Amazon or iTunes. Pitchfok has published their selection of the top 500 tracks of the 2000s. Online music service Lala is offering most of them for 50 cents each for a limited time.
"P2K: The Decade In Music" [Lala]
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The Royal Tenenbaums
Pirate Bay Spreads Word About '$675K Mix Tape Tribute To Nabbed Downloader
Remember Joel Tenenbaum, the guy who was busted for downloading 30 songs and ordered to pay $675,000 to the Recording Industry of America? More » -
verdicts
30 Songs? That'll Be $675,000
A Boston jury yesterday ruled that file sharer Joel Tenenbaum would have to pay the Recording Industry of America $675,000 for sharing 30 copyrighted songs. The hefty award was all the more surprising because Tenenbaum was represented by a crack team of legal eagles from Harvard's law school. The trial didn't unfold nearly the way they planned... More » -
unresponsive
Skullcandy Lifetime Warranty Means You'll Wait Your Lifetime For A Replacement
There is a guy at Skullcandy named Joe, and he is in charge of their warranty fulfillment program. He is overworked. Why, just on this one warranty replacement story, he's had to deal with the same customer over and over and over, and the customer still hasn't gotten a replacement earbud set for the one that broke last November. Wentao writes, "I am also moving out of the country in 10 days, so I will probably never see the headphones I paid for ever again." More » -
free stuff
Coldplay Is Giving It Up For Free
Coldplay, the band everyone's little sister and mom loves, has been offering its album LeftRightLeftRightLeft for free since May. More » -
retirement activities
Don't Let Dad Saw The Legs Off Corpses Or Your Funeral Home Might Get Shut Down
It's all well and good to let your father help out around the family funeral home, but if he doesn't have an embalming license—and is maybe too handy with an electric saw—keep him away from the important duties. A South Carolina funeral home just had its license revoked because four years ago the owner's father sawed the legs off a 6' 7" body to make it fit in the casket. The owner didn't tell the family at the time, and they only found out about it recently when an ex-employee told them. (See below for links to cool funk music—yes, it's related to this post!) More » -
copyright
ASCAP Wants Royalties On Ringtones
Not content to let the RIAA get all the recent publicity for stupid lawsuits, ASCAP has sued AT&T over sales of ringtones, saying each time a ringtone plays it's a public performance and royalties should be paid. Luckily (?) for consumers, ASCAP wants AT&T, not individuals, to pay—although we wonder what they'll say when you take a track from your own library and make a ringtone out of it.
"Group Sues AT&T Over Ringtones Heard In Public" [MocoNews]
(Photo: Ewan-M) -
things to make you smile
Indie Music Retailer Wins Our Award For 'Most Delightful Shipping Confirmation'
A Consumerist reader (actually, several of you) e-mailed us the shipping confirmation message that is sent out by CDBaby, the 'utopian' online music site that promotes independent musicians (yet is partnered with Best Buy). More » -
cheap music
Sony Adding All Songs Over Two Years Old To EMusic; EMusic Raising Prices
Although eMusic is a great service—for a flat monthly fee, you get a set number of downloads per month of DRM-free music tracks—it's about to get better. Or maybe worse, depending on the breadth of your musical tastes. Today eMusic will announce that Sony is adding its back catalog of songs to eMusic's library. The bad news is that eMusic also plans to slightly raise prices and/or drop the number of downloads per month. Even if it works out to between 50-60 cents per track, though, that's still far less than iTunes Music Store or Amazon, and probably the cheapest way to grab music from Sony artists without resorting to piracy. More »
music
New York, 11:03 AM
Thu Nov 12
19 posts in the last 24 hours
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