Today we're taking a look at Apple's Front Row vs. Windows Media Center. We're not really sure if Front Row can be compared to Media Center because right now, they serve different purposes. Front Row is more of an interface for controlling the media already on your computer while Media Center will do that in addition to recording television shows.
AccuTunes calls themselves "The easiest-to-use Internet Radio Station" and we have to agree that it is pretty easy to use. Not only is it easy to use, but they've got quite the selection of music as well. They must be doing something right because they were a recent winner of the 2008 Webby Awards.
Last week we wrote about how iTunes was getting new movies and making them available to purchase the same day as the DVD release. This is a pretty big step for Apple, and now we're learning that they're actually losing money on these new movies. The Wall Street Journal reported that while Apple is selling newly released movies at $14.99, they're actually paying the studios about $16 for each movie.
In the music industry, everybody is out for money these days. The artists want their fair share, and so the RIAA is out to make sure that they do, In addition to the artists are the composers and songwriters who want their fair share of money as well, and so the ASCAP is out to make sure that they do.
One of the things that I've grown accustomed to in iTunes is listening to the streaming radio stations. When you go through an entire work day sitting in front of your computer it's nice to have a variety of music at your fingertips without needing to assemble your own playlists. Wouldn't it be nice, however, if you could record some of the songs so that you can listen to them later on?
On this day five years ago, the Apple iTunes Music Store launched. The date was April 28, 2003, and ever since the launch, the store has managed to become more successful than I think anyone ever imagined. By early this year in 2008, over 4 billion songs have been sold through the store.
One of the questions that I get asked rather frequently is how people can take their media with them to places (normally work) without carrying a media player around. There are plenty of services out there that will let you upload, for example, your music so that it can be accessed from anywhere. But most of the time people want to stream it directly from their home machine.
Over the last year or so, we have watched as Apple's iTunes has become an ever increasing influence in the music industry. It was just last June (2007) when they passed Amazon and took over the #3 position as largest music retailer in the United States.
Way back in September of 2006, we wrote about a site called Blogmusik.net. The service used an iPod-like interface which acted as your own personal jukebox to stream music that you selected over the Internet. It was simple and provided decent music for free. That was the last that we mentioned it though, and to be honest, we had forgotten about it.
We have a terrific application that we are going to take a look at today called Videoraptor. Prior to writing this article I had never heard of the program, but I have to say that many of you will find it to be as useful as I have.
Radiohead is an English alternative rock band that has been around since 1992. Last year a big deal was made with their In Rainbows album because they were the first to sell it through their own site as a digital download and then the buyers chose the price they wanted to pay (this is similar to the approach that Nine Inch Nails is taking with their latest album).
Amazon MP3 has been getting a lot of great reviews for their 100% DRM-free music service that's been offered since September 2007. They actually have a rather large selection of music, and being able to play it on any of your devices without restrictions is a huge plus. And you don't pay any more for music from Amazon than you do on iTunes.
One of our favorite options for listening to music for free online with no strings attached is Songza. We did a review of it back in January and one of the things we liked most about it was its simple interface and the option they offer to create playlists.
The Band Nine Inch Nails really seems to understand where the music industry is headed. They recently released their new album called "Ghosts" on Torrent sites as a free download. NIN isn't contracted to any specific record label, so they have the freedom to decide how they are going to spread their music.
I'm sure some of you are truly music addicts with thousands of songs being lugged around on your music player. You might even have a few hundred CD's, or maybe you've broken into the thousands by now. I hate to burst your bubble, but you don't have the world's largest collection.
Back in May of 2005, Yahoo launched Yahoo! Music Unlimited, an on-demand online music service where users could pay a subscription fee to stream or download unlimited amounts of music for either $8.99 or $5.99 per month.
Yesterday we wrote about Qtrax, a business that was launching "the worlds first 100% legal and free Peer-2-Peer music application" with all 4 major record labels on board.
Album art seems to be the hot new craze these days, and with Apple's Cover Flow (pictured below) more people want their library of music to be filled with gorgeous artwork. Cover Flow has changed the way that I find songs to listen to, and for that reason I wanted to show how you can use iTunes to retrieve your favorite album art.
A few days ago we wrote about Last.fm's new service and how nice it is that users can listen to music for free. There are a few limitations though, and one of them is that you can only listen to a song three times for free before being required to subscribe.
The latest forming trend in digital music downloads seems to be that everyone wants to start offering DRM-free music. Both Amazon and iTunes offer a DRM-free catalog of music as well as several other sites like eMusic. People like DRM-free because it means once they download a song or album, they can play the song on multiple devices. When Amazon's service launched, it got rave reviews.
