Howdy,
Thought this might be of interest to some, from http://
www.themusic.com.au
TUNING OUT?
The launch of iTunes Australia is rumoured to be about five weeks
away. But will consumers be able to buy tracks from Delta Goodrem,
Offspring, Kelly Clarkson and other Sony BMG artists? Perhaps not, if
the Japanese experience is any guide. iTunes Japan launched last
Thursday with about a million tracks available - but none from Sony.
In Japan, Sony runs its own online service, Mora, which has about
150,000 tracks available in a proprietary Sony- only format. What
will happen here? "I can't comment," says Bony Australia's Emmanuel
Candi. Sony's decision could see it frozen out of the automotive
audio market: in a separate announcement, Apple says Nissan, Mazda
and Daihatsu have agreed to build iPod compatible stereos into their
2006 Japanese cars. Meanwhile, a new study by Sydney academic Alex
Malik finds chart hits are hard to legitimately obtain online. "Many
songs including three in the national top 10, and this week's top two
songs) were actually unavailable as paid downloads from the two
largest suppliers of digital downloads," Malik says. ABC: FREE MP3
ABC radio's posh network, Radio National, is giving away free
downloads. The MP3s are of live performances by acts including Ben
Lee, Laura Veirs and Gelbison, recorded for the network's daily arts
and music show The Deep End (weekdays, 2.20pm). RN's Nick Bron says
the downloads are plain-vanilla, non-DRM encumbered MP3s. "No strings
attached," he says. "Some of the artists/rights holders have
restricted the amount of time for our usage of the material, but as
we have a policy of only having six sessions up as MP3s at any one
time, this won't be a problem. As new material is made available,
older sessions will be removed from the website. All of this will be
well within the rights period granted. Most artists will be available
for download for about six weeks after the on-air broadcast. We are
trying to keep some popular ones up for longer, Ben Lee for
instance." Each show includes an interview as well as a live
performance. Coming up: Marcus Teague (ex-Deloris) and Micah P
Hinson. The free music downloads are part of RN's podcast program;
visit abc.net.au/rn/arts/deepend for more information.
Cheers!
Callum
