Month: September 2008
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Songwriters pal with IT to counter the Google lobby
There’s a new lobby group in town – but unusually, this one unites traditional adversaries from tech, telecoms, and media companies. Backers include the American Songwriters Guild representing creators, Microsoft, Cisco, and AT&T, and media companies including Viacom and NBC. Everyone but Google, it seems. The launch in New York today was well attended by…
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MySpace Music hears the antitrust song
News Corporation and the major record labels are facing antitrust questions about the blockbuster MySpace Music venture – even before the site has launched. MySpace Music is billed as the biggest music retail launch of the year. It’s a one-stop shop backed by the cross-media muscle of Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, with the three biggest…
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Peak oil: postponed
Oil supplies will actually last for far longer than our politicians think, the scaremongers fear, and the oil companies tell us. So says Dr Richard Pike, head of the Royal Society of Chemistry, and someone who isn’t afraid to stir controversy. Whither, then, Peak Oil?… Read More
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Freytards, fanbois and feudalism
British digital music company 7Digital claimed a coup yesterday by becoming the first online music store to carry DRM-free catalog from the “Big Four” major record labels. Calling it a coup is misleading, however. It’s really further confirmation that the top of the music business is run along feudal lines: closer to the 12th century…
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Baidu: China’s nonstop music machine
Baidu is renowned as China’s glittering internet success story, and as the start-up that gave Google a bloody nose. It dominates the web in the world’s second biggest economy with 70 per cent market share, and on Wall Street carries a market cap of almost $12bn. But Baidu’s success comes at a price, for the…
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The Great Circular Awards Ceremony
Is there a more incestuous and self-congratulatory scene anywhere outside the fashion business? What a strange world it is, the world of “digital rights” activism. Campaigners pause only to pat each other on the back. Last week, anti-copyright campaigners Public Knowledge revealed their annual award winners. The group’s president Gigi B Sohn proudly announced the…