Apple’s rumored cloud-based music service allows users to post their music to a cloud server where their songs will be available to play from their phones, computers, and any other devices they may have.

The new rumor is that Apple has just signed agreements with three major labels, including EMI, Sony, and Warner Music Group. Universal is the next likely candidate to sign on.

Release of the product is not certain yet, but sources believe the Apple’s developers conference on June 6 could be a possible date.

Google Music is the long awaited music service now available in the Beta stage. It allows you to upload your music to a cloud so that you can listen to it anywhere. It also is available on Androids and has the ability to create playlists for you.

We Are Hunted is a cool web app used for discovering new music and recently they launched a new app for the iPad called, Music Hunter.

The app allows you choose a genre or artist, then scan through many related samples. Similar to Pandora, you can like and dislike items so that the app can become more familiar with your tastes.

The app is visually appealing and a great discovery tool for finding new artists.

In this infographic showing the present and future state of music, we find that music streaming is on the rise, radio is still popular, Katy Perry is the #1 act in the US and oh so much more.

On May 2nd, Sony Corp.’s Arista Records and Warner Music Group Corp.’s Atlantic Records will begin their trial against LimeWire. A New York federal judge, Kimba Wood, is allowing them to seek statutory damages on a per-song rather than a per-album basis.

The Hollywood Reporter said:

The plaintiffs have identified 9,715 sound recordings infringed on the LimeWire system. Damages could run as high as $150,000 per “work,” but Judge Wood had to figure out what constitutes a “work.”

LimeWire argued that where a record label made available a particular sound recording as part of an album, that record label should only be able to recover one statutory damage award for all the sound recordings contained on that album. Judge Wood disagreed, saying that individual tracks constitute “separate works,” even if they are issued “together as a unit.”

As a result of the ruling, the tab on LimeWire’s damages could run as high as tens, or maybe even hundreds of billions of dollars.

The above graph is from the trial brief and shows why the labels believe they deserve the damages.

The opening argument is said to go something like this:

“The evidence will demonstrate that there has been a $55 billion decline in record industry revenue over the last decade. Plaintiffs and Defendants disagree as to whether mass filesharing through peer-to-peer services has been the primary cause of this decline (Plaintiffs’ position), or just one of several causes (Defendants’ position). But even if LimeWire caused only a fraction of this decline, Plaintiffs’ damages would still be in the billions of dollars. Plaintiffs will offer evidence at trial demonstrating that far greater than a fraction of this harm was caused by LimeWire.”

What do you think? Is LimeWire and Napster to blame? Would another filesharing program have came about if they hadn’t?

Source: Hollywood Reporter

Fender and Rock Band 3 are helping blur the line between gamer and musician with their latest invention. Fender created an actual guitar that uses MIDI to play along with Rock Band’s challenging game.

The Dixie Sun reported:

The guitar is fully functional for use in a standard amplifier, and it also features MIDI input for use in digital recording software. Fender released the guitar on March 1 at Best Buy for $279.99. The Mad Catz MIDI Pro Adapter, required to connect the guitar to either Xbox 360 or Playstation 3 consoles, is sold for $39.99.

The game, released in October, features a Pro Mode. Pro Mode gives an accurate representation of playing music as opposed to simply pushing colored buttons and is featured for guitar, drums and keyboard. It provides a learning opportunity for those interested in learning to play a real instrument, as well as the same satisfaction of scoring points for playing accurately.

………

The game features trainers for the instrument. There are exercises to teach everything from simple power chords, to more complex barre chords, to teaching advanced arpeggios.

There are also segment trainers for every song that features a Pro Guitar track, allowing you to learn songs exactly as an artist plays them.

The songs featured in-game span multiple rock genres and skill levels—from simple punk classics like “I Wanna Be Sedated” by

The Ramones to challenging epics like “Roundabout” by Yes. Harmonix, the developers of the “Rock Band” franchise, release new songs for download every week at $2 apiece. Songs featuring Pro Guitar tracks require an additional $1 upgrade fee to access that feature.

It seems gaming geeks just got a whole lot cooler.

Source: Dixie Sun

Making tuning a faster process is definitely needed. If you’re a guitarist, you know how quickly a live show can turn boring if you have to stop and get your instrument back to playing in key. Luckily, HardWire is now shipping the HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner that was announced at the NAMM show. The HT-6 allows you to do something very cool; by recognizing each frequency individually, it you can tune all your strings at once. There press release below tells all the details:

The new HT-6 is a tuner for guitarists and bassists that can be used to tune all six strings of an instrument simultaneously. Based on technology from recently acquired 3dB Research, a music technology company with extensive expertise in music and voice processing, the HT-6 makes tuning instruments faster and easier easy by letting the musician simply strum all the strings at once, and view the ‘string’ display readout to see which strings are in or out of tune.

The HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner is a floor pedal that features six rows of LED indicators, one for each string. The LED display matrix represents the six strings of a guitar or the strings of a bass. Two buttons on the HT-6 Tuner’s top display panel are used for selecting display modes (Mode) and tuning references (Tuning). The multicolored LEDs provide an easy to see indication of which strings are sharp or flat (red), almost in tune (green) or in tune (blue).

The HT-6 also features individual guitar and bass LEDs that indicate whether the Guitar or Bass display mode is being used. The Custom LED will light when the Drop D tuning reference is selected. In addition, the HT-6 displays the name of the individual note as an individual string is tuned.

The HT-6 can also be used as a standard single string tuner. The HT-6 is powered by a 9-volt DC battery, or an optional external Harman PS200R DC power adapter. The HT-6 can also power up to six other 9VDC powered pedals on a pedal board when used with an optional DC power adapter and a power chain cable.

“The already impressive lineup of HardWire pedals is now even better with the availability of the HT-6 Polyphonic Tuner. We designed the HT-6 with the goal to make tuning easier and faster than ever and users can now take advantage of this great addition to the HardWire family,” stated Rob Urry, Vice President and General Manager, Harman Signal Processing.

Each HardWire pedal also features an assortment of tour-worthy accessories, including the green gaffer’s tape common to pro pedalboards, and a precut hook and loop pad to mount the pedal to a pedalboard.

Pricing and Availability:
The HT-6 is currently available at an MSRP of $139.95.

As you should remember, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp bought out MySpace for $580 million in July 2005. It should also come as no surprise that MySpace has been struggling to survive against its competitor Facebook — which is valued at more than $65 billion.

With MySpace’s layoffs, falling traffic, and reported $156 million loss last quarter, it is no surprise that News Corp is now trying to abandon ship by selling to internet music video titan, Vevo.

Fox Business reported:

According to Bloomberg News, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. has approached Vevo.com, which is owned by the world’s largest record companies, about seizing control of the Myspace social network in exchange for a stake in a new venture. Talks are said to be at a preliminary stage.

News Corp., which is the parent of FOX Business, is seeking offers for Myspace over the next several weeks and hopes to reach a deal before its fiscal year ends in June, Bloomberg reported.

Vevo.com, which provides ad-supported music videos, is owned by a consortium of music companies, including Sony Music Entertainment, Vivendi’s Universal Music Group and Abu Dhabi Media.

By acquiring control of Myspace, Vevo.com could tap the social network’s music assets that include artist and fan pages.

Will Vevo snatch up a sinking business? It will be interesting to see.

Source: Fox Business

If you’re not familiar with the song “Friday” by Rebecca Black, then you’ve been living under a rock. With over a million dislikes, it may be the most hated song on the internet. Its simple lyrics and autotuned singing have made it a laughing stock. But just how did something like this ever make it past the gatekeepers? The answer as reported in the Collegiate Times is that fame-hungry parents are now paying to have their children become stars.

The Collegiate Times reported:

Some recording studios are taking advantage of children, and their parents, who are looking to get their 15 minutes of fame. The biggest culprit is ARK Music Factory, located in Los Angeles.

The best way to describe what ARK does is a pay-for-play scheme that takes advantage of parents with money, who are looking be the parents of stars.

Many children in show business are driven to sing or act by parents whose dreams of stardom were quashed. They are looking to live vicariously, and monetarily, through their children.

The music industry is the biggest victim. With preteen pop songs rising to the top of the charts from artists such as Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, recording companies are looking for the next big thing.

Clarence Jey and Patrice Wilson, owners of the aforementioned ARK, are going about finding artists in a different way. Instead of finding children who can sing, they are finding parents who have the money to get a song produced for their child. It is hard to argue with the business model they have put together. They are raking in the dough and are now known worldwide, even if it is in a negative light.

While pay-for-play may be the future for some artists, it is clear the public will not be accepting them, as seen by the ‘un-success’ of Rebecca Black.

Source: Collegiate Times

The laptop orchestra is a group of 15 or more computer musicians performing live, and Ge Wang is the Stanford Professor who brought the laptop orchestra to his university after seeing what they accomplished at Princeton. But behind every great computer musician is great software. In this case, that software is ChucK. As part of the Stanford University Human-Computer Interaction Seminar (CS 547), Ge Wang discusses this revolutionary new software.

In the first part of this talk, Ge presents the design, philosophy, and development of ChucK, a computer music programming language intending to provide a different approach, expressiveness, and thinking with respect to time and parallelism in audio programming – as well as a platform for precise and rapid experimentation. In the second part of this presentation, Ge describes his adventures with the “laptop orchestra”: a new type of large-scale, computer-mediated music ensemble.