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How record companies could embrace MP3 more

More MP3 news

You have been warned !

Most Napster and Gnutella users are takers, not givers, a new study shows. And that could spell their doom The sense of community that has made music file-sharing services so popular is slipping away, according to a Xerox Palo Alto Research Centre (Parc) study. Researchers Eytan Adar and Bernardo A Huberman surveyed Gnutella users and found that just 2 percent of the users are serving 98 percent of the music files. The number of freeriders -- the peers who only download files or fail to provide desirable content -- could ultimately cause the peer-to-peer file-sharing system to break down. That's not surprising, said GartnerGroup analyst PJ McNealy, although he disputed the Parc study's conclusions. McNealy said the results indicate to him that files are being downloaded in large quantities because users are sampling songs but don't necessarily save them. Citing a recent Gartner study, McNealy said sampling is what makes digital music distribution so appealing to users. In the Gartner study, McNealy determined that music lovers tend to sample individual files, rather than entire albums. for legal action.

Most digital music users understand that eventually they will have to pay for music downloads, McNealy said. Based on his findings, he said fees based on individual music tracks make more sense than monthly subscription charges. The Xerox Parc scientists disagreed, saying, "It is hard to generate spontaneous cooperation in large anonymous groups... Gnutella is no exception to this finding, and an experimental study of its user patterns shows indeed that freeriding is the norm rather than the exception." The Xerox Parc researchers surveyed 31,395 Gnutella users during a 24-hour period in August. Of that number, about 66 percent of the peers shared no files, and 73 percent shared l0 or less. With such a small percentage of users providing the content, the bandwidth gets clogged. Thus, as the community grows, so will the demand on a limited number of sources. The system becomes more and more sluggish until it finally stops, the study concluded. Furthermore, the content providers may be exposed to lawsuits. The study suggests that the fewer content providers there are, the easier it is to identify them by Internet Protocol address, which makes them easy targets

All the best music sites from the big record companies to MP3 download sites.

I will be extending this page as much as possible in the next few weeks with all the best media downloads and software links. Computers are now becoming central entertainment machines within the home and we hope to take your hand and guide you into the best setup of this medium you can get. - Watch this space

LAVA! is an extraordinary software application that automatically transforms music on your PC into a stunning 3D visually-enhanced listening experience. For the first time, music files such as MP3s can be accompanied by a truly interactive, customizable and music-synchronized 3D graphics-based "video". LAVA! MusicVideos are comprised of sophisticated environments of 3D objects, textures, images, colors and messages that dynamically evolve in sync with the music. Using a combination of sophisticated audio analysis, radical image manipulation and 3D graphics, LAVA! delivers a hypnotic 3D audio-visual experience like nothing you've ever seen before.

Here are all the original LAVA! Scene Templates for your viewing pleasure. Just click on the image you like and save the file to the Gallery in your LAVA! directory here

 

AOL to take down MP3 search engine as service could not distinguish between legal and illegal files, reports Wall Street Journal America Online will take down a new Internet search engine that allowed users to find music files online in the MP3 format, including pirated versions of songs, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. The decision comes as the recording industry, including AOL's proposed merger partner Time Warner, is trying to crack down on Internet services that make it easier for people to find pirated music on the Web. People at Time Warner's Warner Music group questioned how AOL could have launched the music service and what impact it could have on Warner's relations with artists, the Journal said. A Time Warner spokesman declined to comment. AOL told the newspaper its service could not distinguish between legal and illegal MP3s and until that function is addressed, the search engine would remain down.

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Music piracy software solutions are to be announced Wednesday by Intel and Panasonic

US technology firm Intel and US electronics giant Panasonic announced plans to combat music piracy Tuesday. The two companies have codeveloped software designed to protect copyrighted music held on personal computers and to securely transfer it to portable devices. The companies plan to release the software solutions Wednesday. Intel and Panasonic -- the US wing of Japanese firm Matsushita -- say that the software products "exceed" the requirements established by the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI). The SMDI was created by over 150 music and technology industry companies in order to provide solutions to digital music piracy. The announcement highlights the industry's concern over piracy in light of the legal controversy surrounding MP3 file-sharing company Napster. The Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) sued Napster in December for allegedly facilitating mass online music piracy. "Intel's patented tamper-resistant software is key to achieving SDMI compliance," says general manager of Intel Internet Security Services, Parvinder Kohli. "We're enabling consumer electronics manufacturers and PC music jukebox application vendors to easily create SDMI-compliant platforms for delivering music to consumers." The software will securely transfer audio files to SD Memory Card-based devices. Panasonic already offers two compliant devices in Japan.

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MP3.com may actually come out of the my.music debacle with something to smile about Maverick music site MP3.com has agreed settlement terms with EMI. The pair finally agree to settle their outstanding copyright infringement suit which threatened to put the Web site out of business. MP3.com can now include EMI's music in its download service. In April, a US court ruled that MP3.com had violated the copyright of five major record labels by allowing users to upload music tracks to its My.MP3.com service and access them from any computer. The settlement with EMI is rumoured to have cost $20m, with MP3.com also agreeing to pay a fixed fee whenever a user registers an EMI CD, and a further fee each time a track is accessed.