I Own My Music

I am a realistic man; I know that good things cannot last forever. And so it is with my current version of the Ares filesharing software. Just like my previous favorite – Ares Galaxy – which was eventually superseded by any number of far superior alternatives, so my current choice will inevitably bested by some other Ares version.

The thing with a piece of software like Ares is that it moves so quickly. One version can quite suddenly improve beyond recognition and take up the reins at the head of the market. Likewise a few months’ holiday for the leading application’s design team could spell disaster for its enviable market position.

I’m ready for a change of Ares version now, as it happens. I know that I need to do my research so off I went to the aresvista.com website. The excellent reviews on there really do help (and they’re up to date too, so you know what you’re getting) and they prevent us mere mortals from plumping for the Lemons of the Ares world; applications like Ares Destiny that decide that it is okay to include spyware in the download package. Ugh!

Ares Ultra was my final choice (but for how long?) and I’m as happy as I was before in my downloading! Until next time!

Sad news as it looks as if Pandora may have to shut down. Pandora is a great music service that lets search for music and then plays you music it thinks you might like. It’s a great way of finding new bands and artists and is one of the best Internet radio services around. Licensing constraints have already meant that only US residents can use Pandora, but the end may be near, even though Pandora offers the chance to buy the music you hear through iTunes and Amazon.

A recent hike in Internet radio royalties may be the nail in the coffin for Pandora. About 70% of Pandora’s income goes on royalties. The website will reportedly reel in $25 million this year, but it still won’t enough to keep it afloat. The rates are set to double in 2010. Pandora is going to have to seriously rethink its overall business model if it wants to stay afloat.

Dream Pinball 3D. That name ring any bells? Sounds like a pretty average PC game. And yes, it is. However, it might just end up being the world’s most expensive pinball videogame for one UK woman, who has found herself in the middle of a filesharing debacle after being ordered to pay about $32,000 for sharing the game over filesharing networks.

The woman, who remains unnamed, was taken to court by Topware and ordered to pay a fine and costs. It’s alleged that the woman made the game available for download over P2P filesharing networks.

However, the pinball fiasco doesn’t stop there as there are another 100 people in the firing line who are suspected of uploading the game to filesharing networks. This is something of a landmark case in the UK and could well pave the way for similar rulings in the future.

We actually had to look up exactly what “Hobe Sound” is. Call us ignorant, but it sure doesn’t sound like the name of a town. Regardless, a woman from Hobe Sound stands accused of distributing 419 copyrighted songs through filesharing networks.

Among the free music downloads on this music fan’s hard drive were N*SYNC and American Idol nutcase Paula Abdul. Stephanie Wielinski apparently used filesharing networks to distribute the songs in April last year.

With all the fuss being made about the Jammie Thomas case at the moment, it’s anybody’s guess what will happen to the hapless Hobe Sound resident. Filesharing cases are gradually becoming more and more bizarre and increasingly muddled.

If a woman in a place called Hobe Sound can be prosecuted for free music downloads, that doesn’t leave much hope for the rest of us. We’re here to stand up for Hobe Sound in the name of free music downloads.

We were hoping and praying it wouldn’t happen, but it did. Keane’s experiment to offer one of the band’s tracks for free music download has proved to be a success. Hot on heels of Coldplay, who did the exact same thing and were hot on the heels of Nine Inch Nails, who were hot on the heels of Radiohead… where were we? Ah yes, Keane came up with the novel idea of offering one of their songs for free music download.

Normally this wouldn’t annoy us, but Keane are one of the blandest, most uninspiring bands out today. We’re probably going to offend a bunch of people with this, but honestly, what do people see in Keane?

Well, as it happens, some half a million people see enough in Keane to take advantage of the band’s free music download. The track “Spiralling” was given away last week through the band’s website. The album Perfect Symmetry is due to follow on October 13. We can’t wait – to not get it.

Shifting the emphasis from students to universities, it’s come out that schools and unis in America could lose funding if they do not police their students in an attempt to crackdown on filesharing and downloading copyrighted material.

The US Senate and House of Representatives announced that funding will be cut to institutions that the entertainment industry claims are not doing their part in supplying the names and ads of students suspected of downloading copyright material.

This is BS because it gives the music industry power over university funding and it has been well documented that the RIAA is reluctant to go after Ivy League schools.

This news is madness whichever way you look at it. Where would you draw the line between schools that do and do not deserve funding? And why should funding for education be determined by Internet downloads? It’s just silly. The MPAA is in on the act, claiming that 44% of all movie piracy is committed on campus.

It seems that there is a lot of news regarding music downloads from China for some reason. While it has little impact on Western consumers, it is interesting to see how the Chinese are doing their thing, especially in the wake of all the Internet censorship that goes on there.

Google recently launched a new search engine for China that allows Chinese consumers to search for free legal music downloads. The service will be supported by ad revenue.

Hold on. A Google search engine for free music downloads? Why hasn’t something like this surfaced in the US or the UK? The music industry in China has apparently been suffering at the hands of illegal music downloads, but so has the rest of the world.

This is definitely an interesting attempt to curb downloading copyrighted material because it takes the initiative away from the people and places an emphasis on major corporations providing free music for consumers.

There has been a tonne of pressure put on UK ISPs recently with regards to filesharing and cracking down on illegal music downloads. As if all the negative publicity wasn’t enough, it has now been revealed that the top three ISPs in the UK are responsible for 65% of the UK’s filesharing.

There are about six million people in the UK who partake in filesharing activities. The three main ISPs in question are Virgin Media, BT and the Carphone Warehouse. This news comes about a week after it was announced that the UK’s top six ISPs will now send warning letters to people suspected of using filesharing services to download copyrighted material.

Virgin Media has already started sending out letters to its subscribers, but there’s no word on what kind of impact this is expected to have on filesharing activity. The heat is on for the UK’s top ISPs.

Apple’s iTunes has long been the world’s top service for buying legal music downloads. Solidifying that claim this week is the news that iTunes is still the top provider of music sales in the US.

In the first six months of this year, iTunes has managed to fend off competition from the likes of Wal-Mart and Best Buy, who came in second and third spots respectively. The stats were based on sales of albums (or bundles of 12 tracks).

Amazon’s music service for music downloads made some headway, moving up to fourth place. Target took the fifth spot.

All the signs seem to point towards iTunes’ dominance of legal music downloads continuing to the foreseeable future with the decline of CD sales and the popularity of MP3s. Amazon has done well this year because it offers CDs and also a dedicated MP3-download service.