We’ve all heard from numerous sources that Spotify is in the middle of renegotiating their license agreements with at least the major labels.  What has gotten less attention is YouTube’s interest in buying Spotify.  Spotify’s exit to an IPO is getting cloudier by the day as another tech bubble bursts in Wall Street alongside a […]

According to the New York Times: President François Hollande of France on Monday awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest award, to three Americans and a Briton for their role in stopping a gunman on a high-speed train traveling to Paris from Amsterdam on Friday. The three Americans — Airman First Class Spencer Stone, 23; Alek Skarlatos, 22, a specialist in the Oregon National […]

Digital Music News reports again today on the latest Spotify debacle, this time data mining from pretty much everything users do on the service including mining their contacts. In our new privacy policy, we indicated that we may ask your permission to access new types of information, including photos, mobile device location, voice controls, and […]

If you read the New York Times Sunday Magazine (which probably means you’re over 40 or live inside of the Acela corridor), you may have noticed a story last week titled “The Creative Apocalypse That Wasn’t“.  This piece is another of these “Sky is Rising” type things bankrolled by the Computer & Communications Industry Association, […]

Digital Music News has excellent reporting on Spotify’s new terms of use controlling everyone’s use of the service.  The headline says it all: Spotify Is Now Tracking Your ‘Online Activity’ Even When You’re Not Using Spotify. You’re now being tracked even when you’re not on Spotify, often through Spotify ‘business partners’. Now remember that we […]

MIKE WALLACE Fame has a fifteen minute half-life, infamy lasts a little longer. From The Insider written by Eric Roth & Michael Mann, based on The Man Who Knew Too Much by Marie Brenner The Insider is a very important film about Jeffrey Wigand, a scientist at Brown & Williamson tobacco company, whose whistleblowing formed […]

RICK How can you close me up? On what grounds? RENAULT I am shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here! CROUPIER Your winnings, sir. RENAULT Oh. Thank you very much. From Casablanca, written by Julius J. Epstein, Phillip G. Epstein and Howard Koch. Can you imagine–someone in the music business is […]

With all the discussion on “black box”, I’m reminded of the original black box–ISP licensing. Every now and then we see the resurgence of “voluntary collective licensing” or what I call ISP licensing.  This is the idea frequently associated with the copyleft that ISPs would charge customers a flat fee for music (enter the black […]

Remember the MIC Coalition?  This is the uber lobbying group that Google and Pandora founded along with the National Association of Broadcasters to stop artist pay for radio play. The MIC Coalition is missing two of its original members–Amazon and NPR both ran for the hills after less than three months being involved.  Now we […]