Grooveshark is hurting. The music streaming site no longer has legal access to the majority of licensed music after EMI terminated its contract.
Of the major music publishers, EMI was the only company that had made licensing agreements with Grooveshark; however, in January, EMI filed a lawsuit against the service, claiming Grooveshark hadn’t paid licensing fees since 2009.
“Grooveshark was recently forced to make the difficult decision to part ways with EMI due to EMI’s currently unsustainable streaming rates and EMI’s pending merger with Universal Music Group, which we consider monopolistic and in violation of antitrust laws,” Grooveshark announced in a statement to CNET. “To date, Grooveshark has paid over $2.6 million to EMI, but we have yet to find sustainable streaming rates. In spite of this, Grooveshark’s dedication to artists and rights holders remains the same.”
Florida-based Grooveshark says it has more than “30 million monthly users who stream more than 15 billion songs per year,” reports VentureBeat. “In November, it rolled out a new design of its online music player that includes a social layer.”
A research report from Toronto-based Convergence Consulting Group Ltd. found around 1.05 million people canceled their pay-TV subscriptions in 2011. Web-based services have led 2.65 million subscribers of cable or satellite TV to cut their services since 2008.
However large the numbers seem, they are only a fraction of total subscriptions. The report suggests that by 2012, 3.58 million will have cut the cord, which only represents 3.6 percent of all subscribers.
The rate that people are opting out will slow this year as pay-TV services will actually see a boost in adopters, Convergence Consulting predicts.
Cable, satellite and services from telephone companies — like Verizon’s FiOS and AT&T’s U-verse — will add a net 185,000 accounts this year, an increase from 112,000 in 2011.
Stuart Green, Rutgers Law School professor and author of the upcoming “13 Ways to Steal a Bicycle: Theft Law in the Information Age,” addresses emerging trends regarding copyright infringement and intellectual property in a recent New York Times op-ed.
In doing so, Green provides a compelling examination of the concept (and evolution) of “theft” in the digital age.
“For starters, we should stop trying to shoehorn the 21st-century problem of illegal downloading into a moral and legal regime that was developed with a pre- or mid-20th-century economy in mind,” writes Green. “Second, we should recognize that the criminal law is least effective — and least legitimate — when it is at odds with widely held moral intuitions.”
“But framing illegal downloading as a form of stealing doesn’t, and probably never will, work,” he adds. “We would do better to consider a range of legal concepts that fit the problem more appropriately: concepts like unauthorized use, trespass, conversion and misappropriation.”
“Treating different forms of property deprivation as different crimes may seem untidy, but that is the nature of criminal law,” suggests Green.
Two analysts are predicting that Apple’s stock will hit the $1,000 mark within a year or two.
Brian White of Topeka Capital Markets says the introduction of the next iPhone and the iTV, paired with expansion into China and the TV market, will surge the stock to more than $1,000 bringing the company’s value to $1 trillion. “Apple fever is spreading like a wildfire around the world,” he said.
“Shares can reach $1,000 based on our belief that Apple will continue to win in global mobile devices,” Gene Munster of Piper Jaffray wrote in a note.
The company has grown over 60 percent since Steve Jobs’ death in October, so these predictions may not be unreasonable. In this year alone, the stock has risen 53 percent.
“Apple investors also are benefiting from a $2.65-a-share dividend, starting in July, and a $10 billion stock buyback plan,” reports Bloomberg. “The company announced both initiatives last month.”
Rumors are circulating that Apple is working on a gaming controller for the iPhone and iPad. The new product could launch Apple into the gaming industry, allowing developers to create apps that go beyond touch controls.
Currently, iPhone users are downloading more than five million games each day. This figure continues to grow with the success of other iOS devices such as the iPad and iPod Touch.
“The touch controls in these games played a part in the dramatic success of iOS as a gaming platform, but it has also held Apple back from truly conquering this market,” Mobiledia writes. “The success of gaming on iOS devices slowed sales of portable gaming systems like the Nintendo 3DS and PlayStation Vita, but hardcore gamers shun Apple’s devices because they do not offer the traditional control scheme necessary to play games like ‘Madden,’ ‘Call of Duty’ and other popular console titles.”
If Apple did create an iOS controller that worked universally with all Apple devices, developers would likely jump on board with games that support it.
Amazon came into the tablet market a little late after Apple and Android had already developed their app stores. Now the online retailer is taking a stab at its competitors as it tests an in-app purchasing system designed to strengthen the Kindle Fire’s ability to make money.
Amazon will receive a 30 percent cut from in-app purchases like add-ons or game extensions to existing apps.
“This new development is likely to attract app developers to Kindle Fire, as they will keep most of the revenue. The profits for these kinds of sales are growing, and analysts expect they will make up 64 percent of app revenue by 2015,” Mobiledia writes.
Although it is a step towards larger profits for Amazon, the company still has a long way to go before it will be able to edge out Apple of its strong market share — especially after Consumer Reports named the new iPad the best tablet available.
A recent TVGuide.com survey found that TV viewers believe they can influence business decisions by using social media.
According to Lost Remote, the survey determined that 76 percent of TV viewers indicate their “main motivation for engaging with social media is to prevent their favorite TV shows from being canceled.” That number is up from 66 percent a year ago.
Viewers also use social media to let their friends know what they’re watching. The survey specifies that 95 percent engage in social media after the show concludes, 40 percent participate while the show is airing and 53 percent engage beforehand.
It’s also worth noting that 69 percent use social sites to see other viewers’ opinions, whereas only a third actually post something themselves.
“The most entertaining question from the survey asked the simple question, ‘What is social TV?’ which is even difficult for TV execs to define,” comments Lost Remote. “But 61 percent had an answer: ‘Another stupid marketing term for how people have always watched TV’ said one, ‘liberal biased media crap’ responded another. But among them, there were some great definitions, such as ‘Being hooked into communities online while watching TV’ and ‘a connected atmosphere of television.'”
Sony announced it has made Amazon Instant Video and Prime Instant Video available via its PlayStation 3 console.
The new addition offers Amazon’s nearly 100,000 movies and TV shows on the PS3 as well as about 17,000 streaming items available with a $79 Amazon Prime subscription.
The PS3 app is downloadable from the console’s XMB menu, but users won’t be able to buy content using their PlayStation digital wallet. Instead, they’ll have to connect Amazon’s service to the console over the Web.
“One benefit of that is cloud sync, however,” reports The Verge. “You can start a movie on your PS3 and resume on a Kindle Fire, or vice versa, for instance.”
“The announcement may not be as exciting as a live TV service, but it’s a major video service that the Xbox 360 doesn’t have… unless you count the grueling process of downloading shows in advance on a Windows computer and streaming to your Xbox using Windows Media Center,” The Verge points out.
Tablets running Facebook and Twitter are emerging as the long-sought second screen that could steer the success of social TV.
According to survey results from Informa, more than 41 percent of executives said tablets are the most important platform for watching TV interactively. Additionally, more than 21 percent suggest that social networks can help sell paid content.
“The big content winners are likely to be entertainment, cited by almost 40 percent of executives as representing the greatest opportunity for increasing viewer engagement,” reports MediaPost.
“Sports and news and weather were seen as the biggest opportunity by 27.5 percent and 14.8 percent of respondents, respectively,” explains the article. “But movies (9 percent) generally were not regarded as a strong content type around which to generate social engagement.”
Informa recommends that instead of relying on their own apps to develop social TV strategies, television stakeholders should create a portfolio of external partners such as Facebook, to maintain relevance in terms of viewers’ needs. “Informa also recommends that programmers build viable social TV ad models that work off of the main TV display,” suggests MediaPost. “The second screen is where advertisers can more precisely target and segment the TV audience.”
Highlight Hunter is a free app for Macs and PCs that takes your unedited video and creates highlight clips ready for downloading into your favorite editing program.
The app requires you to cover the lens after you shoot footage you want highlighted. The app automatically looks for those clips and includes the preceding 30 seconds. The company claims it can reportedly reduce editing time an average of 80 percent.
A later version will enable the software to scan, edit, upload to the cloud and make clips available on YouTube.
“Highlight Hunter is free to use, and unlimited, but the free version applies a small watermark to videos,” reports TechCrunch. “Users can switch to a $29/year premium version, which removes the watermark, supports faster scanning speeds, priority support, among other things.”
The article also mentions HighlightCam, which has facial recognition and other software that can create mini-movies.
Human rights reporter Mac McClelland takes an in-depth look at the often “demoralizing and dehumanizing” work environment of online shipping facilities.
McClelland details the hiring process, training procedures, low wages, employee competition, warehouse culture, management techniques, the many reasons that can lead to being fired and much more.
“They need you to work as fast as possible to push out as much as they can as fast as they can,” writes McClelland for Mother Jones. “So they’re gonna give you goals, and then you know what? If you make those goals, they’re gonna increase the goals. But they’ll be yelling at you all the time. It’s like the military. They have to break you down so they can turn you into what they want you to be. So they’re going to tell you, ‘You’re not good enough, you’re not good enough, you’re not good enough,’ to make you work harder.”
“Don’t say, ‘This is the best I can do,'” she adds. “Say, ‘I’ll try,’ even if you know you can’t do it. Because if you say, ‘This is the best I can do,’ they’ll let you go. They hire and fire constantly, every day. You’ll see people dropping all around you. But don’t take it personally and break down or start crying when they yell at you.”
Leaked screenshots suggest that Nokia’s new Lumia phone with Windows Phone 7 may feature a TV app.
The app may provide access to content from local network archives, Wi-Fi streaming of shows, the ability to download programs for offline viewing, or the possible streaming of live TV.
Initial rumors indicate the app will first launch with three local stations in Finland.
“Nokia has already made it clear that it’s aiming for Windows Phone customization both on the hardware and software side, so there’s every reason to think this is real,” reports The Verge. “Whether a self-branded TV app would move the sales needle, though, remains to be seen.”
Unconfirmed rumors suggest the next generation PlayStation will run an AMD x86 with an AMD “Southern Islands” GPU. Similarly, the next Xbox 360 may also run an AMD GPU.
While these chips are top performers, they do not represent a new state-of-the-art system as their predecessors did when they debuted six years ago.
This may disappoint gamers but game consoles are increasingly being used for viewing of streaming media, which does not require the highest performance. Xbox Live Gold subscribers, for example, actually spend more time viewing streaming video than playing games.
This approach also allows Sony and Microsoft to build less costly media consoles appealing to a larger market rather than expensive game units that sell below cost.
Further, developers will be more familiar with these PC architectures, encouraging faster game development.
Spotify announced it has extended its unlimited listening period for early adopters from the original six months to an indefinite amount of time.
According to the Spotify blog: “Well, it’s now been 9 months since we launched in the U.S. Time sure flies when you’re having fun! To celebrate, here’s some great news… We’ve been so overwhelmed by the U.S. response to Spotify that we’ve extended the honeymoon for unlimited free listening.”
“After Spotify integrated Facebook’s frictionless sharing tool with the music service, new people are discovering Spotify as music is being shared within the Facebook news feed and ticker,” reports Digital Trends.
The company suggests Facebook has been instrumental in the service’s growth. “Users who are exposing their listening on Facebook are three times as likely to become paid subscribers,” says Spotify chief content officer Ken Parks.
“Spotify is still offering 30 days of free Spotify Premium service to users,” indicates the post. “The cost of the service is $9.99 a month after the free-trial offer and it allows users to listen to music on mobile devices, access music encoded at a higher quality bitrate and download music for listening when offline.”
LG plans to launch a flexible e-paper display later this month in Europe.
“The 6-inch EPD (e-paper display) is the same size as the screen on the Amazon Kindle, Sony Reader and many other e-book readers,” reports CNET. “It’s about a third thinner though, and because it’s made of plastic rather than glass, is only half the weight.”
Although it cannot be folded or rolled up, the display can reportedly bend up to 40 degrees. “That should make it more tactile for reading, as well as more durable when slung into a bag or pocket,” adds the article.
Maximum resolution of the display is 1,024 x 768 pixels. LG has yet to announce any ebook readers using the display, or whether the company plans to license the technology to others or develop its own reader.
“Earlier this week, Amazon announced the Kindle Touch would finally be coming to the UK at the end of April. It’s a touchscreen version that has so far been unavailable on these shores, and lets you flick through pages like leafing through a book,” according to CNET. “The prospect of a bendable Kindle sounds great to me. Much as I like my Sony Reader, it is a bit like reading off a piece of slate. Though LG’s screen could be used in advertising as well, just like 3D TVs are.”
