Technically Speaking

* In the right hand corner after you hit start - you will see “1/14″ - click the right arrow to get to Episode 14!

Episode 14 notes:

Universal Music and Apple in a negotiation breakdown

MUSIC DIVIDE The Universal Music Group of Vivendi told Apple that it would not renew its annual contract to sell music through iTunes, executives briefed on the matter said. Universal told Apple that it would provide music to Apple at will, giving itself the option to pull out of the service at any time.

The two companies have reached a standoff in negotiations. The music industry has been complaining for years about Apple’s influence on the online-music business, its power to set prices on music downloaded through iTunes and iTunes’ lack of compatibility with music players other than the iPod.

twitter and why Allen Stern hates it

Here is another good example of lack of conversation followthru. Here user “RexDixon” notes to user “marshallk” something about Gmail chat. In this example, I can click “in reply to marshallk” to view the initial status. But there is no threading so if another user was to reply, I would not be able to view it.

Pay For Pownce? Nah… get a CN autographed postcard instead…

I finally realized the possibilities of using eBay to promote your product so I am very excited to announce that this morning I placed a “Limited Edition Hand Signed Genuine Authentic” CenterNetworks PostCard auction on eBay. Close your eyes and imagine all of the possibilities that are possible when you own your own signed PostCard. Don’t be the dork at the next Facebook launch party without one of these PostCards.

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Apple and Universal Music have appeared to have ended their relationship. That really bites, since I just won this iPod recently. Now I wonder if anything can be salvaged or will someone else come in and scoop up the deal?

What really is interesting is how Apple has relied on these contracts in order for their iTunes / iPod packages to succeed. It makes you wonder if there is actually something on the horizon that is more compelling for Universal Music. Music sites are a dime a dozen.

If some new site grabs the contract, you can be rest assured this will be quite a blow to the Apple franchise. Hopefully the negotiations will restart, and a deal can be done. If not, this could spell a down period for Apple. Ok, maybe I’m being a bit melodramatic, maybe overly so.

The fact remains there are other sites that could do this deal, and once the contract is signed it will be good-bye Universal Music for quite some time. I honestly didn’t believe the rumors when I saw them, so let’s hope that Engadget maybe jumped the gun.

Technically Speaking, this is a whole new age of music we are living in. Just like p2p lending by Lending Club is giving you more options for school loan consolidation, there are more options available for you as far as music online.

That sure beats the $1.65 Billion that Google bought YouTube for. AllOfMp3 is being sued for $150,000 per song for the 11 million that were downloaded from June to October of 2006. That comes out to $1.65 TRILLION! What do I think?

This is nothing more then smoke and mirrors. Yes, just an elaborate cat and mouse game the RIAA is so good at playing. Do they really think they are going to get $1.65 Trillion or even $1.65? Come on now, readers think about this.

The RIAA is suing a company that is based in Russia. The same Russia that was the main country of the former Soviet Union. Do you really think the RIAA has any jurisdiction there? No. They are powerless, so they what did they do? They did what they always do best. Sue. That’s all they really are, just a bunch of lawyers that have no clue about music. They just want to protect your rights, or the rights of the musician. That is their line and has been for years. What is it really? A LIE.

Why? Because the record labels that are suing - EMI, Sony, BMG, Universal Music - all want to make more money for themselves. It’s obvious to me. How much of that $150,00 is going to trickle down to the artist? I can bet, it will be like oh let’s just say $0.

I don’t feel sorry for the record companies, they have raped musicians for years. The musicians are doing no worse then they did before AllOfMp3 dot com. By the way, has the RIAA read the Russian law books? Have they read how they treat online distribution of music? Basically, it’s legal what they are doing.

The RIAA is not good for music or the musicians that bust their butts to record and write it. They are in it for themselves, and the record company interests only. They aren’t there to give 1 cent to the artist that deserves like $149,999.99 of that $150,000. The artist and musician won’t see one penny of it. Instead, the RIAA might give that 1 cent to the musician.

The smart reader will go to AllOfMp3 dot com and download all they can. The RIAA isn’t about to turn over any money they will collect to the rightful owners of that money - and that to course is - the artist and musician. Interesting side note - I just saw Twisted Sister on some late show - they did a Christmas song - Come All Ye Faithful. Quite interesting.