EMI

An article about Apple's plan to "soon" launch a cloud service featuring music and movies stirred up a great deal of speculation on Thursday. "Soon," however, is a relative term because Apple has yet to snag licenses from the top four music labels, sources tell CNET.

The Boy Genius Report's article cited an anonymous source who declared that the Apple service will offer "streaming music and movies from Apple's servers to your computers," will sync iTunes with devices, and will stream content from a home computer to other Web-enabled gadgets.

While … Read more

Who better to show people how to handle information in the digital era than a former Google chief information officer?

Douglas Merrill, Google's CIO until leaving in 2008 to steer EMI Music's digital unit, is raising his profile again a year after leaving the record label. He's written a book that he says can help people improve their cognitive skills and he's also founded a new start-up.

Merrill is the co-author of "Getting Organized in the Google Era," a book that offers advice to people who wish to improve their memories and sharpen their … Read more

Web radio and cloud music are hot--largely thanks to the recent success of Pandora, but that doesn't stop Michael Robertson from declaring that what online radio currently offers is "lame."

Robertson, the controversy-courting founder of MP3.com and Linspire, is preparing to roll out a new online music service called BYO.fm. He said that BYO taps into Web radio's potential to enable users to act as their own program directors.

"All online radio does now is transfer audio over the Web," Robertson said. "Web radio should be personalized."

BYO, which stands … Read more

Project Playlist is looking for funding and one of the companies the music service spoke to about investing was AOL, multiple sources told CNET.

Whether or not those talks with AOL yielded anything is unclear, but music industry sources said AOL kicked the tires.

"Unfortunately we cannot offer any comments about any potential fund-raising. If we have any news to announce in the near future I will let you know," said Jeremy Riney, Project Playlist's founder, in an e-mail.

An AOL spokeswoman said that the company doesn't comment on rumors and speculation.

Project Playlist, which can … Read more

Patent wars reignite, the Internet is nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, and multitasking may be coming to the iPhone. It's an epic sort of show today. Also, PS3 gets in the game with a motion-controller, and employees like us knowingly violate IT policies like crazy people.

Apple’s iPhone 4.0 software to deliver multitasking support http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/10/03/11/apples_iphone_4_0_software_to_deliver_multitasking_support.html

Verizon to have 4G phone by mid-2011 http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703791704575114130970301388.html?mod=googlenews_wsj… Read more

Rock band Pink Floyd has won a court battle against downtrodden EMI that may force the record company to stop selling the band's individual songs as downloads, according to reports.

The U.K.'s High Court ruled that EMI Music isn't entitled to exploit individual recordings via the Web or any other distribution means without Pink Floyd's consent, according to a story by the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Pink Floyd charged in its suit that the financially troubled label violated its contract by selling individual songs. The label countered that the clause in the contract that prohibited those … Read more

We've utterly given up the concept of "on-topic" today, as talk of Apple's Developer License Agreement suddenly turns into a conversation about patent law and nuclear arsenals and our one voicemail is a dirty anagram. What happened!? Also, some bad words.

Facebook to allow users to share location http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/facebook-will-allow-users-to-share-location/

… And so does Twitter http://techcrunch.com/2010/03/09/twitter-location-website/

Veil Lifts Slightly on Apple’s Secret Plan to Control … Read more

It's hard not to like Pink Floyd. The band's music always felt so important, even if the songs were called things like "See Emily Play" and the albums resonated with names like "Ummagumma."

Over the years, drama never lurked far from the band's core. The legend of the wonderfully strange, and now deceased, Syd Barrett makes for eerie and sad telling. And the falling out between David Gilmour and Roger Waters means that they actually tour separately.

Now there is another chapter. This one is called "Money," for the band has … Read more

At this point, it looks fairly certain that an Apple tablet computer, expected to debut on Wednesday, will offer digital books, newspapers, and video.

But what about music? Conspicuously missing from much of the speculation surrounding Apple's tablet is any word about what music features it offers. Music is the content that Apple used to forge the iTunes and iPod dynasties, and music has been an integral part of the iPhone as well.

Could music be left out of all the tablet ballyhoo?

CNET reported last week that Apple spoke to the labels recently about offering iTunes users the … Read more