warner

With one foot out the door at Warner Music Group, Michael Nash doesn't try to sugarcoat the music industry's history of the past 10 years.

Nash has been the digital chief of Warner Music Group for four years but has been with the company for over 10. He started when Napster was just hitting the music scene--hitting it like a sledge hammer--and this month Nash announced he's calling it quits.

Nash said he came to Warner Music from the start-up community and joined because he knew the Internet would transform music. He wanted a role in changing the industry as it existed back then; the labels were built around the CD, the bundling of songs, and forcing fans to buy discs when they only wanted one or two tracks.

"That strategy was based on tricking people into buying an album that may not have been very good," Nash said in an interview with CNET last week. Consumer backlash to that was very much part of the digital revolution, Nash said.

He acknowledged that when it came to digital, the sector made mistakes as it tried to navigate "a perfect storm" of change. It's taken its toll on the labels' digital strategists, a fact that is reflected in the high turnover during the past four years. EMI for example went through four digital chiefs, including Douglas Merrill, a former Google exec, and Cory Ondrejka, co-founder of Linden Lab. … Read more

The Wall Street Journal devastates Hewlett Packard in one incredibly accurate editorial that compiles all the mistakes of the past year or so. And well ... it hurts. In that "oh so true" way. Speaking of hard truths, Eric Schmidt says Google + is an "identity service" and not a social network, and if you don't want to use your real name, don't use G+. Respect. Less respect for the possibility that Larry Page knew about the rogue Canadian pharmacy ads that were posting on Google. Hmm.

Hurricane Irene is over, but all we have to show for it is the five extra pounds we each gained from eating non-perishable foods (read: Dominos) all weekend.

The storm left tons of buildings, roads, and trees damaged, but the award for "Worst Irrevocable Damage" goes to Mayor Bloomberg for "trying" to address the Spanish-speaking population in their native language--and the subsequent Twitter parody @ElBloombito: "Go to worko. No excuso!"

CNET's own Sharon Vaknin makes her debut on The 404 Podcast today to replace our co-host Jeff Bakalar, who's currently re-evaluating his decision to live in Hoboken, N.J.

Joseph Kaminski from CNET Labs also joins us to discuss the stories of the day, including an app that lets New York drivers sell public parking spots to the highest bidder, a history lesson on the classic Windows XP default wallpaper, a big corporation making money off the hacker group Anonymous, and a secret list of celebrity XXX domain names removed from the adult market.

While Dan's changing his newborn's diapers, Scott invites his college buddy, David Tze, over to discuss how a discontinued tablet with no current support gets to be the most popular tablet on the market right now. Fox's announcement to delay its program streams on Hulu causes an online piracy upsurge. The NFL Sunday Ticket comes to the PS3 for a price higher than the current price of the console. Lastly, will backward-compatibility on gaming consoles be missed? … Read more

Sprint Nextel is in talks with the cable companies over a new round of investment that may lead to a full takeover of 4G partner Clearwire, according to Bloomberg.

Sprint is in discussions with investors Comcast, Time Warner Cable, and Bright House Networks, Bloomberg reported today, citing anonymous sources. The report said Sprint is weighing using the investment to fund the acquisition of the remaining stake in Clearwire that it doesn't own.

Such a scenario could provide relief to cash-strapped Clearwire, which is seeking funding to stay alive and expand its network with a newer, faster 4G technology. The … Read more

MetroPCS Communications announced today that subscribers of the company's $60-per-month Android phone rate plan can receive access to the Rhapsody Unlimited Music service, and some 12 million songs.

Only the service isn't unlimited, at least with regard to the music, due to the absence of one of the four major record labels. Warner Music Group, which has a reputation for being a tough negotiator with digital services, is the only major that didn't sign on to the MetroPCS deal. It's the third-largest of the record companies.

In the past, Warner pulled its music off YouTube during a contract dispute and reportedly was slow to license Spotify's U.S. service. Warner Music and Rhapsody representatives declined to comment about the negotiations.

The idea of bundling music into phone services has been around awhile. The top labels have looked for ways to achieve this but some of the earliest attempts, such as Nokia's "Comes With Music," were a bust.

In that case, consumers were asked to purchase phones that came preloaded with music. With MetroPCS, the music and the charges are tucked into the service and monthly bills.

MetroPCS, a wireless carrier, is known for offering prepaid phones, and a music deal like this should be attractive to the labels. It could help them reach an audience that includes people who aren't participating in the digital economy. It is believed that many MetroPCS subscribers don't own credit cards. … Read more

Time Warner Cable will acquire cable operator Insight Communications, the larger cable company announced today.

According to Time Warner Cable, it will pay $3 billion in cash for Insight Communications, which currently offers television, Internet, and phone service to more than 750,000 customers across Indiana, Kentucky, and Ohio.

Time Warner Cable has over 14 million customers using its service around the U.S.

Earlier this morning, The Wall Street Journal reported the companies were nearing an agreement, and would announce the deal at some point today. In addition, the Journal reported that Time Warner Cable outbid a host of … Read more

That loud snipping sound is a greater number of Americans cutting the cord and ditching their cable and satellite TV subscriptions. That's the verdict today in an analysis done by the Associated Press of the pay TV companies' quarterly earnings reports.

The AP tallied lost subscribers from eight of the top nine providers, including Comcast and Time Warner cable, Verizon, AT&T, DirecTV, and Dish Network. Cox Communications was not included because it is a private company and does not disclose subscriber numbers, but AP said it has captured 70 percent of households in its survey and found … Read more

Jeff's back in the studio after his vacation week, and any positive vibes floating around in the air are obliterated when he tells us about the things you can learn about people just from spending time at the beach.

Unsurprisingly, none of us plan to see "Rise of the Planet of the Apes," despite its 80-percent "fresh" rating on RottenTomatoes.com. We're also ripping a page from the Obvious News section and talking about TV porn sales going down in recent years, and playing a handful of voicemails carefully chosen by Mr. Bakalar.