Play.com goes DRM-free in the UK
The decently popular website Play.com has begun offering high quality, DRM-free MP3 music downloads for the relatively low price of 65p in the UK, and the company says it will start with about one million tracks from EMI and indie labels.
The files, which will be 320kbps, should be playable on most if not all media devices on the market, due to its MP3 format. Apple already offers EMI tracks DRM-free as well but in AAC format which is mainly supported by its iPod line. The price is also cheaper and a Play.com spokesperson has said that “we’re going to be cheaper than [Apple's] iTunes. Whatever price iTunes goes down to, we’ll be looking to go lower.”
In a recent decision, the EU has told Apple it must standardize its prices across Europe and so the tracks are expected to drop from its high 79p current price.
Play.com should also see competition from Amazon MP3 which already undercuts Apple’s track prices and offers DRM-free music from all major labels. So far Amazon MP3 is only in the US but it will hit the UK later this year.
The company says it is talking to the other major labels, “and if one or more had been quicker we might have held off the launch. We think that within the year, the others will be on board.”
Michael Bay speaks out about Blu-ray, again
In what can equate to an “I told you so”, director Michael Bay has spoken out again about Blu-ray and its recent “victories” over the rival HD DVD format.
Earlier this week, both Netflix and Best Buy seemingly chose Blu-ray as their HD format of choice although Best Buy said it will continue to stock both. Bay, taking the time to knock HD DVD had this to say at the Visual Effects Society’s sixth annual award show, “Blu-ray’s better, and I told everyone … I was very vocal about it. I knew HD [DVD] was not going to make it.”
Ironically, despite his support for Blu-ray, his best selling HD Title is far and away Transformers which is available on HD DVD.
“Am I thrilled? It really wasn’t my fight, but remember what I said in the press? I was kind of saying HD [DVD]’s going to lose,” he added. “No one believed me.”
Despite the fact that both formats support the same video and audio codecs and each have excellent interactive layers, Bay says he simply prefers the way his movies appear on Blu-ray Discs. “It’s just sharper,” Bay added. “It’s just [that] the tools are better. I just think it’s closer to what it should look like.”
This is not the first time Bay has talked about his preference for Blu-ray. He first voiced his displeasure with HD DVD when Paramount decided to go HD DVD-exclusive, and taking Transformers with it. Bay even went as far as to say that he would not come back to direct Transformers 2 as a boycott to the decision.
“I want people to see my movies in the best formats possible. For them to deny people who have Blu-ray sucks! They were Progressive by having two formats. No Transformers 2 for me,” said Bay back then.
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Google will enter online music sector in China
Google has announced plans to enter the Chinese online music market for the first time by joining up with the popular Top100.cn, which allows users “to listen to and download licensed music files for free”.
The reports come via the major portal Sina.com and the portal added that the venture should generate revenue through online ads on its music search pages.
Google nor Top100 would confirm or deny the rumors however.
The new venture should help Google compete with the market leader Baidu which holds 60.1 percent share of China’s search market and has become very popular “by providing search services for and access to music files, or mp3s, many of which are pirated.” The popularity has however been monitored by the international music industry, especially the IFPI.
The IFPI has recently claimed that over 98 percent of all music files distributed in China are pirated and that the legal music market, a meager $76 million, stands as less than 1 percent of the global market for sales.
Nintendo wants the US to solve international video game piracy problems
It seems that Nintendo of America has asked the U.S. Trade Representative to “encourage” international governments to take a harsher stance against piracy of Nintendo video games and systems around the world.
Filing a “Special 301″ process with the Trade Representative means the group will “solicit input from the public to underscore specific areas of concern.”
Although China remains a primary source for the manufacturing of pirated Nintendo console games, the report says Korea is emerging as the leader for distributing the games over the Internet. The report also said that “despite aggressive anti-piracy actions taken by the company”, Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay and Hong Kong remain saturated with pirated goods or serve as major “transshipment points for global distribution of illegal goods.”
“The unprecedented momentum enjoyed by Nintendo DS and Wii makes Nintendo an attractive target for counterfeiters,” said Jodi Daugherty, Nintendo of America’s senior director of anti-piracy. “We estimate that in 2007, Nintendo, together with its publishers and developers, suffered nearly $975 million USD worldwide in lost sales as a result of piracy. Nintendo will continue to work with governments around the world to aggressively curtail this illegal activity.”
Game over HD DVD
It seems that over the course of the last month, HD DVD has been taking loss after loss, but it seems the giant retailer Wal-Mart has finally put the final nail in the coffin.
The company announced this morning that it has chosen sides in the next-gen format war and that by June it will only be stocking Blu-ray Disc players, completely dropping HD DVD in the process.
Susan Chronister, of Wal-Mart’s video division wrote in her blog earlier this morning that the company made its decision following Best Buy’s and Netflix’s recent decision to snuff HD DVD.
“By June, Wal-Mart will only be carrying Blu-ray movies and hardware machines and, of course, standard-def movies, DVD players, and up-convert players,” Chronister said. She then added, “if you bought the HD DVD player like me, I’d retire it to the bedroom, kid’s playroom, or give it to your parents to play their John Wayne standard-def movies, and make space for a (Blu-Ray Disc) player.”
That may be a good decision as well considering that HD DVD players are, on average, excellent up converting players for Standard Definition movies and are still much, much cheaper than its counterpart Blu-ray players.
As much as this latest blow hurts consumer choice, I hate to admit that this is the end for HD DVD. Lets see if Blu-ray fairs any better against digital downloads.
Disney Blu-ray titles have $10 USD rebate
Now that it seems that HD DVD’s time is running short, Disney is running a rebate program on a good amount of its Blu-ray titles.
In a few titles, such as ‘The Rock,’ ‘Crimson Tide’ and ‘Con Air’, there is an included insert that offers a $10 USD rebate for consumers who’ve purchased both the standard-def DVD edition and the Blu-ray edition of the same title.
For the rebate to work, buyers must send in both UPC codes, the original insert, as well as a copy of the original receipt before December 31st 2008.
When asked about whether the program would be expanded, Disney said “that the studio does not comment on sales initiatives or strategies.”
PS3 beats out Xbox 360 in US January sales, says NPD
According to the NPD Group, year-over-years sales for the US videogame market fell 6 percent to $1.18 billion USD for January 2008.
Software sales for the month increased 11 percent however, to $610.6 million USD, but NPD’s Anita Frazier attributed that increase mainly to higher prices, such as the expensive “Guitar Hero” and “Rock Band” bundles that both sold very well.
Hardware sales were down a hefty 25 percent to $377.8 million USD with the Nintendo Wii leading the Pack again with sales of 274,000 units. Notably though, the Sony PlayStation 3 took second place with 269,000 units sold, placing it just ahead of the
Hardware sales were down 25 per cent to USD 377.8 million, with the Wii once again leading the pack with sales of the PS2 (264,000) and the Microsoft Xbox 360 (230,000).
“Based on this month’s results, software sales are off to a fantastic start,” said Frazier. “Accessories are also very hot, so the industry looks to be pretty healthy out the gate.”
Next-gen format war is officially over
First reported by the Japanese public broadcaster NHK and later confirmed by Toshiba itself, the next-gen format war between HD DVD and Blu-ray is finally over, with Toshiba planning on stopping production of HD DVD players.
The battle, which has raged on for the last couple of years, has often been compared to the Betamax-VHS battle of the MID 1980’s and has slowed down the development of what movie studios hope will become a multi-billion dollar industry over the next decade.
The final blow to HD DVD and Toshiba took place yesterday when the mammoth retailer Wal-Mart announced they would go Blu-ray exclusive beginning in June. Other recent news, such as Best Buy and Netflix’s decisions to support Blu-ray must have also weighed heavily on Toshiba’s decision.
“We have entered the final stage of planning to make our exit from the next generation DVD business,” said a Toshiba source, who also added that an official announcement could come as early as next week.
We will keep you updated on any word from Microsoft, Paramount, or Universal as to this latest word from Toshiba but for now it seems that all that can be said is R.I.P HD DVD.
Price cuts coming for iPhone and iPod Touch?
According to 9to5mac, Apple is preparing to drop the prices on its very popular iPhone and iPod Touch models, possibly as soon as next week.
The rumored price cut will be $100 USD for both the Touch and the iPhone and the smaller capacity 8 GB Touch will be completely dropped from the line just as the 4 GB iPhone was last year.
If proven true the price cuts will mean the new 16 GB iPhone will cost $399 USD and the 32 GB Touch will cost the same, a very reasonable price considering models touting half the memory capacity sell for that same price currently.
The price drops should make way for “pricing space” for the upcoming 3G iPhone slated for release later this year.
Rapidshare to fight against German court ruling
Rapidshare has announced that it will indeed be appealing a recent German court ruling which has the potential to have the gigantic file hosting site shut down.
Last month the court ruled that Rapidshare must block access to any musical works that are represented by the German music rights group GEMA. The ruling even went as far as to say that the courts can “take measures that might have the risk of making Rapidshare’s service substantially less attractive or even close it down completely.”
A company representative has now said that “Rapidshare wants to clarify the legal situation for hosters”, and will be appealing the ruling. The representative also argued that it would be next to impossible to filter its uploads because users can rename files, split them in pieces, or save them as different formats before uploading. Continuing on, the spokesperson added that not all uploads can be considered illegal or unauthorized as music fans can be using the host to have backups of their own MP3 collection without sharing the links.
GEMA, from the other side of the spectrum, has said that it is in settlement negotiations with Rapidshare but refused to comment on any of the particulars.
We will keep you updated.
