Music, Sound Effects, Tech News, and More — The AudioMicro Blog

The New York Times reported yesterday that global music sales decreased by 10 percent in 2009.  According to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry, in fact, sales have fallen 30 percent from 2004 to 2009.  The problem – besides continuing to make the all but obsolete compact disc – is, you guessed it, pirates.  John Kennedy, IFPI chief exec, says, “We’re all fed up with talking about piracy.  It’s boring to talk about piracy, but it is the problem and we can’t avoid it.”  So we’re going to bore with some pirate talk.

A few facts for you:  compact disc sales fell by 16 percent globally.  This translates into a few billion in lost revenue for the music industry.  In 2008, the industry generated revenue of $17.5 billion.  Last year, $15.8 billion.  The problem is that revenue from digital sales weren’t big enough to close that gap and make up the loss, even though internet, phone, and other digital sales rose by 12 percent to $4.2 billion.  These sales are 27 percent of the total industry revenue.  Revenue from iTunes and other downloading services is down, while the popularity of free, ad-paid streaming sites like Spotify is up.

When you’re talking about all these billions, it’s hard to feel sorry for the music industry.  But you do feel for the artists.  According to Kennedy, labels haven’t been willing to take the risk and invest in new talent and local artists.  A few more facts to digest:  domestic artist album releases declined by 60 percent; Spain’s music sales have been terrible and there was not a single native artist in the top 50 sellers of the year; and the biggie, according to the IFPI, 95 percent of music downloads are illegal.

Some countries have taken action to stem the tide of piracy.  France, Taiwan, and South Korea all passed laws that will result in internet connection loss for repeat offenders.  The UK’s Digital Economy Bill has provisions for that consequence as well.  Other countries, though, are slow to act.  Spain, for instance, says Mr. Kennedy, has a “a culture of state-tolerated apathy towards illegal file-sharing.”

Some say the solution is to offer consumers music in the way they want it, not in the way the music industry wants to give it to them.  People are clearly moving away from CDs and are gravitating towards free ad-based or even subscription based streaming sites.  Why not give them what they want and find a way to profit from that?

More Music News From Around The Web Today . . .

RealNetworks Promotes Rhapsody’s Lundsford

Daft Punk’s Fragile From Tron Legacy Leaks

Franz Ferdinand Lambast U.S. Label For Licensing To McDonald’s

Joel Jett’s 7-inches Of Love & Hate

Nas & Damian Marley “Strong Will Continue”

Posted in: itunes, piracy, Spotify

Back in December, Apple acquired Lala, an online site that allowed users to listen to a song once for free.  If you liked any of their huge selection, you could buy it from a partner store for 89 cents; a lifetime license allowed you to listen to a song as many times as you’d like on the web for 10 cents.  So, what’s happened to old Lala?  Did it change iTunes at all?

One change iTunes users may have noticed is that you can now listen to your 30 second previews on the web without having to download the software. You do have to have QuickTime, but you don’t have to have iTunes itself.  The idea is to make it more browser-based and less application base, increasing the convenience for users.  If, after the preview, you want to buy, you have to have the software. Hopefully that might change in the future as well.  And, even more exciting is the prospect that music will be less expensive than iTunes current prices.

This is good, especially as Dazzboard is taking a completely web-based approach.  PC Worlds’ Michael Muchmore writes about Android’s 2.0, “[I]t’s really overstaging the case to say that Dazzboard 2.0…is the iTunes for the Nexus One and other Android app phones.  But it’s a start.”  You will be able to manage apps, videos, and photos, sync content from social networks, and share media to sites like Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube.  And why not get your iTunes library over to your Android device?  That’s fine too.

Dazzboard is stirring up interest because you can back up all sorts of content and apps to PCs (no MAC support at this time, but it’s coming, according to the Dazzboard site), and share videos and pictures on social networking sites.

More Music News From Around The Web . . .

Teddy Pendergrass (1950 – 2010)

New Dan Deacon Video – “Woof Woof”

Jimmy Page, Joe Perry To Play Free Peace Concert In China

A List Of Income Streams For Musicians

Posted in: itunes, Lala

How’s this for pathetic? The BBC is reporting that nine people, including a few DJs, have been arrested and held in suspicion of credit card fraud and money laundering after they allegedly used 1,500 stolen cards to purchase their own albums on iTunes and Amazon.

Not only that, they also made hundreds of thousand of British pounds doing it! For anyone who’s checked the exchange rate recently, you’ll know that equals a whole hell of a lot in U.S. dollars. The crafty thieves first posted their music on Amazon and iTunes, and then spent almost £500,000 worth of their own music on credit cards that didn’t belong to them. This netted them about £200,000 in royalties.

Investigators say this is part of an ongoing investigation into international fraud conspiracy against the online music retailers.

iTunes and Amazon have been down this road before. People have been using the sites to test out the legitimacy of stolen credit cards for years. Thieves will steal your card info, use it to buy music on iTunes. Once that transaction is successful they then go on a credit-ruining shopping spree.

Poor Apple has probably seen more than its fair share of creative fraud attempts. Like this guy who set up shop as an iPod repairman, then defrauded Apple into sending him up to 9,000 replacement iPod shuffles players.

But every story has another side, and Apple has been on the receiving end of fraud charges in the not-to-distant past. An Illinois couple is suing the tech giant for misrepresentation when they were charged $1.29 per download when their gift cards promised the songs could be purchased for $.99. Seems like an innocent mistake, until you take into account this same thing may have happened to millions of people. The couple is also seeking refunds for all other users who had the same experience. If a judge rules the suit as class-action, the damages could reach up to $5 million — probably chump-change to Apple.

Always a good thing to be reminded to check your credit card statements, even after buying an intangible MP3.

–Michelle Lanz

Posted in: Amazon, Apple, credit card fraud, iPhone, iPod Shuffle, itunes

Here are some general iTunes .mp3 conversion instructions to prevent file corruption.

Make sure that you are exporting your mix as an audio .aif file
at 44.1 and 16bit  (CD standard)

(Higher resolutions also work 24 bit 48khz for example and on up!)

after you obtain this file , open it in itunes and set the itunes
Preferences-Advanced-Importing (selection button )
to mp3 192 -stereo  (or higher to 320 stereo)
then press ok.

Preferences-Advanced-General show where the export file will be placed
and can be changed to a preferred location

Now, put the aif file in a new playlist (drag and drop)
and select/highlight the file in the playlist you wish to convert

and go to the Pull Down Menu ADVANCED and choose Convert to MP3

Your file will be in a user file folder from itunes.  I hope you find this tutorial helpful.

-Rick Keller, AudioMicro Music Supervisor

Posted in: itunes, mp3, song conversion