By now you may have heard the news that Microsoft has struck a deal with the Universal Music Group (UMG) whereby Universal stands to gain $1+ on the sale of every Zune device. UMG will also receive royalties for music downloads purchased through the Zune Marketplace. Deals with the other three major labels will undoubtedly follow a similar path. This...

I've got an amazing dentist who I've been seeing for about twenty years -- his name is Dr. Meng Syn. Meng has also become a close friend over the years, so I actually look forward to going to see my dentist if you can believe it. Meng is not only an extremely talented dentist, but steeped as a technologist as...

Some things are just basic, and you do them daily right? Like showering, flossing your teeth, locking your front door (unless you live in one of 'those' small towns where that's still not necessary). Right in line with this list should be backing up your hard drive regularly. It's one of those things that's just absolutely necessary, especially if you...

My colleagues at PaidContent.org shared some insights from a recent Steven Levy article in Newsweek regarding the iPod turniing five.......here are the most entertaining pieces: iPods are cool and useful, but the fifth anniversary of the digital music player is getting an enormous hype party -- the full cultural milestone treatment, sort of like when Tom Cruise turned 40. Newsweek...

One of my very favorite companies folded this past week Network Live. Network Live was started by Kevin Wall, who had been executive producer of both Live Aid in 1985 and Live 8 in 2005 with Bob Geldof. Network Live was a phenomenal concept where a 'live' concert would be re-distributed across multiple platforms in real time (or delayed); and...

News analyst Richard Menta posted the following in a recent edition of Digital Music News. For touring bands, the 4-track cassette player was once the tool of choice for on-the-go recordings. But as MP3 players increase in power and capacity, musicians are likely to favor a burgeoning type of portable digital audio workstation. Two new models were recently announced. The...

Anyone who knows me (well) knows that I'm a so-called "Beatleologist"; steeped in all things Beatles from a very young age, and having amassed a reasonably vast store of knowledge and coverage on the topic over the years. I have historically been disappointed by Beatles cover attempts (most of the time). That perspective was knocked off my shoulder last night...

I went to a movie in the SF Bay Area over the weekend, and paid $9.75 for my ticket (ouch!). But of course concert tickets are a much more painful hit to the wallet (these days they range from $65 to $300 plus -- double ouch!!). And of course if you're in Cleveland and your favorite band is performing in...

Another one of my long-time colleagues (and active collaborators) is Gerd Leonhard, a well-known visionary in digital music and media, media futurist, and author of the bestseller "The Future of Music" (Berklee Press). Back in the dotcom heyday when I first met him, Gerd was the CEO of LicenseMusic.com -- a company focused on making cleared music available to music...

I've decided that given my stock in trade is my rolodex, periodically I'm going to do blogs on some of my esteemed colleagues. We'll start here with Dave Ulmer, who is most definitely a member of the "10-year+ Club" I alluded to in an earlier blog (fellow pioneers in Digital Music). About 10 years ago, Dave was at Adaptec forming...