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Tuesday, May 18, 2021
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Popular YouTube-Ripping Site to Shut Down Following Lawsuit

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YouTube Logo
The popular YouTube-ripping site YouTube-MP3 agreed to close doors following a piracy lawsuit. So, expect the service which allowed users to convert YouTube videos to audio format for later playback to vanish overnight.

YouTube-MP3 was sued for allowing stream-ripping of protected content, which is one of the most frequent forms of music piracy. As of now, the site is still up, but users have reported various errors when they tried to convert a YouTube video to mp3.

Some users were told that the service is blocked in their area, while others received the message “There is some Maintenance going on. Please try again within the next hour.”

The website claims that users can convert online videos to mp3 without an account. As soon as a video URL is submitted, the service will extract the audiotrack out of the YouTube videofile and make it available for download.

YouTube-MP3 noted that other conversion services need the installation of software to convert the videos, which is not the case with their site where audio files are downloaded directly from their servers.

Because of this particular infrastructure, the service can be accessed from various platforms including Macs, Linux devices, Windows PCs, and even iPhones. The service promises high-quality conversions of at least 128 kBit/s for a “completely free” service. What’s more, a conversion takes only 3 to 4 minutes per video.

So, what YouTube-MP3 offers is every music pirate’s wet dream, which drew the ire of the RIAA and content providers. TorrentFreak reported that the service agreed to a settlement with the RIAA and would be shutting doors this week.

A court found that the website violated DMCA YouTube rules through the “illicit delivery of free music” after the media victims have complained that the stream-ripping service generated advertising revenue thanks to the millions of people accessing the service.
Image Source: Wikimedia

Sonos PLAY:5 Comes Out Soon. TruePlay Too

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If you don’t already own a set of speakers from Sonos, this is a great opportunity to get out there and get yourself PLAY:5.

If you don’t already own a set of speakers from Sonos, this is a great opportunity to get out there and get yourself PLAY:5.

If you don’t already own a set of speakers from Sonos, this is a great opportunity to get out there and get yourself PLAY:5.

Sonos’ PLAY:5 is the proud successor to PLAY:3, and not much different in size. What Sonos offers is the possibility to drag and drop a stereo system in any corner of the house, connect it wirelessly and enjoy the music. Wireless speakers of great quality with the added perk of an easy to set wireless surround sound system.

The great thing about Sonos PLAY line is that these are smart speakers. And with the new update that Sonos is rolling out for free, they’re about to become even smarter. Not only that, but the sound quality of one individual speaker or a sound system is easily enviable.

PLAY:5 weighs 14 pounds. It sports a touch-sensitive surface, as well as positional sensors. These inform the smart speaker on whether it is positioned horizontally, vertically or in any other wacky position you might place it. The whole PLAY:5 kit also includes three tweeters, three dedicated amplifiers for the three mid-woofers. From here on, the fun starts. Connect one speaker or as many as you wish for a relaxed tone or a blasting party.

As for the update that Sonos has been preparing and is now giving away to Sonos customers, it’s called TruePlay. TruePlay allows your Sonos speakers to ‘feel’ or tune in to the environment around them, thus offering the best sound quality there is, without muffling because they’re hidden behind that heavy couch or scratches or any other impurity. Any speaker, wherever it may be hidden in the house, will adjust to the environment, making sure impeccable sound is heard throughout your living space.

Not to mention it only takes a couple of minutes to set TruePlay and enjoy the music from Sonos speakers. Complete the software update, click to open TruePlay and let yourself be guided by the instructive video. TruePlay is perfectly functional with all of Sonos’ speakers line: PLAY:1, PLAY:3, PLAY:5.

TruePlay is for free. PLAY:5 comes out this winter and costs 499 dollars.

Photo Credits: Photobucket

Apple Accused of Antitrust Violations Concerning Beats

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Voices begin to make themselves known by expressing their doubts regarding one of the latest actions by the Cupertino based tech giant, Apple Inc. And not many would be surprised by that, if you were to take into account the fact that Apple Inc. is one of the greatest companies that have ever been founded. Well, most of us would say that there are some things that happen behind closed doors which are not really according to the book of deontological ethics. With Apple accused of antitrust violations concerning beats deals, the situation seems to get pretty uncomfortable.

It is not the first time that the Silicon Valley tech giant Apple Inc. is suspected to have gotten involved in this kind of stuff. Several years ago, the American company has been accused of fixing e-book prices and that time, the enterprise which is currently under Tim Cook as chief executive officer was found guilty.

But how come this conflict concerning the Beats deals emerged? Well, Apple Inc. is a notorious enthusiast of what you may call technological hegemony. They most probably had figured out that they had no big actions in the field of music streaming, so they decided to buy Beats for an astonishing price of 3 billion dollars. They arrived at the party pretty late, though, because names like Spotify and others were already tasting the cake, if you may.

However, Apple Inc. was already big if you were to refer to the music industry, but mostly when it come to downloading, with iTunes being the no. 1 product in this field. That is how, on Tuesday, the Federal Trade Commission accused the Silicon Valley tech giant of using its influence provided by iTunes in order to persuade musicians to come to their side.

The company has been accused of getting in connection with a dozen musicians. Apple Inc. is said to have tried to talk them into signing partnerships and limited exclusive rights in order to make the best out of Beats. It appears that one of the artists who have been approached by Apple Inc. was Florence and the Machine.

This is certainly bad news for the American company. Even if iTunes has been a major player in the music industry for a long period of years, however, in the most recent times, digital tracks sales have dropped considerably, while streaming has known an unexpected progress.

Image Source: vator.tv

Spotify And PlayStation Roll Out A New Digital Music Service

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Spotify And PlayStation Roll Out A New Digital Music ServiceStreaming music enterprise Spotify and PlayStation reported on Wednesday “PlayStation Music,” a new service that both organizations portray as a top digital music experience for PlayStation Network. PlayStation Music will take the place of Music Unlimited, scheduled to close on March 29, 2015. The service will be available this spring on 41 markets, at first accessible for PlayStation 3 and PlayStation 4 supports and Xperia cell phones and tablets.

Sony Computer Entertainment president Andrew House explained that music is a key entertainment feature that Sony buyers expect, and the company’s objective with PlayStation Music is to give the most convincing music encounters to the a large number of PlayStation Network clients around the globe.

PlayStation Music clients will be enabled to access over 30 million tunes and 1.5 billion playlists accrues gadgets. On Ps4, clients will have the capacity to stream Spotify music while playing games. However this peculiarity was not reported for Ps3. Sony likewise did not mention if PlayStation Music will be accessible on PlayStation Vita.

Spotify is presently accessible as a free, ad-upheld streaming service on desktop and portable devices. The organization additionally offers a $10/month membership that blocks adverts, allows playing while offline, and that’s only the tip of the iceberg.  The main PlayStation competitor- Xbox- has its own particular music-streaming app, Xbox Music.

The PlayStation Music dispatch markets are: Andorra, Austria, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Malta, Mexico, Monaco, New Zealand, Netherlands, Norway, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Turkey, UK, and USA.

But that is not the only upcoming change from Sony. Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment International have joined to develop premium system services that they claim will convey a top entertainment experience. The new PlayStation Network will display games, TV, video and music, supplanting the current Video Unlimited services and rebranded as PlayStation Video (PS Video).

Added to these features will be Sky which is allowing Ps3 holders who are Sky TV clients  as well,  to subscribe to Sky Go Extra or Sky Multiscreen to have the capacity to watch Sky’s live and on-request   content. This incorporates the Sky amusement channels as well as Sky Box Sets, including shows like Fortitude, Girls, Modern Family and True Detective. The TV service is presently accessible on more than 70 gadgets, providing more ways to watch the most recent shows, games and motion pictures from Sky.

 Image Source: Financial Post

Beats Music Service to Be Included in Future iOS Versions

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apple paid beats music service

Recent Apple news revealed by Financial Times speak about Apple’s plans to include the paid – for Beats music service into future versions of iOS starting early next year. Anonymous sources familiar with the matter also stated that Apple intended to embed the Beats music service into iPhones and iPads, while trying to make the streaming service cheaper.

Apple purchased Beats Music in May this year for the fabulous sum of $3 billion. Since then, Apple is working hard to establish a powerful position in the ever – growing market of music streaming. Free access to music represents a very hot debate of our times, and record labels and artists show frustration towards the likes of YouTube and Spotify.

While people are still willing to pay to listen to music, the free access to humongous amounts of tunes negatively balanced the market and the music industry is rather concerned. In this context, Apple is going through serious negotiations with record labels in order to push down the monthly subscription from $10 to only $5.

As you can imagine, labels executives didn’t jump in happiness when hearing this proposal, asking Apple for slightly higher sums. On the other hand, a $10 music monthly subscription is way too much to ask from a regular music listener, given that the average customer’s annual spending on music doesn’t go beyond $55 – $60.

The recent release of the newest iOS version lacked Beats music service and the omission was heavily noticed by iOS 8 customers. Now Apple intends to deliver the service to every future iPhone and iPad on the planet, in an effort to keep its hundreds of millions of mobile device customers loyal to the company.

Moreover, Apple is pushing hard towards subscription music because the downloads from iTunes are slowly (but steadily) declining. It was about time Apple started capitalizing on the company it bought from Dr Dre and Jimmy Iovine, although specialists assume the service will be branded under the iTunes name, and not under the Beats one.

From the looks of it, the future Beats music service powered by Apple will have strong competitors like Soundcloud, Spotify and Pandora. Apple may also meet Google in this battle for music streaming services supremacy. Last week, Google announced the release of a new YouTube service, the YouTube Music Key, a brand new paid monthly music subscription service.

We don’t know for sure when the Beats service music is going to be officially released, but Financial Times reported it to become alive sometime in March 2015. Analysts are keeping their eyes open, as the music streaming competition appears to be as stronger as ever.

Apple Acquired Beats Electronics for $3 Billion

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Apple Acquired Beats ElectronicsLet’s take our minds off those numerous iPhone 6 rumors and take a look at what Apple’s been doing these days, because it’s big and important. It was announced that Apple acquired Beats Electronic for $3 billion ($2.6 billion in cash and $400 million in stock that will vest over time). Great news, don’t you think?

Apple Acquired Beats Electronics

Beats Electronics is a company founded in 2008 by producer and singer Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, chairman of Interscope Geffen A&M Records. It offers premium headphones, speakers and earphones, as well as the popular and patented Beats Audio software technology that is incorporated by smartphones and laptops. Another cool and innovative service that Beats has to offer to the public is a streaming music subscription service, Beats Music that focuses on providing personalized music experience. In short, Beats Music delivers the right music any time and for any situation. It’s a smart service, one that has so much more to offer the public.

Apple acquired Beats Electronics and the Beats co-founders will join Apple. Eddy Cue, Apple’s senior vice president of Internet Software and Services had this to say about the purchase in an official statement:

“Music is such an important part of Apple’s DNA and always will be. The addition of Beats will make our music lineup even better, from free streaming with iTunes Radio to a world-class subscription service in Beats, and of course buying music from the iTunes Store as customers have loved to do for years.”

Apple is expected to finalize the deal by the September 28 2014, which signifies the end of the fiscal year. The company will preserve the Beats brand and it will continue to operate the popular streaming service, Beats Music.

Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, called the deal a no-brainer, stressing the fact that Apple doesn’t always want to build everything on its own and that sometimes help is welcomed. Apple has acquired 27 companies over the last year. Tim Cook also had something to say about Beats joining Apple:

“Music is such an important part of all of our lives and holds a special place within our hearts at Apple. That’s why we have kept investing in music and are bringing together these extraordinary teams so we can continue to create the most innovative music products and services in the world”

What are your thoughts on this news? Do you think the fact that Apple acquired Beats Electronics is a smart move? Share your thoughts with us in the comment section below.

Beats Electronics Might Be Bought By Apple Soon

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beats headphonesTech giant Apple is again the subject of hot rumors and reports, as it seems it is in talks with Beats Electronics to purchase the company for $3.2 billion. In case you are not familiar with the Beats Electronics brand, the company is the largest high – end maker of headphones in the United States and was founded by iconic musicians Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. The over – the – ear phones are indeed expensive, feature high – quality specs and are very popular among musicians and celebrities. While the company also produces in – ear headphones, Beats by Dr. Dre over – the – ear headphones are the company’s superstars. But Beats Electronics might be bought by Apple in a historical deal which, if closes according to plan, will remain in the archives as the largest purchase ever made by Apple.

Why is Beats Electronics so important to Apple?

According to the analysts who jumped to share their thoughts on this mysterious deal (which, by the way, wasn’t yet confirmed by neither Beats, nor Apple), Dr. Dre’s company recently introduced a music streaming service that aims to compete with major similar streaming options available, including iTunes. While it is too soon to assume that Apple is trying to eliminate the competition in the oldest fashion in the book – by buying it, those who reported about the negotiations also consider that the supposed acquisition is a strike of genius from Apple’s part:

For Apple, meanwhile, a Beats acquisition could help it continue to dominate in digital music, where it has reigned supreme since its launch of iTunes in 2001. Digital sales on iTunes have been declining steadily in recent years, and Apple has long been rumored to envy an all-you-can-listen streaming music service, similar to those offered by upstarts Spotify and Rdio.

Moreover, it is clear that Apple won’t just put their logo on the future Beats products, but has a more complex agenda in this case. Given the stronger competition the tech world witnesses nowadays and given the fact that Apple didn’t quite come up with new, spectacular products recently and, above all, given the fact that Beats Electronics sound technology can be incorporated into smartphones (just as it happened in the case of HTC One which features Beats speakers), it is obvious that Apple thinks and aims big related to this new purchase:

The Beats deal, which was earlier reported by The Financial Times, also suggests that Apple may want to shake up its approach to digital music.

While we don’t have any confirmation that the rumors and reports are indeed true, some people say that the deal could be closed no later than next week, so all we can do right now is wait patiently for the upcoming news.

Neil Young’s PonoPlayer to Hit Markets this Month

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Neil Young's PonoplayerCanadian music legend will launch a new music player that is said to revolutionize the way people listen to music. Neil Young’s PonoPlayer is music player that focuses on the quality of the music. Everybody wants to make a name for themselves in the music playing industry, for example Samsung Milk music stream radio was revealed and it is pretty impressive, but the important and popular music playing devices, apps or music streaming software, such as iPods and Soundcloud or Spotify seem to be impossible to budge off their high chairs. Will Neil Young’s PonoPlayer make a wave or just a small ripple?

It was announced that the PonoPlayer will go on sale in March with the price of $399. It’s not a cheap device and it’s been quite a long wait for people who were looking forward to Neil Young’s PonoPlayer, as it was first announced in September of 2012!

What’s So Special about Neil Young’s PonoPlayer?

This question that seems to be on everybody’s lips. Well, apparently it plays music better than any other music player or phone around. It provides master-quality digital music at the studio’s standards and it has the highest audio fidelity possible and with 128GB of storage, it sounds like a dream come true for music lovers. Apparently the 128GB of storage will give you the ability to store 100 to 500 high resolution albums, which is much less than what we’re used to. It has a touchscreen LCD screen and buttons.

We doubt the PonoPlayer will be a smashing or lasting hit, as it doesn’t seem to be targeted towards the large public. While the average Joe wouldn’t mind his music sounding better, we doubt he’ll go out pay 400 bucks to make that happen, when he can listen to music on his phone.

Will the PonoPlayer steal the iPod’s thunder when even iPod’s thunder isn’t a big deal anymore because of the iPhone? Are you so passionate about music that you would buy Neil Young’s PonoPlayer? Tell us your thoughts in the comment section below.