Universal Music Group (UMG) has teamed up with ad-sponsored digital music download service FreeAllMusic to provide a facility for music fans to download freely and legally music tracks from UMG’s stable of artists. The deal will give users up to 20 free music downloads per month, five per week starting every New Music Tuesday.
In case you’re not aware, FreeAllMusic is a fairly new music service offering downloadable, high-quality, iPod-compatible MP3s of popular songs that are advertiser-paid, free, legal and DRM-free. The catch? You have to watch a short video commercial before you can download an MP3. You have to do that to let FreeAllMusic continue providing the service. It is after all what’s paying their bills to keep the site running.
The good thing is, after watching the video commercial and downloading the MP3, you can now enjoy it anytime, anywhere minus the ads. Fair enough, right? Ok, before you folks jump for joy, let me just tell you that FreeAllMusic is a for US-only site. So bad luck for all of us non-US citizens of the world. But of course there are other alternatives to this service, if  you know what I’m referring to.
If you’re from the U.S., you need to register at FreeAllMusic.com and then simply select a participating brand, then watch the short video commercial. After which you can start downloading the mp3. You can also share your downloads to friends but they have to download it for themselves. And they should also watch the video commercial. Or post your music download to social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter so that others may know about FreeAllMusic.com’s service and be compelled to watch video commercials in exchange for free music.
If you’ve been paying attention to the videos that we usually embed to some of our news coverages here in 901am (I hope you’re watching these videos), you’ve probably noticed that aside from YouTube some of those came from Vimeo, a video uploading and sharing site similar to YouTube. If you’re a Vimeo user, specifically a paid Premium member, by the end of this month you can now start uploading full 1080p HD videos to Vimeo.
Wait, just hold on a second. Wouldn’t that affect online playback of your videos? Especially since HD videos demand higher and faster bandwidth? Actually, yes it does affects online video playback. So Vimeo is giving you the option whether to choose sharing 1080p videos or stick with the current HD-quality 720p resolution.
Vimeo is perhaps enabling this feature to answer the signs of the times since the influx of cheap portable videocam has made it easier to produce HD videos at 1080p resolution. And besides, YouTube has been  allowing it for quite some time now.  Since Vimeo is being touted as the best YouTube alternative, it is but logical for Vimeo to have that feature as well.
Of course, this would also give Vimeo’s $60/year Premium package more attractive to users, since 1080 video uploading feature will only be enabled to paying members.
In addition, Vimeo is also allowing premium account holders to make their uploaded videos available, downloadable and viewable on mobile phones. Â And pretty soon, a native Vimeo iPhone application will be available.
So if you are not a Vimeo Premium account holder yet, now could be the best time to get the Vimeo Plus subscription.
Alright folks, time to dig up those photos of yourself or your bosses, no matter how much you got pissed with them this 2009. Find the best mug shot of your colleagues, bosses and friends and use them for this year’s “Elf Yourself” online holiday card promotion. You have to admit that no matter how annoying those “elf yourself” cards were, they can still elicit some laughter if not a smile on everyone’s face. More →
Apple in collaboration with is releasing an Apple-shaped USB loaded with 14 Beatles stereo titles. Included in the USB are all the remastered visual elements of the CD’s originally containing the 14 Beatles songs. In addition, the USB will also be loaded with 13 mini-documentary films about the Beatles’ studio albums, replicated UK album art rate photos and other notes. More →
For Best Buy, it’s better late than never. While online movie delivery is no longer a new thing, it’s  only now that the company more popularly known for selling DVDs has finally decided to start  embracing the current trend in the movie distribution industry – direct online streaming.
To do this, Best Buy is set to announce that it has teamed up with SonicSolutions for the use of its CinemaNow streaming technology.
Proposals to cut off people who persistently download files illegally from the Internet have been washing around for several years now, but today Lord Mandelson, the UK government’s secretary of state for business, innovation and skills, laid out plans to introduce tough measures to combat illegal filesharing.
Opposed by leading ISPs, who fear that they will be forced to introduce costly and inconvenient monitoring and recording systems, Lord Mandelson did say that he had “no expectation of mass suspensions”, instead outlining a “three strikes” approach whereby persistent offenders would still have the right to appeal if cut off from the Net. More →
Just when you thought there were no companies left jumping on the music download bandwagon, along comes UK ISP Tiscali with their offering.
Claiming a catalogue of 6.5 million tracks, including artists such as Johnny Cash, Paul Weller, Temper Trap, The White Stripes, and Adele.
It can boast this number of tracks because it has partnered with eMusic. That means you won’t necessarily get all the latest tunes as you might on services like iTunes, but still have access to a decent range of music. More →
In a move described as “next generationâ€, Tesco (UK retailer) and Microsoft have announced a new deal whereby customers buying selected DVDs from Tesco stores will be able to download a digital copy of the same film.
Using Microsoft’s Silverlight technology, and with the backing of major film studios, this digital copy will be downloadable to either PC or Mac, offering a “virtual DVD experience†and promising a range of additional features including auto-updating trailers, exclusive bonus content, online chat and related merchandising.
Yes, it’s mainly aimed at making the companies involved more money — expect copious links to Tesco’s music download service and other partner web sites. More →
Box.net, the first online file system, has integrated Scribd’s iPaper, a format which enable all your powerpoints, word files, excel spreadsheets, and PDFs to be viewed directly in a flash interface without saving it to your computer.
For someone like me who hates downloading PDF files and other documents, iPaper is a big help. And there’s no need to worry about incompatible file formats. For Box.net, this is a very practical feature which can help improve productivity and collaboration without leaving the Web browser.
Scribd’s iPaper is similar to YouTube videos wherein files like PDF, Word, and PowerPoint can be viewed in Flash widgets so you can embed or share them on web pages. It’s fast and light since documents are not downloaded but streamed to iPaper. The best part is you don’t have to leave the site and access your Acrobat Reader or other software just to view these documents. In short, you get to keep your customers on your site for a longer time.
As a way to promote mobile phones as media devices and generate additional revenues for the music industry, handset manufacturer Nokia and recording company Universal Music have agreed to offer free music downloads on selected Nokia phones.
According to the New York Times, both companies agreed to let users download Universal Music’s entire catalog to their cellphones for 12 months free of charge.
Well, this is still a business deal so don’t ever think Universal is doing this for the good of mankind. Though details of this deal are not clear, Universal is reported to receive a portion of the profits generated from the sales of new handsets.
“It’s one thing to have people downloading free music illegally,” said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Jupiter Research. “What is bold and strategically important about this is that they are tacitly accepting that they will never get digital youth to pay for music.”
Nokia’s strong interest in the music business is becoming more apparent these days. Recently, it launched Nokia Music Store to compete with Apple’s iTunes and just this week it officially released Nokia Internet Radio in selected handsets.
As a way to promote mobile phones as media devices and generate additional revenues for the music industry, handset manufacturer 
