Free Music Dowmloads

Digital music trend doesn't skip a beat

Since Thomas Edison announced the creation of his phonograph machine in 1877, music technology has been on a roll ever since.

With record albums came modern radio broadcasting, and of course, the jukebox at the diner down the street. 8-tracks were invented in 1964 with cassettes, boomboxes and portable walkmans unveiled in the ’70s.

With the early 1980s came the introduction of the compact disc and discmen. The latest music device, MP3 players, hit the scene in 1997 with Apple’s first iPod coming out in 2001.

Despite the investment most people have made in records, cassettes and CDs over their lifetime, it isn’t going to slow down the fast-paced music industry.

In 2010, global digital music revenues grew to $4.6 billion, making up 29 percent of record companies’ trade revenues for the year.

Digital music is certainly on the rise, with almost half of all American adults owning an MP3 player, like an iPod

“Everybody has an iPod,” said Jacob Vasa, an HHS sophomore.

“A lot of kids don’t even have CD players,” he added. “I remember when it was a really big deal to have a CD player, now it’s all about the iPod dock.”

It’s not just the teenagers that are embracing this technology craze either. Of the “Millennial” adults, ages 18-34, 74 percent of them own an MP3 player, compared with 56 percent of the Gen X group, ages 35-46.

28-year-old Chad Rozelle said he probably hasn’t bought a CD for four or five years.

Of course, CDs can still be uploaded to computers and then transferred to MP3 players or smartphones, but the billion-dollar digital music industry is definitely making money from online sales.

Apple’s iTunes is one of the most popular places to purchase digital music, with individual tracks generally selling at $1.29.

“Music is the one thing I don’t think the economy has affected,” said Rozelle. Everyone always has a dollar to spend on a song they want, he added.

While most teenagers use their credit cards for music purchases, Vasa said he likes to use iTunes gift cards so he can keep track of how much money he has spent.

“It’s just easier to buy songs online sometimes,” said Vasa, noting he can find smaller bands on there easier than the CDs can be found in stores.

Even though online downloads are convenient, music listeners are giving up some quality with MP3s versus CD tracks, but most music fans don’t even notice the difference.

Apple spikes Free Music Download app after label complaint | FT ...

Apple has removed a top-selling music downloading application from its App Store after complaints from record labels that it could facilitate copyright infringement.

The literally titled “Free Music Download” was published in mid-July by Hong Kong-based Zentertain. Available in both free and “pro” versions, the latter costing around 99c/69p, the app had topped the App Store download charts in the US, UK and 17 other countries.

Described by its creator Kai Xia as a cross between Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player, the app enabled users to browse to a music file on any site, download it and play it offline through the app.

“We don’t really understand why these two kinds of software suddenly specifically aid illegal music downloading,” Mr Xia told the FT.

But many of the app’s reviews noted that by visiting unlicensed music downloading sites such as MP3Skull.com, large quantities of music could be downloaded for, well, free.

This attracted the attention of the BPI , which represents record labels in the UK.

“BPI has examined the ‘Free Music Download’ app available on the Apple Store,” the trade body said earlier this week.  “It is clear that much of the music which can be downloaded is unlicensed, so we have contacted Apple to set out our concerns.”

On Wednesday, the app disappeared from the App Store. Apple, which vets all iOS apps before release and takes a 30 per cent cut from every sale, declined to comment.

Mr Xia – who previously worked at Accenture, according to his LinkedIn profile page – told the FT on Tuesday that he had reached out to music labels to “address their copyright concerns” but nonetheless defended his product.

“From our understanding, today is an age of free,” Mr Xia said via e-mail. “Only because something is free doesn’t mean it’s illegal. Nowadays there have been more artists and websites devoted to distributing free music, such as Jamendo… We believe that free will be the next biggest business model. We want to help free legit music find its audience. And we want users to find great free legit music. That’s why we developed the app.”

Mr Xia argues that visiting sites such as MP3Skull on any web browser allows users to download tracks for free. That’s true for PCs but not for the iPhone, where Apple’s Safari allows for in-browser streaming but not downloading to a media player.

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