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Microsoft's Zune portable music player will let people share and sample tracks via wi-fi, reports suggest. Although details of the gadgets are sketchy, Microsoft said it will use a hard drive, wi-fi and owners will be able to buy tracks that are downloaded direct to the device. The first Zune player will appear in late 2006 with more to follow in 2007. Industry experts were split on whether Zune can topple Apple from its top spot in the music download market. Music match Zune is the umbrella term for the hardware player, the software on it and the download service it will be tied into. Music tracks, movies and other content will be available via this service. Microsoft said that, at first, only music will be available via Zune with other content to follow later. Incompatible copy protection systems will make it unlikely that music can be moved seamlessly from iTunes - used predominately by iPod owners - to Zune or vice versa. The Zune project is aimed at toppling Apple which has a 50% share of the global portable music player market with its iPod and a 70% share of the music download market via iTunes. Hi-tech industry watchers such as US blogger Om Malik suggested that, in the first instance, it would not be Apple that felt the effects of Zune but Microsoft's partners who produce music players of their own. "They certainly can't be enjoying the news," said Nate Elliott, digital home analyst at Jupiter Research. "The irony is that Microsoft's partners are starting to do some good w**k right now." Mr Elliott said it was hard to predict what effect Zune would have because Microsoft has released few details about how the whole system will w**k. For instance, it is not clear whether Zune will be a closed system or if it will w**k with the other music, media and movie systems Microsoft is a partner in. Microsoft has yet to say how, or if, Zune will w**k with its existing MSN Music service or how it will affect its alliance with MTV on a download service. There is also no word on whether Zune will impact the Plays For Sure initiative which helps people w**k out what gadgets will play their music collection. Mr Elliott said before now Microsoft had pursued a relatively open strategy via Plays For Sure and its promotion of its WMA audio format. "It'll be interesting to see if that openness goes away with the Zune initiative," he said. Mr Elliott said 2006 was important for the music download market because during the year portable players were predicted to break 20% penetration - widely seen as a mark of a gadget reaching the mainstream. Risky business Others saw both risks and rewards in Microsoft's strategy. Respected analyst Rob Enderle from the Enderle Group said the Zune project was less about Microsoft making its own iPod and more about changing the entire music download market. "It is a flanking move," Mr Enderle said. "Microsoft is trying to encompass Apple and turn them into a bit player." He added: "The strategy is brilliant, but the question is can they execute?" Mr Enderle said Zune was likely to be pitched at those creating music, movies and other content. The service would also use download statistics to generate lists of the most popular tracks and compile recommendations of artists that others might like. By contrast, said Mr Enderle, Apple was aimed more squarely at consumers. By courting artists and recording studios Microsoft could end up with a very large portfolio of fresh content on Zune, said Mr Enderle. "If you get the artists excited collectively, they will be more powerful than a Steve Jobs can be," he said. Details of the Zune project and the broad outlines of Microsoft's plans were unveiled in an interview published in Billboard magazine. Some of the Microsoft team behind the Xbox game console are reportedly w**king on Zune. Story from BBC NEWS: |
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| Discord over guitar sites By Jonathan Duffy BBC News Magazine With the fight against illegal downloading of songs starting to pay off, the music business has set its sights on a new enemy on the internet - websites which transcribe pop songs into musical notation. The guitar may be enjoying a comeback among schoolboys and dad rockers alike, but beginners hoping to strum along with their favourite bands are finding dissonance online. Having seen off some of the biggest networks that enabled free downloading of songs over the net, the music business is now calling the tune for websites aimed at guitarists. Music publishers in the US say the guitar "tab" sites illegally infringe songwriters' copyright, and have issued "take down" orders to some of the biggest. Tab, or guitar tablature, is a simple form of musical notation for the guitar - far easier to learn than traditional musical notation. Notes are depicted on a staff that represents six strings across a fret board. Some of the sites targeted have all but closed down, provoking an angry reaction on guitar blogs. Illegal adaptations Since the early days of the net, guitarists have shared tabs for their favourite songs, online. WHAT IS GUITAR TAB? Form of musical notation that tells players where to place fingers on fret board Six horizontal lines represent six strings of the guitar Numbers show where each string is fretted While tab is officially published in books, to be bought, from which a royalty goes to the songwriter, the selection is limited - most songs are never formally transcribed. But online, just about any artist, from Boyzone to Big Bill Broonzy, has had their w**k written into tab - free to view, no registration required. Most sites, however, claim their tabs are not ripped off from official sources - rather they represent the "interpretation" of a song. Skilled musicians can transcribe a guitar riff, chord sequence or solo after just a few listens. But that doesn't wash with the music industry, which says even adaptations of songs are covered by copyright law. Cathal Woods, who runs Olga.net - Online Guitar Archive - has removed all 34,000 tablatures in the site's archive after getting a "take down" letter from lawyers representing two US groups: the National Music Publishers Association (NMPA) and the Music Publishers Association of the United States (MPA). "Obviously the law is on their side and obviously these are copyright infringements," he says, frankly. But he plans to fight the order along with other sites. "They're forcing everyone off the net but as far as I know they don't have anything [an iTunes-style equivalent] that would fill the need for guitar tab online. "My other objection is that for the music publishing companies, it's as if the internet never happened. The internet changes everything and we need to think about what's permissible in the context of the internet." 'Unprofitable' site Olga, which claimed 1.9 million users a month before going offline, is the mother of all guitar tab sites, dating back to 1992. So why has the crackdown come now? "Some people say it's because the business is looking for a new target after MP3 sites. But almost all tab sites use very basic, text-only tabs. They are low-level, low information sites whereas with MP3 sharing sites you were getting something that is qualitatively identical to the original song." Mr Woods says that Olga was not a profit-making site. Its advertising covered its cost, but it kept a community feel. "[The lawyers] say we're making money out of these sites but I've never been paid for it. It's a hobby. I've got a full-time job," he says. Speaking last year, the president of the NMPA, David Israelite, said unauthorised use of lyrics and tablature "deprives the songwriter of the ability to make a living, and is no different than stealing. The US MPA says it has the support of sister organisation around the world, including its UK counterpart. Lawyer and editor of Out-law.com Struan Robertson says under British law, there is little doubt that tab sites are, technically, breaking copyright laws. But he is "disappointed" with how the US music industry is going about it. "In the UK a few years ago, the British music industry didn't go after MP3 sites because at the time there was no legal source of reasonably priced music on the internet. Then iTunes [Apple's legal music download site] came along and only then did the British industry step in and threaten to sue the illegal sites." Story from BBC NEWS: |