snapshot 11/15/07

McCartney: Beatles should go digital next year
As he rolls out a new DVD and expanded edition of his latest album, Paul McCartney is predicting the Beatles' catalog will make its long-awaited and long-desired arrival in the digital realm next year. McCartney tells Billboard.com that "it's all happening soon. Most of us are all sort of ready. The whole thing is primed, ready to go -- there's just maybe one little sticking point left, and I think it's being cleared up as we speak, so it shouldn't be too long."


Slacker Portable Personalized Radio Player Video and Gallery
It's not as small as a nano or flash Zune, but its got a beautiful 4" screen and a offbeat capacitive touch strip for quick scrolling. The interface still confuses us a little: we know this is one of those products that will make more sense as you use it, because it's trying to do something different than everything that's happened up until now. You carry around a player that is essentially building its own vast virtual music collection of songs it thinks you might like.


Hit the Bango Button to Bring Content to Mobile Phones
With content providers struggling to bring Web material to handheld devices, Bango debuted software Nov. 15 that allows anyone using a social networking site or blog to push content out to mobile phone users with a click of the "Bango Button." The Bango Button lets content providers launch music files, photos and other media from sites such as Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Orkut to browsers on mobile phones.


Engadget founder Peter Rojas's new digital music site RCRD LBL launches
A joint venture with Downtown Records (who retain such acts as Gnarles Barkley and Cold War Kids), RCRD LBL represents a completely fresh take on the distribution structure of music, offering all-digital, all-free music for streaming or download without DRM. Yeah, seriously, free, unrestricted, legal music downloads. RCRD LBL's catalogue already has music from partner labels like Warp and Dim Mak, too, with tracks from a few artists you may have heard from like Mos Def, Bloc Party, and The Stills.


Amazon to debut Kindle e-book reader Monday
On Monday, the online retail giant will unveil its Kindle e-book reader at a high-profile event in New York, an industry source told CNET News.com Thursday. Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos is expected to be present for the announcement, to be held at the chic W Hotel in Union Square.
The Kindle is equipped with a Wi-Fi connection that taps into an Amazon e-book store, which users can access to purchase new electronic books--and Amazon has reportedly signed onto a deal with Sprint for EVDO access. Additionally, the device comes with a headphone jack for audiobooks, as well as an e-mail address.


New RealPlayer software offers iPod video transfers
RealNetworks has introduced the latest version of its RealPlayer software, which includes the ability to download and record non-DRM protected videos from “thousands of sites” for playback online or offline. As part of the RealPlayer Plus package, users will be able to transfer these downloaded videos to the iPod nano (with video), iPod classic, and fifth-generation iPod. “Now consumers can use the one-click download functionality to view Web video offline on their PC or transfer video to popular portable media devices like the iPod,” said Harold Zeitz, senior vice president of media software and services at Real.


Listen To Any Song Any Time For Free
You have to try out Songza. Type in almost any song title or artist name and in seconds you’ll see a list of versions. Click on it an listen to if for free. Not a 30 second sample, but a full length version. There are also cool features to create playlists and share songs on your web site or blog.


KnowTheMusicBiz.com via HypeBot
KnowTheMusicBiz.com is a new online community for emerging artists and music executives. The goal is to help them find the information they need to build a sustainable career in the music industry. (Shades of The Musical Middle Class!) The community features a Wiki, Forums, DIY Tips, Resource Directory, Business News and guest blogs from industry thought leaders.


iLike Publishes Unreleased U2 Song
This is a huge win for music site iLike - U2’s Bono recorded an interview with the iLike founders talking about the history of a new song called Wave of Sorrow. The song, which is being released on Tuesday next week as part of the remastered Joshua Tree album and DVD, was written in the 80’s but never recorded.

It’s available in two places - on iLike and on iLike’s Facebook application. The Facebook application is particularly interesting - 1.2 million fans have signed up specifically to get new U2 news and were notified as soon as the video went up two days ago. So far, over 2,000 fan messages have been left on the video. This was an experiment, says a representative of the company. No press was notified when the video went live - they wanted to see how fast it spread virally and without any promotion.