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Wu-Tang fans hope to liberate 'Shaolin' for $5 million but have a ways to go (updated)
When you have the cultural cachet of someone like the Wu-Tang Clan, there are a handful of luxuries afforded to you that few others have. Like selling the only copy of your upcoming album for $5 million, for instance. But in an effort to free Once Upon a Time in Shaolin's music to less-than-rich listeners, two fans have launched a Kickstarter in an attempt raise enough cash so everyone can hear the exclusive double album. The Staten Island rap group's original idea for the release was to sell it as an ultra-limited edition package after it completes a world-tour where fans could pay between $30 and $50 apiece to listen to it once, in a single sitting, in a museum. Update: This Kickstarter bid -- ambitious as it may be -- likely violates the Kickstarter guidelines. We've reached out to Kickstarter for the official word. Update 2: Of the potential violations we cited (from this page under "What is not allowed," the first, third and sixth), a Kickstarter rep says this project is in the clear.
Daily iPad App: NPR Music is a treat for music fans
Everyone knows about NPR's quality podcasts, or at least they should. All Things Considered, Car Talk and Whose Line is it Anyway routinely top the charts on iTunes. But I'm also a fan of NPR's music. They do a great series of podcasts called All Songs Considered, and they often release great live performances, available as free downloads in iTunes. Now, NPR Music has released its own iPad app, and as you can see above, it's very snazzy. Most of the content in the app is simply what's available on the NPR Music website, but it's all been redesigned for a touch interface. And while you can play new music straight through the website, playing it in a browser isn't always as easy as through an iOS device. The iPad version also has a very excellent playlist and a live radio, so there are tons of great ways to listen to awesome new music, all completely free. There's a lot of other stuff in here too -- articles, reviews and other videos. But honestly, the music is enough: the app offers a great, curated experience of hours and hours of great free content and tunes. NPR's Music app is one of the best gifts I've gotten all year (paid for, of course, by our tax dollars). If you're a fan of new music, especially indie or alternative, definitely give it a download.
MOG FreePlay brings 11 million songs to the web gratis, makes you work for free tunes
Free? Yeah, we all like free, but when it comes to streaming music, there's always a catch. This time it's a FreePlay "tank," which lets you stream any of MOG's 11 million songs from the web without subscription fees -- well, at least until that looming gauge hits empty. The system adds a rather unique social media twist, filling tanks to different levels based on virtual interactions. And MOG's CEO says many users should never hit empty -- there are a variety of ways to earn free music, such as "interacting with advertisers in meaningful ways." Like Spotify, MOG's ultimate goal is to convert freeloaders to paid subscribers, and forking over $5 (Basic) or $10 (Primo) per month does have its benefits, including hardware integration and mobile access -- both of which won't work with the free version. Now that we have several free streaming options, it ultimately comes down to availability -- having access to 11 million tracks could be great, but only if you can play the songs you want to listen to. So, do you MOG? And no, we also have no idea what that means, but you can check it out when the site goes live tomorrow morning at 9AM ET.
Google Magnifier curates Music Beta tracks, has nothing to do with burning ants
At school, Tim Quirk's friend had an English cousin who sent over new records from the motherland. Now he's paying the favor forward as head of Magnifier, a blog informing Google Music Beta members about new, interesting bands with free, exclusive tracks. One click adds the exclusive content to your Music Beta library. Google is calling Magnifier a "music discovery" site, making a big deal that only artists the editorial team thinks are "pretty great" will be featured. Sadly if your taste is more esoteric than My Morning Jacket, it may not be for you. Somehow we doubt Magnifier will get around to releasing exclusive Adriano Celentano tracks any time soon.
Nokia shuts down Ovi Music Unlimited service in most markets, cites lack of traction
Whether you knew it as Comes With Music or Ovi Music Unlimited, the sad fact is that pretty soon you won't know it all -- Nokia's subscription music service is being shut down almost universally, with the exception of a few select markets like China, Brazil and South Africa. Reuters reports that the use of DRM to lock down content to less-than-cutting-edge devices was a major stumbling block in the rollout of what was originally supposed to be a major iTunes competitor. Those who are already signed up will continue to have access to their music libraries indefinitely, but won't be able to access new tracks once their current subscription expires. From then on, you'll only have the DRM-free Ovi Music store to keep you warm during those long Finnish nights.
Ruckus music service calls it quits
While there's clearly demand for downloadable music, there's clearly not enough of it being funneled to Ruckus Network. The oft forgotten music service -- which somehow reckoned it could take on the likes of Rhapsody, Apple, Microsoft and countless others in the saturated digital download space -- has officially folded. Quite honestly, we're shocked that it managed to hang on for this many years, though we suppose its demise was always just a matter of time. Ruckus' homepage now directs to the image you see above, giving the four avid users no indication of whether any partial refunds or gratis hugs will be given out. Rest in peace, Ruckus -- we're sure you'll find comfort in knowing that you were already dead to 99 percent of us.[Thanks, nizzy1115 and Gabriel]
Ruckus Network offers "free" stipulation-laced tunes to college students
Some folks just don't know when to quit, and apparently, Ruckus Network falls clearly into that category of beings. Looking past the brutal failure at American University and the growing data proving that stipulation-laced music simply doesn't fit in at college campuses across the nation, Ruckus is giving this idea one more go, and this time, it's 100-percent kinda-sorta gratis. While it's not too unusual to hear of indie / unsigned bands being distributed for free, this new deal supposedly offers up "major label bands" without charge to students holding an email address that ends in ".edu." The service will be completely ad-supported, and doesn't require any official "vow of support" from a university itself, and for alumni / faculty registering with their educational email, a $8.95 per month charge will purportedly be levied. The catch, however, is that the "free music" can only be played back on the person's PC, and transferring it to a DAP -- which must support DRM-WMA, by the way -- will run students $4.99 per month. Aside from this music rental fee, the service completely shuns Mac, iPod, and Zune owners, leaving us to wonder just how effective the service could be if the terms were even remotely attractive from the start. Regardless, the rigid service is available now for the few folks interested, but from the looks of things, we doubt it'll reverse the fortunes of Ruckus Network.
College students shunning free music subscription services
It's the rare college student who will turn down free anything -- free food, free booze, and free love are all top priorities for the modern scholar -- so we were more than a little surprised to learn that those online music subscriptions being offered gratis by a number of colleges haven't really taken off like one would assume. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, the services from Napster and company have proven so unpopular that many schools are dropping the program altogether after only a year or two, although the RIAA claims that the number of participating campuses will actually increase "pretty significantly" this fall. Even if that's true, it's not clear why students at newly-subscribed schools would behave any differently than ones who already have access to the free tunes and still choose alternative distribution methods -- most notably the iTunes music store and the still-popular P2P networks. Ultimately it seems to be the services' many restrictions that are turning off the college crowd -- tracks can't always be burned to disc or transferred to a DAP, and they also disappear after four years -- and the fact that students today treasure their iPods even more than their precious cans of beer only makes non-FairPlay content that much more undesirable.[Via TechDirt]
