Gawker: valleywag, mp3

Google plays catchup in China with MP3 search

Alaska Miller — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:40:00 EDT

Google announced today a search service, available only in China, to find and download MP3s from popular artists through partner Top100.cn, a Chinese music site funded by basketball star Yao Ming. Baidu, the search company which emerged from China's homegrown bubble and producers of crazy ads, has had MP3 search available since 2005, and many attribute its lead in its home market to that feature. [News.com]

New iPod competitor so crazy it just might work

Paul Boutin — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 15:40:00 EDT

Creative's Zen Mozaic won't shorten the lines at the Apple Store, but its puzzle-like keyboard would be perfect in the Joker's greasy hands. It's the first non-iPhone I've seen with real head-turning potential.

Is Microsoft dumping Zunes on the cheap?

Mary Jane Irwin — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 19:31:05 EDT

We knew Microsoft had a Herculean — nay, Sisyphean — task when it rolled out its Zune MP3 player last year. It didn't help matters when Microsoft "designers" chose putrid brown as a launch color. Despite Microsoft's pledge of continued support of the product, it looks like it — or a major retailer left with unsold stock — is dumping Zunes on the cheap. Woot, the deal-a-day online retail site, is currently selling white Zunes for $150 apiece, a 50% discount over the retail price. While the site doesn't list available stock, hot items are known to sell out quickly. This obviously doesn't describe Zune, though.

According to an NPD Group report last May, the most recent data available, Microsoft had 2.3 percent of the portable music player market. Creative's market share is 4 percent, SanDisk's is 11.7, and Apple's is a whopping 70 percent. Microsoft's fourth-place player may not have been doomed to certain failure at launch, but this selloff is certainly no sign of health.

Wal-Mart cut a deal with Universal Music...

Mary Jane Irwin — Tue, 21 Aug 2007 14:01:56 EDT

Wal-Mart cut a deal with Universal Music Group and EMI to sell digital songs without digital rights management software, or DRM. They're also rolling back prices to 94 cents a track. The end result for Apple? Increased iPod sales, we bet, since the MP3-format tracks are compatible with its music player. [PaidContent]

SanDisk and Yahoo, a Love Connect-ion?

www.gizmodo.com — Mon, 09 Apr 2007 12:25:00 EDT

Back in September, it appeared as the Zing, a Flash-based Wi-Fi-enabled music player with the un-Zune-y ability to download tracks wirelessly from an Internet service. At CES, it was re-named Connect and announced as part of SanDisk's successful Flash-player lineup. Now it's shipping—4GB of internal flash memory, 2.2-in. TFT color screen and a microSD slot for expansion up to 8 gigs, for $250. Today's news is that it comes with a bunch of Yahoo-related perks.

When you're in Wi-Fi range, your Yahoo ID will get you over-the-air LAUNCHcast radio, access to Flickr, and the ability to see the music played by Yahoo Messenger friends, if you have any. (You can't send IMs though.) If you subscribe to Yahoo's Music Unlimited To Go service, you can download straight to the device, and even pick up music that your friends are playing.

It's a pretty cozy setup, but it does raise the question: what happened to Rhapsody? Last fall, SanDisk and Rhapsody were friendly enough to co-brand a player . We asked, then, if the relationship really stood a chance. I guess this is our answer. –Wilson Rothman

SanDisk and Yahoo! Music Partner on Unique Music Experience [SanDisk]

Microsoft nailed for $1.52 billion in MP3 patent dispute

Chris Mohney — Fri, 23 Feb 2007 09:00:08 EST

It's almost certain to be tied up in appeal for quite some time, but a federal jury awarded Alcatel-Lucent $1.52 billion in damages versus Microsoft for patent infringement on the MP3 music format. Microsoft had paid a German consortium for use of the format years ago, but Alcatel-Lucent contended they were due cash as well, since one of their corporate forerunners (Bell Labs) was also involved in MP3 format development. Whatever happens to Microsoft, this represents a potentially serious headache for anyone else making MP3 players (hardware or software). Apple declined to comment, so perhaps we'll see Steve Jobs's "Thoughts on MP3 Patents" soon.

Happy Fun MP3 Corner

rabruzzo — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 12:12:00 EDT

This has been quite a video heavy day here at Valleywag. Pud of Fucked Company fame and blog ad network Adbrite spent a whole 6 hours programming to build Fandalism.com a site for musicians to share MP3s and give feedback on tracks. Pud discusses his latest side project in this youTube video.

The site went live Monday and still needs some serious UI work, but we here at Valleywag enjoyed Borat's Be My Wife, give it a spin.

Be My Wife
by Borat

Share and vote on music
Fandalism Music Community

[Fandalism]
Fandalism [Pud.com]