Dave Winer: Music

NY Times: "Even before the ink on his Napster deal was dry, Middelhoff was predicting that Bertelsmann would find a way to apply the file-sharing model to every form of media imaginable, from family photos to video games, digital films and television, even electronic books. Consumers would share anything that could be browsed or disseminated, probably paying a monthly subscription fee to participate." [Scripting News]

Globe and Mail: "A 21-year-old Canadian Web entrepreneur is planning to circumvent the imminent demise of Napster Inc.'s controversial Internet song-trading system by setting up a clone of the service on a so-called 'data haven' platform off the coast of Britain."

Napster Pelted with Lawsuits. No sooner had the ink dried on Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's injunction Monday than Napster is slammed with lawsuits.

News.Com: "Napster said it has created a way to screen individual file names that would likely go into effect this weekend. Potentially millions of files will be blocked at that time, Napster attorney David Boies said."

DaveNet: Ohhh Napster!

AP: "Napster offered $1 billion to the recording industry Tuesday to settle the copyright infringement suit that threatens to shut down the free Internet song-swapping service."

US federal appeals court: "Napster may be held liable for contributory copyright infringement only to the extent that Napster knows of specific infringing files with copyrighted musical compositions or sound recordings, knows or should have known that the files are available on the Napster system, and fails to act to prevent the distribution of copyrighted materials.''

Reuters: Appeals Court to Rule on Napster Today.

Industry Standard: Napster to Launch Fee-Based Service in Mid-2001. Sarfeld said a survey of 20,000 Napster users conducted in December by Webnoize showed that a large majority are willing to pay up to $15 a month for the music download service. However, Sarfeld cautioned, this is no indication for what the fee will be. "We are not talking figures yet," he said.

News.Com: Radio stations sue to overturn Webcasting fees.

Apple iTunes : Even if Apple charged for iTunes, it would be worth buying. As a free download, it's a downright steal. While it's not perfect, iTunes still has a feature set that's head and shoulders above the Mac edition of MusicMatch. Download a copy and give it a whirl. (CNET)

News.Com: SDMI antipiracy effort loses leader. The group will look for another director to serve as Chiariglione's replacement as he phases out responsibilities over the next few months, a representative said. That could add another delay to a group criticized by many for being too slow.

Home Sweet Home : "Home studios have liberated people's creativity. If you have the means of your own production, and distribution on the Net, you can produce your own work and find an audience yourself. It's never been possible to do this before." (The Sydney Morning Herald)

PC World: Play MP3s on Your Stereo. Using radio frequency, PC World reports on a new device for playing MP3s remotely. The device uses a send and receive wireless module, as well as a universal remote.

Two-Way-Web: Payloads for RSS. "When I started talking with Adam late last year, he wanted me to think about high quality video on the Internet, and I totally didn't want to hear about it."

Inside.Com on the Future of Music Summit and Senator Hatch, with a touch of John Perry Barlow.

Reuters: Hatch speaks up for Napster.

TheStreet.Com: Jobs Decides Music Is Apple Of PC Maker's Eye. If you can't beat products like digital cameras and mp3 players, you may as well join them. And observers say that if any PC company is poised to make computing's recent trend away from the desktop work for them, it's Apple.

Wired: Politicians Try to Hear the Music. Musicians, technologists and politicos ... oh my. Representatives from all areas of the music industry gather in the nation's capital to hash out the problems that plagued the sector last year. Brad King reports from Washington, D.C.

Industry Standard: Hollywood Prepares to Fight File-Swappers. In show business lingo, 2001 opened strong: Holiday moviegoers spent near-record amounts at the box office. But the new year's good cheer masks nagging fears among Hollywood executives about a threat to the bottom line that they can neither see nor touch - or even know for certain exists.

South Coast Today: It's Sony vs. Sony in Web battle. As both an electronics company and a top record label, Sony wants to capitalize on any musical revolution online, making the latest in listening gadgets for it. But the Japanese giant has also had to referee a potential conflict with its own music label which fears losing out to illegal copying.

O'Reilly: Creating Audio CDs with Linux. "This article follows the process of recording the material to the hard disk, editing and filtering it with signal processing software, and finally creating an audio CD from the results, complete with custom covers for the jewel case."

MSNBC: Sony's Digital Dilemma. But now Sony has become the first top-tier consumer electronics company to make mainstream devices that play MP3s. It's an about-face as abrupt as record label BMG's recent embrace of Napster. When asked to describe Sony Music's reaction, one person at Sony Electronics said sheepishly, "They were pissed."

Wired: MP3.com Looks Home for Harmony. This time last year, MP3.com was on the verge of a legal war with the recording industry. On Thursday, the company moved out of the courtroom and into the living room when it unveiled its new business strategy. By Brad King.

Wired: Music Makers Go Silent. Think you're safe because the company survived through 2000? Think again. The carnage continues with Musicmaker.... Napster goes back to court.... Intel offers a new player.... and Epitonic lives on as Brad King spins this week's digital music news.

Dale Dougherty: "Low bandwidth and poor quality continue to limit the successful distribution of audio and video on the Web. There may be a better way, however, to distribute multimedia content online, by scheduling downloads of high-quality content for appointment viewing or listening." Yes.

Putting MP3 in Your Hot Z3. Forget jukeboxes and streaming subscription services, the next big thing is solving the fast mile problem by getting digital music into cars.... Watermarks end the year as they began, without anyone caring.... Internet radio takes a hit.... As Brad King spins the week in digital music.

News.Com: New technology could help squelch digital music piracy. The plans are initially likely to affect removable or portable data storage, such as Zip drives or the Flash memory cards used in MP3 players. But the standards could ultimately serve as a way to keep consumers from copying copyrighted files directly onto their hard drives...

News.Com: Napster updates software. "The software upgrade, dubbed 2.0 beta 8, offers a handful of new features, including a Boolean minus sign, which people can use to exclude certain items from their searches."

AP: Denmark Pianist Victor Borge Dies.

MrShowbiz: It's Official: Madonna's Married.

Music 2000. Call it the year of the dogs: Woof-woof. Still, there were 25 records worth listening to again and again.