The controversial “Stop Online Piracy Act” was dealt a blow yesterday when The Business Software Association, which includes tech giants like Apple, Microsoft, and Intel, reversed its stance on the measure. Whereas the BSA had originally supported the bill, they’ve now decided (rightfully so) that it would be way too far reaching and would tear the fabric of the entire Internet apart. From PC World [via Gizmodo]:

Valid and important questions have been raised about the bill. It is intended to get at the worst of the worst offenders. As it now stands, however, it could sweep in more than just truly egregious actors…Due process, free speech, and privacy are rights cannot be compromised.

And that’s exactly it; the bill has good intentions (stopping piracy), but the way in which it proposes to do so would go far beyond just stopping piracy into territory that threatens free speech and throws due process completely out the window. The bill isn’t dead yet by any means, but this is an important step towards either a) killing it completely, or b) re-working it into something much more fair.

-VN

A few weeks ago, Vince wrote about iCloud, Apple’s new cloud stream platform that will allow email, contacts, calendars and, of course, music to be synched wirelessly and effortlessly across up to ten different devices. Shortly thereafter, we got the following e-mail from reader Carlos B.:

“The iCloud article comments made me wonder, how much music (legal, illegal, etc) do people own?
Like, how many songs do people (specific: metalheads) have on their computers/mp3/ipod?
I thought a reader poll would be interesting about this.
I have friends that have ONLY 99 songs on their iTunes (Slayer, Atreyu, A7x, SOAD and nothing more. Not even their complete discographies or whatever).
But I have some friends that have around 10K songs on their iTunes.”

Which is a good question!

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After months of speculation and having been beaten to the punch by both Amazon and Google, Apple has finally announced iCloud, their cloud music streaming platform. Unsurprisingly given both Apple’s leverage with the iTunes music store and their penchant for excellent technology, Apple’s cloud service promises to be better than the aforementioned two pretty much from the start.

Here’s what you need to know about iCloud:

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From both talking to people in person and reading MS comments any time I tackle the issue, I’m hearing more and more folks claiming that as they gradually switch from CDs to digital downloads as their preferred music delivery method they slowly come to realize, “You know what? I guess I don’t need all my new music on CDs after all. I rarely touch the ones I have.” I’ve noticed this happen to even the staunchest of CD/physical medium supporters… including myself. Once you see the incredible time, money and space-saving qualities that digital file ownership has to offer you slowly start to get over your attachment to physical music products (also: don’t be a ninny, and make sure you back-up frequently). You need to experience the difference in order to really know.

Mark my words: the same thing is going to happen with the transition from digital file ownership to “the cloud,” which will offer on-demand music streaming at any time without any files stored on a hard drive, phone or other device. Today marks a big step in that direction, as Amazon has beaten Apple and Google to the punch by launching their digital Cloud Player for music.

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While reading through the comments of my Apple / LaLa post yesterday, I was shocked. Shocked at the amount of ignorance and misinformation that’s floating around out there, and that our readership is so easily gullible by said inaccuracies. Though I never do this, today I feel inclined to directly address a number of comments and dispel some of the idiocy that took place on this site yesterday.

• builtforsin says: “Anyone with lack of internet access 100% of the time, and if you have an Iphone like me, this is already a bad start….” Presumably there’s also be a download option, where you have access to a certain number of tracks locally (on your device or hard drive) if there is no Internet available. and “I guess if you only used Apple manufactured devices that would be great, but Apple doesn’t play nice with hardware not purchased from Apple.” I can’t speak to this issue as I use a Mac, but my PC-using friends don’t complain about iTunes/iPod on their PCs. I’m sure iPhone campatibility will only get better, especially if this type of service necessitates it.
• Tim says: “Digital still doesn’t have the same fidelity as a CD, unless you use wav files, which are huge and would eat memory.” True. But as Internet connections get better so will audio quality. No one is trying to scheme you with crappy audio… it’s just a bandwidth issue. Honestly, while I was initially a skeptic too and subscribed to the “audio quality” argument, it’s really hard to notice the difference between a 192 AAC and a full WAV/AIFF rip.
• Viking-Shredder: “I don’t know man. I’m still a fan of actually owning a physical copy of the music. Just something about having the physical copy makes me feel safer than confiding in computer files.” Also, you must like riding a horse and buggy because it’s “safer.”
  

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A less forward-thinking company might shirk at the prospect of an unlimited music streaming service, especially one whose music business is rooted so firmly in pay-per-track iTunes and the iPods/iPhones that carry said tracks. If Apple were as thick-headed and dense as the major record labels, they’d forge ahead with their existing models while attempting to sue the newcomers into oblivion. But Apple is not that company. Apple is smart, aware and aggressive, and as such they’ve recently purchased music streaming site LaLa, a move that seems to indicate the company will soon be pursuing a subscription-based model.

And if Apple is going to make a play at a subscription streaming model, then the holy grail of music experiences — the ability to stream any song, at any time, from anywhere (aka “the cloud”) — is that much closer to becoming reality.

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Our broheims at Metal Insider alerted us to the fact that Apple has a new extortion scheme product called iTunes LP and Extras, which basically amounts to charging money for a product that’s typically free on a band’s website (videos, lyrics, liner notes, etc). Apparently LP and Extras has been available to major labels with existing iTunes deals for a little while already, but Metal Insider is reporting that the platform will be available to everyone else starting in early 2010.

My question to you… is anyone going to give a shit? I can’t see anyone but the die-hardest of the die-hard fans paying extra for this content, and these kinds of fans strike me as people who’d prefer to have a physical copy anyway. Beyond that, why shell out for videos when they’ll end up on YouTube? Why shell out for lyrics when you have Google? Why shell out for digital artwork when you can just visit the band’s website or have a physical copy? Is there something I’m missing here… some kind of extra super-cool features that are going to blow my mind?

I don’t get it. Total waste of money for the consumer, and total waste of time/resources on Apple’s part. This is fuck-tarded. Let’s get Spotify going in the States so all of this crap can end.

-VN