Winamp version 2.76 has been released. As of now, the winamp.com site has not
been updated to reflect the update.
Changes Include:
ryan fixed shuffle!
christophe added IE URL drag&drop capability
faster FFTs for vis on WAV/CDDA playback
fixes RealPlayer's .xpl association bug
The news that Napster has come to an agreement with three of the record labels and their new MusicNet sevice is not all that surprising. Once it was acquired by Bertelsmann AG Napster became part of the traditional music industry. The problem is it looks like to subscribe to the new Napster you will first be required to subscribe to the over-priced MusicNet. We simply can't see what will compel anyone to allow themselves to be so overcharged for a service now geared to serve the politics of the recording industry over the needs of the consumer.
Capping a day of speculation, Napster announced a deal Tuesday that should allow it to sell
music from three of the five major music labels as part of its proposed subscription service.
Now that the remaining Net Music sites are weakened by the bad stock market and RIAA lawsuits, the major labels are picking them up for a song. MyPlay.com was just picked up yesterday and both Launch.com and Aimster are in the crosshairs. The end result is the two upcoming lable services MusicNet and Duet think they will dominate Net music enough to be able to charge $20 PER YEAR for a CD! As the article says "That is a sign of an oligopoly's influence. An oligopoly can do that by eliminating choice, which is what these acquisitions accomplish".
Because it comes the closest to the original pre-filter Napster experience, Morpheus is the front runner to tap into Napster's waning 60 million user base. It's so good a lawsuit from the RIAA should also come soon.
Digital music is going main stream and it will be hard for the record companies to convince the electronic manufacturers otherwise. There is money to be made with these products and money and market share to lose if manufactures don't act timely to satisfy consumer demand. The Rio Volt is the first MP3/CD portable that we are reviewing and it turns out to be a winner.
Anthony Sabastian is a regular on Winamp's discussion group and gives us some preliminary info on Winamp 3 Alpha 6. So fire up your browsers and give it a 'look see' over here.
With this sale, the record industry will have effectively bought much of Net music. First Napster was bought by Bertelsmann and then Universal bought EMusic. Yes, you still have Aimster, Music City, and a number of smaller Net music sites out there. You also have three remaining record conglomerates who now have incentive to make their own purchases and what's left will be on their list.
What do you do when you have created a business with a few million users, build up a recognizable brand name and then lose that name. That is what happened Friday to file trading software Aimster. The National Arbitration Forum (NAF) ruled the "Aim" in Aimster violates America Online's trademark and the company must relinquish several domain names to AOL including Aimster.com.
The official release of Media Jukebox 7 is upon us, a program that reviewer Colin Stoner thinks is the Undisputed King of MP3 desktop jukeboxes.
