DTNS 2460 – A Rising Tidal Lifts All Bands

Molly Wood and I discuss Jay-Z’s new artist-friendly music service and how albums may be making a digital comeback. IS the future of music iTunes again?

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Show Notes

Headlines:

TechCrunch reports Tidal sent out invites for a press conference today where Jay-Z will “announce a commitment to a new direction for the music industry from both a creative and business perspective.” It’s expected that artists like Madonna, Kanye West and Arcade Fire will use the service to release albums first before they go to other streaming service. Tidal features a High Fidelity music service that just dropped its price today from $20 a month to $10 a month. Jay-Z has agreed to acquire the company with share transfers expected mid-April.

Engadget reminds us PlayStation Music launches today in 41 countries powered by Spotify. Fans with Spotify accounts can listen to playlists in game.

The Washington Post posted an opinion column from Apple CEO Tim Cook objecting to religious freedom bills passed in Indiana and close to passing in Arkansas. Cook believes the bills will be used, “to refuse service to a customer or resist a state nondiscrimination law.“ Cook has taken more active public stances on issues than previous CEO Steve Jobs.

Tech Crunch reports that Apple’s trade-in program will now offer credit for non-Apple smartphones and PCs. The trade-in program is operated by third-party partners. Eligible trade-in’s include but aren’t limited to Sony, Samsung, Nokia, LG, HTC and BlackBerry devices. The expanded trade-in program is live in the US, Canada, UK, Germany, France and Italy as of today.

MacRumors obtained some Apple training documents which indicate how Apple will sell its Watch in stores. As announced on March 9 in-store purchases can only be made after making an online reservation starting April 10. from then until the sale day of April 24 you can go to a store to get a demo. 9to5 Mac’s sources say people looking at the expensive Apple Watch Edition will get an hour to try on and learn about the watch, and if they buy one, a dedicated phone line w/ 24/7 tech support for two years. Shoppers for the other two models will get about 15 minutes. CNET has a good summary of all the reports.

TechCrunch notes Elon Musk tweeted today that Tesla will unveil a “Major new Tesla product line — not a car” at the company’s Hawthorne Design Studio on Thurs 8pm, April 30. Home battery? Probably.

Ars Technica reports that GitHub came under the largest DDoS (denial of service) attack in the site’s history March 26 and it is still ongoing. The attack seems to affects two GitHub projects: GreatFire and cn-nytimes. The DDoS is caused by javascript injected by “a certain device at the border of China’s inner network and the Internet” when people visit Baidu, which causes browsers to request the two GitHub project pages. GitHub has managed some mitigation efforts and the DDoS intensity has dropped since March 28 but the threat has evolved and new measures are being implemented. Baidu has denied involvement and says its internal security has not been comprised. No one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

CNET reports that Gogoro, the smart electric scooter that received loads of attention at CES will conduct its first pilot release in its home country of Taiwan. The battery-powered scooter has 30 sensors, can be monitored with an app and is designed to conserve energy. Gogoro Energy eEtwork stations will allow owners to swap the 20-pound batteries in about 6 seconds, much faster than waiting for a recharge. The first store opens in Taipei Monday. PRicing has not been announced.

The Next Web reports the government of India announced a policy making it mandatory for apps and services to use open source software when possible in order to “ensure efficiency, transparency and reliability of such services at affordable costs.” The US, UK and Germany opt for open-source software over proprietary tools as well.

The separation of Google+ into disparate streams continues. The Next Web reports Google+ photos will now show up in Google Drive. You’ll find a new “Google Photos” menu on Drive in Android, iOS and the Web.

News From You:

habichuelacondulce posted the TechCrunch story that Unity Developer Erik Roystan Ross has re-created the first level of Super Mario 64 in HD. Ross built the level to show off his customer character controller code. You can find it for for Windows, MAc and Linux at https://roystanross.wordpress.com/super-mario-64-hd/ or play it in your browser at http://mario64-erik.u85.net/Web.html

[UPDATE: It’s since been shut down by Nintendo]

tglass1976 submitted the Engadget report that Amazon Home Services launched in competition with subscription listing services like Angie’s List. Amazon relies on handpicked professionals and upfront pricing, and customers won’t pay until the job is complete. Plus there is no subscription fee. Home Services is available in 41 cities in the US at launch.

Discussion Links

http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/30/8301845/digital-album-sales-music-industry-beyonce-itunes

http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Pages/item.aspx?num=47985

http://nypost.com/2014/12/28/beats-music-lining-up-talent-for-exclusive-releases/

http://www.engadget.com/2015/03/30/playstation-spotify/?ncid=rss_truncated

http://techcrunch.com/2015/03/30/jay-z-to-relaunch-his-new-tidal-music-service-today-with-madonna-kanye-beyonce-exclusives-in-tow/?ncid=rss

http://techcrunch.com/2015/02/05/tidal-the-hi-fi-music-service-jay-z-is-buying-expands-to-22-more-markets-reports-only-12k-users/

http://thenextweb.com/insider/2015/03/11/jay-zs-deal-to-buy-tidal-and-wimp-goes-through-problems-back-down-to-99/

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/03/30/us-alibaba-bmg-idUSKBN0MQ0UH20150330

 

Pick of the day:

Hey Tom and Jennie, here is one you can just keep around for when you need it . . .

My pick of the day is often under-utilized by even long-time Android users: Google Voice Actions. While we are all aware that it exists, most are simply not in the habit of using this incredible resource. For me, it is a cross between Jeeves and the ambient computer from Star Trek, I ask it for all sorts of factual information, let it do calculations, tell it to give me a reminder at a certain time or when I get within range of a certain place, I use it to send texts, make calls and initiate navigation. It helps keep me hands-free in the car and it very rarely gets things wrong. And you don’t have to say “OK Google”, just tap that little microphone icon in your search bar and wait for the beep. – Vance

Messages:

I love the idea of calling these things “Feeny Calls” because the actor who played Mr. Feeny in BMW, William Daniels, was also the voice of K.I.T.T., the talking computer/car in Knight Rider. Love the show! ~Nile in Big Beautiful Wyoming.

David Nemesi writes with another Amazon Prime tip “Amazon No Rush Prime shipping”.. in a nutshell, if you choose this option at checkout, you’ll get your stuff in about 5-7 days (same a regular, non-Prime shipping) BUT, you’ll also get a $1.00 credit towards Amazon Instant video rental/purchase or MP3 (not sure if the credit applies to kindle purchases)

Steve from Columbus wondered why noise-canceling doesn’t work for stuff like this. “Shouldn’t it be possible to filter audio input through an inverse waveform of the audio output? If I understand this correctly this is similar to how noise canceling headphones work with sound from outside the headphones reproduced as a inverted cancellation wave into the ear.

Tomorrow’s guest: Patrick Beja