digital downloads news stories on Newser

Spotify Makes US Debut

Rob Quinn — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 04:02:00 CDT

Europe's hottest digital music service has just made its American debut and some analysts are already saying that the download industry is as good as dead. Spotify has a catalog of 15 million songs which users can stream instead of buy. Users can access Spotify for a small monthly fee...

New Radiohead Album Hits Web Saturday

Nick McMaster — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 17:26:52 CST

Radiohead is rolling out new album The King of Limbs this Saturday in digital format, the Telegraph reports, and it's once again forgoing a trifling thing like a record label. (The band notably self-released 2007's In Rainbows.) Fans eager to hear the album ASAP will have to take advantage...

Sarkozy Will Go Halvsies on That Digital Song

Nick McMaster — Fri, 15 Oct 2010 16:24:23 CDT

France is launching what Ars Technica thinks is a "novel" approach to steer young people away from musical piracy. It's going to help them pay for legal downloads. The government has earmarked $70 million over the next two years for half-priced download cards usable on a number of online subscription-based...

Mellencamp: Internet Is Like an A-Bomb

Evann Gastaldo — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 11:24:00 CDT

“The Internet is the most dangerous thing invented since the atomic bomb,” according to rocker John Mellencamp. “It's destroyed the music business. It's going to destroy the movie business,” and it could lead “some smart people, the China-Russians or something,” to conquer us by hacking our power grid or financial...

If You Buy CDs, You're Probably an Oldster

Nick McMaster — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 17:35:48 CDT

These days, if you want to sell CDs, you're best off targeting the over-40 crowd. In a bizarre twist on music industry logic, older buyers have become a relatively potent force in music sales. The reason: "Adults don’t steal, because we don’t know how to," one older music producer tells...

Best Buy Noses Into Online Movie Market

Harry Kimball — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 10:11:03 CST

Best Buy has partnered with online provider CinemaNow to develop a movie downloading service that will come preloaded on the bulk of its Internet-capable electronics. The move follows a 13% slump in DVD sales for the year that has had the company casting about for a new revenue stream. It...

Libraries Embrace E-Book Lending

Harry Kimball — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:36:21 CDT

More than 1 million e-books books were checked out of libraries this year—25% more than all of last year—as libraries offer more and more digital lending. Borrowers can check the book out online—obviating the trip to the library—and can read them on a computer or Sony...

Watch an Ad, Get an MP3 Download: Genius or Goof?

Nick McMaster — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:34:57 CDT

A new site thinks it has the answer the music industry’s woes: Free All Music will allow users to download a high-quality mp3 with no copy restrictions in exchange for watching a 15-second video ad of their choosing. The site then takes a user’s handle and uses it to produce...

Apple Sells 1.5B iPhone Apps in First Year

Nick McMaster — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 16:16:02 CDT

Apple’s App Store has had a pretty good year—since its inception, the store has sold 1.5 billion applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, making it the leading retailer of mobile applications, CNet reports. Not only has the App Store done well, its success seems to be increasing:...