Music downloads

Latest News

Datz Music Lounge closes down
£99 box set music download service goes offline 9 September 2009 10:30 GMT
Datz Music Lounge, an all-you-can-eat music subscription service that launched in the UK in October 2008, has closed down.

Although bad news for those that forked out the £99 fee for the service, what's worse news is that unscrupulous retailers appear to be...
HMV snares 50% share of 7digital
Download specialist to power high street stores online music and vids 3 September 2009 10:09 GMT
HMV has gone 50-50 with 7digital in a major investment in digital music for the high street store. The £7.7 million stake means that 7digital will power all of HMV's music and video downloads in the UK and Canada as well as for eBook readers in Waterstones.

The...
Pirate Bay deal gets shareholder approval
Global Gaming Factory X set for takeover 28 August 2009 11:47 GMT
Against all the odds, the takeover of the Pirate Bay has been given approval by the shareholders of Global Gaming Factory X. The news comes following reports of executives walking out, allegations of insider trading and the site itself going down following a court order.
BlackBerry and Android get Thumbplay music store
Serving the other 89% of the smartphone market 27 August 2009 16:07 GMT
If you've got an iPhone, and you suddenly get a hankering to buy a song in the middle of nowhere, then you're fine - just head to the iTunes music store, put in your password, and you'll be listening in no time.

US Android owners have got the Amazon MP3 store,...
Government announces filesharing crackdown
Department for Business Innovation and Skills promises broadband cutoffs 25 August 2009 9:33 GMT
The UK government has announced tougher plans for combating illegal filesharing, in the wake of criticism over the Digital Britain report, which rights holders saw as too weak.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills issued an explanatory statement...
Pirate Bay sale back on the rocks
It was all going so well 21 August 2009 14:51 GMT
Despite a confident statement to the contrary earlier in the week, it looks like the sale of notorious Bittorrent tracker The Pirate Bay to Global Gaming Factory X might be in serious trouble. All trading in the company's shares have been suspended by the Swedish Aktietorget...
Pirate Bay sale still looking steady
GGF publishes shareholder proposal 20 August 2009 10:15 GMT
Global Gaming Factory X, the company set to take over the Pirate Bay, has defied its critics and published the full proposal that it's due to give to its shareholders on 27 August.

It's also planning to pay for the purchase fully in cash, rather than the half-cash,...
Filesharing banned in Antarctica
For fear of viruses and bandwidth concerns 19 August 2009 10:15 GMT
The icy wastes of Antarctica, like Hull, are a little less free today, as employees of the United States Antarctic Program (USAP) have been banned from using any P2P filesharing programs.

There's only so much bandwidth available that goes to the South Pole,...
Radiohead embraces torrents for music distribution
New song uploaded to Mininova 17 August 2009 11:08 GMT
Late last week, a new Radiohead song leaked onto the web called "These Are My Twisted Words". Today, the band officially announced the song on their "Dead Air Space" blog, which came with not only a link to the band's official web store W.A.S.T.E., but also a link to download...
Pirate Party UK officially registered
Can now raise funds and put forward candidates 13 August 2009 10:58 GMT
The UK's own version of Sweden's Pirate Party has been officially recognised by the British electoral commission as a legitimate political party, according to a blog post from the party's leader, Andrew Robinson.

That means that it can now raise funds and put...
78% won't pay for streaming music
Survey suggests MP3s still popular 10 August 2009 10:59 GMT
A survey from umbrella-body UK Music has revealed that premium streaming services like Spotify and Napster may be in trouble. 78% of 1,808 respondents aged 14 to 24 said that they don't want to pay for a streaming music service - down from last year's 65%.

On...
BT plans music subscription service
Competing with Sky 6 August 2009 13:47 GMT
BT is reportedly in early discussions with execs at all four major labels to try and build a legal music subscription service to rival the vague plans that Sky says it has about a similar initiative.

Sky says that it's reached agreements with EMI and Sony Music,...
Music download price comparison site launches
comparedownload.com 5 August 2009 10:00 GMT
A website which aims to compare the prices of music downloads across a number of sites has launched in beta - the imaginatively named "comparedownload.com".

The site scans across a number of digital download merchants, including 7digital, We7, iTunes and Amazon....
7digital signs pan-European MP3 deal with Warner
Could fuel Spotify expansion 3 August 2009 10:36 GMT
7digital has announced that it's signed a pan-European deal with Warner Music that'll allow the former to sell MP3s from the major label across France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy and Portugal, in addition to the already-existing deals in the UK, Ireland, Spain, Austria...
Apple tablet to mark launch of new digital album format
New, extended, interactive downloads to debut with new hardware 28 July 2009 11:40 GMT
We touched on this topic as we brought you news of the much-rumoured tablet PC that Apple is reported to be prepping for a September launch, but the Financial Times is now offering more details on the company's "Cocktail" content scheme.

"Cocktail" is said...
Hull ISP cutting off filesharing customers
Karoo working with content owners? 24 July 2009 9:28 GMT
Reports are coming through that Hull ISP Karoo is cutting off its customers if they're accused of downloading copyrighted content. It's believed to be the only ISP in the country that's taken on the approach.

For some time, content companies have pressed service...
Daily Tech Deal: Mercury Music Prize-nominated tracks on Amazon for 29p
Money saving deals, offers and innovations 22 July 2009 13:00 GMT
Yesterday saw the announcement of the shortlist of the Mercury Prize Albums of the year, and to follow it up Amazon has decided to sell a selection of tracks from the nominated albums cheap, available to download for just 29p.

This follows a similar Amazon offer...
Kazaa back as legal subscription service
P2P site goes legit 21 July 2009 11:50 GMT
Kazaa has been "jolted back into life" as a legal digital music service in the US.

The peer-to-peer file-sharing service got into legal hot water in the mid-Nineties, Kazaa follows Napster and more recently, The Pirate Bay, in going legit.

The...
iTunes gets retro with b-side downloads
D45 promo celebrates 45RPM singles 17 July 2009 17:23 GMT
To celebrate the old 45RPM vinyl single, Apple's iTunes has launched a new promotion that duplicates the a-side and b-side format in a digital style.

Apple explains; "The vinyl 45 RPM record once ruled jukeboxes and helped bring artists into the hands of true...
73% of music fans prefer CDs
Physical format still has life in it yet 16 July 2009 11:11 GMT
Despite reports of - and some statistics suggesting - that downloads of digital music will soon make CDs obsolete, recent research says that 73% of music fans are still happy buying the physical format over MP3s.

The Leading Question, a media and tech research...
Three in five don't think musicians should profit from downloads
Survey suggests public disdain for copyright 16 July 2009 0:01 GMT
A survey of 2000 consumers in the UK has revealed that three out of five adults don't think that musicians should make any profit from their singles, albums and music videos downloaded online.

A surprisingly high 43% of people admitted to "never" paying for...
Microsoft music service coming July
Looks to re-enter music streaming and download market 13 July 2009 17:48 GMT
Microsoft has confirmed that it plans to launch a new streaming music service at the end of July.

The news will see the software giant offer a new streaming and download service in the UK to replace the now defunct offering it had with Peter Gabriel's 0D2 service...
More info on 7digital's BlackBerry app unveiled
Due for a September launch 13 July 2009 13:39 GMT
A little more has emerged about the 7digital music download application that we brought you news of for the BlackBerry platform.

Angled as a way to help BlackBerry-maker RIM compete in the consumer smartphone market against the likes of Apple and Nokia, the...
Illegal file-sharing drops dramatically
Streaming sites boom 13 July 2009 9:27 GMT
A survey of 1000 teenagers, undertaken in January this year, has shown that only 26% admit file-sharing at least once a month, compared to 42% in December 2007. Meanwhile, 65% of teens stream music regularly, with 31% of 14-18-year-olds listening to streaming tracks every...
Music charts to include videogame downloads?
Guitar Hero, Rock Band and SingStar songs 10 July 2009 13:55 GMT
The Official Charts Company has announced that it's considering the possibility of including sales of tracks in Guitar Hero, Rock Band and other music-based video games in the singles charts.

That would mean that anytime someone buys a track in one of the games,...