Riaa Articles on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog

Former EMI boss says Limewire users were major iTunes customers

by Mike Schramm (Jul 26th, 2011)

Douglas C. Merrill used to work for record label EMI, one of the biggest members of the RIAA. He was forced out just a year later, but now he's sharing information from inside the company. And some of that information points to an interesting conclusion about music pirates: they often end up ...

NYT: Music execs operate 'in fear of Apple'

by Robert Palmer (Feb 2nd, 2009)

In today's New York Times, Tim Arango tells a story of a heated conversation between Sony Music's Rolf Schmidt-Holtz and Steve Jobs on Christmas Eve -- one that "ricocheted around the music industry." Apparently, before the announcement at Macworld, all the labels except Sony had agreed to a new ...

Pandora may pull the plug on itself

by Steven Sande (Aug 18th, 2008)

The Washington Post is reporting that Pandora, the Internet radio station available on Mac, iPhone, and iPod touch, may be shutting down service soon. The reason is that Sound Exchange, the money-grubbing blackmailers royalties collection arm affiliated with the Recording Industry Association of ...

How much is an iTunes download worth?

by Erica Sadun (May 19th, 2008)

How much is an iTunes download worth? About 70 cents, if conventional wisdom is correct. That's the commonly quoted number for the iTunes money that gets passed back to the record labels. And according to the New York Times today, the record labels are angling for more. They argue that broadband ...

Re-authorizing your computer for Ringtones

by Erica Sadun (Sep 11th, 2007)

You authorized your computer to your iTunes account long, long ago. So why don't your iTunes Ringtones sync to your iPhone? Turns out that you're going to have to reauthorize your computer to allow it to use ringtones. Yes, not only do you have to sign a new terms of service to buy that ringtone but ...

Song Sender sends iPhone tunes to email and ringtones

by Erica Sadun (Aug 21st, 2007)

Song Sender allows you to pick a song from your iPhone's song library and send it to a friend via email. If you'd like to use a song from your library as a ringtone, you can do that too. Install the package into your iPhone using your favorite installer application. When run, the software reads ...

Starbucks launches record label

by Erica Sadun (Mar 13th, 2007)

Building on the success of its iTunes-based "Hear Music" page, Starbucks has decided to launch its own record label. Hear Music will sign its own artists, and sell its recordings through Starbucks stores and iTunes. According to the AP, Ken Lombard, president of Starbucks Entertainment, says the ...

Rumors: EMI may sell (more) unprotected MP3s

by Erica Sadun (Feb 9th, 2007)

EMI, home to Cold Play, the Rolling Stones, and the Beastie Boys, has experimented before with DRM-free MP3. They've released DRM-less singles by Norah Jones, Lily Allen and Relient K. According to a Forbes report, EMI spokeswoman Jeanne Meyer said "The results of those experiments were very ...

RIAA petitions for lower artist royalties

by Erica Sadun (Dec 8th, 2006)

IGN reports that innovative marketing solutions like Apple's iTunes store and stores that sell digital ringtones are putting too much money into the pockets of the artists who actually create and perform music. The RIAA has petitioned the federal US Copyright Royalty Judgets to lower the rates paid ...

'No iPod Movie Rips' says Library of Congress

by Erica Sadun (Nov 26th, 2006)

According to MacWorld UK, the Copyright Office of the US Library of Congress has rejected a petition which requested that owners of iPods and other portable media players be allowed to rip the CDs and DVDs they own to their own playback devices. You'd imagine, wouldn't you, that you should be ...

Weird Al: "Don't Download This Song"

by David Chartier (Aug 24th, 2006)

Love or hate him, Weird Al has unquestionably cranked out some of the most notable humor and satire of the late 20th - and now 21st - centuries. The Digital Music Weblog (a sister site) has discovered Mr. Weird is at it again with "Don't Download This Song," a tongue-in-cheek anthem about the dark ...

Deauthorize all iTunes machines at once

by Victor Agreda, Jr. (Feb 20th, 2006)

Chris Breen has a quick tip on Playlist about deauthorizing iTunes machines. That is, any machine where the iTunes store has been enabled with a certain account. You can only have five machines "authorized" at once, which really means only five Macs in your house can play the same ...