Music too loud? An app to test your hearing

The Audiometry app is an effective hearing test that measures your threshold of hearing for sounds of different frequencies.

Find out just how far your ears can hear ranging frequencies. Most of the people should be able to hear up to around 15kHz. From around 17kHz upwards, we get into a range that only the under 20s can hear.

[via ZDNet]

More states join iTunes tax debate

A growing number of states are considering taxing songs from iTunes to relieve their strained budgets, though at least one state may buck the trend in the hopes of appearing more tech-friendly. cnet news reports.

A state legislator in North Dakota last week introduced a bill to explicitly exempt digital goods such as digital music or movies, digital books, or ringtones from the state's sales tax and use tax. A hearing on the bill is scheduled for next week.

At least 17 states currently collect taxes on digital goods, and a handful more may join them. A bill was introduced last week in the Mississippi state legislature to impose taxes on digital goods, and lawmakers in North Carolina are considering a digital goods tax as well. New York Gov. David Paterson has proposed the tax in his state, and legislators in states like California and Wisconsin may take up the issue again this year despite a lack of support for it in the past.

The extra revenues that could be gained from taxing digital downloads may be appealing to state lawmakers, but Stephen Kranz, an attorney at Sutherland law firm who represents members of the digital media industry, called digital download taxes "a short-sighted approach to digital tax policy."

Music downloads could face a tax in NC

North Carolina could soon be taxing people who download music, ringtones, movies, and software.

Tuesday, the Revenue Laws Study Committee met with the Legislature to suggest that the state and local tax be applied to the electronic transactions.

... If the tax is added, NC could collect $8 million next year while local governments could collect nearly $4 million.

[via WECT]

Isaac Mizrahi on Your Cell

Ever wish you could hear fashion icon Isaac Mizrahi stress the importance of style and remind you of your own mortality every time your cell phone rang.

Now you can by downloading the unofficial Mizrahi ringtone, which features Isaac at his most philosophical:

Style makes you feel great because it takes your mind off the fact that you are going to die.

[via cityfile New York]

RCP Tones offers "Pay what you want" Electronic Ringtone album

To coincide with their website relaunch, RCP Tones is offering their latest ringtone album with a "pay what you want" price structure. This means you can download the album for a few bucks or even for free. Electronic Ringtones Volume 1 is a collection of 45 unique and sophisticated "normal" ringtones mastered for the iPhone and many other popular mobile phones.

[via Press release]

Inaugural Ringers Commemorate Historic Speech

At ObamaRingers.com, you can download four commemorative ringtones featuring excerpts from President Obama's swearing-in ceremony and historic speech.

The ringers are studio-composed and capture key inspirational points in President Obama's inaugural address with complementary background music created especially for these productions.

[via Press release]

Patent pending: Apple audio sensor

It happens all the time: You miss an important phone call because you're in a loud environment and your ringtone volume is turned down too low.

Apple just filed a patent on an audio sensor that adjusts volume based on ambient sound.

More from Apple Insider.

[via DVICE]

MSN Music UK offering mobile downloads

MSN Music UK recently began offering mobile downloads, including full music tracks, Realtone ringtones, and even music videos. The download library includes up to 1 million full music tracks, 25,000 Realtone ringtones, and 10,000 music videos from major labels, including Sony Music and Warner Music.

[Mobile Burn via Moco News/Washington Post]

Tune into iPhone radio apps

Streaming radio apps for the iPhone/iPod touch are exploding in 2009, writes TUAW.

With the growing proliferation of WiFi and 3G service, streaming radio apps really make the iPhone a dynamic music player.

Even if you don't use your iPhone or iPod touch primarily as a music storage device, the quality of the streams and the vast track selection makes it possible to get excellent tuneage anywhere.

Click here for a review of TUAW's favorite radio apps.

Doonesbury on Ringtones

This week's Doonesbury cartoons feature a fictional ringtone composer, see the strips for 1/19, 1/201/20, 1/21 and maybe more the rest of the week.

Apple iPhone ringtones to benefit impoverished children of Nepal

iRing Pro, a maker of Apple iPhone ringtones, has announced that a portion of every Apple iPhone ringtone sale will benefit Children of Nepal, an organisation that provides education, meals and medical care, to impoverished Nepali children.

Children of Nepal, is an organisation that provides a culturally appropriate Steiner education, along with meals and medical care, to underprivileged Nepali children, among the poorest in the world.

[via MacWorld]

Music world embracing unlimited downloads

After years of futile efforts to stop digital pirates from copying its music, the music business has started to copy the pirates. The IHT reports.

Online and mobile services offering listeners unlimited, "free" access to millions of songs are set to proliferate in the coming months, according to executives of the recording companies, Internet service providers and cellphone makers who gathered in Cannes for the MIDEM music conference over the weekend.

Unlike illegal file-sharing services, which the music industry says are responsible for billions of dollars in lost sales, these new offerings are perfectly legal. The services are not really free, but payment is included in the cost of, say, a new cellphone or a broadband Internet access contract, so the cost to the consumer is disguised. And, unlike pirate sites, these services provide revenue to the music companies.

Read full article.

Annoy-A-Teen Developer Considers Charges Over Pirated iPhone App

The developer of the Anoy-a-Teen iPhone app, that uses high-frequency sound which most teens can hear but not anyone over 30, is considering criminal charges after the app was pirated.

The app is a take-off of the much written about Mosquitotone teenage repellent ringtone which made headlines in 2006.

[via Real Tech News]

Related: Apple App Store Problems

Music sales worldwide fall by 7 percent

Music sales worldwide fell by about 7 percent last year as another sizable jump in digital sales failed to make up for a deepening decline in the compact disc market, according to John Kennedy, chief executive of the industry's main international trade group. The IHT reports.

Revenue from music sold over the Internet, via mobile phones and in other digital forms, rose by 25 percent last year, to $3.7 billion, the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry said in a report set for publication Friday. Digital sales accounted for 20 percent of the industry's revenue, up from 15 percent a year earlier.

... Meanwhile, growth in downloads from online music stores like Apple's iTunes has slowed. ... That is hastening the music industry's push to develop new business models for digital music.

... Major record labels have joined with Nokia, the maker of cellphones, to provide free, unlimited music downloads in Britain. ... "The industry has shifted to Plan B," said Mark Mulligan, an analyst at Forrester Research. "The record companies have realized that the only way they can fight free is with free itself."

Slacker Radio iPhone app

iPhone and iPod touch users who want to listen to stream music through their mobile device. Slacker is the latest to throw its knit cap into the ring, introducing its Slacker Radio program to the App Store. MacWorld reports.

Slacker Radio gives iPhone and iPod touch users running the iPhone 2.2 software update access to Slacker’s entire music library. That allows users of the free app to listen to more than 100 stations programmed by experts and more than 10,000 stations dedicated to specific artists. Users can also create their own customized stations via the iPhone.

Among the other features included with Slacker Radio are artist biographies, album reviews, and peak-ahead song previews. Slacker touts its app as a great way to uncover new and undiscovered music.

Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra Plays Stairway To Heaven

Stanford Mobile Phone Orchestra Plays Stairway to Heaven from Scott Beale on Vimeo.

Here’s The Mobile Phone Orchestra (MoPhO) from The Stanford University Center for Computer Research (CCRMA) playing “Stairway To Heaven” on their iPhones at The Crunchies 2008, a web industry awards ceremony held in San Francisco.

Spotted on the Laughing Squid.

Related links to other cell phone concert performance.

Vringo adds video ringtone creator

Video ringtone company Vringo has launched Vringo Studio, which gives user the capability to create their own video calling cards. Previously, users could only select from a pre-built library of videos on the site.

With the new Vringo Studio, users can search for any video on YouTube, select a portion of it up to 30 seconds long, and send it to their phone, where it can become their outbound ringtone for other Vringo users.

[via cnet news]

Pearl Jam To Re-Release Debut Album Through Mobile Phone Provider

Pearl Jam are to re-issue their 1991 debut album, 'Ten', through the US mobile service provider Verizon Wireless. GigWIse reports.

One remastered track a week will be made available to customers via V Cast Music with Rhapsody from January 13th, beginning with 'Once'.

Fans with the the VZW Tones application will also be able to download previously unreleased ringtones from the album.

The promotion comes ahead of 'Ten's' general re-release on March 24th.

Your music, where you want it

Nokia has just announced a new collaboration with Philips to unleash the music on your phone when you're at home, reports Nokia Conversations.

Using open DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standard, products from both companies have been optimised to give consumers a "simple, seamless and interactive out-of-the-box experience". In other words, Philips Streamium wireless audio products will let users stream music from their Nokia music devices or PCs.

Universal signs DIY ringtone deal

Universal Music is to team up with ID Interactive to let users make their own custom ringtones, reports Mobile Entertainemnt.

ID's UrTone player allows consumers to select any part of a track and tweak it to their own specifications. They can alter the start and end points, and dictate the duration of the tone to within one tenth of a second.

Introducing the Bernie Madoff Ringtone

A funny piece from CityLife.

Bernie Madoff might not be able to leave his apartment, but now you can take him with you wherever you go! We're very happy to present you with the very first Bernie Madoff ringtone, which in a violation of everything Bernie holds dear, we're giving away for free.

The ringtone features a few phrases from a talk Madoff gave in 2007, set, appropriately enough, to the theme music from the horror movie Halloween.

Listen to the ringtone here.

Want to Copy iTunes Music? Go Ahead, Apple Says

Apple said it would begin selling song downloads without anticopying measures and change its pricing structure. The New York Times reports.

Beginning this week, three of the four major music labels — Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Music Group — will begin selling music through iTunes without digital rights management software, or D.R.M., which controls the copying and use of digital files. The fourth, EMI, was already doing so.

In return, Apple, whose dominance in online music sales gives it powerful leverage, agreed to a longstanding demand of the music labels and said it would move away from its insistence on pricing all individual song downloads on iTunes at 99 cents.

Instead, the majority of songs will drop to 69 cents beginning in April, while the biggest hits and newest songs will go for $1.29. Others that are moderately popular will remain at 99 cents.

Read full article.

Previously: - Apple Makes DRM Deal with Big Three Music Labels, Plus 3G Downloads Coming?

Apple Makes DRM Deal with Big Three Music Labels, Plus 3G Downloads Coming?

According to CNET sources, Apple has signed deals with Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner to bring flexibly-priced DRM-free music to iTunes while simultaneously introducing music downloads to the iPhone's 3G service.

In exchange, Apple has agreed to become more flexible on pricing, the sources said.

Apple and the music labels have also apparently come to terms on over-the-air downloads, according to a source.

[via Gizmodo]

Doctor, doctor my ears are ringing

Hospitals in the UK have been told to allow more patients to use mobile phones on their wards. Silicon.com reports.

Updated government guidelines, issued today, say hospitals should encourage patients to use their mobiles wherever possible, by putting up signs indicating where handsets can be safely used.

... However, the changes have sparked anger among the NHS Confederation, which represents workers across the NHS.

Nigel Edwards, director of policy for the NHS Confederation, said hospitals could be made more stressful by loud noise and annoying ringtones brought by the advent of mobiles.

Hospitals are one of the latest havens from the mobile ringtone to come under threat and the move to allow phones on wards follows a decision by European regulators to pave the way for mobile calls on flights.

Related: Mobile phones have no adverse effect on hospital equipment however, Most cell phones used by doctors carry infectious pathogens

Nokia Comes With Music Sales 'OK, But Not Earth Shattering'

... A person familiar with Nokia's Comes With Music service in the UK, as saying that initial sales had been "OK, but not earth shattering." The person said consumers are reluctant to pay extra for a mobile with the service sold through Carphone Warehouse, the mobile phone retailer, and 3, the smaller mobile operator when they could get the music for free on the internet.

[via The Washington Post/Moco News]

Zune 'bug' fixed, says Microsoft

The glitch that froze many older Zune music players should now have been cleared, says Microsoft, reports the BBC.

Many owners of 30GB Zune players found that the gadget froze up on the last day of 2008, thanks to a problem with software on the device.

But, said Microsoft, players should function properly once fully charged and switched on again on 1 January.

However, some Zune owners were still reporting lingering problems with their portable player.

Related: - Microsoft Zune music player hit by 'Y2K-type' bug

Music album sales tumble further in 2008

U.S. album sales slid for a seventh time in eight years in 2008 as growth in the digital arena, one of the few bright spots in the ailing music industry, slowed, according to data issued on Wednesday, reports Reuters.

... Digital downloads, through online retailers such as Apple Inc's iTunes store, have taken on greater importance to the industry, but the impressive growth of recent years is waning.

... Ringtones are also a major new focus. But purchases of the top 100 mastertone ringers slid 33 percent to 43.8 million units. Only one mastertone broke the 2 million mark -- rapper Lil Wayne's "Lollipop." Last year, three did.

Microsoft Zune music player hit by 'Y2K-type' bug

Certain models of the company's Zune media player - Microsoft's equivalent of the iPod - rolled over and played dead on a New Year's Eve. The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

Microsoft's online support forum for Zunes were flooded on Wednesday with thousands of reports of the malfunction affecting the 30GB model Zune.

"I was playing music and all of sudden the music stopped and it shut off. I turned the Zune back on and it loaded to 100% but then froze and none of the reset combinations are working," wrote one angry user.

Many of the forum posters tagged themselves as "Victim of the December 31st 2008 Zune 30 Meltdown!"