Palm Pre’s ringtone

The Palm Pre’s default ringtone by Roger Bourland - composer, professor, publisher, and Chair of the UCLA Department of Music - has leaked. You can listen to it here.

Bourland was commissioned by Palm to provide eight ringtones for its new handheld device, the Pre. Titles include “PRE”, “Flurry”, “Raindance”, “Scamper”, “Discreet”, “Triangle”, “Dulcimer”, and “Anticipation”.

The Palm Pre is scheduled for release, June 6, 2009.

[via CrunchGear]

Cell phone ringtones can pose major distraction, impair recall

A flurry of recent research has documented that talking on a cell phone poses a dangerous distraction for drivers and others whose attention should be focused elsewhere. Now, a new study in the Journal of Environmental Psychology finds that just the ring of a cell phone may be equally distracting, especially when it comes in a classroom setting or includes a familiar song as a ringtone. News & Information from Washington University reports.

In any setting where people are trying to acquire knowledge and trying to retain that information in some way, a distraction that may just seem like a common annoyance to people may have a really disruptive effect on their later retention of that information," said the study's lead author, Jill Shelton, a postdoctoral psychology fellow in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.

... "Many of us consider a cell phone ringing in a public place to be an annoying disruption, but this study confirms that these nuisance noises also have real-life impacts," Shelton said. "These seemingly innocuous events are not only a distraction, but they have a real influence on learning."

Titled "The distracting effects of a ringing cell phone: An investigation of the laboratory and the classroom setting," the study was conducted at Louisiana State University, where Shelton received her doctoral degree. Her co-authors in the LSU psychology department include Emily Elliott, Sharon Eaves and Amanda Exner.

Read full article.

New rate for music digital stream

The music collection society - PRS - have unveiled a new pricing plan it hopes may entice YouTube and Pandora back to the UK market. The BBC reports.

From 1 July 2009, firms will have to pay 0.085p for each track streamed, down from the previous rate of 0.22p.

PRS for Music say the new plan will "enable the digital market to grow".

Earlier this year, YouTube started removing premium music videos to UK users after failing to reach a new licensing agreement with the PRS.

Companies wishing to play or stream music over the internet are legally obliged to pay royalties to the artist, enshrined in the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

However, many companies said the old rate was prohibitive.

Read full article.

iTunes still not available in some EU countries. Here's why

Some EU countries still can't access iTunes—for which consumers can thank a music licensing system that won't allow digital stores to operate across geographic borders. But the European Commission is now pushing record labels and collecting societies into the Internet age and has announced its first successes. ars technica reports.

Last year, European Commissioner for Competition Neelie Kroes raised questions about the strange state of the European music market. "Why is it possible to buy a CD from an online retailer and have it shipped to anywhere in Europe, but it is not possible to buy the same music, by the same artist, as an electronic download with similar ease?" she asked. "Why do pan-European services find it so difficult to get a pan-European license? Why do new, innovative services find licensing to be such a hurdle?"

This year, she intends to do something about the problem, which has resulted in low growth rates for digital content sales.

Mobile music revenues to grow to $5.5B by 2013

Revenues from streaming mobile music services and full-track downloads are expected to increase from $2.5 billion in 2009 to nearly $5.5 billion in 2013 according to a new report released by market analyst firm Juniper Research. FierceMobile Content.

Juniper notes that despite declining revenues from traditional mobile music services like polyphonic ringtones and realtones, consumer adoption of more sophisticated services is surging.

Read full article.

400 Human Ringtones and Sound Affects

The 400 Human Ringtones and Sound Affects app offers 400 quality sounds - from expressions such as: "Here Ya go", "Huh", "Excellent", to sound effects such as "female Cackle" as well the inevitable and popular bodily sounds.

The customizable interface allows you to use it in your phone conversations, keep kids entertained, make your friends laugh, add effects to your business meetings, clearly communicate your pleasure/displeasure to others and irrate parents.

[Twitter/ZiPhoneApps via iPhone Download Blog]

Stephen Colbert, Jr., World's Most Famous Bald Eagle, Debuts on Free Endangered Species Ringtone Site

The Center for Biological Diversity has added the cry of Stephen Colbert, Jr. (named for the star of Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report) to its free, educational endangered species ringtone site www.RareEarthtones.org.

Joining the polar bear, beluga whale, gray wolf, and a host of other endangered species, the call of the eagle made famous by Comedy Central’s Stephen Colbert can now be freely downloaded as a cell-phone ringtone.

The Colbert, Jr. audio recording featured as a ringtone on the site is the world’s only known recording of the celebrity raptor’s voice, which most say is at least as distinctive as that of his father, Colbert, Sr. Many listeners even detect a note of sarcasm — or at least irony — in Colbert, Jr.’s high-pitched cry.

Listen here.

Press release.

Sony Ericsson patent generates playlist based on facial expression

Sony Ericsson have patented a system whereby a cellphone could be controlled by facial expressions, shuffling between music tracks according to visual mood analysis. SlashGear reports via Go Get It.

The patent, titled “Generating music playlist based on facial expression”, describes capturing an image of a user and using facial recognition to build a custom playlist depending on the listener’s mood.

In a more complex implementation, Sony Ericsson suggest that brief video could be captured, tracking emotional states of happiness, sadness, surprise, anger, fear, disgust, neutrality, etc. These would be compared to the musical characteristics of the tracks stored on the cellphone or PMP, similar to how Sony Ericsson’s existing SenseMe application works.

Thumbplay Leverages Social Networks To Sell More Ringtones

Thumbplay, a New York-based mobile content provider, has launched a widget platform that allows artists and music labels to leverage social networks, like Twitter or MySpace, to sell ringtones and wallpapers. The platform, called OPEN Pro, can also be used by fans, who may want to link to their artist's favorite song in a blog post they wrote about a concert.

[via The Washington Post and Press release]

Mystery band's hit single "Haruka" ringtone, downloaded 500,000 times

In Japan, GReeeeN fans have downloaded a staggering 500,000 ringtones of the band's hit single, "Haruka".

One notable characteristic of this group is that none of the members have ever shown their faces in the public sphere as a part of GReeeeN. They are studying dentistry and claim that once they graduate - and receive permission from the directors of the hospitals they work for - they may then consider a public appearance. (Wikipedia)

[via Twitter Universal Music Group]

Slacker Radio Releases Updated iPhone Application

Slacker has recently announced that an updated version of their iPhone app is now available for download. iPhoneFreak reports.

The app now features a larger image for the album art, a new player control bar, faster transitions from song to song, as well as an option to disable sleep mode and a folder for recently played stations. Additionally, Slacker Plus subscribers will also get lyrics.

Also, according to the press release, Slacker has seemingly taken aim at what appears to be Pandora claiming to have “a song library that is four times the size of the leading competitor.”

Artists Don’t Want Pirate Fans to be Disconnected

Last week, a group of music and other entertainment industry representatives urged the UK government to consider drafting legislation that would force ISPs to disconnect alleged pirates. This proposal now faces opposition from an unexpected corner as a coalition of top artists has spoken out against it, saying that disconnecting their fans is the wrong path to take.

[via torrentfreak]

Vodafone to launch ring back tones in emerging markets

UK based network services provider Vodafone said it would introduce its “ring back tone” service to customers in emerging markets, a service only available to the company’s customers in India until now.

Ring back tones lets a caller listen to a song or other audio clip chosen by the owner of the mobile device whose number was dialed, instead of letting the caller listen to a traditional dial tone.

Ring back tones are widely used and make up a large proportion of business in the non-downloadable content market.

[via IT News Africa]

Bacterial Orchestra - Public Epidemic No.1

Public Epidemic No 1 from Olle Corneer on Vimeo.

Bacterial Orchestra - Public Epidemic No.1 is a cell phone performance. Cult of Mac reports via iPhonefunaddict Twitter.

It's a music art project slated for the Volt Festival June 6th in Uppsala, Sweden, where organizers hope hundreds of iPhones will communicate through audio - creating a musical organism. The result, according to Olle Cornéer and Martin Lübcke, will be a self-organizing system they describe as intelligent neural music.

Read full article.

Apple, AT&T, Samsung, Verizon, and others sued over Shazam app

Earlier this week, a company called Tune Hunter accused music-finding service Shazam along with Samsung, Apple, Amazon.com, Napster, Motorola, Gracenote, Verizon Wireless, LG Electronics, AT&T Mobility, and Pantech Wireless of infringing on its patent on a music identification system. News.com reports.

The suit accuses Shazam's music discovery and identification service of violating the patent and the other companies of benefiting directly from Shazam's alleged infringement. Tune Hunter is asking for unspecified damages and an injunction from the U.S. District Court for the Eastern Division of Texas that would prevent "further infringement" on Tune Hunter's patent.

Read full article .

Pirated pop keeps stars popular

According to a study by industry body PRS for Music, file-sharing sites help make popular acts more popular. The BBC reports.

The most pirated pop songs tend to be those at the top of the music charts.

However there was little evidence that file-sharing sites helped unsigned and new bands find an audience.

The study suggests file-sharing sites are becoming an alternative broadcast network comparable to radio stations as a way of hearing music.

Ringtone Recorder Pro

Ringtone Recorder Pro lets you record anything and make your own iPhone ringtones for yourself or friends. Using the built-in iPhone microphone you can record up to 30 seconds of audio of anything.

How to:

1. Record your ringtone
2. Select Download It and specify your email address
3. Go to your computer and check your email. You will receive an email with an m4r attachment
4. Save the m4r attachment to your computer
5. Drag it into iTunes.
6. Sync your iPhone with iTunes.

Coal-positive ringtones

Something for Snow White and The Seven Dwarfs: The West Virginia Coal Association has launched a series of cell phone ringtones touting the greatness of coal.

Listen here to all five ringtones.

[via The Huffington Post]

Apple finally approved update of Nine Inch Nails app

Apple has finally approved an update to the official iPhone app for industrial-rock band Nine Inch Nails, after previously rejecting it due to objectionable content pertaining to the band's 1994 album "The Downward Spiral." No changes were made from the rejected version.

[via News.com]

Previously:

-- Apple rejects Nine Inch Nails iPhone app update

-- Nine Inch Nails launches iPhone app

The iPhone Is Accelerating Music Sales For Pandora

Pandora is a company that mainly makes its money through advertising deals on its streaming Internet radio service. But a growing portion of the business is also affiliate downloads of songs that users hear on Pandora and want to buy on either iTunes or Amazon's MP3 service. And the biggest mover accelerating growth in that regard are downloads taking place on the iPhone. TechCrunch reports.

Users are buying about a million songs a month now from these affiliate links on Pandora, CTO Tom Conrad tells me. Of those, a solid 20% are coming directly from Pandora's iPhone app, which includes an easy link to open the iPhone's iTunes app, and buy a track. That's really impressive considering that it's just one phone that a relatively small percentage of their users use.

Read full article.

Mobile Streams launched Ringtones.com in the US

Mobile phone users in the US will now be able to access directly Ringtones.com and over 20,000 ringtones available from music industry stars such as Katy Perry, Coldplay, Flex and J. Holiday.

[via SmallCapNews.co.uk]

New Income Source for Musicians, Songwriters and Publishers

A company called DataRevenue.Org is looking to monetize the use of copyrighted material when it is transferred from one mobile user to another. Music Industry News reports.

Current copyright laws do not address data specifically because multimedia messaging, (mms) is a fairly new technology. DataRevenue.Org has licensed technology that will enable its members to "data optimize" their content to traverse existing data infrastructures like 3g and also those which are currently being developed, mobile2mobile.

Read full interview with the organization’s founder, Max Davis.

Apple rejects Nine Inch Nails iPhone app update

For a man who has been responsible for some of the more industrial lyrics in music history, Nine Inch Nails' frontman, Trent Reznor, has taken rejection by Apple with a relatively sanguine spirit. Cnet reports.

On discovering that Apple has refused to approve NIN's latest iPhone app update, he tweeted: "Apple rejects the NIN iPhone update because it contains objectionable content. The objectionable content referenced is 'The Downward Spiral'."

Reznor then added in a follow-up tweet: "Not even sure where to start with that one."

Well, he might like to start with the fact that the very same content, with lyrics that suggest the author would like to have rather rough, bestial intercourse with his lover on the track "Closer", is still happily available for close scrutiny on iTunes. And, according to MG Siegler at TechCrunch, who is in possession of one, on the first version of the already approved NIN iPhone app.

iPhone Performer To Take Wembley Stadium

Renowned for playing host to the some of the world’s largest artists, Wembley stage will soon host it’s first mobile phone performer, singer/songwriter Gary Go. PSFK reports.

Instead of using traditional instruments, Gary Go chooses to play music with his iPhone. Using his phone’s virtual recording studio application, Go has already successfully managed to recreate melodies on guitars, drums and the piano for his new album demo and now he’s attempting it live.

Read full article.