Wrong ringtone can get you killed in Afghanistan

The New York Daily News picks up on the WSJ article on how the wrong ringtone can get you killed in the unpredictable and dangerous world of Afghanistan.

Thugs at Taliban checkpoints will often check the cells of travelers for hints of their allegiance.

If you ringtone is Lady Gaga, for instance, the militant group might view it as pro-American and react with hostility or even deadly violence.

As a result, many residents are forced to stock up on Taliban-friendly ringtones in case they are stopped at checkpoints.

Ironically, the miltant group’s ringtones are not hard to find.

The Taliban have 40 singers that produce on average of one 12-song album every month, a spokesperson for the group tells the Wall Street Journal. An Afghan shopkeeper uploads Taliban songs and ringtones into customers' phones for $2, The Journal reports. And business is good.

Read more.

Related:

-- For Safety, Afghan Travelers Upload Taliban Ringtones

-- Ringtones single out Talibans

-- Kirkuk Ringtones Reflect Rivalries

-- In Iraq, having the wrong ringtone can get you killed

-- Baghdad Brigade Sunni militia look for mobile phones with “unIslamic” ringtones

Kickstarter Project: Music from Saharan Cellphones

Music from Saharan cellphones is a compilation of music collected from memory cards of cellular phones in the Saharan desert. And it's coming to vinyl thanks to Kickstarter.

In much of West Africa, cellphones are are used as all purpose multimedia devices. In lieu of personal computers and high speed internet, the knockoff cellphones house portable music collections, playback songs on tinny built in speakers, and swap files in a very literal peer to peer Bluetooth wireless transfer.

The songs chosen for the compilation were some of the highlights -- music that is immensely popular on the unofficial mp3/cellphone network from Abidjan to Bamako to Algiers, but have limited or no commercial release. They're also songs that tend towards this new world of self production -- Fruityloops, home studios, synthesizers, and Autotune.

... The cassette was ripped onto the internet and has circulated around the world, featured in the The Guardian, BBC Worldservice, The Fader, Pitchfork, as well as a number of other blogs, but has never had an official release. The vinyl release is a chance for the artists in the compilation to get paid and be properly credited. The record will be accompanied by liner notes with a short bio of each musician and group -- artists from Ivory Coast, Mali, Algeria, and Niger.

The funding makes this release possible -- covering a portion of production costs, mastering, distribution, and payment for the artists.

Read more.

For Safety, Afghan Travelers Upload Taliban Ringtones

Fearing Taliban retribution in the countryside, Afghan officials, police, translators and others are uploading Taliban ringtones to their cellphones, and scrubbing the phones of links to the coalition and government. The Wall Street Journal reports.

Afghans who travel beyond the capital say insurgents have forced Afghans to eat SIM cards, broken phones on owners' heads and interrogated travelers for hours about their contacts with foreigners.

"If you are going 30 or 60 miles outside of Kabul, you will surely find Taliban on the road," said a member of President Hamid Karzai's government. "If you have Indian music or Afghan music ringtones, they will tell you that you are not obeying Islamic rules and, in most cases, break our mobiles."

Read full article. Image above left, Nasratullah Niazai, in his Kabul shop. He sells Taliban videos and ringtones for customers to show on cellphones.

Related articles:

-- Ringtones single out Talibans

-- Kirkuk Ringtones Reflect Rivalries

-- In Iraq, having the wrong ringtone can get you killed

-- Baghdad Brigade Sunni militia look for mobile phones with “unIslamic” ringtones

Vinyl set to make radio comeback for one day only

BBC Radio 6 Music has announced it will be playing only vinyl on New Year's Day, reports the BBC.

Most BBC stations phased out vinyl in favour of CDs in the 1990s and the majority now use digital versions of songs.

But 6 Music bosses have turned the clock back with an "All Vinyl" day to round off a month-long celebration of vinyl.

Station editor Paul Rodgers said: "In a world dominated by digital music, vinyl is a format still close to the hearts of many music lovers and increased sales demonstrate its enduring appeal."

Read more.

[Infographic]: Impact of Online Music

The Grovo Labs infograph embedded below was designed to show how much the internet has impacted the music industry globally, both good and bad.

Some of the facts:

-- An artist needs to have their song streamed on Spotify over 4 Million times a month, just to make minimum wage ($1,160)

-- Only 17% of global online consumers legally download digital music

-- iTunes (23 countries) is only the second largest online music service, second to eMusic (27 countries)

Click here for full size infograph here:

Google Music launches massive sale to lure customers away from iTunes

Google Music has signalled its intent to prize customers away from iTunes by announcing a huge 'blowout sale.' TechRadar reports.

The limited time offer serves-up half a million top albums for just $4.99 - virtually half of what Apple is charging through iTunes.

There's also a whopping 10 million MP3 tracks available to buy for just 49c, again undercutting Apple by 50 per cent or more in most cases.

Read more.

MySpace Returns with Facebook-Integrated Music Player

MySpace has apparently decided to become the new Spotify with the release of its first major product since they were purchased by Specific Media: a music player with built-in search engine and Facebook integration.

[via TIME Techland]

Apple iTunes match music service launches with outage

Apple launches its cloud music service in the UK. Analysts describe it as an "amnesty for pirates", but it has the blessing of the record labels.

[via the BBC]

[Infographic]: Ringtones make up 1/3 of the online music industry

In 2011 ringtones seem like a distant memory. You probably haven't downloaded one in years, and the idea of having a hit radio song play every time your phone rings makes you shudder with embarrassment. Yet ringtones are, somehow, far from dead. Somewhere out there, millions of people are still buying ringtones like it's 2005. This infographic by musicproductionschool.net illustrates the ringtone industry today, and it will surprise you.

Created by: Music Production Schools

YouTube Buys Company That Processes Music Royalties

In an effort to streamline its often complex relations with music publishers, YouTube has acquired RightsFlow, an upstart company in New York that processes royalties for the music industry.

Through the deal, YouTube will gain a system for processing royalty payments to tens of thousands of publishers — the companies that represent songwriters — whenever music is included in a video that is played on the site.

[via MediaDecoder]

Add Friends’ Facebook Photos To Your Ringtones With Facetones

Vringo’s app Facetones plays video slideshows of friends’ Facebook photos when you call or receive calls from them. Mashable reports.

Vringo got its start selling video ringtones. Now it’s using a similar technology to give phone calls a social twist. Its new Android app, Facetones, plays slideshows of friends’ most recent facebook photos every time they call you or you call them.

The ad-supported free app automatically matches names of your Facebook friends with the names of your contacts, so set-up is a matter of matching up the names that are inputted differently on your phone than they are on Facebook.

Read full article.