music

Any entrepreneur taking a crack at a digital music startup must either be super determined, completely crazy, or a both. The chances of legal run-ins with the labels are high. And even when you play by the rules, the rights payments are so steep that making a profitable business is all but impossible.

Yet this isn't deterring Jeff Yasuda, a 40-year-old venture capitalist turned entrepreneur who's been doggedly running music startups since 2006. His latest, Fuzz (the same name as his first startup), comes out of stealth mode today after a year of building a team -- one … Read more

Records, aka LPs, have been around since the 1950s, so there are lots of them out there. I've bought great records for a buck or two at thrift shops and yard sales, and found them on the street for free, but records aren't yesterday's news; lots of young bands are releasing LPs. The way things are going, the LP will probably outlast the CD as a mainstream format.

Speaking of yard sales and thrift shops, you can probably find dirt cheap turntables in those places, but the chances of finding a turntable in good working condition there … Read more

The Music app received a mostly cosmetic makeover with iOS 6, but there are a couple of items under the hood that have changed. If you use Apple's Podcasts and iTunes U apps, you'll soon discover that content for those apps are now directed to those apps and no longer available in the Music app. The bigger change has to do with iTunes Match.

Before, when you played a song stored in iCloud via iTunes Match, the song would be downloaded to your device as you listened to it. And next to each track stored in iCloud was … Read more

Leaked from today's 404 episode:

- Where are we? Apple Maps makes a mess.

- Apple can replace broken iPhone 5 screens in the store, says report.

- iPhone 5 gets the teardown treatment.

- Apple accused of ripping off famous Swiss clock design.

- Apple about to make owner of Earpods.com very rich.

- ATTN New Yorkers: Register your gadgets with the NYPD.

- Neil Young says piracy is the new radio and the best way to get your music heard.

Bathroom break video: 1989 Radio Shack Cell Phone Commercial… Read more

Google has shut its music download service in China as it has not been doing as well as the Web giant wanted it to.

According to Google China's blog post today, the company made the decision because it had to prioritize the development of its products. "The impact of this product is not as great as we expected, so we decided to shift resources to other products," it stated.

Google added that its China-based staff working on the music site will be reassigned to work on other projects so there will be no job cuts. As of … Read more

Apple is helping accessory makers out with a neat new look at its latest iPods.

The company recently published the full schematics on its recently announced fifth-generation iPod Touch (PDF) and seventh-generation iPod Nano (PDF). The drawings might not be all that useful for the average consumer, but they're an important resource for developers and accessory makers.

With help from the schematics, accessory makers can design cases, docks that'll fit the new form factor, and much more. Apple's schematics include the standard dimensions, like width and thickness, but also show the amount of space between the top … Read more

Imagine you just got a shiny new Mac computer, and you'd like to transfer all your music from your MP3 player to it. Unfortunately, iTunes can't do that, but that is where Senuti comes into the picture. The application's simple interface will handle the process and copy your files within minutes.

While Senuti's basic interface is easy enough to follow, it's a good idea to take a few minutes to read the online Getting Started guide to make sure you don't inadvertently erase your iPod's library. For the record, selecting "Prevent auto-syncing … Read more

Like clockwork, Apple never fails to refresh its iPod lineup every fall. In recent years, though, one can't help but notice that the ritualized iPod unveiling has lost some of its gusto compared with the fanfare surrounding the iPhone and iPad.

Still, Apple remains the top manufacturer of portable media players. Those of us old enough to remember the "iPod wars" that occurred nearly a decade ago can attest to the fact that Apple's tenacity in making the world's most popular MP3 player laid the groundwork for the success of the iPhone (pour one out for the Zune, friends). Apple may have moved on to bigger, better products, but maintaining its dominance in the diminishing world of MP3 players is just good housekeeping.

And so, the 2012 Apple iPod lineup offers a mix of new and old.… Read more

Apple has announced the last waltz for Ping, its social music network, after adding greater social-networking integration to iTunes.

The company will shut down Ping on September 30, Apple announced the closure today on the Ping channel on iTunes. The company also announced today that iTunes 11 -- the software's next major release -- adds more sharing options for Facebook and Twitter, including showing music likes and recent purchases.

An Apple representative noted that any playlists users made within Ping will be converted to iMixes, the company's publishable playlist format. However, the feature will become unavailable, and users … Read more