According to his own blog, 18 year old Even Sandvold Roland is a big fan of Dave Matthews Band. His excitement was therefor high when he discovered that their new album was going to be released bit by bit ahead of time on iTunes. Hitting the link, he got the all too familiar message (at least for us in Europe) "only available in the USA". Annoyed as one can understand, he tweeted the following message on the microblog service twitter (translated from Norwegian): "Pissed now! iTunes Music Pass for Dave Matthews Band's new album is only available in the USA. Typical! Don't complain about pirating!"

Nothing out of the ordinary so far, but the reply he got from the Artists and Repertoire manager from Warner Music Norway, Terje Pedersen, certainly explains why there's now a trend on Twitter called #warnerfail: "I think you should steal it, then you can brag about the process on your little kid blog afterward. After all I don't want you to be angry". It should also be mentioned that the Norwegian word for "little kid" (alternately "brat", "little kid" is from the Oxford dictionary) he used is a curse word that doesn't have a good translation, and that directly translated it would be "shit kid".

The story has blown up big time and Even has been on radio talking about it, as well as his own blog and articles in national newspapers in Norway. the original reply from Terje Pedersen has been deleted, but can still be seen as a screenshot on Even's blog and at the time of this writing it can also be seen by searching for "drittungebloggen" on Twitter. Terje Pedersen later apologized for the incident in a comment on Even's blog, but frankly the apology talked more about why the record industry is still in the stone age.

The story is probably not over yet and I'm sure we'll hear more about it in the next few days. Record companies are extremely busy digging their own graves these days, with the Pirate Bay trial giving pirating more free advertising than anyone could have hoped (or feared) and I doubt Warner will have more supporters after this little stunt. That fact makes it even more ironic that this whole story started because Even tried to pay for his music, but no-one would take his money.

I've seen a lot of people trying to justify piracy, but this one is definitely new - and apparently not even illegal. Basically Bopaboo is a service (currently) in beta that allows you to sell you legally bought DRM free music files as used.

I looked and looked in their FAQ to see if they would provide some legal ground for their service, as the concept sounded a bit too far fetched. I mean, MP3 files can be copied, there's nothing stopping you from selling your legally bought file and keeping a copy for yourself. I was curious to see what system Bopaboo had for controlling this and as I expected there is none, as proven by their terms of use: "You further represent and warrant to the purchaser and to Bopaboo that, upon the completion of such sale, You will delete any remaining copies of the Used Published Item that may exist in your possession, custody or control". Basically this means that as the legal citizen you are, Bopaboo trusts you to delete the file you've sold as "used" and never re-download it again from where you bought it. They also claim to scan the files to make sure they are not pirated, something that seems rather unlikely considering how many legal MP3 stores there are in the world and not all of them uses watermarks. Piracy has been a problem for a long time, but now you can apparently get paid for it and it'll be legal as well. Please tell me if I've missed something critical here because it seems highly unlikely that the music industry will agree to this.

[Bopaboo via GenerationMP3]

Amazon MP3 has finally started going international with the MP3 store coming to Amazon UK. The record companies continue whining about illegal music downloads but considering the (lack of) speed that MP3 stores are brought out (because of licensing and such) we'll prob have audio files implanted directly into our brain and have the site renamed Anything But iBrain by the time the entire world has access to MP3 stores.

After two years of disappointing customers every couple of months with no new info, Meizu is finally releasing it's M8 iPhone copy. This was announced as a competitor to the iPhone two years ago while the first gen iPhone was still hot and new. Personally I couldn't care less about this thing, but maybe there are still people out there who remember the fuzz surrounding the announcement of this thing back in 1863(ish).

The Archos 5 got a firmware update this week adding some features, bringing others out of beta and fixing some bugs.

The popular TV show "The Simpsons" had an episode last Sunday where a certain company got a bashing. Check it out if you want to know the real story behind Steve Mobs, Mapple and the Mypod.

Haier released a new version of the Rhapsody player, called the iBiza Sport. Flash memory, Wifi and Rhapsody support. The first player they released never was much of a success and I doubt this will be any different.

Many of us are tired of getting fleeced by eBay fees and ridiculous policies, so we have added an MP3 player classified section to the forums. Check it out, sell your used gear or find some great deals from others.

Zune made an awesome addition to the Marketplace subscription today. In addition to the all you can download subscription, you are now able to download and keep 10 tracks per month even if you cancel your subscription. The way I see it is kind of like buying a album every month and getting a free subscription.

As Ina Fried at CNet points out, this is a move by the Microsoft and the labels to drum up subscription rates since they are lower than what they hoped. But subscription is not the only thing hurting in terms of music sales, physical sales are declining faster than digital downloads can keep up.

SanDisk as the world's leading manufacturer of flash memory cards is of course always out to sell more cards. This summer they have been running a campaign called "wake up your phone" to get people to invest in memory cards for their cellphones and now they're at it again with a new idea involving microSD cards and music distribution.

The "new" physical music media is dubbed SlotMusic and is basically just MicroSD cards with MP3 files on them. Sony BMG, Universal, Warner and EMI are in on this deal and it's an accomplishment in itself to get music companies to offer such content as MP3 files and not some DRM'ed atrocity. The idea is that people can buy a SlotMusic card, slide it into a player with a microSD slot and listen to the music without any more tinkering.

While this might seem like an inferior method of getting music for some people, it does address two aspects of MP3 players that a lot of people have issues with; having a physical copy, and ease of use. A lot of people, especially the older generation, don't understand how to download music and get it onto their player. With this system they could buy their music like CDs and listen that way. Nothing is simpler than having a card which you put into a slot and it's ready to play. Then you have the music collectors who like to have a physical copy of their music. Granted, MP3 files won't satisfy everyone, but it does allow people to have a cover to look at (if they are going to include such a thing), a booklet and maybe the cards could even include extras like music videos and FLAC files. It's certainly easier having a memory card that you can plug into a computer and transfer music off of than having to rip the music from a CD. The pricing isn't official but is expected to be around $7-$10, which isn't bad at all.

[CNET via ABi Forums | Press Release]

Best Buy today agreed to pick up Napster for $2.65 per share or about $121m. What is interesting here is Best Buy has been using Rhapsody for their own branded music store going as far as requiring manufactures to change their packaging to include the “Best Buy Digital Music Store” branding. (The reason why Creative no longer sells at Best Buy is because they refused to change their packaging and get on board the BB music store.)

This news is a bit disappointing for me since I was never really a fan of Napster and currently subscribe to Rhapsody and Zune Marketplace. It’s not that Napster is a bad music service, it’s just Rhapsody has a better catalog and has the best recommendation engine in the game. But I guess the good news is you will still be able to use Rhapsody Subscription on most of the players sold at Best Buy, it’s just not going to be bundled. Also note that it has not been officially stated as to what will happen with the Rhapsody / Best Buy partnership, but I am assuming the obvious.

[Press Release via PaidContent]

For those who remember, Music Gremlin was the first MP3 player to offer wi-fi connectivity. It was tied into a music service that allowed for the automatic download of content much like the Ibiza Rhapsody and SanDisk’s own Sansa Connect. While I don’t know about the acquisition terms and what their plans are for the integration of MG into SanDisk, but this is rather troubling to me and I question the good that will come out of this acquisition for a few reasons.

Back at CES 2008 Napster announced plans to make their entire catalogue DRM free. Today it joins stores like Amazon and Zune who also offer a part of their library DRM free. The downloads will remain at the same price as before (99 cents per track and $9.99 per album) and will be offered in 256kbps MP3 with high resolution (1,000 x 1,000 pixel) album art. By contrast Zune Marketplace and Amazon offer 320kbps MP3s.

There is one part of this story that is really aggravating in that people who have purchased previously ala carte downloads that were DRMed will not be able to trade for unprotected versions of the music they paid for. Don’t blame Napster, this decision made by the record labels showing us one again they don’t care about their customer base. Once again the DRM customer is screwed. Please vote with your dollars and never purchase DRM content since its expatriation is inevitable.

[CNet | Napster PR]

Guest Review By: Nick Stropko

I heard about SpiralFrog several months ago from a news story I saw, and I was immediately intrigued with the concept. A music download service that is supported entirely by ads seemed to be a fantastic way to achieve the Holy Grail: free, legal music downloads. Well, after several labels signing on, an upheaval of the Board of Directors, and months of waiting, I have been accepted as a beta tester for the fledgling service. Unfortunately, though the business model is admirable, this specific iteration needs some serious work before being released for mass consumption. The interface is confusing and poorly designed, there are several major bugs in the software, and it frankly doesn’t make sense. Though the promise of free, legal music is extremely tempting of music downloads, you may want to look elsewhere until SpiralFrog gets their service on track.

Take Note: This program is still in beta, so any and all features may change in the final version (or subsequent updates).

Microsoft and MTV partnered over a year ago to provide the Urge music service on WMP and yesterday MTV announced that they would be ditching their Urge brand to will team up with Rhapsody. Now this poses a question as to what is going to happen to Windows Media Player, since Urge was its primary music provider.

Many people loved Urge and are kicking and screaming that they’re now stuck with something that comes from Real. I don’t blame them. My experience with Rhapsody software has been plagued with sluggishness, crashes, bugs, and DRM issues to name a few. Others I’ve talked to have also had major problems running Rhapsody, so I’m not alone.

For Microsoft, this could be a blessing in disguise and a chance to convene their fragmented efforts in portable media.

With the announcement this morning of the upcoming Best Buy Digital Music Store (powered by RealNetwork's Rhapsody 4.0) came firm details about the previously announced Sansa e200R series of digital audio players. Available through Best Buy retail stores across the country and Rhapsody's online shop, the $140 e250R (2GB), $180 e260R (4GB), $220 e270R (6GB), and $250 e280R (8GB) ship with over 30 hours of preloaded music and its new under-the-hood technology platform dubbed Rhapsody DNA.

One of the coolest features of Rhapsody DNA, which is based on the company's Helix DRM, is that users can subscribe to particular channels (according to artist or genre) and then receive automatic updates whenever new content in that channel is available.

The Best Buy Digital Music Store and the Sansa e200R series will officially link arms and storm the iTunes/iPod fortress together beginning October 15. And in lieu of battle paint, Best Buy is giving away free two-month subscriptions to its store (normally priced at $14.99/month) with the purchase of a Sansa player.

[Product Page via Gizmodo]

Zen Vision:M owners will now have the ability to playback their favorite literature from Audible. Since Audible content is encrypted with their own DRM scheme, support needs to be added on the hardware side from the MP3 player manufacturer. Creative has added this support in their latest firmware version probably due to a high demand for the service. I know that a lot of people where holding back from purchasing the ZVM due to no Audible support. Grab the latest firmware and you are ready to go.

[ZVM Firmware via dapreview]

Michael Roberson, the guy who founded MP3.com and Lindows, has another venture called MP3Tunes. This service allows you to upload and store you music collection to their servers. You can then access your music via virtually any device: web browser, PDA, EVDO laptop, GPRS phone, and now even TiVo. The MP3Tunes application for TiVo will work for Series 2 and above, but is still in beta stage.

Another interesting note about the service is that it will automatically select the correct file type and bit rate based on the device you are accessing the service with. For instance when accessing from a GPRS phone, it will stream in 32kbps and select a compatible file type based on what your brand of phone supports. I have not had a chance to try it myself, but it looks pretty slick. Check out the video demo for more info.

[Video Demo via Listening Post]

MobiBLU has teamed up with Podcast Ready to make downloading podcasts a snap. MobiBLU will begin shipping the Cube 2 and the B153 with Podcast Ready software preloaded. The Podcast Ready software resides on the players root directory which allows you to get your podcasts from virtually any computer without having to install additional software.

While podcasts have always worked with non-ipods, this software makes getting them easier. In addition to the two MobiBLU players, Podcast Ready will work with any UMS MP3 player or storage device. Yet another reason to use an MP3 player simplified by UMS.

Update: The Cube 2 along with the B153 Podcast Ready enabled players will be launched nation wide though Target at the end of June.

David Berlind the editor of ZDNet enthusiastically explains in a video why we should boycott DRM based devices, telling us that they should have named DRM “Content Restriction, Annulment, and Protection or CRAP for short. The basis of his 100% justified rant is that all of these closed DRM schemes are not compatible with each other, locking you into one type of DRM, giving the examples of Microsoft’s Janus, Apples’s FairPlay, and Sony’s ATRAC DRM systems. This similar to my response to a New York Times article on the same topic.

Berlind suggests that we boycott all of these devices containing DRM that limit our use of music. While that may be very hard to do since most devices are DRM enabled, I would suggest a different approach to this boycott.

• Do not purchase any DRM media. Buy music from the store and rip the CDs yourself. You will be able to put them on any device you want.
• Purchase only devices that support UMS. Devices that are UMS require no drivers and do not lock you into one computer or one operating system. Be wary of Microsoft MTP and Apple devices that lock you into one operating system or one computer.

If you watch one thing on the internet today please watch this video and join the boycott.

[ZDNet Video via dapreview]