It’s been claimed that Google will roll out a music download service tied to its search engine later this year, followed by an online cloud-based subscription service in 2011.

People using Google.com to look for a particular group or song will be served a link to the company's music store.

Un-named Google sources were pinned down for comment by the Wall Street Journal, though despite being guaranteed anonymity, they weren’t exactly forthcoming with that many juicy details. As the report on the matter says: Continue Reading

Rumours are circulating across US media outlets that the Justice Department there is beginning to investigate Apple’s tactics in the digital music market. Staff members from the Department are already said have talked to major music labels and internet music companies, according to “several people briefed on the conversations”.

The anti-trust inquiry is in the early stages and the conversations have, according to the NY Times, “revolved broadly around the dynamics of selling music online.” Investigators were said had asked in particular about recent allegations that Apple used its dominant market position to persuade music labels to refuse to give Amazon.com exclusive access to music about to be released. Continue Reading

Ireland’s largest internet service provider (ISP), Eircom, will today be introducing what’s been called a “three strikes” approach to filesharing that will see repeat offenders cut off.

Hard to tell what they're trying to signify, but it's a great shot.

The ‘three strikes’ rule was first discussed during the legal battle between Eircom and a number of publishers including Sony, EMI, universal and Warner, with labels pushing for a graduated response from Eircom. The case came just after Eircom advertisements appeared on the Pirate Bay’s homepage. In September of last year, Eircom agreed to block its users from visiting the Pirate Bay, and eventually drew up the graduated response system that’s come to be known as the three strikes rule.

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It seems that Apple’s iPad revolution isn’t going to stop with some of the rumoured shifts towards a cloud-based music service, with word coming out that Apple wants to add a cloud-based movie service to its lineup.

This week's Apple logo has been brough to you by the number 1993

While the acquisition of LaLa.com had been pegged as an indicator of Apple’s first steps towards making iTunes a cloud-based music service of its own, it seems to be something the company has been slow to move on. Now though, Cnet is reporting that Apple has been engaged in discussions with major film publishers to try and get the rights to movies to accompany streaming TV shows and music.

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One study, 27,000 people, 52 countries involved and little or no obvious result. US research agency Neilsen has released a huge survey where it asked if consumers would pay for online news and entertainment they now get for free. The answer? Ahem… “maybe”

“As expected, the vast majority (85%) prefer that free content remain free. Yet there are opportunities to be found in the details. Indeed, when asked to focus on specific types of content, survey participants are more willing to at least consider paying for particular categories, especially if they have done so before,” noted the report.

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It seems that YouTube’s traffic numbers for music videos might not be quite as accurate as many had hoped, with Warner Music Group pointing to some fairly questionable numbers.

YouTube does have its own music service...

Word comes via Cnet that Warner Music saw a massive spike in the number of unique visitors to its various different YouTube videos between over the course of December and January, with reports indicating that it had managed to more than double its traffic, seeing views around the 47 million mark in a month. Still, all might not be as well as it seems from that description…

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It seems that Samsung is nearing the release of its transparent active matrix OLED (AMOLED) displays, with the company likely to release devices boasting the displays over the next 12 months.

Transparent displays are both impressive and a little confusing...

For those who haven’t encountered the AMOLED arrangement, the image above should give some impression. Essentially, the display itself is transparent, meaning your desktop (or whatever else you happen to be watching) is not quite fully transparent, but still pretty hip nonetheless. Still, the technology will likely be more interesting in devices other than notebooks, so it’s curious to see that Samsung does have other devices in the works.

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It seems that Facebook has added an apparently official music app to its lineup, before fairly quickly disappearing the app from the pages of people who’d noticed it.

Face. Book.

It’s interesting stuff, especially given the fact that so many had pointed to Facebook as one service that could benefit hugely from the addition of an officially sanctioned music service. TechCrunch is reporting that, during its relatively brief life, the Facebook Music app responded in the same manner as other official Facebook apps, bringing you to a page marked Facebook.com/music if you clicked through it, though there was nothing on the page. The app has since gone missing, interestingly enough.

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It’d be interesting to see Facebook launch a music service, given the fact that it has somewhere in the region of 375 million regular users. That’s certainly enough traffic to see a music service used, especially one that got a little push from Facebook officially (as other music apps might not). Indeed, it could well succeed where Spotify has apparently had some trouble – the relatively simple gaining enough users part of the plan.

Indeed, the only real question is just what form we might see a Facebook Music styled service arrive in. It could well be the case that such a service would be similar to Spotify’s ad-supported model or one that sees Facebook’s strange currency (Facebook Credits) used for music “microtransactions.” Stranger still, it could simply be a subscription-based service.

The latest piece of speculation courtesy of the current press-obsession with Apple is that the company could move elements of its iTunes service into the ever-nebulous “cloud.” Still, there’s more to this one than most.

It seems as though Apple is on a bit of a roll at the moment, with the world and its mother speculating on just what it is, could be or might one day build or offer through its existing services. While most of the buzz has been around the upcoming tablet offering, there’s also a lot around the iPhone’s rumoured new OS, the latest from the Wall Street Journal indicates something of a shift in the established iTunes model.

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YouTube has launched its own Music Discovery service, for want of a better description, boasting the heading “Find > Mix > Watch.”

YouTube’s new service, which you can find fairly simply by heading over to YouTube.com/disco. For now, it all seems fairly straightforward, all you need to do is drop a name into the “Artist” box and YouTube works some kind of behind-the-scenes witchcraft and comes back to you with, on the right hand side, a list of songs to listen to by that artist. However, it’s the left hand side that’s really interesting.

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Gaming’s cultural footprint is often a topic for debate these days but if there’s a sure sign that people in supposedly high places are no longer dismissing the industry as something for kids or wastrels it’s the news that the prestigious Ivor Novello Awards, which celebrate excellence in music composition, have confirmed plans to recognise video game scores for the first time.

Ivor Novello, once sentenced to eight weeks in prison for misuse of petrol coupons

According to The Times, the awards ceremony will this year include a ‘Best Original Video Game Score’ category to acknowledge the growing sophistication in game soundtracks. “The Ivors has always sought to reflect the ever-changing world of songwriting and composing,” said Mark Fishlock, a member of the selection committee.

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Middlesbrough software engineer Alan Ellis can rest a little easier today, having been cleared defrauding thousands of pounds from recoding artists around the globe. The creator of one of the world’s biggest pirate music websites – OiNK – had been the target of the massed hordes of the music industry since police raided his home over two years ago.

Probably not Alan Ellis in that costume, but you get the idea

However, a jury at Teesside Crown Court unanimously cleared the software engineer of a single charge of conspiracy to defraud. Ellis set up OiNK as a student in 2004 but by the time the police came knocking on his door in October 2007 authorities were suspicious of his dealings as his bank statements showed a tidy sum of £185,000 in his accounts.

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