Kid Rock goes digital

The unabomber of pop, Kid Rock, has finally struck a deal to sell his music online - but only because Real Networks have agreed that Rhapsody customers will be forced to buy the tracks they want bundled with a bunch of filler - the "only whole albums" injunction.

I'm hoping Rhapsody tries to run an ad which makes a virtue of this: "Why buy only the tracks you want? Come to Rhapsody and pay for the ones you'll never listen to, too".

“The real issue here is flexibility in terms of artists being able to do what they want,” said Ken Levitan, the singer’s manager.

Call me old fashioned, but shouldn't the people who are picking up the tab be calling the shots? Would anyone want to eat in a restaurant where the manager was saying "the waiters will bring you food according to what they think you should be eating?"

Listen again

Real Networks have made time in their busy "being sued by the MPAA for something or other" schedule to bring back listen.com. The latest idea to try and reverse a website out of a url is to make it a local music blog. Local, that is, assuming you live in a place where one of the Creative Loafing alternative titles is based, as they've signed on to shovel much of the content into the furnace.

It's a bit of a weak idea - if ever a site didn't need an umbrella URL, it was a collection of local music sites, as at a top level you get a bizarre mash of local stories covering hardly any of America. It's probably not a good omen that Creative Loafing filed for protective bankruptcy a couple of days ago.

Songwriter's payday: AOL, Yahoo, Real told to dig deep

A Federal Judge in the US has settled the long-running debate about how much the major internet companies should be paying to songwriters. The judgement could be backdated to the start of the millennium; sample figures suggest that AOL will have to find six million dollars, for example, to cover 2006 alone.

Yahoo! takeover: agreed, completed

No, not that Yahoo deal; this one is the handing over of their online music store to Real Network & MTV's Rhapsody service.

Yahoo! Music Unlimited customers - of whom there must be, ooh, many - will have their library transfered to the Rhapsody service, and "for a time" pay the same as they're used to. Which is business talk for "will find their prices going up in the midterm."

Meanwhile, Yahoo has swallowed FoxyTunes, the Firefox plug-in business which combines a web-browser remote control for your iTunes with some Last FM-esque sharing-and-community gubbins.

Rhapsody fades

One of the many touted iTunes killers, RealNetwork's Rhapsody service has been finding the battle against Apple something of a struggle; it's merging with MTV's Urge and, as a result, is laying off staff. Rhapsody America, the service which will emerge from the merger, doesn't look likely to have any more impact than the two from which it is hewn.

Real Media disGraces itself

The once ubiquitous Gracenote CD look-up service is getting less ubiquitous all the time, with news that in future, Real will be using All Music Guide's rival - and cheaper - Lasso service to autopopulate the fields when you slip in a CD.

Urge to merge

It seems like just minutes since we were detailing the last iPod/iTunes killer service, and yet here we are with another one. Or, rather, three failed services hoping to pool their - uh - expertise to beat the heck out of iTunes and iPod. Unless it's already been defeated by GBox, in which case, they'll take on that and Zune.

The three partners are MTV and Real, who are merging MTV's unloved Urge and Real's solid-but-sidelined Rhapsody in a deal Verizon Wireless. VW is co-owned by Vodaphone, whose expensive Vodaphone Live content delivery flopped like a sky-diving whale back before we even knew there was an iPod to kill.

The hope is that heavy promotion by MTV will drive take-up, but why MTV's muscle should be able to drive sales to this new venture when it couldn't persuade people to feel the Urge isn't clear. Although since MTV doesn't actually carry much music, it's probably not the best platform to try and connect with music lovers on. If they were selling drawings of dwarves setting fire to themselves, they'd be counting the bucks.

Meanwhile, UK mobile phone companies will be casting a nervous eye at the FT's reports of a deal to bring the iPhone to Europe. In the UK, it's definitely going to be on the O2 network.

Tonight, tonight, tonight

What amuses us best about the ITV.com page introducing the webchat with Martin Bashir is not merely that, rather than provide a link to RealPlayer or Windows Media, they provide the address with the advice that you "type it into your browser." They then say - incredibly generously - that after you've heard Martin's interview, you can keep the player. For Free, mind. But only to view "all the great video that itv.com/news publishes on the top news stories every day."

Natas si setag llib

Oooh, let's all "up"grade from Real Player to Windows Media, shall we? I can't think of an argument against now they're making it virtually impossible to rip from CDs with a new toolkit. One suggestion for everyone: apple.