Digital Music Services

Downloaded Breezes Through the Story of Napster

SWEET TOOTH

Hot Sugar heats up spike hill

Rhett Miller

Changes At eMusic: Def Jam In, Matador And Merge Out

Better go get this now.​If you want a one-URL "major" vs. "indie" battleground -- what defines and/or divides them, which lifestyle brand the discerning-legal-downloader demographic really prefers -- you could do far worse than eMusic, the excellent monthly-subscription MP3 service (which empl ... More >>

"There Is No Way To Overstate How Passionately Some People Hate This Record": In Praise of eMusic's Clear-Eyed Appraisal Of The R.E.M. Catalog

​ One fear, as fine digital purveyors like Rhapsody and eMusic expand and mutate and more frequently generate fine music criticism of their own, is that they'll shy away from, well, criticism -- as they are literally in the music business, they'll be loathe to talk trash even when trash-talk m ... More >>

The Listening Habits of New Yorkers in 2009, Revealed

​According to Last.fm, anyway. No real surprises--we listened to way more Grizzly Bear, Animal Collective, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Jay-Z, etc. than did the rest of the world. Plus we basically stole Phoenix from France and Girls from California. For a kind of smug satisfaction, watch as music crops u ... More >>

Download: Julianna Barwick's "Bode"

Yes In My Backyard is a semiweekly column showcasing MP3s from new and emerging local talent. Julianna Barwick photo by Claire Titley​Brooklyn one-woman choir Julianna Barwick makes ambrosial symphonies using just her voice and a loop pedal. With her church upbringing and punk rock attitude, ... More >>

How the Music Industry Died: Steve Knopper's Appetite for Self-Destruction

A Rolling Stone reporter charts the doomed path from Thriller to Internet-based horror

More Apocalyptic Discourse with Appetite for Self-Destruction scribe Steve Knopper

'If they're waiting for the next Thriller to come along and save everything, they're really, really misguided. I hope they've figured it out by now.' This week in the hopelessly antiquated print version of the Voice, I chat with veteran Rolling Stone editor/reporter Steve Knopper, whose new book ... More >>

Why MySpace Music Won't Succeed

Rupert Murdoch's pride and joy is trying to go legit; mayhem may ensue, and success may not

Cred Sheet

Stuff You Need to Know to Avoid Cultural Ostracism

Never Ending Math Equation

After the court decision, file shares and mixtapes float on

iTunes, yr Tunes

Napster revives the freedom to explore, but will it dent Apple's now iconic market hegemony?

Fair Useless

Corporations vainly scheme to the beat of a different DRM

Let's Run the Tape

A German TV network uses a marathoner to win the anti-convention footage race

Darknet Blues

The Music Industry Makes Peace With Big Software—at Dial-Up Speed

Rough Trade

Little Johnny and Big-Biz Music Duke It Out Over Peer-to-Peer Software

Byterock’s Greatest Hits

The Politics of Napping

Napsternomics

The Pop Solution to Downloading

Net Loss

Music Industry Report Projects Huge Losses to Web Piracy

Keeping Up With the Napsters

At Pho, a Thousand E-mails a Month Track the Great Digital Debate