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Exploit closed

The iTunes hack found by the famous DVD Jon has been alleviated.

Apple addressed the issue with iTunes that only put the DRM wrapping on a song after it had been purchased and downloaded.

Yesterday Apple released this statement: "The security hole in the iTunes Music Store which was recently exploited has been closed, and as a consequence the iTunes Music Store will now sell music only to customers using iTunes version 4.7."

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Apple plugs iTunes security hole

iTunes hack by DVD Jon

The famous DVD Jon is back and this time around, he has hacked a way to buy songs off of iTunes with out the DRM.

When you buy a song off of iTunes Music Store the software doesn’t add the digital rights management tag until the song has been downloaded. Well Jon has put together a program that conveniently neglects to wrap the file with any of the copy protection. His new DRM neglecting program is called PyMusique.

DVD Jon is originally credited with hacking the encryption software that protected and localized DVDs. More lately he cracked the digital rights management of iTunes music store tracks for use by the GNU/Linux community. DVD Jon typically states that his motives are for the neglected Linux community and that the previous two hacks were to allow Linux users to watch DVDs and listen to iTunes songs on their computers.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Apple hit by DVD Jon

HipSolve Media buyout

HipSolve Media, a small start up that has been working for the last few years on creating system to allow record labels a direct selling approach for digital music, is taking bids for acquisition of the company.

iHoopla is the product of HipSolve and is formulating how artists and labels distribute music. The company does this by offering music labels and publishers the ability to distribute their music directly to customers. The system includes all of the DRM necessary and is seen as a way to cut out the middleman, such as the iTunes Music Store.

The HipSolve website describes it as, “this makes it possible for content owners to take 100% control of their catalogs, keep 95% of their revenues and deposit online profits direct to their own merchant account in real time. There is no need to outsource digital distribution to current sites that want to split revenues. Taking control of how and when products are promoted, combined with robust back end tools, eliminates the headache and expense of hiring a web development team.”

Among many others Apple Computer has a $3.6 million bid in for the company.

For the full story:
Think Secret - Apple in talks to acquire HipSolve Media

Latest iTunes Update Breaks Hymn

The latest update to Apple's iTunes, version 4.7.1, breaks the anti-DRM utility Hymn (aka PlayFair) released last year to unDRM Apple's FairPlay scheme and allow for protected songs to be copied freely.

The Hymn tool is used to remove restrictions put in place at Apple'siTunes Music Store, allowing people who have purchased music there touse it as they see fit, much like a regular CD. At least, accordign tosupporters of the program.

Apple, RIAA et al allege that the program is used to allow people to pirate tunes purchased from the online store.

Earlier in the year Apple threatened the author and his host. In May, Anand Babu moved the software to a host in India.

Contributed by:
Tinfoil Music - Digital Media and Music News

GarageBand 2 Details

Details of GarageBand 2 are beginning to emerge.

* Multitrack: If you have a multichannel audio interface, you can
now record eight tracks at once, plus one virtual instrument track.
* Notation view: Display and edit your music as real-time
notation; essentially a score view you can have on the screen at the
same time as the traditional track view. This apparently does not
print. (I'm getting more details on that.)
* Timing and pitch correction: Displayed as a simple fader for
each, plus a 'constrain to key' for more sophisticated pitch
correction, a la Apple Logic Pro's Vocal Enhancer (or the Pro Tools
AutoTune plugin that generates the infamous 'Cher' effect if turned up
too high)
* MIDI Import, Save to Loop Library: Finally here: you can import
MIDI files, and you can save audio directly to loops. Unfortunately,
still no MIDI export, which means you can't write a song in GarageBand
and export to a notation program for printing; you have to upgrade to
Logic Express. (Ugh!)
* Orchestral Jam Pack 4: As predicted by rumor sites, Apple has
launched a new orchestral jam pack with 2,000 loops and 30 "of the
most important" orchestral instruments. (Hey, keep your viola jokes to
yourself!)

Cost: US$79 for iLife 05 (no separate GarageBand upgrade)

Story contributed by:
Tinfoil Music - Digital Media and Music News

Microsoft is making partners

At this weeks’ International Consumer Electronics Show, Microsoft took the opportunity to announce a number of partnerships, however none were based on the center of the digital music world.

However, there has also been speculation that Microsoft and Sony will soon be working together. Both companies have admitted to having conversations on a number of topics of technological interest.

A deal between these two companies would make sense for delivering music in multiple formats however analysts are concerned over the collaboration as it could leaved to a lock out of other digital music industry players.

Bill Gates, representing Microsoft, stated at CES that they will be working with Yahoo Inc., MTV Networks Inc., Tivo Inc. and Fox Sports aimed at increasing the amount of digital content distributed through its Web sites.

For the full story:
MacCentral - CES : Microsoft eyes Sony deal in digital music push

Streaming Audio Capture

You have probably listened to streaming radio and you probably have a digital music player but until now those have stayed separate.

Now you can do a streaming-audio capture with a variety of different tools and put that captured content onto your digital music player. This once again allows you to “steal” music. .

Although it seems likely that record companies will sue, and most likely the makers of these tools, it is also likely that the ruling will be similar to the Sony Betamax case. In that case the product had a legitimate use that did not infringe copyright so as a whole the product was said not to be illegal. As long as these streaming audio capture tools can prove that they have a valid use they should be allowed.

For the full story:
PC Magazine - Streaming-Audio Capture Tools

New iTunes

Apple has released a new version of iTunes that now incorporates a pan-European digital music store. Apple has also announced a Canadian iTunes music store sometime next month.

The iTunes music service offers downloads to Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Belgian, Finnish, Greek, Portuguese music fans for €0.99 a piece. However the language for all the new countries is in English.

Apple also announced that it would be opening a Canadian iTunes in November.

For the full story:
The Register - Apple opens Euro iTunes stores

Yahoo! to! launch! its! own! music! player! software!

Not content with recent $160M purchase of Musicmatch, Yahoo! is planning on launching its own digital music software.

According to ZDNet.au, Yahoo! has been working on it’s digital music software since late last year. The company plans to release this, along with its own download and subscription service. This service will be powered by MusicNet and will run along side Yahoo!'s Musicmatch.

Analysts for ZDNet.au think that this 'double-barreled strategy could help shoot it quickly to a top role in a business increasingly populated by giants such as Microsoft and Sony', but this analyst for Tinfoil Music thinks they were just itching to use the phrase 'double-barreled strategy' and that two mediocre services does not equal one iTunes (damnit Apple, PLEASE open an iTunes in Canada!).

Yahoo!'s purchase of Musicmatch brings the portal some 160,000 subscribers and the Musicmatch jukebox software, love it or hate it.

With the likes of Wal-Mart and eBay getting into the online music scene, it was only a matter of time before Yahoo! did as well. It seems to be the thing to do right now. In fact, because I want to be cool just like everyone else, I am thinking about launching a service too. Shouldn't be too difficult... Microsoft did it.

Written by:
Joe McGuire aka Tinfoil
Originally posted on:
Tinfoil Music - Digital Media and Music News

iPodDownload removed

Apple, through a Mac programmer’s ISP, has forced a piece of software that lets users transfer songs off their iPod to their iTunes library off the internet.

Sylvain Demongeot, the iPodDownloader creator, was notified through his ISP that Apple didn’t want his software on the internet. It is believed that this is because Apple is trying to prohibit the stealing of music by only allowing one iPod to be linked up to one iTunes library at a time. Demongeot’s software could allow one iPod user to share his music with any computer that had iTunes.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Apple pulls plug on iTunes add-on

Microsoft’s iTunes copy

Microsoft has publicly admitted to having its developers look at how Apple built their music store and as a result the two music stores (iTunes and Microsoft’s) look and act almost exactly the same.

There are a few differences between the two, like iTunes has a lot more features but Microsoft’s music store has a number of artists that only sell their whole albums, not individual songs. Something that Apple probably didn’t want to have a part of as it seems to underlay one of the best features of a digital music store, picking only the songs you want.

The similarities are overwhelming though, $.99 a song and $10 albums. The digital rights management found with iTune, called FairPlay, is also mimicked with Microsoft's new digital music store. A user can copy a purchased song to five computers, burn up to seven copies of the same playlist onto a CD and download the song to unlimited digital music players. You also get a free 30-second preview of each song with the digital music store.

In the end it will boil down to which system people will like to use, Apple or Microsoft.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - 'We copied iTunes' – Microsoft

A Legal DRM Hack

A German company has devised a way to “legally” turn encrypted iTunes and WMA tracks into non-DRM digital music files.

Tunebite, as the software is called, uses a loophole to get past the DRM. "This worldwide legal loophole provides the opportunity of legal private use by the analogous recording of media while it is being played. This can be compared with music from the radio, or movies from TV, which can be legally recorded onto cassette recorders or VCRs. Tunebite uses this principle by the analogous re-recording of tracks that are played back."

Tunebite software rerecords the music using the PC’s soundcard and RapidSolution Software, the makers of this software. claim that their software can re-record at up to 256 kbit/s leaving almost on loss of quality.

Apple has not yet reacted to this announcement but in the past they have reacted angrily to companies and people messing with their FairPlay encryption.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Non-iPods get 'legal' iTunes solution

Apple vs. Microsoft in Phones

Microsoft has been keeping their plan of incorporating all cell phones with software that would be able to play Microsoft’s proprietary music and DRM format very hush hush until now.

This comes after Apple announced that it was teaming up with Motorola to incorporate their software, iTunes, into cell phones to allow music purchased from the iTunes Music Store to be played on the go. This was the first move for Apple away from the iPod to a device that was also mobile.

Microsoft, as they typically do, is going after all chip and handsets makers. The market size that Microsoft is going after is 650 million handsets a year.

Cell phones and smart phones, which some are capable of holding up to 2,000 minutes of music, are the next major target for the players in the digital music war. It will be interesting to see if Apple can hold out against the ruthless Microsoft.

For the full story:
Reuters - Microsoft Sees Music Opportunity in Cell Phones

Roxio to become Napster

Roxio is shedding the software aspect of its operations so that it can focus just on Napster.

Roxio is selling the software to Sonic Solutions who is a known manufacture of DVD-creation software. Roxio will pocket $70 million in cash and Sonic shares valued at approximately $10 million.

CEO and Roxio Chairman Chris Gorog had this to say, “Napster will emerge as a well-positioned pure-play in the fast-growing digital music sector with a substantially enhanced balance sheet that will support our growth plans.”

For the full story:
Macworld UK - Napster sheds Roxio

Nokia wants in

In a move to counter Apple’s deal with Motorolla, Nokia is partering with digital music distributor Loudeye to develop a music download platform for mobile phones.

Loudeye’s deal with Nokia differs then the deal between Apple and Motorolla in one aspect however. Loudeye, not being a retailer like Apple’s iTunes, is working to create the infrastructure for mobile networks to brand their download service. Loudeye thinks mobile networks will choose to do this rather they to build their own.

Nokia only seems interested in selling headsets and not the music. Nokia’s key customers are the networks not the end consumers. Nokia is also still the leading the worldwide mobile phone race, however their share is shrinking.

For the full story:
The Register - Nokia moves to counter Apple-Moto music alliance

Linux gets iTunes

Soon, users of Linux will be able to run iTunes on their computers due to a company called CodeWeavers who have add support for the digital music jukebox in their Windows-emulation software.

CrossOver Office 3.1 will include the iTunes support and is currently in preview form with the final version expected later this year. According to the CEO of CodeWeaver, Jeremy White, iTunes has been there number one demanded application.

There are also other open source projects that include an iPod plug-in for the tex9’s xtunes software as well as a project that is working on putting Linux on the iPod.

For the full story:
Macworld UK - iTunes coming to Linux

Real tries open source world

Real Networks is between a rock and a hard spot and is looking for ways out of that position. They have turned to having their software bundled with Red Hat and Novell.

In the past, the open source community has ignored the two major players available, iTunes from Apple and Windows Media Player from Microsoft. Real has also recently struck a deal with Sun and Turbolinux..

Real is also releasing Real Player 10 for Mac OS X on June 30th.

For the full story:
The Register

Itunes 4.6 and Airport Express

Apple released a new version of the iTunes software so that users can take advantage of a new piece of hardware that they also released on Monday called Airport Express.

The Airport express is a unique device in that it works as a wireless hub that is the size of a powerbook power adapter and looks about the same. The unit has a ports so that you can hook it up to a printer as well as to any stereo or powered speaker system.

The new version of iTunes now includes Airtunes, software that will allow you to assign different playlists to different Airport Expresses. This basically means you can stream your iTunes music to any room in the house.

For the full story:
Apple
Macworld UK - iTunes 4.6 released

Windows Media Player 10

Wednesday saw the release of the new Windows Media Player 10 by Microsoft in its technical beta stage.

The new media player includes a variety of features both in front and behind the scenes. The biggest new feature is that the software will allows user to play music from a variety of different music subscriptions.

The major behind-the-scenes improvement with the software is with “Janus.” Janus allows music that is listened to via a subscription service to be used on a portable music player. Users will be able to listen to music that they have leased on their player as long as they keep paying their monthly fee.

The new player is has a sleek and simple user interface. The full release to the public is not expected until the fall. This will be the same time that compatible portable music players from Creative Technology, iRiver, Samsung and others will also be released.

For the full story:
Wired - Microsoft Edges Into ITunes' Turf 

Sony teaming up with Audible Magic

Sony Music is teaming up with the content filtering company, Audible Magic, in an attempt to combat peer-to-peer piracy.

Sony Music is providing digital “finger prints” to Audible Magic which then creates technology to identify and block songs that are in the process of being traded. This anitpiracy program is aimed at Universities.

Sony is also licensing Audible Magic’s song identification software for use in its internal operations.

Previous story about Audible Magic:
Song identification software

For the full story:
CNET News - Sony casts Audible Magic for antipiracy push

Founder Computers to use iTunes

One of china's largest PC producers, Founder, is installing the iTunes software in their computers starting in June.

Digital music is become more and more important in China and iTunes is currently the leading digital jukebox software. An Apple spokesman said that Apple will continue to cooperate with Founder to provide the simple and seamless music experience for numerous users in China.

For the full story:
Global Sources - Founder, Apple Cooperate to Provide Digital Music Experience