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Rumored iTunes subscription: $130 per year

From Wired:

An anonymous tipster seems to have contacted several Mac rumor publications with rumors about an unlimited music subscription within iTunes.

Rock Band adds Rush download

Soon, you, too, can play "YYZ."

Rush joins the Pixies, Judas Priest and The Cars as bands offering full albums as downloadable content for the "Rock Band" video game.

The entirety of "Moving Pictures" will be available for $10.99 (880 Microsoft Points) for the album, or $1.99 (160 Microsoft Points) per track.

More in the press release following the jump.

Journey at the Center of the Earth

'Nuff said.

Radiohead to Prince: Lighten up

After Prince so famously covered "Creep" at Coachella in April, fans flooded YouTube with vids. Prince made YouTube remove them. Radiohead found out and told the Machiavellian one: "No, dude, only we can pull a vid to OUR SONG. Put  them back up."

In the future, robots will tune your guitar for you (and that future is now)

From the Associated Press:

TOKYO (AP) — Musicians of the world are getting a new kind of artistic freedom with technology that eliminates the challenging chore of tuning.

Robotics technology developed by German company Tronical Gmbh in partnership with Gibson Guitar Corp. enables Gibson's newest Les Paul model to tune itself in about two seconds.

For users who purchase the add-on technology, the guitar recognizes pitch. Then, its processor directs motors on its six tuning pegs to tighten or loosen the strings accordingly. Tronical has offered its “Powertune System” online and through retailers in Germany since March, according to the company's Web site.

The long, slow, agonizing death of the compact disc continues unabated.

USA Today discovered today that musicians are using the humble USB drive to distribute their music. Matchbox Twenty's new album, "Exile on Mainstream," is being sold on a USB bracelet via Best Buy.

But before you think the labels were catching up with technology, hear the price: $35.

Naturally, the drive contains some "extras," including two videos, one of which you can watch here for free.

USAT quotes the band as saying they stole the idea from Willie Nelson, who sells a similar device (left) at his shows. Willie's USB contains a downloaded version of that night's gig. More here.

| David Frese, The Kansas City Star

Apple Inc. seeking end to music copy restrictions in talks with recording companies

From the Associated Press' business desk:

The last time Apple Chief Executive Steve Jobs took on major recording companies, he refused to budge on his 99-cent price for a song on iTunes.

As a new round of talks ramp up this month, however, Jobs has opened the door to higher prices — as long as music companies let Apple Inc. sell their songs without technology designed to stop unauthorized copying.

iTunes introduces album credits

A little business news concerning iTunes:

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Apple Inc., the company that popularized selling songs online for 99 cents apiece, now hopes to buoy interest in albums, giving customers credit for purchases of full albums from which they have bought individual tracks.
    Apple introduced the “Complete My Album” feature Thursday on its iTunes Store. It now gives a full credit of 99 cents for every track the user previously purchased and applies it toward the purchase of the complete album.
    For instance, most albums on iTunes cost $9.99 so a customer who already bought three tracks can download the rest of the album for $7.02.
   

Straight Outta Geekville, Episode V: R.I.P. Satellite radio?

(The Star's books editor, John Mark Eberhart, posts here occasionally about music and music technology.)

Bring me down, Scotty.

The proposed merger of the XM and Sirius satellite radio systems is being touted by the two companies as good for everybody. Listeners, they say, actually would have more programming choices after the merger, in addition to “a la carte” purchasing that would let them pay for stations they like and skip those they don’t.

Straight Outta Geekville, Episode IV: I hate mp3s

(iPod advertising photo from The Kansas City Star photo archives.)

(Editor's note: The Star's Books Editor, John Mark Eberhart, occasionally posts here about music technology. Here's his latest, which he subtitled, "In Which the Nerd Formerly Apologetic for his Addiction to High-End Audio Has a Change of Heart and Eviscerates mp3s.")

I'm hoppin' mad.

Not long ago I wrote that I've pretty much accepted the idea that high-end audio formats such as DVD-Audio and SACD aren't making it. Still, I listen to the stuff I've purchased in those formats; still, I marvel at the sound quality, the cleanness of the music, the spaciousness of the mixes.

I'm a geek, though. Most people - especially younger people, of which there seems to be an ever-increasing supply - have rejected high-end, multchannel audio in favor of the dreaded, inferior mp3 format.

Look, I understand we're a mobile culture now. I grok that sitting in an overstuffed chair listening to overstuffed music on overstuffed, expensive audio gear isn't considered hip. But if we're going to hear our music on iPods and the like, isn't there a better format out there?