Green Day - if anything else, at least savvyGreen Day seem to have seen the light with the realities of music-downloading on the web, and are now offering a US$7 CDR pack. The cool thing is that the five CDRs come pressed with the original artwork from each album, so the band probably aren't expecting buyers to actually use the CDRs to burn back-ups of their system settings.



The way of the future perhaps? Free the music, but still pay for the packaging?
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Rodney Hide: for all your Naked News NeedsSo, err, I assume ACT Party Leader Rodney Hide has forgotten to renew his domain name. As a result, the site has now defaulted over to a click-thru page that directs you to, amongst other things, searches on Rodney Dangerfield Jokes, Leather Hides, Naked News, and, of all things, Bin Laden.

UPDATE! Fixed! I think I'll leave this here for posterity, though.


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Apple letting the Indies downMore kerfuffle in the land of digital downloads, with independent labels in Europe complaining that Apple's iTunes store is neglecting them in favour of the major label players. Acts like Franz Ferdinand, The Kills and Elvis Costello are currently unavailable via the online music store. This article from the Guardian outlines some of the labels' frustrations, which are summed up by Harry Martin of Domino Records...

"It is simply bewildering that a company that is perceived as championing this new technology doesn't make it a priority to align itself with record labels in the independent sector."

Although, on a purely parochial level, we could point to Apple's use of Steriogram in the company's USA marketing campaign is a step in the right direction. I suppose they are on a major though...

Anyway, all this comes on top of some more European headaches for the iTunes enterprise, where the Consumers' Association is complaining that the country-by-country pricing scheme the store has in place is in contravention of EU fair trading laws. British customers are paying 17% more for their tracks than their European counter-parts, and because users are locked into buying tracks from their own country's iTunes store, the Brits are crying foul.

At least the new iMac looks pretty.
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In Da Cab!In the fine tradition of Ill Mitch ("This board is fast and danger"), comes another English-language mangling Russian Rapper: MC Yuri. While waiting for his big break, he drives a cab in New York. The other day...

I am driving through Time Square looking up at ad for new movie called Taxi. Big stars in there. Crazy man! I am driving and it is raining. Woman waves for me. Who it is but greatest female rapper of all time, Queen Latifah. I am so excited, I am coming to full stop.

The Queen is in backseat. I say "Let me burst rhymes all over you!" And I drop my rap on her like Russian ICBM - In Da Cab!

In backseat, the Queen is impressed. She axing me - where you are from? "I am from Russia, baby. Number One with Missile. Maybe you can wife to me?" She is laugh. And giving me new nickname – "You are like a Leninem!"

[via the pre-surfer]
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So damn wrongAhh, the messy world of pre-fab pop.

The story starts when staunch NZ music fan and long-time blogger Robyn Gallagher makes an innocuous post over at Idol Blog, pointing out that the debut single by NZ Idol runner-up Michael Murphy has, in fact, already been recorded by American band Vallejo. The song even got nominated for a Latin Grammy (yes, woo-hoo) in 2002.

Robyn provided a link to a download page for the song, for anyone wanting to compare our Michael's version with that of the 'original' (the guy who actually wrote the song was a member of the band that recorded it), at which point the musical pap hit the fan.

NZ Idol Exec Paul Ellis railed against Robyn in a NZ Herald article, accusing her of being...

...a person who commits fraud everyday by downloading songs ... This guy Robyn obviously went to Kazaa or LimeWire purposely to download the song.

Which, of course, is wrong on a couple of levels: Robyn being female for one, and the song being freely available for download via the link she posted on Idol Blog, and also from the band's own website. Naturally Robyn was a little pissed off, and you can see her letter to the NZ Herald editor, refuting Paul's claims here. There's also some discussion about it over at Robyn's livejournal and the nzidol livejournal blog.
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Not user friendly for International usersThe Re-Elect George Dubya screensaver is getting some pretty negative reviews over at download.com. FormerRebublican writes....

This is the worst software ever. Since installing I lost my job to India, my child owes $24,000 plus interest to pay off the national debt and my buddy who got injured in Iraq came home to no job and no benefits. I tried to call tech support and was told I was an enemy combatant for calling to complaign.

And WoodyD was less than impressed...

I had selected a different screensaver to download but this one went ahead and installed itself anyway. Then it deleted all files related to healthcare, blocked me from entering my overtime hours, lied about the dangers imposed by viruses of mass destruction to install VMD software that doesn’t have an uninstall option, and accessed my PayPal account and sent all my money to Halliburton. The only good news is that this program is scheduled to be uninstalled on November 2.

And, disregarding the comical reviews, it does genuinely seem to install spyware on your system. Typical, really.

[via boingboing]
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