Label:Life

A Motorola executive has hinted that Apple will deliver a wireless iPod. This is hardly a surprise, as wireless transmission technology fulfills the promise of the portable music player, making this solitary, anti-social device into the social hardware it should be.

“There are iPods that will ship soon with Bluetooth technology,” Bogdan Nedelcou, Motorola’s manager for automobile products told a French radio interviewer.

So while Bogdan may soon expect an ear-bashing for his “indiscretion”, we’re not much wiser than we were before. Last November a patent filed in April 2003 emerged to demonstrate that Apple had indeed been thinking along these lines.

iPod owners already can listen to their songs sans wires in their car, using a third-party, add-in radio attachment such as the Griffin iTrip. At MacWorld Expo last month, Bluetooth add-ons were launched from two companies, Belkin and TEN. But none of them permit the full potential of the technology to meet the ancient human need to share music. [more @ www.theregister.co.uk]

MotorFM is determined to transform radio in Germany, and it thinks it has the tools to do it: MP3 downloads and songs streamed directly to mobile phones.

The first step has seen MotorFM, launched Feb. 1, abandon on-air commercials in favor of generating revenue from MP3 downloads and targeted sponsoring of its programming. The next step will be streaming audio directly to 3G cell phones and letting listeners pay for downloads by SMS text message. [more @ www.wired.com]

Many popular songs have been turned into mobile phone ringtones, but the tables have been turned and a ringtone is set to be released in the U.K. as a music single in April.

The distinctive “Crazy Frog” ringtone is described on the crazyfrog.co.uk Web site as sounding like “someone pretending to make race car noises” and has been downloaded 1 million times, according to Republic Media, the London-based public relations company promoting the single.

A group calling itself Pondlife took the ringtone and turned it into a song called “Crazy Frog Chorus,” which will be released in the U.K. by Tug Records on April 4. One of the four members of Pondlife is Wes Butters, a DJ on British Broadcasting Co.’s (BBC) Radio One, who warned the music listening public the song will be polarizing. [No s**t! – Ed.][more @ www.thestandard.com]

Amidst all the “will they?, won’t they?” excitement over whether European patent law should be updated, and whether the version currently on offer will allow US-style software patents, it would be easy to forget that another, bigger, battle continues around the world.

It is the “copyfight” – the continuing dispute over what sort of legal protection creative people or the companies that employ them should have over the ways in which their works are used.

It is the fight which has given us the European Union Copyright Directive and the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act, both of which provide for severe legal penalties against anyone who breaks the codes that protect DVDs, iTunes Music Store downloads and e-books etc.

On the other side it has given us the original Napster, peer to peer networks, BitTorrent and the DVD-reading program deCSS.

This week the Institute for Public Policy Research, the UK think tank, held a meeting on copyright as part of its digital manifesto project, and I (Bill Thompson/P2PNet) went along to listen. [more @ www.p2pnet.net] [An interesting article on the changing landscape of copyright and how it should adjust to modern culture.-Ed]

UK-signed breakthrough acts Keane, Franz Ferdinand and Scissor Sisters have picked up multiple nominations for this year’s Music Week Awards.

The three groups, whose debut albums all achieved multi-platinum status domestically last year, lead the hopefuls in the event’s shortlists, which were announced last night at an event at London’s Whitfield Street Studios.

Keane claim two mentions across the nine judged shortlists with Island’s Jon Turner and Alex Waldron for best UK marketing campaign, while Universal’s Chris Dwyer and Alex Myers are challenging for best international marketing campaign.

Franz Ferdinand’s two nominations include best marketing campaign, while Mirelle Davis and Caroline Butler and Epic US’s Brian Cellar are shortlisted for the act in the best international marketing campaign category. [more @ www.musicweek.com] (Subscription)

Simon Fuller is among the senior figures who are teaming up with Ingenious Media to launch a new venture capital fund which will offer 20 independent acts £1m each to exploit the more advanced revenue generation streams controlled by the majors.

Ingenious will sign deals with a band manager or independent label, enabling the parties to jointly approach a major with both money and talent. The major does not sign the act, but offers access to a global distribution network and potential revenue steams the independent label could not match.

For the major, this represents less of a financial risk than signing a new band; it makes its money by taking a share of the sales revenue generated through its distribution network, be it physical or digital. [more @ www.musicweek.com] (Subscription)

3, the UK’s first and largest video mobile network, today announced that more than 10 million music videos have been watched by its customers on their mobiles since the launch of its video jukebox service only 6 months ago.

It is also announced that 3 has entered into a new agreement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment UK. Last July BMG UK & Ireland was the first major record company to sign a deal for its artists with 3 and since that time the company has merged with Sony Music in the process creating Sony BMG Music Entertainment. [more @ www.mi2n.com]

This week’s pick is ‘Fabriclive 20 : Joe Ransom’, released 02/21/05, the latest in the series of mixes on Fabric Records by guests who’ve rocked the London club of the same name.

On this release, Joe Ransom hotfoots through some of British urban music’s most exciting talent. Using quick mixes and fast cuts, he brings dub-drenched rhythms and cinematic hip hop. Current heroes like M.I.A., Ty, Dizzee Rascal, Roots Manuva, and Rodney P rub up to London’s nightime movers Ali B, Zinc, Tayo, Stanton Warriors, and Plus One. A good introduction to UK ‘Urban’ (Ugh!) music for those who ain’t heard it, and a classy wee reminder for those who have. Check it out HERE.

A campaign has been launched to help independent labels get their music online and benefit from the growing trend for downloading music.

The British Phonographic Industry has identified a lack of independent music available for download.

“We want to ensure that independent repertoire is as successful in the download world as it is in the physical world,” said BPI chief Peter Jamieson.

Downloaded singles have now overtaken physical singles in the UK. [more @ www.bbc.co.uk]

The Hot 100 is going digital.

For the first time, Billboard magazine will include songs sold by download in its weekly calculation of the nation’s top hits. The change reflects the booming popularity of digital music players such as Apple’s iPod, which has accounted for dramatic increases in download sales.

Billboard’s Hot 100 list has been around from the days of sheet music to 45 rpm records to now, when many people buy songs through services like iTunes. [more @ www.signonsandiego.com]