One of Michael Robertson’s friends sent him a link on Tuesday to an article about Amazon launching its Cloud Player music service, with a note saying: “Finally, people can store their music in the cloud!” The friend knew this would get a laugh out of the Mp3tunes.com founder, since he has been trying to build a similar cloud-based music service for more than a decade. So how does he feel about Amazon joining the party? “Bring it on,” he says. Robertson also believes Amazon’s approach could have interesting legal consequences, since it appears to be playing fast and loose with the terms of its licenses from the major record labels.

Robertson said he looks at Amazon’s entry into the cloud-based music market in two ways. As a competitor, he said, “We kick their butt in all kinds of ways — we work on the iPhone, we work on Windows 7, we have an open API. If you match us feature-for-feature, we are clearly superior.” He called the Amazon offering “a solid version one,” but said it is missing many of the added bells and whistles that Mp3tunes offers, including the ability to transcode music on the fly when streaming to a mobile device.

Competition aside, the Mp3tunes founder also says he is glad that Amazon has launched its service, and that Google is soon expected to do the same. He’s hoping that these new services will bring more attention to the marketplace, where his company and several other small players such as mSpot have been toiling away trying to get noticed for years.

They did a lot of things right with this service. And it will bring more attention to the landscape and that will be good for everyone.

So far, the only ones who have really paid much attention to Robertson are the major record labels, who have repeatedly sued him for trying to put “their” music in the cloud. His first effort was MyMp3. That service was part of mp3.com, the company he launched in 1997, long before Apple introduced the iPod and came to dominate the field of digital music. Like Amazon’s new service, MyMp3 also allowed users to upload music to their digital lockers and listen to it whenever they wanted.

Mp3.com was sued by all the major record labels, who argued that the service amounted to widespread copying of their content, and Robertson sold the company in 2001. Eventually — after launching several other services, including a voice-over-IP company called SIPphone and a Linux-based Windows competitor called Linspire (originally known as Lindows) — he started Mp3tunes. Once again he tried to offer cloud-based music storage lockers, complete with what he called “side-loading,” which allowed users to move music they bought elsewhere online into their lockers.

Not surprisingly, Robertson was sued again, by the record label EMI. The case is currently before the courts, and the Mp3tunes founder says that what Amazon is doing has a direct bearing on his lawsuit, since many of the services the giant online retailer is offering — including moving purchases directly into users’ storage accounts — aren’t permitted by the licenses Amazon has with the major record labels (the company has said that it doesn’t think it needs new licenses). Says Robertson:

It’s a fascinating throwdown with the record labels. Everyone knows that Apple and Google are formulating their own plans in this area, and here’s Amazon effectively saying we don’t care about those licenses.

As for being the pioneer who has been trying to build a business for a decade, only to see giants like Amazon and Apple come along and try to take it away, Robertson is surprisingly sanguine. “That’s the free market,” he says with a laugh. “The same thing that allows me to do it allows anyone to come along and copy me and compete with me. It’s not enough to have the idea, you have to have the execution and the timing — and being early is almost the same as being wrong, unfortunately.”

The Mp3tunes founder says his service has about 750,000 users but admits, “That’s not really enough to build a business on.” Robertson is hoping that while the big players are expanding the market, he can carve out enough of a user base to keep his decade-long fight alive. And if not? “Then I lose,” he says. “That’s part of life.”

Post and thumbnail photos courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

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Katy Perry claimed her fourth No. one song on Billboard’s Hot one hundred singles chart Wednesday, as “Firework” rose 1 put to the top spot. “Firework’s” ascension to No. one signifies that six different songs in the previous six weeks have claimed the top Hot one hundred ranking Katy Perry Firework mp3 download, extending a turnover ratio not noticed in far more than 20 a long time.

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They say rock bands change members as frequently as vain people change clothes. This seems to be specifically true for the Misfits. Despite being firmly established in the music industry, the group has seen considerable member changes as reflected in their Misfits discography.

Band History

The Misfits has been around for quite some time. The original members came together in 1977 in New Jersey. At that time, Glenn Danzig took on the role of singer and songwriter. Band members included Manny Martinez on drums, Jimmy Battle on guitar and Diane DiPiazza on bass guitar. The next six years saw an extremely dynamic line up with band members coming and going. Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only were the only two members who consistently stayed on. The official band member count has been pegged at seventeen. Eight of these are drummers.

The band disbanded in 1983 but was resurrected, in a manner of speaking, in 1995 but only after a series of nasty legal battles for the right to use the name. It was to be expected as, during the official hiatus of the band, its influence in the punk rock, alternative rock and heavy metal genres has been firmly established. Thus, any person who will take on the name will have almost instant appeal in the new music market.

At present, the members of the group are Jerry Only (a.k.a. Gerald Caifa) on lead vocals and bass guitar, Des Cadena on backing vocals and guitar as well as Robo (a.k.a. Roberto Valverde) on drums. Music fans may hope that there will be no musical chairs coming up but it is still a possibility given the band’s rocky history, pun intended.

Released Albums

The Misfits are considered the pioneers of the subgenre known as horror punk or death punk. This musical style blends punk rock with other musical influences coupled with liberal doses of morbid imagery particularly of death, thus, the name assigned to the genre.

For more than three years, it is safe to say that the group has been hugely influential. Their influence is thanks to their productivity. To date, the group has six studio Misfits albums, twelve singles, five music videos, two live albums, four EPs, one box set and a lone DVD. Fans also like to add to this body of work one scrapped Misfits album.

The group’s work makes an interesting list of albums:

• Walk Among Us- Static Age and 12 Hits From Hell were the first Misfits albums but this third one was the first release for the year 1982
• Earth A.D./Wolfs Blood- This was released at the end of 1983 and marked the last piece of work in which Glenn Danzig recorded with the group
• American Psycho- The title was taken from the novel by Bret Easton Ellis and was released in 1997
• Static Age- This was recorded in 1978 but it took nearly two decades for it to finally come out in its entirety
• Famous Monster- This 1999 album reminds fans of the kind of music for which Lady Gaga is now popular for
• Project 1950- The title says it all as it features songs from the 50s

The Misfits don’t have to work hard to stay popular. They are every bit as popular now as they were before and fans continue to eagerly wait for band and music merch developments.

I assumed that VHS tapes had gone the route of Polaroid film and were continuing to be phased out of existence. I must have been too hasty, because according to the Entertainment Retailer’s Association, videocassette sales in Britain have more than doubled in the past year.

In the grand scheme of home entertainment, these numbers are hardly a drop in the bucket. Movies, PC games, and console titles are still moving millions of copies per title. VHS has jumped up 214%, except total sales still haven’t cracked 100K.

But who’s still making all of these tapes? At least with other retro media formats such as vinyl and instant film, there are distinct advantages over today’s mediums. MP3s don’t have anywhere near the same fidelity or warmth, and modern cameras still can’t instantly print analog prints. But I don’t see anything VHS tapes can do that DVDs can’t do exponentially better.

One interesting tidbit is that music sales aren’t as far down as you’d expect. 2009 only saw a 0.8% decline despite the loss of large chain stores such as Zavvi and Woolsworth. According to ERA director general Kim Bayley:

“It’s too early to say whether this is the music market bottoming out”

But some changes to the music delivery system may be responsible. The average price of an album has dropped below £8 for the first time, and smaller, independent retailers are surviving. Seems the US could take a leaf out of their book, perhaps?

Not long ago, it was revealed that the major players in the music market were working on a single-file album format, by which they could sell you albums at an inflated price but with value added: cover art, videos, interviews, and so on. Of course, Apple was already on that, and now, with the major labels’ “CMX” format still off in the future, Apple has given them a black eye by introducing iTunes LPs.

These LPs will include all sorts of bonus features like custom album art and music videos, and will be accessed in a special full-screen menu. Sounds pretty hot, though I do want to note here that Zune has been packing bonus stuff for quite a while, and the Zune HD will have access to some of these kinds of features — more than the original Zune, anyhow.

Still, that’s no reason not to rejoice. I like the idea, but since I can’t stand iTunes, I’m a bit out of luck. Good news for you guys, though.

Faced with heat from iTunes and other digital downloads, the nearly-three-decade-old music CD is slowly melting away.

iTunes-purchased songs now account for 25 percent of the overall music market–both physical and digital–in the U.S., says an NPD Group report released Tuesday. However, CDs are still the most popular format …

Originally posted at News – Apple