Digital Noise: Music and Technology

Microsoft's Bach: We'd do Zune differently

Matt Rosoff — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 01:02:00 GMT

I tuned into Thursday's conversation between Microsoft's Robbie Bach and financial analysts at CES. Bach is the president of the company's Entertainment and Devices division, which includes Xbox, Windows Mobile, retail channel relationships, and most of the other fun stuff. It also includes the Zune, which, given ...

Where Cisco could beat Sonos

Matt Rosoff — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 04:14:00 GMT

Last week, I expressed some doubt that Cisco Systems would be able to come up with a multiroom audio system that's usable by mere mortals. After all, home networking is still a pain to set up and debug, and Linksys isn't exactly a beloved consumer name.

(Credit: Cisco)

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We'll wait for Barcelona for Zune, mobile news

Matt Rosoff — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 03:43:00 GMT

Bill Gates skipped the Consumer Electronics Show this year, leaving the coveted opening-night keynote spot to CEO Steve Ballmer.

While Ballmer's always an engaging and funny speaker, the company didn't have much to say: a couple long-rumored deals for Live Search, some Windows 7 features that have already ...

DRM deathwatch: iTunes, the final chapter

Matt Rosoff — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:57:00 GMT

CNET News' Greg Sandoval is already covering the story, so I won't belabor it, but kudos to Apple and the three holdout record labels--Sony, Universal, and Warner--for reaching an agreement that will result in more than 8 million songs being available on iTunes with no digital rights management (DRM) ...

Free trial version of Sonar 8

Matt Rosoff — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 19:53:00 GMT

A digital-audio workstation is probably the most important purchase an audio engineer has to make--it's the command and control center for your entire computer-based recording rig, and you'll be spending most of your time in it.

Unfortunately, pro-level DAWs are complicated pieces of software, and everybody's got ...

I woke up this morning, and my Zune was gone

Matt Rosoff — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 18:25:00 GMT

Update: Microsoft has just posted an official explanation for the problem--it's related to a clock driver that doesn't handle leap years properly. So apparently, the Zune 30 is date-aware. The fix: wait for January 1, let your battery run down, charge it up again, and turn it on. ...

Music tech predictions for 2009

Matt Rosoff — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 00:01:00 GMT

As I said in my 2008 sum-up, people tend to overestimate the amount of change that will happen in one year--which means my best bet for 2009 would be to simply reiterate my almost-there predictions from 2008, like the death of DRM and the decline of the concert industry.

What ...

Would you buy a Cisco home audio system?

Matt Rosoff — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 23:22:00 GMT

Networking is a dark art, and putting the word "home" in front of it makes it no simpler. Debugging a home network is not for the faint of heart--the intelligence of the on-screen wizards peters out after the first few obvious fixes, and soon you're checking help forums, running ...

How'd I do on 2008 predictions?

Matt Rosoff — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 20:04:00 GMT

Update, 1/6/09: Today during the MacWorld keynote, Apple announced that it would offer the vast majority of songs for sale on iTunes without DRM restrictions, and would begin making iTunes downloads available over 3G cellular networks as well as Wi-Fi connections. Six days--I'll take a mulligan, raising ...

Hey Obama: Reboot the music industry!

Matt Rosoff — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:09:00 GMT

Yesterday, New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote a post suggesting that president-elect Obama needs to do more than throw money at ailing industries, but actually needs to "reboot" America by investing in infrastructure and education. In Newsweek, law professor and intellectual property thinker Lawrence Lessig argued for a more ...