Cow’s Blog

June 28th, 2009

photo: Pear Biter

The BBC report that music bosses are considering incorporating music streaming into the Top 40. That would mean listening statistics from Spotify, Deezer and other top music streaming sites would be considered in calculating the most popular songs.

The Official UK Charts Company said it was “bound to” include streaming and subscription services at some point, but not for at least another year.

Because listeners do not pay per track - if at all - those plays would be likely to carry less weight than normal sales.

It’s a change which would totally shake up the charts.

At present, songs are considered for the charts at the point of sale. By considering music streaming, songs are considered at the point of use. It’s an important distinction. Take Pink Floyd - chances are not many people are buying Pink Floyd music at the moment: there are no new singles or albums being released. Yet, many people are listening to Pink Floyd at the moment. By shifting the focus from point of sale to point of use, there would be a huge change in the charts, benefiting popular artists who produce timeless music.

photo: James Jordan

According to Martin Talbot, managing director of the Official Charts company, “Knowing what a stream is worth compared to a purchase of a download, for instance, is very difficult to identify at the moment, but that’s obviously going to be the next step,”.

This is going to be a big problem. Whatever weighting is assigned to streaming, it is going to be possible for people to manipulate the charts by incessantly streaming the same song. I remember when downloads were added to the chart: there was a big campaign to try and get The Wurzels into the charts. It never happened in the end: it took too many people to part with 99p for the prank to have worked. However, it’s not hard to convince a million people to stream a song from Spotify when it’s free. In fact, post a link to a song on Twitter and most people wouldn’t even know what the song is until after it loads. A Twitter meme can easily influence the charts.

The good news for consumers is that this is likely to increase the number of songs available for streaming. At present, there are big gaps in the catalogues of Spotify, Deezer, and other music streaming sites. Once streaming becomes part of the chart, I believe music companies will be much happier to open their catalogues to these sites. Because otherwise their competitors would have a huge advantage in the charts.

• Internet , Music
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June 16th, 2009

photo: Jon Åslund

About a year ago, I introduced Deezer to readers of this blog - one of the websites which pioneered the whole model of free streamed music - music which was advertising supported. Paul Ricard of Deezer summed up the streaming business model very concisely in an interview with this blog:

“free of charge and legally, all kinds of music, from rock to hip-hop, jazz, electro and world music… While at the same time, artists and rights owners receive a share of advertising revenue”

I listed Deezer as the number one website to listen to free music. But how have things changed in the year since? Is Deezer still top dog for streaming music?

One challenger comes in the form of Spotify. Unlike Deezer, you need to download a separate programme - you can’t tune in with just your web browser. The programme is obviously designed to resemble iTunes as closely as possible - it’s neat, fast and just works. Although it is annoying having to download an additional programme, it does allow Spotify to achieve things that Deezer can’t do with a browser-based website: for example multimedia keyboard support, Last.fm scrobbling and a spotify: protocol which allows you to directly link your friends to songs you like.

The sound quality on Spotify is fantastic. It sounds better than Deezer and the songs load more quickly too. But it does come at the cost of additional bandwidth. Spotify uses peer-to-peer technology. When your computer is on and Spotify is open, your computer is being used to share and distribute music to other Spotify users. If you’re on a capped internet package, that could get costly. From my own observations, it uploads at approx 1kbps so it probably won’t clog up the tubes though.

photo: marfis75

Spotify’s library contains 6 million tracks (3 million tracks for UK listeners). It’s a pretty decent library but there are some significant omissions such as Pink Floyd. There are songs available on Deezer but not available on Spotify; and vice versa.

Advertising. Spotify includes periodic audio adverts between songs as well as banner adverts within the programme. You wouldn’t think the audio adverts were any worse than listening to the radio - but they are. At least on the radio you have a variety of adverts. Grown men have been driven to insanity by hearing a message from “Jonathan from Spotify” several dozen times each working day. Again, and again. And again. Spotify also have technology that forces you to listen to the adverts. Don’t try muting your speakers or turning the volume down - it won’t work. Deezer features banner adverts on it’s website. They’re not intrusive at all - they won’t bother you when you’ve just got music on in the background.

Overall, Spotify is a very decent offering. It’s got a fairly good selection of music in a good quality and the programme is more pleasant to use than Deezer. But there are some significant downsides - the main one being repetitive adverts. Don’t let me understate just how much of a downside that is - advertising I can deal with, but not the same adverts every 10 minutes. The P2P nature of the programme is also controversial - both the BBC and Channel 4 have moved from P2P to browser for their video-on-demand offerings. It seems somehow strange to move from a browser-based offering in Deezer to a P2P-based offering in Spotify.

I’m personally still using Deezer as my primary on-demand music service, with Spotify as a backup for the songs which aren’t available in the Deezer library. Your own milage may vary. Let us know what you think.

• Music
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June 14th, 2009

photo: Ben Walther

I’ve argued many times on this blog that it is disproportionate for somebody to lose their internet access for copyright theft. Regular readers will know that France had passed a law which would mean people would lose internet access after downloading pirated material three times.

I argued that this was unfair - it stops somebody from participating in online shopping, banking, communications, etc. And it seems like the French Constitutional Court agrees with me by ruling the new law unconstitutional.

The judgement of the French Constitutional Court:

“Moreover, whereas under section nine of the Declaration of 1789, every man is presumed innocent until has has been proven guilty, it follows that in principle the legislature does not establish a presumption of guilt in criminal matters,” wrote the Council. This basic principle applies “to any sanction in the nature of punishment, even if the legislature has left the decision to an authority that is nonjudicial in nature.

“Freedom of expression and communication is so valuable that its exercise is a prerequisite for democracy and one of the guarantees of respect for other rights and freedoms and attacks on the exercise of this freedom must be necessary, appropriate and proportionate to the aim pursued.”

So that’s great news for the people of France.

I feel it is very important that we begin to have electronic rights enshrined into law. Just as the right to free speech and to participate in society are fundamental tenets in modern society, our laws need to be updated to reflect the fact that electronic communications and technology play such a large role in our everyday lives.

To reiterate: I don’t agree with piracy or believe that copyright theft is a good thing. I believe that it is important that our rights don’t get eroded as society becomes digital.

Via Think Broadband.

• Internet
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June 4th, 2009

photo: saschaaa

BBC News reported yesterday on research carried out by the Communications Consumer Panel showing that UK consumers are increasingly considering broadband to be an essential utility.

The chair of the Communications Consumer Panel Anna Bradley said: “The key message is that people think broadband is at a tipping point.

“It’s fantastically useful for everyone, essential for some now, but will be essential for everyone in the near future.

“It is being compared by consumers to gas and electricity - things which they think we all ought to have access to, almost as a right.”

Those questioned in the survey said people who did not have broadband would be at a disadvantage, missing out on services such as shopping, banking and public services as they were increasingly being delivered online.

photo: James Laurence Stewart

I’ve argued before on this blog, several times, that I believe internet access should be a fundamental right. Internet access is becoming a pre-requisite for being able to participate in society: being able to manage your bank account and finances, apply for a driving license and passport, keep in touch with friends via social networking sites and email, accessing entertainment via iPlayer and YouTube and shopping online at Amazon or eBay.

I’ve argued that it is disproportionate for somebody to lose their internet access for copyright theft, like in a draft law in France. It would seem like the British public agree with me on this one and our MEPs are backing us. Let’s hope that our digital rights continue to be protected.

• Internet , Politics
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June 2nd, 2009

Three’s new pay as you go package could save you over £100 every year.

photo: markhillary

Wow. Three’s new Pay As You Go package really blows the competition out of the water. I’ve been with O2 for four years or so and I’ve pretty much advocated them as my best buy over the last few years as their Text Anytime package provides free texts which save a lot of money. But for anybody on Pay As You Go, I think Three’s new package is miles better.

For a £10 top-up, Three will give you:

• 600 free texts
• 150MB internet
• Free 3-to-3 calls
• Free voicemail
• Free Windows Live Messenger
• Free unlimited Skype calls (available without a top up); doesn’t count towards your data allowance

Moreso, whilst O2 and Orange provide freebies, they only last for 30 days. On Three, the freebies last for 90 days.

Outside of your free allowance, it costs 10p to send a text; 20p a minute to make a call. The cost for a text is fairly “competitive” but if you regularly use your mobile phone regularly to make long phone calls, the costs could add up.

How much can you save?

Using myself as a case study: On an average month, I send ~150 texts and use about 1MB of data per month (to check email on the move). I very really make calls from my mobile.

photo: visualpanic

On a standard PAYG tariff, I’ll pay:

• 150 texts x 10p per text = £15
• 1MB data x £2 per MB = £2
• Emergency calls at 25p per minute = £1
• Total cost = £18 per month or £216 per year

On my previous favourite: the O2 Text Anytime tariff:

• 150 texts per month; free every other month = £7.50 per month
• 1MB of data at £2/MB; free every other month = £1 per month
• Calls at 25p a minute = £1
• Total cost = £9.50 per month or £114 per year

With Three’s new package, I can envision that my mobile telephony costs will go down to £40 per year. Topping up £10 every 3 months, the free allowances would more than cover everything that I use my phone for. The 150MB data allowance would also come in very handy, making more bandwidth-heavy applications such as Google Maps practical and cost-effective to use on the move. Free Skype could also be very useful.

photo: elgarydaly

Unfortunately, my current phone (Sony Ericsson k750i) isn’t a 3G phone so can’t be used on the Three network - I’ll need a new handset. It looks like Three offer a really decent range of handsets on PAYG for around £70 and I can get roughly £15 for recycling my mobile phone.

• Money saved on top ups = £176 per year
• Money for recycling mobile phone = £15
• Cost of buying new handset = £70
• Total saving after 1 year: £121

Recommendations

I recommend that everybody who is currently on PAYG investigates Three’s new tariff.

• Check you can recieve coverage from Three where you live and where you work. After all, you won’t save any money if your phone doesn’t actually work!
• Is this the best package for you? Calculate how much you’ll save by switching from your current PAYG tariff.
• Will a Three SIM work in your phone? If your handset is locked to a network or your phone doesn’t work on 3G, it probably won’t work - you might need a new one.

• Mobile
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May 26th, 2009

photo: nyki_m

New Scientist reports this week on a study which looked for a correlation between how “friendly” somebody was percieved to be and how “friendly” their Facebook profiles page appeared to be.

University students considered likeable by people that met them in real life have been found to make a similar impression on people who view their Facebook profiles.

“People who were expressive in tone of voice and facial expression were also socially expressive on Facebook. They posted a lot of pictures, they posted photo albums, they seemed to have a lot of conversations with people,” says Max Weisbuch, a psychologist at Tufts University in Medford, Massachusetts who led the study.

I suppose it’s interesting to quantify, but not particularly surprising. People don’t make things up on their Facebook profile because their network is full of people they know well.

It would be interesting to see whether the same relationship could be seen from somebody’s tweets or their Myspace profiles. I suspect that the relationship is stronger for Facebook because it’s based around keeping in touch with people you know - as other social networks have more of an emphasis on meeting new people, people may be more tempted to portray “idealised” versions of themselves.

• Facebook , Internet , Web 2.0
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May 23rd, 2009

photo: pokpok313

Music has always been a social activity. People go to concerts to listen to music together and there was a day when teenagers would gather together just to listen to new tracks on the turntable!

With people now spending listening to the majority of music at their computer, this doesn’t really happen very much any more.

Twittify (requires Spotify) is an experiment to try and bring this shared music listening experience back to the computer. As the name suggests, it’s a web 2.0 style “mashup” which combines microblogging service Twitter and music listening service Spotify.

Twittify allows you to “follow” music in real time. It checks Twitter once a minute for a new song posted to the tag (e.g. #mgmt) or user (e.g. @khloplay) that you’re following. If it finds a new song, it’ll play the song in Spotify for you and everybody else who is simultaneously following that tag/user.

When might Twittify be useful?

• You’re chatting to your friends about music in a chatroom/instant messenger. You’ve discovered some new songs which you want to share with your friend. Using Twittify, you can both enjoy listening to these tracks together. Using Twitter, you can both tweet songs with the same tag (e.g. #CarlAndDan). If you both use Twittify to “follow” #CarlAndDan and you’ll both hear these songs played on your computer.
• Find out what other Twitter listeners are listening to on Spotify. For example by following #muse, you can see what other Muse fans are listening to.
• You’re playing music at a party but you want to let your guests control the music that’s being played from their mobile phone. Run Twittify on your sound system and ask your guests to tweet a Spotify song to your Twitter account.

Try it out

photo: marfis75

Try it out at the Twittify webpage. Send a tweet to the @khloplay account which includes the Spotify URI of a song (right click a song in Spotify to get the Spotify URI).

e.g. @khloplay spotify:track:6Z14gdQNMJenVFA4eqpS6M time to pretend by #mgmt - fav song

Limitations

• Twittify can only check Twitter once a minute due to Twitter API limits. Hence there could be a gap of up to one minute between the song being sent to Twitter and it being played.
• Twitter search doesn’t work perfectly all the time. Sometimes it doesn’t update straight away; sometimes not at all. I don’t know if this is a issue with Twitter or Twittify.
• The interface of sending a spotify URI isn’t the most intuitive. Unfortunately Spotify doesn’t provide an API to turn an artist and track name into a Spotify URI so this information needs to be added elsewhere in the tweet for now.

Please remember that this is a very rough and ready “proof of concept”!

Got thoughts?

Send a tweet to @khlo or leave a comment here.

• Internet , Music , Web 2.0
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May 20th, 2009

photo: muha…

So you’re jetting off to another country? Before you leave Blighty to go and enjoy the sights, sun and sand elsewhere, it’s important to make sure that your phone works abroad and that you won’t get charged a fortune for using it!

Here are my top 10 tips for using your phone abroad.

1. Check your phone works abroad

For most of the world, your phone should work abroad OK.

If you’re going to America, you’ll need to make sure you have a tri-band phone.

You might also have to get your phone enabled to be used abroad; check with your operator if you’re unsure.

2. Check how much it costs

This should be a fairly obvious thing to do but it’s amazing how many people don’t!

Check on the website of your mobile operator to see how much it actually costs to use your phone abroad:

• O2
• Orange
• Three
• T-Mobile
• Vodafone

3. European Roaming Cap

Be aware that if you’re going to a country within the European Union, whichever network you are on: costs should be capped from July as so:

• Calls: 40p a minute
• Texts: 10p per text
• Data/Internet: 92p per megabyte

4. Don’t call; be called!

Get the other person to call you.

Your friend who is still in the UK will stay pay the normal rate to call your mobile (you still have a UK number whilst abroad; it doesn’t matter that you’re abroad). So if your friend has bundled minutes as part of their tariff, they should be able to use these minutes to call you whilst you’re abroad.

The only difference is that whilst you are abroad, you might be charged to receive the call. However, this normally costs a lot less than making a call (typically it costs half as much to receive a call than to make a call). Select the right tariff and you won’t be charged to receive calls - then you could have totally free calls whilst abroad.

A good way to organise this is to make a “prank call” to your friend. Before you go abroad, agree with your friend that they will neither accept or reject your call when you call them (this is important: if they do either, you’ll get charged). When you call them from abroad, let it ring twice and then hang up. You won’t get charged as your call never got connected: but your friend will know that you want a chat.

5. Vodafone Passport Tariff

As part of a Vodafone Passport promotion, the Vodafone network is allowing customers to use their phone abroad in Europe, Australia and New Zealand for the same price as at home. You pay the home rate to make calls and send texts and you won’t be charged to receive calls. Used in combination with the previous, this could mean totally free phone calls.

You have to opt in to Vodafone Passport before you get the savings:

• Vodafone Pay as You Go customers: Text PASSPORT to 2345
• Vodafone Pay Monthly customers: Text PASSPORT to 97888

If you’re not on Vodafone, it might well be worth getting yourself a free Vodafone SIM card to use abroad this summer (you must have an unlocked phone).

The Vodafone Passport offer is running from the 1st June to 31st August.

6. Voicemail

Turn off voice mail on your phone. You’ll often get charged the international call rate both when somebody leaves a message on your voicemail and when

7. Internet Access

Disable internet access on your phone. Internet access can typically cost £4 to £6 per megabyte whilst abroad. You might have applications on your phone which automatically use the data connection without prompting you - make sure these are disabled.

8. Buy a SIM card whilst abroad

If you’re going for more than a couple of days, it might be cheaper to buy a pay as you go SIM card in your destination country.

It will almost certainly be cheaper to make calls within that country; although not necessarily cheaper to make a call back home. Double check the tariffs.

You’ll also need to ensure your handset is unlocked.

9. T-Mobile Users in Europe: Send a MMS message rather than a text

For some strange reason, it actually costs less to send a MMS message (20p) from Europe than it costs to send a text message (40p). You can include a picture in a MMS message and up to 1000 characters - not bad at all.

10. Turn your phone off!

Finally, remember that you’re on holiday and that you’re there to enjoy yourself! So turn your phone off, relax and enjoy the wonderful weather and scenery… The last thing you want is to be disturbed by a business call!

• Mobile
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May 13th, 2009

photo: William Hook

Mobile broadband has been all the fuss lately. It’s an alternative to using wi-fi for accessing the internet whilst you’re on the go but without the hassle of having to find a wireless network that you can use. Instead, you plug in a small USB stick into the side of your laptop and you can access the internet through the mobile telephone network.

For anybody looking to access the internet occasionally on the move, Three’s pay as you go mobile broadband could be a good proposition and they are offering a pay-as-you-go USB modem dongle for the cost of P&P until 31st May 2009.

From Money Saving Expert:

It’s currently possible to get a PAYG Three dongle for free, paying just a £4.95 postage charge for delivery. Dubiously named yet legit website 3dongle4free has been authorised to offer this deal by Three. It’s available to both new and existing customers while stocks last, 1 per household.

To get one, go to the site and fill out the forms, then wait for an email with your login details and a coupon code on it. Return to the site and login, then enter the code on the next page. Take care to click the ‘redeem coupon’ button, or else you’ll pay full price for the dongle.

photo: John Pannell

To actually access the internet, you’ll still have to top up. Three currently charge £10 for 1GB, £15 for 3GB and £25 for 7GB. Your top up lasts for a maximum of 30 days - if you don’t use it, you lose it.

According to Three, a £10 (1GB) top-up will allow you to:

• Send 1,000 emails
• Surf the web for 8 hours
• Download 5 four-minute videos
• Download 32 four-minute songs
  

Be careful though. If you go over your allowance, you’ll get charged £1 per MB. If you take it abroad, you’ll get charged up to £6 per MB. If you want to use mobile broadband, you’d be well advised to turn off automatic software update services, P2P programmes, etc. and to avoid using bandwidth-heavy sites such as Youtube.

The cost of actually getting onto the internet isn’t hugely good value.  But if you just want to check your emails very ocassionally when you’re on the move,this might save you a lot of hassle: you won’t need to look for somewhere that has wi-fi and then figure out how to get logged on!

Keep your eye out for more about mobile broadband here in the coming weeks.

• Internet , Mobile
• Comments (3)

May 12th, 2009

photo: KhE 龙

Update (12th May, 21:36): This Twitter account is a hoax. The official Microsoft account is @office2010movie. The @officethemovie Twitter account did look slightly suspicious to me in the first place but I reposted it when I saw that other technology sites (which obviously hadn’t checked either) posted it. Sorry.

The rumour mill has been in full action today after Microsoft wrote on their @officethemovie Twitter account:

June 2009 will be an important month for Zune lovers. New product launch, that’s all I’m allowed to say. Hold off from buying an iPhone/Pre.

As the new iPhone is due to be unveiled in June, as well as the Palm Pre, many people think that this refers to a Zune phone from Microsoft.

Alternatively, this could simply refer to Zune software being available on Windows Mobile 7 which is out in the second half of this year.

There’s a bit more coverage and discussion over at Engadget. Watch this space.

• Microsoft , Mobile
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