michael

Warner Music exec: We finally figured out free

With one foot out the door at Warner Music Group, Michael Nash doesn't try to sugarcoat the music industry's history of the past 10 years.

Nash has been the digital chief of Warner Music Group for four years but has been with the company for over 10. He started when Napster was just hitting the music scene--hitting it like a sledge hammer--and this month Nash announced he's calling it quits.

Nash said he came to Warner Music from the start-up community and joined because he knew the Internet would transform music. He wanted a role in changing the industry as it existed back then; the labels were built around the CD, the bundling of songs, and forcing fans to buy discs when they only wanted one or two tracks.

"That strategy was based on tricking people into buying an album that may not have been very good," Nash said in an interview with CNET last week. Consumer backlash to that was very much part of the digital revolution, Nash said.

He acknowledged that when it came to digital, the sector made mistakes as it tried to navigate "a perfect storm" of change. It's taken its toll on the labels' digital strategists, a fact that is reflected in the high turnover during the past four years. EMI for example went through four digital chiefs, including Douglas Merrill, a former Google exec, and Cory Ondrejka, co-founder of Linden Lab. … Read more

DAR.fm, a TiVo for radio, will enable downloads

Michael Robertson, founder of such companies as MP3.com and Lindows, appears to be daring big radio and music companies to challenge him on copyright again.

Robertson's latest company DAR.fm, billed as a TiVo for Web radio, is expected to announce tomorrow that the service will enable users to capture the radio shows they record instead of just streaming them to their PCs or Web-connected devices. In the future, DAR.fm users can record talk shows and music and download them to iPads, iPhones, or Android devices, Robertson told CNET today. Not surprisingly, DAR.fm users can store their recordings at Robertson's digital-locker service, MP3tunes.com.

The new feature is available for free for the first series, which means that if you listen to say, NPR's "All Things Considered," DAR.fm will record it and download it daily for free. For more series, up to 10, a user must pay $39.95 a year.

So, how is this different from subscribing to a podcast?

Remember that not all radio shows offer a podcast. Fans of Rush Limbaugh must pay a yearly subscription. Some shows post their podcast three days after they air and some offer only highlights. Robertson promises that DAR.fm can record any show on the Web, period.

The download feature will certainly be reviewed closely by the big radio companies, such as Clear Channel and CBS Radio ( which shares the same parent company as CNET), as well as record companies. "Yes, it's hard to imagine that the record labels are going to be excited about this," Robertson conceded. … Read more

Whoops! Hoffman opens both TechCrunch and Demo shows

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--If there's one thing that late night TV hosts like David Letterman and Jay Leno are said to hate, it's when a star books both their shows back to back.

The tech industry doesn't have its own Letterman and Leno rivalry, but one could say that this week's head-to-head TechCrunch Disrupt and Demo Fall shows are a pretty good analogy.

So it was a bit strange to go to both shows this week and see the same high-profile kick-off speaker at each, LinkedIn founder and Graylock Partners principal Reid Hoffman. And both presentations … Read more

Phew! Defusable alarm clock won't actually detonate

Say, that bomb looks familiar. It looks like almost every movie bomb every made--destined to have the proper wire clipped with exactly one second remaining.

This particular bomb is actually an alarm clock called the Defusable Clock. It has all the usual alarm clock features like a beeping alarm and snooze function, but it also has a 10-second detonation countdown.

Four wires stretch across the top. Trigger the detonation sequence and start clipping. The clock randomly assigns two wires to do nothing, one wire to set off an immediate detonation, and one wire that stops the countdown. The detonation is actually a visual explosion of red blinking lights.

The wires are easily replaceable so that you can scare the pretend wits out of yourself over and over again. A kit for the clock that contains just the electronic parts will be available this fall. You'll have to make your own fake dynamite sticks.… Read more

TechCrunch's Michael Arrington fired by AOL?

AOL executives have decided to terminate embattled tech blogger Michael Arrington's employment with the company, according to a Fortune report.

Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, ignited a firestorm of debate during the past week after it was announced Thursday that he was forming a venture capital fund to invest in some of the startups he and his bloggers write about. The investors in Arrington's $20 million CrunchFund reportedly include AOL, which bought TechCrunch last year.

AOL and Arrington did not respond to requests for comment.

A journalist writing about companies he or she has a financial … Read more

Michael Arrington creating VC fund, reports say

Michael Arrington, the founder and co-editor of TechCrunch, is forming a venture capital fund to invest in some of the startups his bloggers write about, according to a Fortune report.

The $20 million CrunchFund will reportedly be funded primarily by AOL, which bought TechCrunch last year, as well as venture capital firms such as Sequoia Capital, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, and Greylock Partners.

Arrington and AOL did not respond to requests for comment.

Although the arrangement flies in the face of traditional journalism's principles of avoiding conflicts of interest, Arrington told The New York Times that the fund'… Read more

Facebook bumps up privacy controls

The new iPhone may land on Sprint by mid-October, developers can start submitting apps for Windows Phone 7 "Mango" due out next month, and Facebook has announced new privacy controls.

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

New BlackBerry Curve arrives

RankMyHack.com lets hackers brag about their latest endeavors, the iPhone 5 is rumored to be a dual-mode device, and Research In Motion has released a new BlackBerry Curve.

Links from Tuesday's episode of Loaded:

Court says MP3tunes protected by DMCA

A federal judge has decided that MP3tunes, a music locker service accused in a lawsuit of enabling mass piracy, has protection under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. But the judge has also ruled that the company's founder, Michael Robertson, is personally liable for music he uploaded to the service without permission of copyright owners.

In a 29-page decision, U.S. District Judge William Pauley granted the summary motion filed by record company EMI on the two points.

Pauley, from U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, ruled that Robertson and MP3tunes.com are liable for … Read more

Michael Dell(!) mixes it up with HP

Tech industry titans are known for taking the gloves off and throwing wicked verbal jabs at their competitors. Larry Ellison, Steve Jobs, Steve Ballmer, Mark Cuban, Bill Gates, and Scott McNealy have all made headlines with their zingers.

Not on that list is Michael Dell, the relatively staid (boring?) founder and current CEO/chairman of his namesake PC maker. (Actually, one of the few times Dell did lob such a grenade he basically had it blow up in his own lap. More on that later.)

But even Mr. Dell couldn't resist the opportunity to weigh in on the wave … Read more