In more Ping news, Fred Wilson, principal at Union Square Ventures, opines on his blog “A VC: Musings of a VC in NYC” about Apple’s new social network. “In summary, Ping is not very social and it is not really about music,” he writes. “It is about music purchases and celebrities.”
Well, Ping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, yet. There are Facebook/Apple problems (you can’t import friends). And, as far as music goes, it’s elitist. Hypebot reports that artist profiles are “invitation only,” which is a smack in the face to DYI and indie artists.
Looks like Google will have its music operations open just in time for the Christmas holiday. Google Music is expected to be a formidable competitor to iTunes with its cloud based download store.
Greenpeace says Facebook is polluting the environment with coal thanks to its new large data center in Prineville, Oregon. Facebook says the facility is being built with “energy efficiency” in mind, even though it gets 58% of its power from coal instead of the national average of 50%. Greenpeace launched a campaign on Facebook called “Unfriend coal.” The Comet says, “Go green!”
Digital music entrepreneur and partner at Venrock David Packman responds to U2 manager Paul McGuinness’ oped that piracy is the main reason the massive decline in music sales.
Steve Jobs did a big reveal today in San Francisco, announcing the snazzy new iPod touch, which Jobs describes as the “iPhone without a contract.” Apple also unveiled a smaller version of the iPod nano, a music social network and a new TV!
OK Go lead singer Damian Kulash takes on net neutrality and what tech giants can learn from the mistakes the music industry has made. Go Damian!
The party never stops! Tracks by Eminem, Lady Gaga, Kid Cudi, Metallica, Donna Summer and Janet Jackson are getting exclusive remixes by Deadmau5, David Guetta, DJ Qbert, and Tiesto for Activision’s hit game.
Unlike John Mellencamp and Stevie Nicks, Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman does not think the internet is killing rock ‘n’ roll. Holzman, who signed such giants as Queen, the Stooges and the Doors, thinks “the music industry has a bright future.” Here, he offers his thoughts on Napster, fair trade and ISPs.
In MySpace Music’s ongoing attempt to revamp and keep users, the company has launched new functionality for artist profiles
There’s not much to say here except that The Comet staff is a big fan of the word “interweb” and happy it has found its home in the Oxford Dictionary of English. It joins words only a “tech geek” would love like “defriend” and “tweetup,” as well as “hater.” This ain’t yo mama’s dictionary anymore.
Founder of Pick the Band, a fan driven music discovery site and virtual label, Roie Avin blogs about the success of Ghost of Gloria, Adam Ezra Group, and Atom Smash. How? The fans decide what’s good and what’s not.
It’s official. Britney Spears has lost her Twitter crown to Lady Gaga. Over the weekend, Lady G. surpassed the pop star in the number of followers. Currently, the singer has 5,749,585 compared to Ms. Spears’ 5,712,131. Just wait till Britney’s “Glee” episode premieres, then we’ll see whose tweets reign supreme!
There could be a new Twitter Queen in town! Lady Gaga is quickly catching up to Britney Spears’ current record of followers. According to data compiled by BigChampagne, Lady Gaga now has 5,636,495 followers, compared to Britney’s 5,651,156. May the best Tweeter win.
Check out this piece written by Tereza Nemessanyi, founder and CEO of Honestly Now Inc., and posted on Reuters. She blogs about a number of female entrepreneurs, including Kathy Savitt, founder of Lockerz.com – a site that went to 15.5 million users in less than a year. I had the honor of meeting with Savitt during the early days of that company.
U2’s manager Paul McGuinness opines in GQ on “How to Save the Music Industry.” He calls bloggers “anonymous gremlins” and calls on ISPs to combat “free” music and copyright infringement.
We’ve not talked about Foursquare since The Comet staff was de-mayored from the Chevron gas station and Pinkberry (very upsetting). But we are here to report that Facebook has launched Facebook Places, partnering with Foursquare, Gowalla, Booyah and Yelp.
Thirteen music organizations representing artists, songwriters, and record labels have written Google CEO Eric Schmidt a letter asking the company to details its net neutrality plans. The music industry wonders: What does it all mean? Read the letter here.
Vevo is going mobile! The music video site announced a free app for the iPhone and iPod touch, allowing users to share music videos, create playlists and watch exclusive video premieres. Don’t feel left out, iPad. Your app is coming soon.
Wired magazine editor-in-chief Chris Anderson definitely thinks the web is dead. He writes: “The Internet is the real revolution, as important as electricity; what we do with it is still evolving. As it moved from your desktop to your pocket, the nature of the Net changed. The delirious chaos of the open Web was an adolescent phase subsidized by industrial giants groping their way in a new world. Now they’re doing what industrialists do best—finding choke points. And by the looks of it, we’re loving it.”
