Posts Tagged: "music"

Apple innovations in virtual music, seeks patent on fuel cell for portable computing device

The most intriguing patent application we’ve seen recently is Apple’s patent application titled ‘Fuel Cell System to Power a Portable Computing Device.’ It would protect a fuel cell system for a portable computing device comprising a fuel cell stack converting fuel into electrical power, a fuel source for the fuel cell stack and an interface to the portable device which includes a power link providing power to the portable device and a bidirectional communication link providing communication between the portable device and a fuel cell stack’s controller which sends fuel state information to the portable device and receives fuel cell control information. This innovation seeks to incorporate fuel cell electricity generation tech into portable computing devices for which it’s difficult to provide cost-effective and portable fuel cell systems, as the patent application itself points out.

Steve Brachmann

October 4, 2015

Firecracker 25 – The Best Songs of All Time

This time of the year radio stations put together a list of the best songs of all time. If I had to vote for the best songs of all time these would be on my list.

Gene Quinn

July 3, 2015

The Changing Reality of Making Music in the Internet Age

Things have changed in a way because technology has allowed sampling of very specific parts of songs to take place sometimes without written prior acknowledgement or permission from the original artist. I think in music, going back many decades, people have always been lifting ideas from one another and interjecting those bits of ideas as musical “flavors” into songs. The lifted parts were brief and the influence might have been subtle, but noticeable. Guitar players have lifted licks or phrases off of the old Blues artists, and continue to this day. So this is really nothing new. But to extract specific parts of an existing song and make it the basis of a “new” song for me is a stretch and potentially signals a lack of deeper creativity and emotion. If however a musician does this and obtains permission to use from the original copyright holder, then I can respect that.

Gene Quinn

May 19, 2015

Jury Tells Robin Thicke to Give it Up

Thicke maintains that the Gaye family doesn’t own a genre, a style, or a groove and he’s right. The Gayes point out no other musicians or songs of the era were compared with “Blurred Lines,” and they’re right, too. A viable criticism of the verdict is that it could have a chilling effect on new music for fear of overzealous copyright owners attempting to expand this concept to their cases. Is it possible that a ruling of this nature would stifle creativity? Perhaps, but people were saying the same thing when the music sampling cases happened, and the industry adapted just fine.

Beth Hutchens

March 16, 2015

Congress Seeks to Fix Unfair, Outdated Royalties for Songwriters and Composers

According to Congressman Collins, who I spoke with via telephone on Friday, March 6, 2015, there was a great deal of treatment of the SEA at the subcommittee level during the 113th Congress, but now during the 114th Congress consideration will move to the full Committee level, which suggests a seriousness about getting something done. ”Music licensing will be an area where something bubbles up this Congress,” Collins explained. ”I’m hoping the industry will come together.”

Gene Quinn

March 8, 2015

Robin Thicke Sues Marvin Gaye Because He’s Infringing?

Recently I was driving around between appointments and flipping through radio stations on Sirius XM. I came across a song that at first I thought was the summer hit by Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams – Blurred Lines. But that wasn’t the song at all, rather is was Marvin Gaye’s Got to Give it Up. I knew it would only be time before reading about some kind of settlement between Marvin Gaye’s family and Thicke/Williams, but Robin Thicke and Pharrell Williams suing the family of Marvin Gaye asserting that they are not infringing the copyright in Got to Give it Up would be hilarious if it weren’t so utterly ridiculous.

Gene Quinn

August 19, 2013

Going Gaga for Music Samples

A Chicago musician called Rebecca Francescatti says that Lady Gaga stole part of her song “Juda” for the hit song “Judas”. More specifically, the complaint alleges that a particular portion of “Judas” violates Francescatti’s exclusive rights of reproduction, distribution, performance, and preparation of a derivative work. But before we get to that, we’ll need to wade through a bit of a semantics morass. This suit is being couched in terms of plagiarism.

Beth Hutchens

January 28, 2013

Digital Music Reseller Partners with Apple iTunes and Artists

Those who have followed the digital music wars over the years no doubt recall the battles between the Recording Industry and various MP3 file sharing websites. Through the haze of these legal battles Apple started its iTunes® service as a legitimate and licensed service that offered a mechanism to purchase one song at a time for a reasonable price and without the fear of unknowingly downloading a virus and without the fear of being a copyright infringer that might one day be sued as an example. A deal between ReDigi and Apple should solve one potential problem for ReDigi, namely whether the resale of songs purchased from iTunes is legal. It would seem that Apple must be OK with the ReDigi platform, perhaps paving the way for the entire ReDigi business model to solidify as a legitimate offering.

Gene Quinn

June 13, 2012

Google “Goog” Doodle Honors Music Innovator Robert Moog

As most likely already know, Google has made it a tradition to create fun Google logo’s (or Doodles) to celebrate specific holidays, anniversaries and the lives of famous artists, pioneers and scientists. You may recall that on Saturday May 22, 2010, in celebration of Pacman’s 30th Anniversary, Google featured its very first interactive doodle in the form of a Pacman game you could actually play. You can read more about it in my article Pacman Celebrates its 30th Anniversary – Google Style. Yesterday Google featured another interactive doodle that they call the “Goog” this time in celebration of Dr. Robert Moog (rhymes with “vogue”), an American pioneer of music with the invention of the electronic analog Moog Synthesizer. If you missed it, that’s OK, you can still play the fully interactive “Goog” Doodle through the Google Doodle Library.

Renee C. Quinn

May 24, 2012

Copyrights Meet Politics: Joe Walsh (Rockstar) v. Joe Walsh (Republican)

Anyone who has spent any time at a political rally or watching video from such a rally on the evening news understands that music and politics go together. Sometimes they mix well, for example when Bruce Springsteen is playing live for INSERT LIBERAL DEMOCRAT HERE, and sometimes they do not mix very well, almost like oil and water, for example…

Gene Quinn

February 5, 2010