The Digital Music Weblog

• PlaysForSure doomed, again
  

  Filed under: News, DRM, Creative, Microsoft, Sandisk, Napster, Rhapsody, Real Networks, Yahoo! Music

  The grapevine says some at CES are being told Microsoft will no longer develop PlaysForSure, its proprietary DRM system, a move Microsoft swore up and down it would never make when the company failed to include PlaysForSure support in the Zune line.
  
  According to PC Pro News,"Microsoft will concentrate exclusively on its Zune platform, which is not...
  



• iPhone makes the rounds, SanDisk gets ignored
  

  Filed under: News, Apple, Sandisk

  The iPhone is getting more press coverage than, well, a thing that gets a lot of press coverage. Here's a sampling from around the mainstream...
  
  Apple packs all kinds of high-tech goodies into iPhone (USATODAY)
  After A Long Wait, Apple iPhone Wows With Touch-Screen (Investor's Business Daily)
  Apple Inc. Is Here (CNN)
  
  I don't know if it will revolutionize the mobile phone, but it's certainly providing a legion of reporters with something to write about....
  



• Top Ten glory remains elusive for Zune
  

  Filed under: Apple, Creative, Microsoft, Sandisk, Zune Marketplace

  Aw, keep trying little buckaroo! C|Net reports that the Zune hasn't cracked the top ten portable music players, although it has captured a "decent slice" of the hard drive based player market in big box retail stores.
  
  The overall top ten is overwhelmingly Apple, with 8 of the top ten slots occupied by fruit etched media devices, Sandisk's Sansa models round out the rest of the ten. For what it's worth,...
  



• Sandisk says, "What patent?"
  

  Filed under: News, Sandisk

  Truly bizarre. When the German Authorities took Sandisk's mp3 players off the floor of the IFA trade show earlier this year, Sandisk shrugged it off. Sandisk is arguing that it's mp3 processing technology differs significantly from the patents which Sisvel are attempting to enforce.
  
  If that wasn't bizarre enough, apparently some people agree with Sandisk. According to Reuters, "In a litigation currently pending in the Mannheim District Court, SanDisk is showing that its MP3 players operate a technology...
  



• Zune drops to 5th place
  

  Filed under: News, Apple, Creative, Microsoft, Sandisk

  Those early Zune sales numbers are slipping into less-than-average territory, having dropped to 5th overall behind Apple, Creative, Sandisk and even also-ran Memorex.
  
  Bloomeberg reports, "Zune's market share declined as SanDisk Corp. boosted sales with a 50 percent price cut on its media players, taking a 39.3 percent share and knocking Microsoft from the No. 2 spot it occupied in its first week in the market. Redmond, Washington- based Microsoft...
  



• Is the UMG Microsoft deal just a thorn for Apple's side?
  

  Filed under: News, DRM, Apple, Microsoft, Sandisk, RIAA, iTunes, Rhapsody, Real Networks, Zune Marketplace

  When UMG forced Microsoft's hand and extorted gained a deal to get $1 per Zune sold as compensation for what UMG CEO Doug Morris calls "a repository for stolen music", it became a widely held belief that UMG beat Microsoft at the negotiating table. Microsoft, just days away from the Zune's launch _needed_ UMG's extensive...
  



• Zune sales not so bad, considering
  

  Filed under: News, Apple, Microsoft, Sandisk

  
  USAToday reports on Zune's first few weeks out the starting gate and according to analists they interviewed, it's not all bad. Microsoft claimed 9% market share of the portable media devices sold since the Zune launch, compared with 63% for Apple and just 8% for Sandisk.
  
  "For a new brand that received limited to mixed reviews, and which is incompatible with the leading music store (Apple's iTunes,) as well as other music stores, it was a good launch,"...
  



• IME makes universal mp3 player dock
  

  Filed under: News, Apple, Creative, Microsoft, Sandisk

  This is a really cool idea. Integrated Mobile Electronics is showing off this universal mp3 player dock at the anual SEMA conference (where all the auto makers and accessory people hang out and droll over shiny things). The dock achives it's near universal capabilites with interchangable dock modules, leaving the rest of the system totally intact. IME's new toy should ship with the ability to connect the iPod, Zune, Creative Zen Vision, Sandisk Sansa...
  



• USAToday: Closed systems leave music fans in the cold
  

  Filed under: News, DRM, Apple, Microsoft, Sandisk, RIAA, IFPI, BPI, Napster, eMusic, iTunes, Rhapsody

  Could it really be that the anti-DRM message is starting to bubble up to the surface? USAToday, a paper not known for sticking its neck out or producing any ground breaking journalism has a feature today on how eschewing DRM might just allow the majors to wrestle control of the digital music market...
  



• Real and SanDisk adopt Best Buy as retail partner
  

  Filed under: News, DRM, iTunes, Sandisk, Rhapsody

  A couple of weeks ago I told you about Real Networks hooking up with SanDisk to take on Apple and iTunes, with SanDisk cranking out the players and Rhapsody selling the tunes in an integrated lovefest.
  
  Today BestBuy has announced it will join the two crazy kids in love by becoming their retail partner. The chain will begin selling the SanDisk e200R model, specificlly made for use with Rhapsody on October...