Kazaa Goes Straight

Kazaa and the recording industry have "settled" their dispute - Kazza will pay $100 million in damaged and will proceed to become a legal download service, similar to the route Napster took. Now, is this going to be the trend - I dont know how much money Kazaa made in their criminal days but will $100 million cripple them or is it just an operating cost? Could other P2P networks make enough money illegally to cover their court room bills and still make a profit, even before they've sold their first legal mp3?

Friday Question - What songs give you that summer feeling?

Right, question time again - what three songs remind you of the summer? For me its:

• Boys of Summer - Don Henley
• Hotel California - The Eagles
• Summer Breeze - The Isley Brothers

Your turn!

Join the Radio.Blog.Club

The interesting radio.blog.club site is worth paying a visit - from what I can gather they stream music that is available on the web from other means. Just type an artist or keyword into the search box and a list of matching tracks will come up. Another click and you can listen to it! You can also create an account and save tracks to a playlist and they've even released a Google homepage module so your music choice is available when you fire up your browser.

Gotta mention the BBC

I know this is nothing new, but I gotta mention the BBC. I've linked here to the Radio 1 page because that is the BBC station I listen to the most on the web, but of course there are others. The excellent 'Listen Again' feature lets you listen to most BBC radio programmes 7 days after broadcast and there are quite a number of podcasts available too.

Friday Question - What song chills you out?

I want you to tell me what song you listen to when you're relaxed and chilled out or when you just need to wind down. Mine would be Les Nuits by Nightmares On Wax.

Soundpedia - Another Streaming Music Site

Soundpedia used to be called Musixzone, but changed its name after the site had a redesign. Soundpedia offers streaming of hundreds of artists recordings using its in-built player. It can also offer alternatives based on what you are listening to (be aware though - these seem to be from fenopy.com, a peer-to-peer operation so the downloads may be illegal), album art and artist info. What really makes this site different is being able to create a profile, to which you add your favourite artists, and like-minded fans can be easily found and contacted. You can even put a blog on the site. The sound quality is decent and response times are ok.

Thumbtak - Streaming Music Site

Thumbtak is a streaming music site that has hundreds of albums ready to listen to. There is a slight American bias to the music that is available and the catalog isn't the most up to date but its worth a look. Uses Windows Media Player and Real Player.

Brilliant Chillout Internet & DAB Radio Station

At the moment at work I'm listening to Chill. Chill is a great web radio station playing a brilliant mix of relaxing chillout tunes 24/7, with no DJs and no adverts spoiling the ambience. Its also available on DAB and digital TV. The only criticism I have is that it would be nice to see the playlist - I might wanna buy some of the tunes.

"We like to lie back, set the mobile phone to "silent" and listen to music like Morcheeba, Air, Moby, Sigur Ros, Beth Orton, Goldfrapp, Emiliana Torrini, 4Hero, Bebel Gilberto, Massive Attack, Aqualung, Damien Rice or Jack Johnson."