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Written on 26th May 2008
1 COMMENT 
Ernst-Jan Pfauth, editor in chief
Although these days nobody would associate the word “blast” with Twitter, Tweet Cube uses it in its service description. It’s actually kind of charming, while the whole geek world seems to be missing sleep over their Twitter worries, developers like Anthony Feint keep improving the microblogging service by building mash-ups.
So this mash-up is entering a Twitter mash-up battle, as there are already some file sharing services like Twit+ and Twittershare. Moreover, many services have Twitter integration. So instead of using a file sharing tool for images, I could just press the “Twitter it” button in Skitch.
Tweet Cube seems to have two important assets that could help in this heated clash of file sharing apps. Firstly, they really have the Twitter look and feel going on with the italic fonts, cuddly clouds and soft-toned colors. Secondly, it’s as easy as it can possibly get. Upload a file, add a message and.., click. There it is.
For now, there’s a 10mb size limit and files will be deleted after 30 days. Yet the arrival of some sponsors might change that. They should, since although you don’t look back when using Twitter, it can always come in useful to have an archive of your shared files.
Written on 13th May 2008
4 COMMENTS
Ayelet Noff, Next Web WebTipr Israel
One week ago Nine Inch Nails surprised their fans with a special treat giving away their new album Slip absolutely free on their website. The album is available for download in a variety of formats: MP3, lossless at CD quality and 24/96 WAVE format, which means even higher-than-CD quality. Downloaders also receive a PDF with artwork and credits. This is not the first time that Trent Reznor is sharing his music for free. Here’s a little history for you.
In 2007 NIN produced an album called The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust and made it available to fans as a free download. Many thought that Trent was only mimicking Radiohead who asked fans to put their own price on the group’s release in the same year. Though I believe that by the time you’re finished reading this post, you will see that NIN are true innovators that have achieved quite a lot since being released from their major-label recording contract last year. The fact that NIN has given away music various times in extremely high quality formats and released it online using a variety of tools shows that it is serious about this model. This is not just an “experiment” for them like it was for Radiohead who have since said that they will not be releasing online again.
According to Mashable:
Reznor called Radiohead’s effort a “marketing gimmick,” and Yorke’s latest statement does nothing to disprove it. Reznor did it right. He set out his plan very clearly, and he’s doing well, earning 1.6 million dollars from album sales in the first couple of weeks, according to him.
In March 2008 NIN released a portion of their album Ghosts for free via BitTorrent. According to TorrentFreak, the band confirmed that they had uploaded the album themselves to sites like The Pirate Bay, Waffles.fm and What.cd. The NY Times quotes Trent describing file sharing as “a revolutionary digital distribution method, and we believe in finding ways to utilize new technologies instead of fighting them.” Trent Reznor himself admitted to downloading music using BitTorrent and being a former user of OiNK. The band also offered a digital download of the entire 36-track collection for a flat $5 from its site and Amazon.
On May 4th of this year, NIN released their single ‘Echoplex’ for free via their iLike page and told fans to check the NIN website the next day for a surprise. The surprise came the next day when fans found out they were receiving a full-length NIN album as a gift from Trent for their continued love and support. What an amazing way to cause a buzz and increase the love of fans! Everybody was twitting and digging about the free album.
NIN is truly paving the way for future artists to find new means of distributing (and profiting from) their music. (more…)
Written on 8th May 2008
4 COMMENTS
David Petherick, Contributing Editor, United Kingdom
Pownce, the “Send stuff to your friends” application and web service, announced some new features late yesterday, and most of the world has woken up to these today.
The official blog announcement from Pownce is brief, and says little more than “Tonight we launched the new feature of sharing files to the public… In addition, we’re happy to announce that we’ve increased the base file size limit for all Powncers from 10MB to 100MB!”
So you can share files not just with your fans and friends, but with everyone – and you can upload 100Mb of files – room enough for a few videos and audio files, and Pro members have a tidy 250Mb of space. Nice. And I think Pownce have simplified the thrust of their offering by saying “we let you share stuff with your friends”. (more…)
Written on 4th February 2008
4 COMMENTS
Guest blogger, sharing views on The Next Web
Article written by on-line media planner and tech blogger Jerry Houtman
Napster started it, and it has been going on ever since: the fight over online music sharing. Copyright issues are the core of this battle between the music industry and consumers, which recently took a turn for the unexpected. Ars Technica reported on the latest news on this matter, which came from Italy. What’s the story? The Italian government has unintentionally proved a considerable service to everyone who shares music through the Internet. The parliament has, as it happens, adopted a new law on the copyright, which permits Italians to spread and share music on-line, under the condition that they do this is for non-commercial aims and that it concerns music of lower quality. That might not sound as revolutionary as the headline suggests, but it most definitely is, for that second criterion is exactly where the Italian policy makers haven’t done their research all too well on.
According to Andrea Monti, a lawyer specialized in copyright, ‘lower quality’ is a term that can be interpreted very widely. The conversion necessary for sharing makes every music file circulating on the web one of lower quality than the original recording. That permit Italians to distribute music on the Internet without any restrictions. Although the law limits such sharing for scientific or educational aims, Monti believes it will make prosecuting a lot harder. Because let’s be honest: how many of us truly follow these particular rules?
Whereas the French policy makers tried to tackle illegal file sharing with a ban on Internet access, their Italian colleagues have made themselves the laughing stock of Europe by committing an enormous legal blunder. The law cannot be withdrawn or reconsidered, since it has already been approved of and only publication in the Official Journal keeps it from being official. The Italian government thus has to come up with a new law and make it pass through both Houses of Parliament again. It is almost too good to be true, and a small victory for consumers. If only I’d live in Italy.
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