With Microsoft’s Zune conspicuously absent from the Redmond company’s lovefest with Nokia last week, the Microsofties are abuzz that the company’s answer to Apple’s iPod may be on its way out. Paul Thurrott noted that the company talked about every Microsoft service practically but Zune at the Nokia press conference; Mary Jo Foley chimed in later with a statement from a Microsoft spokesperson which only seemed to raise even more questions.

We’re not ‘killing’ any of the Zune services/features in any way. Microsoft remains committed to providing a great music and video experience from Zune on platforms such as Xbox LIVE, Windows-based PCs, Zune devices and Windows Phone 7, as well as integration with Bing and MSN.

Continue reading this story…

How are content providers going to react to Apple’s new App Store rules, which mandate that providers of music, video, e-books, and other stuff sell their wares using Apple’s in-app purchasing and subscriptions–at least as an option–and give Apple a 30 percent cut when they do? Music purveyor Rhapsody is the first company I’ve seen to respond in public. And it’s taking an almost-hard line–it doesn’t say it’s pulling out of the App Store, but it does call Apple’s 30 percent fee “untenable” and says it “would not be able to offer” Rhapsody under Apple’s new terms.

It issued this statement by Rhapsody’s President, Jon Irwin:

Rhapsody is the leading digital music subscription service in the U.S.,with 750,000 subscribers.  Music fans can access the service using free apps from any Internet-connected device, be it on an Android, Sonos, Tivo, BlackBerry, iOS or personal computer. Today, Rhapsody subscriptions are available for purchase exclusively via Rhapsody.com.

Rhapsody offers a content-based subscription service that makes millions of tracks available to fans pursuant to longstanding partnerships with thousands of rights holders, all of which then distribute revenues to artists and other creators.

Our philosophy is simple too – an Apple-imposed arrangement that requires us to pay 30 percent of our revenue to Apple, in addition to content fees that we pay to the music labels, publishers and artists, is economically untenable.  The bottom line is we would not be able to offer our service through the iTunes store if subjected to Apple’s 30 percent monthly fee vs. a typical 2.5 percent credit card fee.

We will continue to allow consumers to sign up at www.rhapsody.com from a smartphone or any other Internet access point, including the Safari browser on the iPhone and iPad.  In the meantime, we will be collaborating with our market peers in determining an appropriate legal and business response to this latest development.

Sounds like someone’s going to have to call someone’s bluff here: Either Apple reduces the fee, or Rhapsody pulls out (unless it chickens out and stays in). That’s assuming that the reference to “appropriate legal…response” doesn’t turn into a lawsuit.

Apple says that content companies need to abide by the new policy by June 30th. It’s going to be an interesting four and a half months…

Sonos, maker of those neat networked music players, offers a touchscreen remote control for its systems, letting owners choose local and Internet-based music and route it to one or more Sonos boxes in their home. But the most popular touchscreen remotes for Sonos aren’t Sonos touchscreen remotes–they’re iPhones, iPod Touches, and iPads running the company’s iOS app.

Starting soon, owners of Android phones will be able to get on the fun. Sonos is readying the Sonos Controller for Android, a free app for Google’s operating system. A Sonos representative told me that it’s generally similar to the iPhone version, but with a few new twists: For instance, it’s designed to take better advantage of the larger screens on many Android handsets. And when you’re running it, the volume buttons on your phone will control the Sonos system, not the phone itself. (Apple doesn’t provide a way for developers to grab control of the volume buttons on iOS devices.)

Sonos says that it plans to release the Android app in late March.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Beamz C4

Price: $199.95

I gotta tell you that I call this thing the Digital Theremin. Musicologists may recall that the Theremin was one of the early electronic instruments that played music as you passed your hands past radio antennae. Well now the Beamz lets you pass your hands through lasers. As you pass the points you make glorious sound.  Coupled with synthesized background beats, you sound good even if you’ve never played a note before. Beamz connects to a PC via USB and includes Beamz Player, an application that lets you play fifty Beamz songs, including works by Grammy-winning artists and independent musicians.

So how cool is it to pas your hands through laser beams and “play” light?

CNet’s Greg Sandoval has an update on Spotify, the music service best known for streaming free, ad-supported songs.

Although Spotify debuted in Europe two years ago, the service has yet to launch in the United States. Record labels are worried that Spotify can’t convert enough people to its premium subscription plan, and that its free version would cut into iTunes and other a la carte download services. As a kind of insurance against cannibalization, record labels want to charge Spotify a premium for licensing.

Now, Sandoval reports, Spotify will miss its promised 2010 launch, and Daniel Ek, the company’s founder and chief executive, won’t commit to a later date. No major labels have licensed music to Spotify in the United States.

Continue reading this story…

In Wired, my friend Paul Boutin makes an obviously true point which I’m sure some folks will reflexively dispute: You should pay for your music, and there’s no reason not to do so.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: dB Logic headphones

Price: $29

Worried that listening to loud music for too long could damage your hearing? You could stop listening to loud music for long periods. Or you could buy dB Logic’s headphones. They use a technology called SPL2 which the company says “intelligently modifies the sound wave to closely match the profile of the original sound wave, while keeping the overall volume level at a level that can help avoid hearing loss.” They’ll be available this month.

Apple’s home page is saying that the company is going to make an announcement that we’ll never forget. It involves iTunes and will occur at 7am Technologizer time. I hate to make Apple predictions, but I’m not above agreeing with ones made by others, and the idea that this might involve the release at long last, of the Beatles in digital form sounds plausible. In fact, the Wall Street Journal says the deal is done.

Assuming that the news does involve the Fab Four, it’s going to be a relief to never, ever have to write about their absence from the the iTunes Store and legal digital music in general again. (Here’s a ten-year-old PC World column that makes reference to me being ticked off about the subject.) As every rational person who’s ever written about the topic has said, this was a non-problem: Digital Beatles is already on untold computers, music players, phones, and other devices, in ripped form.

So with all the time we’ll save not seething about this, can we devote some energy to being upset about content that isn’t currently available in legal recorded form, period? The Rutles’ wonderful album Archaeology springs to mind. So do three of my favorite movie comedies of the 1960s and 1970s: The Wrong Box, Movie Movie, and Cold Turkey. It’s never been the least bit difficult to listen to the Beatles here, there, and everywhere, but much of our culture is still locked up in studio vaults…

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Sonomax Soundcage

Price: $199

I have oddly-shaped ears. I’m not sure if they’re oddly large or oddly small–all I know is that most headphones either fall out or sting. Or sometimes both. So I’m interested in the idea, at least, of Sonomax’s Soundcage–a set of headphones you buy, then custom-fit yourself. The fitting process takes four minutes and involves a special headband, shown to the right.

The $199 price may sound stiff, but it’s a pittance compared to fully customized headphones such as Ultimate Ears’ $999-and-about models which are produced from molds of your ears. I wonder how close the quality comes–and whether these would stay in my ears without hurting?

Soundcage is scheduled to ship in February of next year.

Last Gadget Standing Nominee: Acousticom Sound Egg

Price: $1450

If your name is Maxwell Smart or you’re an urban dweller who can never escape ambient noise, the Sound Egg is a sound investment.  The 70’s style egg chair has been reworked as an audio cocoon,  First seen at CES 2010, The Egg lets you immerse yourself in 5.1 Surround Sound without disturbing the people around you. It plays movies, music, video games, and any other media source through its array of speakers, including a 10″ subwoofer.  The chair is molded from colored foam.  At $1450, it’s a lot to pay for your own private world of sound, but for some, it may be worth it.

Aliph–the maker of those stylish, noise-reducing Jawbone headsets–is announcing its first product that isn’t a headset. It is, however, something with close technological ties to its other products: a small stereo speaker system which connects via Bluetooth to phones, computers, and other devices, and which doubles as a speakerphone. It’s called the Jawbone Jambox, and it’s a really interesting alternative to the tinny speakers that are built into gadgets.

The $199 Jambox is 5.9″ by 2.2″ by 1.6″–not pocket-sized, but close, and certainly briefcase-friendly. It comes in four colors (“Black Diamond,” “Blue Wave,” “Red Dot,” and “Gray Hex,” each with its own grille design, and all with a rather classic look (by design guru Yves Behar) that reminds me of vintage transistor radios. (If anyone had made Bluetooth speakers in the 1950s, they would have looked like this.) The case houses tiny stereo speakers and a rechargeable battery that Aliph says is good for up to eight hours.

Continue reading this story…

The original Napster was a scandalously easy way to get music for free. I’ve just been trying to use the new iPhone app from the latter-day, not-free service that carries the Napster name–and so far, it’s proven to be an annoyingly difficult way to pay for music.

Actually, I haven’t gotten it to accept my money at all. I began by downloading the iPhone app from the App Store and trying to upgrade my existing Napster event to the $10/month plan needed to stream and cache unlimited music on an iOS device. The app sent me to Safari to do the upgrade–and when I got there, I was greeted by an error message.

I tried doing the upgrade on a PC. Same error. Figuring that something might be wrong with my aged Napster account, I started to sign up for a new one, and didn’t see the $10 iOS plan among my options.

Then I noticed that there was no mention of iPhone compatibility on the Napster site. Scratch that–there is a reference to it…one that says that full-blown Napster doesn’t work with Apple devices.

I see no reference to an iPhone app on the Napster blog or in its press releases, so I wonder if the software wandered onto the App Store a bit ahead of schedule.

Maybe some of the dozens of folks who wrote about Napster for iOs today were able to get it up and running, but I’m giving up. With MOG, Rhapsody, Rdio, and Thumbplay already offering worthy on-demand music services for iOS, Napster is pretty darn late to the iPhone game. (Me, I’m currently partial to Rdio.)

If you’re able to make Napster work on an iOS device, lemme know what you think…

Reports of a music service from Google have been in the rumor mill since June, but without any useful details on how the so-called Google Music might work. Now, Billboard is citing anonymous sources in a lengthy Google music service tell-all.

Supposedly, the service will provide a la carte music downloads, just like iTunes, but with a batch of online features to sweeten the deal. In addition to downloads, Google users could opt to spend roughly $25 per year for digital locker access, letting them stream or download their libraries on any web-connected device, Billboard says.

Continue reading this story…

Tonight at the annual Pepcom holiday event in New York, Slacker will preview its new on-demand music service, a major upgrade to the existing application available on the Web, and on Android, Blackberry, and iOS phones. As long-time Slacker fans here at ZNF, we couldn’t be more excited about the launch. In addition to caching stations and enabling downloads of favorite tracks (available with today’s Slacker premium service), the new on-demand service will let users call up and play specific artists and songs at will. The new genre stations, pre-programmed by Slacker DJs, will provide details on the top station artists and songs, with an option to jump around to those tracks and others at any time. The search function will also provide more information on artists and songs, including what stations they’re programmed on, associated albums, etc. You’ll also be able to sort and play favorites easily, and there will be significantly more functionality for programming your own custom stations from any mobile interface.

Continue reading this story…

I’m sorry I wasn’t at Apple’s music event today to cover it live. I had fun watching it via Apple’s live video stream from the lobby bar here at the Grand Hyatt in Berlin, though. (I give the experience a B- from a technical standpoint: Eighty percent of the time, the stream worked well, fifteen percent I got audio but the picture froze, five percent it misbehaved in other ways. Then again, I was on iffy hotel Wi-Fi, so the glitchiness might have been on my end rather than Apple’s.)

Continue reading this story…