My niece knows Indian takes and Indian film medicine. To her, equally to almost of the worldwide, this rank, colorful, potty and just-plain-fun writing style is summed up in one word: Bollywood.
I confess that I've become taken with Bollywood equally better, though non to the duplicate extent as my niece, who owns a issue of Indian movies and on a regular basis takes others. The Bollywood better is so shot that I have to bound myself to following those hardly a of its products that belch up to catch the tending of American movie referees. Otherwise I imparted be lost in Indian ocean of unfamiliar with movie titles, role players and actresses.
My niece also hoards CDs of Bollywood medicine. There's an Asian food market about her place that cracks a cornucopia of them. But she has the one problem taking CDs to buy that I do decisive which Bollywood movie Crataegus oxycantha be worth my time. Unless she's seen the film from which a soundtrack derives, she's usually in the dark every bit to whether a sure CD's songs and creative people are ones she will enjoy.
At her petition, I set up a way for her to preview a variety of Bollywood calls and even to live with them on her iPod for a while, all for Outstanding. This style she can take hip decisions about which CDs she ultimately purchases.
First, I searched for Indian medicine Web sites, and specifically for those devoted to Bollywood, or at least modern popular medicine (as opposed, say, to classical Indian ragas). I found several good ones, with names such every bit Bollywood worldwide and India FM.
All the big music sellers may have moved to non-DRM MP3 files long ago, but the watermarking of files with your personal information continues. Most users who buy music don’t know about the marking of files, or don’t care. Unless those files are uploaded to BitTorrent or other P2P networks, there isn’t much to worry about.
A list of which music services are selling clean MP3 files without embedded personal information, and which aren’t, is here. Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart embed personal information. Amazon, Napster and the rest have resisted label pressure to do so.
A music industry insider who’s asked to remain anonymous writes to us:
Hidden in purchased music files from popular stores such as Apple and Walmart is information to identify the buyer and/or the transaction. You won’t find it disclosed in their published terms of use. It’s nowhere in their support documentation. There’s no mention in the digital receipt. Consumers are largely oblivious to this, but it could have future ramifications as the music industry takes another stab at locking down music files.
Here’s how it works. During the buying process a username and transaction ID are known by the online retailers. Before making the song available for download their software embeds into the file either an account name or a transaction number or both. Once downloaded, the file has squirreled away this personal information in a manner where you can’t easily see it, but if someone knows where to look they can. This information doesn’t affect the audio fidelity, but it does permanently attach to the file data which can be used to trace back to the original purchaser which could be used at a later date.
Retailers aren’t talking, but there’s ample proof of what’s transpiring. Using simple file comparison tools it’s possible to verify this behavior by purchasing identical songs using different accounts and see if they match. I emailed support departments for several retailers asking if they would acknowledge these actions and inquiring about what specific information they are embedding. Only 7digital responded saying they don’t use any watermarks. What retailers won’t say publicly is that the major record labels are requiring this behavior as a precondition to sell their music.
Certain record labels have aspirations to use this hidden data to control future access to music in a return to DRM (digital rights management). The labels yearn to control where you can listen to your music and this could be a backdoor for them to achieve it. When personal libraries are stored in the cloud, it becomes possible to retrieve this personal data and match it to a user identity. If the match is successful the song plays, but if not, access can be blocked through a network DRM system such as the one Lala patented (which is now owned by Apple).
For the scheme to work record labels need all retailers to support this and so far some notable names are resisting. Napster, Amazon and UK based 7digital are selling clean MP3 files. Files purchased from these stores do not have any user information whatsoever embedded into them. Other retailers such as Apple and Walmart have succumbed to label pressure to embed personal info.
Retailers and record labels should have the right to sell dirty files if they wish, however they should be obligated to disclose their practices in advance. Consumers should have this information so they can make an informed buying decision about whether to support dirty or clean MP3 vendors. If Barnes and Noble printed your name on pages of books you purchase that would be important information to know because it would affect the value of your book. Here the clandestine actions are even more worrisome because it could lead to a future lockdown of purchases. If the labels have plans to require cloud vendors to use this information in the future, they should disclose that as well.
Cloud Music And The New DRM
Apple, Google and Amazon are all reportedly in discussions with big labels to provide a cloud music service. These services will allow users to purchase rights to stream music, and they will also allow syncing of songs on your hard drive already so you can play those without repurchasing them (this was the original LaLa model).
The labels, say our source, are demanding that a user can only stream music that is watermarked to their username. Change the username, or try to stream music that you’ve ripped from a CD, and those songs won’t play.
In other words, it’s DRM déjà vu all over again.
Music helps the weary exerciser work harder and, according to a hacker named Steve, the louder the music the more vigorously you work. So, he grabbed a motion sensor and an DIY MP3 player, stuffed them both into a disused French Vanilla Cafe coffehouse beverage drink container (ooh, la la), then wired the works together to pump out the jams louder when you're really burning those calories -- or to get quieter when you stop for a breather. It's all fearlessly demonstrated in a video after the break featuring Steve, a jump rope, and a little bit of Bono. Make sure you stay through the credits for a deleted scene!
most of the Web sites I found offered song samples, meaning 30-second or 1-minute snippets. Some taken full audio streams that allowed the visitor to listen to continuous Bollywood music for equally long equally she or he might want. It was these latter that provided the first half of our solution.
Normally, streaming audio, such every bit what you hear over an Internet radio send, cannot be saved or downloaded. New computer software, though, makes it possible to phonograph record the stream to your hard drive for replaying every bit often every bit you like.
Even better, some of the newest audio capture software program incorporates something called an mp3 splitter. This software program is able to break the audio stream into sort mp3 song files. By the way, this is utterly legal, because you're simply transcription a broadcast, the said equally when you phonograph record a TV show on your VHS. Voila -- we had the second half of our solution.
Between the audio streams and splitter/recording software package, we produced our own essential Bollywood mp3 download sites.
Now whenever my niece is in a humor to search the latest tuneful offerings from Bollywood, she penetrates on her favorite Indian-medicine Internet radio place, then starts the reading computer software. Pretty soon she has enough Bollywood mp3s to shuffle terminated for the rest of the calendar week, and she's almost secured to find two or three that will spur her to hold a travel to the CD bin down at the Asian store.
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