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Universal to Offer Music for Free
wild_berry writes "The BBC reports that Universal Music has signed a deal to make its music available for a free and legally-licensed download. Available from a new music site called SpiralFrog, the deal will allow users in the USA and Canada to listen to Universal's music, which Reuters' news site reveals is paid for by targeted advertising, but no details of possible community or playlist sharing features of the SpiralFrog service. Is the immunity from litigation enough to make up for having targeted advertising on each page and not being able to write the music to CD or a portable player?"
You don't need to look online for the free-due-to-advertising model. There have been advertisers giving away free, unrelated product for decades, if not centuries in return for eyeballs. Ever listen to the radio, or watch TV? People are already used to this stuff...the water is already boiling.
Aside: Advertisers are the scourge of the earth, and they may actually rank _below_ lawyers, as at least some lawyers are honest. No, I haven't met one personally, but they supposedly exist whereas there are no honest advertisers almost by definition. Advertisers are at the root of most sports-related inflation. They get owners addicted to the cash like heroin, then claim they need to have more and more exposure to geep that cash coming. as the money filters down, everybody gets greedy, and you end up with $8 beers, $5 hot dogs, $300 bleacher seats, and some guy who can't even spell his name making $80M over 4 years right out of college because he can run a 4.2 40 and throw a pigskin 80 yards.
Is it just my observation, or are there way too many stupid people in the world?
Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl
With yellow feathers in her hair and a dress cut down to there
She would merengue and do the cha-cha
And while she tried to be a star, Tony always tended bar
Across a crowded floor, they worked from 8 till 4
They were young and they had each other
Who could ask for more?
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....they fell in love
(Copa Copacabana)
His name was Rico, he wore a diamond
He was escorted to his chair, he saw Lola dancin' there
And when she finished, he called her over
But Rico went a bit too far, Tony sailed across the bar
And then the punches flew and chairs were smashed in two
There was blood and a single gun shot
But just who shot who?
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....she lost her love
(Copa. . Copacabana)
(Copa Copacabana) (Copacabana, ahh ahh ahh ahh)
(Ahh ahh ahh ahh Copa Copacabana)
(Talking Havana have a banana)
(Music and passion...always the fash--shun)
Her name is Lola, she was a showgirl
But that was 30 years ago, when they used to have a show
Now it's a disco, but not for Lola
Still in the dress she used to wear, faded feathers in her hair
She sits there so refined, and drinks herself half-blind
She lost her youth and she lost her Tony
Now she's lost her mind!
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana (Copacabana)
The hottest spot north of Havana (here)
At the Copa (CO!), Copacabana
Music and passion were always the fashion
At the Copa....don't fall in love
(Copa) don't fall in love
Copacabana
Copacabana
Mr. Hu is not a ninja.
Audacity is very cool app. The editing interface is very easy to work with and highly intuitive, you can change pitch and speed of a recording, and you can even add cool audio effects, with the ability to add your own. And it's cross-platform, with ports for Windows, Mac OS X and Linux. And, of course it's open source.
I originally installed it in order to convert/edit some tape recordings I had and 'master' them to CD-Rs, and then I just started playing with it, mixing up some tracks and stuff. All in all, a very powerful tool for audio editing!
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