Bloomberg Confirms Apple’s Plans
Bloomberg has confirmed that Apple will be expanding their iTunes Radio services to both Canada and the U.K early next year.
Apple To Introduce New Radio Service In Canada
iTunes Radio is on its way into Canada, offering iTunes
users on Macs, PC and Apple mobile devices the ability to create their own stations.
Funded by advertisements, the service will stream music from pre-set and customizable stations to iTunes and may be ad free for iTunes Match
subscribers.
The service will feature an extensive selection of recordings from iTunes’ catalogue.
Google Play Gift Cards Now In Canada
Google Play gift cards are now available in Canada, in increments of $15, $25 and $50.
They are available at select Shopper’s Drug Mart/Pharmaprix, Future Shop, Best Buy, Target, Walmart, Mac’s, Couche Tard and 7-11 stores.
Vimeo Not Exempt
U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams has denied Vimeo’s request to be exempt from prosecution under the safe harbor provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and will now be subject to litigation by the major record companies.
This user generated content web site features lip dub videos, on which recordings can be heard playing whilst individuals lip sync to the lyrics found in these recordings. But the judge also claimed that 144 of the 199 videos should not be included in the legal action.
Of the 199 videos only 55 were confirmed that have been known about by Vimeo staff, who commented, liked or uploaded these videos. And Vimeo argues that this staff may not have realized that the content infringed copyright, also arguing that they should not be held responsible for the actions of their employees.
I’m also assuming that “fair use” will come into play if the videos are satirical or comical. But I guess we’ll be hearing more about this case as those 55 videos are slowly reviewed.
Where is Puretracks ?
Puretracks and several Puretracks powered sites appear to have gone down over the weekend.
My brother made me aware of this problem last Friday and I had assumed they were updating or were subject to a glitch. But I am still unable to access the sites as of 1 AM Eastern Time on September 3rd, 2013.
Complaints about the inaccessibility of the site also appear on the service’s Facebook page. But I have not been able to find much of anything else online.
They haven’t posted anything on their Facebook or Twitter account about an issue, though the latter has entries from the 30th of August that imply Puretracks is gone, allegedly from people in the company.
A new version of Puretracks had gone online on June 14th, 2013. But apparently customers weren’t satisfied with the new site according to several Facebook entries and I’m guessing that some of their customers were lured elsewhere with lower prices.
More and more cell providers are also offering unlimited streaming of music so I suspect Puretracks may be gone, though I have no confirmation of this other than a few rare scattered pieces of information on the internet.
I’ve contacted Pizza Pizza in regards to this issue because they seem to be having problems as well with chooseyoursongs.com, a Puretrack powered site where their customers can redeem Peel ‘N Win music downloads.
I will of course update this entry if I find something else.
UPDATE: Pizza Pizza has moved their Peal ‘N Win music download code redemption to Universal Music Group’s Getmusic.ca.
New Fee May Hurt Small Clubs
The Calgary Herold reported yesterday that new fees for international performers have been introduced on July 31st, 2013.
Non-Canadian musicians, technicians, sound engineers, crew members and tour managers may now be subject to a $275 fee, per person, per venue. This amount is added to the $150 work permit fee that most of these people are required to pay to work in Canada.
Prior to the introduction of this fee most bands were subject to a maximum of $450 to play Canada’s smaller venues. But now the fees have quadrupled for some international acts resulting in extra expenditures that will be passed along to consumers.
This new fee will also hurt new and upcoming international performers who have not yet gained enough of an audience in Canada to play the larger venues, some of which are tax exempt.
A petition against the implementation of this fee is available at change.org. Please consider signing this petition.
Thank You.