Hi Lifehacker, I have been trying to find some cheaper alternatives to the iTunes store for purchasing electronic music legally. I came across LegalSounds. They seem to be selling tracks at $0.09 and albums for $1.99. In their copyright statement they mention that they pay royalties to artists according to Russian laws. However, I wanted to find out if it is actually legal for me to download tracks from this site in Australia? It does sound too good to be true! Thanks, Careful Cheapskate
We’ve spent a lot of time this week looking at proposals for how ISPs should deal with allegations of piracy via torrents and how those would work in practice. There’s broad agreement that the proposals aren’t perfect and that a dedicated downloader could easily work around them, but there’s also clearly some widely-held misunderstandings about the nature of the proposals and the alternative business models which might drive entertainment in the future. Let’s bust through a few of them.
The actual Zune music player may be long dead and buried, but Microsoft is sticking by Zune as a service until the bitter end. This month it even expanded its services, launching the long awaited Zune Pass music streaming platform in Australia. How does it stack up?
Microsoft this week announced its Zune Pass service for Australia, adding to a growing list of options that offer all-you-can-listen-to music services for a monthly fee. How does its $11.99 a month price tag compare with its rivals, and would you cough up for that kind of service?
It seems Australians have overcome any lingering prejudice that “phones are just for talking”: a new study found 83 per cent of us use our mobiles for purposes other than calling and SMS. But we still favour personal and leisure activities over working on our phones.
The BBC’s iPlayer app for iPad is now out in Australia and it works really well when it comes to viewing archive material. But will it ever appear on Android? And why can’t we pay for a full version of the UK catch-up service? We chatted with BBC Worldwide executives to discover the answers.
If you judge by the ratings, then the programs we’re most fond of are The Block, Masterchef and other reality/talent show staples. But if you ask people which shows they really love to watch, it turns out that we’re much keener on comedy. And the show we like the most? Step forward, The Big Bang Theory.
We’re seeing an increasing range of options to deliver event tickets to mobile phones. That’s a potentially welcome development, but I fear it won’t result in our tickets for sporting events and concerts getting any cheaper.
The dismissal of three Channel Nine employees and the resignation of its Queensland news director after fake footage of a “live cross” was broadcast is a timely reminder that television news often ranks being accurate and relevant fairly low on its list of priorities. This is why watching broadcast news is generally a waste of time.
Dear Lifehacker, As a person of the technology age, I find it hard to believe that digital music is an unknown to many Australians. The only options I’m aware of in Australia are iTunes and BigPond. I don’t use iTunes (nor do I want to), and Bigpond is. . . well, horrible. Here are some examples of why:
