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More on UrgeMS.exe

UrgeMS.exe seems to be causing issues for a lot of people. I mentioned previously that you can disable the process via security policy, and someone pointed out a registry setting to disable it a little cleaner. I was hoping they'd fix this in the future, but it looks like all they did was make it worse...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 07-01-2007
Is Apple about to launch a subscription service?

Rumors of an iTunes subscription service have resurfaced . At first I thought that the DRM-free announcement meant a subscription service was less likely , but perhaps the opposite is true. First of all, album purchases will already be the DRM-free "premium" versions. As for individual tracks, the new...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 04-12-2007
The Day DRM Died

As Mike Arrington put it, April 2nd was "the day DRM died". The big news yesterday was that EMI will begin selling its entire catalog without DRM . Starting in May, EMI will start offering a new "premium" option - for $1.29 (30% more than the base $0.99), you get higher audio quality (encoded at 256kbps...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 04-03-2007
Arctic Monkeys show at Hammerstein Ballroom

I missed out on the presale. I got banned briefly because TicketMaster thought I was a bot after it gave me unreadable CAPTCHAs and took 10 tried to get it right. (Have I mentioned how much I hate Ticketmaster?). But I finally got in, and I got 2 tickets to the Hammerstein Ballroom show in May . Sweet...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 03-23-2007
More on the Music Industry's Slow Death

This letter from a former customer further illustrates how the music industry is alienating its customers. While I would like to say I responded with something witty, I must admit to being completely flummoxed. There I sat, a loyal music fan who has shelled out actual money to a business that is supposed...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 03-22-2007
Music of Note: The View

The View is an indie/punk band from Dundee, Scotland. Perhaps the most obvious comparison is to Arctic Monkeys. Their debut album, Hats off to the Buskers , is currently topping the UK charts. Standout tracks for me are Same Jeans , Grans for Tens , and Skag Trendy . I'm not quite ready to put this in...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 03-14-2007
Steve Jobs and Apple telling half-truths about DRM

This has already been covered ad nasuem , but I thought I should mention Apple's denouncement of DRM last week. Steve Jobs summarily dismissed Apple's DRM as a result of demands from the record labels. Since Apple does not own or control any music itself, it must license the rights to distribute music...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 02-13-2007
Disabling UrgeMS.exe

I noticed my machine running slower lately, and UrgeMS.exe (URGE Media Scanner) was thrashing the disk and running up to 50% CPU. Obviously, this is part of MTV's URGE music store, the default store for Windows Media Player 11. It appears that the process is related to the "Auto-Mix" feature, which I...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 02-05-2007
Sometimes piracy isn't about getting it for free

The old maxim that "you can't compete with free" has been thrown around time and time again in the piracy argument. Sometimes, though, piracy is not just about price. People don't want DRM ( including Bill Gates ), and there are still no legal means to download DRM-free music. ( Ok, I should clarify...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 01-30-2007
Music of Note: The Good, The Bad, and The Queen

I've been eagerly expecting this album since I first heard that Damon Albarn (of Blur and Gorillaz fame) was putting out a new album. What was originally intended to be a solo project turned out to be a supergroup . The Good, The Bad, and the Queen consists of group consists of Albarn, former Verve guitarist...

Posted to Tim Marman's Loosely Coupled (Weblog) by Tim on 01-23-2007

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