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Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
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Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

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Discover New Music

  • Is This It

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Strokes
    • The Strokes set the music world on fire with this 2001 album, with headlines declaring that the New York band was here to save Rock and Roll. While the band hasn't made as much of a splash since t

  • Velocifero

    • 6 out of 10
    • Ladytron
    • "Back to the future" isn't the right turn of phrase for Ladytron's newest album,

  • The Printz

    • 8 out of 10
    • Bumblebeez 81
    • Part white rap, part alternative, part pop, and part rock, the Bumblebeez grabbed a hold of me with "Pony Ride," and didn't let go.

      This group does a marvelous job of moving seamlessly be

  • Zooropa

    • 10 out of 10
    • U2
    • This record is perhaps U2's finest hour, yet it has been forgotten as a strange by-product of the ZooTV tour's overload, and is generally regarded by most fans as a poor effort. It is this sentiment t
  • Mezzanine

    • 6 out of 10
    • Massive Attack
    • "Black Milk" knocks me off my feet in this collection of moody and eclectic songs. Massive Attack uses samples and keyboards in a very unique way, but not all the songs pack the same punch.

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News

House of Rep. Passes Webcaster Settlement Act

After a furor of complaints from Pandora users and concession by the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB), the U.S. House of Representatives has unanimously passed the Webcaster Settlement Act. It paves the way for private agreements with SoundExchange on music royalty rates and exemption from the Copyright Board mandatory rules that would have put many Internet radios stations, including Pandora, out of business.

No opposition is predicted in the Senate where the bill has now arrived.

The issue came to a head recently when Tim Westergren, Pandora’s founder, told his customers that he was close to pulling the plug on Pandora due to onerous royalty rates that would have been imposed by the U.S. Congress Copyright Board.

Internet radio stations had been paying $0.08 per song, but the Copyright Board had ordered that that amount rise to $0.19 by 2010. That would have put Pandora and others out of business.

The NAB has previously opposed the legislation, but relented after meeting with Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.) that led to pushing back a deadline that would then allow the NAB organizations time to competitively reach similar royalty agreements.

"This is a truly historic moment for Internet radio and its listeners," said the bill’s author, Representative Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) of the Energy and Commerce Committee. "There may now be a light at the end of the tunnel in the fight over Internet radio royalties."

After the Senate passes the bill and signature by the president, private royalty negotiations can resume, and Pandora along with other Internet radio stations look to have a considerably brighter future.

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