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Top 5 Free Apps

Release Date: August 05, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: May 22, 2009
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Release Date: August 29, 2009
Genre: Games
Release Date: March 27, 2009
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iTunes New Music Releases

Release Date: September 29, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: September 20, 2009
Release Date: September 15, 2009
Release Date: August 25, 2009
Genre: Rock
Release Date: August 25, 2009

Top 5 Paid Apps

Release Date: April 22, 2009
StickWars $0.99
Release Date: March 31, 2009
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Bloons $0.99
Release Date: April 05, 2009
Genre: Games

Discover New Music

  • With Teeth

    • 4 out of 10
    • Nine Inch Nails
    • In the sprawling post-A&R rock and roll world, there are two camps: the Beatles and the Stones. The Beatles are the artists that like to explore, evolve, and change styles. The Stones are the artis

  • De Nova

    • 10 out of 10
    • The Redwalls
    • Wow! Perhaps my 5-star rating is simply because the Redwalls are not only new and fresh (none of them older than 22!), or perhaps its because -- despite their ages -- they are able to totally capture
  • Gimme Fiction

    • 10 out of 10
    • Spoon
    • Gimme Fiction by Spoon is a terrific album by an Austin band that I was lucky enough to catch on an Austin radio station during a Christmas visit.

  • War of the Worlds

    • 10 out of 10
    • Jeff Wayne
    • With the new movie adaptation of H.G Wells' classic Sci Fi invasion tale, War of the Worlds, currently on theater screens everywhere, there's new interest in Jeff Wayne's rock opera version, and it is
  • Every Day: The Best of the Verve Years

    • 8 out of 10
    • Joe Williams
    • Joe Williams was Figure Two in my three-man education in singing. A brilliant vocalist, scatter, and interpreter of jazz and blues, Williams produces music that's totally unique, yet sounds so effortl

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News

Last.fm Successful with Free, Full Track Previews

Last.fm has deals that allow them to stream over five million full tracks for free. That’s increased their on-line minutes and sales dramatically, according to Wired on Thursday. The conclusion was that exposure to free music has lead to increased sales.

The increase in sales has been due to referrals, but existing users have driven sales up 66 percent since the free music program started. Last.fm has concluded that free music has increased demand for sales. [The streamed, full track music is free to listen to but cannot be saved.]

The thinking is that the more music people hear, the more music they want to buy.

"In just over two months it’s become clear that people will buy CDs and downloads if they get access to the kind of service we offer," said Martin Stiksel, a co-founder of Last.fm. "No one else can give music fans this amount of music for free -- but more importantly also drive their discovery, as we do through our unique recommendation engine."

Mr. Stiksel added that since the program started, minutes spent on the site are up 118 percent month-over-month.

Currently, Apple’s iTunes allows only a 30 second preview of a song before purchase and contains only a smattering of free content. While Apple would surely want to increase listenership with free, streamed only music, it’s also likely that the Labels experiment with different business models to maximize revenue. As a result, it’s unlikely that iTunes and Last.fm will ever have identical business models unless the Labels think that’s more profitable.

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