Pigs Fly: Apple is Selling DRM-Free Music

Lost a friend tonight...kind of disappointing and disheartening in a lot of ways. I'm glad that I have something else in my life that's great that I haven't screwed up, and I hope that I don't screw up. Anyway, back to the topic at hand: no, amazingly enough it is not an April Fool's Joke. I definitely thought it was and almost didn't even read the article, but it's true. Yeah, this is kind of an intense move, but so far it's kind of a pilot program with EMI. You can either buy the DRM-laden tracks with lower quality at $1 a pop, or pay an extra 30 cents to remove the DRM and get higher quality. What I'm curious about is why Apple is doing this. Of course to nerds, this is awesome. We've all been clamoring for an end to DRM and all that good stuff. I guess Apple is banking on the current dominance of the iPod and their perceived superiority of iTunes. I wonder if other labels will follow suit, and if this will actually work. Yeah, there are a couple of other services that sell DRM-free music, but mostly for small-time artists and indie labels, and this could be a huge deal. I think they're just testing the waters for now, but I hope that the response is positive, lest we all be shown as being liars when we've cried out that DRM is the devil. Should be interesting, nonetheless.

Staying on that musical track (no pun intended), looks like we'll be seeing legal guitar tabs back on the web very soon in the wake of the big OLGA takedown. Musicnotes is trying to launch a service that would provide the tablature with advertising, and that revenue would then go to the copyright holders. I think it's kind of funny since people are coming up with these tabs based on their ears, so it really doesn't warrant royalties for the artists unless they can prove that the transcriptions are perfect, but that's just my opinion.

I missed a lot of April Fool's Pranks because of how packed my Sunday was, but you can see some of the top ones here. I personally always love the ThinkGeek goodies, and this year I like the WiiHelm best.

It has now been announced that the iPhone will be released on June 11. Not much else to say about that, but I felt that it's noteworthy because I'm sure we'll be seeing a deluge of even more editorials revolving around this date.

Circuit City is laying off 3,400 employees and outsourcing some of their IT employees. Plus, they're closing 60 stores. Anyone else think that they're digging a hole for bankruptcy?

One more one-liner: if you're interesting in buying an HD set then you should totally read this article and learn more about the different kinds. Definitely very basic information that's not commonly known at all, but it's very concise.

Blades of Glory took center stage this weekend in the box office with $33 million, which I thought was a bit low for the comedy suited for most ages, but is still a strong opener with Meet the Robinsons only $8 million behind and 300 holding less than half that at #3. Most notable though was TMNT's enormous dip to under $10 million. Ouch, so much for turtle power.

I missed a couple of trailers. Yahoo Movies has an entertaining trailer for Ocean's Thirteen (if they make another and call it "Ocean's Fourteen", I will boycott it), though I didn't really laugh during it. Still, I think it's a better plot than the second movie, and they don't seem to be trying to hard to bring back Julia Roberts this time. If you can stand the MTV site for four minutes, they have a decent trailer for Hostel 2. It doesn't make it look much different from the first, but I'm sure that it'll be very disturbing all the same.

It looks like Quentin Tarantino has been working on the script for Inglorious Bastards and is using the time off he's taking to promote Grind House to also finish up on writing Inglorious Bastards. I think it's supposed to be a cool, WWII ensemble movie, and I'm really interested to see what Tarantino does with it. Can't wait for a script review!

Lastly, Dreamworks is doing a Shrek the Halls Holiday special for this winter, presumably to help promote Shrek the Third. Oh, and there are already plans for a fourth film. Can we say "milking a new animated franchise way too much"? I think that we're going to see a drastic reduction in quality if they just keep pumping out these movies.

Now for some Monday Madness:

1. Where did you go on your last vacation?
Vacation? I don't have time for vacations! =P More seriously: Canada with my parents like two years ago. Unless you count my extended trip to Seattle in January to do interviews with Microsoft a vacation? It was fun, exciting, and slightly relaxing.
2. Would you go there again? Why or why not?
Canada: probably, but more for the skiing than the sightseeing. I'm sure I'll do a trip to Vancouver this summer. As for Seattle: I'll be there this summer, so yeah ;)
3. How many vacations do you take in one year?
1 at the most. I plan on taking more when I graduate, but it's just a lot of money to spend while I'm still in school.
4. Where would you REALLY like to go on your next vacation, if money was no issue, and how long would you stay?
Probably London. I hear good things and I haven't been to Europe practically at all. My cousin is stationed in Germany, I'd be interested to check that out as well. Another place I'd love to visit is Tokyo, but that'd be a much more challenging trip, I'd imagine.
5. Do you put a little money aside each week (or month) to save up for your vacation?
Nope. I'm Indian, I save enough as it is! No need to make a special travel fund.