By-pass radio commercials
p2pnet.net News:- Does the idea of being able to by-pass radio advertising and DJ-chatter appeal to you?
That’s what Sweden’s PopCatcher MusicDock is offering.
“Simply tune in to any radio station of your choice,” it says. “The PopCatcher MusicDock MD-601 recognizes any music category and captures the separate songs automatically, free of charge and legally.
“The songs are saved on the mp3 player as 192 kbps MP3 files. The MP3 files are easily dropped onto a computer, an iPod or a mobile phone.”
Interesting, with the likes of Google, Microsoft, Yahoo and all the others going blind trying to figure out ways to force us to watch and/or listen to their brainless ad-babble.
Do ads really make people buy? Or have manufacturers and retailers been connned into believing they do?
Meanwhile, PopCatcher doesn’t say how much this unit will cost, or when it’ll be available.
The online blurb doesn’t list the price, but in a Reader’s Write, “I’d just like to add that this product already is for sale in Sweden, for 1199 SEK ($170),” says Magnus Nilsson.
Meanwhile, the patented technology will also be available to developers under license, says PopCatcher.
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January 27th, 2007 at 8:45 pm
“The PopCatcher MusicDock MD-601 recognizes any music category and captures the separate songs automatically, free of charge and legally.”
That doesn’t sound legal at all. According to a cinema broadcasting major (as opposed he is to the music industry) anything recorded from the radio is illegal. And to capture each song individually to keep it is blatantly illegal.
January 27th, 2007 at 9:00 pm
since its swedish as I understand, could be that they are refering to sane swedish/european laws that -at the moment- still say it is legal to record songs they play on the radio for your own noncommercial private purpose in the way you want to record with or without shit you don’t want.!
But rest assured, the MAFIA will definetly buy a law -if they haven’t bought already- that makes it illegal for YOU to decide in which way you record what YOU want for your private non commercial -formerly known as “fair use”- use
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Alter_Fritz
January 27th, 2007 at 9:09 pm
Thats what I hear as their “demo song” in the flash animation.
If that isn’t a secret hint…
http://www.popcatcher.com/how.html
January 28th, 2007 at 1:03 am
In the states it is perfectly legal to record off the air for analog stations.
One of the most amazing displays of audacity came to me when I heard some yoyo claiming that not hearing or watching commercials was stealing the tv programming for free.
Just because some corporation pays for advertisement is no guarantee I am interested in hearing it. I don’t care that they got hoodwinked into paying for the commercial or the air time. Nor do I award these yoyos that seem to think my listening time is dependent upon their good graces. When I go to some store, I don’t buy those products advertised. I buy what I know works.
My listening time is up to me. Commercials drive me away. Recently a radio station in my listening area figured out their listenership was dropping through the floor. Their solution was to drop a lot of the commercials. It’s a plain indication that too many ads drive people away.
I don’t watch public or paid tv anymore. Doing such has sharpened my dislike for commercials even more. I’ve gotten to where I don’t want to hear them. Not at all. Their just like the pest industry, someone you want to call the exterminator over to deal with.
January 28th, 2007 at 6:07 am
The RIAA already tried to mandate an “audio flag” in 2006.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broadcast_Flag#Radio_broadcast_flag_and_RIAA
January 28th, 2007 at 8:26 am
I’d just like to add that this product already is for sale in Sweden, for 1199 SEK (170 dollar)
//magnus nilsson
January 28th, 2007 at 9:53 am
sweden also has the TPB, so in old europe the clocks don’t tick totally in RIAA fashion!
It’s more likely that the RIAA will argue that the fact THAT it IS for sale in sweden already is a point that american consumers must be protected against it; sweden, piracy, yaarrr!
You know?
January 28th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
on their page I read:
“The MusicDock is a portable MP3 player and a stand alone FM-radio with MP3 capture technology.”
Where is the “perfect digital copy” Digital Audio Broadcast part in the story?
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Alter_Fritz
January 28th, 2007 at 4:38 pm
You’re correct, Alter_Fritz. I shouldn’t have written ‘DAB’. I don’t know why I did because I was also thinking to myself, “analog, with all its pops and hisses, is far better than digital for the same reason those big, black shiny discs called ‘records’ are better than CDs” : ) Anyhow, I’ve deleted ‘DAB’.
Cheers!
January 29th, 2007 at 2:19 pm
Yes, it would be totally scary if technology could enter the USA because it is wanted by the Americans and designed by American engineers.
But hey… Let us make our USA an isolated continent. Technology can develop in new forms in Europe and Asia instead Maybe USA can ban its IT-engineers and ask them to stop developing and go back to car manufacturing in Detroit. Maybe the big future is in oil driven cars and Europe and Asia can make the electrical cars and then maybe we in the USA can ban those awful electrical cars too…
I know Intel Mobile Solutions has had developers involved in this product. Please, make sure we do not ban yet another technology from us Americans!
January 30th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
I got a mail from PopCatcher this morning. In short, the product shown in the picture, the MD-601, although already for sale in Europe will not be sold in the US. However, they say their team is developing a new product “more adapted to the American market” that will be released within 6 months. I suspect it is a docking station to dock iPods since that’s what Americans are known for. But I will not bet too much. Answer next summer.