This has to be one of the stupidest stories I’ve read for a while. Sony BMG have finally decided to catch up with their competition and start selling DRM free music. The downside is that you have to go into a store and buy a “Platinum Music Pass” that contains a download code, before you can download your album from MusicPass.com!

I would love to say that Sony are stupid and that they’ve messed up, but I think it’s more likely to be a calculated move. As TechCrunch say, when Sonly BMG fail to sell a large quantity of DRM free songs via this system, they can claim that there’s no demand for DRM free music, and go back to selling DRM protected ones.

It’s a shame that Sony are so short-sighted, most of the music I buy online is done on impulse; I decided to get a new album and within a few clicks the download has started, I’m sure the majority of others buy music on impulse too. If I have to go to a shop to buy a card with a code then I’ll just look for similar music from their competitors that’s sold without DRM.

***

If you are looking for legal DRM free music then check out 7digital or Amazon MP3 (USA only for now).

Tags: download, drm, Music, sony, sony bmg

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Tags: download, drm, Music, sony, sony bmg

I know what you’re thinking… My fourth blog post this week ‘he must be bored’. We’ll that’s not true, kind of!

I just clicked a random link in my Wordpress News dashboard and found Photo Matt, I haven’t really had chance to read any of the content but the design of the header really stood out as an excellent piece of design.

Tags: design, inpiration, photo matt, This Blog

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Tags: design, inpiration, photo matt, This Blog

Believe it or not, I’m finally writing the post from home, using a broadband connection! I’ve been waiting to get broadband installed for three years, but the local infrastructure couldn’t support ADSL on our line (for those interested, BT installed fiber cabling rather the copper, so they had to overlay copper).

It’s great to be online at the same time as the rest of my family, and not have to wait until the phone line is free before I can get online!

Maybe I’ll be able to get around to updating this blog a bit more often now.

Tags: adsl, british-telecom, broadband, bt

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Tags: adsl, british-telecom, broadband, bt

The Bluestone Creative website has now been launched! Check it out at www.bluestonecreative.net

Tags: bluestone, bluestone-creative, peterborough, webdesign

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Tags: bluestone, bluestone-creative, peterborough, webdesign

It looks like Microsoft have officially settled on the name for their new suite of creative web applications, called ‘Expression‘, and they seem to have Adobe in their sights.

One of the products (Expression Web) went on sale on Amazon.com on 4th December, but at the moment it’s only available to pre-order for $269.10, or if you’re lucky enough to have Frontpage, then you can upgrade for $89.96 (the best $89.96 you’ll ever spend if you ask me!).

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I’ve decided it’s time to do something about the design of this blog, so I’ve knocked together a new design, as you can see (unless you’re reading this post in an RSS reader, in which case head over to the site and take a look).

Don’t get too excited tho, it’s a very (very) simple design. I’ve decided to stick to the motto “content is king” and not get distracted with a site that looks stunning (besides most people read things in RSS readers anyway).

There’s still a few areas that need some work, but the main parts are up and running, like comments, archives, categories, pages etc. I’ll get around to fixing the rest over the next few days.

Feel free to post comments with your thoughts and suggestions.

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I saw this video this morning, which I thought was great, for two reasons 1) this guy has been to some amazing places! 2) he dances just like I do!

Check out his website at http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

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Steve Herrmann (among others) made an interesting post on the BBC’s “The Editors” blog about a website called News Sniffer which “aims to monitor corporate news organisations to uncover bias”.

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