“Inattention, hyperactivity, and impulsivity are the key behaviors of ADHD.”

I was diagnosed with ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) at the age of 16.  I don’t presume that music listeners at large suffer from it but rather draw the comparison to the syndrome due to the endless choice and ease of switching from one piece of music to another ? impulsively.

With terrestrial radio, I can always ‘turn the dial’ but I’m otherwise passively engaged.  As I’m no longer willing to be spoon fed music and advertising by terrestrial radio, I consume it interactively online or via cable or satellite.  I listen to whatever I like, whenever I want, on any device I choose.

Consequently, I’m busy running my music applications and managing my playlists instead of sitting back and just listening.  I’m the DJ.  I’m the station.  I’m not listening like I used to because I’m busy broadcasting to myself…  rating, sharing, editing, remixing, collaborating, plugging in, adding plug-ins, logging off, connecting elsewhere.

I’m not sure that this is a good thing for someone with ADHD.

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Yesterday, TechCrunch reported that Google is preparing to launch a music service.  The project, in partnership with LaLa and the recently acquired iLike, is expected to surface during a Hollywood event dubbed “Discover Music!” on the 28th October 2009.  More details here.

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Grooveshark, the Florida-based streaming music startup that grappled with EMI earlier in the year, has reportedly inked a deal with the major label.

A Webware 100 Winner, Grooveshark allows its users to stream music for free from an aggregate selection of 15 million tracks.  No download or registration required.  The service is supported by online advertising or through a $3/month premium plan which eliminates the ads.

Developed by a group of music enthusiasts from the University of Florida, Grooveshark boasts one million registered users to date.

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Music discovery and playlist service, Grooveshark, was selected as one of ten winners in CNET’s 2009 Webware 100 in the “Audio & Music” category, sharing the spotlight with the formidable usual suspects including iTunes, AmazonMP3, and Pandora.  This is indeed a privilege for the Floridian upstart which triumphed over CD Baby, iLike, Sellaband, Jango, and other well publicized and funded music dotcoms.  Nearly 630,000 votes were cast this year.

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Jango Airplay

Brian Hazard of the Music Think Tank published a comprehensive post addressing the pay-for-play model that online streaming playlist service, Jango, adopted as part of its monetization strategy, dispelling the analogy to terrestrial radio payola and drawing references to mainstream advertising mediums.  In March, I promoted Jango Airplay and touched on the controversial issues Brian addresses in his piece but his first-hand experience and engaging write-up of the music dotcom serves the topic more justice: Is Jango Payola?

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Whatever your position on file-sharing may be, it will most certainly be skewed when you learn that a mega-band such as Radiohead, who famously distributed their last record with a pay-what-you-like model, are taking the stand against the RIAA.

In the case of file-sharer Joel Tenenbaum, a Boston University student, versus the RIAA, Radiohead will testify against the RIAA as part of a protest against unnecessary preying on filesharers, according to Tenenbaum’s legal team which consists of Harvard Law professor Charles Nesson and student members of his class.

Radiohead has publically spoken out against the major labels’ agenda to profit from questionable sharing of music in the legal arena, and specifically the lobby groups that represent them such as the RIAA and IFPI.  In fact, Radiohead is one of several A-list artists that have embraced file-sharing culture in one way or another to propel their independent marketing of their music and, to a certain extent, have proven that the very labels that made them what they are today have been rendered obsolete.

All this comes to a head just after the founders of The Pirate Bay, a BitTorrent search platform, were found guilty in a landmark file-sharing case spearheaded by Swedish anti-piracy lobbyists, preceded by the public crackdown of the popular music streaming service, SeeqPod, which was forced to close.

Linking the decline in music sales to illegal filesharing carries very little water in this day and age as there are so many other contributing factors to the manner in which music is consumed and the availability of media to the public in general.  The fact is that, for the major labels, going to court is profitable.  In the cases where it’s not, it sets a precedence for future cases that will turn over handsome settlements.  The attitude toward file-sharing, and the laws around it no less, will not change until the investment in the judicial system will no longer yield rewards for the copyright holders, the majority of which are represented by only four corporate institutions worldwide.

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Interview with Jon Mitchell, UK Director of Sales at Spotify.

More on Spotify

“When we launched our free digital distribution service, we knew we would be able to provide our users with new possibilities to help them expand their own marketing. With Jango Airplay, our users can freely invest into getting radio promotions and establish unique social interactions with new fans to help drive music sales. We are very excited to be working with Jango to provide an effective marketing avenue to our users.” said Kevin Rivers, Founder and CEO of WaTunes.

“We designed Jango Airplay to give emerging artists an affordable and effective way to get their music proactively played to real listeners who like similar music. Thanks to WaTunes and affordable technology it is cheaper than ever to produce and sell music – but getting your music heard is the first step. We are very excited to bring WaTunes users in front of our 6 Million listeners. ” said Mattias Stanghed, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer of Jango.

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Andrew Dubber interviews Dave Haynes, SoundCloud’s UK manager.

SoundCloud, an online music collaboration and large music file management platform, has secured a €2.5 million ($3.3 million) funding round led by Doughty Hanson Technology Ventures.  Details on TechCrunch.