The Web: Downloading music gets easier

The Web: Downloading music gets easier: "Chicago, IL, Jan. 26 (UPI) -- Downloading music from the Internet is getting easier -- and cheaper. Apple Computer earlier this month introduced a $99 version of its famed iPod MP3 music player, and other developers are debuting similar low-priced products for the mass market.
'Services are being launched that will allow people to purchase, download and listen to music on their cell phones,' said Ephraim Cohen, a spokesman for Musiwave, a company in New York City that makes Internet music-download technologies, for Europe and, soon, the United States. 'The services allow them to skip the step of having to transfer music from the PC to a music device. Their music device is built into the phone -- Nokia's 6630 and Siemens' SX1 are two examples -- and they can simply purchase and download the music directly.'

Analysts predict the entry-level version of the iPod, which is about the size of a pack of chewing gum, may sell as many as 22.5 million units this year, and sales of the other devices may be somewhat comparable.

Some have taken to using the technology very creatively, which may in the future spawn imitation. For example, liberal activist David Rovics performed a protest song last week during the inauguration of President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney in Washington, D.C., at the so-called Counter-Inaugural event. Rovics made his protest song, "Election," available for free at soundclick.com/davidrovics, apparently hoping to become the post-modern Woody Gutherie. The song was produced with iPod Shuffle users in mind."