Bandwidth Hogs: Time Warner Cable began a trial of “Internet metering†in a Texas city asking customers to select a monthly plan and pay surcharges when they exceed their bandwidth limit. AT&T is now considering a priced based on data volume. “The idea is that people who use the network more heavily should pay more, the way they do for water, electricity, or, in many cases, cellphone minutes.”
Recommended Show: San Francisco’s Magic Bullets kick off a short West Coast tour back in Seattle June 17 at Tractor Tavern with Beestings and Sweet Dominiques. The band will then be heading East for gigs including Pianos (August 6 and 7) and the NAMU Festival (August 9). Management is Rob Wells and legal is Chris Castle.
Sirius and XM Deal Almost Done: A key U.S. regulator expressed support for the 16-month-old deal, driving up both companies’ shares. FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said he would support the transaction, with the companies agreeing to a series of conditions.
Recommended Listening: Still Young by Shirock
Myspace Gets A Facelift: Myspace will be launching a redesign of its site this week. The first phase of the project, internally called “MySpace 2.0,†will launch on Wednesday June 18. “The changes affect five major areas of the service: homepage, navigation, profile editor, search and the MySpaceTV Flash player.” You can see some screenshots here.
Rolling Past EMI: It looks like The Rolling Stones are ending their long relationship with EMI and will sign a new deal with Live Nation.
New Survey/ The War On Piracy: The largest academic survey of young people’s music ownership has found that teenagers and students have an average of more than 800 illegally copied songs each on their digital music players. “On average every iPod or digital music player contained 842 illegally copied songs”.
Guy’s World: We suggest you read the lengthly article titled ‘EMI’s New Boss Sees Cracks in Music World‘.
Rollez Stonez: Rolling Stone senior editor Austin Scaggs is starting a “Perez Hilton-esque” music blog for the magazine next month according to Gawker. Look at me, “I’m Famous”….