Well, well, one of our lunatic music creators has mixed some masterpieces.

Subverse has made two mixes for Scion “Electro-House Blender” contest. Listen to them. Vote for them. The MP3 Lunatics already know about Subverse’s GR8 music discoveries at MP34U, and his amazing track on the MP3 Jackpot Winners CD.

The Lunatics salute you, Subverse, for your contribution to musickind.

Our question of August 20, 2007 has finally been answered. The Lunatics wondered back then what was going to happen to the DRM AAC files that iTunes sold when iTunes starts selling DRM-free MP3 files?

Here’s the good news: The iTunes store has gone DRM-free.

Here’s the bad news: Looks like you’ll have to pay to free the music you previously bought on iTunes. It’s $.30 more per track you purchased to free your music once and for all. That’s not cheap, but neither is the freedom this gives you.

Well at least iTunes has finally listened to the Lunatics. So if you’re so inclined free your music now, you can never tell how long things will last in the wooly world of digital music.

Sony, it’s about time. Yes. It’s finally true. Sony becomes the last major label to become a Lunatic! After years of attempting to inflict Digital Rights Management upon the modern world, Sony Records has finally thrown in the towel and removed DRM from it’s dowloads on the Internet, and they will use the MP3 format.

Well, well, the RIAA has finally followed the Lunatics’ recommendation to stop suing music fans. Now they come up with a scheme where the ISPs are the heavies.

It seems when an ISP customer is downloading illegally, the RIAA will contact the ISP. It will now be the ISP’s responsibility to slap the infringers’ wrists via e-mail. If the infringing does not cease, more e-mails will come; until finally, the alleged criminal’s Internet access is either watered down or shut off, or they see themselves in court.

This seems more civilized, you’ve got to admire the treachery of the RIAA. They got the Isps to be their enforcers, and have successfully eliminated due process for accused downloaders. This is screaming Big Brother. Plus with the continued popularity of P2Ps, that’s going to be a lot of emails. The Lunatics predict this new policy is going to be a bear to enforce and is another losing policy.

The Lunatics want to know, who is going to protect the innocent? Comcast? That’s a chilling thought.

The RIAA had a slew of lawyers, Pamela and Jeffery had none. So Jeffery and Pamela, representing themselves lost $40,050.

Paying the RIAA because you represented yourself is unfortunate. Intentionally destroying evidence of computer activity after being ordered by a judge to preserve it, was the shooting of your own foot that an attorney would have advised against.

Prior to this ruling, the Howells had debunked the RIAA’s “making available” theory. This decision will give the RIAA even more bragging rights, but will that spark the public to buy their music or hate them more?

I get a chuckle when I see things like “ten million songs, at your fingertips!” I don’t care about ten million songs. Give me one, really good one, that I haven’t heard. And we can go from there!

As such, I am excited that this week we have launched the latest and greatest versions of muzic, MP3 4U, and the MP3 Jackpot.

Together known as the Music Lover’s Playground, these sites were created by the MP3 Lunatics, of which I am one, to help bring the best undiscovered or under-discovered songs by artists around the world, to music fans who would really enjoy them. Using the power of human filtering, MP3 4U and MP3 Jackpot bring great songs to the fore, regardless of what label the artist is on, where they’re from, or any other consideration other than: does this mp3 rock?

The geeky term for it is “subjectively valued content” and it is one way the vast web of way too much information can be filtered in order for us to enjoy the best content for our personal tastes.

Please tell everyone about us, and link back to pages you like in our playground, from your blog, artist site, facebook, myspace etc.

Many thanks.

Lory Lybeck, who claims to dislike arrogant bullies has just knocked a big bully down a peg or two. The RIAA is reeling. Lybeck, the lawyer who defended Tanya Anderson, has been awarded $103,175.00 of the RIAA’s money for his legal efforts.

The RIAA, if you remember, had sent investigators to Tanya’s daughter’s elementary school to squeeze the 3rd grader for information about her mother’s alleged downloading abuses. These heavy handed tactics have backfired just as the Lunatics predicted, and now the “litigation crazed” RIAA is going to pay for Lory and Tanya to sue them some more.

This time the stakes are higher, Lory and Tanya are asking for over 5 million dollars in damages for malicious prosecution. Plus they’re going to try to give it “class action status.” We all know, there’s plenty of people in that boat. Tanya isn’t the only innocent person the RIAA has wronged.

The Lunatics find ourselves feeling about the same as Jon Newton, who’s covered Tanya’s story for p2pnet.net from the beginning:

“How four, multi-billion-dollar, international corporate record labels have been able to get away with this in the so-called democratic United States of America is beyond belief.”

Rhapsody is the newest MP3 convert. It seems MTV and Real Networks, who own the subscription service, have seen the light, and now all 5 million of their music tracks are available as DRM-free MP3s. The Lunatics wonder how much longer before the record industry adopts the MP3 format as the de facto standard?

The Lunatics were right on when they predicted the growth of online stores selling MP3s. Seems now the telecoms like Verizon want a piece of the action, and they have partnered up with Rhapsody. Is this the new reality, all the music that you can purchase, is available over your cell phone? What a cool brave new world.

The Major labels are going headless. As market share drops, more upper level corporate heads keep rolling.

A few weeks ago “The Ten Million Dollar Man,” Clive Davis got put out to pasture on the Sony/BMG ranch. Now, it’s Lee Trink at Capital/Virgin Records, who’s resigning.

Next it’s going to be his boss, Jason Flom.

In today’s record landscape, if your current market share is shrinking, it’s either lose the big salaries, or close the office. There is no more salaried employees to lay off.

Yo, Guy Hands, what’s next? Selling EMI’s recorded music catalogue if Coldplay’s CD stiffs?

Thanks to Musicouch.com for including MP34U in “Extreme Music: Top 15 Free Music Websites That You Will Want to Visit.”

Boy, the Lunatics think, they hit the nail right on the head when Nelson Doyle said: “This website offers every music genre under-the-sun, and then some.”

It’s always gratifying to be recognized. What an nice, unexpected compliment.