just think of Snowtape as the awesome “record” button that iTunes doesn’t have.

Snowtape doesn’t just play and record, though. It also lets you name, tag and add album art to your recorded audio files, so they’ll fit right in with iTunes or your iPod. It has other perks, too, like the ability to schedule a recording using iCal, in case you’re worried about missing a favorite radio show.

Every time I see something about some cool new website or application that promises to give me a new way to access music that is both helpful and exciting it is only a matter of days before they are shut down in a deluge of lawsuits from the music labels hell-bent on suing their customers out of existence.

Such is to be the case, I am sure, with Snowtape, an OS X app that basically makes it very easy to record songs from streaming internet radio sources. On the surface, this sounds like a no-brainer, the kind of thing one just assumes would and should be available.

Then the labels begin to explain to you how, by recording and thus POSSESSING a song you didn’t buy, that you can take with you anywhere, is actually a criminal copyright violation.

Now, this is silly on every level except for the legal one on which music labels are clinging to desperately.

The question will be whether or not the labels can continue to sue every entity that wants to give the fans what they want or if this practice will simply accelerate their own demise.

But if the music industry wants to preserve what is now the more profitable business, in which people actually pay for and own a copy of an individual song or album, it must first work out practical and affordable licensing terms with tech companies that want to develop cloud music services.

The NYT has a fairly good look at the reasons why it is so damn hard to listen to the music you want to listen to, where and when you want to hear it.

Nobody can deny that the technology is there to allow this and that it is what music listeners most want so the only reason we don’t have it is that the existing music industry is not built to profit from this model.

Unfortunately, at least for the existing music industry trying to live off of the direct sale of songs to consumers, those days are gone and no licensing deal with a tech company is going to change that.

The talented team behind 5-second films has put together a great “best of” in a single, albeit longer, video.

This is a perfect introduction to the form although it lacks the joy of discovery one has at their site http://5secondfilms.com/

The big lesson here is that limitations breed creativity and extreme limitations breed extreme creativity. Apply this lesson to your life and good things will happen.

While it is not so surprising that one fan’s over-the-top reaction to the Twilight Eclipse trailer has gone viral. It isn’t even surprising that the reactions to her reaction are an explosion of vitriol and support, spoof videos and replies.

What is surprising, or at least important, to note is how average people with no direct financial connection to this completely corporate product are not only completely emotionally invested but creating millions of dollars of free marketing that would never have been achievable in the pre-digital age.

It is easy to write off something like this as just another wacky thing on the internet, but it is far more useful to look closely at the entire event and think about how you might use these lessons on your next marketing venture.

In rolling out Bubbly, Mr. Clayton plans to skip North America and Europe and focus on fast-growing, mobile-savvy markets such as India, Japan and Brazil.

A sort of spoken version of Twitter is taking India by storm but what’s more interesting is that the Silicon Valley based makers have no interest in sharing it with North America or Europe because, well, we can’t handle it.

We like to think of the US as being on the cutting edge of technology but all you have to do is spend ten minutes in South Korea to realize just how far behind the times we have fallen.

There will be entire societies that simple never get mired down in the wreckage of the industrial age and will move straight from agricultural to digital – this will not happen in America and that’s just a bummer.

Although still in very early stages, this complete stunning 3D printer hopes to eventually be able to print, on-site, entire structures.

Via the excellent Make.com, check out the whole article at Blueprint.

If you are at all a part of the NYC comedy scene, you know Reggie Watts. He is that guy everyone has tapped as “the next big thing” for years.

Now he is going to be opening for Conan O’Brien on his live tour and it might finally be time for that meteoric leap – similar to what happened with Zack Galifianakis – after which everyone will mistakenly call him an overnight sensation instead of a guy that has been working hard at his craft for over a decade.

Anyhow, Reggie Watts is awesome and you should tell your friends about him – it will make you look cool.

Tonight and tomorrow, March 12th and 13th, The Drive By Truckers will be live streaming two nights from Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse, courtesy of iClips.net. The concerts are being streamed to drive interest in their new album, “The Big To-Do,” which will be released on Tuesday, March 16th. Prices for the live broadcast are $6.99 per show or $9.99 for both. For those that purchase the live broadcast can also purchase their new album, The Big To-Do for $7.00 as a digital download at a later date from the Drive-By Truckers website. All pre-orders will receive an immediate Premium DRM-free 320kbps MP3, FLAC, or Apple Lossless download of the songs “Birthday Boy” and “Working This Job”.

The best thing about a live event is that it simply cannot be pirated in the traditional sense. For a live event, either you were there to witness at the moment it happened or you weren’t. No viewing or listening to a recorded version of the event at a later date has the same authentic value.

As we all know, people will pay for things that are scarce and have authentic value. So, it is no surprise that more and more money is being made by musicians through live performances.

It is also not surprising to see a big increase in live concerts streaming on-demand. And instead of the crazy $40+ price-tags I’ve see on live TV on-demand programming (I’m looking at you, UFC) most of the concerts seem to be available online for less than $10 and come with lots of extras.

It is a great example of finding a business model that works with the web and fans instead of against them and proves that selling records is not the only, or even sound, way to make money in the music industry.

As the chart above show, Fox is by far the most pirated network on YouTube.

Sadly, Fox will see this and say, “hey, who do we need to sue to get this to stop?!”

Instead, they should say, “hey, how can we give these eager viewers what they want when they want it, since they clearly want it a lot?!”

Sigh. Rupert Murdoch was a genius of the industrial age but listening to him try to wrap his lizard brain around the seismic shifts of the digital age just makes me sad.