What music news and gossip have we got for you this week? 

-What is a new month without a new ‘faux pas’ by our favourite Britney Spears, it seems she was caught in photos swimming in her birthday suit.  It seems she was pounding back some Jack Daniels with a movie extra and just decided to stip her top off and start making out with this guy.

-R&B singer Usher married his pregnant girlfriend in a small, private ceremony in his lawyer’s office on Friday, just six days after canceling a lavish, star-studded wedding, according to reports.  This time the numptuals happened.

-David Lee Roth and his former bandmates in Van Halen will officially announce their reunion during a news conference at the Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles next week, according to their representatives.  So you might as well ‘Jump’!

-The world’s leading music companies, hit by falling sales of CDs, are switching to a new groove — buying merchandising, management and other companies to diversify and boost profits.  I can’t wait till they offer me 10 million for this blog!!

3GP is next generation technology based on MPEG 4 format. This file format is playable on 3G mobile phones. All the latest 3G Mobile phones support 3GP files as it is now industry standard. The technology is getting more popular as many 3G mobile phones have entered the market and prices are cheap. 3GP stores and delivers high quality format videos. 3GP Videos are new cutting-edge technology where you can carry all your favorite music videos with you and share them with your friends.

In the market you can find many converters and if you are not familiar with those then you can download mobile videos from the different sites or search Google using the search term “3GP Videos”. You will find many sites that are offering 3GP files.

Most people ask questions after they have downloaded the files to their PC and are able to play the file. For them, the answer is quite simple, you can play those files using Real Media Player or Quick Time for windows.

Sometimes due to compression versions you can see the quality video on PC but on Mobile phone as the screen resolution is small these videos work even bettter especially on 3G mobile phones.

While the options as torrent and p2p programs continue increasing, downloading popular songs is just a matter of choice and options. This site called http://musicentertainmentweb.com  is the one that first that opened my eyes so I will share it with you.

There are ways to get away with free music downloading. Many people assume that Napster failed just because of the free music, but that’s not the whole story. The truth is people were trading entire cd’s and not just a few songs here and there. That is what got the attention of the media and of lawyers who sued.  Each song that you have on your computer individually is a file. When you go to download sites you are file swapping. This is free of charge and not considered illegal. Maybe just a little dishonest.  File swapping is where two people can exchange songs that at some point had to be purchased by some person. If only one person purchases the song or cd, then it is ok for them to share the file with as many people as they like, because the record company got its cut.
 
When downloading you may have to download a song a few times before you get a good copy. Sometimes you are just getting a sample. It’s a trick to get you agitated and try to make you go buy the whole cd when you just want that one song. Just keep trying, you will find the song eventually. Remember nothing is free and you may have to put in a little more effort to get what you want.
 
Don’t bother with sites that want you to fill out a bunch of personal information to get a free download. When you are accepting their terms that you know you never bother reading it says that they can sell your information. If the site is asking for a lot of personal information just move on. There are other sites out there available to you that will not violate your privacy for a free download.  While downloads can be fun it never hurts to be safe.  This gray area is bound to be debated in Courts and media for years to come.

Rockers, Black Crowes have added three U.S. shows around their March 12th show at Florida’s Langerado Music festival.  Before heading to London and Amsterdam, they will stop at Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, on March 10th; Asheville, North Carolina, on the 11th; and Atlanta’s Fox Theater on the 14th.

Having seen them twice I can tell you all that you are in for a treat!

According to a new Associated Press poll (in conjunction with Rolling Stone);

• 74% of those surveyed say CD’s are too expensive.
• 26% have downloaded music legally or illegally from the web.
• 55% say they find new music via FM radio broadcasts.
• 58% say the music itself is getting worse.
• 71% think .99 for a digital song download is fair.
• 33% agree that piracy is the cause of music sales decline.
• 352.7 million tracks were sold digitally in 2005.
• 618.9 million CD albums were sold during 2005.
• 80% of people consider downloading music for free to be stealing.

Additional poll info:  Ipsos’ telephone poll of 1,000 adults, including 963 music listeners, from all states except Alaska and Hawaii was conducted Jan. 23-25 and has a sampling error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points.