The music service offers ad-free access to more than 10 million tracks, and will initially be offered at a rate of S$0.99 (for web) and S$1.99 (for web and mobile on the Android platform) per month in Singapore.

After three months, the price point will jump to S$4.99 per month for web and S$9.99 per month for web and mobile respectively.

Take a look:

My initial reaction was: meh. I’m not really impressed after I visited the site.

I expected to have some kind of trial or download demo, but that wasn’t the case. Besides having to sign-in with an email account, you have to put in your credit card and pay to see what you can get.

No demo or trial.

Now, music streaming is not a new business at all, and for anybody late coming to the party, you would expect the new kid-on-the-block to come up with demos to persuade people what the fuss was about.

Yes, some of the more dodgy music streaming sites have gone out of business, or have changed business models, but there are still dozens of alternatives — and quite a few are free — out there.

That’s not even mentioning all the strides telcos and mobile vendors have made in making streaming music available over the air, like SingTel with AMPed, and all the experiments Nokia and Sony Ericsson had with mobile music services.

And based on Rara.com’s EULA, the music tracks come laden with DRM, something that is a pet peeve of mine for content issues.

I understand that it is a necessary evil, but I’m not comfortable with the portion on DRM in their EULA.

Quoting directly from Rara.com’s EULA:

“Because the rara Application includes security components, special rules and policies apply. You agree to abide by the rules and policies established from time to time by rara media. We will apply such rules and policies generally in a non-discriminatory manner to users of the rara Application, and such rules and policies may include, for example, required or automated updates, modifications, and/or reinstallations of the rara Application to address security, interoperability, and/or performance issues. These updates, modifications and the like may occur on a periodic or as needed basis without notice to you.

All streaming content is encrypted and, where your Subscription allows you to cache Content for offline playback, that cached Content is protected by digital rights management (DRM) technology to protect the Content against unauthorised use. You must not do anything to disable or circumvent the encryption of the DRM technology.

In addition, you understand that the rara Application is capable of monitoring itself for security-related and tamper-detection purposes and for communicating information to rara media about security incidents. You hereby consent to the operation of the rara Application in this way. Your copy of the Software and your access to certain applications that communicate with it are subject to restriction and/or revocation (such as being shut down) for security purposes or according to consistently applied Content-protection policies. You understand and agree that this may result in Content that was previously available for use being unavailable thereafter.”

I don’t like not knowing what DRM software I’m installing on my PC or device, but more importantly I’d like to know what information it’s sending to Rara.com without my notice. Clarifications on the DRM in the EULA might help.

Yes, Rara.com may have secured international licensing agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, EMI Music and Warner Music Group and has a large 10 million-plus track database. It may be available in 20 countries around the globe, and is available in Singapore, unlike Deezer, Pandora or Spotify.

And yes, the music streaming industry is not an easy one — anyone remember Soundbuzz, who was one of Singapore’s first online music store but went out of business about two-and-a-half years back?

But that doesn’t change the fact that, for a latecomer, Rara.com feels pretty meh to me on first impressions.

And given that I cannot try the service without paying money, I’ll stick with Grooveshark, Last.fm and Musicovery for my music streaming needs.

Techgoondu had the chance to be at unConference 2009 held yesterday at the Biopolis, thanks to the kind folks at e27 who had put together an excellent program that brought together some of the top forward-thinkers in the region. Here’s a recap of what I felt were the highlights of the event:

Panel discussion: Innovation in Asia and where is it heading?

The panel was chaired by Benjamin Joffe, founder and CEO of +8* (Plus Eight Star). Participants included Scott Rafer, CEO at Lookery, Dr Gang Lu, co-founder of OpenWeb Asia, Dr Lai Kok Fung, co-founder and CEO of Buzzcity, and Wong Hoong Ann, founder of HungryGoWhere.com.

Each panelist was asked to share how he spotted the opportunity that led them to start their companies. Scott, who started MyBlogLog and sold it Yahoo later, noted that his venture was “almost accidental”, while Hoong Ann of HungryGoWhere identified the need for a marketing channel catered to F&B establishments, particularly among small restaurants. His business and ad model was changed many times, because “you need the flexibility to start a business.”

Dr Lai of Buzzcity, which started as as dotcom company specializing in WAP mobile communications, said his company did not plan for the company’s current successes in South Africa and Indonesia. It was only after the rapid rise in the number of users accessing the Web on the cellphone some time later that spearheaded Buzzcity’s business in the two countries.

Dr Gang Lu, shared his experience with start-ups in China, which comprises three groups. The first are the copycats who will copy successful products and business models, but “the problem is everyone else will be doing the same thing”. It will be hard for copycats to stand out from the pack. He noted that at one point, there were over 150 YouTube clones in China, but only 10 are surviving today.

The second group will take successful products and localize them accordingly in their target markets – an example would be Xiaonei.com, which is now more popular than Facebook in China. Finally, the last group of entrepreneurs would chart their own path through innovation that would eventually lead to their own unique products.

The panelists largely agreed that selling to businesses is always more profitable than selling to consumers, since consumers are typically unwilling to pay for Internet services – advertising is thus the most common way of monetizing their services. In some market segments, selling virtual goods has proven to be a viable as exemplified by Xiaonei.com and Kaixin001.com.

Panelists were also quizzed on what they were doing to mitigate the dependency on search engines, particularly Google, for their site traffic. Hoong Ann of HungryGoWhere.com shared his company’s brush with Google which reduced his business by half in a single day after his website was placed on page 945 in the search results. Dr Lai suggested that start-ups should grow their organic traffic, while Dr Gang added that they try to grow traffic from social media platforms, which allow them to seed communities and build their brands without Google.

Techgoondu also checked out some promising products and start-ups, and these caught our eye.

iTwin was born out of Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*Star) and will be commercialized by Exploit Technologies, A*Star’s marketing and commercialization arm. Essentially, it is a device that can be split into two halves. By plugging each half via a USB port into a home and remote PC respectively, a secured communication channel is established to allow the remote PC to access files on the home PC. In fact, the solution is so elegant that no password is required. The communication is encrypted and authentication is provided through a random key generated by the home PC’s device.

The folks behind iTwin expect the device to be launched by Fall 2009 at a price of between US$40 and US$50. Work is for the device’s software for Windows XP is almost completed, and there are plans to support Windows Vista and Mac OS X. The product roadmap also includes video conferencing applications and even mobile device file transfer.

Fusion Garage was founded by R. Chandrasekar, a familiar face in the Singapore tech circle. Chandra was the founder of Radixs, which previously developed the Motion Experience Interface (MXI) operating system and the Velvet Puffin integrated online service that marries social networking and instant messaging.

The company is currently developing the software for the CrunchPad, a web tablet hardware device conceived by the folks at Techcrunch:

The idea is to get a new type of device into people’s hands for as cheap as possible (we were aiming for $200, it looks like $299 is more realistic). It fits perfectly on your lap while you are sitting in front of the TV, so you can look up stuff on Wikipedia or IMDB as you channel surf. It plays Flash video flawlessly so you can watch movies and TV shows on Hulu or Joost or wherever. Or listen to music on MySpace Music. Or use TokBox to have a video chat with your parents. Then check email and call it a day. Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Hulu, Wikipedia, Google Docs and Gmail are the killer apps for this device.

Because the device skips the resource-sucking parts of the operating system and focuses on one application – the browser – very low end hardware can be used and still give users a desktop-like Internet browsing experience.

The team from Fusion Garage did not show off any working prototypes of the Crunchpad at the event. For more information, check out this video:

Bruce Branit’s nine minute World Builder short film is poignant, brilliant and beautiful. A work of art that fires on all cylinders — concept, storytelling, music.

If you’re a sci-fi fan or computer geek, it’s definitely worth a look. Super cool.

The story of how World Builder became a viral internet video is also pretty interesting. According to this excellent story on NewTeeVee by Wagner James Au, Bruce sent out his video last year to various film festival circuits, but it drew little attention.

Dejected, he put it up on the internet as a portfolio, and a high quality video was put on both Vimeo and YouTube about a month ago. Within days it became a viral hit and spread via word-of-mouth and blogs (like this one here!). It is still drawing traction, as the Viral Video Charts can attest.

Nokia 5800 XpressMusic
Estimated retail price: S$798
Availability: From 28th Feb 2009, Saturday (tomorrow)
Colors: red and blue, with silver-black from mid-March
Specs and features: Pretty standard for a mid-range touch phone. 3.2 megapixel camera. 3G, HSDPA and Wi-Fi. Comes with built-in A-GPS. Free 8GB micro-SD card. For all the specifics, go to Nokia’s product pagehere.

But I totally agree with Gin and Alf that the key differentiator is the “Comes with Music” service by Nokia. Brilliant tactical move by the handset giant. Basically, it allows users unlimited downloads of tracks from Nokia’s music store for one year. According to Nokia, they have about four million tunes in the store. Operator charges are of course separate. Singapore is the first country in Asia to run this service; it was first launched in UK last October.

The music is DRM-protected (cannot be copied to another phone or device) and is tied to one PC, but users get to keep all the downloaded songs on their PC and Nokia phone even after the service expires after one year. Bit rate encoding is 128kbps, which is sufficiently decent. I believe there are some onerous restrictions on porting the account if your PC or phone dies (a 6-week wait), but even with this and the DRM, I’ve got to say this is a brilliant move by Nokia.

One, it ties people to their Nokia phone for a year. Two, it incentivizes folks to buy another Nokia phone at the end of the first year. Three, cheap legal music that is easily available to consumers. It’s available anywhere in Singapore with mobile coverage — which is practically everywhere on our island nation.

I say cheap because even though the music is theoretically “free”, you have to pay the operator costs. Nokia has done a brilliant job in building the platform and working with the telcos and music distribution companies to come up with a product that truly is quite innovative in pricing.

Here’s some more recommended retail pricing information on other Nokia phones that will also have this “Comes with Music” service, available from tomorrow:

• Nokia N96(black): S$1238
• Nokia N85(cherry black): S$938
• Nokia N79(petrol black): S$858
• Nokia N5320 Xpress Music(grey): S$618
• Nokia N5220 Xpress Music(titaniuum): S$558

Note:Prices before taxes or subsidies from operators

You’ll need an audio editor/recorder. One that I highly recommend is the open source software Audacity, available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

It’s pretty easy to use. Open a new project. Just click the record button when the music is playing, and stop the record when the music ends. If you want higher quality, just increase the sampling rate (default is 44.1Mhz). Export to Wav, mp3 or org vorbis when done.

Two tips that might help:

• Make sure that your line in settings are turned on and not muted. For Windows, this option can be found under My Computer->Control Panel->Sounds and Audio Device->Device Volume. Otherwise you might be wondering why there is no line input.
• To record in stereo (mono is default in Audacity), go to Edit->Preferences. Change the channels from 1(mono) to 2(stereo). For an FAQ for Audacity, you can find it here.

Besides YouTube, audio recorders like Audacity are useful for recording snippets from podcasts and streamed internet radio, especially for niche indie content.

In fact, I find myself sampling and converting to mp3 a lot more indie stuff nowadays as the internet makes it so easy to find great and unique music. Here’s a sample:

• Things so Singaporean, by Judith d’Silva and Ann Hussein (YouTube)
• Love Song for Singapore, by Mr Brown and folks (Mr Brown Show)
• Closer, by EN-X, Singapore band (MySpace)
• Miss Sunshine, by Postbox, Singapore band (MySpace)
• Code Monkey, by Jonathan Coulton, WoW machinima by Spiffworld (YouTube)
• Mario Kart Love Song, by BlinkTwice4y (YouTube)

I’m curious. What are you readers listening to out there? How do you find music?

Not when we can pull music off the virtual cloud that is the Internet.

Music is one big area that is exploding in the new social Web 2.0. You can discover, search, and share playlists on many music websites out there, and never have to own a single copy of any song.

It feels like Napster days all over again. But far more than filesharing platforms or basic internet streamed radio, these Web 2.0 sites – and there are many of them out there – allow you interesting ways to find and play music.

I hardly listen to my own mp3s nowadays except when I’m on the move. When I’m home doing work, I’m typically listening to one of these sites below:

1. Deezer

Deezer is one of the more established music Web 2.0 sites out there. Started up in August 2007, it’s a legal music search engine, sharing platform and radio station rolled into one.

When you search its database library to play any of the archived songs, the artist or rights owner makes a cut of the advertising profit on the site. The archive is pretty extensive, and many new songs are available. You can also create your own playlist and track other playlists by other folks.

I typically use Deezer to listen to the top music charts in UK and US – new songs often appear there before they hit our own radio stations.

2. Musicovery

Musicovery is a web radio that plays random music based on certain attributes like mood, tempo or genre.

It is great for discovering new songs, and it’s excellent when you don’t have specific music in mind and just want to explore.

3. Just Hear !t

Just Hear !t is my current top site for finding specific songs that I want to listen to.

Like Deezer, you can search for music and store playlists. But what I really like about Just Hear !t is the drag-and-drop flash-based interface. It’s simple, intuitive, and beautiful.

Top marks for presentation and ease of use.

Reminds me of traditional music players like iTunes or Winamp, but your library is limitless and free.

4. Qloud

Qloud is a raw way to discover what music is popular on the internet, based on what other users are searching for on YouTube.

The interface updates constantly, and serves as a barometer of what music is popular on the net. You can, as usual, create your own playlist.

The founders believe in embedding their Qloud MyMusic applications in social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Friendster. For example, on Facebook, you can discover what Qloud users are listening and create your own music feeds.

I like Qloud for it’s funky layout and use it as a random way to discover songs. Sometimes the best way to find something new yet really good is to hear what other people are listening.

5. Last.fm

Last.fm is great community radio, and besides MySpace, it is one of the best sites out there for serving up music from the indie crowd.

Want to find music from a Singapore or Malaysian band? Chances are, you’ll find them here, but not on any of the above mentioned sites.

You can create and store playlists, but you have to log in to use any of its services. Use it to discover indie bands, especially local Singaporean acts.

Besides these five sites mentioned, there are lots of other music specific sites like Seeqpod and Dizzler. I didn’t even mention YouTube or MySpace. Although these huge aggregators of content have loads of free music, it’s probably easier to use mashups or music specific tools – like those listed above – to access their content.

To take the tagline off Techgoondu: the revolution has begun. Music is going online and free, and nothing – neither DRM nor RIAA – will stop it.

Giving away your content free doesn’t mean you can’t make a living as a writer, musician or artist.

Just ask Nine Inch Nails. Their Ghosts I-IV album, which was released free under the Creative Commons license, was rated the bestselling Amazon mp3 Album of 2008.

Take a moment to think about the significance: NIN’s Ghost I-IV is given away for free, but it sold the most albums online at Amazon.

Taken from this Creative Commons blog posting:

NIN fans could have gone to any file sharing network to download the entire CC-BY-NC-SA album legally. Many did, and thousands will continue to do so. So why would fans bother buying files that were identical to the ones on the file sharing networks? One explanation is the convenience and ease of use of NIN and Amazon’s MP3 stores. But another is that fans understood that purchasing MP3s would directly support the music and career of a musician they liked.

The next time someone tries to convince you that releasing music under CC will cannibalize digital sales, remember that Ghosts I-IV broke that rule, and point them here.

Some interesting background:

• Ghosts I–IV was released online on March 2, 2008 on the official Nine Inch Nails website, without any prior advertisement or notice.
• According to Chicago Tribune, a week after the album’s release, the official Nine Inch Nails site reported over 750,000 purchase and download transactions, amassing over US$1.6 million in sales. Pre-orders of the $300 “Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition” sold out in less than three days of its release, according to Ars Technica.
• Said Trent Reznor, NIN’s frontman, on the Creative Commons license on Potent Quotables early in March this year: “It’s a stance we’re taking that we feel is appropriate… with digital technology, and outdated copyright laws, and all the nonsense that’s going on these days”.

Thanks to The Long Tail for the idea for this story.

What’s a geek to do before Christmas? Buy a Techgoondu-approved gift to make others – and ourselves – happy of course. Granted, this year-end is shaping up to be more austere than the past few with the financial downturn already upon us. But austerity driving shouldn’t mean no giving for Christmas, right? So here’s a list of diverse geek gifts mooted by us, and we promise it is a cool one:

Intel Core i7-965 Extreme Edition
S$1,679

Called the fastest desktop processor on Earth, Intel’s new Core i7-965 lives up to its title with benchmark-busting performance for PC buffs. The Extreme Edition, the top of the Core i7 range, retails at a ridiculous price, of course, but it comes with an unlocked multiplier that lets you overclock to your heart’s content. Crazy PC enthusiasts won’t blink an eye when it comes to buying one of these puppies for Christmas! -Alfred

Wadia 170i iPod dock
US$350

The world’s only iPod dock to extract digital – as opposed to analogue – signals from the iPod. Rip your CDs in a lossless format and partner this with any top of the line DAC and be shocked: this combination will likely outgun any CD player that you own, even esoteric megabuck players. The only caveat is the lowly storage capacity of the iPod, exacerbated by the humongousness of lossless files, so here’s hoping Apple continues to pack in the gigabytes on their music players. Available, I believe, in Singapore at Absolute Sound in Adelphi. -Boon Kiat

Audio Technica ATH-ESW9
S$498 from CK Tang

Any self-respecting audiophile will scoff at the flimsy plastic bits that music player manufacturers call “earphones” that come along with their gadgets. Instead, do your ears (and street cred) some favour by getting the Audio Technica ATH-ESW9 headphones. Made out of cheery tree wood and boasting a large 42mm neodymium magnet driver, these gems belt out rich and bassy tunes that will rock your senses. Its lightweight body also make it a dream to tote for hours straight. -Stephanie

Fable II for Xbox 360
US$60

Nintendo DSi
18,900 Yen (S$300)

I recently had the chance to play with the DSi, the third iteration of the Nintendo DS platform, whom my friend bought while in Japan last month. Launched on Nov 1st 2008, the DSi is released only in Japan for now but should make an appearance in other parts of the world in Spring 2008. The GBA slot has been removed, making it not backwards compatible with certain games, but also makes it 12% slimmer than the DS Lite. It also sports two VGA cameras, a cool interface bundled with fun software – especially the photo sharing software – and access to the NDS Shop, which allows people to buy stuff online. Super cool. -Chi-Loong

Rotel RSX-1560
US$2599

Who says home theatre receivers need to sound bad in music? Rotel’s RSX-1560 not only looks great but promises everything you need in a box for a 7.1 home theatre system PLUS good stereo sound. It, of course, comes with all funky wizardry – like HDMI 1.3 – expected of AV receivers now. Just don’t expect this to be cheap. -Alfred

Fujitsu M1010 netbook
S$888

With prices of netbooks falling faster than you can say “Asus Eee PC”, there is greater incentive for users to whip our their wallets and bring a sweet lil’ netbook home. The Fujitsu M1010 makes a great gift for the female folk as it comes in candy-coated snap-on covers in shades like pink, red and blue. It’s not just a pretty face either – the laptop comes with juicy features such as a 1.6GHz Intel Atom processor,1GB RAM, 8.9-inch display screen with a maximum resolution of 1,024 x 600 pixels, and even a 60Gb hard drive. -Stephanie

Nokia E71
S$200+ with a high-tier mobile plan

By now no longer the new kid on the smartphone block but still one to beat for those who need a real Qwerty keypad: (Relatively) cheap, zippy, terrific features, super pocketable and a real energizer bunny to boot. It is also a tough nut to crack – literally. I’ve dropped it several times and it still ticks perfectly, with only a minor rash on its lower corner to show for my clumsiness. -Boon Kiat

Chrono Trigger for Nintendo DS
S$80

As a gamer, if you haven’t played Chrono Trigger before, and if you own a DS, pick this one up. Yes, it’s a remake (launched 25th Nov 2008), but it’s a remake of one of the best games ever. I played the original Chrono Trigger on emulation on my PC (didn’t have a Playstation) about 10 years back, and I still have fond memories of the game and characters. For fanboys, it’s a no-brainer due to nostalgia. For newbies, get this game because it has withstood the test of time. -Chi-Loong

Livescribe Pulse Smartpen
S$$329 at Challenger and South Asia Computer

It’s the most unusual product that I toyed with this year.It’s a pen with a mini-computer, 1 GB storage, mic, speaker and a mini-camera under the tip of the pen. As you write your notes on special paper (lined with a million invisible dots per sq inch) the camera remembers every stroke’s location on the paper. So you can record your meeting or conversation while taking notes at the same time and the pen is actually bookmarking every pen stroke and linking it to the corresponding part of your audio recording. So if you want to hear what the lecturer was saying at the third line of your first paragraph, just point your pen there. You can even upload your recordings plus image of your notes via USB to your laptop and you get a flash equivalent of what you created. It’s cool. Period. -Gin Lee

OLPC XO
US$399

Lastly, the movement that arguably spawned the whole netbook craze. The OLPC, or One Laptop Per Child, is a cool project that sends one of these delectable green, Sugar Labs-powered gizmo to a developing country child with every purchase you make. Available at Amazon.com. -Techgoondu

Merry Christmas!

An “emo” love song about the red plumber, his perpetually kidnapped princess, and go-karts, this destined-to-be-classic YouTube video has racked up more than 1.5 million views since it’s release last month. I got this through viral word-of-mouth — a friend who emailed me the URL link coz’ he thought I would love it. And he’s right.

It’s strange yet touchingly sweet – a brilliant concoction that has brought a wistful smile to this gamer’s face.

It even spawned this equally excellent video response. Always had a soft spot for Bowser. Go villains go!

So good, both have been converted to mp3s as part of my music playlists.

Old school gamers, enjoy.