Network neutrality - why you should care

I published a short column on Network neutrality in the current issue of e-media, an Austrian consumer IT magazine.

You should care about this issue as well as huge network providers are thinking about some sort of toll for services to use their networks with the best possible performance.

The concept of "net neutrality'' holds that companies providing Internet service should treat all sources of data equally. As a result the provider should offer always the best possible performance as it is your decision which service you want to use.

A real world example: You should be able to access tunesBag with the best performance possible no matter if the access provider is offering a competing music service as well. Data should be treated equally and the fact that tunesBag has no contract with your access provider should not lead to a worse connectivity to our service.

If you're interested in this topic, I recommend you to start reading the article in wikipedia or a summary at NYTimes.

33 startups from Germany/Austria/Switzerland to keep an eye on

The leading german tech blog Netzwertig has published a list of 33 startups to keep an eye on - and it's cool to see that the Austrian music projects play.fm and tunesBag.com are among them!

"Oft genug dominieren US-Unternehmen die Schlagzeilen der digitalen Welt. Doch auch Startups aus Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz (D-A-CH) leisten hervorragende Arbeit.

Es folgt eine Liste mit 33 Internetdiensten aus D-A-CH, die uns bei netzwertig.com positiv aufgefallen sind und die man für die Zukunft im Blick behalten sollte."

Read more (in German)

Photo Source / Licenced under the CC

How Much Do Music Artists Earn Online?

"Recently, the UK government passed The Digital Economy Act which included many, perhaps draconian, measures to combat online music piracy (including withdrawing broadband access for persistent pirates).

Much was proclaimed about how these new laws would protect musicians and artists revenue and livelihoods."

But how much money do musicians really get paid in this new digital marketplace?
Read some interesting numbers right here!

Pimp your tunesBag with a TuneBug!

TuneBug is a ultra-portable sound generator, that turns many surfaces into a flat panel speaker - according to the vendor it should work with any MP3 player or Computer. Please let us know if you've pimped your tunesBag with this geeky device ;-)