Brief news items and worthy reads from around the web.
Are The Beatles depriving a new generation of music lovers: Martin Bryant at TheNextWeb notes that the world’s most famous and enduring pop band is resolutely absent from streaming services. Gatekeepers of the Beatles rights-ownership empire prefer selling CDs and downloads — Bryant notes that Beatles CDs are priced above market cost. Young listeners are eager adopters of streaming, research shows, so what is the cultural impact of withholding Lennon/McCartney from the streaming market? It is “culturally irresponsible,” according to this opinion piece.
Herbert Hoover on how radio should be regulated: Matthew Lasar of Radio Survivor dug into the memoirs of Herbert Hoover to discover his thoughts about radio when Hoover was Secretary of Commerce in the 1920s. Hoover recognized the potential for social benefit in radio, and distrusted commercialism: “It is inconceivable that we should allow so great a possibility for service to be drowned in advertising chatter.” the immediacy of broadcast also made Hoover cautious: “But truth is far less carefully safeguarded on the radio than in the press. The control of slander, libel, malice, and smearing is far more difficult.” Many more quotes in this interesting research piece.
Does Apple want to make a car?: Reuters reported a back story of secret meetings between Apple and BMW whose purpose was to collaboratively develop a car. citing numerous anonymous sources, Reuters reports that those 2014 mettings mace to a close, and that Apple might be developing a passenger car of its own. Apple is already in the car business to the extent of providing Apple CarPlay dashboard control of iPhones in many models that have started rolling out this year.