SCUF Gaming, creator of the high-performance gaming controller category, has announced a collaboration with Avenged Sevenfold to celebrate the band's new album, "Life Is But A Dream..." Together, they've created new limited-edition SCUF Instinct Pro and SCUF Reflex FPS controller bundles decked out with the album's instantly recognizable imagery and artwork from renowned artist Wes Lang.

To commemorate "Life Is But A Dream…", Avenged Sevenfold has partnered with SCUF Gaming to drop a pair of exclusive controller bundles. Each jam-packed bundle comes with your choice of a SCUF Instinct Pro or SCUF Reflex FPS controller, an exclusive signed Avenged Sevenfold seven-inch vinyl record, a certificate of authenticity, and passionately crafted packaging, all clad in the band's iconic sepia-toned ink-sketch Wes Lang-painted album artwork. Now, hardcore Avenged Sevenfold fans can rock out in style as they play on a uniquely designed controller that's unmistakably A7X.

Rocksmith+ has announced a new partnership with Warner Music Group, to bring even more popular artists to the music-learning service, such as Linkin Park, The Cure, Sepultura, Twisted Sister, and more. "Rocksmith+ has always been about empowering people to learn guitar with their favorite songs," said Jay Cohen, Vice President of Executive Publishing at Ubisoft. "For beginners, guitar players, and music fans this is a great step forward. The large library of songs for learners and players to pick up and play on Rocksmith+ continues to expand every month.

This new partnership with Warner Music Group will help bring both new and established artists to a new and growing audience. We appreciate the progressive approach of our colleagues at WMG, and we look forward to everything we will do together to deliver on the promise of a new music distribution model for all those who make music and the people who love to jam along to it."

Beats today announces Beats Studio Pro, the next generation of Beats' iconic, bestselling over-ear headphone. With all-new and improved interior components, Studio Pro offers next-level audio fidelity, fully-adaptive Active Noise Cancellation and Transparency modes, Personalized Spatial Audio with dynamic head tracking, UltraPlush leather cushions, up to 40 hours of battery life, Lossless Audio via USB-C3 and enhanced call performance.

Beats Studio Pro is available to order starting today in four premium colors, Black, Deep Brown, Navy and Sandstone, for $349.99 (US) from apple.com. Starting tomorrow, Studio Pro will be on-shelf at Apple Store locations and authorized resellers in its beautiful new packaging that was designed with the environment in mind.

M-Audio today introduced M-Game, livestreaming audio interfaces and software designed specifically for gaming and content creation. M-Game provides premium quality streaming, elevated performance, and entertainment for any audience. M-Audio's legendary contribution to music performance and audio production is distinguished by a history of sophisticated engineering with an emphasis on versatility and usability. Drawing on our expertise with audio interfaces, and in partnership with our gaming experts, we are proud to debut M-Game.

Powered by M-Audio, the new M-Game livestreaming audio interfaces, RGB Dual and Solo, and M-Game software provide an all-in-one simple solution that delivers unique and innovative features for seamless set-up and customization. Unlike other audio interfaces, M-Game delivers first-of-its-kind dual PC USB connection and the ability to add images to effects and samples allowing for a seamless setup of a livestream.

Sony Electronics Inc. today introduced two new premium music players, the NW-WM1ZM2 and NW-WM1AM2, raising the bar to new heights in high-resolution audio listening, to satisfy the most demanding audiophiles. Designed to immerse the listener in sublime, nuanced sound, the NW-WM1ZM2 has been fine-tuned from years of audio mastery and crafted from the very best materials. This new addition sets a new benchmark for Sony's award-winning signature series, offering an exquisite listening experience in an ultra-premium design.

The NW-WM1AM2 allows music lovers to completely lose themselves in high-quality audio with a richer, smoother and more expansive sound field compared to its predecessor. Both music players let the user download and stream from endless catalogues of music with Wi-Fi compatibility, taking the listening enjoyment to the next level.

I know what you are thinking—this isn't the typical news content we see on TechPowerUp. Yes, we do cover audio products with plenty of reviews here, including Audeze planar magnetic headphones. When Audeze mentioned there's a whole different thing coming up, and that it involves carbon nanotubes (CNTs), I was quite intrigued. Some of you may have picked it up by now, but all the neat toys I have access to and used in several reviews come because I am a research scientist by profession, with a specialization in carbon nanomaterials including CNTs. So this news post is about my attempt to help explain why the Audeze technology is such a big deal. This is not a review of the actual devices and neither is it a sponsored post, or even solicited by Audeze. It is purely me geeking out about a fairly novel use of CNTs in the audio world, especially when there have been CNT coatings on a few dynamic drivers before but barely put to the potential capable until now.

See, the whole reason the Audeze CRBN (Carbon, get it?) even came about is because an indirect research colleague of mine, Prof. Mark Cohen from the University of California, Los Angeles as well as his startup company SMRT Image, saw a need for a more calming influence for patients undergoing fMRI imaging, as well as better means for the technicians to communicate with said patients while they are inside an operating MRI machine. If you have ever been inside one, you would know that thing gets real loud with magnetic coils rapidly going around and clacking noises galore. Audeze is also based in California, and multiple years of research led to the development of the Audeze CRBN—starting off for medical applications and then coming out also as a high-end retail headphones experience based on the knowledge and IP gained in the process. Read past the break for more on the science and tech, if this is of interest to you!

For years, MacBooks have been the de facto standard for digital DJ setups. Apple's recent product iterations, however, have left much to be desired in terms of professional connectivity - using industry standard DJ equipment with a MacBook requires the purchase of expensive and impractical adapters or hubs. XMG responds to the DJ community's growing demand for a functional, reliable alternative by releasing the DJ 15 - the first ever laptop designed, optimised and tested specifically to meet the needs of professional DJs. Weighing in at a mere 1.6 kg, this machine features a 15" non-glare Full HD IPS display and a wide array of standard ports. An entirely bloatware-free Windows 10 Pro installation, perfectly tuned to the DJ 15's hardware components, ensures ultra-low, stable DPC latency out of the box, even running off battery with WiFi and Bluetooth activated. On top of that, XMG offers unique and highly specialised support - by DJs, for DJs.

Envision Peripherals Inc. (EPI), the Brand license partner for Philips Audio in North America, announces today the latest addition to the Philips audio line with the Philips Wireless over-ear noise cancelling headphone (TAPH805BK). The headphones are now available on Amazon, competitively pricedat $199.99 USD. Ideal for at Home, in the Office, or on-the-go, the new Philips (TAPH805BK) headphones provide users with an unparalleled listening experience.

Music or Silence
Eliminate outside noise through a press of a button with Active Noise Canceling mode or flip to Awareness Mode to stay in tune with your surroundings. Users can control volume by swiping up or down on the ear-housing touch control panel. Activate or deactivate Active Noise Canceling or engage in Awareness Mode with a simple press. While carrying out a call over Bluetooth, its built-in mic with echo cancellation keeps sound crystal clear.

Today we're starting to roll out the official release of the update to Xbox LIVE subscribers around the world. To ensure a stable release, this will be a gradual deployment across subscribers and regions over the course of the next week. Our initial deployment will reach approximately three million consoles worldwide, with additional users being updated over the course of a couple weeks. Don't panic if you don't see an immediate update, just keep checking back in.

Koss Corporation, the U.S.- based creator of the world's first SP3 Stereophone in 1958, has unveiled STRIVA, a revolutionary new headphone and in-ear monitor system with Wi-Fi technology that receives music directly from the Internet without wires.

"54 years ago my father revolutionized personal listening with the first Koss SP3 stereophone," Michael J. Koss, President and CEO said. "Today, thanks to the Internet, the revolution is in the air. Now all of your favorite music can be streamed directly from the Internet to our new headphones and in-ear monitors without wires using Koss STRIVA technology."

Voltage Pictures, producers of movie Hurt Locker attempted to use a reverse class action tactic to extort hundreds of millions in 'settlement' claims aka extortion demands over alleged 'losses' due to 'piracy' - something that has never and can never, be quantified and proved. However, their attempt has failed miserably - plus read on for how Voltage Pictures did a little content 'theft' of their very own to make the movie.

The idea was to use the services of the US Copyright Group (USCG) to extract personal subscriber information from ISP's via subpoenas and then send demand letters averaging US $2,000 to hapless victims, with the hope of racking in a grand total of around US $94 million - way more than the film ever made, about US $12.6 million.

The USCG quickly unloaded lawsuit claims against 47K members of the unwitting American public, even as Voltage Picture spewed a stream of vitriol suggesting that the children and families of file sharers would hopefully "end up in jail".

explained DailyTech, putting it very well. Yes, let's get the kiddies in the name of corporate copyright and profit...

Rice University and Duke University are the latest in a long line of educational institutions to fund research on the effect of using restrictive Digital Rights Management (DRM) to try and control levels of so-called "piracy", which is allegedly reducing sales of content-only, infinite goods/virtual products, such as music, movies, computer games and books. (Some observers writing about DRM replace the word "Rights", giving us the phrase Digital Restrictions Management, which seems a more accurate description of what it's really about and removes the veneer of legitimacy from it. When buying DRM'd content, you are buying digital handcuffs, nothing more, nothing less.) The universities sponsored a study called Music Downloads and the Flip Side of Digital Rights Management Protection and what it found is that contrary to popular belief amongst the big content companies, removing DRM can actually decrease levels of piracy and increase sales. The fact is that DRM is always broken by hackers and pretty quickly too, often within a day or two (there isn't a single one still standing) leaving legal users who work within its confinements with all the restrictive hassles that it imposes, while the pirates get an unencumbered product to do with as they please. How is this progress?

The Pirate Bay, one of the largest BitTorrent tracker websites, that allows peer-to-peer file sharing and is infamous to host torrent links to copyrighted content on users' computers, is in legal soup vide a verdict from a Swedish Court of law. The Court has convicted four men responsible for running the website after its founding anti-copyright group, Piratebyran gave up control. The four men, Frederik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Carl Lundstrom and Peter Sunde were found guilty of multiple counts of copyright infringement, and sentenced to one year's imprisonment. A fine of around US $3.5 million was further issued, with each of the four having to pay around $905,000.

The verdict comes as a victory for record companies, that welcome it, despite the fine imposed not being anywhere close to the $17.5 million + damages, several groups of record companies were pushing for. Speaking in a video address hosted on the website, Peter Sunde described the verdict as "bizarre". "It's so bizarre that we were convicted at all and it's even more bizarre that we were [convicted] as a team. The court said we were organized. I can't get Gottfrid out of bed in the morning. If you're going to convict us, convict us of disorganized crime" he said. Speaking about the fine, he said "We can't pay and we wouldn't pay. Even if I had the money I would rather burn everything I owned, and I wouldn't even give them the ashes."

Cisco today announced the Linksys by Cisco Wireless Home Audio system at the 2009 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. From the world leaders in networking, the Wireless Home Audio system utilizes Wireless-N technology to deliver a rich audio experience to any room in the home. Users can create a party atmosphere with immaculate synchronization when listening to the same song throughout the entire home, or send different music to customized "zones". The Wireless Home Audio solution also puts millions of songs at your fingertips through integrated Internet services such as Rhapsody, AudioLounge, and RadioTime. An optional Docking Station for iPod enables your content on Apple iPods, including Podcasts, Audio Books, and purchased iTunes content, to be played through any Wireless Home Audio device on the network. Wireless Home Audio products also work great with the newly announced Linksys by Cisco Media Hub that gathers and presents the available media on a network.

The 'newly-wed' Activision-Blizzard is reportedly planning a music store and content delivery service to directly compete with Apple's iTunes service. For now nothing is even close to concrete, Activision-Blizzard is considering launching its own download store on its Guitar Hero game platform for now. Says CEO Robert Kotick: "When you think about the potential for what we will be able to do together, there have not been many viable alternatives to iTunes." in an interview to Reuters. He adds: "If you're downloading a song to play on your 'Guitar Hero,' there's no reason why you can't download the performance also. So there's all kinds of things you can think about."

Vivindi currently owns the World's largest music publication company, Universal Music. This could serve as a content source for this delivery platform.

According to the Financial Times, Apple is currently in discussions with music companies regarding the possibility of providing users with unlimited access to music downloads. The plan would most likely involve customers having to pay a premium for iPods/iPhones and then being able to download as much music as they want - essentially embedding the cost of music into the price of the player itself. However, the discussions are apparently stalling a bit at present as the companies negotiate over pricing. Apple is reportedly offering only $20 per device, which is much lower than companies like Nokia, which is paying almost $80 per handset for a similar plan. Another possibility is that users may pay a subscription fee each month to have unlimited downloads, with the capability of keeping 40 to 50 tracks each year even if the subscription is cancelled.

"Pirate chasing" lawyer Espen Tøndel works for the MPAA, and would love to see everyone who's ever used a file sharing network/client to download or upload copyrighted content either make reparations or go to jail. Tøndel was most recently seen in Norway, chasing a bunch of IP addresses. When Tøndel took this list of IP addresses to the police, they flat out told him that they will not chase petty criminals when murderers, rapists and other baddies roam Norwegian streets. Tøndel, infuriated, decided to take his case to higher court. He requested a meeting with the Norwegian department of justice. He instead got a flat "no" answer, and was effectively told that he might as well file suits against the pile of IP addresses, because no Norwegian police agency was going to bother itself with solving the petty piracy cases. It is unclear whether or not Tøndel has actually tried to sue the IP addresses, or if the suits utterly failed because he never could tie the IP addresses to a name.

Piracy really needs no introduction. The RIAA is on it like a fat kid to cake, and a sizable chunk of internet users do it. Artists and record labels are caught in the middle of things, the victim in both cases. If pirates win, they make no money. If the RIAA wins, nobody will pay for their music. And so, in what is likely to be the only time this happens, an independent record label is hoisting a white flag. All music that German record label Dependent Records owns will be uploaded directly to The Pirate Bay. Dependent Records attracted mainly aggrotech, electro-industrial and futurepop artists. Dependent Records is doing this because they had to close shop recently, but still want the artists to see some exposure.

Update: The record label Dependent has informed us that this news posting is not true and that the owner Mr. Herwig has been an opponent of file sharing for a long time. Apparently the original news source Torrentfreak did not do their research properly.

For a while, you could only get your legal music from three main music distributors: Napster, Real Rhapsody, URGE, and Yahoo. However, there have been a lot of changes. With restriction-free music gaining momentum, with distributors like Wal-Mart providing cheaper music, and distributors like Amazon simply offering more music, business is awful hard to come by for any of those distributors. Yahoo, which at one point offered more than two million songs, has been forced to shut down the Unlimited music service. Yahoo has officially sold the Unlimited music service to Real Rhapsody, and current subscribers of Yahoo will be given a migration notice very soon, if they haven't been already. Yahoo will still be in the music business, though, and is considering offering a very limited catalog of subsidized free music, much like competitor Spiral Frog.

Apple today announced that within six months it will lower the prices it charges for music on its UK iTunes Store to match the already standardized pricing on iTunes across Europe in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and Spain. Apple currently must pay some record labels more to distribute their music in the UK than it pays them to distribute the same music elsewhere in Europe. Apple will reconsider its continuing relationship in the UK with any record label that does not lower its wholesale prices in the UK to the pan-European level within six months.

"This is an important step towards a pan-European marketplace for music," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We hope every major record label will take a pan-European view of pricing."

EMI started the anti-DRM movement by being the first major record label to sell their music without DRMs. Fortunately, Universal Studios caught on quick, and now offers the majority of their library sans DRMs to select retailers. And thanks to a recent promotion of the Amazon DRM-free music selling service, and a new partnership of said music service with Pepsi, more record labels are planning to sell DRM-free music. Warner Music Group, who owns material from famous artists such as Black Sabbath, is planning to put their music on Amazon. Sony BMG is also planning to place their material on Amazon. The main reason behind this sudden adoption of DRM-free material is the recent success behind DRM-free music. A symbol of this success is Universal making 85% of their music available as an unprotected MP3 file. Universal is all but confirmed as staying in the DRM-free MP3 market, pending final results of the market trial due in mid-January.

Well, according to some analysts, the CD simply isn't cool anymore among 12-24 year olds, the demographic most record labels target. And so, they're trying to make it 'cool' by replacing the 'square' CD with a much sleeker USB stick. The USB stick would include songs, videos, and some multimedia content from the artist. Keane and The Pussycat Dolls will be the pioneers in USB stick single albums, with their latest stuff coming out before Halloween on the USB stick. While USB sticks may be smaller and sleeker than CDs, they don't appear to be much cheaper. The average USB single album would cost about £5 (€7/$10) per stick, about £2 more than the CD single album. The fact that most car radios do not have a USB slot may also restrict adoption of the new media format.

EBay is known for selling all sorts of interesting goodies. Among them are tickets to the Led Zeppelin reunion show. When Led Zeppelin promotor Harvey Goldstein heard about this, he tried to get eBay to stop selling these tickets. According to Goldstein, eBay "basically told us to **** off". And so, in response to this, Goldstein vowed to seriously mess with the lives of the people selling these tickets on eBay. Goldstein plans on messing up the lives of these people by declaring the tickets purchased off eBay null and void, which will cause a nightmare for a lot of hardcore Led Zeppelin fans. Checking whether or not a ticket was purchased off eBay is surprisingly easy, all they have to do at the box office is deny entry to anyone who bought the ticket with a different credit card than they have. The Led Zeppelin Reunion show will take place on November 26 at London's 02 Arena.

Jammie Thomas, a single mother from Minnesota, has been ordered to pay $222,000 in damages after being found guilty of illegally sharing music over the internet. Thomas was found to have shared over 1,700 files via Kazaa under the username Tereastarr, of which 24 were named in court. As a result she was ordered to pay $9,250 for each of the 24 songs, which totalled to $222,000. Thomas' defence attorney argued that there was no proof she was behind the keyboard sharing the songs, and forensic scientists were unable to find any evidence on her hard drive because it has been recently replaced. However, based on the fact that Thomas used the nickname Tereastarr for a number of internet services and that the sharing had been traced to her modem's MAC address the jury found her guilty of the charges. At the end of the case RIAA attorney Richard Gabriels said "This is what can happen if you don't settle."

Last week, Demonoid was down for quite some time, and everyone seemed to think it was due to the Canadian Recording Industry Association. Demonoid is back with a vengeance, and proudly proclaims they were not shut down, rather, they merely had a bit of server trouble. However, to avoid future issues with the CRIA (and possibly the American RIAA), they are prohibiting anyone from North America to access their tracker. ISOHunt.com and it's partners have followed suit, presumably for the same reasons.