Police have arrested the operator of Mulve. Mulve is an app designed to help users download music, via a 10-million-strong database. According to the linked article, the smackdown largely came courtesy of the RIAA.

The thing is, Mulve was just a search engine, albeit one for a very specific purpose. If we get to the point where enabling access to naughty downloads makes operators liable, that’s a pretty worrying prospect—and you can bet the likes of Google and Bing (often the easiest, fastest way to source such download) won’t ever be affected.

The moral of the story appears to be: don’t specialise, stupid, or become so big that the RIAA won’t risk attacking you.

In my recent 5 things article, I noted that digital storage is slowly seducing me, to the point that I now rarely feel the need to buy physical media when it comes to music; soon, I suspect I’ll be buying digital movies and TV series, and only the lack of a robust solution for playback is currently stopping me. *

The media industry of course knows this and is scared by the prospect of falling physical media sales and the decrease of control digital brings, having ceded a lot of power to the likes of iTunes and Amazon’s MP3 store. Now, people can cherry-pick music tracks and individual episodes of TV series, without grabbing an entire album or box-set.

In an article over on Billboard.biz, Kristin Hersh argues that there is still a place for physical media. “I disagree with the recording industry which claims that music has been devalued by the Internet, but I admit that CDs have been devalued by an industry that put so much crap on them,” she says. “I wanted to push the idea that music is measured in impact rather than plastic while still giving people something beautiful to hold in their hands.”

Fundamentally, this is about value for the consumer. When the perceived and actual value of a physical object betters the digital equivalent, people will still buy it. However, the days are long gone when a recording artist can shove three great singles on to an album alongside a load of crud, and where a format-bump is enough to convince most consumers to buy all their favourite movies yet again.

* On that note, if anyone knows of a really good wireless or ‘connect to a wireless drive’ system that’ll happily playback DVD rips, QuickTime movies and so on, I’d love to hear about it.

Nice to see that despite regularly capitulating to idiots, BBC Trust still has some balls. According to BBC News, BBC Trust has rejected plans to close 6 Music, with chairman Sir Michael Lyons saying the case for closure had not been made.

Given that even so-called rivals were saying 6’s closure would have been a huge error, and the fact that in the grand scheme of things, 6 Music costs bugger-all to run (unlike, say, the money-sink that is the mostly awful BBC Three), it’s great that common sense has mostly prevailed. I say ‘mostly’, because while 6 is safe, Asian Network hasn’t been so lucky and may still be axed, with BBC Trust saying it would “consider a formal proposal for [its] closure”.

The Guardian reports that the BBC’s planning to reinvent its digital radio output around extensions to existing radio networks. In essence, it’s going to kill 6 Music—generally regarded as one of the finest digital stations, and perfectly in line with the BBC’s public service remit—and use the cash to extend 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.

One exec was quoted as saying: “Just like the Xtra Factor goes backstage and tells you what happened at the X Factor, so Radio 2 could have spin-off digital shows with extra coverage from Glastonbury or the Electric Proms”. And this pretty much proves that once again the BBC doesn’t understand what it has, nor what it really needs to offer. 6 provides music you can’t get elsewhere, not extensions of existing coverage. And it’s hardly like existing extensions are working well anyway, with Radio 1Xtra’s Tim Westwood once famously stating that his audience share was so low that he’d been broadcasting to “absolutely nobody for the last three hours,” saying this was “soul-destroying”.

But the BBC seems to want to blunder on regardless, removing its one real piece of exciting and innovative radio and replacing it with ‘more of the same’. This is like the music industry closing every indie label but providing extra Top 40 play, and it’s just not acceptable.

If you’re a fan of 6 Music or independent, innovative music in general, email the BBC now.

Following Warner Music’s announcement that it is to stop licensing its songs to free online music streaming services, stating that such things are “clearly not positive for the industry”, the record label is to also stop releasing music digitally and on CD. From tomorrow, all new Warner output will be exclusively on vinyl, with the average album costing around $50 (£32).

“Digital music and CDs are too easy to pirate,” said a Warner spokesperson. “Filthy f——ing pirate scum copying Warner albums results less income for our executives… uh, I mean artists, and so we’ve taken this step to ensure we… uh, I mean our artists get more income and can continue making wonderful music.” On the decision to go vinyl, the spokesperson remarked that “no modern PC has a vinyl slot” and that the company would soon release the iVinylPod, a device enabling you to play your Warner albums on the go. “The iVinylPod is slightly larger than the average mobile music player,” confirmed the spokesperson, adding: “But we think the music-buying public will happily forego a little convenience when they know record label executives are making money hand over fist. Uh, I mean when they know artists are getting more income from their wonderful music.”

Warner refused to comment on leaked information that its vinyl albums will also be removed from sale this summer, replaced by iWarner. According to documentation now circling the internet, the iWarner service removes media from the equation entirely. Instead, your selected artist comes to your house and plays their latest album live in your front room. To remove the threat of piracy, Warner detonates a small electromagnetic pulse bomb to destroy all recording equipment in your neighbourhood, and the suggested price per album of $1 million is, according to marketing blurb, countered by the “wonderful immersive experience that only iWarner can bring”.