Popular Music News Blog Hand-picked most interesting news from popular music world, commented by author of the blog. Statistics Unique Visitors: Total Unique Visitors: Outgoing: Total Outgoing: 0 0 5 1341

Articles from Popular Music News Blog

Mozart’s entire musical score now free on Internet 2008-01-08 05:54:18 Mozart’s year-long 250th birthday party is ending on a high note with the musical scores of his complete works available from Monday for the first time free on the Internet. There’s lots of free sheet music sites out there. One of the best I’ve found is the International Music Score Library Project (IMSLP). Check it out: www.imslp.org. If anyone is able to download these (if the site ever comes back up) they would probably be a good addition there. ... Internet

DefectiveByDesign - Wake up Edgar Bronfman, DRM is dead! 2008-01-07 03:10:22 Dear Chairman Bronfman (Warner Music)… We the undersigned urge you to drop DRM from Warner Music’s digital distribution. Put the energy that has been spent attempting to lock down the audience towards developing new artist music and innovating new products and services for the music fan… (sign this letter now) I stopped signing petitions like this because it’s the first thing people see when they google my name. I really don’t want my employers to have access to this type of information about me. You never know how they’ll interpret it. ...

Weapons Rap for Man Tied to Rapper ‘Proof’s Death 2008-01-06 03:47:29 The man authorities say killed the rapper Proof in lawful defense of another man during a nightclub shootout was convicted Wednesday of two weapons charges related to the incident. Following a three-day trial, a jury found Mario Etheridge, 28, guilty of carrying a concealed weapon and discharging a firearm inside a building. I feel bad for Proof, his family, and his friends. I also thought he was a good rapper. But for somebody that hangs out with Dr. Dre, 50 Cent, and Eminem to get caught up in stuff like this… seriously, what was he thinking? He probably shouldn’t have been involved with these sorts of situations. I know part of his personality was that he was always staying close to his home in Detroit, but that doesn’t mean he has to stay in a violent enviornment. If anything I hope this sends a message to other rappers to get out of the hood when you have the chance. ...

The Top 10 Corporate Moments In Rock 2008-01-05 01:03:37 “…to say that the profitable nature of the record business has skyrocketed since the days of Buddy Holly and “Rock Around The Clock” would be an understatement of gargantuan proportion” Lots of artists have “sold out” over the years—at least according to the “I found them before they were *mainstream*”. I ask who gives a shit as long as they’re making good music. People act like if you sign a record deal or vend some T-Shirts that you’re scum and doing it solely for the money. That just ain’t true. Btw…wtf is this doing on Digg? ...

BitTorrent: an excellent medium for indie labels 2008-01-04 01:40:42 Over the past year or so, BitTorrent as a medium for independent artists and labels to distribute content has grown immensely. It’s good to see that BitTorrent.com, the ‘official’ BT site is spearheading this movement. This is pretty sweet to see someone talking about this. I personally download more indie stuff that I can’t find, than any of the dross that passes for popular music these days.. I couldn’t even tell you how long it’s been since I downloaded a major label song or album via P2P sites, however I downloaded a bunch of killer ska music from a band noone has ever heard of (Jaya the Cat,) just last weekend! ...

College advises students to push back against the RIAA 2008-01-02 22:58:52 Only one student at North Carolina State University responded to the RIAA’s offer for an early settlement, meaning that 23 others are likely to be sued. But the university is advising students to push back against the recording industry. Make them actually work in court and waste time and resources. It’s not like you actually have to pay out. Eventually the RIAA tactics will fail and all the court ruling in favor for them will be void. Then a giant class action lawsuit against them for harassing and loss of time should be brought against them. Even if I was sued I would never pay them. ...

Pixies to record first album in 15 years!! 2008-01-01 20:55:58 Pixies are set to begin work on their first studio album in 15 years. Frank Black has confirmed the band will start work in January on their first record since 1991’s “Trompe Le Monde”. “”We’re rehearsing in January, if we can persuade Kim to come out of her house”" Sounds like Kim Deal is holding out, I have my doubts that the Pixies will produce another album just because some months back Frank Black was going around saying how the Pixies will never record again. He hinted the problem was with Kim, I guess she has been reluctant to make a new album; at least that is the way Frank is spinning it. (who really knows?) I hope to god they reunite and make some ground breaking new music. ...

Prince gives away his new CD, Music industry goes nuts 2007-12-31 19:56:07 The following quote sums it up nicely: “The Artist Formerly Known as Prince should know that with behaviour like this he will soon be the Artist Formerly Available in Record Stores. And I say that to all the other artists who may be tempted to dally with the Mail on Sunday.” They really do sound like a bunch of petulant little kids, don’t they? The way I see it, Prince made the music so he can distribute it anyway he wants to, within the contractual bounds of the company that is paying for the manufacturer, promotion and distribution of said music. And the retailers are free to carry or not carry any artist or album as they see fit. ...

All Along the Waa??? 2007-12-30 18:57:15 Bear McCreary ??s insanely odd cover version of Bob Dylan??s All Along the Watchtower is featured in Battlestar Galactica??s season finale episodes Crossroads, Part I & II as the backdrop and apparent impetus for the season-ending revelation. What ’s the connection? Anyone? For reference, here are Bob Dylan’s lyrics: “There must be some way out of here,” said the joker to the thief, “There’s too much confusion, I can’t get no relief. Businessmen, they drink my wine, plowmen dig my earth, None of them along the line know what any of it is worth.” “No reason to get excited,” the thief, he kindly spoke, “There are many here among us who feel that life is but a joke. But you and I, we’ve been through that, and this is not our fate, So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.” All along the watchtower, princes kept the view While all the women came and went, barefoot servants, too. Outside in t ...

Is There a New Milli Vanilli in Our Midst? 2007-12-28 16:56:28 Apparently there is a young chanteuse who’s been ghosting vocals for a popular female singer since 2001. The real singer, hasn’t been gettng paid lately because her counterpart, identified as “MV,” has run out of cash, and she’s getting ready to go public with her story. Meh. Pretty much every popular song these days (I’d even say 99.9%) has autotuned vocals. And if that’s not enough, there’s now software that can shape the voice completely to a different voice (Antares AVox, for one). I mean, how do you think Paris Hilton made an album? In the meantime, most popular songs are written by professional songwriters and not the aritst themselves (although this has been true of pop music for nearly its entire lifespan). In reality, pop stars are generally just a name and a face. So would it really be surprising if you found out that a billboard topping pop star wasn’t the actual performer? Because face it, (s)he’s probably not. ...

Record Industry Dying? Sales Down 20% 2007-12-27 16:46:34 First things first: Overall album sales for the January 1-April 2 period are down 16.6% to 117.1 million units, led — or perhaps misled — by a 20.5% decline in CD album sales. The Record Industry is dying because they promote nothing but shitty bands. The biggest concert bands in the world are now very old: U2, The Rolling Stones, The Police (just back together), And the occasional Who or Pink Floyd reunion tour. Green Day is the closest to a current monster band and even they’ve been around forever. Where’s the music? ...

Music Industry Shaking Down Coffee Shops 2007-12-26 16:13:40 “A restaurant owner who doesn’t even offer live music was approached for payment for having the TV on while the Monday Night Football theme played. And if the owners pay up to one licensing company, all of the others start harassing them, calling four times a day, demanding payment too. It sounds like they don’t even check whether any copyright vio They’re like freakin piranha; once they smell blood, they won’t stop until they bleed you dry. “[…]other music copyright companies began calling the Halls and demanding money. Most days there would be three or four phone calls from each company[…]” ...

B.B. King Released From Texas Hospital 2007-12-25 15:09:51 HOUSTON (AP) — B.B. King was discharged from a Galveston hospital Saturday following treatment for a fever and was “back to his old self,” a spokeswoman for his management agency said. The 81-year-old, Grammy-winning bluesman was “feeling fabulous,” said Tina France, vice president of Lieberman Management of New York. BB King is an institution! There are few people of his age that would have the energy to gig 300 times a year. In fact, the average person in their prime would struggle! You rock BB! ... Texas

Listen and Share and Download free Music 2007-12-24 14:04:58 jamendo is a new model for artists to promote, publish, and be paid for their music. jamendo users can discover and share albums, but also review them or start a discussion on the forums. Albums are democratically rated based on the visitors ?? reviews. If they fancy an artist they can support him by making a donation. For your information: All downloads on this site seem to be handled via BitTorrent or eMule. So, if you can’t handle those (port blocking or no software or whatever), all you get to do is stream. ... Download

CBS agrees to pay $2 million in payola probe 2007-12-23 13:02:04 CBS Radio Inc. has agreed to pay $2 million to settle New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer’s investigation into gifts or “payola” paid by record companies for air play, Spitzer said Thursday. From the nytimes article: “In documents released yesterday, Mr. Spitzer contended that certain CBS stations ???participated in deception against their listeners,??? and that programmers improperly accepted payments or other financial benefits to play songs by artists like Nick Lachey and Nine Inch Nails.” Not sure why the posted article only mentioned Lachey. ...