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 2 1306

Articles from Popular Music News Blog

Smashing Pumpkins to Fans, Indie Stores: Fuck You 2007-11-12 00:00:45 A little over dramatic, but hey - it’s a Pitchfork article.Billy Corgan shits on indie record stores. I feel like tons of bands do this. Special versions for different locations. While it may be unfair to consumers and fans, no need to single out Smashing Pumpkins. It sucks but so is the current state of the music business. Don’t hate on Billy when you are just going to download the album and all the bonus tracks for free. Trent Reznor is obviously the opposite. It would be nice for all artists to act this way but chances aren'’t too good. ...

Hard Rock Park To Give ???Backstage?? Preview 2007-11-10 22:53:53 Ground has been broken in Myrtle Beach, SC, on Hard Rock Park, the world ??s first rock ???n?? roll theme park, and a 6-city U.S. tour of music and memorabilia starts today to promote the opening of the Park??s preview center this month. Wow! I’m a total theme-park hound dog, so I can’t wait for this park to open up. Then good ol’ BlackBelt and family can chill out somewhere in *Rock & Roll Heaven*! Hey, I wonder if can get KISS to play there? They could get them reenact the whole *Phantom of the Park* concert with the evil robot KISS impostors! Ha! ...

Kanye West uses scenes from Akira in new music video 2007-11-09 21:51:03 Kanye West??s newest music video ???Stronger??? recreates some of the scenes from the movie Akria into a new live-action format, featuring (yup you guessed right) Kanye West. Ok, just to make sure I have this straight: 1.) Poorly modify somebody else’s song. 2.) Sing poorly over it a repeating stanza based on somebody else’s quote. 3.) Play it over a video poorly ripping off somebody else’s movie. 4.) Receive volumes more adulation and money than the authors of all the original source material. Did I miss anything? ...

Free Relaxing Music and Nature Sounds Tool - Very Cool! 2007-11-08 20:45:27 The free relaxing music and nature sounds on this website have been carefully chosen for their ability to aid sleep, reduce stress, and provide a relaxing atmosphere for activities such as yoga, tai-chi, and meditation. I work as a software developer in an “open” cube arrangement. It’s very loud here. People have no clue how to restrain themselves from having impromptu coding discussions among 2 to 4 people while distracting everyone else in the vicinity. I find neutral soundtracks like these very helpful in blocking out all the annoying, distracting noise happening around me. ...

The Best and Strangest Cover Songs of All Time 2007-11-07 20:01:32 A white girl singing “Straight Outta Compton?” Is Paula Abdul a good songwriter after all? From emo covers of Fergie to the best 80s song remakes, here are some picks for the best (and oddest) remaks of all. They missed Devo covering “Satisfaction” by The Rolling Stones Mr Bungle covering “What the world needs now is love” by Jackie De Shannon Sepultura covering “Drug Me” by The Dead Kennedys ...

Free Relaxing Music and Nature Sounds Tool - Very Cool! 2007-11-06 19:32:36 The free relaxing music and nature sounds on this website have been carefully chosen for their ability to aid sleep, reduce stress, and provide a relaxing atmosphere for activities such as yoga, tai-chi, and meditation. I work as a software developer in an “open” cube arrangement. It’s very loud here. People have no clue how to restrain themselves from having impromptu coding discussions among 2 to 4 people while distracting everyone else in the vicinity. I find neutral soundtracks like these very helpful in blocking out all the annoying, distracting noise happening around me. ...

No DRM Could Mean Cheaper Music 2007-11-05 17:24:19 Even if Steve Jobs’ essay last week — in which the Apple chief questioned the wisdom of continuing to sell music wrapped in digital rights management — was a negotiating tactic designed to give Apple an advantage during impending license renewal negotiations, as some have suggested, Jobs’ proposal is still spurring lots of discussion. Unfortunately, the labels will argue that they would in fact need to charge *more* without DRM to make up for all the rampant piracy that will result. *rolls eyes* ...

Discover New Music with iJigg - Great Songs Widgets! 2007-11-04 16:12:57 If you consider your self as a music artist and would like to expose your creation to the world, you should try iJigg. You’ll be able to easily upload your music files and share it with others on the site itself or via emails, blog/site embed and even post it to your facebook account. This great site is not just for artists. I like that there’s no registration to listen. But it seemed like only song titles were listed — not artist names. Makes it pretty useless, if you ask me. ...

Easily the best iTunes plugin ever 2007-11-03 16:08:10 iConcertCal is a personalized concert calendar that tells you when the artists in your iTunes library are coming to town. A word of caution…I installed this plugin a month or two ago and then couldn’t figure out why my iTunes kept crashing after I updated to v7.0.2. Turns out it was this plugin causing problems. I followed the advice I found on the comments of this page:and deleted the prefs file for the plugin. If anybody else has had problems after installing this, that might help. ...

U.K. & Most of Europe to Get Satellite Radio by 2010 2007-11-02 15:02:20 Radio listeners in the UK are to be offered satellite radio services by 2010. Two groups say they plan to launch a pan-European service of up to 250 channels within the next five years. I thought Teletext was a worldwide thing, this surprises me a lot. Anyway, it’s not restricted to just Satellite television, it’s there for regular broadcast TV or cable as well. ... Amp

Record label boss blasts RIAA tactics 2007-11-01 15:23:41 Nettwerk Music Group CEO Terry McBride says the record industry’s litigation against users of P2P services are hurting musicians and the overall music business. McBride urged his cohorts at the major music companies to cease their litigation-driven anti-piracy efforts and embrace the new music-consumption habits of digital music fans. Maybe not embrace piracy, but instead of spending money on their impossible battle against it, spend that on making improved music services. If the music would be sold DRM-less on well organized and fast sites without ties into iTunes, I could be interested. Especially if not only the latest music was covered, but it having a deep coverage of *lots* of past music. I think there’s still much to gain from legal music services, but what RIAA is doing now sure ain’t helping. ...

College advises students to push back against the RIAA 2007-10-31 13:07:32 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. Does anybody know how much the RIAA is charging for their “generous” settlements? I haven’t been able to find a price per song or anything like that… ...

How the RIAA almost shut down the entire World Wide Web 2007-10-30 11:58:24 Question: What online service did the RIAA claim should be shut down because it has no legal use, and is primarily used to share illegal files? Answer: The World Wide Web (circa 1994) This article explains the true story of how the Web almost never was. People just don’t want to pay for there music, or go out to a store and buy the CD, or whatever, its just more convenient to sit at your desk and download it or watch it off YouTube ...

Record Label and/or MSN vs Nine Inch Nails Fans 2007-10-29 11:05:23 It appears that some divine intervention from MSN and/or the record labels may cause The Bravery to win the Artist of the Month poll. How have we come to this conclusion? Read on. This is truly NIN Fans vs Geffen and/or MSN. i think its fucked that shit like the bravery is even popular enough to be on any poll anywhere. for christ sake, the idea of nine inch nails, loosing to the bravery, is like mike tyson loosing a boxing match to pee wee herman(sorry if i mispelt your name pee wee) i mean trent reznor, the guy who wrote pretty hate machine, the downward spiral, the fragile, with teeth and now year zero(i left out broken for a reason) this guy been on everyones minds lately thanks to the viral story campaign, or say the fact that hes released his new album for free, on his website, before its come out! if theres anything left in this fucked little pit we call life, any talent or inteligence, any one with a mind, then shit like the bravery or avril laveigne, or christ fall out boy, a ...

Rap star loses Diddy name rights 2007-10-28 09:56:18 Rap star Sean Combs is no longer to be called “Diddy” in the UK after he agreed a settlement with a music producer already known by that name. It doesn’t matter. People are still going to refer to him as Diddy or Puffy or Sean or whatever. He just can’t sell any music or products or promote himself under the “Diddy” name in the UK. So move along, nothing to see here. ...