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 4 1340

Articles from Popular Music News Blog

CBS agrees to pay $2 million in payola probe 2007-09-26 04:53:37 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. This explains so much, why there is so much crap on the radio these days. But in the end, it’s just like college football. Every player worth anything is getting paid in some form or fashion in college football, but only one school may get caught and penalized. Other radio stations are getting payola to. I wouldn’t put it past Clear Channel. Long live the indie music scene. ...

Ultimate-Guitar.com: The Last Stand 2007-09-25 03:50:45 The time has come for Ultimate-Guitar.Com to get an MPA letter. Surely, that was not something good, but the request to remove all tabs in 10 days. What does it mean? Nothing. We are legal. We are not going to shut down the website. Its not as if there is any ‘official’ way of getting tabs for all songs, only certain successful artists release them in books, they dont supply them with the CDs do they, this is so lame, soon if you do by the CD and do learn it yourself, but then goto a open mic night at a local bar, get up and play the song you have learnt, you will be slapped with a fine …. surely this is hurting the music more ? i have found so many songs i now like from listening to friends playing the songs, and have even ended up buying the track on itunes, I think the MPA and RIAA managers and directors really secretly hate music and want to banish if from the world … ...

RIAA HEARING! Vitally important 2007-09-24 02:51:56 2:15 pm in the newer federal court house at 500 Pearl Street, New York, New York, courtroom 21D on the 21st Floor. BE THERE IF YoU CAN !!! p2pnet.net is blocked from work. =( Access Denied (user-defined.malware_URL_denied) The requested URL has been associated with the following categories: Hacking;Peer-to-Peer (P2P) Hacking, Malware, Spyware, and Phishing sites are associated with malicious or undesired activity, and so are blocked by policy. ...

New Copyright Laws Will Make Singing Out Loud a Crime 2007-09-23 01:52:09 The Internet Industry Association today warned that changes to Australia ??s copyright laws being rushed through Parliament risked making criminals out of everyday Australians. An interesting take on the issue of intellectual property. I guess we’re well on our way to using sign-language as “the” means of communication just so long as someone doesn’t come up with a way to copyright the use of the hands in communication. BTW, who’s take credit for the middle finger? This is just silly. ...

5 Guitars You Can??t Buy 2007-09-22 00:51:22 Everything from a touch screen guitar to the obligatory gun-guitar. I call shenangians on the Kaoss guitar, the lead singer of Muse Matthew Bellamy uses one (their last album, black holes and revelations is awesome btw), if you want to spend the dough, you can get it custom made from any number of guitar manufacturers. Matt was using one on the last tour. ...

Big labels are f*cked, and DRM is dead 2007-09-20 23:52:30 Few people know the music industry better than Peter Jenner. Pink Floyd’s first manager. Jenner has also looked after T.Rex, The Clash, Ian Dury, Disposable Heroes and Billy Bragg - who he manages today. He’s also secretary general of the International Music Managers Forum. And he doesn’t pull his punches. I dugg this because PF was my favorite band and the perspective is interesting. HOWEVER, Mr. Jenner advocates a socialist solution, sort of a “tax” that everyone pays to fund artists. THAT SUCKS. I believe in free market solutions to these problems, and while I am no big fan of DRM I don’t find teh itunes store to be a bad option. If they offered a free/ultra cheap streaming service so you could “explore” for new music that would be an enhancement, I think that’s a better idea than making a music a “protected class” of commerce that gets its wages from what amounts to taxation. ...

40 yrs ago today: With ‘Sgt. Pepper,’ the Beatles changed rock forever 2007-09-19 22:52:44 When “Sgt. Pepper” appeared, it was as if a massive block party had appeared outside your window. And it wasn’t just the music. The album cover itself was breathtaking… I’m not a huge Beatles fan but my first experience to this album came in 10th grade from an english teacher. It was for a poetry part of the class. since that day i have worn out 2 discs and on my third of Sgt Peppers. It may not be the best Beatles album but it is my favorite for its commentary. ...

RIAA Petitions Judges to Lower Artist Royalties 2007-09-18 21:53:56 Aggressively litigious group has claimed to protect musicians in the past. Now believes musicians deserve less for “innovative” music distribution. No, see, the royalties go down, the “recording artists” get angry, the RIAA uses the momentum created by thousands of slightly less wealthy “recording artists” all bitching about how filesharing is taking the Lexus’ straight out of their kid’s mouths, the judges start judging in the RIAA’s favor, and then DER! I mean…BAM! Welcome to the Internet 2.0, now with restrictions. The Chinese will feel fortunate, compared to us. Then, in ten years, they’ll make fun of us like we’re Canada, like we make fun of Canada. ...

Help Save Pandora and Internet Radio ! 2007-09-17 20:52:06 “Hi, it’s Tim from Pandora, I’m writing today to ask for your help. The survival of Pandora and all of Internet radio is in jeopardy because of a recent decision by the Copyright Royalty Board to almost triple the licensing fees for Internet radio sites. In response to these new and unfair fees, we have formed the SaveNetRadio Coalition…” Not just Pandora but also Live365 and, really, the whole idea of internet radio. I don’t know why the RIAA tries to keep us from learning about new music we might want to buy — except that they’re evil and if it’s a useful service, then their nature causes them to despise it. Terrestial radio doesn’t pay any royalties because the RIAA considers it a marketing arm to generate new sales. Maybe the RIAA doesn’t like internet radio stations because they’re too independent-minded and aren’t in debt to the RIAA. ... Internet

Listen to 1,001 Albums for FREE 2007-09-16 19:53:17 Great list of 1,001 albums that you can listen for free! I’ve had a look at the Google cache and I’m going to be downloading as soon as I can actually get on the site if it hasn’t been blocked by the powers that be that is ...

2007 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Inductees: Van Halen, R.E.M., and More 2007-09-15 18:52:29 Van Halen made a “jump” into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on Monday along with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, R.E.M., the Ronettes and Patti Smith. A panel of 600 industry experts selected the five artists to be inducted at the annual ceremony, to be held March 12 in New York. Van Halen definetly deserves it. Eddie Van Halen is an amazing guitarist, he creates his own scales. They’ve done a lot of work and I think they deserve it! ...

Peter Gabriel shakes the tree, ad-supported MP3s fall out 2007-09-14 17:53:36 Peter Gabriel shocks the monkey music industry by funding a new startup called We7 that plans to offer free music without DRM in return for listening to 10 second advertisements. I am already signed up! They have about 15 songs already from artists like Coolio, Dave Matthews, etc… I have d/led most of them and right now there are NO ads except for 10 sec at the start using We7’s catchline I put it through Audacity (Free Audio Editor) and it is clear, however I will keep it on there to support We7 the ads arent louder I would recomennd this…. get off those p2p networks ASAP!…. because the RIAA is in ur Internetz!!! -TBird ...

TuneGlue? | Relationship Explorer 2007-09-13 16:55:50 Relationship mapping of bands/artists. On site type in an artist, and click the circle that pops up representing that artist. When you expand, tuneglue will generate a web of similar-sounding artists. This rocks… reminds me of an old TIME magazine spread I had when I was kid showing musical relationships and the progression/evolution of genres. Really, really cool I love if this could be built in as a way to actually browse the music already on your computer, and then to suggest new artists . ...

The Hype Machine announces new music recommendation engine 2007-09-12 15:53:00 “We learned that by observing people’s daily activities and online browsing habits we were able to recommend them new music with an unmatched level of precision…” the hype machine is great for searching but what happened to the popular section? its gone to shit over the past year - just corny bands, mashups & covers ...

MP3 Search Engine 2007-09-11 14:53:13 Mp3realm has tons of free mp3s from around the web; it also provides easy to copy HTML for your hot-linking pleasure. It may not provide every song you’re looking for, but it makes a good addition to any mp3 search arsenal. “Mp3 files may be present in our database, which cannot legally be downloaded (Copyrighted songs). Due to our technology, we can not determine which files are under Copyright and are not. Mp3Realm.org Does not & never will store any *.mp3 files on our own servers. Visitors and users of this website should acknowledge we are not responsible for what they(you) download. If you believe a file is under copyright, and therefore is illegal, by all means do not download it and infringe upon the copyright of the owner.” – Bring on the RIAA again then… ...