Maybe someone should set Akon and T-Pain up with the boys over at hellogoodbye for some conference call sass.
Akon Calls T-Pain, Fun With Vocoders
– Posted on May 7, 2008Posted in: Internet Phenomena, Music
Music Archive
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What Being Nominated For A Grammy Gets You
– Posted on May 5, 2008Posted in: Music
I just got an email from Goldstar Events telling me that I could have “comped” tickets to a KT Tunstall show at the Wiltern in LA, presumably because no one bought tickets to the show.
The sad thing is, the Wiltern is only about a mid-sized theater venue, seating roughly 2,500 people. It’s not as if she was trying to play a large arena way over her head.
It just goes to show that being a successful touring artist has nothing to do with your Grammy nominations, Grey’s Anatomy soundtrack appearances, or Billboard Hot 100 single entries.
A shame, though, I kinda liked “Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.” But not enough to take free tickets to a local show. Gas is expensive these days, you know.
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How The Grand Theft Auto IV Soundtrack Came About
– Posted on May 5, 2008Posted in: Video Games
Stephen Tolito (of Multiplayer fame) over at MTV has an interesting interview/feature with Ivan Pavlovich, music supervisor for Grand Theft Auto IV, on putting together the game’s soundtrack.
If you’re Pavlovich, one of two soundtrack supervisors for the game and a guy with about 4,000 records back in his mom’s basement (not to mention a few more hidden behind the couch at home), you wind up with a list of 850 songs you’d like to consider including in “GTA IV.” You put in requests with more than 2,000 people. And you try not to give away that you’re asking for these songs for “GTA.”
GTA games have always had phenomenal soundtracks, IV definitely continues that streak. There are a staggering 214 songs included within the game across numerous genres. They’ve essentially programmed 18 radio stations for the game. Since you’re spending a large majority of the 50+ hour long game driving around the city, you’re bound to hear and discover a lot of music.
With the decline of real terrestrial radio due to video games and other entertainment sources, it’s a bit ironic that we’ve come full circle by listening to radio stations inside of a video game to discover new music.
Read the GTA IV soundtrack feature [mtv.com]
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This One’s On Trent
– Posted on May 5, 2008Posted in: Music
Remember the cryptic ID3 tag from the Nine Inch Nails – Discipline single download a couple weeks ago? Well, May 5th is upon us and a visit to nin.com reveals that the surprise is none other than a completely free download of a new Nine Inch Nails album entitled The Slip.
as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.
the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options – all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.
for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.
I love how Trent continues to put out his material in proper digital formats, word is that the MP3 encodes are LAME V0 – none of this “encoded in iTunes” n00bery. All it takes to download is your email address again. I’m still waiting on my download link, but it looks to be the same process as it was in downloading “Discipline.”
Although, coming so quickly off the heels of “Ghosts I-IV,” I have a sliver of doubt of the album’s quality. I’m guessing it’s a more traditional Nine Inch Nails album, but could Trent be oversaturating us with material?
Regardless, free albums are awesome, especially with the presentation that Trent is putting forth here.
Download The New Nine Inch Nails Album [theslip.nin.com]
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Pottycast #1 – Coachella, Grand Theft Auto 4, Coldplay
– Posted on April 30, 2008Posted in: podcast
That’s right, My Day Will Come is going audio!
In our inaugural podcast, I am joined by former radio DJ Dan Brody as we talk about Coachella, Grand Theft Auto 4, Buzznet, Coldplay, and more.
We’re working on getting the Pottycast on the iTunes directory, but in the meantime, if you want to subscribe through iTunes just go to Advanced -> Subscribe to Podcast and paste this URL in the box:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MyDayWillComePodcast
Then just make sure that your iPod/iPhone is set to sync the Podcast.
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Coldplay To Give Away New Single For A Week
– Posted on April 28, 2008Posted in: Music
Looks like Coldplay will be giving away their new single from their upcoming album Viva La Vida for one week starting tomorrow (4/29) at 12:15pm GMT. (8:15am PST/5:15am EST) now!
The song is called Violet Hill and judging from the album art and the new website, will be a lot more festive than your average Britpop ditties.
Here’s hopin’ for some maracas with that famous Chris Martin piano spazzing!
Download the new Coldplay single [coldplay.com]
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Download The New Nine Inch Nails Single For Free
– Posted on April 23, 2008Posted in: Music
No, that’s not a black and white version of Coldplay’s X&Y cover up there, it’s the cover to the latest Nine Inch Nails single, Discipline. This ain’t no BS instrumental either, we get to hear Trent Reznor’s soothing vocals layered over a 122 bpm bed. It’s a vintage Nine Inch Nails song, fans casual and hardcore alike should be into it.
If you look within the ID3 tag of the single, there’s a cryptic note that says:
Go to www.nin.com May 5
Hmmmm, maybe more free tracks? An album release date?
You can get your own copy of discipline here. All it takes is your email and you get a pristinely encoded VBR MP3. Trent takes care of his fans.
Download Nine Inch Nails – Discipline [nin.com]
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Buzznet Acquires Idolator From Gawker Media
– Posted on April 14, 2008Posted in: Internet Phenomena, Music
paidContent.org reports that music/social network site, Buzznet, has just purchased Idolator from Gawker Media. This comes on the heels of the recent full acquisition of Stereogum at the end of March.
I must admit, these acquisitions have caught me off guard. Last I checked, Buzznet was an emo-kid saturated Myspace wannabe. Idolator and Stereogum, though, are two of the (if not the most) most visited and credible music blogs on the internet. Having those two sites under your wing immediately makes you a major player in the online music content realm.
Buzznet insists that full editorial control will be retained by Idolator founder, Maura Johnston, and that the move will only provide more resources for the Idolator team. One always has to take such statements with a huge lick of salt though. Rarely does a parent company not exert it’s influence over an acquisition in some manner. The fact that one of Buzznet’s key investors is Interscope Records does not exactly inspire confidence either.
As long as both Stereogum and Idolator maintain their unique identities, I don’t see a huge drop off in quality or readerships. But it’s going to be mighty tempting down the line for Buzznet to tweak their breadwinners to better suit the conglomerate’s needs, rather than the individual blogs’ needs. It’s a fine line that all media groups need to walk.
Something tells me I shouldn’t be holding my breath on this one though.
Read the press release [biz.yahoo.com]
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Last.fm Is Logical
– Posted on April 13, 2008Posted in: Music
In an overwhelming intellectual leap of faith, last.fm has concluded that allowing full-length track streaming has increased sales.
Since Last.fm’s label deals allowed them to stream over five million full tracks for free, the site has seen its CD and MP3 Amazon referrals increase 119 percent. Some of the effect is due to an increase in overall traffic since the full songs showed up, but existing users of the site purchased 66 percent more music during the same period.
Did anyone ever harbor the illusion that 30-second track previews were really enough to sell people on a track purchase? Sure, one could argue that maybe the right 30 seconds would be enough, but there’s no way of finding a “one size fits all” snippet for everyone.
Full length track streaming is the only way to go for online music purchasing. It isn’t a replacement for owning the cd or file because you can’t put the music on your device – the end goal of most users.
Would you buy a car after a mere 30 second test-drive? There is no way I’m spending my money on any music without hearing it in its entirety to make sure I love it.
Read more about last.fm’s conclusion [blog.wired.com]
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Hell Has Frozen Over
– Posted on April 7, 2008Posted in: Music, Music Industry
Wired’s Listening Post reports that Warner Music has a plan to charge people a flat fee on the ISP level for the right to download unlimited amounts of music on p2p networks without the threat of litigation.
wat.
I’m still in shock. Hath mine own eyes deceived me? Is this really happening? Someone should check on Bob Lefsetz – he might be in cardiac arrest right now.
Coming back down to earth, it looks like the plan is not very well thought out yet and there are a lot of questions still to be answered.
What is known is that Jim Griffin has been hired by Warner to create “an ASCAP for the internet, collecting fees from ISPs and divvying them up among rights holders.” In the same way that diners pay restaurant’s music licensing fees with each dish they order, ISP customers would pay a bit more per month for the right to download as much music as their hard drives can eat.
The very notion that someone at Warners gets it is pretty shocking to me. Yes, this is a solution that should have been put in place a decade ago, but as I’ve said before, this sort of rational thinking from a major label was unfathomable to us in the industry even just a scant year ago. There’s still the problem of getting the rest of the labels on board, but I’m pretty confident that once one of them has a good plan of execution in place, the rest should fall like dominoes.
Bravo Warners, bravo.
Read more [blog.wired.com]