Led Zeppelin Reunion: Band's Albums Sales up 500%

From NME:

Sales of Led Zeppelin’s back catalogue have increased by 500% since the band announced then played their reunion show at the O2 Arena, which took place on Monday.

Music retailer HMV also revealed that sales of ‘Mothership’, Led Zeppelin’s recent compilation album, rose by 50% overnight following the gig, and was the biggest selling album in HMV stores in the UK yesterday.

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Warren Zevon’s Traveling Circus - June 1978

By Dinky Dawson, published today in Crawdaddy:

June 25, 1978, was a day off in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, to enjoy a night of Bruce Springsteen. Bruce had just released his fourth album, Darkness on the Edge of Town, which was flying out of North American record stores, confirming his status as a new star. We felt weird asking for 10 tickets to take care of the whole entourage, but Bruce himself pulled together a row of seats in the sixth row for us. I have to admit that it felt weird when I sat down in the crowd to be in a show for entertainment and not for work. Warren felt a little strange as well, especially when people began recognizing him and shouting, “Werewolves, Werewolves!”

We loved Springsteen’s first few songs but the sound was way too loud. Warren desperately grabbed my arm and asked if anyone had earplugs. We produced a bag of Swedish wool packets, which helped us all quite a bit, but by the fifth song the bass was too much for Warren and he wanted to leave. Outside, he asked me what I thought, adding “I hope we’re not that loud.” “Not on your life,” I assured him. “I like it loud, but not death loud."

Back at the hotel room, it was off to Warren’s room for cocktails. Bruce and his entourage returned from the show with tons of groupies in tow, whom everyone in Warren’s band had been chatting up. I headed back to my room and the phone rang as soon I stumbled in. The voice on the other end said, “This is the boss. Is Warren there?” I started laughing and asked, “The boss, who?”

“Bruce!” the voice replied, slightly peeved, but softened as I went into Cheech and Chong’s familiar routine. “Bruce isn’t here!”

“Who is this?”

“Dinky Dawson. A close personal friend of Mr. Zevon.”

“Yeah?” he laughed, “Well I’m going to have to come down and show you who’s boss!” Warren came into the room and I handed the phone to him. He started laughing and looked at me, then hung up. “You’re in trouble,” he said simply.

Read the rest of the story here.

Consumers Have Choices Other Than Apple's iPod

From Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune:

This might be hard for some people to fathom, but there are digital music players made by other companies besides Apple.

But before you think I'm about to write some type of heresy — iPod is not the best? — here's the point: The iPod has keen competition, if you look.

There can be good reasons for not picking an iPod.

One, other players often include an FM radio; iPods do not.

Two, the following devices worked easily on Microsoft Windows, as does the iPod, and each found and organized the music files I have scattered about the Hewlett-Packard laptop I used for this review.

Three, price considerations: Some offer exceptional value.

Nonetheless, when it comes to digital music players, how things stack up against the iPod is a fair test because Apple made it so easy to use and consistently innovates with new features such as touch-screen controls.

So here's what I kept in mind as I examined these players: How easy is it to use out of the box? Is the software that manages the music cumbersome or intuitive? What features stand out? How simple is navigation.

Link

Quality of Music at Root of Industry's Troubles

Hardly anyone ties the worsening quality of pop music to flagging sales - it's usually just piracy that's mentioned. It also stands to reason that should quality improve, the industry might find itself back on track.

From Kings of A&R:

L.A. Reid is one of the few executives in the music business other than Rick Rubin who acknowledges or at least speaks out that the decay in the music business is due to quality, in what KOAR calls the CREATIVE DROUGHT. Unfortunately, many other executives have fell to the idea that the lack of sales is mainly due to technology.

Many execs and music labels spend their long days in meetings thinking about selling music. This is a BAD OMEN. We can be rest assured with this mentality that the quality of music will continue to suffer. Instead execs in music labels need to focus on CREATING quality music with potential artists. Many execs will argue, it’s not that easy - ok fine, lets continue..

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Record with Adrian Belew

From Adrian Belew Blog:

if Fall gets your creative firepit stoked like it does mine, you're ready for our SMARTIE songwriting contest.
here's the object:
complete any of the "unfinished" songs we've been releasing as downloads by adding your own melody, vocal, and/or words.
then send your completed masterpiece to webmaster Rob Murphree.
please send MP3s or CDs.
entries will be based on creativity,so feel free to add whatever you want.
keep in mind it's not a shredding contest but a creative assignment.
there will be 3 judges including yours truly.
entries must be sent to Rob by December 31.
the winner will be announced on January 10th.
the winner will be awarded an original Adrian painting worth 6 cents!!
and the winning masterpiece will be a free download for all the otherSMARTIEs to ignore...er, enjoy.

Link

Hard to Be an Audiophile in an iPod World

From Anthony Tommasini, New York Times:

In the heyday of the stereophonic recording boom, during the 1960s and later, there were several magazines for serious classical music buffs with reviews of almost every new recording. But what truly defined these publications, like High Fidelity and Stereo Review, were critical reports on stereo equipment. The big advertising bucks came from the makers of hi-fi equipment, and well more than half the pages of such magazines were devoted to coverage of the latest stereo system products.

Naturally, the contention that audiophiles are an endangered species is strongly contested by those in the sound reproduction industry. Go to Stereo Exchange on Broadway in the East Village, generally regarded as a dependable outlet for top-quality sound systems, and talk to Alan C, as he calls himself. He’s nicknamed the Audio Elf by audiophiles who have been turning to him for decades.

“The demand for the best audio equipment has never stopped,” he said when I spoke with him on a recent visit to the store. “Even the death of vinyl is simply not true.” He noted that turntables, with sales of five million a year in the United States, are making a comeback.

Link

Beatles Film Shows Its True Colours

From Vanessa Thorpe, Guardian:

Help! is restored to its Sixties glory - with a little assistance from a red phone box and £700,000

The original, vibrant colours of the 1965 Beatles' film Help! are to be brought to the public eye once again tonight when a revitalised version is screened for the first time. The results of 11 months of work may surprise those who think they can remember what the 1960s looked like. At a cost of £700,000, the company the Beatles founded, Apple Corps, has given Help! an almost eerily fresh and contemporary look.

Hidden details and forgotten visual jokes have emerged from the shadows of a film which is still credited with inventing the music video. A restoration team working in London and California has cleaned 40 years of dirt and scratches from every frame and the colour distortion has been corrected.

The key to unlocking the true tones of the original footage was the British pillar box. Once those who were working on the faded and broken celluloid reels had found scenes including a post box and a traditional red telephone kiosk they were able to use the shade as a template for the level of colour. 'A pillar box doesn't change colour. We all know that. It was bright red then and it is bright red now,' said film restorer Claire Ferguson. 'We knew from looking at this and from looking at the de-graded grey of the policemen's helmets in the film, which should be pure black, that the rest of the colour had to be adjusted to fit.'

The overall effect is a much lighter, more glamorous film.

Link

Ghost Writer: The Unsung Star of British Music

From The Independent:

She's hardly known outside the music industry, yet Amanda Ghost is increasingly seen as Britain's most influential songwriter. Sophie Morris talks to a young Londoner who has penned hits for everyone from James Blunt to Beyoncé.

In the summer of 2005, James Blunt's irritatingly catchy ballad, "You're Beautiful", went stratospheric. It topped the charts in Britain, the US and Canada and became the first song by a British artist ever to climb to the top of the Latin American Top 40. Blunt went on to collect two Ivor Novello awards the following year.

Then word leaked out that the creative hand behind his crooning, forlorn vocals actually belonged to one Amanda Ghost, a British singer-songwriter who was at the start of her own burgeoning performing career when she co-wrote the tune. At the time, she tried to play down her involvement, saying she had just "tweaked a chorus". Now she admits that that was considerable understatement, explaining that she was wary of overshadowing Blunt's well-earned success – and pointing out that there is no shame in having worked with another writer on a song.

Link

Wolfgang's Vault Adds Country Concert Streaming

Just a fantastic service.

From the site:

We have just completed a fairly major overhaul of our site and would like to share with you the thinking behind these changes.

In the two years since we launched the last design of Wolfgang’s Vault, we have added several major components to the company (Concert Vault, Crawdaddy!, Mojam and now Country Music Vault). We forced a few links on different pages to connect these sites, but it got to the point that without some unifying navigation between them we were going to end up with a jumble of sites sitting by themselves. Secondly, we felt that our internal search needed some significant upgrading. You can now search across all of our sites and refine your searches much more easily than in the past.

In addition to the new look, there are two big collections of content that we added with this launch. The first, and most obvious, is the addition of Country Music Vault. We had some great country shows that were getting buried a bit within Concert Vault and we wanted to make sure this music was given its proper due. We have added almost 150 new country shows to the site to bring the number of live country concerts to 200, which will grow weekly. We have also added 100 classic interviews from the mid 70’s through 2001 with a who’s who list of rock legends.

Our hope is that the new design will feel familiar to our longtime visitors while being easy to navigate on your first trip to the Vault. We intend to build on top of this and add more new features in the coming months. Let me add a quick thank you to all the people at Wolfgang’s Vault who put in some long hours to get the design, the code and the content ready to go. Please let us know what you think.

Cheers!

Wolfgang

Link

Independent Artists Sell Music, Videos on iTunes With TuneCore

From the site:

TuneCore Video (currently in Beta) will deliver your music videos to iTunes, where your fans can buy them for download. TuneCore CANNOT currently deliver shorts, TV shows, movies or any other video that is not specifically a MUSIC VIDEO. After your video has been purchased, the money it earned will go into your TuneCore My Account page for you to take any time you want, day or night, by check or PayPal. As always, TuneCore takes NONE of the money from the sales of your music or music videos: you will receive 100% of the money from the sale of your music video. TuneCore Video is non-exclusive, we take none of your rights or masters, and you can cancel at any time. There is no charge if you would like your video removed from iTunes after the first six months.

Here are all the fees you'll ever encounter at TuneCore Video (all fees one-time only):

Digital delivery of a music video to iTunes for more by length:

0 to 5:00 minutes: $85
5:01 to 10:00 minutes: $175
10:01 to 20:00 minutes: $250
20:01 to 30:00 minutes: $350
30:01 to 40:00 minutes: $425

Resubmitting a music video: $50
Requesting a music video be taken down from iTunes within the first six months: $20
Annual maintenance and storage fee, per video: $19.98

Link

Led Zeppelin Launch Official Website

From the site:

Led Zeppelin are pleased to announce the launch of their new Official Website :

http://www.ledzeppelin.com/

Ledzeppelin.com will be the ultimate online destination for all Led Zeppelin fans, old and new. As well as keeping the world up to date on Led Zeppelin’s activities, the site will give fans a chance to explore the band’s history and music within a goldmine of information, photos, official merchandise and audio-visual media.

One key area of the site is the “Timeline” – a searchable concert itinerary of all of Led Zeppelin’s previous tour dates. This is an area for fans to contribute to the site by submitting their own reviews of performances seen through the years as well as sharing info, pictures and so on with the entire Led Zeppelin community.

At the time of launch, there will be approximately 1,400 rare images (performances and memorabilia) in the Photo Gallery.

Among other features are interactive "flipbooks" of over a dozen rare tour programmes, where you can “virtually” browse through each page.

The Discography section also features a huge assortment of rare ads, 45 picture sleeves, promos, and related memorabilia.

Link

Democrats to Reclaim Country Music

From Toby Harnden, Telegraph.co.uk:

Democrats angered at the image of country and western as Right-wing “redneck music” are planning a tour of Middle America during the 2008 election campaign by Nashville artists opposed to the Iraq war.

An alliance called the Music Row Democrats is poised to re-launch itself early next year in an attempt to seize back country music from the Republican camp and spread their message that President George W. Bush’s party does not care about ordinary people.

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Shawn Smith

Cayocosta

Myself and some friends founded an Internet label back in '99 - 818 Music - our initial release was Seattle-based Shawn Smith's (Brad, Satchel, Pigeonhed) first solo album, the critically acclaimed Let It All Begin. Check it out here (recommended tracks: The Train Is Coming and Land Of Gold) along with Shawn's subsequent (excellent) work:

Link

Last.fm Builds Music Application for Ning’s Growing Platform of Social Networks

From Business Wire:

Last.fm, the music discovery and social networking website, announced today the launch of a music application for the 122,000 social networks currently on the Ning’s network. The application is designed to take advantage of the new OpenSocial standard, which is spearheaded by Google and was announced earlier this month.

Ning – a platform for creating social networks – is among the early supporters of the OpenSocial, which is a common programming interface for Web-based social networking applications.

Beginning today, users of the Ning platform will be able to add Last.fm’s music application to their personalized homepage on any of Ning’s network of sites. Music fans will also soon be able to add the Last.fm application directly to a host of social networking sites including MySpace, Bebo, Friendster, among the many other sites participating in OpenSocial.

Last.fm’s music application will enable music fans to create a personalized display of their favorite artists. The application can be customized according to taste, and offers the ability to launch a radio station based on any of the user’s chosen artists. The application marks the first step in Last.fm’s initiative to develop for OpenSocial.

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Jeff Lynne Talks About Livin' Thing

Songza: It's Like Google for Music

From Rafe Needleman, Webware:

Songza is a new music search engine and player. It's got the cleanest interface to a music library that I've ever seen, and it's great fun to use. It is limited, though.

To play music on Songza, you just type in the band or the song name, and a list of results pops up. From the list you can play tunes directly, or queue them to your playlist. You can also share the track, either by e-mail or with HTML code you can embed on your own Web page.

All of Songza's music comes from the YouTube API. Essentially, Songza is just an audio player for the YouTube music category, and when I first saw the site I thought it couldn't be legal. Songza's Scott Robbin assured me that the site sends a lot of traffic back to YouTube, and that clicking on the "buy" link on a track redirects to Google Checkout. This is true, but what Checkout displays and what YouTube plays may not be the same. If you're playing a cover of a track and you click "buy," you're likely not going to see the cover as the first track listed in Checkout.

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Zune Social Lets You Peep On Your Friends' Music Habits

From Jason Chen, Gizmodo:

You saw our complete Zune guide yesterday, but what you didn't see was the Zune Social—which didn't go up until today! The social is pretty much Facebook for music (and only music), and displays the stuff you and people on your list have listened to on their Zune players. It really helps your enjoyment if you've got more than one friend who has the Zune, which is probably the point.

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Is DRM-Free Music Worth It?

From Christopher Breen, Macworld:

Unprotected music tracks—those without digital rights management (DRM)—offer the advantage that you can legally using them without the same restrictions as other tracks. So, for example, you could incorporate them into personal projects such as slide shows and movies made with applications other than Apple’s. (Apple’s iLife suite can use protected iTunes tracks, but programs made by companies such as Adobe, for example, can’t.) But other than their unrestricted use, how do they compare sonically with the protected form? Most DRM-free music is encoded at a high bit rate and is therefore less compressed than standard digital music files. But will you be able to tell the difference between the protected and unprotected version (much less, those versions and one ripped directly from a CD in an uncompressed format)?

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Dionne Warwick - Alfie '67

Please, give this woman (and this song, and its writers Bacharach and David, and the long lost American ideal captured here) three minutes of your life.

Slade Alive

Alright, so it's dubbed, whatever; there ain't no software you can put a voice through to make it sound like this.