Reuters UK reported last Wednesday that Swiss and Belgian police shut down part of the eDonkey file-sharing network, a move which elicited a great deal of praise from Hollywood. The network, which makes movies and music available for free downloading,…
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Breaking news: we ARE sheep
Science confirms what we musicians know in our hearts, even if we don’t want to believe it: the social influence of peers affects your taste in music. Researchers at Columbia University observed that listeners who could see what music their…
Amazon and Google in talks to break iTunes’ grip on music downloads
Apple’s iTunes service, which currently has a 70-80 percent share of legal digital music sales, might not be in the lead for long. Separately, Amazon and Google are talking with industry executives to come up with alternate downloading services that…
For $13,000, a shotgun-guitar can be yours
After a Bogota, Colombia, bombing three years ago that killed 36 people and injured more than 100, Colombian musician Cesar Lopez conceived the idea of this shotgun-guitar to protest violence. Lopez has handmade five shotgun-guitars so far, and the Colombian…
Getting press attention
An interesting article that came across my radar this weekend: How to Get (and Not Get) the Attention of a Music Journalist. Some artists seem to get obsessed with getting press — any press, in any publication. While seeing your…
A genre of hatecore music? (Unfortunately, not a typo.)
Technically, it could fall under the category of “freedom of expression,â€?? but music whose sole purpose is to attract their fans to hate groups? “Uprise 2006,â€?? a concert bringing people together to support the superiority of the white race, was…
New rock memoir hits shelves this week
Back in the mid-90s, Boston singer-songwriter Jen Trynin was the subject of a major label bidding war. A few years and two unsuccessful albums later, Trynin left the major label game, went back to school and into hiding for awhile.…
Independent labels just a bit more Independent than before
With technology’s turn toward making everything digital, there are many laws and regulations that all labels have to follow. But one organization – VUT, the German association for Independent Labels – has recently launched a campaign to “ Respect the…
Oh baby! CD Baby at a store near you…
From now on, you’ll be able to buy CD Baby albums through BestBuy.com or in the store itself. For those of you unfamiliar with CD Baby, it’s an online record store based out of Oregon that sells CDs by independent…
Indie retailer announces March 31 closing
A Houston Chronicle article on Saturday, February 4, 2006, announced that Cactus Music & Video, a large Indie music retailer run by brothers Bud and Don Daily for the last 31 years, will close for good on March 31. With…
If She Wants 2 B Gone…
she can keep rejecting the people who brought her into the limelight. (I’ll let her keep the credit for her Grammy nominations.) With the 5th season of American Idol under way, Kelly Clarkson, the winner of the first season, has…
Indie label growing pains
It’s not often that I see a blog post that draws public responses from the brass at hot indie labels like Merge and Secretly Canadian. Patrick Monaghan of Carrot Top Distribution was dismayed to discover CDs from Merge and SC…