After four decades, Black Sabbath tops U.S. album chart

Original members of the rock band Black Sabbath, Bill Ward (L), Ozzy Osborne (2nd L), Geezer Butler and Tony Lommi (R), announce their reunion during a news conference at the Whiskey A Go Go, the club where the band first performed 41 years ago, in Los Angeles, California November 11, 2011.

Credit: Reuters/David McNew

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES | Wed Jun 19, 2013 3:23pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Veteran heavy-metal band Black Sabbath landed its first No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, more than four decades after the rockers debuted their first album in the United States.

"13," the 19th studio album from Black Sabbath, sold 155,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan, knocking last week's No. 1 album by Queens of the Stone Age off the top spot on the weekly U.S. album chart.

Black Sabbath, an English rock band fronted by lead singer Ozzy Osbourne, released their debut self-titled album in North America in 1970, but were never able to notch the top spot on the Billboard 200 album chart in a career spanning 43 years.

"The news is absolutely amazing - we couldn't have imagined this would happen," guitarist and founding member Tony Iommi said in a statement. Osbourne added, "to finally have our first No. 1 album in the U.S. is another incredible milestone for Black Sabbath."

French electronic duo Daft Punk held steady for the second week at No. 2 with "Random Access Memories," which has sold 543,000 copies since its release on May 18.

Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience" saw a surge in sales last week after the album was discounted for Father's Day, with 35,000 copies sold and climbing from No. 9 to No. 3.

Country band Florida Georgia Line also benefited from Father's Day promotion sale prices, as their album "Here's to the Good Times" climbing back into the top 10 at No. 5.

Black Sabbath was one of five new debut albums in the top ten this week.

Boy band Big Time Rush came in at No. 4 with "24/Seven," alternative-rockers Goo Goo Dolls landed at No. 8 with their latest record "Magnetic," and movie score maestro Hans Zimmer's soundtrack for Superman movie "Man of Steel" flew into No. 9.

Comedy trio The Lonely Island, fronted by former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Andy Samberg, rounded out the top 10 with their latest collection of parodies, "The Wack Album."

Overall album sales totaled 5.25 million for the week ending June 16, down 10 percent from the comparable sales week in 2012, according to Billboard.

Next week's chart is likely to see a high debut from rapper Kanye West, who released his latest record "Yeezus" this week and is currently at the top of the iTunes album chart.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and Jackie Frank)

View the original article here

Rolling Stones release back catalogue on iTunes

Mick Jagger (2nd L) performs with Ronnie Wood (rear L-R), Keith Richards and Charlie Watts of the Rolling Stones at a concert during the band's ''50 and Counting'' tour in Chicago May 28, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/John Gress

LONDON | Wed Jun 19, 2013 12:39pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - The Rolling Stones released a career-spanning digitally re-mastered back catalogue on Apple Inc's iTunes Store on Wednesday as part of their 50th anniversary celebrations.

The new iTunes release chronicles the British group's entire oeuvre, from their introductory 1963 cover of Chuck Berry's "Come On" to last year's Greatest Hits collection "GRRR!", their record label Universal Music said on Wednesday.

The Rolling Stones - Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Ronnie Wood and Charlie Watts - emerged alongside the Beatles in the early 1960s.

They became one of the most successful groups in rock and roll history with hits such as "(I Can't Get No) Satisfaction", "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and "Sympathy for the Devil".

The new releases have been re-mastered exclusively for iTunes and will feature all the band's classic studio albums as well as live albums and compilations.

In addition, the complete catalogue is available in two parts on iTunes, spanning the periods 1963-1971 and 1971-2013.

The Stones kicked off their biggest tour in six years in Los Angeles last month after a sell-out mini-tour of Europe and the United States last year.

The veteran rockers are also set to headline Britain's biggest musical festival, Glastonbury, for the first time on June 29, and perform in London's Hyde Park for the first time since a tribute concert to founder member and guitarist Brian Jones 44 years ago, two days after his death.

"It seems like yesterday," Richards told the BBC in April. "It's going to be a great summer, man ... All the gigs we haven't done or wanted to redo are popping up."

They last went on the road for their "A Bigger Bang" tour from 2005 to 2007, playing 144 shows around the world and grossing more than $550 million, one of the world's most lucrative rock tours.

The Stones have sold more than 200 million albums worldwide and toured 40 times, mostly across Europe and North America in the 1960s and 1970s.

Live performances have emerged as the major money earner in the music business as record sales go digital, with growing numbers of veteran acts returning to the stage and attracting well-heeled, ageing fans willing to pay high ticket prices.

(Reporting by Paul Casciato; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

View the original article here

Jay Z's million-album Samsung sale unlikely to count for charts

Rapper Shawn ''Jay-Z'' Carter attends 'The Great Gatsby' world premiere at Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York May 1, 2013

Credit: Reuters/Andrew Kelly

By Eric Kelsey

LOS ANGELES | Mon Jun 17, 2013 7:01pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rapper Jay Z's upcoming studio album will go to a million users of Samsung smartphones three days before its official release in a promotional deal, but the distribution is unlikely to count toward official sales figures, an industry expert said on Monday.

Jay Z, 43, announced on Sunday in a three-minute television commercial during the telecast of basketball's NBA Finals that his latest album "Magna Carter Holy Grail" will be released on July 4 exclusively to 1 million users of Samsung smartphones who had downloaded a special app. That is three days before its public release.

On Monday, the rapper said the record was "platinum," posting on Twitter, "If 1 Million records gets SOLD and billboard (magazine) doesn't report it, did it happen? Ha...Platinum!!!"

For official counting purposes the answer is "no," said David Bakula, an analyst for Nielsen Entertainment, whose Nielsen SoundScan figures are used to rank Billboard's weekly music chart.

Although the rapper's latest album is expected top the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart in its first week, bulk sales that are given away are not counted in total sales, according to Billboard's policy, even if the rapper and his record label are paid for the records.

"The bottom line is they're getting paid on a million albums," Bakula told Reuters. "From what Billboard considers chart-eligible, we don't count free-to-consumers (albums)."

In the commercial for "Magna Carter Holy Grail," Jay Z is seen in a recording studio discussing the new album, release date and the deal with South Korea's Samsung Electronics Co Ltd.

The decision to distribute the album to Samsung users three days before the record becomes available to the general public on July 7 may come as a blow to Samsung's chief smartphone rival, Apple Inc, makers of iPhones and music distribution service iTunes.

This is the first solo album since 2009's "The Blueprint 3" for Jay Z, whose real name is Shawn Carter.

The rapper last collaborated with rapper Kanye West on the 2011 album "Watch the Throne," which topped album charts and was accompanied by a sold-out world tour.

Jay Z will begin a "Legends of Summer" North American stadium tour with pop singer Justin Timberlake on July 17, after featuring on Timberlake's hit song "Suit & Tie."

Samsung holds the largest global market share among smartphone makers with 32.7 percent. Apple is in second with 17.3 percent. Samsung shipped 70.7 million phones in the first quarter this year.

"Magna Carta Holy Grail" will be released by Universal Music Group's Roc-A-Fella Records. Universal is owned by France's Vivendi SA.

(Reporting by Eric Kelsey; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)

View the original article here

Palestinians step up campaign for Gaza "Arab Idol" star

A banner depicting Mohammed Assaf, a contestant in the TV talent show 'Arab Idol', hangs from poles in the West Bank city of Ramallah May 13, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Mohamad Torokman

By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA | Thu Jun 20, 2013 6:39am EDT

GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian fans and big business are rallying behind a 22-year-old singer from the Gaza Strip in a final push to vote him the next "Arab Idol" in a TV talent contest choosing a winner in Beirut on Saturday.

Mohammed Assaf is the first Palestinian to qualify for "Arab Idol", the Middle East's version of "American Idol", in which contestants perform for judges and voting viewers.

His potent mix of good looks and emotional lyrics about ancestral Palestinian lands have helped to turn the young man from Gaza's Khan Younis refugee camp into a star and symbol of unity for Palestinians plagued by deep internal divisions.

Voting in the pan-Arab competition is done through text messages. To encourage support for Assaf, one of three finalists, two Palestinian cellular telephone companies have cut their rates for ballots cast for him.

The Bank of Palestine is throwing money into the campaign, promising to match up to 350,000 texted votes - each one costs 1.50 shekels ($.40) - for Assaf. It has placed billboards with his picture at major intersections in Gaza and the West Bank.

"Vote and the Bank of Palestine votes with you," says a radio and television commercial broadcast in the Palestinian territories, where Assaf's songs blare constantly from vehicles.

President Mahmoud Abbas has spoken to Assaf by phone and instructed Palestinian embassies abroad to urge expatriates to vote for him, calling the singer "the pride of the Palestinian and Arab nation".

Abbas's main Palestinian rival, the Islamist group Hamas that rules Gaza, frowns on non-Islamic songs and the kind of Western-style glitz on full display in TV talent shows.

But Hamas has tacitly endorsed Assaf, who has performed with a traditional black-and-white Palestinian scarf around his shoulders, saying he is free to sing in the Gaza Strip and noting that he comes from a respected family.

Egyptian Ahmed Jamal and a Syrian woman, Farah Youssef, are also finalists in the contest broadcast by the Saudi-owned MBC Group.

To keep the votes for Assaf coming, the Palestinian cellular operator Jawwal is offering cash prizes of up to $10,000 for customers who text in the highest number of ballots.

Some cafes in the West Bank city of Ramallah are offering to text a vote for every cup of coffee that customers order.

"By voting for Assaf, we are voting for Palestine, for us," read a typical entry on his Facebook fan pages.

Huge celebrations are likely on the streets of the West Bank and Gaza if he wins.

(Editing by Jeffrey Heller/Mark Heinrich)

View the original article here

Legendary country singer Slim Whitman dead at 90

By Patricia Reaney and Tim Ghianni

NEW YORK/NASHVILLE | Wed Jun 19, 2013 2:42pm EDT

NEW YORK/NASHVILLE (Reuters) - Legendary country singer and songwriter Slim Whitman, known for his smooth falsetto and high-pitched yodeling talent, died in Florida on Wednesday at the age of 90, his son-in-law said.

Roy Beagle, who is married to Whitman's daughter Sharon, said the singer-songwriter who was born Ottis Dewey Whitman Jr. was admitted to hospital on Tuesday.

"He died last night at the Orange Park hospital at about 12:45 this morning of heart failure," Beagle told Reuters. "We had a 90th birthday party for him in January and he looked good, but he had been in failing health since then."

Whitman, who was self-taught on the guitar and had a string of hits including "Rose Marie," "Indian Love Call" and "Secret Love," recorded dozens of albums and sold millions of records during his career, which began in the late 1940s.

Whitman was working in a shipyard in Florida when he was discovered by Colonel Tom Parker, who later became Elvis Presley's manager. He signed his first recording contract with RCA records in 1948.

The singer and Elvis toured together in the 1950s.

Whitman released "Love Song of the Waterfall" in the early 1950s, which more than two decades later was on the soundtrack of the film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".

It was followed by "Indian Love Call," his first million seller. A few years later, in 1955, he joined the Grand Ole Opry.

His other hits include "Danny Boy," "Red River Valley" and "Have I Told You Lately That I Love You."

INTERNATIONAL FAME

Although Whitman was once known as "America's Favorite Folksinger," he was more popular in Europe than in the United States, particularly in Britain where he did many tours.

"I have sold 120 million records," Whitman said in an interview last year. "Half of those could be in Europe."

On his birthday last year the singer said he received a greeting from Africa.

"We toured everywhere, Australia, New Zealand. I had a six-week tour of Africa," he added. "All that started with England."

His long-time friend, Grand Ole Opry star George Hamilton IV, credits Whitman for the rise of country music internationally.

"He was the key, pivotal figure in spreading country music internationally, long before the rest of us," Hamilton said in an interview after learning of Whitman's death.

"He was just a wonderful, gracious Southern gentleman and a dear friend. We toured together several times over there and our paths continued crossing at the Wembley Festival," he said, referring to the International Festival of Country Music at Wembley Arena.

Hamilton said he regretted that Whitman had not been inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Whitman gained new fans in the late 1970s and 1980s when a TV album featuring 20 of his songs was released and for his late-night commercials featuring his yodeling vocals. The commercials inspired the late talk show host Johnny Carson to style one of his "Tonight Show" sketch characters after Whitman.

In 1996 Whitman was featured in the soundtrack for the science fiction film "Mars Attacks," and more than a decade later in 2010 released his last album, "Twilight on the Trail."

Despite his international fame, Beagle said Whitman was the happiest living a low-key life in Florida.

"He really enjoyed the farm and fishing more than anything else," he said.

In addition to his daughter, Sharon, Whitman is survived by his son, Byron, two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

(Editing by Cynthia Johnston; and Jackie Frank)

View the original article here

Justin Bieber hits photographer in Los Angeles car scrape

Singer Justin Bieber (C) arrives late for the premiere of the film ''After Earth'' in New York May 29, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Carlo Allegri

LOS ANGELES | Tue Jun 18, 2013 1:17pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Teen pop star Justin Bieber struck a photographer with his Ferrari sports car while driving away from a comedy club in Los Angeles on Monday night, but the accident was not considered a hit-and-run, police said.

Video taken outside the Laugh Factory comedy club showed Bieber behind the wheel of his white Ferrari, surrounded by photographers as he was pulling away.

Celebrity website TMZ said Bieber motioned the photographers to clear out of the way but apparently pinned one between his Ferrari and a parked car as he pulled out. He then drove away.

"It was not a hit-and-run," Los Angeles Police Department spokesman Bruce Borihanh said on Tuesday. "The investigation is ongoing."

He said the photographer's injuries were not life-threatening.

A representative for Bieber declined to comment.

Bieber is under investigation in a separate driving incident in May after his neighbors complained that he had been speeding through his gated Los Angeles-area community.

The Canadian singer has been the subject of a series of headline-grabbing incidents over the past year. German authorities seized a capuchin monkey Bieber had kept as a pet after he was unable to provide proper documentation for the animal at Munich airport. And in London, the singer scuffled with a photographer outside a hotel during a European tour.

(Reporting by Ian Simpson and Eric Kelsey; Editing by Scott Malone and Grant McCool)

View the original article here

Check Out Spotify's Swanky New San Francisco Digs...

If streaming is the future, then Spotify is the company spending hundreds of millions to own that future.  At present, Spotify has at least 18 different offices sprinkled throughout the globe, which doesn't include this swanky spot in San Francisco.     

The company just signed a lease for three entire floors above the historic Warfield Theatre, for a total of 35,000 square feet.  "Spotify is innovating how we listen to music, and I am thrilled to welcome them as the 11th technology company to choose a central Market location," San Francisco mayor Ed Lee stated.

The location moves the Spotify San Francisco team from a smaller, South of Market (SoMA) spot.  The Warfield obviously fits, though part of the motivation for Spotify was a payroll tax benefit specific to the area.  And, talk about perks: the 988 Market Street spot is easily accessible by multiple forms of transportation, and the Warfield awaits every employee and executive at night.

Meanwhile, Spotify is hiring like crazy, though most of the US-based positions are for New York.  Earlier, Spotify was rumored to be closing on a pricey penthouse office on Sixth Avenue, though the company remains at 76 Ninth Ave for the time being.

Top two images snapped by BWChicago; Warhols image by Jeff Marquis.  All licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.

View the original article here

Experts Agree: The DMCA Takedown System Is a Joke, and Must be Scrapped...

In the past couple of days, the DMCA takedown system has come under attack both from the RIAA and anti-copyright campaigner Derek Khanna. No doubt this has been brought on by the Congressional review of the DMCA that is getting underway.   

Which means, both sides - tech and content - have big problems with this 'system'. The RIAA's EVP of anti-piracy initiatives, Brad Buckles, claims the fact that the organisation has now sent its 20 millionth copyright takedown to Google proves that the system is not fit for purpose.  Meanwhile, Khanna claims the DMCA "restricts entire classes of technology and hampers innovative products and services from being offered to the public."    

The headline for Khanna's Washington Post blog was: "Let artists, innovators and the public define our copyright system."  I"m a member of all three categories (I'd argue that all music creators are, indeed, innovators), so I'd like to offer my services by explaining exactly why this law is broken:

It simply gives those who don't want to bother getting a license for the content they use to build their lucrative businesses a veil to hide behind.

Considering that the RIAA is a US-based organisation that simply deals with major label recordings, clearly the total of takedown notices filed is much bigger than 20 million – and for independent music creators, such as myself, the DMCA is a complete joke.

I once spent a week, several hours a day, trying to get just one song taken down from Grooveshark, before I gave up (you can read about my experience here).  The links seemed to multiply the more I tried.

There were examples of at least ten other songs of mine on the site but, as I prefer to spend my time actually making music to spending hours copying and pasting long lists of URLs into endless emails for several hours a day, I couldn't be asked to tackle those – especially after seeing how little effect it had.

It's also worth considering that the DMCA is a US act – it's not some sort of universal act that applies globally – and I'm based, and was accessing Grooveshark, from the UK.

Of course Grooveshark is only one of thousands of sites hiding behind the DMCA. When I told a representative for the EU Commission about my experience, a few months later, he concluded, "So what you need is a legal framework where musicians, such as yourself, can defend their rights without going broke." 

My music is available on numerous legal sites, both for downloading and streaming – sometimes even for free – and if Spotify is able to ensure that all the music it offers is paid for through structured licenses, why shouldn’t sites such as Grooveshark be, as well?

View the original article here

Why Digital Music News 'Playa Hates' On Pandora...

If you don't have a problem with Tim Westergren making a million dollars a month while emailing artists to support his crusade to lower royalties, then maybe you need to look at the situation differently.  This isn't 'playa hating,' rather, it's questioning why the playing field is so uneven and distorted to begin with.   

Indeed, Westegren 'started at the bottom' and now he's here: Pandora has the most listeners and listening hours of anyone online, and accounts for nearly 8 percent of all radio listening in the United States.  Those are very significant accomplishments, and to hear Westergren tell the story of when he was at 'the bottom' is inspirational.  But it's now becoming obvious that Pandora's numbers - by design - are coming at the expense of not only profits, but artist welfare as well.  

Big numbers are mainly interesting to Wall Street, investors, and few top Pandora executives who are becoming obscenely wealthy. It makes it difficult for Apple to push Pandora off the deck; it squeezes out up-and-coming competitors like Slacker and iHeartRadio.  But this all seems to be creating a perverse disincentive against actually make money and creating a viable business, unless it involves markedly slashing artist royalty rates.

There are other ways to do this.  Since the beginning, Pandora has always argued that royalty rates are the problem, not an inherently flawed business model.  But a series of events over the past week are now substantially challenging that assumption, and potentially changing the discourse on Capitol Hill.  Because it may not be that Pandora can't solve their monetary problems on their own, but rather that they don't want to.

There's now mounting evidence of this.  It all started when Pandora, for reasons related to royalty expenses, resumed listening caps for power users.  But instead of ditching 'Netflix style,' a very substantial percentage of listeners actually stuck around.  It looked like this.

Now, there's more research confirming that forcing listeners to pay generates significant revenue.  In fact, that simple cap put Pandora at the top of this app revenue ranking (excluding games).

So, more revenues means a better model, which means less need to lower royalties, right?  Not exactly: in a recent financial call, Pandora CEO Joe Kennedy indicated that 'Pandora One' premium tiers would be used sparingly, as a mere addition to the mainline, free service. 

All of which makes it really hard not to be cynical here, especially as executives like Tim Westergren continue to curry favor with confused artists.  Because maybe a viable, workable model involves smaller listener levels but elevated revenues, while maintaining artist royalty rates.  But that's not a version that Pandora likes, or wants you to believe is possible.  

And that's why they're getting hated on.

View the original article here

Roughly 60 Percent of All Daft Punk Album Sales Came from iTunes...

It was streaming on iTunes before it was streaming on Spotify.  And part of the reason is that iTunes was collecting paid album download pre-orders, and selling a ton of them.

According to stats now being shared with Digital Music News, iTunes accounted for roughly 60 percent of all first-week sales of Daft Punk's latest, Random Access Memories.  Overall, first-week sales topped 337,000 units in the US alone, according to stats published by Nielsen Soundscan.

But that's just the top level.  Subsequent information from label executives tied to the project reveal that overall album downloads topped 221,000 units.  That's an aggregated figure that also includes Amazon MP3 and the Daft Punk site, though one executive assured us that iTunes 'easily' pulled more than 90 percent of those sales.

Surprisingly, CDs accounted for nearly 100,000 of the sales, with vinyl a modest 5-6 percent, according to the top-level data shared.

Apple doesn't disclose exact sales data, but does share the information back with labels.  According to a report issued several months ago by NPD Group, iTunes now accounts for 63 percent of all digital music downloads.

So what's next?  Daft Punk broke streaming records on Spotify, but that only pays so much.  The broader question is whether other artists will now follow Daft Punk's lead with pre-release, streaming exclusives on iTunes (with pre-orders prominently placed).  And, greater windowing on streaming services to maximize first-week sales.    

View the original article here

Right Now: TuneIn Radio, Spotify Discovery, Parting SF Shots, Dupri, Lowery vs. Zisk, Samsung, Zik, Deezer+MINI...

And the latest mega-funding round belongs to TuneIn Radio, which just grabbed a $25 million injection. The round was led by Institutional Venture Partners (IVP), with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Google Ventures, and General Catalyst Partners.  TuneIn, no stranger to large financing levels, pointed to an expansion in technology and advertising revenue for broadcast partners.   

The industry obsesses about discovery, then obsesses about obsessing about discovery.  And that's all before 9 am... but do average music fans really care that much?  Enter Spotify, which is now spreading its 'Discovery' concept towards its web-based player.  Which means, all users will get a splash of new recommendations on the daily, plus all sorts of fresh catches from Pitchfork, Songkick, and Tunigo.  

Back in San Francisco, the techy funtime is now over at SF Musictech Summit, with a few lingering questions n' drama.  The event grabbed a number of interesting artist celebrities, including Jermaine Dupri, Jack Conte from Pomplamoose (and now, Patreon), not to mention Ben Folds and others.  

But one artist definitely not in attendance was David Lowery, thanks to what appears to be a complete relationship meltdown with Summit founder Brian Zisk.  Lowery suddenly has major concerns about this event, particularly giant sponsors like Google who he says are shutting him out.  Zisk notes that nothing of the sort is happening, and has even suggested a third-party review of the email storm between the two; anyway, that rabbit hole is over here.  

Meanwhile, Dupri was busy showing off his artist connectivity platform, while discussing all sorts of ideas related to artists and technology (mainly, 'embrace it').  This is an opinionated, educated, and centered producer with immense savvy and experience, not to mention musical prowess.  All of which raised a critical question among attendees: can artists afford to only focus on their art, to the exclusion of technology (and commerce)?  Or, does 'art' now have to thoroughly involve all aspects of creativity and delivery?

Back on the tech/business side, others were wondering why more than a dozen Samsung executives and employees apparently at this not-so-giant SF Musictech shindig, anyway.  Back in South Korea, one dialed-in executive shared tails of a severe hangover following the $50+ million purchase of mSpot, though maybe there's a serious tech jab in the works...

And, what about Jamendo?  This is a company that gets scant love stateside, but has been quietly building a Creative Commons-based, Long Tail-oriented service for nearly a decade.  And this company's showing healthy profits, with seven figure revenues nearly doubling year-over-year, according to Paris-based business development director Dan Aufhauser.  The Jamendo model's pretty darn simple: artists jump aboard, Jamendo seeks premium licenses in areas like film synchronization, then everyone shares the pot!

Which brings us to another French export, Parrot's Zik headphones.  Please, bury those earbuds: the Zik is not only Bluetooth-enabled (and it works), but it allows the user to change volume by swiping the side (yeah, like the iPad).  Take them off, and playback stops, with smart noise cancellation that responds to external noise levels.  Carla Bruni-Sarkozy is among the celeb-happy users across the pond, but let's see how they survive the DMN testing camp: much, much more ahead on these $400+ monsters...

Which brings us to yet another French export, Deezer.  On the heels of announcing its four-millionth subscriber, Deezer has just integrated its offering into MINI dashboards.  Which means svelte steering wheel, entertainment system, and mini-joystick control of over 25 million songs.  And they say texting-while-driving is unsafe...

More ahead...

View the original article here

We Asked Twitter #Music: What the F*%k Happened?

Why did Twitter #Music die after just one week?  Immediately after launch, Digital Music News questioned whether it made sense to demand payment for full streams, something that the stats sadly supported. 

But here's what Stephen Phillips, a top executive at Twitter #Music, told Digital Music News during a question-and-answer session at SF Musictech Summit on Tuesday.  Phillips founded We Are Hunted, acquired by Twitter to power the music play.

Digital Music News (Paul Resnikoff): I'm really wondering what happened in terms of Twitter #Music's profile.  It launched and there was so much hype around it, and it was the number one ranked app and it was blowing up.  

Then a week later, it was falling so quickly; it seems like this is becoming endemic to this space.  

So what happens next?

Phillips: I just think it's early days, that we can't call it a failure, and I can't call it a success.  It's still just the beginning, and it's going to be a long path for us to build upon.  And it's just so important - music is just so important to Twitter that it's not something they're going to walk away from.  

Obviously from the numbers they're one of the biggest music apps around already, and I've got a dedicated team that's been building music apps for ages, and we plan to move pretty quickly.

Audience Member: Hi there, I've used We Are Hunted for years for music, loved it —

Phillips: So did I, it was really good [audience laughter]

Audience Member: — but uh, just curious, what story are you going to tell to convince people to pay for music?  Because personally, there are so many ways to not pay for music, that I just want to know, how are you going to convince me to pay for music —

Phillips: I don't know, how am I going to convince you to pay for music?  Twitter's going to convince you to pay for music?

Audience Member: If you're — if you're successful...

Phillips: Yeah, we're kind of hoping our partners will solve that one [audience laughter]. That they'll be the ones who convince people to buy their products. 

We're going to help if we can.  It was really cool to bring Rdio and Spotify to the table, we met them three weeks from launch and said, 'I think it would be really cool if you joined into this.'  

And we said, 'how can we make this easier to get people to use these services?'  But I'm not sure we're going to be the ones to sell that.  It's not going to be wont of letting people have opportunities to buy music they want. 

View the original article here

Grooveshark Issues a DMCA Takedown Notice Against Infringing Programmers...

When it comes to DMCA takedowns, Grooveshark is generally a company that likes to receive. But now, it turns out they also give on occasion.    

Grooveshark (through parent Escape Media Group) appears to have sent this DMCA takedown notice to developers using their source code illegally.  Grooveshark didn't respond to the email listed on this takedown notice, which was posted on github (an inquiry was also sent to Grooveshark CEO Sam Tarantino.)

And, this would be the familiar result.

View the original article here

Breaking: Multiple Urban Commuters Found Listening to White Earbuds...

Dude I don't know if you've actually used the newer apple headphones, but they are really good headphones for $30. Sure, if I wanted to blow over $100 there are lots of good options. But i keep these in a pocket, they get beat up, and they get lost left behind too often to buy expensive ones. Furthermore, unless you like overly-bass filled music, they are extremely detailed. Maybe its the MP3 files you are listening to that sound like crap, they all do... don't blame the headphones. And FYI I own a really expensive high end home stereo and find that once you are ruining music via mp3, it doesn't help to use some brand of headphones that accentuates the bass further, making the music even worse and more poorly balanced than it was originally...

Reply

View the original article here

7 Reasons Why Artists Should Skip a BitTorrent 'Media Partnership'

Lately, BitTorrent, Inc. has made a concerted effort to appear "legit", courting both artists and their managers.  It's even managed to become a "tech partner" of the UK Music Managers Forum.  But is partnering with BitTorrent – and its uTorrent client – really a good idea for artists?       

Here are seven reasons that should make them think twice: 

If they use outside songwriters, producers – or the funding of a record label – they need the permission of those people to do it.

 "How Artists Who Support "Piracy" Can Avoid Looking Like Hypocrites"

BitTorrent Inc has launched "BitTorrent Bundles". This involves users being able to download a torrent with a few freebies – but what makes it "advantageous" for artists, according to BitTorrent, is that if they hand over their email addresses they get access to more stuff.  

Getting people to give up their email addresses is never easy, but we suspect people who use BitTorrent are even less likely to want to do so, as anonymity is one of the perks they value.  But even if they, by any luck, agreed to give it up, email bombing has proved to be a pretty inefficient way of promoting a band that people aren’t already fans of.

According to TorrentFreak, the premium torrents appear to be just regular torrent files. There's no DRM or other technical restrictions involved that could prevent users from "sharing" the premium content as they wish, across the internet.  Even the company itself says it simply "expects people to do the right thing".  

However, it’s worth pondering why people who want to "do the right thing" would be using a "service" where over 99% of the content is thought to be infringing. 

BitTorrent’s clients, such as uTorrent is not as efficient as most legal ways of downloading, hence why even experienced BitTorrent users don’t bother with uTorrent unless they want to use it for infringement. Its clunkiness is perhaps also why major licensed music download sites, such as iTunes and Amazon don’t rely on it. 

P2P file-sharing systems are inefficient means of disseminating any form of content that has not already been made extremely popular by other means.  A Limewire developer put it this way, when speaking about BitTorrent and LimeWire: "Here's modern P2P's dirty little secret: It's actually horrible at rare stuff.”

That's why the popular content on BitTorrent is mainly top 40 stuff.

All musicians have heard the slogan "it's promotional" more times than they can count, from people wanting to take advantage of them – and BitTorrent is no exception.  But apart from the attention the acts using it get from numerous tech sites announcing it as an "innovative" way to promote artists, there's little proof that it has lead to success they would otherwise not have seen.  There are even rumours that users are "tricked" into clicking the software that includes music by acts such as Pretty Lights and Counting Crows in order for it to count as a "download" for those artists. 

BitTorrent is used almost exclusively for piracy – matter of fact, only 0.3% of files on it could be confirmed to be legal.  Artists who choose to adopt BitTorrent as their "media partner" would, in effect, be trying to exploit for their own gain the mass piracy of the works of other creators.  It's a moral dilemma some artists may find difficult. 

It can be argued that having your music on services such as Pandora and Spotify is much more useful as a discovery tool. While torrents rely on users to search for the music they want, Pandora's famous algorithm will suggest acts that are similar to those you already like – and Spotify is constantly evolving its discovery tools, including playlists by "trusted filters".  

Image by Craig McInnis, licensed under Creative Commons 2.0.  

View the original article here

Right Now: SF Musictech en Fuego, Daft Punk Week One, Getting 'Resnikoff'd', The Facebook 'Beatquake Map,' LiveDMA, Treasure Island, Mmmhops...

And another SF Musictech Summit torched the Kabuki!  The Kabuki Hotel in Japantown, that is, where the likes of Stephen Phillips (We Are Hunted/Twitter), Larry Marcus (Walden), Phillip Kaplan (Fandalism), Jack Conte (Pomplamoose/Patreon), Ted Cohen (TAG), Tony Riggins (Ustream), Zoe Keating (avant-garding cellist/provocateur), and J Sider (BandPage) were dancing around.  Plenty of meetings to be had, and one incredible pair of Parrot Ziks to talk about later.  

So there's now immense buzz on the business side for Daft Punk, whose early numbers are looking pretty damn decent.  Billboard is pegging first-week sales at 339,000 for Random Access Memories, which means a number one release in the US.  That follows a very, very important streaming exclusive for iTunes, but let's see how many of those album sales came from iTunes.  Much crunching ahead.

Back at Musictech, some attendees at the conference were complaining about 'Getting Resnikoff'd,' a phrase that entered the industry lexicon a few years back.  But 'Getting Resnikoff'd' now seems to have multiple definitions, including blindsiding, unquestionably non-cheerleading coverage on Digital Music News that sparks gigantic debate, or exposes stuff no one likes to say out loud.  Others would have less cordial descriptions of the phrase...  

Maybe this will solve that teenage attrition problem.  Over to Facebook, which unveiled this pretty-looking '3D Map' to track artist activity at SF Musictech Summit during the opening keynote.  No but really, Facebook is actually useful to artists and labels in some ways...

And, the lineup for Treasure Island 2013 has just been announced.

Which brings us to a very interesting, and extremely disruptive, live space ahead.  At a top level, mega-concert magnates like Live Nation may be grappling with softer entry fees and moves towards EDM'ing festivals, but deeper shifts are also happening in the way fans consume and engage live music (before, during, and after the actual gig).  Enter a number of incredibly interesting companies solving complex issues around this, including StageIt, iRocke, Lively, and Bulldog Media, not to mention the freshly-formed Live Digital Music Association (LiveDMA)...

Others were bandying about SF Musictech, including Ustream's Tony Riggins and one Google Glass-wearing David Carrico of EvntLive.  Other names in the space getting kicked around included Venice Beach-based Vyclone and Dublin-based 45 Sound... anyway, this is a crowded space! 

Because it's not illegal now: So, remember Hanson?  They're still alive.  Not only that, they just came out with a new beer, call Mmmhops.

More ahead! 

View the original article here

John Fogerty enlists friends to rework past hits on new album

Singer John Fogerty poses in the backroom after performing at the 11th season finale of ''American Idol'' in Los Angeles, California, May 23, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Jason Redmond

By Iain Blair

LOS ANGELES | Tue May 28, 2013 8:04pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The new John Fogerty album features the former Creedence Clearwater Revival singer teaming up with top names in country and rock music, along with some R&B flavor, for a fresh take on his most popular songs.

Fogerty, who was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame with his Creedence band mates in 1993, told Reuters his wife came up with the collaborative concept behind "Wrote a Song for Everyone," which was released Tuesday on Fogerty's 68th birthday.

"She suggested getting all my favorite artists to do various songs, and it seemed like a great idea - to do fresh arrangements and interpretations of them," Fogerty said.

The 14-track album, Fogerty's ninth solo studio album and first since 2009's "The Blue Ridge Rangers Rides Again," revamps some of his biggest hits from both Creedence Clearwater Revival and his solo work, along with some new tracks.

The album includes collaborations with rockers Foo Fighters, country singers Keith Urban, Miranda Lambert and Brad Paisley and R&B singer Jennifer Hudson, who was accompanied by blues musician Allen Toussaint on one of Fogerty's best known hits, 1969's "Proud Mary."

"Wrote a Song for Everyone" took Fogerty, who also served as producer, two years to complete, and he compared the logistics to lining up so many guests to a "military-style operation."

"It's remarkably hard to get 14 different artists organized, as they're all busy with their own careers, touring and recording," Fogerty said. "Everyone wanted to do it but I had no idea it'd be so difficult."

The hardest artist to pin down was country singer Alan Jackson, who ended up on the 1971 track "Have You Ever Seen the Rain?"

'THE MUSIC STILL SOUNDS GOOD'

"I was very happily surprised when he said yes," Fogerty said. "Some of the artists who I know, like Bob Seger, I could just call up and get an answer right away. But even if you're friends, you don't want to put anyone on the spot. So you put the idea out there and let it simmer for a while."

Fogerty let his guest artists select the song they wanted to record with him and spin their own interpretation of it.

The album was recorded at studios in Los Angeles, New Orleans and Nashville, Tennessee. Creedence's 1969 Vietnam War-era anthem "Fortunate Son" was recorded with Foo Fighters at their 606 studio in Los Angeles, which was the subject of recent documentary, "Sound City."

Along with gearing up for the album's release, Fogerty found time to join the Rolling Stones on a rendition of "It's All Over Now" at their May 8 San Jose show.

Fogerty said he and Stones guitarist Keith Richards had kept in touch over the years and he recently helped Mick Jagger add handclaps to some tracks that were never released from the recording sessions for the 1978 album "Some Girls."

"When they asked me to do the show, I was thrilled - especially as I've always been a huge fan and one of the first times I ever saw them was playing a show in San Jose in 1966," Fogerty said.

Fogerty, who plans to hit the road to promote the new album this year, has an explanation for why his work and that of his contemporaries still resonates.

"I think it's down to the songs," he said. "The music still sounds good today, and my own kids listen to it. It's just never been topped."

(Editing by Eric Kelsey, Piya Sinha-Roy and Bill Trott)

View the original article here

Daft Punk's analog 'Random Access Memories' tops Billboard chart

Musicians Thomas Banglater and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo of Daft Punk pose at the world premiere of the film ''TRON: Legacy'' in Hollywood, California, December 11, 2010.

Credit: Reuters/Danny Moloshok

By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES | Wed May 29, 2013 5:38pm EDT

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - French electronic dance music duo Daft Punk scored their first No. 1 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart on Wednesday, as their risk to use retro technology paid off with fans.

"Random Access Memories," the highly anticipated fourth studio album from Daft Punk, sold 339,000 copies in its first week, according to figures from Nielsen SoundScan. That was the group's best sales week to date.

Digital downloads of the album were approximately 65 percent of overall sales, with 221,000 copies downloaded.

Daft Punk, formed by childhood friends Thomas Bangalter, 38, and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, 39, were at the forefront of electronic dance music in the 1990s, fusing synthesizers and computers to create music on hits such as "Around the World." Daft Punk became popular figures in the dance music field, known for wearing shiny helmets on stage and being elusive and unpredictable.

For the release of their latest album, they stayed away from big stages and instead launched it at a small music festival in the small Australian town of Wee Waa on May 17, which they themselves did not attend.

After the 2005 album "Human After All," Bangalter and de Homem-Christo said they took time out to explore "uncharted territories" in their field, waiting eight years before releasing "Random Access Memories."

"It's always been a quest (with the) making of each record, somehow reinventing ourselves a little bit, and this time we feel like it's the same musical influence somehow that we maybe had 15 years ago on our first record," Bangalter told Reuters ahead of the album's release.

"Random Access Memories" is not just an homage to the dance floor music of the late 1970s but an attempt to capture the actual time period itself, the duo said.

"If you listen to Pink Floyd records or the majority of the albums in the late 1970s, they were really experimenting with art, elegance, radicality and integrity," Bangalter said. "That was inspiring for this record, to try to do something that has certain elegance and certain experimentation to it."

The new album features numerous collaborators, including singer Julian Casablancas of the Strokes, veteran Italian music producer Giorgio Moroder and R&B singer Pharrell Williams, who lent his vocals to the raunchy dance floor track "Get Lucky."

ANALOG IN A DIGITAL WORLD

After inspiring a new wave of electronic dance music DJs in the past decade that has included David Guetta, "Random Access Memories" sees Daft Punk strip away all digital components, recording solely with live instruments onto analog tape in a studio setting.

"Digital technologies are more efficient at working on other aspects of music, like dynamic and energetic qualities," Bangalter said.

"In the same way that sometimes a film camera seems to grab a moment in raw emotion than with a digital camera, that's what analog tape usually is ... it tends to - and we don't know why - grab a magic moment that is emotional."

The risk of going analog appears to have paid off, as the duo topped the Billboard chart with the second-highest debut album of the year, behind only Justin Timberlake's "The 20/20 Experience," which opened in March with 968,000 copies.

"Get Lucky," which first premiered as a music video broadcast at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in Southern California in April, has been streamed more than 33 million times globally on Spotify since its April 18 release.

Daft Punk led four new albums debuting in the top 10 of the Billboard chart this week. Darius Rucker, frontman of rock group Hootie & the Blowfish, entered the chart at No. 2 this week with his country solo effort, "True Believers," selling 83,000 copies.

Rock band The National landed at No. 3 with "Trouble Will Find Me," while rapper French Montana rounded out the debuts in the top 10 this week with his first album, "Excuse My French," at No. 4.

Rockers 30 Seconds to Mars landed at No. 6 the album "Love Lust Faith + Dreams," while last week's chart-toppers, Vampire Weekend, fell to No. 7 this week as sales of "Modern Vampires of the City" dropped by 64 percent.

(Editing by Eric Kelsey and Bill Trott)

View the original article here

Two 'Rites', no riot, for Stravinsky centenary

Dancers perform during a dress rehearsal of ''The Rite of Spring'' ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow in this March 26, 2013 file photo.

Credit: Reuters/Sergei Karpukhin/Files

By Michael Roddy

PARIS | Wed May 29, 2013 5:46pm EDT

PARIS (Reuters) - Right on cue, the "chosen one" danced herself to death, twice in a row, for the centenary of Igor Stravinsky's pagan and pulsating "The Rite of Spring" ballet on Wednesday at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

But this time, unlike at the premiere in the same theatre on May 29, 1913, there was no near riot, though there were a few boos for the second, contemporary version of the ballet.

A concert celebrating the centenary of the notoriously stormy premiere of a groundbreaking work that set the tone for music in the 20th century otherwise went off without a hitch.

Two versions of the ballet, one historic, one modern, were presented back to back, delivering the sense of "danger" Russian conductor Valery Gergiev said beforehand was essential.

"I think this piece cannot be played as an entertainment or funny rhythmic exercise. It has to have theatrical, dramatic pacing, a huge contrast ... and above all this sense of danger, because it is very ritualistic," Gergiev said on Tuesday.

Twice, in the two radically different choreographies, Gergiev's St. Petersburg-based Mariinsky Orchestra played the Rite through to the death dance for "the chosen one".

Twice the flute solo ascended and the orchestra delivered its crashing final chord as the doomed ballerina in each of the versions, one dressed in Russian peasant garb, the second in a flowing modern wrap, brought her movement to a dead halt in an awe-inspiring act of synchronization.

The roles of the "chosen one" were danced with extraordinary passion and power by Ekaterina Kondaurova and Daria Pavlenko.

The feverish music leading up to the finales of the two radically different stagings brought down the house, where the top ticket price was 89 euros ($120).

The performance was broadcast to a giant screen in a square beside the Hotel de Ville (City Hall) in Paris. It was preceded by 33 music conservatory students acting as a "flashmob" in front of the theatre yelling slogans and performing a quasi-techno Rite, to evoke the atmosphere of the stormy premiere.

"I am an absolute fan, like I am of the Beatles," said 22-year-old Damien Delaunay, one of the students.

BOOS, BARKS, POLICE

On May 29, 1913, the premiere of Stravinsky's pulsating paean to pagan Russia created an uproar. Chairs were smashed, people booed, some barked like dogs and the police were called.

Almost no one could hear the music.

A century on, after the destruction wrought by two world wars and the turmoil of communist rule, Gergiev said the music no longer had the power to create the tumult of the premiere but had become part of the established repertoire in Russia.

"I think people look at it more or less with the same pride as Germans look at Beethoven's Ninth Symphony," he said.

Berlin-based choreographer Sasha Waltz, whose modern take on the work is almost like a "West Side Story" rivalry between the Sharks and the Jets street gangs, but seen in terms of relations between men and women, was thrilled it was performed on the day.

"It is sort of like a magic moment to call the spirits of the music and dance to be with us," she said.

(Editing by Pravin Char)

View the original article here

Rapper Naughty Boy tops British pop music chart

LONDON | Sun May 26, 2013 2:01pm EDT

LONDON (Reuters) - British rapper and producer Naughty Boy topped Britain's pop music chart for the first time on Sunday with "La La La", a dance track recorded with London singer Sam Smith.

Last week's number one, "Get Lucky" by French electronic duo Daft Punk and American singer Pharrell Williams, slipped down to second place.

British folk-rock singer Passenger's "Let Her Go" also fell one spot to number three, according to the Official Charts Company, which compiles the weekly rundown.

American rapper Macklemore's "Can't Hold Us", recorded with producer Ryan Lewis and singer Ray Dalton, was unchanged in fourth position.

In the album chart, Daft Punk went straight in at number one with new entry "Random Access Memories", knocking Scottish veteran Rod Stewart's "Time" down to second place.

(Reporting by Peter Griffiths; Editing by Pravin Char)

View the original article here

One Direction sweeps awards for most popular social media stars

British pop band One Direction perform during the BRIT Awards, celebrating British pop music, at the O2 Arena in London February 20, 2013.

Credit: Reuters/Dylan Martinez

By Patrick Johnston

SINGAPORE | Fri May 24, 2013 10:15am EDT

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - British boy band One Direction has swept the inaugural awards recognizing the most popular people in social media globally, coming top in four out of 10 categories at a star-studded ceremony in Singapore.

One Direction was named most popular music group, most popular UK musicians, most popular in the UK, and most popular in west Europe, at the Social Star Awards, but did not show up to collect their prizes, sending their thanks by videolink.

Canadian pop star Justin Bieber won the award for best solo artist, Selena Gomez for most popular actor, Ellen DeGeneres for top TV show, and Portuguese soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo for most popular sports star.

The awards highlight viral sensations and people who garner the most social media attention globally based on data from Singapore-based Starcount that tracks the social media activity of 1.7 billion people across 11 social media networks.

American actress Jessica Alba and "Entourage" star Jeremy Piven hosted Thursday night's ceremony that ended a 24-hour marathon of 288 online awards awarded in categories ranging from best finance brand to top Indonesia actor.

"It is all about the most popular people on the planet ... Everyday we are sharing, liking, viewing, tweeting and what our awards show does is celebrate the superstars of social media," Starcount CEO Paul Morrison told reporters ahead of the awards.

Many of the award winners were absent from the prize giving but the void was filled with live performances by South Korean rapper Psy, American singer Carly Rae Jepsen, SkyBlu from electronic dance duo LMFAO, and U.S. rockers Aerosmith.

R&B singer-songwriter Eric Benet hailed the impact of social media.

"If you plan on being relevant and have a sustainable career in this day and age social media is about as important as TV was ... in the 1950s," he told Reuters television.

"Way back in the '90s when I started back in the music industry we would have to rely on our PR department and our record label but now in this day and age we, the artist, can take command of our career. It's awesome."

(Reporting by Patrick Johnston, Editing by Belinda Goldsmith)

View the original article here

Bon Jovi cuts price of Spanish tickets for cash-strapped fans

Singer Jon Bon Jovi performs with his band Bon Jovi during the 2012 iHeart Radio Music Festival at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada September 21, 2012.

Credit: Reuters/Steve Marcus

MADRID | Thu May 30, 2013 12:24pm EDT

MADRID (Reuters) - U.S. rock band Bon Jovi has waived its fee for a concert in recession-hit Spain next month so that cash-strapped fans can afford tickets, the band's publicist said on Thursday.

Tickets for the June 27th tickets are priced at 18-39 euros ($23-$50) each to cover costs, the publicist said. The concert has sold out already. Tickets for the Stuttgart leg of "Because We Can: The Tour" cost 77 euros in comparison.

The lead singer of band, 51-year-old Jon Bon Jovi, told El Mundo newspaper that Madrid was originally left off the list of tour venues because organizers feared seats would not be filled at a time of deep recession and high unemployment.

But the band decided to perform anyway in order not to let down Spanish fans.

"We didn't want to let down fans that have supported us for 30 years in a country that I love," he told the paper.

(Reporting by Sonya Dowsett, editing by Paul Casciato)

View the original article here