Music and Musical Gear

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Signs With Sony; the Economics of ‘Music Monetization’ and Their Likely US Move

I recently wrote about my hands-on time with music streaming service Spotify, and had previously written about the contract wrangling that has so far kept the service EU-only. Now we have some news that points to the possibility of a US launch sooner than later … and also some sobering reality about the financial aspects of streaming media in general. Spotify Edging Closer to US Launch On the ‘good news’ side, Spotify has just signed a deal with Sony to allow Spotify to work in the US. How big a deal is this? Well, all you have to do is…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Reviews: Haven’t I Heard You Before?

Welcome to another edition of Music Diary Reviews! In case you haven’t noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a tear since the new year, converting all of those hours listening and taking notes into actual music reviews! 2010 was an interesting year for music, because while there were a number of very good releases, the sales numbers were awful and folks were talking about reissues that put the new releases to shame. And that is my focus this time – reissues. While I have stated that my reviews would be rank-ordered from now on, that is only partially true…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Hands-On … Yeah, It IS That Good!

Last week I got an invite to Spotify, allowing me to join the service that so many across Europe are so excited about using. Of course, getting from ‘invite’ to ‘account’ required doing stuff that while not illegal, was nonetheless not something I would regularly choose to do. Basically I acquired a British ‘accent’ for a little bit in order to get my account created. My initial impression was completely positive. The desktop client installed quickly, launched instantly and quickly logged in my account and pulled in my local iTunes info. From there I was encouraged to search for stuff…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Reviews: Welcome to the New Disco Era!

Welcome to another edition of Music Diary Reviews! This time around I look at a pretty broad mix of pop, rock dance & rap music. The title is a bit provocative, but recalling my recent article looking at the state of rock music relative to pop in 2010, it is pretty clear that dance-centric techno-pop ruled the airwaves last year. Listening to stuff like Ke$ha and the Black Eyed Peas really does hearken me back to the disco era of the late 70’s. I wonder if this music will suffer the same backlash as the music of that era? I…

Music Diary

Music Diary Quickie: After 2 Months, 5 Million Songs, 1 Million Albums Sold

Way back in November, all of two months ago (I know, eons in internet time!) Apple promised a day that would change everything – or something like that. We all knew what was coming, and on November 16th The Beatles catalog arrived on iTunes. There were many who believed that it was too little, too late. The Beatles box set was already out for over a year on Amazon, and millions of copies of their 13 records had sold. Others thought their was a ‘pent up demand’ that would spring forth on release. Within a week reports let us know…

Editorials, Music Diary

2010 – The Year Music Went Pop and Rock Went Poof!

I had already started a post about the numbers showing just how badly live rock music did in 2010, and then analysts started tearing apart the top-selling music charts for the year and found some similar trends. I know, I know, rock is dead … long live rock! But given that the rock industry is very much powered by money, unlike the niche folk / jazz / classical markets which have gotten by on scant scraps for decades, these recent developments are a definite concern. In his article called Rock and Roll (1949-2011), Marc Myers says: According to an article…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Reviews: All New Stuff Only!

Recently I have been mixing in reissues with new releases in these review articles … but this time around there is just way too much new stuff to step back in time. But don’t worry, I’ll be doing a separate look at some re-releases … and a separate look at some late 2010 pop & rock stuff … and also a focus article on a couple of truly superlative recent releases! Another thing – in the past I have tended to simply list the reviews randomly … but no more. You can be assured that if a CD is first…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: ‘Shocking’ Poll Alert – Most Music Fans Want Apple to Price-Match Amazon!

OK, every now and then I see a poll that has me not so much looking at the results as thinking ‘what did the OTHER bunch of people think’? Over at MusicMagazineUK there is a new article with poll results to questions posed last week. There were three questions, and all were Yes/No. Here are the results: 86% of people want a price match with Amazon’s services. 71% of people want Apple to reduce the restrictions on variable song and album pricing. 57% of people are unconcerned about easier integration with third party services. Note that the last result was…

Music Diary, News & Features

Music Diary Notes: The Smithsonian Institute Challenges You to Test Your Jazz Knowledge

Do you love Jazz? Do you like taking sound quizzes? Do you think you know the history of jazz well enough to take a huge online test? Well, the Smithsonian has a challenge for you! Next March, according to the Smithsonian site, an all-new anthology of jazz music, featuring 111 songs across 6 CDs. There is 80% new material compared with the classic 1973 collection – I had this one tape for years until I wore them out and bought it on CD back in the 90’s. Here are some details on the release: Seven years in the making, ‘JAZZ:…

News & Features

R.I.P.: Jazz Legend James Moody Dead at 85

Few artists in any field can claim a career that had them active and vibrant across 8 decades. Yet that is the legacy of James Moody, the genial and fabulously talented saxophone and flute player and bandleader who made his first recordings in 1948, and was working right up until his health made it impossible earlier this year. Early this year we learned that Moody was seriously ill and had to undergo surgery, but it was only last month when we learned more details from his wife Linda: “Some of you know that Moody has been ill for quite sometime,”…

News & Features

Random Cool Stuff: Steve Martin’s Royalties for His Bluegrass Recordings? $0.13!

OK, that isn’t the full story, but it is a funny enough image! There is clear irony here in saying “People say the music business is suffering, but it’s NOT.”, but what is the main point? Is it that despite being wildly successful across more than four decades, he is now getting royalty checks for as low as $0.03? Is it that while he has made $0.13 the record company has pocketed the vast majority of the money for his work? Either way, it is pretty funny to think about such small checks for such a major star. As some…

Editorials, Events, Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Spotify Gives Up US Launch for 2010 … Will Anyone Care When it DOES Arrive?

In case you haven’t heard of it, Spotify is a free-or-paid subscription music service that works differently than something like Slacker or Pandora in a few ways. First off, you can immediately stream whatever song you want from their massive library of publisher material. Next, the service integrates with your existing music to form an extended library available for immediate listening online even when you’re away from your home PC. But one of the biggest things about the service is the social aspect – sharing playlists of stuff you love with others is a form of music discovery that has…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Review: eMusic Changes Pricing Structure in Face of Fourth Year with No Subscriber Growth

I have to admit – I USED eMusic more than once. And by ‘used’ I don’t just mean ‘make use of the service’ … I mean that I grabbed one of those ‘get 50 tracks free’ offers, canceled after the first month, and wait for the next email with another offer or 50 or 75 tracks for free. But a few months ago I had used up all of my free tracks, and had more I wanted to grab … so I let my membership charge persist. And again, and again this past month. Then a week or so ago…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Watch Full Concerts of Jason Moran and The Bad Plus for FREE!

Image courtesy of jazzenzo Each time I write a set of Music Diary reviews I try to find a clip of the artists actually playing music from the recording live. Typically what you find on YouTube is a single song, often of questionable quality – that is if you can find any live recordings at all. So I was thrilled today to find via an article at NPR that a music festival from earlier this year had released some full concert videos, with great Even better is that that two featured artists were ones I had written about in this…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: Help Jason Parker Realize His Nick Drake Tribute Project

If you have never heard of British singer/songwriter Nick Drake, it is because he maintained a very low profile, releasing three albums before dying at the young age of 26. Yet over the last 35 years his amazing talent has been realized more and more and he is now seen as one of the most influential British singer-songwriters of the last half century. I have always been a vocal supporter of the Jason Parker Quartet, and not just because I like their music! Jason Parker uses technology in a very intelligent and cooperative way to work with his audience and…

News & Features

Music Forte Goes Digital With Sheet Music!

If you have a child who has had music lessons over the last decade, then chances are at some point or other you have paid for something from Music Forte – either yourself or through your school or music instructor. The process is simple – you find what you need, order it and get the high quality print sent to you. Over the same time, many internet sites have sprung up that allow you to buy sheet music and download it immediately in PDF or other forms. Some of these sites are great, while others you are pretty sure are…

Reviews

Guitar World Lick of the Day for iPhone/Touch/iPad Review

Recently, I have reviewed many apps for guitarists. From tuners, chord libraries, effects, to tableture. IOS devices have proven to be an exciting platform for musicians. Virtually any guitar related activity has been available on my devices except a way to improve my playing. How about I use my iPad and or iPhone to tune up, find my chords, plug in my guitar to get the right sound and then receive lessons?!?! Agile Partners, developers of several of my favorite musician apps, has just released Lick Of The Day in partnership with Guitar World Magazine. Through in app purchases,…

Music Diary

Music Diary Notes: So iTunes Gets The Beatles … Do You Care?

It now seems oddly prescient that just last week I walked through the Beatles catalog, as today we find the meaning of the teaser announcement “Tomorrow is just another day. That you’ll never forget.” The question is … do we care? In terms of what is there, you can get all of the 12 original recordings, the 1973 collections ‘1962-1966’ and ‘1967-1970’, as well as the more recent ‘Past Masters Vol 1 & 2’. All are basically the same 2009 remasters I reviewed, in ‘high quality’ iTunes AAC format. There is also a ‘complete collection’, which has everything except the…

Editorials

Random Cool Video: In Case You Wondered Why So Many People Love Glee

At the end of last season my family started watching Glee, and we have been fans ever since. I wouldn’t call us ‘Gleeks’ since we miss episodes here and there and will watch other things in the same time slot on occasion – but we enjoy the show and look forward to it each week. This week’s episode was particularly good for a few reasons: it touched on homosexuality in a sensitive way, also looking at bullies and bullying, preconceived notions based on appearance, and other stuff. Oh, and there was the normal wall-to-wall array of high-energy songs and dance…

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Retrospective: A Magical Mystery Tour of the Beatles Catalog

It is hard to believe (well, for me anyway), but we are fast approaching the 30th anniversary of the assassination of John Lennon, after just recently passing the 70th anniversary of his birth. We are also 40 years since the break-up of the Beatles, so in honor of all of these anniversaries going on I decided to take a walk through the Beatles official release catalog. The entire set was released just over a year ago fully remastered, and it is those versions I will revisit. This means that my brother’s copy of Meet the Beatles will be left unaddressed….

Music Diary, Reviews

Music Diary Retrospective: In Memorium of T Lavitz, I Look at The Dregs ‘Industry Standard’ and More!

A few weeks ago we learned that jazz keyboard player T Lavitz died unexpectedly in his sleep at the age of 54. Lavitz was best known for his time in the jazz-rock fusion group Dixie Dregs, but also released high-profile solo works, and he also formed groups such as the critically acclaimed Players, as well as Jazz is Dead which was an ensemble of veteran jazz players reinterpreting works of the Grateful Dead. Lavitz was one of the many talented artists to come out of the University of Miami’s ground-breaking jazz education program of the 1970’s (including most of the…

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