Friday, February 23, 2007

Speaking of American Idol

Here’s a preview of Bucky Covington’s CD, out in April. He sounds pretty good. Especially on song Different World, which is about the days before PC took over.

Also, Entertainment Weekly has an article on Chris Daughtry this week, on what an angry, uptight dude he is. No surprise. But he should clean up now that Idol has chosen his song “Home” as the loser’s song for the year. Last year, Daniel Powter’s song “Bad Day” sold a zillion copies after Idol picked it as the loser’s song.

Mandisa has a CD coming out in June and she has lost a lot of weight. She looks pretty good. In fact, she’s working as a model now. Wow. 

Monday, February 12, 2007

Death to DRM

It looks like DRM is on its last legs. Yay!

The music industry is looking ahead to life without copy protection.

Major label EMI — home of Coldplay and Norah Jones — is in discussions with online music stores about selling its music without copy protection, or digital rights management (DRM), according to two sources with direct knowledge of the talks who would not speak for attribution because discussions are ongoing.

Last week, Apple CEO Steve Jobs created a huge stir when he called on the music industry to dump DRM, saying it hinders sales. Yahoo Music general manager Dave Goldberg predicts that by Christmas, most of Yahoo’s catalog will be DRM-free.

“The labels understand that DRM has to go,” he says. “It’s nothing but a tax on digital consumers. There’s good momentum behind DRM going away.”

He says sales would increase by 15% to 20% without DRM. Consumers have bitterly complained about DRM, which puts rules on how a song can be used. For instance, songs bought at Apple’s iTunes Store can be easily played only on an iPod, and not on digital devices from Microsoft and SanDisk.

Once the music business dumps these stupid things, they will see unprecedented growth. Watch.

Tuesday, February 06, 2007

Death to DRM

The head of Apple has done a great thing. Called for the end of DRM. And this from the guy who gave us iTunes and the iPod. Yes!

Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, jolted the record industry on Tuesday by calling on its largest companies to allow online music sales unfettered by antipiracy software.

The move is a gamble for Apple. Its iPod players and iTunes Store have defined the online music market, and they have much at stake in the current copy-protection system.

Under terms reached with the major record labels, online music stores embed software code into the digital song files they sell to restrict the ability to copy them. Because Apple uses its own system, the songs it sells can be played only on the iPod. That limitation has drawn increasing scrutiny from European governments, pressure that Apple has recently begun to acknowledge.

Mr. Jobs’s appeal, posted on the company’s Web site Tuesday, came in the form of an essay titled “Thoughts on Music,” but in essence it was a letter to the “Big 4” music companies: Universal, Sony BMG, Warner and EMI.

DRM is a joke. The RIAA will never stop downloaders. More importantly, DRM stands in the way of music sales. Watch. Years from now, when DRM is forgotten, music will be doing gangbusters from downloads. 

Friday, January 12, 2007

McPheever

Season 5 American Idol runner-up Katherine McPhee’s CD will be out at the end of the month. After a month delay. I am looking forward to hearing what she wants in an album. I actually really liked Kellie Pickler’s CD and also Chris Daughtry’s. And I’ve become a Kelly Clarkson fan. Even though I’m not into country that much, I also like Carrie Underwood’s latest effort. I have to say, the American Idol machine really puts out some talent. They have single handedly revived pop music at a time it was in peril.

Personally, my favorite new bands lean more in the direction of Evanescence and The Killers. But I enjoy good pop. Most people do, which is why it’s called pop music (short for popular).

I liked McPhee last year, even though she gave off major diva vibes at times. I was rooting for Taylor Hicks, and his first CD delivered. Now I am curious to hear what Kat has done. So far, all the Season 5 alum have done really solid work. I wish Elliot Yamin would get one out soon. All we have so far is a Christmas single available on iTunes. 

Monday, January 08, 2007

The Death of DRM?

I sure hope so. This Wired writer believes it’s about to happen, taking iTunes with it. Here’s one of the reasons he gives.

There’s already a case study of what an MP3 store could look like: the Russian site AllofMP3.com, which people are still reporting access to, despite attempts to starve it of U.S. credit cards. Its popularity also indicates that digital music pricing should drop (a 10-cent to 25-cent per unprotected MP3 sounds about right to me).

Since increased sales of a digital good can’t affect inventory, the labels would more than make up for the price drop by selling far more songs—especially considering the endless targeting capabilities online music stores could eventually offer. (For instance, what if something like Pandora were used as a front end to an AllofMP3-type service?)

I agree. It’s the best example of a music download service I have seen so far. In fact, it’s great and the prices are what they should be. If they were around the same price here (say .25 cents a song or less) the volume the music business would be making would be astronomical. They are insane not to try to emulate that instead of trying to jack up prices on Napster and iTunes. A song file has no physical media, no inventory costs, no middle man costs (except the selling site). They really need to wake up and quit suing innocent people. 

Thursday, January 04, 2007

1001 Free Albums

Radio 3.net offers 1001 great albums from the 1950s through the 2005 in streaming format. If you haven’t heard them, I highly recommend the Count Basie’s Atomic Basie and The Wildest by Louis Prima, Both from the 50s. Very enjoyable stuff.

Prima’s CD includes his wife Keelie Smith, who’s a great singer to this day. And the fantastic Sam Butera on the Sax. It ust have been a top party album in it’s day. I love listening to it because it’s fun from beginning to end.

The Atomic Basie is considered one of the top Jazz records of all time. It’s very cool stuff. They also have some Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk. Not to mention Duke Ellington. Of the current stuff, I really like the Kings of Leon “Youth And Young Manhood” also The Thrills “So Much for the City”. But there’s plenty of good stuff here.

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

James Brown is Dead

I know I missed this one because I was at my Dad’s for the Holidays. But Brown was a great entertainer, and a real innovator of soul music. Perhaps he was to soul what Louis Armstrong was to Jazz. Now that 90s song by LA Style is true.

Lots of Free Music Videos

6 Underground by the Sneaker Pimps is one of my favorite songs of the 90s. 

Lots more music videos here. Love that YouTube.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Hicks Comes in Decent

Despite what Drudge says on his site, Taylor Hicks debut CD is selling well. It just failed to debut at #1 this week.

“Idol" season-five winner Taylor Hicks got the good news and bad news Wednesday when his debut sold 298,000 but came in at No. 2 behind Atlanta rapper Young Jeezy, whose sophomore disc “The Inspiration” (Def Jam) sold 352,000 copies in the week ended Sunday.

As sales go, Hicks wasn’t that far behind the debut of season-four winner Carrie Underwood, whose “Some Hearts” sold 315,000 in its first week.

Hicks’ self-titled disc barely edged the debut of Kelly Clarkson, whose “Thankful” moved 297,000 copies when it was released in April 2003.

The top dog among the “Idol” champs is Ruben Studdard, who sold 417,000 copies of his debut when it was released in December 2003.

His single the Runaround has not shot up the charts yet. Hopefully it will. It seems Christ Daughtry’s CD is also doing well. I notice one of his songs is getting airplay on the Adult Contemporary channel I listen to on XM. But his CD has been out over a month now. We’ll see how Taylor does. I think many Idols do better on their second album. Both Kelly Clarkson and Carrie Underwood really took off with their follow up CDs. I never watched Idol until season 4, so I missed Clarkson, but I have become a fan of her recent stuff. And Carrie Underwood has really gotten good.

All the season 5 Idols who recorded CDs so far have put out decent stuff. I recommend Elliot Yamin’s Christmas song on iTunes, as well.

By the way, Taylor has a book coming out in April.