John Mayer’s new album, Battle Studies, made an early debut on the web ahead of its Nov. 13 release date, thanks to the Mayer enthusiasts who couldn’t wait to get their hands on his latest effort. Rather than declare war against the people who actually shell out a ton on music, he encourages them to go ahead and “have at it,” adding, “But if you like it, please “register” your copy by purchasing it.” Notice how he said “if you like it”? John has won my respect for this and I encourage everyone to buy Battle Studies. If you like it.
Electro artist Moldover has released his new album with a fully functional optical theremin on the CD case. I hear his music is pretty good, but it’s the unique idea behind its packaging that’s sure to bring more attention to the physical CD. The album case theremin sports a headphone jack and a speaker. The wiring on the theremin itself spells out the artist’s name and track titles.
There are only two main drawbacks here: 1) the theremin version of the CD will set you back $50 (a token, considering that you’re getting music and a musical instrument in one convenient package);Â 2) you’ll probably look silly shaking a jewel case in public.
Still, if the record labels have any intention of dispelling the New York Times’ ominous prediction about the industry, then they’ll urge their artists to start adopting innovative ideas that make CDs worth buying again. The album as we know it is on its knees right now. Radiohead has already abandoned that format. Why should people shell out 15 bucks for an album that may only contain 1 or 2 decent songs? If I pay to go see a movie or buy a DVD I expect to see a good movie not 2 good scenes.
I hope people go out and buy Moldover’s CD in droves to show the industry that consumers appreciate artists who take the extra step to deliver not just good music but some sort of artistic incentive to make the music worth buying.
This may seem a little exaggerated at first but it really gets the point across. Keep that up and people will just stay at home and watch shaky flip-cam concert clips on YouTube.
Oh hey, it’s another awesome article about the awesomeness of vinyl and such. Vinyl is like that ex-girlfriend that keeps hanging around even after the relationship is over. Leave it to the New York Times to dissect the “synergistic relationship between Austin’s record dealers and the dedicated hordes still willing to pay for limited-edition vinyl that makes the city a destination for record lovers.”
[Full Disclaimer: The NYT Company pays my bill...sometimes]
You may have loved this song when it dropped, but Weird Al is fuming at iTunes for dropping the ball. In a blog post titled What I Learned, Al highlights the merits and demerits of his latest digital experiment.
The song debuted at number 104 – “bubbling under” the Hot 100 chart. Not great, but – considering the delayed release, lack of iTunes promotion and absence of a music video – not terrible either. It also was on the Pop 100 chart (!) at number 67, and came in at a respectable 56 on the Hot Digital Songs chart. As to why iTunes has the single listed as “Pop” instead of “Comedy”? You got me there. I asked them to change it a week and a half ago. But you know, changing stuff is hard.
I’m not sure that I’d agree to give iTunes any kind of an exclusivity window in the future…It seems like the amount of publicity I received from them didn’t really compensate for the sales I lost by not also having my song available elsewhere.”
Not hip-hop related, but this adds an interesting twist to the digital copyrights debate.
The story goes that Prince covered Radiohead’s hit song “Creep” at Coachella to the amusement of many. This being the Internet age, a video of Prince’s performance soon flooded YouTube. But when Radiohead members rushed to YouTube for a peek they were met with that annoying “video no longer available” message, seeing as Prince’s label NPG had blocked it.
According to the Associated Press, Thom Yorke was surprised that Prince had blocked a video of their song: “Really? He’s blocked it? Surely we should block it. Hang on a moment. Well, tell him to unblock it. It’s our … song.” NPG’s argument that the video of Prince performing a Radiohead song, which was shot by a fan, had violated copyright laws makes you wonder who was doing the violating. Was Prince trying to take credit for adding his own touch to the song? Or was he trying to avoid any legal dust-off with Radiohead by deleting the videos?
When Yorke was finally able to see Prince’s “Creep” cover he found it “hilarious.” I didn’t. Prince’s version does nothing for me. He didn’t enhance the song in anyway. But that’s OK, he’s still a legend in my eyes.
Not really. But the gossip experts at Page Six are dishing that Hov has been making some ridiculous demands lately.
JAY-Z wants his own label, but can’t find a home for it. Jay-Z, who left his position as president of Def Jam to be an entrepreneur last year, is apparently asking “way too much,” an insider said. “He wants a label to give him $100 million for the Carter Music Group and provide for overhead, development and digital investment. It’s crazy. He wants the labels to basically be his venture capital fund — but unlike a venture cap, they won’t get 50 percent. This is not the ’90s anymore.” A rep for Jay-Z, who is branching out into hotels and bars, called this account “rumors.”
Not surprisingly, blogs help boost album sales in a way that not even MySpace can. A study by New York University researchers found that being mentioned in a legitimate blog, like The Rap Up, improves album sales up to six times the average.
NYU Stern professor Vasant Dhar and former student Elaine Chang sampled 108 albums released between January and March of 2007 to determine the impact of blog chatter on record sales. Using Amazon.com sales rankings, albums were tracked four weeks before and four weeks after release. Researchers found that when an album got mention in more than 40 legitimate blog posts, sales were three times the average. If those albums were associated with major labels, sales jumped five times the average. Albums that got more than 250 blog mentions saw sales increases of six times the average.
Just what I needed to jumpstart my week in a good mood.
