Download Future Boy’s Two Hour 8-bit Megamix

Future Boy presents the 8-Bit Megamix (direct link), a two hour collection of chiptune electronica made for Kokoromi’s recent Live Game Sounds event this month in Montreal. You can download the Megamix and other mixes of different genres at the Boy 2.0 Blog for free.

The mix offers a tasty sample of low-bit music, and features tracks from Bit Shifter, Freezepop, and Anamanaguchi. Uncommon composition, coupled with the nostalgic sound of old video games reproduces an era; the 80’s and 90’s when the world was introduced to the mesmerizing ballads of Tetris, Megaman, and Mario Bros. Here’s a video from 8-bit electro-jazz band YMCK: Continue reading...

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Pandora Adds Song Lyrics, Subscription Service

Listeners of Pandora’s Internet radio service can now view lyrics to songs while they play, thanks to a deal between Gracenote and Pandora announced yesterday. Pandora has 27 million registered users, and is looking to be profitable by 2010 through advertising.

“Lyrics are the most-requested piece of music-related information, and they are integral to the music experience,” said Ross Blanchard, Vice President of Business Development for Gracenote. “Now, through this agreement, Pandora users will have easy and direct access to the largest and highest quality database of authorized lyrics available in the industry.” Read more...

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Mogulus Changes To Livestream, Offers Free Music Channels

Live video streaming site Mogulus has reinvented itself, with a new website aptly named Livestream.com. The service allows anyone to stream live video, and has stiff competition with similar sites Ustream and Justin.tv. Browsing the new design of the site, I discovered the “music” channels section.

At the time of writing this, I’ve so far listened to live rock jamming on Worm Radio in a garage-like setting, a live house mix by a real DJ on Club Groove, and real jazz from central Florida at Jazz On Edge. I wonder when top-selling signed artists will adopt this sort of live streaming model. Continue reading...

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Grizzly Bear Presents New Album Veckatimest Live

Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear performed two songs from their album Veckatimest, due next week, in their UK TV debut on BBC2 show Later… With Jools Holland. They will be appearing tomorrow (May 20) on the Late Show with David Letterman.

Watch the live performance of “Two Weeks” and “While You Wait For The Others” after the cut: Read more...

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iTunes Plugin TuneUp Downloads Album Art, Track Names, Concert Info

TuneUp, an iTunes plugin that provides artist names, genres, track numbers and cover art for you music collection, is launching a new user interface today with some added features. Since its launch in 2008, TuneUp has over 200,000 registered users, and you can try a free version of the software at tuneupmedia.com.

Launched in 2008, the plugin does what you don’t have time to do: it homogenizes your entire iTunes library. The free version corrects 100 songs and downloads 50 album covers, but the “Gold” version, purchased for $30 or for an annual subscription of $20, give you unlimited access to the Gracenote Global Media Database of more than 100 million songs. Read more...

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Depeche Mode Lets Public Remix Their Music For $4

Depeche Mode is tearing up European charts, and electronic music resource Beatportal has invited its readers to send in remixes of the popular group’s song Peace. Beatportal is selling the track’s samples for $4, and user submissions have spanned seventeen genres, including psy trance, minimal, tech house, dubstep and drum and bass.

The best part is, you can go to the Beatportal website, and listen to all of the submitted tracks for free. The band have agreed, for the first time ever, to let the public remix one of their songs officially, and starting next week (May 26), you’ll be able to comment and vote on your favorite. Continue reading...

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YouTube Steadfast In Music Video Negotiations With PRS For Music

Patrick Walker, the Head of Video Partnerships at YouTube, outlined the site’s efforts in making progress towards deals with artists and royalty collecting groups at The Great Escape Festival in Brighton. Youtube blocked all premium music videos in the UK, after a failed deal with PRS for Music in March. Walker told the BCC that everything is “great” with the major labels. As for PRS, he said:

“We’re working very hard to come to an arrangement with PRS and we won’t strike a deal unless it makes economic sense. They’ve been a good partner in the negotiations and we’re trying to come up with something that makes sense for everyone involved. Ultimately no-one wins if the videos stay off the service, so we’re trying to come up with a win-win scenario.”

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Pogo Remixes Films Into Music, Offers Free Mp3 Downloads

Australian producer Pogo, aka Fagottron on Youtube, makes music by remixing sounds from movies, and adding his own chillout electronica. He’s creates music videos using spliced scenes from films, and has interpreted old Disney classics like Alice in Wonderland and The Sword In The Stone, as well as other movies like the 1956 film The King & I and Harry Potter And The Sorcerer’s Stone.

Pogo has five releases, Weave And Wish, Table Scraps, Wonderland, Broken Beats and On The Yeast; all available for free download in mp3 format on Last.fm. Check out our favorite music videos after the: Continue reading...

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Stones Throw Signs ‘MLC’ in Response to Copyright Claim

Eothen Alapatt, Stones Throw Record’s general manager, tells the story of how the label signed Matthew Larkin Cassell after the artist heard one of his songs sampled by Stones Throw producer Madlib. He writes on the Stones Throw website:

“MLC hit us up after he heard his [song], Heaven, from his superb (and superbly rare) album Pieces on the Madlib production 3.214 from Madvillainy 2: The Madlib Remix. At first Madlib had no idea he was using MLC’s work until he put two and two together and realized that his source material, a Japanese bootleg 12″ labled ‘MLC’ stood for, well, you guessed it.”

Cassell wanted to release his entire catalog digitally and on CD, and Madlib wanted access to it. Rather than the usual copyright litigation, a distribution deal was made. Compare Heaven and 3.214 after the jump: Continue reading...

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Mars Volta Labels Western Media Swine Flu Coverage “Terrorist”

The Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López has spoken out against the negative tone of foreign press against the Mexican outbreak of swine flu. He told NME:

“It’s not the hysteria that the right-wing media are making you think it is. It’s less dangerous than a common cold. This has been a perfect moment for right-wing republican media to say: ‘You see! You see these filthy people? You see what they’re doing? This is very scary!’”

Rodríguez-López thinks that the Mexican economy has been damaged due to the media coverage, and said that “it’s another act of terrorism, it’s another terrorist tactic.” Continue reading...

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Zune Pass Offers Unlimited Music, Until You Stop Subscribing

Penny Arcade is usually a gaming webcomic, but today, music is the focus after Microsoft aired a new commercial for the Zune Pass, which gives you unlimited music for fifteen dollars a month. The catch? If you stop subscribing to the service, all of your music gets erased. Penny Arcade says it best in today’s comic: “It’d be like you murdered all of your favorite artists.”

Granted, since a few major deals in Nov. 2008 (press release), the Zune Pass lets you choose ten songs to keep every month for your collection, but if you stop paying, the “obliteration” of the remainder holds true. Penny Arcade writer Jerry Holkins owns a Zune, and said that the new marketing campaign is “dumb”, while the rest of the internet is more intent on bashing the new face of Microsoft’s Zune, Wes Moss, and his lack of musical credentials. Watch the infamous advertisement after the jump: Continue reading...

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New Warp Records Site: Warp.net

Warp Records has launched a new web site Warp.net, where you can stream songs of signed artists for free from a playlist, and have quick access to the latest Warp news, events and releases.

You can embed the Official Warp Playlist by copying the usual bit of html code. When Warp adds and changes songs on the Playlist, the embedded player will update correspondingly. It gets better; each Warp artist’s page has its own unique embeddable player, which is also updated with new releases. Now you can have your own official Aphex Twin or Grizzly Bear widget. Read more...

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Universal Music Parent Vivendi Reports Earnings Boost

Vivendi, owner of Universal Music Group, posted a 16 percent rise in earnings for the first quarter of the fiscal year. Chief Financial Officer Philippe Capron said that they “can see some impact of the recession on our activities, but most are protected by subscriptions.” Primarily the millions of subscribers to World Of Warcraft, the online multiplayer game from Vivendi-owned Activision Blizzard. Continue reading...

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