Plant a Virtual Tree For Bibio’s Ambivalence Forest

Together with the launch of Ambivalence Avenue, the newest LP release by Bibio on Warp Records, comes Bibio’s Ambivalence Forest, a place to listen to most of the album for free while planting virtual trees and viewing other people’s creations.

Bibio produced a mix of folk music with a sensible dose of electronica in his latest effort. The slow, uncomplicated rhythms he applies to more complex melodies make the album easy to listen to, while retaining enough depth in the composition for all types of listeners. Watch a video of Lou Liddiard-Smith’s interview with Bibio about the new album: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Pandora Radio Survives, But Is No Longer Free

Yesterday, Pandora founder Tim Westergren proclaimed on the Pandora Radio Blog that the service has stabilized its finances, and credited a recent agreement between artists, labels and webcasters to revise the US Copyright Royalty Board’s prices for online music streaming, ruled in 2007. On the downside, Pandora will no longer be free:

“The revised royalties are quite high – higher in fact than any other form of radio. As a consequence, we will have to make an adjustment that will affect about 10% of our users who are our heaviest listeners. Specifically, we are going to begin limiting listening to 40 hours per month on the free version of Pandora.”

What kind of adjustment? Westergren explains: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Trent Reznor Confirms More Nine Inch Nails Shows

In February, Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor announced on the Nine Inch Nails official site that after a tour with Jane’s Addiction across the globe during 2009, the band would then go on hiatus indefinitely. He also said at Bonnaroo, during the NIN set, that it would be the band’s “last show ever in the United States”

Now Trent is backpedaling. On Tuesday he posted on the NIN Blog that the band will play a final “handful of shows” in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles beginning August 22. From the post:

“Upon reflection, the NIN/JA tour felt like we had to rush through sets due to a limited allotted set length and many shows were in daylight – it just didn’t feel right to end NIN that way.”

Read more..

Read More...

Summary only...

The First Online Music Festival

The “Eristoff Internative Festival” is the first music festival on the Internet. It will be broadcast exclusively online, and the first concert is July 7 at 2pm PST. More concerts are scheduled for every full moon. To watch the first edition, which features the Barcelona-based indie pop rock band Love Of Lesbian, go to eristoffinternativefestival.com.

The act will be streamed in high definition video, and fans will be able to interact with the band in real-time. Similarly, online video service Hulu live-streamed a Dave Matthews concert in May. Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

SOUR Includes Fans in Music Video

The music video for Hibi no Neiro (translation: Tone of Everyday) by Japan based alt-rock band Sour from their ‘Water Flavor EP’ uses fans as actors. Basically, people from around the world filmed themselves on webcam, and Sour mashed up the footage to produce a “crowdsourced” music video.

The “mini album” was released last month, and it’s their fourth official release. The three piece band is set to play at Tokyo’s Neutral Nation 09 festival on July 12. Check out the new music video after the jump: Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Radiohead Manager Brian Message Launches New Digital Label

The combined efforts of Radiohead manager Brian Message, his company ATC, and management groups MAMA and Nettwerk Music have resulted in the new digital label, Polyphonic, which will allow artists to retain ownership of their music.

Adam Driscoll, the co-chief executive of MAMA Group, told the Telegraph: “We will do whatever is most effective to get an artist noticed. Giving an album away for free may get one million people listening to a new artist.” Read more...

Read More...

Summary only...

Band Metrics Helps Musicians Measure The Success Of Their Music

In a digital age where album sales no longer accurately represent a band’s success, it has become increasingly important for bands and labels to be able to measure popularity on the Internet, on sites like Myspace, Last.fm, YouTube, SoundCloud and Facebook. Music data site Band Metrics is looking to offer such a service, and opened up the private beta today for several thousand artists to test its system, reports Hypebot.

Band Metrics not only gauges song plays, profile views and comments across various platforms, but also tracks airplay on over 3,500 radio stations, and scores your music 8 different ways. For example, your band has a “fandom” rating and “brand strength”. The company is also launching a standard format for sending and receiving data from the site, so it’s easy for users to share band data between each other. Check out some of the more interesting forthcoming features in development: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Music Video Shot With iPhone 3G S

Ohio-based band BJSR has a new music video for the track “Play”, which was recorded from start to finish with new video-capable iPhone 3GS by local company Showdown Productions. Kyle Brock, of Showdown Productions, told Wired:

“The song was written by Ben Rivet, the main character of the video. [Rivet] was purchasing a new iPhone and came up with the idea to promote his music. We wanted to test the limits of the iPhone video, and show off what it was capable of.”

Watch the music video after the cut: Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Quincy Jones Ready to Buy Vibe Magazine

Music magazine Vibe announced that all print operations would be shut down on June 30. But not all is lost, according to magazine founder (and Michael Jackson’s producer) Quincy Jones, who told Ebonyjet:

“I’m trying to buy my magazine back now. They just messed my magazine all up, but I’m gonna get it back. You better believe it, I’ma take it online because print and all that stuff is over.”

After recovering from the death of Michael Jackson, Jones’ ambitions for Vibe will be focused online. Reportedly, Vibe.com is profitable, while the print edition has years of accumulated debt. Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...

Empire of the Sun to Broadcast Concert during Solar Eclipse 2009

Empire of the Sun will stream audio and video from their live performance during the solar eclipse on July 22^nd, shortly after 8pm (PST). For 6 minutes and 39 seconds, fans can watch the broadcast on the website eclipseofthesun.org next Wednesday.

Next week’s solar eclipse will be only be visible throughout the Asia Pacific region, so if you can’t see the eclipse, at least you can get a soundtrack for the event! Continue reading...

Read More...

Summary only...