Archive for January, 2007Filed under: ,  TDMW may be retiring but, I will continue to write for other Weblogs, Inc sites. You can still read , along with a stable of other great bloggers, on . Thanks to everyone who made TDMW a great place to be! Some high-points on TDMW from our last year. | | |
Filed under:  Watch out Mariah Carey, the diva days are coming to an end. According to , cost conscious labels are starting to cut the cord on bratty divas and their expensive entourages. No surprise given the overall tightening of the purse strings, and its certainly encouraging to see labels wising up to the idea of running like a real business. Glenn Coolfer the funniest bit or, if you're a shareholder, perhaps the saddest, "One of Warner Music's biggest mistakes last year was an album released by socialite Paris Hilton. It sold just 13,000 copies, a disaster made worse by the money spent on the heiress and her entourage. [...] she brought 14 people with her to the UK [...] A week's accommodation at the exclusive Metropolitan hotel on London's Park Lane came to around £160,000." That's $24.28 per album sold for the hotel bill alone. Bombs like Paris get the royal treatment while hard-working bands on the lower rungs get the shaft. Something's gotta give; If you're making your living teasing Paris Hilton's hair on the rare occasion she appears live to do some off-key caterwauling, you might should polish your resume. | | | |
Right - even though I can't sing along to any of the lyrics, Sigur Ros tunes regularly feature on my iPod with their wonderfully atmospheric quality. Over the past year one track from Sigur Ros' 1999 has had a revival thanks to film making student Liron Damir who created this dark brooding video clip that has attracted a lot of attention on YouTube and throughout the blogosphere. | | |
Filed under: ,  , a unique crowd sourcing site which allows emerging independent artists to take seed money from fans until they amass enough capital to record a full professional studio album, has announced its second fan funded breakthrough. Less than four months ago Jacob Kongaika, performing under the artist name Cubworld, decided to take a chance and upload his music on SellaBand. "I saw this as a long term plan, I was thinking more in the lines of 5 or 10 years, before I would have reached my recording budget", comments the artist. But soon after the first fans (Sellaband terms them, "Believers") bought Parts in his future recordings, things took a different turn for Cubworld. He became one of the leading artists on SellaBand and a mere 150 days after signing up, he had acquired the full $50,000. "The last 24 hours have been really mad", comments SellaBand Managing Director Johan Vosmeijer. "There were still 1,000 Parts left for Cubworld, which is a healthy $10,000, but they sold in less than 24 hours." Check out , and congratulations to Jacob! See Also: | | |
Indie rockers Silverchair achieved a fair bit of notoriety for themselves tagging along with the tail end of the grunge movement when still only in high school. These days things the lads are a little more melodic with Luv Your Life being one of their more mellow tracks. This video was directed by top animator and director Steven Scott and has a really wistful quality about it that's nicely in tune with the music and even though it's a few years old now is still a top clip. | | |
Filed under: , , Nope, it's not Tommy Lee vs. Neil Peart. It's not John Bonham vs Keith Moon. It's Buddy Rich vs. Animal. That's right. Animal. Elmo's whacked out black sheep uncle.Buddy Rich is the obvious winner here. He's the greatest Jazz drummer who ever lived, able to bang out monster beats at a speed and precision that would tax even the most exacting of robot drummers from a creepy musical future. That being said and all things being equal (as equal as can be when one opponent is a Muppet), Animal gives it his best shot. . | | | |
Although the two companies had a agreement to allow their trade marks to co-exist, the issue came to a head as a result of Apple's enormous success with the iPod and iTunes, which reinvented the technology company as a heavyweight in the music world. As a result of the tensions the remaining members of the Beatles and Yoko Ono took Apple to court in London during 2006 but lost their case to challenge Apple's use of the trade mark in the music industry. There were hints of a reconciliation at the iPhone launch last week which featured at least two references to the Beatles - so it would appear that the remaining members of the Beatles have now licked their wounds and bowed to the inevitable - giving permission for Beatles tracks to be sold on iTunes. I'm sure it won't hurt their already swollen hip pockets much either. | | |
Filed under:  What happens when your label's advertising budget runs thin? Well, you can't purchase ads in major music magazines. What happens when you stop purchasing ads in major music magazines? They stop covering your releases*. *if the magazine is Amplifier and the label is and, if this email exchange over at is the real deal. When told that Birdman's ad budget was closer to what I'd find in my pocket than to what an ad exec would use to buy a new Porsche, Amplifier's director of advertising wrote back, " Bummer.....wish we could continue to support your artists, but I guess we can't. Best of luck." When pressed further, he reportedly quipped, "Hey Sorry man.....my kids have to eat....if you're never going to advertise with us I can't justify the cost of covering your releases" This is why music blogs will rule the world one day. Our publishing costs are miniscule, our circulation is great and, we'll still cover your artists even when times are thin (as long as they make us bob our heads.. and don't make our ears bleed). See Also: | | |
Filed under:  Ok, we admit it, we were glued to the TV just like you last night, watching the part of American Idol which pays entertainment dividends like no other; The auditions. Seattle didn't fail to bring memorable characters to light. There's the , who freaked out the security guards by trying to give Simon a little pomade. The who butchered "Don't Cha" just as much as anyone else. That . And, who could forget the to that tiny little Abbot who said he's often compared to The Backstreet Boys and N'Sync? Thanks to DeathbyCamera for their incredible work on a frighteningly thorough for all your favorite also-rans, didn't make its and . Next week, Idol hits the south and we can only assume I'll be reminded of exactly why I moved very, very far away. | | |
Filed under:  Pity, that. But we still have 50 weeks to go, and a pretty good collection of Mp3 positive signs. Here's a roundup of the Death to DRM press we've been reading.
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Rumours are circulating that the Beatles and Apple have finally settled their long running feud and as a result that Beatles tracks will finally be available on iTunes. The members of the legendary 60s pop group had a long running trade mark dispute with Apple over the Apple trade mark - which the Beatles controlled in terms of the music industry - as a result of their Apple Recordings label.