| Norway welcomes DRM-free music downloads
MacNN managed to write down the swift reaction by someone from the Norwegian Consumer Council to the plan by EMI and Apple to start selling DRM-free music downloads. Senior advisor Torgeir Waterhouse thinks that today will go down in history as an important date on which "two of the really big market players finally took responsibility that follows from the position and made an interoperable solution available to consumers." He encouraged "all the other contenders in the digital music business to make the same important move." For some time now, various consumer-oriented officials of several European countries and the European Union (of which Norway isn't a member) have been criticizing Apple for its use of FairPlay, its proprietary digital rights management (DRM) solution, on music tracks bought from the iTunes Store.
Music of the past and the future
One is the Internet Archive, which has plenty of old recordings available for free download. One of them is this 1924 record of Rhapsody in Blue as done by its 25-year-old composer, George Gershwin, and the Paul Whiteman band. Sequenza21 featured this record this week, and it's terrific fun to listen to. What you can really hear in this is the high spirits; it must have sounded like a great deal of fun to hear at the time, and this record takes us back to that. Then there's Kunst der Fuge, a European site that takes its name from the name of Bach's late, unfinished summation of the craft of fugal writing. I've been listening to piano roll performances by Gabriel Faure of his Op. 26 Barcarolle (Faure, pictured at the piano above, was ambidextrous, which I think helps explain how weirdly difficult his music is to play), and of Sergei Rachmaninov banging through his G minor Prelude (Op.
A brief assessment of rock criticism
Intellectuals have always been skeptical of rock music. Bill Haley and Gene Vincent's early rock'n'roll singles epitomized a form that was commercially accessible and simplistic in musical structure. It's purpose was solely entertainment-based, seemingly unworthy of lyrical analysis or academic study. Musical elitists held onto their Bartok and Stravinsky records as symbols of a refined understanding of classicism and music as a "higher" art form. From the late 1950s and well into the 1960s, the unspoken boundary separating the elite and ignorant music fan began to disappear, obscured by the integration of classical forms into pop and popular forms into classical works. George Martin's use of the string quartet in "Yesterday" changed rock'n'roll the same way Leonard Bernstein's score for "Westside Story" influenced classical composition.
Kimberly's Blog updated 4/20
This is the first chance I've had to blog this week, as you can imagine. As we've been saying during our newscasts and special reports, our thoughts and prayers go out to everyone who lost a family member, friend or other loved one in the terrible tragedy Monday at Virginia Tech. So much attention this week has been focused on the gunman, Cho Seung Hui. And yes, investigators need to sort through many disturbing pieces of that puzzle, as well as determine how well the response was in the hours that followed the first shooting spree. However, it's the victims that we need to remember most. We've tried our best to show respect to them and their families as we tell their stories. Each time a new name is released, and we see pictures of that person alive and happy and vibrant, it just breaks my heart.
MMF's First Back To Basics Seminar
The MMF's 'Back to Basics' series of seminars focuses on the fundamentals of artist management and is targeted at new managers or those more experienced mangers wishing to brush up on some basic skills. The series got off to a flying start with two well attended seminars in Auckland and Christchurch. The seminars covered essential topics such as band bio's, writing of press releases, interview skills and artist photography and were hosted by a range of industry guests: AUCKLAND SEMINAR -
Karl Puschmann - Editor Rip It Up Magazine
Lisa Paris - The Label
Rebecca Caughey - Manager and Publicist CHRISTCHURCH SEMINAR -
Kate Gorgeous - RDU98.5FM Breakfast Host
Chris McKeen - Music Photographer
Louise Landess - Music Copywriter
Jeff Fulton - Canterbury MMF Co-ordinator Standby for an announcement about our next Back to Basics Seminar schedule MMF On-line Session with Brendan Smyth The MMF recently held an on-line discussion with NZ On Air's New Zealand Music manager Brendan Smyth.
// Angry Gaming: Life Lessons In Video Gaming
Welcome to Angry Gaming, the cold, crisp water that douses the gaming industry's flames of annoyance. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I know all the lyrics to "Raspberry Beret" by Prince. She walked in through the out door, out door. Life Lessons In Video Gaming This week I made a rare appearance at my family's dinner table and we began discussing other family members we hadn't been in contact with for a long time. One of these was my cousin Steve. Being a geek through all of high school (big surprise) I was generally on the lower end of the popularity/physical altercation food chain. Steve, who attended the same school as me and was far more streetwise, became somewhat of a protector for me then. One time, while Steve and I wereeh, "excusing ourselves" from classes for the day, we stopped in a local grocery store to pick up something to drink.
Mandy Moore Says Her Music Is "Mediocre"
Los Angeles, CA (BANG) - Mandy Moore may think she's not that talented at her work, but she definitely rises above the other pop starlets in her integrity and wisdom. If nothing else, at least that stands for something. Mandy says her music will never compare with Britney Spears or Christina Aguilera. The 23-year-old singer and actress - whose latest album, "Wild Hope" will be released in June - describes herself as "mediocre" and feels overshadowed by other music and Hollywood stars. Mandy told Elle magazine: "I'm mediocre at both. I'm not trying to come across as self-deprecating. I'm just being honest. I'm sure I was viewed as the young, untalented one. "Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera had some great pop music. And then there was Jessica Simpson.
Daniel Moore Unveils His Own Recording
Songwriter Daniel Moore's compositions have been recorded by multitudes of top rock, pop, country, folk, R&B, jazz and blues artists including Joe Cocker, Brooks & Dunn, Three Dog Night, The Everly Brothers, Bonnie Raitt, Waylon Jennings, B.W. Stevenson, The Band, Maria Muldaur, Dizzy Gillespie, Thelma Houston, Kenny Rogers, Kim Carnes, Bobby Blue Bland, The Association, Marcia Ball, and many others. Now, on Moore's new album The Giveaway, the public gets to hear his versions of some of the hundreds of songs he has written.
One of the music industry's top songwriters for the past three-and-a-half-decades, Moore seldom cut skeletal, rough "demos" (demonstration records) of the songs he wrote. Instead, he rented top studios, hired the best session musicians available and produced polished, full-band versions of his tunes.
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