Category Archives: News & Announcements

Now It’s Time For Napster To Get Its Own Movie: “The Social Music Network”

Posted on by

At Long Last, Napster Is Getting Its Own Movie

“The Social Network” was one of the greatest surprises of 2010, what with the movie being nominated for 8 Academy Awards (of which it won 3, including one for Best Original Score). So, it comes as no surprise that filmmakers are looking for other sites that would make for great movies.

And one of the few websites that can lend itself to a movie rivaling “The Social Network” in dramatic content is Napster. Created by 18-year-old college student Shawn Fanning in 1999, Napster was the most disruptive music service of its age. It marked the birth of peer-to-peer sharing, no less.

The service was forced to close down in 2001, following a string of virulent lawsuits. And although Napster remained around as a 100% legal music service and it changed owners several times, its 15 minutes were basically over.

But it’s a story well-worth sharing. And it will be told in documentary form soon. The as-yet unnamed project is going to be directed by Alex Winter (Bill from the “Bill and Ted” films), and this is a story he’s been wanting to tell for a long time – he once signed a deal with MTV films to create a scripted version of the story in 2002. But that came to nothing. Continue reading →

Meet Daphne Oram, One Of The Unsung Figures In The History Of Electronic Music

Posted on by

Daphne Oram Was One Of The True Pioneers Of Electronic Music, And Her Work Has Finally Begun Receiving The Recognition It Always Deserved

We all know the role that individuals like Moog and Stockhausen have played in the history of electronic music, but (like always) there’s more to the picture than meets the eye.

Meet Daphne Oram, the first woman in history to direct an electronic music studio, the first woman to devise a personal studio, and the first woman to construct an electronic musical instrument. Using sine wave oscillators, reel-to-reel tape decks and other electronics, Oram managed to design and build a revolutionary device named Oramics. This could convert hand patterns to music, and that music could be stored magnetically. That’s cool-enough today, and it was even cooler way back when it happened (1965). Continue reading →

The Day Manhattan Thought Radiohead Would Play A Free Concert

Posted on by

British Rockers Radiohead Were Involved In The Latest Social Media Fiasco

Twitter is a vertiginous tool bar none. And following story shows that the actual veracity of what’s being disseminated is absolutely irrelevant. All it takes is one spark to set a mammoth wildfire going.

Last Friday, the whole of Manhattan was ecstatic at the prospect of Radiohead playing a free surprise concert that would coincide with the Occupy Wall Street protests which had been organized online. Music bloggers and publications such as Gawker, Pitchfork, Gothamist and Huffington Post reported the concert was taking place based on an announcement that had been made on the official website for the demonstration at 12:13pm EST. That read “Radiohead will play a surprise show for #occupywallstreet today at four in the afternoon.”

We now know such a message was posted because a person who claimed to be involved with Radiohead’s management contacted the Occupy Wall Street organizers via email, and expressed the band’s keenness on playing at the event (which after all, is the kind of cause Radiohead always champions).

The media picked that up, and began reporting the concert was going to be held.

When Radiohead caught wind of the rumor, they vehemently denied it. Yet, fans took it as a tactic to prevent an unmanageable crowd from gathering.

By 4:00pm Eastern Time, a crowd had congregated at Wall Street. They waited and waited for hours, and it was only when night was beginning to creep in that a spokeman for Occupy Wall Street came forth and admitted they had been hoaxed.

Occupy Wall Street organizers certainly are to blame for the confusion, as they didn’t update the post they had made earlier on the day when Radiohead made it clear they weren’t playing Friday. Even hours after the rumor had been denied by the band, the post that caused the confusion was not redacted or even updated.

This isn’t the first time Twitter is used to disseminate falsehoods. I can recall the day someone announced Gordon Lightfoot had passed away, and Canadian radio stations began paying homage to the man until he got in touch himself and made it clear he was very well alive. Continue reading →

Napster Is Back Again

Posted on by

You Read It Here First - Napster Is Coming Back From The Dead

I announced the return of MySpace just last week, and now I find that an even more emblematic service is trying to slip back into the public eye. I’m talking about Napster, one of the most widely-discussed P2P filesharing platforms ever.

“What do you mean ‘slip back into the public eye’? Wasn’t the service dead and gone for good?”, I hear you retort. To which I have to reply, “no, it wasn’t”.

You see, although Napster’s days as a filesharing service were over by July 2001 (when the service was forced to close down after a much-publicized legal dispute with the RIAA), the name “Napster” has changed owners a good couple of times. One of these was Roxio, which relaunched Napster as a 100% legal music service shortly after it was originally closed. It was all to no avail, and most people never noticed. To them, Napster sank from sight when it stopped being a place to get music for free. Period.

But Napster’s latest owners are intent on reclaiming some of the fire the service had on its P2P glory days.

Napster has just been acquired by Rhapsody for an undisclosed sum, and it is to be relaunched as an on-demand service letting users listen to all the music they want in exchange for a monthly subscription. Continue reading →

Wilco Crowdsources Fan Videos For Its US Tour

Posted on by

Wilco Is Touring The US & Europe In Support Of Its Eight Album, "The Whole Love". And YOU Can Be Part Of It All.

Wilco is currently touring the United States, and the band has taken a novel approach for bringing its shows to life.

The Illinois-based alternative rockers are asking fans to submit videos of all the cities they’re going to tour. The idea is that these will be projected behind the band when its playing live.

These videos can be uploaded to the band’s Vimeo page (Wilco Fan Video Project), and the band is specifically interested in “footage of settings and places that really say something about the area, its people and/or history, geography, whatever.” Wilco is on the road in support of its eighth studio album, “The Whole Love”.

This is similar to something LCD Soundsystem did recently, when the band asked fans to upload footage of clouds shot from airplane windows to use as the backdrop of its final show at Madison Square Garden.

The Return Of MySpace

Posted on by

MySpace Will Relaunch Later This Year. Justin Timberlake Is The Creative Director Of The Site Now.

MySpace was one of the hottest assets in the social networking scene until Facebook toppled it in 2008. But even then, MySpace managed to retain a loyal following among musicians that appreciated how easy it was to have their own work hosted online for all to sample. Yet, platforms like Bandcamp and Soundcloud began depriving MySpace of even these. Defeated, MySpace was finally bought by Specific Media in June for a pittance of its former value ($35 million).

And now, after a couple of months of silence Specific Media has announced the relaunch of MySpace. This time around, the focus will be on beating services like Spotify and iTunes. The launch campaign that has been planned will feature a wealth of celebrities and brands acting as promotional partners. Justin Timberlake (who owns a stake in the company) will be the site’s creative director. Timberlake has often expressed his belief that MySpace still has the potential to be the place where “fans can go to interact with their favorite entertainers, listen to music, watch videos, share and discover cool stuff and just connect.”

When it was at its height, MySpace managed to have 70 million unique visitors each month in the United States alone. Even today it gets about 20 million monthly visitors.

Yet, it remains to be seen what impact can the rebranded MySpace have in a scene dominated by services and apps like Spotify, Bandcamp and Turnatble.fm. Even YouTube is a threat to it nowadays – many people who fled MySpace actually went to the popular video sharing service, and opened up their own channels there.

So, what do you think? Is it possible for MySpace to stand in the limelight back again, or has the service basically had its day? Sound off in the “Comments” below, I’d love to know how you feel, and whether you’re giving the “new” MySpace a look when it finally comes around.

REM Break Up

Posted on by

REM (1980-2011)

After a three-decade career and fifteen studio albums (some as transcendental as “Out Of Time” and “Automatic For The People“), the fathers of alt rock have decided to disband for good.

Today, the following message was posted on the band’s website:

“To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening.” R.E.M.

Michael Stipe later elaborated:

“A wise man once said–‘the skill in attending a party is knowing when it’s time to leave.’ We built something extraordinary together. We did this thing. And now we’re going to walk away from it.

I hope our fans realize this wasn’t an easy decision; but all things must end, and we wanted to do it right, to do it our way.

We have to thank all the people who helped us be R.E.M. for these 31 years; our deepest gratitude to those who allowed us to do this. It’s been amazing.” Continue reading →

Playing For Change Cover Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground”

Posted on by

Playing For Change

Playing For Change is a collective devoted to bringing music and arts education to underprivileged children in the furthest corners of the world. It became a global phenomenon on the strength of its first release, a cover of “Stand By Me”.

And to mark the very first Playing For Change day ever, this collective has now recorded a cover of Stevie Wonder’s classic track “Higher Ground”.

This is the clip. It features the joint talent of vocalist Clarence Bekker (from the Netherlands) and percussionists from countries as distant as Mali, Senegal, Brazil, Colombia and Jamaica. A 21-string West African bridge-harp is also in evidence.

September the 17th has been designated as the annual Playing For Change day, and the theme of the first one is “Power To The People”. It’s supported by no other than Yoko Ono, and the aim is to raise $250,000 to be able to subsidize the collective’s operations for 2012. Music festivals and personal celebrations have already been announced in all five continents in support of this special day.

How Does REM’s Michael Stipe Use Tumblr?

Posted on by

Pretty much like you and me, that’s how. Just take a look at his personal Tumblr, “Confessions of a Michael Stipe”. He abides by the same rules as any old Joe. The frontman of the “fathers of alt rock” has no special privileges or treatment of any kind when it comes to the creative work he makes public there.

"Confessions of a Michael Stipe" Is The Official Tumblr Of REM's Iconic Singer

Stipe has recently remarked that his personal Tumblr actually represents the “real” him – it’s not subject to people’s preconceptions, and no record company exerts the slightest influence on what he decides to publish.

Stipe also says he picked that name because of its ironic value. “This might not be the Michael Stipe that you think you know,” he said, “this is actually me”.

Freddy Mercury Gets One Of The Most Remarkable Google Doodles Ever

Posted on by

Freddy Mercury Would Have Become 65 Years Old This September

The candidate for the most impressive Doodle of the year became available earlier today as the Google homepage paid homage to Freddie Mercury on what would have been his 65th birthday.

Set to the music of “Don’t Stop Me Now”, the Doodle (embedded in its entirety below) references some of Mercury’s most emblematic moments. These include him dressing in drag for the “I Want To Break Free” music video, and there are subtle nods to “A Kind Of Magic” and “Innuendo”, the last Queen album to be published in Mercury’s life.

He died on the 24 of November, 1991, less than 24 hours after issuing a statement in which he confirmed the barraging rumors that he was HIV positive.