James Taylor Now Offers Free Guitar Lessons On His Official Site
What about learning guitar from a truly renowned performer in the history of American folk music? And what about doing it without having to pay a dime?
That’s exactly what James Taylor’s latest online initiative is all about. The five-time Grammy Award winner has just begun imparting free guitar classes on his own website, www.jamestaylor.com. So far, he has uploaded two different tutorials, and an introductory message. You can watch them here. The idea seems to be offering updates on a weekly basis.
And just to do some brushing up, this is a video of Taylor performing his career-defining song ”Carolina In My Mind” at the BBC.
With The Release Of The First “App Album” Ever, Bjork Is Creating A New Way For Musicians To Market Their Art.
It’s great to see that while some musicians waste their time blaming the Internet for their declining album sales, others are actually embracing the latest technology and offering punters whole new ways to experience their music.
Bjork is one such artist. She has come up with the first “app album” in history. This app album is available both for iPhone and iPad, and it is basically made up of ten songs. Each of these songs has an app that goes with it, and which must be purchased individually. That is, you have to get the album itself (we could call it “the mother app”), and then buy the separate apps that go with each individual track.
The album/mother app is named Biophilia, and the first app (“Cosmogony”) is available for free. This is what you get when you launch the mother app:
In general, the apps themselves invite you to play games that relate to the theme of each song on the album (such is the case with “Crystalline”, the first “paid” app that has been released – video attached below), and also to create music of your own using your iPad (“Virus”, the second app that was issued). Which is quite fitting, really – Bjork composed “Biophilia” using one such tablet.
Personally, I think that Bjork must be praised for her inventiveness. And that’s regardless of how enjoyable one really finds this “app album” to be. If anything, she is showing us that the new and the old can blend and mix, without the detriment of either.
And you? What do you think of this new approach to music? Do you think other musicians will follow suit, and release their ver own “app albums”? Who is likelier to do it first?
No, I'm not stoned. That's an actual screenshot of the site!
And now, your weekly dose of madness on MusicKO…
Quite a curious site, YouTube Free Jazz can take random YouTube videos and use them to create sonic collages. The idea is that these should resemble the kind of music one can listen to when attending any outdoors Jazz concert.
That’s in theory. In practice, the site seems to create an almighty racket and little else. Only sporadically does it sound like Jazz. Hey, and I know what I’m talking about! I reviewed a social network for Jazz lovers recently, so I know what I’m on! And I even interviewed its creator.
It’s been four weeks now since Spotify launched in the US, and statistics are beginning to surface. Just last week I told you about these songs being shared more recurrently by users of the service. Well, now I’ve got something even yummier for you: the actual number of people who have signed up for the service.
According to All Things Digital, Spotify has captured the eardrums of no less than 1.4 million American users.
“Wait, what’s the deal?”, I hear you say. “Facebook has got more than 700 million users! That’s a tiny drop in the ocean!”
To that I can answer categorically “No, it’s not”.
Just to put things in perspective, Rhapsody has 800,000 registered users. And it took Rhapsody 10 years to get there. So, Spotify is doing things right so far. Specially when we take into account that out of these 1.4 million users, 175.000 have bought a subscription. That’s a conversion rate of approximately 12 %.
If Spotify manages to keep the momentum going, one year to this date it should have hit 20 million users. And if the conversion rate remains the same, about 3 million of these are going to be paying for the service.
Now that Spotify is firmly established on American soil, it’s time to see exactly the kind of music that people are not only listening to but also sharing through it.
This infograph (from ShareMyPlaylists.com) sheds some light on that subject. It basically highlights these songs that have been featured on the largest number of Spotify playlists so far.
Michael Jackson’s “They Don’t Care About Us” is on top with a whooping 7567 total shares. And the second and third place are taken by “Like A G6” (Far East Movement) and “Sexy Bitch” (David Guetta and Akon).
Incubus Has Released Incubattle To Promote Its Newest Album, "If Not Now, When?"
You might like Incubus or not, but there’s no denying that the social media campaign that they have put together to promote their latest album (“If Not Now, When?”) has been nothing short of admirable.
First, they had an interactive live stream going. Then, they announced a partnership with video-sharing app Viddy. And then, they began interacting with fans on Formspring.
What was left to do after all that action?
The answer was entirely obvious… a beat’em-up a la Double Dragon or Renegade!
These are two names that will surely ring a bell if you’re over 30. They were two of the most popular arcade games of the ‘80s, and I recall endless summer vacations playing them with my older brother.
Well, Incubus has come with their very own variation on such titles to promote their latest album. It’s named Incubattle, and they have done a terrific job as far as I’m concerned.
The game lets you pick your favorite band member and fight your way over five different stages, fighting pirates that have stolen copies of the album (he!). You can play the game on your own, or with a friend. And in addition to the usual punch/jump/dash controls, each character can perform a special move when he has collected enough leaked copies of the album. Continue reading →
Many saw it coming, but it’s not any less impressive because of that: Spotify has officially launched in the US.
Of course, an American launch had been rumored from day one. But that was all it was – only a rumor. A streaming service like Spotify was not something record companies in America would welcome with arms wide open. And they never did, actually. What made yesterday’s launch possible was that Spotify slowly began limiting the access users have to music for free, and also signing agreements with all major American record companies restricting what can be streamed, and at which rate.
Spotify had to acquiesce for the simple reason that (notwithstanding its popularity) the company has been running on a loss almost from the beginning. Only 10 % of its estimated 10 million users are paid subscribers. Launching in the States is the only way to attain long-term sustainability.
The company aims to amass no less than 50 million users in the space of 1 year.
Spotify has a 15 million-strong music library (bigger than Pandora, MOG and Rdio to name three direct competitors), and unlike Pandora and Rdio it enables users to add these locally-stored tracks they own to their online collections.
What do you think? Will that be enough to make the European startup thrive on American soil? Or is it arriving too late for its own good to America? Are you signing up for it?
Facebook Music Is Becoming More And More Of A Tangible Reality
We will have to wait until August for Facebook to announce what its much-speculated music service is going to be all about. Yet, a coder who was trying to get Facebook’s new Skype-powered chat to work found something quite interesting on the program that must be installed to activate such a service.
This person (whose named is Jeff Rose) has discovered that the installer supports not one but two applications. One is related to the video chat client itself, and it is called “Peep”. The other, now, is called “Vibes”. And it is blatantly obvious “Vibes” is connected with a music service. The code in question makes it clear its users will be given the chance to download music found online. Just take a look at it:
if (paramString.equals(“com.facebook.peep”))
return this.window.getMember(“VideoChatPlugin”);
if (paramString.equals(“com.facebook.vibes”)) {
return this.window.getMember(“MusicDownloadDialog”);}
The next F8 Conference will be held on August. The exact date is yet to be announced, but we know for sure it is revolving around music. The exact nature of Facebook’s music service and a deal with Spotify are the hottest items on the agenda.
Big news today as it has just been announced that the next F8 Conference will revolve around one thing: music. I’m sure someone at MySpace is having a heart attack right now…
The Internet has been abuzz with discussions concerning a possible Facebook and Spotify alliance, but Zuckerberg himself denied that. And most people (count me in) also saw such an alliance as unviable. But now it has been confirmed that Facebook and Spotify have indeed been discussing a joint service. And what’s even more interesting, Facebook has also been approaching other music service providers. If it’s not Spotify (again – I stand my previous ground), then it’s surely going to be an America-based startup. Which makes more sense, owing to the legal implications of streaming music online.
We can only try and guess which features Facebook music will have, but it’s fair to assume that a tab reading “Music” will be displayed on the left-hand side of the screen, right with your friends, groups and places, and that clicking on it will let you stream songs live from the one service that becomes Facebook’s music partner.
With Facebook being the most visited site on Earth, this can be the death knell not only for MySpace but also for services like Apple’s own Ping. We’ll have to wait until August to know more, as that is when the F8 Conference will be held and all these questions will be answered for good.
“The Future Is Medieval” Is The Newest Album By Kaiser Chiefs. In A Bold Move, Fans Can Choose Which Tracks To Actually Buy
Can you imagine what would happen if bands let punters build their own albums using the songs they have recorded, arrange them in the order they want and also pick a cover to go with these? Would that be beneficial for the actual music recorded by bands, or would that be taking things just too far? I ask you because a band has done exactly such a thing, and it is turning to be the talk of the Internet.
British indie band Kaiser Chiefs has just finished recording a 20-track CD, and it lets people buy any ten songs from it, in the order they see fit, and give it a cover of its very own using lots of preloaded images. What’s even more interesting is that once a person orders this customized CD, he will then be given the option to sell this customized album himself online, and earn 1 pound per sale.
This is as interesting as it is debatable. While letting fans do such a thing is the ultimate way to get them engaged, it also lessens the unity of what has been recorded. In this specific case, Kaiser Chiefs has recorded 20 songs. The fans buying the album will get to listen to only 10. A system like this one might as well come with a large sticker reading “Forget about sequencing or continuity”.
Plus, the fact that there might be as many versions of an album around as fans of the band means nobody will have the same impression of what has been released. There are thousands of ways in which songs can be combined.
This is not really the first time something like this has been done. Not so long ago, Devo crowdsourced the tracklist for its album “Something For Everybody”. And going way, way back I recall how MusicMaker.com let you customize your copy of The Who’s “The Blues To The Bush” before ordering it. Granted, it wasn’t the same thing. That was a live album. But it made for multiple permutations of the same disc to be available to the public.
Kaiser Chiefs’ “The Future Is Medieval” is a brand-new collection of songs. The only way to listen to all of them is by ordering two copies with 10 cuts each. So, how will this go down with fans? If your favorite band ever did the same thing, how supportive would you be? Leave a comment below and let us all know, please!
