Stream New Liars, “Scissor,” Which, For the First Two Minutes, Sounds Like Tom Waits Singing a Waltzed Cover of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and then Proceeds to Become a Speed Metal Track, Which is as Confusing, and Not Nearly as Great as It Should Be; Sisterworld Released March 9 [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Jeff Mangum, Indie Folk’s Howard Hughes, Emerges From Seclusion to Record Cover of Tall Dwarfs’ “Sign the Dotted Line” For a Chris Knox Charity Album (Stream 30-Second Sample); Mangum Most Likely Heavily Bearded, Pasty [Pitchfork]
Weezer Frontman Rivers Cuomo, Who Was in a Serious Bus Accident on Sunday, is Recovering Well; Elsewhere, Thousands of Bloggers Breathe Sigh of Relief After Making Slightly Morbid “Say it Ain’t So” Reference Toward the Accident Yesterday; I Instead Choose to Wonder Whether Any Muppets Will Visit Rivers in Hospital [Spin]
British Post-Punk Outfit The Horrors’ Primary Colours is Awarded NME’s Album of the Year, with The xx Taking Second Place; NME Stands Firm in Stance That Britain > U.S.A., Even Though U.S.A. > Britain in Revolutionary War [NME]
Apple Purchases Popular Streaming Media Site/Pitchfork’s Number One Main Squeeze Lala For $17 Million – All Who Purchased Music On Lala May Lose their Songs (But Not to Worry, It’s Mostly Just Copies of Owl City’s “Fireflies”) [Prefix]
Stream “The Old Graveyard” a Track From Gigi, a Canadian Duo Consisting of One of the Guys From No Kids, and Destroyer’s Producer – They Claim It’s Supposed to Sound Like Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound Stuff…I Think It Sounds Like an Olivia Tremor Control Cover Band, Which is a Good Thing; Debut LP Maintenant Released Early 2010 [Gorilla vs. Bear]
Wisconsin’s Eau Claire Memorial High School Jazz Band Announces Debut Album, A Decade With Duke; Released Today (And Cindy and Britney are So Excited that Justin Vernon is On the Album – He’s Like SUCH an Indie Heartthrob <333) [Pitchfork]
compiled by Max Sebela
August 30, 2009
Spotify Approved for iPhone with U.S. Launch Still Pending
VIRTUAL JUNGLE
If you have not heard of Spotify, there’s a good reason: the music streaming application is still banned in the United States. Nonetheless, the service is quickly gaining popularity across Western Europe, and Spotify’s founders plan to launch in the United States before the end of the year. In edging closer to a U.S. release, Spotify received a long-awaited stamp of approval from Apple when it approved Spotify’s iPhone mobile application for premium subscribers.
Spotify works like a standard P2P service, but it allows you to only stream songs – not download them to a hard disk. In this manner, Spotify avoids the legal pitfalls of downloading music but it still allows people to freely listen to and find music. In fact, you can search and browse Spotify by artists and genre selection, as well as create playlists and share them with friends.
Apple’s approval of the Spotify mobile application bodes well for Spotify’s U.S. launch. Even though Spotify links to iTunes to purchase songs, it is seen as a direct competitor to Apple’s music service. For example, Spotify’s iPhone application allows users to cache up to 3,333 songs for instant playback.
At this point though, the founders of Spotify probably see the green light to break into the largest music market. With the much-needed approval from Apple, Spotify may be able to use to additional $50 million in capital it earned earlier this month, as Wired reported.
For U.S. P2P users, the carefree days of Napster and the Pirate Bay may be gone, but Spotify could promise a progression of the music industry finally finding equilibrium with the Internet.
by Ben Benson
Virgin Megastore Closing Brings Us St. Vincent [Brooklyn Vegan]
Nine Inch Nails App Rejected by Apple, But Reznor’s Getting Married! [Prefix]
Tupac Twin or the Real Thing? [The Tripwire]
Fiery Furnaces Back in the Fray [Brooklyn Vegan]
Another Sweet 90s Revival [Prefix]
Coldplay, Get Your Copyrighting Straight [The Tripwire]
New Music Preview: The Cool Kids “Popcorn” MP3 [Prefix]
R.E.M. Reissue [Pitchfork]
Dark Was the Night Does It Right [Stereogum]
Britney Fans Getting All “Crazy” On Her [NME]
compiled by Elana Jacobs
September 10, 2008
New iTunes Rivals Pandora and LastFM
Never second in line, Apple’s eighth version of iTunes includes a “Genius” feature which (according to Apple’s website) “creates a playlist of other songs from your library that go great together. Genius playlists help you discover songs in your library you never knew you had — and rediscover forgotten favorites…As you select songs in your library, the Genius sidebar displays songs from the iTunes Store that go great with it. The Genius sidebar won’t recommend songs already in your library, and you can preview and buy recommended songs directly from the sidebar.” The technology used by “Genius” is seemingly similar to that of Pandora’s Music Genome Project.
Experiments conducted by JezebelMusic.com staff confirm that the genius of iTunes is genuine.
