I’m always thinking about the name of the band that I’m going to start when I get really good at playing the guitar. Some of these names I’ve been carrying around with me for a while and some have just popped-up recently. I’ll add to this list as I come across good ones:

New Additions!
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Politics and music seem to go hand in hand. If it’s not RollingStone Magazine proclaiming the Bush Administration as the worst presidency ever (which I agree with) then it’ s Bono doing the meet and greets with Kings and Queens to drive dollars to Africa. I’m all for anything that raises general consciousness of important issues, especially to a younger audience that will be in power one day and control the agenda. And, I’m all for bands that are using their public platform to do good. With that, I give you www.musicforamerica.org - a site that promotes band with a political message (mostly around voting and hating the Iraq war - both good things). Check it out.

As if the titans of music industry didn’t have enough bad karma in their ethereal bank account, now they are on another round of “sue people who can’t protect themselves in court because it is expensive” for illegally downloading music. A couple of stories were recently posted on MSN and Seattle PI about the lawsuits and letters delivered to college students and individuals regarding illegally downloaded music. While the main story is old news, the real story buried in the PI article discusses how file sharing software like Limewire, BearShare, etc. leave open a perfectly legitimate access point that allows RIAA researchers the ability to scan harddrives. This is scary for a couple of reasons: 1) if the RIAA can get in to see how many illegal downloads you have, who else can get in to mess with your computer? 2) If RIAA can see illegal music downloads, what can other people see on your system?

While I understand the RIAA’s need to protect it’s artists and labels from piracy, there has got to be a better way to deal with music piracy than sue the people who form the foundation of your customer base. Especially by invading their privacy. Legal services like Rhapsody, Napster, Yahoo give you legal access to most of the music you want for a very small monthly fee and is a much safer way to go about having access to large music collections.
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How else do you explain Sanjaya staying another week on idol? Oh, I know why - the good folks over at www.votefortheworst.com (VFTW) who have taken Sanjaya on as thier cause of the day. VFTW got another big boost from Howard Stern who promoted the site on the 13th and encouraged his listeners to vote for Sanjaya.

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The recent settlement with the top four radio properties has me wondering if Payola is still alive and well in the US. The record labels hold a lot of power in the music industry obviously and radio stations depend on the ability to play just about any song they need to whenever they need to with little to no royalties involved. However, the labels need the radio stations to play their music to expose the song, artist, album to the folks who will buy the CD or purchase it online.

While Payola was a significant problem/issue in the 50’s and 60’s, it seems like that activity would get sniffed out pretty quickly in the age of free flying information on the internet. One post somewhere about one DJ or song or label executive would cause a stir. I believe that we want to believe that the voice on the radio (hey Mr. DJ!) is doing what he/she digs to do and either we like it and listen or don’t. I think the online music community is strong enough and vocal enough to listen and respond to an un-truthfulness (sorry Mr. Colbert) like Payola.
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We (I) tend to think of music as it relates to me, the listener. But I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about the pure number of artists there are making music and struggling to be heard. In the past, the only real outlet for musicians was getting “discovered”, signing a record deal and getting radio airplay or working clubs and small gigs ad nausium. The internet is clearly changing the paradigm because now the artists can go directly to the people in the form of MySpace pages, digital music services like iTunes and Rhapsody as well as pure music discovery tools like Pandora. With the right music, the right approach to the internet and the right business sense - an artist can sell CDs and make a better living making music without being beholden to the record labels. Will they ever be HUGE without a label deal? not until the purchase of music digitally is the norm instead of the exception. Even then, it will be difficult to be U2 huge, but musicians that find a voice and an audience should be able to make a good middle class living doing what they love, providing great fan service and linking with other groups that are similar. This is getting good for both fans and musicians alike. Sweet!

Great article on the money section of CNN today discussing the music model of the future (which we’ve know for a while) which is the great Jukebox in the sky. Read the article here.Main points include the fact that the music portion of iPhone (iTunes) is built on a business model of the past - buying and owning music, while Rhapsody is the model of the future - instant access to any music, anywhere, anytime. As Rhapsody extends it’s reach to more than just the PC (now on mp3 players like Sansa Rhapsody and in-home devices like Sonos and Squeezebox), it won’t be long until it’s on cell phones, car radios and boom boxes. The fact that the mp3 player can plug into anything that has an auxilary input is a half-step there already, but as wide area wireless networks roll-out (Clearwire anyone?) the ability to access the Rhapsody Jukebox will become more ubiquitous and require less per song owning and more discovery of new music. Good times lay ahead.

I spent the New Year’s holiday with my family and friends on the East side of the mountains in glorious shoulder high snow. The person we were staying with had gotten DSL to his house late last year and I gave him the full scoop on rhapsody which he wanted to try. When we went to Rhapsody.com to listen to some tunes, it became clear very quickly that Rhapsody.com and IE 7 don’t get along. I became even more outraged when I was unable to download FireFox onto my friends computer because it was blocked by IE7! Apparently, the default security setting in IE 7 is medium high which limits downloading a lot of items including software from www.micrsoft.com. Nice work Microsoft! After changing the security settings in IE7, I was able to download firefox and get everything working, but boy - what a pain! Here’s the lesson: Don’t download and use IE7 yet - let everyone catch up to it first (including Microsoft :-))

I love Rolling Stone. Have forever, even more after “Almost Famous” but making Bob Dylan’s new album “Modern Times” the #1 album of the year? Ugh. Love the melodies and song crafting but the voice is gone and makes me want to hide. If you’re going to pick an old foggie as your #1 at least pick a decent album like Road to Escondido by JJ Cale and Eric Clapton - one of my new favs.

Anyhow here is the Rolling Stone Top 50 Albums of 2006 (for what it’s worth)
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Have you seen the new commercial for the Sansa Rhapsody with Eric Clapton? Rhapsody has it posted online here. It shows Eric Clapton in a studio, surrounded by guitars talking about the importance of listening to music. I wish he had talked more about how he continues to listen to new music for inspiration and ideas. Some of the research I’ve read regarding music and the mind indicates that are brains are much more open to new and different sounds when we’re young, but start to freeze as we get older. Because of this, we tend to only like music, sounds, patterns that are established when we were young. Makes a ton of sense and supports the “those damn kids and their music!” stereo type. I think by listening to new, different music through out our lives, we can continue to keep our brain paths open and fresh. Rhapsody can help this by letting you listen to new, different music from whomever for zero financial risk. By paying a flat monthly fee for all you can eat music, there is no incremental cost of a song or CD to hear the latest from the Killers or Snoop Dog. My 2 cents worth of science.