Does the Music Industry Have it Backward?

Raghuram Iyengar, a marketing professor at Wharton, suggests that the music industry would be much better off if they embraced the pay-per-song model and (get this) actually lower the price per song to be closer to 30 to 40 cents each.

His research shows that consumers would buy significantly more songs at a lower price point. So many more in that that profits would be significantly higher. I wonder if the big labels are listening?

U2 360

Who wants to see U2 in Cardiff this August? I can show you around Swansea.

I Want My MTV

I am super excited that MTV has finally taken a step in the right direction and put "Music" back into their acronym.

Watch all of your favorite videos from your favorite artists on their new site, MTVMusic.com, or watch them embedded in your favorite (albeit infrequently-updated) blog, I'm on the dot com.

Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five? Got it.
Digital Underground? You betcha.

Dire Straits - Money for Nothing? Bingo:

Dire Straits |MTV Music

Adele

I saw Adele perform at the Theatre de la Jeune Lune (my new fav theatre in the minne) last night. For a 20 year old, her voice has amazing depth and personality. Think Amy Winehouse with neither the craziness nor drugs. It's the sort of voice that makes older men reminisce about their teenage years, and young girls giddy about the cute boy sitting next to them.

In other words, definitely check her out. (and don't forget to check out her MPR in-studio performance, which should be updated soon)

Happiness

This is simply too fun

St Vincent

Last night a few of us saw St Vincent both rock out and woo the audience at the Cedar Cultural Center. As St Vincent walked past us off the stage, my friend Jeff summed the evening up best: "she's adorable".

AND, she can play one mean guitar.

But don't take my word for it; see what my African sister across the pond listed as her top album of 2007.

The Current Saves the World

Call me crazy, but 89.3 The Current is one of the top 10 best things in Minnesota. Actually, if the voting were up to me, I'd put it into the top 5. Maybe even top 3.

It's a place where real people (not faceless DJs) play real music -- not just the over-produced Nickelback-wannabes that Clear Channel and MTV try to throw in your face. Tonight, on this lovely Valentine's Day, Mark Wheat has been serenading us devote listeners with the top love songs of all time. Come midnight, they will kick it Wedding Singer style and play the top break-up songs of all time.

Curious to see what made the list? Check out The Current's playlist.

Could you ask for anything more?

Looking to Buy Your Favorite Blogger a Christmas Present?

I'll take this.

1987 Never Felt so Cool

I don't know much about 1987.

I was more concerned about making the perfect fort and finding Chewbaca's missing arm than the terrible fashion trends plaguing our nation. Music was a mystery to me, minus my beloved Duran Duran tape (I rule!).

Now when I think of 80's music, the first thoughts to cross my mind are synthesizers, tight pants, and more cowbell.

So, as you can imagine, I was shocked when I recently realized that 1987 put out one of the greatest albums of all time -- U2's The Joshua Tree. What's that you say? But it's still relevant today? I know -- that what makes it so amazing. Not only does it rock your face off (Bullet the Blue Sky), but it also makes you think (I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For).

To commemorate this monumental album (AND to make more money for their new skyscraper), U2 just released a special 2 CD + 1 DVD "Limited Edition Super Deluxe" version of The Joshua Tree.

Bono for President.

Conet Project Track

Brad pointed out from my previous post that the Conet Project samples didn't play.

So here's a sample à la Last.fm (make sure to listen for at least a minute and a half):

The Conet Project – The Swedish Rhapsody [G2A]

Awesome RJD2 - Work it Out

Music Madness

What's stranger than the name Electric Fetus? How about seeing Talib Kweli perform a free full-set show at the 'Fetus. I thought for sure the show would be out in the parking lot. So I was a little surprised to find out upon arrival that people were simply packing themselves in between the racks and racks of CDs.

I also recently went to the Alarmists show at Mill City Live. The Alarmists rock, and are now competing with Mason Jennings and Stuart Davis for my favorite local band. Definitely check them out.

And last but not least, this past Friday I went to my favorite venue in Minneapolis, The Varsity, to see Vicious Vicious rock out to a crowd excited for their CD release show.

September looks like another busy music month. Gotta love that Minneapolis Music Scene.

Songbird = Sweetness

Have you heard about Songbird yet? Think Firefox meets iTunes. It's your one-stop shop for everything multi-media. Open it up and play your iTunes library. Or browse to your favorite website, and Songbird will serve up in a sub-window any and all media found. Find a tune or a movie you like? Add it to your Songbird library and it's yours to queue whenever you wish. I'd try to sum up all what Songbird can do, but this video demonstration is about 1000 times easier to understand.

My vote for coolest app of 2007.

Bad News Bubble

This is what happens when you're a photoholic and music junky. Perhaps it is time to upgrade my 6 year old computer? Or maybe I just need to wipe away all those random pictures in triplicate that never make it up to Flickr...

DRM With Boundaries

I really dig the British electronica group Faithless. My brother's friend Joost introduced them to me. I still remember it like it was yesterday -- driving through the Netherlands in his Passat with its hip blue dials glowing from the dashboard while Sunday 8PM was grooving through the speakers. It was and still is one of my favorite memories from my European travels.

They are one of the few artists whose work I will purchase without giving any prior listen. So I was a little disappointed (yet excited at the same time) this weekend to discover that they came out with a new album this past year, only to be released in the UK.

I have since ordered it online, but it brought up some points that I found quite annoying:

• As globalized as the world has become, why do record companies choose to release certain albums in only one section of the world? Who does that benefit?
• I switched my iTunes settings to browse the UK's iTunes Store, only to be told upon attempted purchase that I was only allowed to buy from the US store. Thanks DRM.
• Record companies have been complaining loudly about slumping record sales in regards to the digital revolution, yet here I am attempting to buy music digitally from them and they won't let me? Don't you want my money?

Voxtrot

Went to see Voxtrot at the Triple Rock Social Club last night with a few members of the music club. Au Revoir Simone and Sound Team opened for them. Voxtrot (from Austin, TX) put on a solid show even though they're really young. I have a feeling they won't be playing in venues like the Triple Rock (a small bar) for long.

Oddly enough, the best part of the night was standing at the back of the bar and watching the members of Au Revoir Simone and Sound Team dance their brains out to Voxtrot -- it really added an extra element to the show.

The absolute highlight however came when a random guy in the crowd went over to the bassist from Sound Team and, without any warning or communication, picked him up and passed him to his friend, as if a passing a crying baby off to its mother. Talk about extreme confusion. One minute the bassist was dancing some sort of indie-music inspired jig, the next he was being passed around as if he were a rag doll.

I guess you had to be there...typing it out doesn't capture the pure randomness and hilarity of the event. I literally could not stop laughing.

A Prairie Home Companion Weekend

My parents visited this past weekend for what turned out to be a very productive (notice the recent theme?), tasty, and fun weekend.

Productive: major yard work. It's never looked so good. I think my parents should open up a landscaping / garden consulting / sweet corn operation when they retire.

Tasty: good food. We ate at my favorite restaurant in the Cities, 128 Cafe. We also checked out Cafe Lurcat. Lurcat was just ok in my opinion. I got the feeling that they were trying too hard to be a high class establishment. And they seriously need to fix their acoustic issues. We weren't in the bar. And it's not a club -- it's a restaurant. Why am I shouting? You hear me Lurcat? No? That's right -- fix your acoustics. We finished the high-calorie weekend at Edina Creamery and Yum! (appropriately named if you ask me).

Fun: Everything was fun, but the topper was seeing Prairie Home Companion (click the link for audio clips and pictures from the show), with special guest Wilco. The show overall was great. Wilco was awesome.

For those of you unfamiliar with the show, about halfway through it Garrison will read off various "greetings". They range from "Happy 90th birthday Francis", to "Congratulations Franky on getting your drivers license. Don't crash my car." Upon entering the theater, they provide you with scrap paper and pencil, and you have a minute to come up with a sentence that will hopefully be creative enough or sentimental enough to reach Garrison's hands.

In my haste, I believe I wrote, "Hello to [my parents], who after 30 years of marriage still sleep next to each other." We rushed to our seats, and upon sitting down I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. I realized I had written down the wrong anniversary number. I considered running back downstairs to change it, but figured it would be nearly impossible to find my slip of paper amongst the hundreds of others. And besides, what are the chances that Garrison would read my note?

Funny how things work out.

About halfway through the greetings he read my message. My jaw dropped, and my parents looked at me in startled confusion, asking was that their name he just read over live radio to his millions of faithful listeners. Yep. Funny how things work out.

Easter Weekend = Lots of Fun

• Friday night - Pieta Brown at The Cedar, followed by a stop into Palmers
• Saturday morning - 5th bed delivery attempt. It was finally delivered correctly (almost)
• Saturday day - worked outside in the cold, finished our backyard fence (almost)
• Saturday night - Neko Case at First Avenue
• Sunday morning - service at a Danish Lutheran Church over by Minnehaha Academy
• Sunday noon - Easter lunch and egg decorating
• Sunday afternoon - Sunny but chilly jog
• Sunday night - "Heavy drinking" with Anders' family

iTunes + Local Concert Listings = iConcertCal

I recently found out about iConcertCal, a super cool plug-in for iTunes. According to their website, "iConcertCal is a free iTunes plug-in that monitors your music library and generates a personalized calendar of upcoming concerts in your city."

I haven't installed it yet, but definitely plan to. I will try to remember to give a recap about how accurate/useful it is after a few weeks of use.

I got 99 problems

The timing of this is definitely not ideal, but it's the funniest thing I've seen in a while and provided me a much needed laugh, and therefore wanted to share. For those of you that aren't familiar with Jay-Z (mom, dad, others), I apologize.

I found this when I stumbled across Au$10's blog (one of Decatur's finest CD salesmen and Paste contributor).