The latest single from singer-songwriter John Hiatt “Same Old Man” is now available as a free mp3 download through May 19th. And if you like what you hear, Amazon also has a two week exclusive on a download of the entire “Same Old Man” album. Grab your free download here. download and image via amazon Share This

MeeMix keeps plugging along on its journey to attract more users to its personalized Internet radio service. Today the company is adding a new feature which complements users’ radio stations with “twin” music video channels. While Last.fm introduced video recommendations exactly a year ago, MeeMix thinks this will help make its service more attractive. The company [...]

At the NARM website there is a PDF of NPD Group's "NARM 2008 Physical Products Concept Test," the presentation given at last week's NARM conference in San Francisco. The study presented seven product concepts to about 1,400 respondents aged 13 and over. NPD argues there is no replacement for the CD -- which it insists still has life -- and alternative physical formats like digital album cards, CDVU and USB drives can find some success in niches.

The content page (slide 5) surprised me a bit. Lyrics are especially important to older consumers while younger consumers said bonus content was most important. Environmentally friendly packaging was the third most important product feature.

The CDVU format (slide 7) tested well with heavy physical buyers (which makes sense) and was the highest format next to the CD. Likely CDVU buyers are willing to pay the price of a CD. According to the survey, at $12 an equal number of respondents said the CDVU was both too expensive and too cheap.

The DFS updatable CD with Internet access to bonus content scored well with 18-24 segment. The MFA enhanced CD with bonus content (slide 13) was liked for the bonus content but was seen as a high-cost option for getting that content. The MVI format (slide 15) scored best with the 13-17 age segment. The digital album card (slide 17) received lukewarm response, had the strongest appeal to heavy digital buyers and was liked for gifting purposes. Interestingly, the digital album card's bonus content received a more positive response than its open format (slide 20).

The USB drive (slide 24) does not appeal to core digital buyers but has a broad appeal (for different reasons) and a higher acceptable price range.

As I wrote yesterday, the CD is not dead. Physical formats are not dead. Just as with digital products, what is needed for new physical products is some tinkering, creativity and persistence. Some respect for the consumer would be nice, too, and I assume that post-Sony BMG root kit that won't be a problem.

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[ from the job board ] Manager, Online Marketing at Wiredset in NYC

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Having read Paul's post yesterday, I instantly applied for a beta invite. In fact, while writing this blog post I'm listening to a very pleasant stream of music from the echotron. I'm impressed! It couldn't be much easier to get started. It's very easy to quickly add a bunch of artists I like to my profile, and I even get to listen to any search results. The recommendations are pretty good, definitely a lot better than many others I've seen out there... and they are sometimes rather different from the ones I get at Last.fm (in a good way). However, despite being biased, I'd still argue that Last.fm's recommendations are better ;-)

Anyway, it seems the echotron could easily turn into more than just a site built to showcase the echo nest's APIs.

• Six banks are reportedly near a deal to finance the private equity acquisition of Clear Channel. (Deal Journal)

• Chicago promoters are facing proposed legislation that could make it more difficult to hold concerts at licensed venues. "The ordinance as it stands requires independent promoters to apply for a license at a cost between $500 and $2,000 every two years, submit to fingerprinting and a criminal background check, secure as much as $300,000 in liability insurance and be at least 21 years old." (Chicago Sun-Times)

• Related: An interview with Chicago alderman Brendan Reilly. "Unfortunately, there are bad apples in this industry as well who are ruining it for those folks with a good business model. I know that law enforcement is in favor of passing an ordinance that will help us better regulate these folks and license them so we can track the bad actors and get them out of the industry." (Time Out Chicago)

• Starbucks' Hear Music is going to release a CD/DVD package for the next John Mellancamp album, Life, Death, Love and Freedom. The DVD will contain the entire album in CODE, a high-quality audio format developed by musician/producer T-Bone Burnett and a group of engineers. (Digital Music News)

• Seen at Billboard.com: An ad for the Zune Pass subscription service with the text, "Hurry, before they make this illegal. Discover unlimited music for the price of one CD a month." If the Zune Pass really is endangered, it's nothing a few more rounds of charity couldn't fix.

• The struggles of France's "three strikes" law. (EFF Deep Links)

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[ from the job board ] Manager, Online Marketing at Wiredset in NYC

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from lindsaycampbell.tumb posted with vodpod

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If you ever need to explain the Microsoft Playsforsure DRM fiasco to your Mom - this guy can help: The day the music died (via Colin)

Mark Hendrickson (Techcrunch), wrote yesterday about Blip - Twitter for Music.
I've tried Blip this morning, and I think it's absolutely an AWESOME service for people who love music! (and twitter)

After a quick sine-up, you'll be able to search for music tracks (powered by seeqpod), then simply "tweet" about them. Your chosen song, will be streaming in your message. You can also check what everyone listening-to right now on Blip, and follow the people you like their music taste.

Really liked this one, but oh I wish it will be integrated in Twitter or Pownce. Even a Facebook application will be fun to have.

Go try this: Blip and follow me if you want :-)


Blip service powered by Fuzz (community of music fans), which already own a nice Facebook app called: Mixtapes

Here's a Freakomendation from iLike. I was listening to the progressive rock masterpiece Karn Evil 9 by Emerson Lake and Palmer, when iLike suggested that I might like the song Grandma got run over by a reindeer performd by Elmo and Patsy. The rest of the recommendations were other Christmas schlock.

ilike apparently thought that ELPs only distinctive song was the Christmas chestnut I Believe in Father Christmas and connected it up with other well worn Christmas music.