The Digital Music Weblog

• The Digital Music Weblog retires
  As regular readers know, The Digital Music Weblog is retiring as of today. The blog will continue to exist as a searchable archive. Grant and Gordon, who have written so splendidly in this space, are staying in the network.
  
  Whenever we make a change, there is some disappointment among readers, and sadness for everyone -- including those of us involved in decision-making. We take it all seriously; nothing about this is capricious. TDMW has lived close to our hearts, and especially close to mine.
  
  This blog was my starting point at WIN (read this if you're interested). It was a little tough to let it go when I was hired by AOL, but Grant, Gordon (Tommy Perkins...
  



• Goodnight from The Digital Music Weblog
  

  Filed under: News, General

  
  
  The Digital Music Weblog is retiring from active duty as of today. I'd like to say a huge note of thanks to everyone who has helped or contributed to this fantastic blog since its launch in 2004. TDMW has seen some brilliant bloggers and has been a launching pad for many among the ranks of Weblogs, Inc; I will always be proud to say I'm one of them.
  
  TDMW may be retiring but, I will continue to write for other Weblogs, Inc sites. You can still read my work, along with a stable of other great bloggers, on Download Squad.
  
  Thanks...
  



• Labels tighten purse strings, divas beware
  

  Filed under: News

  Watch out Mariah Carey, the diva days are coming to an end. According to an article in The Daily Express, cost conscious labels are starting to cut the cord on bratty divas and their expensive entourages. No surprise given the overall tightening of the purse strings, and its certainly encouraging to see labels wising up to the idea of running like a real business.
  
  Glenn Coolfer points out the funniest bit or, if you're a shareholder, perhaps the saddest, "One of Warner Music's biggest mistakes last year was an album released by socialite Paris Hilton. It sold just 13,000 copies, a disaster made worse...
  



• Watch Here: Sigur Rós - Flugufrelsarinn
  

  Right - even though I can't sing along to any of the lyrics, Sigur Ros tunes regularly feature on my iPod with their wonderfully atmospheric quality. Over the past year one track from Sigur Ros' 1999 has had a revival thanks to film making student Liron Damir who created this dark brooding video clip that has attracted a lot of attention on YouTube and throughout the blogosphere.

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• Fan financing strikes another victory
  

  Filed under: News, New Artists

  Sellaband, a unique crowd sourcing site which allows emerging independent artists to take seed money from fans until they amass enough capital to record a full professional studio album, has announced its second fan funded breakthrough.
  
  Less than four months ago Jacob Kongaika, performing under the artist name Cubworld, decided to take a chance and upload his music on SellaBand. "I saw this as a long term plan, I was thinking more in the lines of 5 or 10 years, before I would have reached my recording budget", comments the artist. But soon after the first fans (Sellaband terms them, "Believers") bought Parts...
  



• Watch Here: Silverchair - Luv Your Life
  

  Indie rockers Silverchair achieved a fair bit of notoriety for themselves tagging along with the tail end of the grunge movement when still only in high school. These days things the lads are a little more melodic with Luv Your Life being one of their more mellow tracks. This video was directed by top animator and director Steven Scott and has a really wistful quality about it that's nicely in tune with the music and even though it's a few years old now is still a top clip.

  Permalink | General, Music, Must Hear
  Nope, it's not Tommy Lee vs. Neil Peart. It's not John Bonham vs Keith Moon. It's Buddy Rich vs. Animal. That's right. Animal. Elmo's whacked out black sheep uncle.
  
  
  
  
  
  Buddy Rich is the obvious winner here. He's the greatest Jazz drummer who ever lived, able to bang out monster beats at a speed and precision that would tax even the most exacting of robot drummers from a creepy musical future. That being said and all things being equal (as equal as can be when one opponent is a Muppet), Animal gives it his best...
  



• The Beatles and Apple Kiss and Make Up
  

  Rumours are circulating that the Beatles and Apple have finally settled their long running feud and as a result that Beatles tracks will finally be available on iTunes. The members of the legendary 60s pop group had a long running trade mark dispute with Apple over the Apple trade mark - which the Beatles controlled in terms of the music industry - as a result of their Apple Recordings label.

  Although the two companies had a agreement to allow their trade marks to co-exist, the issue came to a head as a result of Apple's enormous success with the iPod and iTunes, which reinvented the technology company as a heavyweight in the music world. ...
  




• Why music blogs will one day rule the earth
  

  Filed under: General

  What happens when your label's advertising budget runs thin? Well, you can't purchase ads in major music magazines. What happens when you stop purchasing ads in major music magazines? They stop covering your releases*.
  
  *if the magazine is Amplifier and the label is The Birdman Recording Group and, if this email exchange over at Idolator is the real deal.
  
  When told that Birdman's ad budget was closer to what I'd find in my pocket than to what an ad exec would use to buy a new Porsche, Amplifier's director of advertising wrote back, " Bummer.....wish we could continue to support your artists, but...
  



• From the Idol to the Bizzare
  

  Filed under: General

  Ok, we admit it, we were glued to the TV just like you last night, watching the part of American Idol which pays entertainment dividends like no other; The auditions.
  
  Seattle didn't fail to bring memorable characters to light. There's the Taylor-Hicks-haired hair dresser, who freaked out the security guards by trying to give Simon a little pomade. The bleach blond, gold wrapped, mother accompanied novella writer who butchered "Don't Cha" just as much as anyone else. That girl who removed the gum from her mouth just long enough to prove she couldn't sing. And, who could forget the God Bless America singing...