According to Forbes, RootMusic will be announcing today that it has raised $16 million in funding. Where is that hefty wad of cash going? To make Facebook the go-to place of music, allegedly.
I guess because he played a guy that helped to relaunch Facebook on a national scale in The Social Network, it was announced yesterday that Justin Timberlake became a minority shareholder in the $35 million buyout of the struggling MySpace.
American Idol has been having its ups and downs before the tenth season actually starts. First, Simon Cowell leaves. Then newest judge Ellen DeGeneres leaves and Kara DioGuardi has been sacked. After desperately attempting to reach out to many, many possible replacements such as Steven Tyler, Elton John, Justin Timberlake, Harry Conick Jr, and more Jennifer Lopez finally takes one of the empty seats. She was one of their top contenders in the beginning of the search, but they backed off when her demands got out of control. Well, it sounds like the show got really desperate because they ended up paying Lopez to sign on for $12 million dollars. It’s less than she wanted but is that amount still a surprise? No.
What is a surprise is how American Idol will be holding some auditions this season.
If you’re a fan of The Flaming Lips and live in the Los Angeles area this post is for you. Tonight, the group will perform a MySpace show in promotion of their latest album, Embryonic. Not only will this be an epic performance due to the group’s talent, but because it may be their last pubic performance for a very long time.
Find out more about tonight’s concert…
The new Raveonettes album isn’t officially released for two more weeks, but Foo and Wagner just shared via Twitter that you can listen to the entire album now!
With a few listens to it, it sounds like the pair has done it again. They’ve managed to perfectly combine raw, disturbing lyrics with light melodies which float just above the distortion. For instance, “Boys Who Rape” may sound cheerful at first but when you remember the title, the lyrics are not as friendly as you think.
Madonna has got some serious fans over at MySpace. The pop icon is currently featured on the homepage of MySpace Music. With the debut of the site’s new welcome page, you get to check out the singer’s latest music video for her single “Celebration.” The video featured is an official “Fan Version,” which includes die hard Madonna followers from all over the world.
Check out the Material Girl and her fans singing and dancing to Celebration…
iLike has been a popular music application for Facebook, but will that fan base matter when it comes down to opening a download store? According to CNET, the music service is currently trying to make a deal with four major labels to help back them up in this goal and are close to closing agreements with three of those labels. Multiple sources still can’t unveil which labels those are, but iLike is hoping to get this wrapped up within the next 30 days.
An iLike Seattle-based spokeswoman has stated, “While we don’t discuss the specifics…I can tell you that our goal remains the same: to facilitate music discovery and consumption across the Web.” Does this sound familiar? Imeem and MySpace have already tested the waters in this pool, and they have done all right because their libraries offer full songs instead of 30 second clips. Continue Reading
In a digital age where album sales no longer accurately represent a band’s success, it has become increasingly important for bands and labels to be able to measure popularity on the Internet, on sites like Myspace, Last.fm, YouTube, SoundCloud and Facebook. Music data site Band Metrics is looking to offer such a service, and opened up the private beta today for several thousand artists to test its system, reports Hypebot.
Band Metrics not only gauges song plays, profile views and comments across various platforms, but also tracks airplay on over 3,500 radio stations, and scores your music 8 different ways. For example, your band has a “fandom” rating and “brand strength”. The company is also launching a standard format for sending and receiving data from the site, so it’s easy for users to share band data between each other. Check out some of the more interesting forthcoming features in development:
The Mars Volta’s album Octahedron, due for release next week, is now available on Myspace (link) in its entirety for you to listen to. The bold offering emulates other bands that have streamed entire albums online like Wilco and Grizzly Bear.
It’s Volta’s fifth studio-recorded release, and the track Octopaxi reminds me a bit of the famous debut album De-Loused in the Comatorium. Check out the full track list below:
