Music Notes: Metallica's NJ Festival, Madonna on Tour, Obama's Spotify, & More

Some random concert and music news from this week:

* Metallica's rumored music festival in New Jersey is a reality: the "Orion: Music + More" fest will take place on June 23rd and 24th at Bader Field in Atlantic City. The band will be headliners both days as well as curators of this new event, which also includes Arctic Monkeys, Modest Mouse, the Gaslight Anthem, F"*cked Up, Titus Andronicus, The Black Angels, Best Coast, and more.

Metallica's Orion music festival is officially on; see ticket info and other details below.

Tickets will be sold at "the early bird price of $150" starting tomorrow, Feb. 11th at 10 a.m. Eastern time at www.orionmusicandmore.com. Supplies are limited at this special price and ticket purchases are limited to no more than ten per person. You'll find an Orion fest FAQ here.

* Following up on her much-discussed Super Bowl halftime show, Madonna announced her 2012 world tour this week. The tour comes to North America on August 28th (in Philadelphia) and comes to Yankee Stadium on Sept. 6th. Tickets for all North American shows go on sale on Feb. 13th at Ticketmaster.com and LiveNation.com

* Maura Johnston of the Village Voice today penned a scathing take-down of how women in music are discussed in the press in her article "How Not to Write About Female Musicians: A Handy Guide." Apparently one thing that spurred the article was the recent profile of Lana Del Rey in T, the New York Times style magazine (Johnston lowered the boom on Del Rey in her review of the singer's "Born to Die" a couple of weeks ago.)

* The White House yesterday tweeted the official Spotify playlist of Pres. Barack Obama's re-election campaign, which the L.A. Times lists in full here (and humorously analyzes). The playlist includes soul and R&B (Earth, Wind and Fire, Aretha Franklin), country (Sugarland, Zac Brown Band), and some classic rock (REO Speedwagon, Electric Light Orchestra), among other things. And, of course, Al Green's "Let's Stay Together."

While many people have referred to this as Obama's playlist, the actual link says the songs are the picks of the campaign staff, with "a few of President Obama's favorites."

Prince, Metallica, Free Coldplay Single in Monday Music News

Lots of music news to start off the week. Prince is apparently back in fine form as a live act, and the he L.A. Times has praise for his set at Coachella. "The musician's dazzling performance Saturday night uses hits, guest stars and killer covers to cement his status as perhaps the top live act around," the article gushes. One cover tune he did: Radiohead's oldie-but-goodie, "Creep."

Speaking of Radiohead, Wired reports that Metallica is considering doing a pay-what-you-want release as Radiohead did for its "In Rainbows" album. Although Metallica has long been a critic of filesharing, Wired notes that "...With only one record left on its Warner Music Group contract, [Lars] Ulrich says Metallica could be planning a digital release along the lines of what Radiohead and Nine Inch Nails have done, as ironic as that might seem."

Continuing with the theme of digital downloads, Coldplay is going to give away its new single free online. A notice on the Coldplay Web site says that "Violet Hill," from the band's new album "Viva La Vida or Death And All His Friends," will be available free online for one week starting on Tuesday.

Perhaps more interesting, Coldplay has announced it will do two free shows: London's Brixton Academy (June 16th) and New York's Madison Square Garden (June 23rd).

Record Store Day, April 19th - Support Your Local Store!

The independent record store may be down, but it's not out... and it's fighting back. In fact, a“Record Store Day” will take place on Saturday, April 19th at hundreds of independently owned music stores all over the U.S.

The event seems to have lots of artist support, and many are putting their microphones where their mouths are by giving in-store performances or appearances on Record Store Day. Metallica and Panic at the Disco are the best known of these, but other participating artists include indie and local acts including The Donnas, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, The Duke Spirit, Film School, and many more. A whole bunch of stores will have live DJs, and others will have special sales or other promotions to attract customers.

The Record Store Day Web site above has listings of the musicians and where they're perform, but the links don't seem to work. Let's hope these will be up and running soon, so that people can find out when and where artists will be performing. You can read more about Record Store Day here.