Stones Add Guests to Their Sat. NJ Show; Yo La Tengo are Rocking Maxwell's; More

It's pretty quiet again on the streaming-album front this week, so we'll focus on other musical goings-on (particularly live shows) in today's post.

The 800-pound-gorilla of rock & roll comes to Newark this week.

As we mentioned last week, the Rolling Stones have been added to Wednesday's blockbuster 12/12/12 concert, and now the Stones have announced that some big-name special guests will be joining them at their NJ concerts this week (the 13th and 15th at the Prudential Center in Newark): Bruce Springsteen, The Black Keys, and Lady Gaga. [Update: It sounds like these special guests may only be at the concert on the 15th, which the Stones will televise on pay-per-view on many cable/satellite systems.]

(Speaking of the 12/12/12 concert, it's estimated that it's televised presentation will now be available to as many as two billion people. It will be shown on countless websites and TV stations, including PBS, MTV, and many others in the U.S. Good news, since tickets have been listed on StubHub for as much as $36,000 each for floor tickets.)

Another multi-night stand is now underway in Hoboken, though one on a much smaller scale: Yo La Tengo's annual Eight Nights of Hanukkah at Maxwell's. For those counting, tonight is night three, and if you didn't score tickets to any of the sold-out shows, you can follow allow on the band's tour diary. Part of the fun is finding out who the special guests will be, and here's the roster so far: the Raybeats on Saturday, Sun Ra Arkestra Sunday night, and The Feelies tonight.

Note: You can download the first two nights of the Yo La Tengo shows (and possibly more later on) from NYC Taper at www.nyctaper.com. The sets by the comedians and the opening musicians aren't available.

Another way to get a Yo La Tengo fix if you can't be at Maxwell's is to read Jesse Jarnow's book, "Big Day Coming: Yo La Tengo and the Rise of Indie Rock."Jarnow is a freelance writer and a DJ at famed freeform radio station WFMU, where YLT has played many times.


Matisyahu plays in NYC on Saturday.

Also this week, Matisyahu plays Terminal 5 on Saturday with his full band (surprisingly, tickets are still available). And New York's Nada Surf plays twice at Bowery Ballroom, on Friday and Saturday. (Saturday's show sold out, but there are tickets available for Friday. And there are tickets for both shows available from brokers, some selling for below face value.)

There's lots of great pre-holiday live music out there, get out and enjoy it...

Radiohead Makes Its New Album, "The King of Limbs," Available for Pre-Order

Radiohead has made its latest album, titled "The King Of Limbs," available for pre-order. If you were hoping this would be another pay-what-you-wish arrangement unlike "In Rainbows," well, you're out of luck.

The band is at first making the album available only as a digital download and as part of a "newspaper album" package. This includes a CD, digital, and vinyl versions of the album (two clear 10-inch vinyls disks); a special record sleeve to hold the vinyl; and "many large sheets of newspaper artwork, 625 tiny pieces of artwork, and a full-colour piece of oxo-degradable plastic to hold everything together," according to the official "The King of Limbs" website.

Buying just the digital download without all the fancy packaging costs $9 U.S. for MP3 and $14 for WAV. Customers who pre-order "The King Of Limbs" will be able to download the digital versions on Saturday, Feb. 19th.

Buying "The King Of Limbs" through this pre-order "newspaper album" will cost either $48 or $53 for U.S. customers, depending on whether you go for the MP3 or WAV format.

But if you'd like a physical product but don't want to shell out the extra bucks for the photos, vinyl, etc., don't worry: "The King of Limbs" will be on sale in regular CD and 12-inch vinyl on March 28th "in all good record stores" (however one defines that). And, I would assume that the digital versions will be for sale on iTunes and Amazon.com's MP3 store.

As much as I like Radiohead, I'll opt for the plain old CD or digital download, rather than going for the "newspaper album."

Great Music Cheap: 1,000 MP3 Albums for $5 from Amazon.com

The Broken Bells' self-titled album is one of 1,000 MP3 albums on sale for $5 through January.

Amazon.com is having another album download blowout in January, offering 1,000 MP3 albums for $5 eachtill the end of the month.

As usual, they span many genres but emphasize rock and pop, and there are new releases as well as older ones. See the 1,000 MP3 albums for $5 eachhome page for categories such as alternative and indie rock, pop, classic rock, greatest-hits collections, classical, country, dance and electronica, folk, soundtracks, and more.

You can also browse the selection of some of the best albums of 2010 for $5 each, including the latest albums by Broken Bells, Band of Horses, MGMT, Local Natives, Best Coast, Weezer, Land of Talk, Liz Phair, and Jesca Hoop.

It's a great selection of albums, and it's easy on the budget (as long as you don't buy too many, that is).

MP3 Specials Today Only: $1.99 for New Albums by Gorillaz, John Legend, KT Tunstall, More

The new album by John Legend & The Roots is one of the MP3 albums you can get for $1.99 on Tuesday, Nov. 23rd only.

I know it seems like I'm writing about Amazon.com's MP3 albums every week, but they are having some great Black Friday deals this week. Here's the story: every day this week they're offering five different MP3 albums for $3.99 each. And most of these are new albums.

For Tuesday, however, the five albums are only $1.99 each. Four are new albums (the latest from John Legend & the Roots, KT Tunstall, Gorillaz, and Belle & Sebastian) and one classic album, "Chronicle: 20 Greatest Hits" by Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Check the Amazon Black Friday MP3 albums sale page each day this week for the latest deals.

Update: The Beatles Finally Hit iTunes

UPDATED 10 a.m.: Yes, The Beatles have finally come to iTunes. The above image appears on the iTunes landing page, and the band takes up the top section of the iTunes Store.
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The Beatles catalog is finally coming to iTunes for real, if the strongest rumors to date are to be believed.

In a story that was reported first by The Wall Street Journal Monday, Apple's iTunes announcement scheduled for Tuesday seems clear to the the long-awaited, often-premature addition of music by The Beatles to the iTunes catalog.

The story has been reported in the New York Times and Billboard as well, with different sources pointing to clues in Apple's invitation to the iTunes announcement (seen above on the landing page of the iTunes Store), including the invite's wording and design.

Could the Beatles/iTunes speculation be wrong? Billboard has an article offering seven possible developments Apple could spring on us at the iTunes announcement, from streaming music to longer music samples and Ping/Facebook integration.

Bonnaroo 2010 - Free Music Downloads, Concert Streams & Downloads, & More

Bonnaroo is in full swing down in Tennessee, and if you can't be there you can experience lots of the music through your computer and speakers. The Internet has been buzzing with news of the great performances at this year's Bonnaroo, including Nas and Damian Marley; Stevie Wonder; New Brunswick, New Jersey's Gaslight Anthem; Jack Black and Tenacious D paying tribute to the recently deceased Ronnie James Dio; and what some said was the unexpectedly effective combination of Daryl Hall (of Hall & Oates) with the Montreal hip-hop duo Chromeo.

Where to hear Bonnaroo music free online:
* The Bonnaroo YouTube channel has lots of content, and some live streams from the stage (I'm watching Jay-Z's set right now, at 1 a.m.). Check the Bonnaroo website for tomorrow's schedule and to see what'll be streaming live.

* NPR Music's Bonnaroo coverage is some of the best around, with live streaming concerts, archived concerts to stream or download as podcasts, photos, and background pieces on many of the artists.

There's also NPR's free Bonnaroo sampler download, featuring 11 tunes from The Black Keys, Miranda Lambert, Ozomatli, and Mumford and Sons.

* Spin.com also has a free Bonnaroo sampler download, with 16 songs for the taking. Their Bonnaroo sampler includes songs by The National, Gaslight Anthem, Kings of Leon, Tinariwen, Blitzen Trapper, and Chromeo, to name a few. And Spin.com has photos, stories, best- and worst-of lists, and more from each day of Bonnaroo.

2009 Amazon.com Black Friday & Cyber Monday Sales: Music, Movies, and More

For those of you recovering from eating massive amounts of turkey and other foods, the Amazon.com Black Friday sales offer you the chance to shop for your friends and relatives (or yourself) and get some great deals. (What's more, many of the specials will continue through Cyber Monday).

The Amazon.com Black Fridays main pagelists deals available in a number of popular categories: music, movies and TV, electronics, video games, etc. At the top of the page is a "Lightning Deals" offer. These are items available only for a limited time and in limited quantity, and below the item is a countdown timer and a progress bar showing you what percentage of the item has been claimed. If you like the pulse-pounding thrill of chasing down a hot deal and buying it at the last minute, this option is for you.

Check out the Black Friday music salefor information on sale prices running through Monday, Nov. 30 on new releases and bestsellers, boxed sets, and $5 lightning deals on CDs. You'll also see the list of timed specials available.

Amazon always offers a selection of 50 MP3 albums for $5 each month, but for Black Friday they claim to be offering 600 MP3 albums for $5 each. I didn't take the time to count them all, but go to their page to check it out. There are lists of 50 $5 albums in pop, rock, indie and alternative rock, jazz, Christian and gospel, R&B, singer-songwriters, Amazon editors' picks, and more.

Many of these albums seem to have been offered in the monthly $5 sale, but there are also some titles I haven't seen there. These specials, like many other deals, may continue through Cyber Monday.

The Amazon.com Black Friday movies & TV dealshas a bunch of timed specials available through Friday night, Nov. 27. Only a few titles are on sale in any particular time window, but if there's something you want there, you'll want to pounce.

If this all sounds like a bewildering array of products and deals, well, it is. I can only peruse the Black Friday pages at Amazon.com for a few minutes at a time without feeling bogged down with all the choices. But, an overselection of discounted music, movies, and the like to choose from is a good problem. Amazon will likely hold sales after Cyber Monday as well. Happy shopping!

New Podcast Episodes: Frank Black, Newport Folk Concerts, The Clash Covers

The FrankBlack.net Podcast is out with an episode on Grand Duchy.

Some good new episodes are out this week in a number of long-running podcasts. Here are a few highlights.

The FrankBlack.net Podcast has been coming out sporadically this year, but they've got a new episode out devoted to Grand Duchy, the band featuring Black and his wife Violet. The band is currently on its first tour, and I caught of few songs during its set at Coney Island's Siren Festival.

If you didn't manage to hear any of NPR's live Webcasts from the Newport Folk Festival, you can still catch them... and keep them, in many cases. NPR Music has started to put up free podcast downloads of Newport Folk concerts, including Joan Baez, Gillian Welch, Fleet Foxes, Neko Case, Mavis Staples, and more.

If you'd prefer a sampling of the Newport Folk concerts, NPR also has a free podcast download up that covers day 1 of the festival, and there will probably be more to come.

And over at Coverville, the all-cover-songs podcast, you'll find a diverse range of covered artists, as usual. Episode 600 is devoted to covers of KISS, while number 599 tackles Cat Stevens and 598 features cover versions of The Clash's iconic album, "London Calling." And all three of those Coverville podcasts have come just since July 30th!

Enjoy...

Last Days for July's Amazon.com 50 MP3 Albums for $5 Each

Each month Amazon.com offers a selection of 50 MP3 albums for $5 each, and as you've probably noticed from the calendar, July is almost over.

As usual, the 50 span a range of musical genres and time periods. I picked up Bob Mould's new Life And Times album. Among the other titles you can find for five bucks for the next few days:

• alt and indie rock including Grand Duchy (with Frank Black), Interpol, Matt & Kim, Meat Pupets, Coldplay, and Gomez;
  
• classic rock such as Billy Joel, Aerosmith, the Beach Boys, Heart, and David Bowie;
  
• soul and R&B including Marvin Gaye, Ray Charles, Louis Armstrong, and L.T.D.

I miss not having the liner notes with info on who's playing what instruments, who sang on which tracks, lyrics, etc., but you can't beat the price. And if this Apple/record label project to offer digital albums with liner notes and other features pans out, as I mentioned yesterday, that may no longer be a problem.

Apple Looking to Save the Album with Tablet, iTunes Extras

Apple, the company that has sped the downfall of the CD by becoming the top (legal) provider of recorded music, is now said to be making moves to save the album format.

As originally reported in the Financial Times and explained here on All Things Digital, Apple is planning to release a long-awaited tablet computer before the holidays, bigger than an iPod touch but smaller than a MacBook, that is being "prepped to launch alongside a next-generation digital album format Apple is cooking up with the four largest recording companies, one designed to gin up sales of CD-length music."

The Financial Times mentions a September release for the Apple tablet (the same time that the company usually refreshes its iPod lineup), and suggests that the tablet will have a 10-inch screen. It also says that Apple has been working on the project, codenamed "Cocktail," with the four major record labels.

All Things Digital calls the project a "new music format that will gather songs, photos, lyrics sheets, video clips and liner notes into a sort of interactive booklet."

BusinessInsider.com notes that, "The main idea is to get people spending $10-20 at a time on iTunes--on a multimedia-bundled album--instead of $1-2 on one or two single-song downloads." The site notes that the concept will not really bring a lot more money to Apple, but could be a boon for the music labels that partner with the computer maker.

Will these kind of extras encourage people to buy albums instead individual tracks? Would they get you to buy an album? As a guy who grew up with the album format (going all the way back to vinyl LPs, in fact), I've always liked the idea of a cohesive group of tunes, so I buy albums anyway (unless I find during sampling that there are only one or two good tracks on it).

It will be interesting to see if this project, assuming it comes off as predicted, will nudge other music consumers to do the same.

Yahoo Unveils New Yahoo Music with Artist Pages

Yahoo has been involved in online music for years, but now they've revamped their Yahoo Music division to better compete in the digital music space. Released today, the new Yahoo Music features both paid and free music services and partners with other online music providers. Yahoo is the second leading online music destination, after AOL Music.

It offers different modules (which you can drag and move around) such as free audio streaming services from Last.fm and Pandora, videos from Youtube, and the ability to buy music downloads from iTunes and Amazon.com. Yahoo Music also offers a new feature called Artist Pages that gives access to information and products from various musicians (500,000 in all, Yahoo says), including concert dates and tickets, photos, lyrics, and blogs.

I'll post more about Yahoo Music after I get the chance to kick the tires and take it for a spin.

New iTunes Prices (Higher, That Is) Coming April 7th

The iTunes price increase for songs it deems the "hottest" selections will go into effect on April 7th, it's been confirmed. Record labels have long wanted variable pricing (and higher prices) for digital downloads. Steve Jobs has never seemed to be in a hurry to raise the cost of a song, since Apple is using the iTunes store as a loss leader for selling iPods.

But now you'll pay 30% more if you want the latest hits or certain classic or in-demand backlist titles (not sure exactly how they've going to determine which older tracks should have the higher price).

If you don't like the new higher prices, CMT.com (Web site of Country Music Television) suggests checking out Spun.com, which will buy your old CDs that you no longer want, and sell you new ones. CMT gives some examples, saying that you can get many country CDs for less than eight dollars, and get three dollars or more for the ones you sell... meaning you can get a full-length CD for about the cost of five songs on iTunes.

Sounds like a good deal to me.

Free Download: Tribute to R.E.M.'s "Automatic for the People"

It makes me feel really old to admit it, but it's been 15 years since R.E.M.'s classic album "Automatic for the People" came out.
Now the music blog Stereogum is offering a tribute album to "Automatic for the People" called "Drive XV."

The free album download includes songs covered by artists including the Meat Puppets, Rogue Waves, Dr. Dog, Jana Hunter, You Say Party! We Say Die!, and the Shout Out Louds.

Did I mention, it's FREE?

Amazon.com Starts MP3 Store: Cheaper than iTunes

Amazon.com is the latest challenger to Apple's iTunes store, announcing that it has started its "Amazon MP3" service that sells songs and albums for less than iTunes... and without digital rights management (DRM) restrictions.

That means that the songs you download from Amazon can be copied and played on any music player, and copied as many times to as many devices as you want.

Single songs will sell for 89 cents and up; albums range from $5.99 to $8.99. On iTunes songs sell for 99 cents, with albums going for $9.99 and up. You can buy DRM-free songs from iTunes, but it'll cost you $1.29.

Amazon MP3 doesn't have nearly as large a selection as the iTunes store, however. Of the music mega-giants, Sony BMG and Warner Music are not offering any titles on Amazon's store; Universal and EMI are offering only certain titles.

The home page of Amazon MP3 lists the top-selling songs and albums, giving you an idea of the digital downloads that are available.

With its extensive market reach and marketing power, Amazon MP3 may become a true competitor for the iTunes Store.

Podcast News: New iPods, "Quick and Dirty" Podcasts

Apple Refreshes, Revamps iPods:
The big podcasting news this week was Apple Inc.'s announcement of new and rejiggered products in its market-leading iPod media player line. In brief:

* The Nano has been reconfigured into more of a square shape to accommodate the viewing of video, the first time that's been possible with that model.
* The traditional hard-drive iPod is now called iPod Classic, with a larger storage capacity (up to 160GB).
* A totally new iPod, the iPod Touch, combines the features and user interface of the new iPhone with iPod media playing functions. Basically, it's an iPhone without the phone. It's flash-based, which limits storage capacity (going only as high as 16GB).

If you're interested in buying an iPod, which should you get? Fortunately, there's a handy column on iPod Observer that explains the pros and cons of each option.

Publisher Seek Profits on "Quick and Dirty" Podcasts:
Publishers Weekly has noted that publisher Holtzbrinck has launched a network of downloadable audio clips called Quick and Dirty Tips, based on the ever-growing "Quick and Dirty" series of podcasts. (I've reviewed two of the Q&D podcasts here, those by Grammar Girl and Money Girl.)

PW notes that Holtzbrinck's move is the first time a publisher has tried to establish a money making podcast business. It says that the site, Quickanddirtytips.com, will get revenue from online ads and content licensing agreements. The arrangement arose because of the publisher's relationship with Mignon Fogarty, a.k.a. Grammar Girl, who has a book coming out with the publisher, "The Grammar Girl’s Quick and Dirty Tips to Clean Up Your Writing."

The Quick and Dirty site was launched this week with five other podcasters, PW says.

Record Labels Try MySpace, Other Sites to Sell Music

Record labels are desparate to recover some of the money lost to lower CD sales, and one option they're checking out is selling tunes through social networking sites. An article today in iPod Observer looks at how the labels are seeking options to compete with iTunes, which they have long complained charges too low a price (99 cents per track)... and of course, iTunes takes a cut out of that amount.

One leading choice for the record labels, the story notes, as been SnoCap, which runs a service on musicians' MySpace pages. I've seen these SnoCap "MyStore" options on more and more MySpace pages, and I recently bought a new single from The Donnas via SnoCap. When it first appeared on the band's MySpace page, the SnoCap store didn't work. Clicking on buttons for "register" and "buy" didn't take me anywhere. A few weeks after that I tried it again and, presto, it worked flawlessly, and I had The Donnas' latest single for 99 cents. The tracks are in MP3 format, so they'll play on iPods and just about any other music player.

I'm all for SnoCap and similar ventures, especially if they mean more of my payment goes to the artist (which I'm not sure about).

Steve Jobs Shakes Up the Tech World

It's been quite a new year for Steve Jobs, and we haven't even reached Valentine's Day yet. Jobs, the chairman of Apple Inc. (which recently dropped the word "Computer" from its corporate name), first shook up the cellphone/PDA industry in January when he introduced the iPhone at MacWorld. Cellphone makers immediately began looking at their product portfolios and models in the pipeline, to see what changes they might want to make in response to them.

Also at MacWorld, Jobs introduced the further evolution of AppleTV, the company's system for playing video and TV content over a Mac computer that serves as a digital entertainment hub.

More recently, Jobs poked a finger in the eye of the record labels and recording industry when he called for the elimination of digital rights management (DRM), the security technology that prevents audio recordings from being copied. Many people saw this as an odd call for Jobs to make, since Apple's online iTunes store includes DRM intself, meaning that music bought from that store can only be played on Apple's iPod devices.

Computing, audio and video, home entertainment, cellphones, and more... what's next for Jobs?

Record Companies Turn the Tables on Downloaders

Facing slumping sales and increased online piracy, record companies have decided to turn lemons into lemonade. Companies have started planting advertiser-sponsored video clips of their artists on video sharing sites–the exact same kind of sites they've been battling for years.

The Wall Street Journal noted in October, for example, that rapper Jay-Z authorized a video clip from one of his summer concerts in New York to be placed on a variety of illegal music-sharing cites. The action occurred at the request of Coca-Cola, the Journal said, and the clip included promotions for Coke.

While record companies have usually battled file-sharing sites by planting fake "decoy" files to thwart and frustrate downloaders, this new tack by Jay-Z recognizes that the people who download files are also some of the biggest music fans and buyers, and that it may be more in their interest to market to them rather than sue them. So the decoy files being planted on leading file-sharing sites contain promotional materials, which are then seen by eager fans. So when fans turn to the file networks for purposes of piracy, they're getting a marketing message instead.

The article notes that other artists including Audioslave and Ice Cube have also benefited from decoy files, putting bits of a song into the files and promising that the user and this companions will be able to stream the entire song once the file is forwarded to a certain number of people.