Music Notes: iTunes Match Goes Live; Google Music Store Coming Wed.

Apple's iMatch cloud service went live this week; look for Google's music store Wednesday.

Cloud-based music services take another step forward this week with advances from both iTunes and Google.

Apple's iTunes went live with its iMatch service, which for $24.99 a year will sync your music library of songs, movies, and other media not purchased from iTunes, placing a high-quality version of songs you own on the company's servers. (If Apple doesn't have a copy of a song, you can simply upload it.) Note: you must have iOS5 and iTunes 10.5.1 to use iMatch.

As Apple notes:

"...iTunes determines which songs in your collection are available in the iTunes Store. Any music with a match is automatically added to iCloud for you to listen to anytime, on any device. Since there are more than 20 million songs in the iTunes Store, chances are, your music is already in iCloud. And for the few songs that aren't, iTunes has to upload only what it can't match. Which is much faster than starting from scratch. Once your music is in iCloud, you can stream and store it to any of your devices. Even better, all the music iTunes matches plays back from iCloud at 256-Kbps AAC DRM-free quality—even if your original copy was of lower quality."

With the other music cloud services, Amazon Cloud Drive/Cloud Player and Google Music Beta, you have to upload songs yourself to the services if you want them to be part of your play-anywhere library.

Google's options may change, because on Nov. 17th the company is set to launch the Google Music Store. It's been working hard behind the scenes to get the major music labels on board so it can legally sell and store music from their artists.

Google is said to have recently reached a licensing deal with Sony, giving it access to most of the big music companies (Universal and EMI [which Universal bought last week], in addition to Sony). Google has not yet inked a deal with Warner Music Group. Google has also reached agreement with Merlin Network, which represents 18,000 musicians on independent labels such as Merge and those of the Beggars Group, according to the L.A. Times.

Google's service will be like that of Amazon and iTunes, CNBC says, and will work with Google Music Beta. But it says Google something the others don't offer: "customers will be able to share songs they've purchased with friends, using Google+. Those friends can listen to a song a few times before they must buy it themselves."

I'll be watching for Google's announcement on Wednesday to see how these and other predictions pan out. Of particular interest to me is that Google will supposedly have access to all that indie music.

Free Album Streaming: Kate Bush, Slash, & Betty Wright; John Lennon Tribute Concert; & More

Slash's new live album features Myles Kennedy (also seen in "Back from Cali," above).

There aren't a lot of big names among the musicians with free album streaming this week, but a couple of the well-known artists that are available for listening are returning to the stores after long waits.

Kate Bush, the eclectic British singer with the amazing vocal range, is back with her first album of all-new material since 2005. And longtime soul singer, producer, and vocal coach Betty Wright returns with her first album in 10 years, and she's backed by today's go-to house band, The Roots. (Hear an NPR interview with Betty Wright from Nov. 13th here.)

Unlike those two singers, Guns 'n Roses guitarist Slash hasn't been absent from the recording scene for a long time; he debut self-titled album came out just last year. But he has come out with his first live solo album, and it features a few familiar tunes from his old band along with originals.

There's a notable compilation out this month, too. 2011 marks the 30th anniversary of John Lennon's death, and a new live album captures the 30th annual concert held in his memory. You'll hear Lennon tunes performed by artists including Alejandro Escovedo, Patti Smith, Bettye LaVette, Aimee Mann, Shelby Lynne, Martin Sexton, Joan Osborne, and many more.

And for Frank Sinatra fans, there's "Sinatra: Best of the Best," said to be the first-ever collection from The Voice that combines hits from his Reprise and Capitol releases, from 1953 to 1980.

KCRW Album Preview: 
"50 Words For Snow" by Kate Bush (streaming through Nov. 22)
(Also streaming at NPR Music)

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Made in Stoke 24/7/11" by Slash
"30th Annual John Lennon Tribute" by Various Artists
"Betty Wright: The Movie" by Betty Wright and the Roots
"Best of the Best" by Frank Sinatra

AOL Music also has a number of albums that sound interesting by artists I'm not familiar with: "Circus Girl" by Sherrie Austin; "18 and Alive" by Chelsea Lee; "The Gilded Cage" by Electric Sun; and "Pretty Old Soul" by Lizzie Huffman.

In addition, Spinner features a number of albums this week that I'm looking forward to hearing, even though I don't know the artists. Among them: "Freeclouds" by Carter Tanton; "Prosopopoeia" by The Color Bars; "All Your Heroes Become Villains" by Ed Hale and the Transcendence; "Breaking Hearts" by Rah Rah; and "Will Work for Free" by Toy Bombs.

Concerts On Sale: Wild Flag, Jeff Mangum, Glen Campbell, Jane Birkin, & More

Glen Campbell received an all-star tribute at the CMA Awards last night, and you can see him live when his farewell tour comes to New York.

Whatever your taste in popular music, there's something you're bound to like in terms of concerts coming to the New York area in the next few weeks (and months). A lot of these shows go on sale tomorrow and tickets are sure to sell quickly, so you might want to note the on-sale times for the best selection.

Wild Flag plays at Webster Hall, April 1st, 2012, and no, it's not an April Fool's joke. The immensely popular all-female rock band is returning to NYC, and in a bigger venue, after three smash shows last month. On sale: Friday, Nov. 11th, 12 Noon.

Jeff Mangum of Neutral Milk Hotel returns to the area after two recent sold-out shows at the Loews Theatre in Jersey City. He'll do two concerts at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on Fri., Jan. 20th and Sat. the 21st. On sale: Nov. 11th, 10 a.m.

Nada Surf is touring again and will be at Webster Hall on April 7th (their Jan. 24th show is sold out). Coincidentally, Jan. 24 is the day their latest album, "The Stars Are Indifferent to Astronomy," comes out. (You can download a song from the album, "When I Was Young," at their website.) On sale date for the April 7th show: Nov. 11th, 12 Noon.

New Jersey native Sharon Van Etten will play two NYC shows, at the Music Hall of Williamsburg on Feb. 24th and Bowery Ballroom on the 25th. Shearwater opens on both dates. On sale: Nov. 11th, 12 Noon.

Country/pop legend Glen Campbell, who has Alzheimer's disease, is making his farewell concert tour, and it stops at Town Hall on Sat., Jan. 7th. Campbell received a moving tribute at the CMA Awards last night, and tickets for "Glen Campbell: The Goodbye Tour" go on sale Nov. 11th at 11 a.m. You can download the title song from his new (and final) album, "Ghost On the Canvas," at Glen Campbell's website.)

Another legend, British singer Jane Birkin, is touring again, singing the songs of her late husband Serge Gainsbourg. The worldwide tour, described as "Serge Gainsbourg and Jane via Japan," stops at Town Hall on Sun., Dec. 11th, and tickets are on sale now. (See Jane Birkin's recounting of the reasons for the tour here. It isn't quite clear to me, except that she's touring with a group of Japanese musicians and it's somehow related to helping that country heal from the earthquake and tsunami of earlier this year.)

Tickets for many other shows went on sale today; check venue websites or Bowery Presents for the shows they promote, including those at Bowery Ballroom, Terminal 5, Mercury Lounge, the Wellmont Theatre, etc.

Free Album Streaming: New CDs from The Bees, Los Campesinos!, & Jonathan Coulton; R.E.M.'s New Anthology; & More

The latest album by The Bees (a.k.a. A Band of Bees) is one of the new releases streaming this week.

I'm not familiar with many of the new albums that are available for online streaming this week, but there is one 800-pound gorilla in the batch: R.E.M.'s two-disc, sprawling career retrospective with the equally sprawling title, "Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982 - 2011."It sounds pretty much like a greatest-hits album with some non-hit album tracks, along with three new songs recorded after the release of the band's last album, "Collapse Into Now."

As NPR's Tom Moon notes in his commentary at the KCRW website, "the narrative of 'Part Lies' leans a bit too heavily on R.E.M.'s latter-day attempts to rock.... If the goal is to savor R.E.M.'s spectacular creative peaks and fierce experiments, know that, as [Michael] Stipe himself said, you can't get there from here. Part Lies only tells part of the story—the truth lies within the original albums."

Also streaming this week is the latest from the Welsh seven-piece band Los Campesinos!, who have two shows next week in New York (Bowery Ballroom on Nov. 16th; Music Hall of Williamsburg the next night)... the "new" album from the British group A Band of Bees (known simply as The Bees everywhere but the U.S.), which came out in 2010 but is just being released stateside Nov. 7th... and the latest collection from singer-songwriter (and former computer programmer) Jonathan Coulton, which features humor-laced tunes like "Je Suis Rick Springfield" and an ode to "rockin' 'The Stache.'"

Folk fans will be happy to see the pioneering singer-songwriter Judy Collins returning with a new album, "Bohemian," which includes cover tunes and original compositions.

KCRW Album Preview: 
"Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage: 1982-2011" by R.E.M. (streaming until Nov. 15th)
"Hello Sadness" by Los Campesinos! (streaming until Nov. 15th)
(both also streaming at NPR First Listen)

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Every Step's a Yes" by The Bees (A Band of Bees)
"Young Statues" by Young Statues
"Bear" by Bear & Moose
"Mannequin Men" by Mannequin Men

AOL Music Listening Party: 
"Every Waking Moment" by The Dear & Departed
"Bohemian" by Judy Collins
"Never Out of Time" by Camille Bloom
"Porcelain" by Edward Rogers
"Artificial Heart" by Jonathan Coulton

Free Concert Podcast Downloads: Wild Flag, St. Vincent, Olivia Tremor Control, & More

If you like listening to recordings of your favorite artists playing live, there's a big batch of free concerts that's been made available online recently (yes, I've fallen behind on my semi-regular postings of these shows). Many can be downloaded as podcasts as well as streamed online; I've noted the ones that only offer streaming.

Stream or download a concert by St. Vincent below. Photo: Flickr user Moses.

The NPR Music podcasts (*) can be downloaded through iTunes, or from the links below.

• Wild Flag live from Washington, D.C.*
• St. Vincent live from Washington, D.C.*
• Moby in concert from Moogfest 2011*
• Austra live from Moogfest*
• Feist live from Toronto (CBC 75th Anniversary celebration) (streaming only)
• Olivia Tremor Control live from New York*
• Laura Marling live from Washington, D.C. (streaming only)*
• The Mekons live (streaming only)*
• The Horrors live from the 2011 ATP Festival (streaming only)*
• World Cafe 20th Anniversary concert, featuring Feist, John Hiatt, the Indigo Girls, Dawes, and more (streaming only)*

CBC Radio 2's "Canada Live" podcast offers downloads of live sets from Dan Mangan, Oh Susanna, Jason Collett (of Broken Social Scene), and more.

Free Album Streaming: New Music from Florence & the Machine, Laura Veirs, Meshell Ndegeocello, & More

"What the Water Gave Me" from the new Florence and the Machine album

The new Florence and the Machine album heads the list of interesting new albums available for streaming this week. Called "Ceremonials,"the album is streaming at MySpace Music, a source that I hadn't really thought of for playing full albums. Although MySpace has been shedding users, it does offer some good album streams, so from now on I'm making it one of the sources that I check weekly.

Also streaming this week are a children's album from Laura Veirs, an EP of outtakes from the "King is Dead" sessions by Veirs's sometime collaborators The Decemberists, and a new album by bassist and singer Meshell Ndegeocello. And if you missed last week's NPR preview of the new Girl in a Coma album,it's up on Spinner this week.

For those interested in classic rock and pop, there's a 40th-anniversary edition of Jethro Tull's "Aqualung"and the official release of "Smile" by the Beach Boys—the 1967 album that had never fully seen the light of day until now.

There's also the first album by filmmaker David Lynch ("Eraserhead," "Blue Velvet") and, for fans of jazzy vocals, "Brainchildren," the new albumby singer and trombonist Elizabeth Dotson-Westphalen, who performs under the name Elizabeth.

MySpace Music:
"Ceremonials" (Deluxe Edition) by Florence and the Machine

NPR First Listen:
"Tumble Bee" by Laura Veirs
"Crazy Clown Time" by David Lynch
"Weather" by Meshell Ndegeocello

Spinner.com's Listening Party:
"Long Live the King" EP by The Decemberists
"SMiLE" by The Beach Boys
"Nightlife" by Phantogram
"Aqualung" 40th Anniversary by Jethro Tull
"Exits And All The Rest" by Girl in a Coma