Tampa Calling

Good news for every independent musician in the World. MTV (owners of the Rock Band franchise) just announced its own new distribution platform through the immensely popular musician-simulation game Rock Band.

The Rock Band Network is a revolutionary system that will allow bands, studios and record labels to create and sell playable game content from their master recordings using the same professional tools used by Rock Band developers. Rock Band Network, currently in closed beta, should launch to the public in August (with in-game sales later in the year).

MTV has infused Rock Band Network with professional utilities to enable a community of music makers to get their work to the masses and profit by it. Paul DeGooyer, a senior VP with MTV games, tells Billboard that “We’re talking about a set of serious professional tools to allow people on the front line of writing and recording songs to completely control their destiny with respect to interactive products and then giving them direct access to the download store.”

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Ten days after his death, Michael Jackson is the biggest story in the entertainment world. Some of you may be crying overkill, but I’m still keeping tabs. Here’s a series of the latest links I’ve come across.

Video of Jackson at his last rehearsals.

Jackson’s public memorial confirmed for L.A.’s Staples Center on Tuesday, July 7.

TV networks planning coverage of Jackson memorial.

Billboard: How Michael Jackson’s Thriller changed the music biz.

Billboard: Jackson will likely set more chart records.

Billboard: “Michael Jackson and MTV — The M once stood for Michael.”

Madonna honors Jackson during a show at same arena in London that he was to perform 50 shows.

Former L.A. Times music critic Robert Hilburn, who probably had more access to MJ than any other scribe, writes a remembrance.

Jackson news coverage touches on the tawdry side.

It used to be that MTV would overplay videos to such a degree that it was impossible not to know the latest singles by Madonna, or Prince, or Michael Jackson (may he RIP). Those artists blew wads of cash to make miniature movies for their songs. (Michael and sister Janet’s 1995 acclaimed video duet, “Scream,” cost $7 million alone to produce.)

Nowadays, MTV doesn’t play videos so much as it airs clips of them during the closing credits of its neverending reality TV programming, so many artists have turned to YouTube to get the vids out and are likely alot more budget conscious when making them. The results vary from fun and inspired to downright garbage. Here’s a look at two Moby videos created in support of his ninth album (out today on Little Idiot). I’ve also included a preview clip of Bjork’s live Voltaic CD/DVD release. (Complete clips from the DVD would be nice but sadly, there are leaked or uploaded as yet.)

Artist: Moby
Album: Wait for Me
Songs: “Shot in the Back of the Head,” “Pale Horses.”
Both of Moby’s new singles have intrigued me with their raw electro-meets-organic feel. The video for “Shot in the Back of the Head” is David Lynch’s dark and abstract translation of the song, which is rather gloomy all on its own; and “Pale Horses,” the second single with haunting female vocals by Amelia and melancholy overtones, is directed by Elanna Allen and follows a lonely alien who takes a train to the moon to find some companions. Both are animated, but in very different styles.
Grade: A for both; the music was good and the videos compelling enough to make me want to check out Moby’s new album. (CHECK OUT THE VIDEOS AFTER THE JUMP). Read the rest of this entry »

Radio behemoth Clear Channel is one of the latest victims in the music business downfall. The official news is as follows:

US radio giant Clear Channel Communications has announced a new round of layoffs, with 590 workers in its radio division to be cut. The new layoffs, which follow a round of 1,850 in January, will include employees in programming, engineering and customer service. The January layoffs were primarily in sales. Shows canceled due to the layoffs will be replaced by nationally syndicated shows. Clear Channel also said that it has suspended matching contributions to employees retirement accounts, but would resume making contributions if the company is successful in reaching 90% of its internal cost saving targets.

It sucks that people are losing their jobs, but is anyone really surprised? Radio has been a corporate game for so long, that it’s no longer relevant. So what now?

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Over the last decade, there has been much talk and figures to support the fact that the heyday of the music industry has passed, or at least shrunk.

For example, the Top 10 selling albums of 2008 totaled 19 million units, including digital sales. In 1988, the 5 top-selling album alone sold over 26 million units (George Michael’s Faith, Dirty Dancing Soundtrack, Def Leppard’s Hysteria, INXS’ Kick and Michael Jackson’s Bad).

Did music lose its appeal? Does Lil Weezy not hold a candle to the King of Pop? Do bands today suck more than those of the 80s? What gives? I am sure there has been some kind of “lack of quality” perception from some old timers and music critics, but for the most part I think its about greed and lack of following supply and demand.

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One of those bands that really caught my attention at the 2008 Deep Blues Festival was The Pack A.D. I was already a fan prior to the fest but after seeing their set, I was gung-ho.

The band has just made a video and shipped it off to MTV and everything. So, hopefully it’ll get a chance to be one of the three vids MTV plays one day. Since the odds of that are about as good as Arizona’s chances of winning the Super Bowl this week I figured I’d post it here: Read the rest of this entry »