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So…the Grammys were last night. I saw the Police reunite, but got bored after that. So unfortunately, I waited until this morning to hear how the supposed biggest night in music went last night.

Well, it didn’t go so well for the good guys. I was hoping John Mayer would’ve taken down a few more awards, especially away from The Dixie Chicks. Actually, I wish anyone would’ve taken some awards away from the Dixie Chicks. Ugh..But besides the Dixie Chicks, the not too terrible Red hot Chile Peppers took down alot of awards.

Besides John Mayer, I was really hoping Imogen Heap would’ve gotten best new Artist, but Carrie Underwood took that down. Also, Death Cab For Cutie, Keane, Coldplay, Thom Yorke, and Eminem’s Shake That (guilty obsession) lost in their respective categories. Shux.

But below is a large list of winners from the night. Read the rest of this entry »

Sufjan has recently reviewed a live performance of fellow Asthmatic Kitty artist My Brightest Diamond. Yes, Sufjan actually wrote this review himself. As I’m sure I’ve expressed before, Sufjan Stevens can do whatever he wants.

Let me warn you, his surprisingly entertaining essay on the My Brightest Diamond Performance does get a bit long at five well developed paragraphs. But if you’re a big Sufjan fan, you’ll only gain more appreciation for who he is after reading it.

Enough of my ramblings, It can be found in full here.

Not too long ago, Sufjan Stevens and My Brightest Diamond made the news together when it was announced they’ll both be playing at the Music Now Festival. The Music Now Festival is looking pretty salty this year as it’s hosting several indie artists I am fond of.

Among the ranks include Sufjan Stevens, My Brightest Diamond, Sigur Rós Protégés Amiina, David Cossin, Clogs, Pedro Soler, and Irena and Vojtech Havel.

The Shins’ new album Wincing the Night Away grabbed the number two spot on billboard’s top 200 albums. This is unheard of for most indie albums, especially albums from indie rock artists like The Shins.

The Shins‘ new album has been highly anticipated, and it has definitely lived up to expectations. The entire indie music scene seems to be taken aback by this massive debut for the indie rock outfit. Subpop Records‘, the Shins’ label, previous highest album ranking on Billboard was #79. Yeah, this is a big deal for the label as well.

Their leading single Phantom Limb, which has been all over the internet before the album release, has found its way into the top 20 of Billboard’s Modern Rock chart as well.

So am I surprised of the Shins massive debut? Yes and no. Yes, because it just never seems to happen. Indie music doesn’t seem to be allowed to grab the top rankings. I was expecting Billboard to lie about the rankings before they would actually put an indie artist at the top like they have.

But then on the other hand, I can’t be surprised because The Shins are down right good. Their sound definitely has mainstream potential similar to what Death Cab For Cutie had as well, so I can understand how the mainstream has embraced them. DCFC got some playtime and headed over to Dreamworks, and The Shins will probably find themselves in a similar position now. Let’s just hope that The Shins will not follow DCFC’s lead, and that they’ll stay with Subpop.

Yesterday it was reported on Reuters that a lot of independent music labels joined together to make an agency that will work on new licensing deals. The new licensing deals are to be targeted with the new web 2.0 media companies like YouTube and Myspace.

The agency is called Merlin, and is said to be “the fifth major” (or maybe fourth) label in the industry. The agency feels like the independent music labels have been shit on too much already by media companies who fail to license music that they use. The quote of a Merlin official sums it up well:

“[Merlin is addressing the] growing assumption that, for emerging media, only the four majors need to be licensed, with the rest free to air.”

I think initially, Merlin will be a great thing for the indie music scene, because it will put some licensing monies back into the pockets of the indie music labels (which is good). As long as Merlin doesn’t get the mentality like a big label (which I’m sure they won’t) this is going to be great for the indie music scene.

Technorati Tags: Merlin

Coolfer, a great music industry blog, recently brought EMI’s new business moves to my attention. The “Big Four” music label EMI Group could be flirting with a potential buyout or merger with the mighty Warner Music Group.

Coolfer first had an article on January 13th saying EMI could be on the selling block because of some restructuring taking place at EMI. The New York Times suspected the restructuring to be a sign that they may be looking to push for a sale or merger.

Later, on January 16th, its reported that EMI restructuring their debt to make a potential buyout or merger unattractive. (okay..??) So now a takeover attempt by Warner Music Group will likely be kicked to the curb, unless it is extremely generous.

If a Warner-EMI merger happens, I see only evil as a result. An over sized Warner-EMI conglomerate will only bring more problems to the music industry, which is trying to change rapidly.

Finally, CNN Money has a great article on it titled “Warner-EMI: A Sad Song” for those interested in reading more in depth about the business side of things dealing with Warner and EMI.

Technorati Tags: music

After a long, dormant Christmas break, it took an optimistic music industry related news story to get me blogging again. As I was wasting my time on digg this morning, I found an entry on the future of DRM (Digital Rights Management) in 2007.

The article mentions five bright spots that show the paradigm shift from DRM to DRM free music.

1. Amazon may make a DRM free music download store to compete with Apple’s iTunes.
2. Yahoo Music will experiment with [a little] DRM free music from EMI and Sony BMG artists.
3. eMusic’s success as the 2nd leading online music marketplace shows that DRM-free music is demand, and that major labels and other retailers will follow suit.
4. Limewire may charge $1 per download for its DRM-free music if the labels give in and okay it.
5. Myspace wants to let its musicians sell only DRM-free music to other myspace members.

So it’s news stories like these that keep my head up and allow me to still have hope for a DRM free music world. Are most of these scenerios likely? Ahh..doubtful. I think 2-3 are somewhat likely, which would still be a victory for music fans. Once the DRM-free ball gets rolling, I don’t see it turning back.