After months of imagining, speculation and leaks that turned out to be false, the moment has finally arrived to start enjoying the first segments of music created by Daft Punk for the sequel to "Tron."
 
Coinciding with the release of a new promotional trailer (the one you can find at the link) since last Friday, six of the instrumental pieces – an amalgam of strings, both dramatic and tense, sequences of analogue electronic with a cosmic aftertaste and spatialist digital effects, nothing like Daft Punk’s more illustrious past, all part of the "Tron: Legacy" score, can be heard in streaming on the film’s official website, and also on the website of American radio station The End.

The film's release is scheduled for December 17 and although Walt Disney Records would prefer to stay silent about it for now, it’s expected that the soundtrack will be available around the last week of November.

http://disney.go.com/tron/index_flash.html

Aufgang, the triangular line-up of rhythm and keyboards orchestrated by Francesco Tristano, Rami Khalifé, and Aymeric Westrich (recent protagonists in our interview section, in case you’d like to investigate...), want to re-imagine their music, and this time with your help.

InFiné and Discograph have joined forces with Fairtilizer, the French magazine Tsugi, English blog Death Electro, and with the sacred recording label (PlayGround) to invite you to participate in a remix competition whose aim is to invent new readings of "Dulceria", one of the tracks that will be part of "Air On Fire", a forthcoming EP from the trio.

The mechanics are this simple: 
1. Download the parts of "Dulceria" here. 
2. Do whatever you like with those parts.   
3. Upload your remix to Fairtilizer.com identifying it as Dulcería [your name] Remix, and add "Aufgang remix contest" in the tag list.

The members of Aufgang themselves will be responsible for judging the remixes and choosing the ten they consider best. The remix that wins first prize in this remix contest will be included in the next official EP from the trio, and its creator will receive a limited edition t-shirt, as well as access to a Pro account with Fairtilizer. Those responsible for the remixes that are selected as the ten best will receive the complete Aufgang discography. 

The deadline for uploading your remix to Fairtilizer is August 30th. So hurry, take part and... good luck!

http://fairtilizer.com/track/Dulceria

Penultimate surprise from the Sonar camp. Barcelona’s festival of Advanced Music and Multimedia Art has just teamed up with Bleep (you know, the online shop that popped up midway through the last decade as the digital arm of Warp Records) to offer you good music. Just as you read. From this every day till the middle of June, Sonar offers, via Bleep.com, the download of a sample of the work of some of the most interesting current British artists performing at the coming edition of the festival.

Starting now you can find the first two of a series of downloads, among which there are previously released tracks from Fuck Buttons and 2020 Soundsystem, and, a lot more interestingly, exclusive songs from Roska (brand-new track "124 Miles"), King Midus Sound (an alternative and previously unpublished version of "Outerspace"), The Blessings ("Hot Song"), Broadcast ("Elegant Elephant"), Sandwell District ("Silent Servant") and Hudson Mohawke ("Snap Dragon"). All this, at the rate of two songs per week here, so you arrive happily at Sónar 2010 and your ears well prepared. If you haven’t got your tickets yet, get them here. 

Here you’ll find a preview of what’s coming soon.

http://bleep.com/

Lala.com, the popular website dedicated to music streaming, has just announced its imminent closure. A message published on the website’s homepage announced last Saturday that Lala will close its doors on the last day of May.

The site has stopped accepting new users, and the existing users will only be able to keep on enjoying the services offered by the company till this closing date. As a reward for the loyalty of its users, Lala has decided to give its customers credit for purchases made at the iTunes Store, the equivalent of the total sum spent on song purchases made in the past on Lala.com.

The announcement of its closure comes just five months after its acquisition by Apple, a fact that has led to speculation that the closure is a response to Apple’s aim to launch its own "cloud-based" streaming service (probably a subscriber service developed as an extension of its iTunes Store) using Lala’s technology, team and know-how.

http://www.lala.com/

“Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust” (XL/EMI, 2008) signalled a change by Sigur Rós toward more uninhibited and slightly more poppy territories, but nobody could have expected then that Jón Þór Birgisson, the reserved character with the angelic voice, would go on to release such an expansive, ecstatic, and colourful album as "Go".

According to Jónsi himself in the context of "Go Do": his first solo work, is the result of what the Icelandic artist defines as "something that, at some point, exploded", something that with the aid of ingenious arrangements by Nico Muhly, the decorative inventiveness of Samuli Kosminen, and the technical experience of Peter Katis, Alex Somers and Jónsi himself, has ended up becoming an exuberant collection of highly dramatic and strangely ecstatic songs, songs that will be released on April 5th, on Parlophone, and which thanks to NPR you can already listen to in advance.

The honey-sweet harmonies of "Go" await you at this link. Now, go!

http://jonsi.com/

In the wake of the recent premiere of its Filmmakers Wanted channel, a program devoted to turning the work of independent filmmakers and audiovisual producers into money, through “pay-per-view", YouTube has just announced a new platform to market output generated by "independent" musicians of every kind (only those located in the U.S.A. for now, although there are plans to spread the initiative to other territories in the near future), thus strengthening its profile as a reference place in all things musical. 

Called Musicians Wanted, this devoted new channel will allow a series of bands (chosen by the YouTube team from all those who register as candidates to take part in their "YouTube Partners Program") to earn the "majority" of the advertising incomes that derive from the viewing of their videos, both on the YouTube site itself and on any other pages (add-ons, blogs, online publications, etc.) where the video has been placed.

The selected bands will have control of their page, be able to make decisions on its design, enter whatever promotional information they see fit, and include links at their own discretion to other websites, from social networks to online stores, where their music or merchandising is available. 

In exchange for guaranteeing the spread of their output with the "maximum possible resolution" and providing the bands with the necessary tools of analysis, YouTube reserves a share of any advertising incomes derived by inserting adverts in the videos. 

Whoever believes himself to be an artist and wants to try out being a YouTube partner can register here.

http://www.youtube.com/musicianswanted

The days of the MP3 as the digital record industry’s standard may be numbered. That, at least, is the opinion of the management at Norwegian company Bach Technology Ltd., developers of a new format for storing music that they have given the very high-sounding name of MusicDNA. As opposed to the conventional MP3, this new format allows the storage of artwork, photos, music videos, song lyrics, interviews... additional material that can only be enjoyed by those who acquire these files in the legal way (nothing can stop MusicDNA files circulating freely online, but it seems that, in principle, it won’t be possible to "rip" these extra contents), and which you can update over time. 

For lack of any greater specifications, the underlying concept of MusicDNA doesn’t seem too far removed from "iTunes LP" or "iTunes Pass" (which allows "temporary subscription" to an album and, as well as the traditional collection of songs, users will receive more content spread over a number of years) which Apple launched last spring. It must have some advantage however, because large independent record groups like Tommy Boy and Beggars Group have already signed a contract with Bach Technology to start exploiting the advantages of this new format -perfectly compatible with any MP3 player- with their future releases. 

According to Bach Technology plans, MusicDNA should start "beta test" circulation in the middle of the coming spring, with a view to its launch in the summer.

http://www.bachtechnology.com/

The illustrious Lou Reed already has his own App for iPhone. However, while others insist on squeezing every last possibility as a tool for making music from the latest Apple gadget, the former Velvet Underground front man prefers to focus his attention on a much more mundane and practical area: the New Yorker’s App, called the Lou Zoom, allows us to visualize in enlarged format (that is to say, in large-sized letters) the names and numbers of those on our contact list. Reed himself sells it thus.  

Speaking of the Velvets...  Perhaps you’re not aware that on December 8 the New York Public Library hosted a special event in which Lou Reed, Moe Tucker and Doug Yule offered a Q&A session, as former-members of the Velvet Underground. If you’d like to know what they spoke about during that unprecedented evening, an audio recording of the event can be downloaded by clicking here.  

Since mid-2007s the hard-working Sean T. Collins, a writer and critic who specializes in the world of comics, has been updating "The Thin White Sketchbook", an online gallery devoted to compiling illustrations of the many faces of David Bowie. Celebrities in their own account like Adrian Tomine, Bill Plympton, Brian Chippendale, Shears Adebimpe or Michel Gondry are among the artists who have already volunteered their doodles of the Thin White Duke to Collins. So far, the collection has 79 portraits that you can admire at the end of this thread.  

We don’t know what the incorruptible Ian Mackaye of Dischord Records would think (for three decades now he’s been preaching about self-management, "non-profit" policies and D.I.Y. militancy) about the idea, but according to recent information published by the daily Washington City Paper, his friend Jeff Nelson, cofounder of Dischord and drummer during his time with Minor Threat, is said to have recently made nearly 6,000 dollars from the sale of an autographed test pressing of Out Of Step. Add test pressings of In My Eyes and Minor Threat (the first 7" from the band) and you get a total that exceeds 10,000 dollars.  

These days, Spanish veterans Aviador Dro are celebrating the anniversary of their first three decades of irregular lifestyles. Besides the usual celebrations (mouth-watering reissues, a special anniversary concert), Biocac N (Servando Carballar) and their specialized workers have decided to create and invigorate a corner in Second Life which is to pay homage to the recent history of Aviador Dro. MetaXRL8 Park 1 island can be reached here.  

According to Gadling, new romantics Spandau Ballet will be the first band from planet Earth to give a concert in outer space. Apparently it’s no joke. Tireless entrepreneur Richard Branson (head of Virgin Records, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Mobile and several more companies) is finalizing the preparations for the launch (has never been put better) of Virgin Galactic, a business that expects to be able to offer space tours from 2012 on. According to sources consulted by Gadling, Branson will hire Spandau Ballet as the band to provide entertainment for those journeys beyond our planet’s atmosphere.  

Addicts of indie clothes and trends, should go straight to their nearest newsagent and order a copy of the January issue of Vogue magazine if they fancy seeing the boys from Vampire Weekend, Beirut, MGMT, Golden Silvers, The Horrors, Chester French, Mika and Adam Green posing having been dressed by professional stylists (who reinterpret the bands’ own style using expensive designer clothes) in the agreeable company of beautiful women as the stars of a fashion editorial inspired by the rocker chic that Steven Meisel was in charge of photographing. You can see photos of that report at the end of this thread.  

Ahead of his next prison spell (he is currently facing a sentence for the illegal possession of weapons), Lil Wayne has decided to be get rid of some of his properties, among them a luxury apartment that he had been renting for nights spent in Miami. The New York Post reports that when the time came to sell the property, the apartment owners were faced with an unusual problem: because of the presence of Wayne and his rapper cohorts and hip-hop bunnies, the house stank of marijuana, a fact that seems to have scared away several potential buyers.  

The xx (undoubtedly one of the newcomer groups of this year) have teamed up with visual creator Saam Farahmand to create "xx:  A Sculpture of the Album", a multimedia installation defined as a "3D physical interpretation" of the London band’s first LP. The installation can be visited between the 8th and 12th of January at London gallery The Vinyl Factory.

http://www.loureed.com/louzoom

After those recent rumours (seemingly well-founded) that hint at a possible future subscription fee for MySpace Music, these days the techy blogosphere is once again focussing on Rupert Murdoch’s waning social network to publicize its intention of buying imeem. 

According to TechCrunch, barely three months after taking control of iLike in exchange for nearly 20 million dollars, MySpace is now in the final stages of negotiating the acquisition of imeem, a site specializing in free music streaming, backed by Sequoia Capital, Warner Music and a whole series of prominent investors who don’t seem fully convinced about injecting a new dose of capital into a business whose current business model; based on advertising revenues, by all accounts currently insufficient to cover its royalty payment obligations and streaming rights, which in some cases reach 0.01 dollars per song or video reproduced; would appear to be unfeasible.

If the purchase does takes place, MySpace would then own two of the most famous free music streaming services on the web, a move that some analysts interpret as a measure aimed at avoiding any possible resistance to its conversion to a subscription site.

http://www.myspace.com/imeem

Google y Facebook, two giants of the Internet who on the face of it seem involved in a very direct rivalry (only yesterday, during their participation in the Web 2.0 Summit, currently being celebrated in San Francisco, Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook, spoke of a more "social" future where people will look for answers on the Net, not via Google but through their "friends"...), have just announced, almost simultaneously, the launch of new music services. Mere coincidence?

Yesterday, referring to a host of unrevealed sources, TechCrunch informed of negotiations that Google seem to have been involved in with the large record groups over recent weeks, with a view to an imminent launch of a music service, which appears to be aimed solely at the American market for the time being. One of these sources has referred to this service as "Google Audio", although that’s still officially unconfirmed, but nothing is known at the moment regarding such questions as whether it will be streaming based, whether it will offer  downloads subject to payment, in the style of iTunes, or whether it will aim to integrate both methods, as done by LaLa or Spotify. So, as you can see, at the moment, and until the official confirmation, everything is pure hypothesis, although it shouldn’t be forgotten that for the past year in China, Google has been offering a service that allows Internet users access to a series of musical content that can be downloaded for free. 

Facebook, meanwhile, has announced the imminent integration of a "gift service" into their system, which among others things will allow its users to buy and give music files as gifts without having to abandon their platform. LaLa will be exclusively entrusted with providing musical content to users of the social network, so that, in accordance with the provisions of LaLa, by using the new Facebook "gifting service" they will be able to listen free of charge, to each track included on the catalogue of the providing platform, and then decide whether to buy the MP3 (at a rate of 89 dollar cents for each track) or the so-called "websong" (the payment of 10 cents allows the repeated streaming of a song), having to pay a quota (calculated according to a user credit system) each time one of those songs, whether the MP3 or the streaming rights, is shared with friends through the social network’s channels.

http://tinyurl.com/ygrfrak

There are still four months to go till the results of this fund-raising initiative come to light, but it’s best to keep updated, because this project stands out, not only for its many good intentions, but also because it promises a whole stream of musical pleasures. Buffetlibre DJs, those famous instigators of projects involving a virtual collection of cover versions (new groups paying homage to their idols of the eighties in two instalments of "Rewind") or remixes of groups from all over (mixed by anyone, fans like you and me, on “Proyecto Batidora”), have just joined forces with Amnesty International to start up "Peace", a new project that will involve several dozen musicians from over 50 countries to selflessly donate a song for inclusion in a monumental digital collection which can be downloaded anywhere in the world from January 2010 using the pay-what-you-want system (starting from 2 Euros). It’s important to emphasize that all money collected through the sale of the disk will go towards projects promoting the defence of human rights throughout the world. 

The tracklisting for “Peace” will include a bit of everything, from some pieces that comes from faraway countries, whose music we would rarely hear about in these parts (does anyone know what’s coming out of Serbia, Tibet, Burundi, Lebanon or Uganda these days?), to internationally renowned artists like Ryuichi Sakamoto, Fennesz, 4Hero, Dan Deacon, Sally Saphiro, Van She, AGF/Delay, Marc Almond, Patrick Wolf, Micachu & The Shapes, A Certain Ratio, Frankmusik, Heartbreak, Girls, múm, Amiina, Kid 606... They are only some of the over a hundred names that take part in a large line-up that can be consulted here. At the end of this thread you can also find four gifts.
 
http://www.buffetlibredjs.net/peace.html

At the same time that criticisms are beginning to surface regarding their non-too-equitable retribution policy (the highest paid, as usual, the larger firms... This has led, one can deduce, in part, to the low levels of resistance that this Swedish-born business has received from certain multinational record companies who have traditionally been distrustful of similar initiatives), Spotify continues to take steps to reinforce its position as the clearest contender to become the star model of music consumption (you know, unlimited streaming from "the cloud", free or not, depending on your own preferences) in the near future. 

Their most recent triumph: going against the forecasts of all those who saw a threat to iTunes from the Scandinavian business’s mobile initiative, the iPhone App and iPod Touch by Spotify has just got the thumbs up from Apple. In just a few weeks, we’ll be able to download the application free of charge from the App Store, allowing its users (for the time being only Europeans) access to the over six million songs that make up Spotify’s musical bookstore, as well as the ability to create playback lists, synchronize the mobile terminal with the computer via wi-fi, or store play lists of up to 3,333 songs in the terminal (if your gadget’s memory allows this, of course), thus providing you the opportunity to listen even when connectivity is limited or there is no connection whatsoever. 

The only catch: in principle you’ll need to have a Spotify premium account (i.e. a subscriber account, at a rate of €9.99 per month, although the company expects to be able to offer better conditions to those who opt for the annual subscription) in order to use this mouth-watering application.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QNCb1IdmJ_0

What had been a growing rumour was finally confirmed a couple of days ago: blogger Mario Armando Lavandeira, better-known to everyone as Perez Hilton, quite the "personality" in the world of online celebrity gossip, is to head his own record label. No, this wasn’t the controversial blogger’s own initiative. Someone within the management hierarchy at Warner Bros sees in the figure of Perez Hilton the opportunity to make a fast buck. Perez, who runs what three years ago was named "Hollywood' s Most-Hated Website" by The Insider magazine, a fact that only catapulted more traffic to the page, will start running his own label in a question of days under the Warner umbrella. 

In a recent interview published by Entertainment Weekly, the new record company boss defended himself against the general scepticism (or should we say ridicule?) that has been caused by the news: "I have an ear, which is really important in the music world, to be able to hear a hit, and to be able to know who has a good song or not...  I’m more than just an A&R person. I’m also a marketing person. I’m also a manager". 

Perez Hilton, who on more than one occasion has played his part in helping to introduce artists like Mika, Lady Gaga or Little Boots to the world through his blog, plans to announce his first record signing at the end of July. Bets are now being taken.

http://perezhilton.com/

Although she finished off last year in the newspapers thanks to her recently aquired status as an investor (worried about the deteriorating economy in her home country, the Icelandic mini-diva, along with financial services provider Audur Capital has founded a venture capital company to invest in businesses that act responsibly at a social and environmental level), Björk’s greatest concern continues to be creating original music and giving it its own visual world. 

While we wait expectantly on the surprises her new songs may well deliver, another of those box-sets that Björk comes out with from time to time, is about to be released any day now on Nonesuch (in the  U.S.A.), One Little Indian (in the U.K.) and Universal (in the rest of the world). "Voltaic" consists of two CDs and two DVDs, which compile live recordings, videos and remixes of tracks from "Volta" (Polydor, 07), her most recent studio album, and can be purchased in staggered form. Let us explain what we mean. 

If you only wanted to know how Björk sounded during the "Volta" tour, you can separately pick up "Voltaic:  Songs From The Volta Tour" (a CD which features Björk’s performance at the London Olympic Studios at the end of 2007). If you also want to see how it all looked, a second set allows you to buy the CD along with a DVD that compiles the visual highlights from two of the tour concerts, in Paris and in Reykjavik. If you don’t have any objection to remixes, there’s a third deluxe set that, along with the two previous discs, adds a second CD with the mixes that Spank Rock, Simian Mobile Disk, Matthew Herbert, Modeselektor, Sinden or Alva Noto did of tracks from "Volta", and a second DVD containing the videos that were shot for that album. And that’s not the end of it. With the Icelanders’ diehard fans in mind, there’s a fifth set that includes, besides the two CDs and two DVDs, three vinyl discs containing the same songs that are found on the compact discs. No lack of possibilities.  

What we really wanted to tell you about today was that the first of those discs, "Voltaic:  Songs From The Volta Tour", a collection of alternative interpretations of previously-known tracks recorded live, is already available streaming online via the NPR website. The way things are at the moment (bad!), better to check before buying.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=105710261

Would you be willing to pay to watch an exclusive concert by one of your favourite artists in the comfort of your home, or anywhere else, given that modern life already provides us with a series of mobile solutions? If you’re already thinking "that sounds good", The V. Sessions may be just the thing for you. 

The aim of this new online initiative, based in the heart of France, is simple: to produce exclusive sessions by a variety of artists, which are then broadcast on Internet, first live via high-quality streaming and then, once edited and filed, via video-on-demand. These exclusive concerts, recorded in a studio without a live audience, featuring high standards of quality, image and sound, or in any other location satisfying such requirements, will only be available on their website, and anyone who wants to watch them have to pay 5 euros per session, although you can also pay 10 euros in advance, which will allow you to enjoy three concerts. 

The V. Sessions get underway next Thursday, on the best possible footing, with the guarantee provided by having lined up no less a performer than Christian Fennesz for the premiere. From 9pm (GMT 2), Fennesz will be offering a concert based on his most recent album, the highly praised "Black Sea" (Touch, 08), in an unnamed studio in Paris. In exchange for 5 euro, you’ll be able to watch this exclusive session comfortably on your computer screen.

At the moment, only two other sessions have been announced: Philippe Herreweghe and the Collegium Vocale Gent choir interpreting polyphonic Renaissance pieces by Cristóbal de Morales, and the Bl!ndman ensemble, adapting pieces by John Cage, Steve Reich or Johann Sebastian Bach for a saxophones quartet. Surprised by the eclectic and antipop(ular) focus of the programme? Relax, the future line-up already includes Alva Noto, Phantom Orchard (Ikue Mori and Zeena Parkins) and DJ Krush.

http://www.thevsessions.com

How many times, in the middle of a sweaty dance session, have you wondered just what the name of the track that was making you so happy at that particular moment was? In the wake of experiments carried out by the Minus family, into interactivity with the crowd during last year’s Contakt Tour, Richie Hawtin has decided that it would be interesting to be able to "twitter" in real-time from his DJ booth. That’s right.

Thanks to the technology provided by the people at Native Instruments, and an extension software developed by Bryan McDade, our friend Mr. Hawtin, who has always been one for the new technologies, has linked his Traktor Pro to Twitter, allowing the audio application to send twitts directly to the Twitter site, with credits for all the cuts chosen by the brains of M_nus Sessions.  So, if you’re vain enough to hit the middle of the dance floor and take out your iPhone, you can pick up real-time information on each and every one of the songs you’re dancing to. And if not, once you’re chilling out at home, you can always check the Twitter archive to find a playlist that will help you understand the dynamics of your favourite DJs’ sessions, or to comb the web for fragments of the glorious music that for a few minutes had you touching the sky. 

Apart from its attraction as a medium for more direct interaction with the audience, M_nus presents this new application as a tool that would allow a fairer distribution of royalties due to the public reproduction of music played by DJs during their sessions. The truth is, few DJs bother to fill in the corresponding song list with the credits of the tracks they’ve played, so a large percentage of the royalties collected by the corresponding collecting societies for these sessions end up going to the top-selling artists (the "Madonnas and U2s of this world", according to the M_nus press release) because of the more than questionable work and attitude of some distribution systems. If the use of Twitter DJ were generalized, the collecting societies (Spain’s SGAE, GEM, PRS and suchlike) would have the technology to allow them -and almost "oblige them" - to unmistakably identify the true legal beneficiaries of the cash collected in royalties during sessions by the ever-growing number of DJs connected to this digital medium.

Since last Wednesday, Hawtin has been testing the beta version of this new software during his sessions. Find out the results of these first experiences with "Twitter DJ" here.

http://twitter.com/rhawtin

Keeping a leading radio streaming service on the Internet is expensive, and what with the costs of broadband, investments in new technological developments, licenses and royalty payments, the pennies just don’t meet sometimes. Those responsible for running Last.fm have just been forced to make difficult decision. It was announced via their blog: Last.fm’s radio service is no longer be free in many parts of the world since March.

Free of this measure are the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany, countries where it seems that the site attracts enough advertising to make their current business model profitable. Outside these three countries, those wishing to continue using Last.fm radio will have to put their hands in their pockets. The monthly subscription to the service will cost 3 euros. The remaining functions of the site (scrobbling your listening preferences, recommendations, lists, biographies, events, videos etc.) will still be free.  

Final victory to Spotify?

http://www.last.fm

Since the end of last year, Spotify has become the talk of the entire blogosphere. In case you’re not up-to-date yet, let’s just sum up by saying that Spotify is a "new" online service that allows music to be streamed upon request, offering a combined free access model (you’ll have to put up with commercials while you’re listening) and premium accounts (by paying 10 dollars a month, spare yourself the advertising and gain access to a series of special contents). There is one clear fundamental aim: to offer us the chance to listen to the music we want, when we want, without having to purchase it, while also offering a series of added functions (you can create a playlist with your favourites, or invite the system to generate playlists using algorithms that can discover artists that are similar to others or who have a certain style) that allow each user to personalize the experience.

Since its launch, critics and fans of the service alike have coincided in their belief that the success or failure of Spotify would depend to a large degree on the depth of its catalogue, on the variety of a selection that should continue growing and opening up, with music from the largest (for months now Spotify has been offering the four major record company’s catalogue for our enjoyment) to the smallest of labels. Over the last few weeks, Spotify has taken promising steps in that direction. The most interesting move perhaps being the agreement reached with ADA (Alternative Distribution Alliance), a joint venture set up in 1993 after a deal between Warner and Sub Pop to facilitate the manufacturing and distribution of independent recordings throughout the USA.  At the end of last week Spotify announced that all American material distributed by ADA was becoming part of its catalogue, quite a significant claim if we bear in mind that ADA distributes labels like Sub Pop, Matador, Domino, Touch and Go, Saddle Creek, Nonesuch, Beggars, Barsuk, Merge, Polyvinyl, Rhino, Thrill Jockey, Troubleman Unlimited, Ubiquity, Wichita...

In Spain, like in practically all other countries where it operates, Spotify is still only available in private beta form, so if you want to try it, you should pay for a premium account or wait till an invitation arrives. Choose the formula that suits you best, but try it out, given that more and more users see this kind of service as the model for music consumption most likely to succeed in the near future.

http://www.spotify.com

Having spent 280 million dollars last year on the purchase of Last.fm, the CBS radio division strengthens its presence in the world of streaming with the creation of Play.it, a brand-new portal (it was publicly launched last Monday) that allows anyone who wants to be registered, to create his own made-to-measure radio stations, to enjoy stations based on "artist-themed" recommendations similar to Pandora or Last.fm, and to enjoy over 350 traditional radio stations (be they terrestrial or online) belonging to CBS Radio and AOL Radio.  

Offering a similar service to some of the currently existing (the two previously mentioned, for example), what makes Play.it different seems to lie in the range of its catalogue (around 1.3 million songs, according to the CBS spokesmen, which would be double what Pandora, for example, offers) and in a much more visual interface, a highly intuitive graphic tool that enables you to generate a personalized station that meets your tastes by dragging files related to artists, albums, songs, genres or already existing radio stations onto a surface on which there several concentric circumferences have been drawn (imagine a shooting target). The nearer the centre of the target a factor is placed, the more weight it has in generating the playlist for your personal station. The snag: it seems that once the station has been created there’s no way to re-personalize it, as the Play.it mechanism doesn’t offer you –for now at least - the usual options provided by this type of service (like "Heart" or "Ban" buttons) for erasing the in progress reproduction list.  

Play.it is online in its beta version, and it appears that its first users are reporting more than one failure in the system that will need to be corrected over time. Be patient.


http://play.it

At the beginning there was basic radio, afterwards came all kinds of apparatus from where to listen to the radio and then came the possibility to listen to your favourite radio station from the web, now one can create its own station. ¿The difference? A matter of personal choice.

Now that the user is again the king, he gets to choose, his preference and opinions are taken into account.  He is asked to interact and participate. To use a name, a nick, passwords. Letting others know about his choices, what he likes and dislikes, and the reasons behind his selections.

But we have already seen ad-hoc radio stations in the web. What musicovery.com offers in terms of tailor made is first a definition of the environment in terms of moods, been positive or energetic, relaxing… Afterwards comes the tempo, can be less or more danceable. Once done with these, the user can begin with his favourite tunes!

If music has a direct influence in our temper then why leave it to someone else choices our mood for the rest of the day?

http://www.musicovery.com

When private companies, discographies and governments try to regulate author rights in the internet users are usually one step ahead with free access to any contents that they find interesting. Faced with the lack of clear criteria and procedures from public or private organisms, it’s the artists that have taken the initiative.

That’s the case of Toneshared.com. Mobile ring tones are one of the last strongholds where business agents of copyrights that don’t belong to them become strong to obtain benefits. In Toneshared we can find one of the most complety and interesting catalogues of ring tones created by prestigious artists of the independent and electronic scene. Free of charge and given away by its authors.

The trend of freeing copyrights by authors does not end here. If you intend to purchase the new Radiohead album you can download it from its web at an open price; taking the consumer the decision of a fair price for the transaction.

Authors are taking control over their rights and internet allows them the possibility of creating their own distribution and promotional plan. Things change, faster than ever.

http://www.toneshared.com

Options to listen free on-line music usually don’t differ one from other in operational terms. Last FM or Pandora work with search engines based on recommended favourite songs or artists matching other similar preferences.

The strength of the new Finetune comes from its capability of generating community and multiply itself through the web. Absolutely for free, besides listening to his favourite music, users can create their own reproduction lists and easily insert them in their own web site or blog. Music hear in Finetune has no advertisement inserted and each song is presented with its original cover plus basic information related with the author and record.

Finetune future success will depend in to diffuse itself outside its website and in that direction it has already implemented different solutions that allow access to Finetune from a client application for its PC or from Facebook or even from the Nintendo Wii.

Nowadays Finetune is the most advanced system to listen music thru the web and, although it lacks depth of catalogue as last.fm, it’s without any doubt leading the road that all music sites should follow.

http://www.finetune.com