Beatles Buses Headed for New York, L.A.

09 Nov 2012 1 Comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(Reprinted from Rolling Stone)

The Beatles will celebrate the vinyl  release of their remastered studio albums with pop-up shops in the form of  custom double-decker buses set to appear in New York and Los Angeles November  13th.

The 14 stereo LPs – the 12 U.K. originals, the  U.S.-originated Magical Mystery Tour and the  B-sides and rarities collection Past Masters Volumes One &  Two – will be available individually or in a box set that includes a  hardbound book. In addition, the Beatles’ mobile record store will have  available CD versions of the albums, DVDs and Blu-Rays of the newly  restored Magical Mystery Tour and Yellow Submarine films  and a unique t-shirt exclusive to each city.

In New York, the pop-up bus will appear at 9:30 a.m. on Seventh Avenue  between 49th Street and 50th Street; at noon on Broadway between Price Street  and Spring Street; and at 2:30 p.m. on Broadway between Cortlandt Street and  Liberty Street. In Los Angeles, the bus will appear at 9:30 a.m. at the Capitol  Records building at 1750 North Vine St.; at noon at the ICE at Santa Monica  skating rink, 1324 5th St. at Arizona Avenue; and at 2:30 p.m. at L.A. Live at  Olympic Boulevard and Figueroa Street.

The Secret Genius Of Taylor Swift

09 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(Source: NPR)

Taylor Swift’s new album, Red, sold more 1.2 million copies in its first week — the highest first-week sales total for an album in over a decade. She did it partly by answering a surprisingly complicated question: What’s the best way to sell an album?

There are so many ways to release your music these days. You can sell it at Amazon, iTunes, Wal-Mart, and Starbucks. You can release it to streaming sites like Spotify. You can go on tour.

Each artist chooses a mix of tools from this toolbox. And choosing the right mix can help an artist make money — something that’s hard to do in an era when it’s so easy to get free music.

Taylor Swift picked expertly. As Paul Resnikoff, editor and founder of Digital Music News points out, she has chosen from the toolbox only the outlets that would give her the most money for every album sold: Outlets that pushed a full album purchase.

The first week her album came out, you could only get it in a few key places: i-tunes, Walgreens, Wal-Mart, Target. You could order a Papa Johns pizza and receive the CD — at the sticker price of around 14 bucks.

But the tools Swift didn’t use are as important than the ones she did. By refusing to release her singles on Spotify, or any other streaming site, she pushed her fans to buy the album. Spotify pays the artist pennies on the dollar. Taylor Swift skipped it.

“Taylor already has so many fans, that she doesn’t need to have that, like, incentive,” 16-year-old superfan Lindsey Feinstein says. “Like, ‘Oh, listen to this, and then you’ll buy it.’ She’s past that level.”

Streaming music is more like an advertisement for the artist. It’s a process of music discovery, not necessarily music fandom. You build brand loyalty to the artist through streaming. Taylor Swift does not have a problem with brand loyalty. As Lindsey says, she’s past that.

Election Officials Defend Special Voting for Usher

09 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

(Source: Wonderwall)

The Associated Press, Friday, November 9, 2012, 3:14am (PST)

  • ROSWELL, Ga. (AP) — Election officials in the Atlanta area are defending their decision to allow singer Usher to bypass long lines and cast his ballot on Election Day, infuriating voters who had to wait.

     Fulton County election officials tell WSB-TV that Usher Raymond IV was escorted to the front of the line to minimize distractions at his Roswell polling place. They said in a statement that poll manager Frank Padula was directed to move Usher through the process as quickly as possible.

    WSB reports that Usher took cellphone pictures of himself voting, then posted them on Twitter.

    Fulton County Commissioner Liz Hausmann questioned the decision. Hausmann said she can think of only a few people who might deserve such treatment, such as people with disabilities, the elderly and voters with small children.

The Beatles’ Surprising Contribution To Brain Science

09 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags: ,

(Source: NPR)

The same brain system that controls our muscles also helps us remember music, scientists say.

When we listen to a new musical phrase, it is the brain’s motor system — not areas involved in hearing — that helps us remember what we’ve heard, researchers reported at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in New Orleans last month.

The finding suggests that the brain has a highly specialized system for storing sequences of information, whether those sequences contain musical notes, words or even events.

But the discovery might never have happened without The Beatles, says Josef Rauschecker of Georgetown University.

Listen to the full story here:

(Thanks, Elaine)

The Upgrade is Here!

08 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

by Ed Cyphers in General Posts Tags:

A recent upgrade to this site will make your experience as a reader or follower a more convenient and enjoyable one. All posts that recommend music (the Songs You May Have Missed and Recommended Albums entries) are now accompanied by embedded audio clips, rather than off-site links (to Grooveshark or YouTube.) This applies to upcoming posts as well as all previous ones, which have now been edited to include new audio. All video too will now be presented in embedded form, rather than as off-site links. The improvements are several:

  • Now you may play an audio clip while you read the accompanying post, rather than going off-site to hear the song–especially beneficial when lyrics are reprinted within a post.
  • The embedded audio clips represent a significant improvement in sound quality over most of the off-site links.
  • YouTube or other videos may still accompany some music posts, but only as a supplement. You won’t be at the mercy of videos becoming unavailable due to licensing issues or YouTube users closing their accounts.
  • The embedded audio will be available to users in all countries, whereas Grooveshark and YouTube have restrictions for certain users.
  • I’m no longer limited by the selection of music I can find full audio clips of online. My personal collection is now the music source, and I’ve already begun posting songs I previously could not because they were unavailable elsewhere.

Next I’ll begin revamping the posts in other series which contain music, such as the Forgotten Hits and Story Behind the Song posts. I hope you revisit some of the older posts, especially if you were previously unable to access certain music.

Let me know how you like the improvements!

~Ed

 

Does Anyone Even Remember What ‘MTV’ Used to Stand For?

08 Nov 2012 Leave a comment

Maybe they should change their name :)

Image by Ed Cyphers

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