That’s just music

YouTube users will be able to download any song or track they’ve liked without leaving the web server’s video hosting, said The New York Times. Apple iTunes and Amazon became Google’s (Google owns YouTube) business partners. If the track is available for purchasing there will be a special Amazon’ or iTunes’ icon underneath it. All you may need is just to make a click. However, it’s not for free anyway…  Currently, YouTube allows purchasing only those tracks that belong to EMI and Universal Music. Later in time Google is planning to extend the amount of stuff that will be available on the YouTube service. Nevertheless, this new thing is accessible only in the US so far, and it’s not known when exactly this service will start working everywhere else.

MySpace Music users have downloaded and listened up to one billion songs after this service became available just a few days ago, said TechCrunch. The most popular online music store iTunes needed almost three years to sell the same amount of songs! New rivals on the block shall make it big. MySpace representatives have approved this information, but without making it clear on how many of these tracks were actually downloaded or just heard online. MySpace Music was launched in the end of September this year allowing it’s users not only download their music, but also listen to it online. Also, it makes possible to buy concert tickets and other corresponding goods. Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group and EMI Music became their business partners.

The first day of a Glastonbury ticket sale turned to be unbelievably successful, said France Presse. 68750 out of 137500 were sold out fantastically and unexpectedly quickly thus proving the raising popularity of this great music festival. The following year promises to be powerful! This ticket sale is going to last for only four more days, and will start again on April 5. The price jumps up to one hundred seventy five pounds, but those who would like to pre-order it should pay fifty pounds more. As FP is noticing, Glastonbury’s organizers are using a new method of selling tickets, which simply means that before purchasing a ticket one should register on the festival’s website. They think that this trick shall protect their sale from all kinds of cheaters.

This year’s event included Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Leonard Cohen and The Verve. The upcoming bash shall welcome Coldplay, Radiohead, Led Zeppelin and Stevie Wonder.  

iTunes won another legal battle with the online music stores, said Rolling Stone. The American Copyright Royalty Board had ruled that the amount of commission that iTunes traditionally pays to the Internet music distributors shall not increase. National Music Publishers’ Association was demanding to raise royalties from nine to fifteen cents – 66 % higher. Such demands were not put out for the first time. During the last year Apple was saying that if commission goes up they will close their iTunes Store once and for all. The Copyright Royalty Board’s decision was made up five years ago and since then it faces all kinds of complaints from the NMPA. If these royalties stayed as high as the NMPA always wanted, then iTunes could’ve loose up to three hundred million dollars during the last five years. Apple’s opponents keep on saying that this company gets most of it’s money by selling iPod players, and of course Apple denies it.

Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel are planning to make the joint concert for the first time in their musical careers, said AP. All the profit from this performance shall support Barack Obama’s campaign. Again since 1992 rock musicians and not only them are seeking to help the Democratic party to win.  Springsteen has already spoken about his political views in March when Obama was going against Clinton. This concert will take place on October 16 in New York, and most likely shall be attended by Obama himself. In order to get there people should pay up to five hundred dollars, but the biggest price may jump to ten thousand. Historical events that are planned in advance can never be cheap. On the day before the show Obama and McCain will go through the last public debates in this presidential race.

Kevin Costner and his band Modern West is about to release the album “Untold Truth”, said Reuters. This is the country style record which is going to appear in music stores on November 11. In the meantime, the first song on the album “Long Hot Night” is already available on the Internet. Don’t miss it if you like the country music. Totally, this album includes not only his songs, but also those ones that were written by the other band members during the last two decades. By the end of 2008 Modern West is planning to go on tour in support of this record. “Hard work is involved in everything I do and I’ve enjoyed working on writing songs and performing music. If it ever stops being fun, I’ll be just as happy going back to playing guitar and singing in my living room”, he noted. It is always good to see an actor who is trying something else.