That’s just music

Matthew Fisher, an organist from the British psychedelic group Procol Harum had returned himself the copyright to one of the band’s most famous songs Whiter Shade of Pale, said BBC. According to the House of Lords rule, the highest court in Britain, Fisher should own fourty percent of the original copyright. Fisher’s court struggle was going on since 2006, when he began to insist on the fact that his organ part in a song should be appreciated and valued according to his terms. The court took Fisher’s side, but later Procol’s vocalist Gary Brooker and the author Keith Reid have appealed it’s decision, so things began to hang in the air. Organist kept on saying that his part of a song is ‘the main crop’, and he surely deserves some positive feedback. Whiter Shade of Pale is the first and most successful single that was ever produced by the band; in 1967 during six weeks this song was staying on the first spot within the British major hits list. In the US it went up to the fifth spot. Procol Harum had tried to repeat this incredible success in the later years, but this kind of magic did not happen again. In 2004 Matthew Fisher had left the band and currently works as the computer programmer.

American pop singer Madonna had recorded a song about her ex-husband, famous movie director Guy Ritchie. As ContactMusic notes, in a new song she calls him to be “the eternal love”, not more not less. It all means that their breaking up was caused by his wishes, not Madonna’s, but currently all of this belongs to rumours only, so it’s too early to make any conclusions. It was reported that a nameless song so far, includes some lyrics about a pair in love, which separetes and later re-unites again. This curious information gave a root to a lot of speculations about the fact that Madonna is planning to start it all again with Ritchie. After all who knows, maybe there is some sentimental thing going on between them two, but most likely these talks shall not come true, even if she still feels something towards the guy. Their marriage was cancelled on November 21, 2008 after eight years of living together in a relative happiness. Some say that their difference in age turned to be the driving factor behind this separation, but no one really knows it for sure. There is another interesting fact that Madonna trully respects Ritchie as a person, and people say that there are not too many people whom she trully respects like this.

Dublin commuters have organized a samll street rally against the group of technicians who support and professionally maintain the U2 world tour, said AP. Certainly without these guys the band shall not be able to perform or even move out from their studio, so those practically silly protesters are hitting at the right place. During the last weekend this legendary band gave three concerts in their hometown at the Croke Park. After the concert technicians spent the whole night by moving sound equipment, the stage, which totally weighs 390 tons and all other things that correspond it. All this complicated stage equipment will be going to Göteborg (Sweden) where the band plans it’s next performance. These operations were co-ordinated with the local authorities, but the noise was so big that dwellers simply got angry. In the morning people have blocked an exit pathway from the stadium, and finally technicians did not arrive on time at the sea port. They just had to say goodbye to their ferry, and that was the will of ‘them’ Dubliners. Later the crowd decided to let some equipment trailers out, so Sweden is going to see U2, even though with some delay. As the U2 management says, Dubliners have interrupted the tour schedule, but it’s too early to proclaim the next venue cancelled.

Nearly two thirds off all Internet users have confessed that they’ve been downloading music illegally at least during last three months, said Torrent Freak relating this news to the analysts from Interpret. This news contains the real situation that is taking place within the music industry, Internet and music lovers. Interpret’s study included sixty four million people; 36% or twenty four million people are actually downloading music for free. A little less than a half of them believes that the music they’re getting on the Internet should be much cheaper than on CDs. Practically, it means that record companies and ‘restriction institutions’ don’t really have power over them, music is getting in and out despite all their tries to stop it. After all, Internet is so democratic and even slightly limitless in it’s core that in order to make it more restrictive things should get way beyond modern laws. Such laws exist in countries like North Korea were people have problems with electricity supplies and don’t have computers, but for example  in countries like US controlling the Internet will not be so easy. Temptation of getting music for free is absolutely all powerful, and people will always have a desire to get something online without going into their pockets.

Apple and the world’s leading record labels are currently working under the project called Coctail, which possesses the aim of selling music on iTunes, said The Financial Times. Well, this news looks quite obvious and seems to be very usual because what else those big companies can do when it comes down to selling music. Large record companies have certain designated places online where they would like to sell music, so things like Pirate Bay don’t have a chance. Coctail should start in September and will include EMI, Sony Music, Warner Music and Universal Muisc, practically all of those from a big stash. As Apple plans, after the Coctail project begins iTunes should double it’s sales almost immediately, and at the same time they’re promising that prices will not go up. They say that sales will rise due to the usage of a lot of new interactive services that will be implemented into their selling strategies. In March 2008 it became known that Apple is taking care of some business talks with the above mentioned record labels. It was also rumoured that it may turn into the most successful deal that had ever happened in the world of online music marketing techniques. In order to make things sound more simple it should be said that it’s just another way to make people buy music legally.

Twenty fifth anniversary of the Rock n’ Roll Hall of Fame is going to be marked with the grand show, which will include a numerous number of musicians who in various years were welcomed by the Hall. Organisers are planning something absolutely out of this world because according to them everything what was taking place before was not good enough. After all, this is right, this organization or better to say a club had never created something absolutely stunning on stage, something on the level of Woodstock. This year’s show shall not welcome as many people, but those who will get out on stage over there are definitely going to leave certain mark on the history of live performances. As the Billboard noted here is the scatch list of those who are about to arrive: U2, Metallica, Crosby, Stills & Nash, soul singer Aretha Franklin (recently she had decided to take a break, but made an astonishing exclusion for the Hall), Stevie Wonder, Simon & Garfunkel, Eric Clapton, Bruce Springsteen with his band The E Street Band. One of the best rock n’ roll artists in the history of music. Also, New Musical Express had found some uncertain information that Sir Paul McCartney and The Eagles may be participating on this historical show.

Ex-vocalist of the British new wave band Japan David Sylvian had finished working with his new solo album. This talented musician is famous for the variety of experiments with music and particularly new sounds that may be classified as part of the new age. His official web site says that “Manafon” is going to come out on September 14. Another cool record that may be interesting to those who worth experimental and chill out sound. Besides regular release fans should see the double CD version, which is going to include a documentary called “Amplified Gesture” that tells about how this album was made. As DavidSylvian.net notes, “Manafon” which contains nine tracks was recorded in Vienna, London and Tokyo. A song “Small Metal Gods” is seen as the possible first single and if everything goes smooth it may reach certain number on the British music charts. Obviously David Sylvian was not the only person to produce this record, particularly here is the short list of those who were built into the process: Christian Fennesz, guitarist Keith Rowe, Japanese electronic musicians Sachiko Matsubara and Otomo Yoshihide, saxophonist Evan Parker, pianist John Tilbury and members of the Austrian band Polwechsel. In other words it seems like something big, so those who worth this kind of music don’t miss to follow it all.

Brilliant Digital Entertainment had resurrected the long forgotten file sharing network Kazaa, said The Sydney Morning Herald. Now this service is going to allow absolutely legal downloading, but this time for the monthly payment. For twenty dollars a month user may keep on downloading without any limits, and it looks like this particular option will be the most popular. After all, it’s nice to see Kazaa back, even if they’re not standing here for free anymore. Currently users of the new Kazaa version can exist only in the US, but soon it’s going to be available in Australia as well. Most likely their new service will be extended and in the nearest future it’s going to be available all around the world. Also, together with Kazaa users will be allowed to pay their phone bills too. Great idea and at the same time it’s probably why they start doing it only in US right now, hence such complicated thing is hard to get implemented in other countries due to local billing regulations. All Kazaa files should be available in WMA format and as BDE representatives say, they’ve already received all sorts of help from big and small record labels. Totally Kazaa music library contains one million files, so if you live in US or Australia get ready to download.

Blur bass guitarist Alex James is about to establish his own brand of cheese, which is going to be advertised with the help of Duchy Originals company. The best part about it is that this firm belongs to Prince Charles himself, said Gigwise. This new cheese will be created out of milk produced by some unique breed of cows from Ayrshire, Scotland. Absolutely stunning news from Blur, and again it proves the fact that if one is talented in one thing then he or she will be talented in anything else. Each pack of Blur’s cheese should go for three pounds, so practically anyone will be able to afford it, noted James. It’s not the first time when this guy began to deal with “cheese industry”, it all started way back in 2003 when the band had stopped touring and recording albums. By the end of 2008 James has invented a cheese called Little Wallop, which soon was awarded with the silver medal on the annual world’s best cheese contest. Besides making a product for Prince Charles’s company, James is also working on creating another one – Blue Monday. This future brand of cheese was called like that in dedication to New Order’s infamous song. Well, cheese is great, maybe not less great than music itself.

Legendary American rock band Pearl Jam is beginning to accept pre-orders on their ninth brand new album “Backspacer”. Those who have moved the grunge scene along with Nirvana stayed a little bit silent for a certain period of time, and right now they’re coming back, hopefully with something epic again. Currently it’s possible to visit their official web site and purchase a CD for 13,99$ or for those who worth retro things attain a vinyl piece for 19,98$. Besides that a vinyl version contains the first single from the album “The Fixer” (additional 5,99$). A lot of musicians and particularly defenders of the ‘real music’ just love vinyl stuff. Possibly due to their activity it even created some little comeback during the last year, and certainly Pearl Jam moves along with it. CD’s and vinyls are going to be delivered to buyers on September 20, 2009, which is the official release date. “The Fixer” was already presented by Pearl Jam on the Fox Channel, but it’s still not coming out until August 24. Generally speaking “Backspacer” is the first album which is being produced by the band without any record labels, so in order to distribute it they’re using small music stores and one big American retail store Target. In the rest of the world the album will be spread by Universal Music.