That’s just music

EMI record company had allowed Apple to use it’s music in the newly developed file sharing service, which is being created by the latter firm, noted CNET News relating this information to it’s own sources in the music industry. In April the same kind of allowance was given to Apple from the Warner Music Group, and currently they’re talking to Universal Music Group and Sony Music Entertainment, the last two members of the “big four”; CNET News is supposing that an agreement will be reached by the following week. If Apple will be successful, then the new service may be represented at the WWDC developer’s conference - it should start on June 6 in San Francisco. Nevertheless, Apple is not the only company which is trying to push it’s music service, the same thing is taking place on the side of Amazon and Google. Amazon Cloud Drive came out by the end of March 2011, and Google Music Beta in May, however, the latter is functioning merely in the beta version, the rest of the program is not ready yet. At the same time, neither Google nor Amazon were able to reach an agreement with any large record label, thus becoming quite weak in rivalry with Apple, they just have to find some way out right now. Basically, it’s widely believed that Apple is going to win this competition, but not for the rest of the day, Google and Amazon are sitting on it’s tale and most likely may join forces for the short period of time in order to get first. 

An autobiographic book written by the Aerosmith frontman Steven Tyler “Does The Noise In My Head Bother You?” was recently included into the list of today’s bestsellers by The New York Times. The above mentioned work was released by the Ecco Press, which is owned by the infamous HarperCollins company. Tyler’s autobiography hit the stores on May 3, 2011, but there is no information on how many copies were put on the shelves, and how many of them were sold since the release date; at the same time many independent critics believe that The New York Times is not mistaken and Aerosmith’s leader’s book is getting higher and higher in popularity among the wide audience of readers. In his book Tyler is describing his major drug addiction problem, which he didn’t want to hide because on the long run he planned to show himself from many different sides, simply it appears that he is not without a sin. Also, he is talking about his cat, love of Christmas, happiness which he gets when hearing children laughing, and many other things that may describe him as a good guy. Recently, Steven Tyler was able to release two solo songs, “Love Lives”, and “(It) Feels So Good”, the latter came out in May and wasn’t unnoticed by the public, he is just keeping his spirits high. Such people as Tyler never give up because of their unbeatable optimism towards life around us, and everything they do is getting reflected in their art.

According to the Rolling Stone readers Led Zeppelin’s “Stairway to Heaven” is now considered to be the best ballad ever, and this judgment seems to be very true. This infamous magazine was asking it’s readers about their opinion about twelve songs, and as the result Led Zeppelin won the case, now a “stairway” is on the top of twelve other not less great songs produced by other not less talented bands. This eighth minute song was released within the band’s fourth studio album, and hit the stores in 1971, so practically since that year it’s seen as the major classic together with Mozart’s “Magic Flute”. “Stairway to Heaven” often gets included into such lists, for example, in 2004 the same magazine added it into it’s list of “500 greatest songs of all time”, however, back then it was standing at 31st place. Here is the whole list:

1. Led Zeppelin - “Stairway to Heaven”
2. George Harrison - “Something”
3. The Rolling Stones - “Wild Horses”
4. Guns N’ Roses - “November Rain”
5. The Beatles - “Let It Be”
6. Prince - “Purple Rain”
7. Pink Floyd - “Wish You Were Here”
8. Marvin Gaye - “Let’s Get It On”
9. Pearl Jam - “Black”
10. Lynyrd Skynyrd - “Freebird”
11. The Beatles - “Hey Jude”
12. U2 - “With Or Without You”

 Definitely many people (as always) may disagree with the Rolling Stone, but more or less all of these songs and the above listed bands are great, and they just deserve to be over here.

David Gilmour had participated in the concert alongside with his old Pink Floyd friend Roger Waters, the whole thing took place in London at the O2 Arena on May 12, 2011, noted New Musical Express. During the last few years these ex-Pink Floyd colleagues were performing together only twice, in 2005 within the frames of the Live 8 charity events, this show became the full reunion of the band, and sadly the last one. In 2008 the band’s keyboardist Richard Wright had passed away, and Pink Floyd was able to partially reunite twice more, thus presenting Waters and Gilmour. Before May 12 they came together for another charity event, however, the full reunion is currently impossible, even with the help from Nick Mason, who decided to join them on the above mentioned date. Particularly, he went on stage for singing an “Outside the Wall” song, and by this move had totally surprised the crowd, people just couldn’t believe what they see, nearly the full comeback of their favorite band. At the same time, Roger Waters is touring with The Wall Live program, which is based on the band’s 1979 album “The Wall”, so practically things are on the move, life is not standing still for the surviving members of Pink Floyd. They just have to return again and again in order to show their extraordinary talents.

The Smashing Pumpkins leader Billy Corgan is planning to publish an autobiographic book titled “God is Everywhere, from Here to There”, noted Rolling Stone. He is describing his work as “spiritual memoir”. “It’s a very interesting take inside my personal life and my band life. I’ve decided to write this on my own, which is complete insanity,” surely this is an interesting thing because he is not a writer and anywhere, anytime he needs to find the right time for the writing process. Usually such people ask for some journalistic help, however, according to Corgan’s words, he is doing it completely on his own. At the same time he had underlined that he is not planning to ask for help from the other band members while working on his autobiographic piece, it seems that his personal opinion will matter the most after all. On the other hand, he is the only unchanging member of The Smashing Pumpkins since the beginning of it, so it’s not strange that others will not add anything special in comparison to him. As Corgan said, he is spending at least one hour a day on writing, and so far he had written three hundred pages, but it’s only one third of the planned material. Additionally, The Smashing Pumpkins is currently working on the long lasting project called “Teargarden By Kaleidyscope”, which started in 2009 and should continue for the next following years; simply each month they’re releasing one song.

Google had started the new test version of it’s own music service, so currently MusicBeta is available to users only in the US. Currently, there is no information on when it will start working in Europe or anywhere else in the world, but rumors keep on saying that one day it should be implemented everywhere; Google is the global system, which can’t just propose it’s services merely in one or two countries. Every user is permitted to download up to twenty thousand music files, and later they may be able to access them from any computer or mobile device; seems to be very useful and contemporary. Google had specifically designed new additions to the infamous Android platform in order to make it attachable to the MusicBeta software. Besides all of these great accesses and implementations Google is not going to permit MusicBeta users to upload files anywhere else but their own online storage, in other words they are trying to hold down piracy attempts. Newly downloaded files will automatically get stored within the frames of the Google digital library. BetaMusic is now the biggest rival of another similar service, Amazon CloudDrive which is also offering numerous gadgets and technological implementations regarding music. Also, Apple is contemplating on releasing it’s own service close to BetaMusic and CloudDrive, however, the company is still not certain about the release date, so far there is no actual clarity at all.

British legend Pink Floyd which signed a new contract with the EMI record label last year had finally announced the re-release of it’s catalogue, noted the company’s official website. The whole series of new productions will open up on September 26, 2011 with the release of a fourteen disk box-set titled “Discovery”, it should include all the best known albums of this band, and notably every song shall be digitally re-mastered. Each CD must be accompanied by the release of the legal online versions specifically designed for the downloading process (all digital formats will be available). The most famous Pink Floyd songs will be available within the frames of two more extended releases called “Experience” and “Immersion”. They will incorporate a lot of previously unreleased tracks, alternative stuff, concert records, photographs and videos along with many restored films that were once projected onto the big screen during Pink Floyd’s live performances. Besides CD releases listeners will be able to purchase another collectible vinyl, so nothing shall go unnoticed or unreleased. Literally, Pink Floyd is putting up it’s own history on the shelf which is going to be available to everyone, great re-mastered tracks, rare material, practically anything what may be curious and great about this band is right here today, so their legacy moves on. They gave birth to numerous music styles including electronic; additionally they’ve managed to consolidate the original synth sounds together with electric guitars, eventually turning it into something totally new.

Megadeth frontman Dave Mustaine had formed the new band called Red Lamb, noted New Musical Express. As in his major project of a lifetime mentioned above, Mustaine is working on vocals and lead guitar, so his practical and artistic role didn’t change much and it should be pretty good for this new thing. His experience, talent and fame should contribute to the new project, most of Megadeth fans will most certainly enjoy Mustaine’s Red Lamb. Also, it’s already known that the ex-Anthrax member Dan Spitz will participate in the project as Mustaine’s right hand, thus currently both musicians are vigorously working on the new material. Interestingly, the new producer who is truly taking care of the situation is Johnny K, previously he used to co-operate with Disturbed, Machine Head and 3 Doors Down, he also seems to be the right guy for it all. As Mustaine noted, Red Lamb is something in between Disturbed, Soundgarden and Rage Against The Machine, plus according to him it may remind some of the Anthrax songs too. Dave thinks that Red Lamb will sound more up to date and should play something very heavy, the real metal music fans will definitely not get disappointed with what is going to be produced in the near future. Obviously, Mustaine did not quit Megadeth, the band is planning to release a new album and currently he is spending some time on that too.

Kronos Quartet and Patti Smith are the winners of the Swedish Polar Music Prize 2011, noted the latter’s official website. Particularly, Patti Smith had received this award for demonstrating the fact that in rock n’ roll there is not less poetry and in poetry there is not less rock n’ roll. Kronos Quartet was awarded for contributing into the modern musical culture with the whole notion of quartets and classical sounds, something what existed exclusively in the past they’ve turned into the present. Both Kronos Quartet and Patti Smith will receive 165 thousand dollars each; a ceremony should take place in Stockholm on 30th of August this year. Polar Music Prize was founded in 1989 by the ABBA’s manager Stig Anderson, thus the first ceremony took place in 1992 where Paul McCartney was the first laureate. After all both Patti Smith and Kronos Quartet had reinvented many things and notably their soundtrack for “Requiem for a Dream” movie is now considered to be one of the biggest ever, it may be heard all the time literally everywhere, television programs, commercials and so on. Today’s generations didn’t hear classical music on this scale and the whole notion of the string quartet became re-discovered, on the other hand Patti Smith is a poet and is often seen as the godmother of proto-punk and art rock, her influence on music and art is obviously very strong.

Radiohead will perform every single song from it’s newest album “The King of Limbs” within the frames of the BBC program called “From the Basement”, noted New Musical Express. This television event should be aired on July 1 this year, and some of the songs will be heard live for the first time; additionally, every song shall be performed in the same order as they’ve been put on the disk. “The King of Limbs” is their eighth studio work, which hit the stores on February 2011 exclusively in the digital format, the actual CD came out on March 28. This album contains only eight tracks and totally compose thirty seven minutes of music, so due to this fact a lot of fans began to suspect another half (it just seemed to be too short for them). A series of “From the Basement” TV programs was invented by Nigel Goodrich in 2006, who had previously co-operated with Radiohead and according to some rumors almost became the band’s sixth member. Radiohead did previously participate in the production process of this show along with The White Stripes, Beck, P J Harvey, Sonic Youth and many others. Currently, it seems that Radiohead and it’s leader Thom Yorke are going through another upheaval, thus the whole agenda seems unstoppable, something new comes out all the time and the whole process may likely continue in the future.