"music": The No. 1 result in 2001 was music.com, the flagship site of "the music.com network." (That domain name now houses some sort of "work in progress" music-video repository that takes way too long to load.) No. 2? This repository of music sites that is still functioning as a Web site, if a little stale-seeming. Whatever, I'll add it to my bookmarks!

Other sites of note that were near the top of the "music" search results:
• MTV.com;
• All Music Guide;
• The Internet Underground Music Archive, or IUMA (hey, whatever happened to those people who named their kids after the indie-label music repository for $5,000—a promotion that took place only five months before the site shut down for good?);
• the late online CD store CDNow; and
• Madonna's official site, where you could stream the "Don't Tell Me" video at speeds optimized for either a 56k modem or a T1 line

NB: The No. 1 result for "music" now is the aggregator-of-aggregates music site operated by Yahoo! Music.com is No. 2, even though today is the first day that I'd ever heard of it. (Never underestimate the power of the five-letter domain name.)

Napster: Had stopped functioning in its old-school form by this point; a snapshot of the site from sometime in 2001 was apparently taken exactly when the company was in transition:

As you know, file sharing at Napster has been suspended for several months. During that time, we've been blown away by the number of Napster users who've continued to download the software and use it to organize and play their music. These dedicated users keep us inspired as we work on our new membership service. We're in the home stretch, with all of our critical technology complete and in testing.

We're also working hard to resolve our legal issues. We're moving toward a settlement with the major labels that we feel will work for rights holders and allow us to bring you the music you want. The music and the technology are coming together for launch. We can't wait to share it all with you.

Well, we all know how that worked out.

Audiogalaxy: Didn't allow the contents of its now-long-dormant site to be indexed, but, guys, remember Audiogalaxy? That was how I got the whole Scritti Politti discography before the reissues came out, as well as... so much other stuff. Sigh.

MySpace: Was "a service owned by YourZ.com, Inc." that apparently specialized in third-party file hosting.

Chinese Democracy: Most of the search results are actually about democracy in China, which is like, bo-ring! Although a few search results in, there's a page—unarchived by the Wayback Machine and on a now-defunct server, alas—that has this little snippet:

According to GNR´s Manager Doug Goldstein Chinese Democracy is 99% musically
done and 80% ... The official release date of Chinese Democracy is June 2001

Or was. Ahem.

2001 Search [Google]

1. Pink, "So What"
Streamable from Pink's MySpace page; not available for purchase via MySpace Music widget, despite presence on Amazon.

2. Kanye West, "Love Lockdown"
First 1:30 streamable from West's MySpace page; not available for purchase via MySpace Music widget, despite presence on Amazon.

3. T.I., "Whatever You Like"
Streamable from T.I.'s MySpace page; not available for purchase via widget, despite presence on Amazon.

4. Taylor Swift, "Love Story"
Seems to be bypassing MySpace Music's official player/commerce widget, opting instead to pre-sell her forthcoming album on MySpace (with the option to buy a $75 box set!) and give people the download for "Love Story" instantly.

5. Rihanna, "Disturbia"
Streamable from Rihanna's site; official version available for purchase if the user uses the album pull-down menu and selects Good Girl Gone Bad.

6. M.I.A., "Paper Planes"
Streamable from M.I.A.'s MySpace page; official version available for purchase if the user uses the album pull-down menu and selects either Kala or the "Planes" remix EP.

7. Katy Perry, "Hot N Cold"
Streamable from Perry's MySpace page; not available for purchase via widget, despite presence on Amazon. (On the bright side, the awfulness of having to visit Perry's page was mitigated slightly by a pop-up ad for Ted Leo & The Pharmacists. Teach the children, Ted!)

8. Jason Mraz, "I'm Yours"
Streamable from Mraz's MySpace page; official version available for purchase if the user uses the album pull-down menu and selects the right version of the "I'm Yours" digital single.

9. Estelle feat. Kanye West, "American Boy"
Streamable from Estelle's MySpace page; not available for purchase via widget, despite presence on Amazon. (It would appear that the Estelle insta-tribute band the Studio All-Stars don't have a MySpace page.)

10. David Archuleta, "Crush"
Streamable from Archuleta's MySpace page; available for purchase if you select "Crush" from the pull-down menu in the widget.

So, out of the ten most saleable songs in the U.S. right now, MySpace Music is letting its users purchase four of them—and all four have to be navigated to, instead of them being presented to the user straight off. Can someone tell me why Tom & Co. felt like they had to launch this thing today, before it was ready for prime-time at all? I know that the site's supposed to be "iterative," but not having six of the top ten singles for purchase on what is being pitched as a track-by-track marketplace is not unlike trying to open an outlet of The Gap that's missing jeans.

Earlier: MySpace Music Gets Ready For A Big Amazon Affiliate Check

Independent labels are still absent from the "streaming for dollars" portion of the service, as is the catalog of EMI. (Update: EMI's catalog will apparently trickle in soon.) This results in a few browsing hiccups; when you visit Coldplay's profile, for example, and select Parachutes from the pull-down menu, you are greeted with one streamable song: "Trouble," which was uploaded to the band's page long enough ago for it to have received some 3.8 million plays. The same hiccupy browsing goes for indie bands like Ponytail. Why the discography feature was turned on for artists whose labels aren't participating in the revenue-sharing program is beyond me; it creates something of a dead-end for users, who can browse the songs the bands have uploaded by album, which is semi-pointless and usually results in users heading back to the "Featured Playlist" (which is code for "songs that were streaming from the site before today's changeover").

There are a few other quirks. Some new releases, which one would think would be high-priority for a venture that's expressly designed for making bank, are missing: Fall Out Boy's new single is streamable, but not available for purchase, and I couldn't find Ne-Yo's Year Of The Gentleman for streaming or purchasing, despite him being the No. 10 major-label artist on the site. The merging of Amazon's data with the streaming player also results in a few glitches in the discographies, although I suppose merge failures like that are to be expected with large-scale launches such as this. (And I seriously doubt anyone is looking at MySpace Music as a possible All Music Guide alternative.)

It's details and flaws like these that make the MySpace Music that launched today look like a rushed, desperate attempt to just get something to market, despite the amount of energy and press-gladhanding that was poured into it in the run-up to its launch. Will it result in a slight uptick for Amazon MP3's music revenues in the short term? Perhaps. But I suspect that a year or so from now, we'll be looking back on today much as we did on the day that Snocap first introduced its "buy this MP3" widgetry to the site—as a bump in the road, but nothing all that special in the long run.

MySpace Music [MySpace]

The current versions of these pages are on top; the "new" versions are on bottom.

SCREENSHOT 1: THE MAIN PAGE

I guess it looks slightly cleaner. Although one has to wonder, with all the service's indie label-related issues, whether or not the removal of the Top Artists section was an easy way to de-emphasize artists whose albums aren't distributed by one of the site's major-label revenue-sharers. Especially since the always-sketchy "top artists" list, which currently features a bunch of artists whose material is pushed by Atlantic Records in its "indie" list, remains. Although I guess that could also be looked at as a strategic move.

SCREENSHOT 2: THE PROFILE PAGE

Well, I'll give them this: That commerce interface is sure more elegant than the old Snocap widgets. I eagerly await half of the musicians on the site having their 1,945 embedded Flash widgets curl up and stop working as a result of mysterious incompatibilities with it.

There's a third screenshot that TechCrunch is saying is a "user admin panel," although it looks like it may be cleaned-up version of Song History to me:

Much like the future of MySpace Music, however, it's way too blurry to make out.

Leaked MySpace Music Screenshots [TechCrunch]

Take your field of vision past the Planet Hollywood banners, and what do you see? On one side, you have the Virgin Megastore, which was once a monument to the power of music retail and is now waiting to be brought to its knees by commercial real estate developers. (That is, of course, if the whole market for retail floor space doesn't crater sometime in the next six months.) On the other, you have banners for albums like Christina Aguilera's Stripped and Elvis Presley's #1s, both of which came out in the comparatively SoundScan-soaked days of 2002, and both of which come as a result of said building serving as the headquarters of the German conglomerate Bertelsmann—a company which, of course, is trying to extricate itself from its music-business ties as I type this.

Nice positioning, guys. You couldn't have angled for a spot near, say, the Hard Rock Cafe?

MySpace Music Becomes Physical, Not Virtual, Reality [Songs For Soap]

See that "For the first time in 10 years" claim? It's a bit odd, given that Messner came out in 1999—you know, nine years ago. And the band broke up in 2000. And if anyone thinks that said "first time" clause is in reference to a band reforming just to play its "most critically acclaimed album," well, you might want to get the organizers of All Tomorrow's Parties' Don't Look Back series on the horn. Come to think of it, I wonder what they think of all this, what with the concepts being so similar and the names rhyming and even having the same cadence, if your accented syllables fall a certain way...

Front To Back [MySpace]
[HT: Grayson Currin, Al Shipley]

Yes, you can record yourself belting out karaoke jams (No. 1 right now: Sarah McLachlan's "Angel") and allow the world to comment on and rate your performance. Why you would subject yourself to that possible deep humiliation, I have no idea, but the delusions of others are likely to beat out ghostridin' clips on YouTube and become my favorite form of Internet entertainment.

Among my favorite performers is "The Karaoke Dude," who turns in a stellar turn on a Poison classic:

Every Rose Has Its Thorn

"SB" makes one of my least favorite songs ever, "Indian Reservation," come alive:

Indian Reservation (The Lament Of The Cherokee Tribe)

This is going to kill any spare time I have left, I just know it. Also, if you're the MySpace sort, and would like to record your own take on a pop classic, drop the link in the comments for consideration for a future "Best of Idolator Karaoke" post, which would make my blogging career all worthwhile.

MySpace Karaoke [ksolo.myspace.com]

GetBack president Chris Dominguez, a former executive at MTV Networks and iFilm, said there's an opportunity to create a destination for people over 35 who might not be enamored of the younger-skewing MySpace and Facebook.

"We found that demographic was coming online with full broadband and using social networking," Dominguez said. "But there wasn't anything created typically for them."

A clear difference between GetBack and the social networking giants is that the site comes with content. Instead of a user having to go out and find a U2 video to put on their page, for example, the site already has that content available.

The site features movie trailers through an agreement with ScreenPlay, a service that has deals with all the major studios, and the pages feature 30-second samples of 750,000 songs through an agreement with All Media Guide.

Getback.com also has deals with Amazon, Itunes, Hulu and numerous record companies so that all your nostalgia-inspired purchasing needs are just a click away. And you don't have to worry about accidently wandering across an aging Flavor Flav or Miley Cyrus' bra. It's strictly Public Enemy and Debbie Gibson.

Check out the current "GetBack Picks!"

• Retro Minute
•Armor Battle
•Twiggy FlipBook
•Eurythmics
•River Raid
•Raising Arizona
•Beatles Live! FlipBook
•Mel Brooks
•Rows of 'Fros FlipBook
•U2 "Mysterious Ways"

Wait a second, "Mysterious Ways?" That happened in the nineties! What's that doing here? What's next, a Fall Out Boy? Some teenage girl in a tank top trying to be my friend? Why is my full name on my page? My boss might see that! Oh no, a sex pop-up! Son, help! I just wanted to tell people I like the trailer for Major League!

Getback.com [Official site]
New Social Network targets older music fans [Reuters]

Wired: Is MySpace Music open to giving equity deals to digital distributors such as The Orchard or Ioda?

DeWolfe: We're open to extending our equity deals to the right partners, but at a certain point, you can't extend equity to everyone. What we originally set out to do was create a platform where every artist in the world would not only have a free promotional platform like they do right now — we're providing a free service — but also to create additional revenue streams for them.

A nice non-answer there, right? But it gets better!

Wired: Will unsigned bands on MySpace Music have a way to participate in the ad revenue?

DeWolfe: We don't really have the mechanism right now to develop an affiliate program or a payout structure for millions and millions of bands.... We started with the major music companies, and we're talking to the consortiums because the indie bands are really the heart of MySpace — it's how MySpace Music started. We value their contribution, and one of our initial missions was to help artists that didn't get signed by major labels to create a living based on their art.

We first did that by creating this free platform where they could get fans from all over the world that they otherwise wouldn't have been able to reach; and provide a platform for those fans to become friends with those independent artists. And when those independent artists go on the road, they can sell out their shows and make money through touring and merchandise and tickets and all of that. We're trying to extend those revenue streams to the independent artists. This is all meant to be a very, very positive movement for them.

So maybe bands who are affiliated with the Orchard and IODA will see some money... someday. But I'd file that last claim under "I'll believe it when I see it."

MySpace Music Won't Give Equity to Indie Bands [Listening Post]

* News reports indicate that this new service is a joint venture between MySpace and at least three of the four major labels, and that in exchange for supplying the store with their music, among other possible contributions, the major labels have been given equity in the new venture

* If news reports are true, it is unclear whether and how the equity the participating major labels received will be shared by them with their artists, or with the independent labels they simply distribute (yet count in their overall market share, and whose music they presumably intend to include in the MySpace service

* To our understanding, independents have not been offered any equity. However, we will make a strong and unequivocal commitment to you: very simply, if we negotiate for and receive equity, we will share it with you

* We appreciate MySpace as a unique social phenomenon and the fact that many of you rely on MySpace as an important part of your web presence and fan connection. Thus, we engage with MySpace respectful of the role MySpace plays for many of you. We do not take this opportunity lightly, and we will constructively but aggressively advocate for you ... as we always do

* Digital retail is fairer than physical brick-and-mortar retail ever was. iTunes led by example and helped to shift music industry dynamics towards a more level playing field for all industry participants (for example, in their continued efforts to further standardize pricing, and their reasonably democratic way of dealing with placements on the site). In that light, if reports are true, the apparent MySpace licensing approach is troubling. It hearkens back to a time none of us wants to revisit ... Where independent artists and labels were third-class citizens in the global music economy, instead of the second-class citizenship (with a good chance for an upgrade to first) that we enjoy today

So let me get this straight... you're worried about major labels possibly engaging in a practice that might knock those uppity indies back into the role they were in before digital distribution up and made everything go haywire, thus taking money out of the majors' pockets and spreading it around to more people. Really, how could you even think that they wouldn't want to engage in a little bit of anticompetitive chicanery, The Orchard? Have you not read Hit Men lately?

Full Text Of Orchard's MySpace Letter To Labels [Hypebot]

And there are more:

• Best Video is sponsored by Heavy.com—"one of the web's leading consumer video companies and the leader for 18-34 year old males," which means I guess that you can expect to see lots of boobs in the nominees;

• Best New American Alternative/Indie Band is sponsored by Yahoo! Music; and

• American Alternative/Indie Album of the Year is sponsored by Entertainment Weekly's Web site, because there's no better way to establish your brand in a new country than to hitch it to that of a competitor that's had deathwatch rumors swirling around it for the better part of the past few years.

Nominations are open now, although for some reason a) the NME wants your street address to let you through to registration and b) you have to click through 18 pages in order to nominate an entire slate. So I guess this is going to be another awards show whose nominees are decided by hapless interns working in service of their image-conscious bosses, right?

Earlier: NME To Bring Its Incessant Arctic Monkeys Longing To The US

1. Wikipedia doesn't use Flash. Or blinking backgrounds. Or huge images that take up 1,068 vertical pixels before you get to word one of any sort of useful information. Or other slideshows that jam up your computer and make it crash when you're in the middle of writing something and on deadline and AAGGGH.

2. Wikipedia may be crazily draconian in its efforts to police entries for "objectivity" (the Billboard story points out that artists and managers are missing out on using the user-generated encyclopedia as a "resource" for getting out their propaganda, but that would probably result in many "neutral point of view" wars that would ultimately be a waste of said artists/managers' time), but you sure aren't going to get the real lowdown on, say, the differences between the two versions of LA Guns if you go to either of the current bands' landing pages. And what is "objectivity," anyway? Wait, that's a question for my media studies night-school class. Sorry!

3. MySpace does have one advantage over Wiki: The access it gives you to artist photos is much, much better. However, to get to those photos, you have to log in, which means you have to have an account, which means you have to open yourself to the possibility that your identity might be stolen to hawk Macy's gift cards and Fergie porn.

4. Seriously, you guys. The Flash. It can't be just me, right? My computer isn't that old.

Music fans prefer Wikipedia to MySpace [Reuters]

Operation MySpace will be the largest MySpaceLive! concert to date with performances by:

The Pussycat Dolls

Jessica Simpson

Disturbed

DJ Z-Trip

and the comedic genius of Carlos Mencia.

Mr. President, the only humane option is total troop withdrawal within the next 11 days. Bring those kids home before the scripted onstage patter between Mencia and Jessica Simpson breaks their spirits for good.

Operation Mindspace [Official Site]

Toystep/Joystick Jungle: "sounds made from recycled plastic toys, game consoles and children's Casio keyboards"

Grindie: "a blend of grime and indie"

Bassline: "mixes elements of speed garage, 4x4 garage and R&B"

Tape Music: "the new way chill-out sound moving from ambient to acoustic psychedelic"

Power Pop: "a mix of rock, hip-hop and rave"

Acousmatic: "acoustic sounds produced and fused through electronica"

Intelligent Dance Music: "a sound so sophisticated that it's hard to dance to"

Screamo: "perhaps best defined by this YouTube clip"

OK, so I wrote that last one. But you have to admit it's kind of perfect, and it'll provide a neat soundtrack to what's clearly going to be a bloody war between the old and new factions of "Power Pop."

Social networking 'becoming entertainment of choice'- research [netimperative.com]
The top ten new bands online fans are tipping for 2008 [NME]

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 1, 2008 2:58 PM

Do you guys need help accumulating plays and views mainly.... anyways, if you would, let us know. we're cheap compared to the rest of the guys who rip people off.

Alright, upfront, the more you buy, the cheaper it gets.
$25 for a thousand plays/views for one day only
$75 for a thousand plays/views per day for a week
$100 for 2000 plays/views everyday for a week
$150 for 5000 plays/views everyday for a week
$200 for 10,000 plays/views everyday for a week

Let me know if you're interested.
get back to us, also we can work out different prices for how many plays you want per day and same with views. like if you wanted 10 thousand of each per day, etc. just let us know and we'll work it out with you
Basically if you tell us how many you want per day, etc, we can do that, within reason, or atleast, work up to that point, and we can work with you guys.
We'd love to help out and work with you guys.
Give us an add while you're at it too
Contact us here or at wantmoreplays@gmail.com

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 01/01/2008

yes!!!

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 1, 2008 8:19 PM

Which plan would you like to start with?

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 01/01/2008

whichever one I can benefit most from

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 2, 2008 3:13 PM

Whats your budget?

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 02/01/2008

Budget is no object.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 2, 2008 8:12 PM

These are the promotion packages we offer to bigger artists:

MONTHLY RATES:
PROMOTION 1: 400$
5,000 a day for 1 month - Total plays a month: 150,000
PROMOTION PACK 2: 800$
10,000 plays a day for 1 month - Total Plays a month : 300,000
PROMOTION PACK 3 : 1,200
15,000 plays a day for 1 month - Total Plays a month : 430,000 for a month

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 03/01/2008

I'm gonna have to go with that. Thank you.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 3, 2008 2:41 PM

Which package?

400$
5,000 a day for 1 month - Total plays a month: 150,000

800$
10,000 plays a day for 1 month - Total Plays a month : 300,000

1,200$
15,000 plays a day for 1 month - Total Plays a month : 430,000 for a month

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 03/01/2008

yes, the one for bigger artists! I'm ready to go on this.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 3, 2008 9:43 PM

1,200$
15,000 plays a day for 1 month - Total Plays a month : 430,000 for a month

Send the money to: wantmoreplays@gmail.com

You can send $600 for the first 2 weeks. Then $600 more for the following 2 weeks unless you want to pay all at once.

WE GAURANTEE 430,000 PLAYS FOR THE MONTH!

We accept Pay Pal. We're ready when you are.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 03/01/2008

OK. I'm willing to do this. But do you think if I paid someone I know to check my site multiple times a day I might be able to get close to that many listens? I only ask because I know so many people who could do so much with money like that. I don't want to just throw this budget around like crazy.

Ready to move.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 4, 2008 8:38 AM

You can pick a smaller promotion package to start with if you doubt our work. No one can sit there and give you plays all day because their IP Adress is detected and myspace doesnt allow that.

15,000 plays a day. 430,000 plays for the month!!!

or $1200 is a good price. All the signed artists that contact us use this plan. Its on you. Let me know when you're ready.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 04/01/2008

well it's kind of important that it looks like more people listen to my music than actually do. You know that that kind of stuff actually matters especially here on myspace. So tell me what I have to do because it feels like I've got something burning in my pocket.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 4, 2008 10:23 AM

I will give you a free trial sample. 3000 plays!!!

1000 views!!!

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 04/01/2008

wow. How can you even afford to give away stuff like that? Shit, mate. Let's do it.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 4, 2008 10:35 AM

Well I want to show you that we're the real deal!

Once I receive the the first payment of $600 we'll get started.

wantmoreplays@gmail.com

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 04/01/2008

ok let's get this rolling. I'm waiting for those free listens just to see if this actually works before I shell over so much money. If you know what I'm saying. But I'm pumped about this. About time someone offers this service.

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: Want More PROMO?
Date: Jan 5, 2008 7:14 AM

We're ready when you're ready!

—-—-—-— Original Message —-—-—-—
From: SAGE FRANCIS
Date: 05/01/2008

I'm ready. I'm already telling my friends about this. All of us could use a boost. So lets do it already. Hook it up.

—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-
From: Want More PROMO?
Jan 5, 2008 9:17 AM

We gave you 3000 plays yesterday! Sorry thats more then we give anybody for a free trial. Once we receive the money, we can get started on the monthly plan

Artists Can Pay To Increase Myspace Play Stats [donewaiting.com]

Subject: hey everyone it's Colbs......
Body: Hey everybody! I know you are all bummed out about the shortened song clips on my page. I am too, and I'm not sure what to do in this situation.

Let me first say, I love my label! They have helped my music reach so many new listeners, and they treat me wonderfully!

But it's because of you, my myspace fans, listening to my songs from day one, that I even got a chance to start this amazing career.
So many of you have gone out and bought my album, even though full length versions of my songs have been on my page, for 2 years!

I wish I could take it back to how it used to be!
I'm doing what I can, so hang in there. I completely understand the frustration!
I will keep you updated on what's going on ok!

Thanks you guys! ~Cc

Hmm, is her noting that people were buying her album in spite of her songs being available on MySpace a veiled dis at Universal's new anti-marketing strategy? That's how I read it, especially with the way that she took the time to first say "Dear UMG, you are awesome and xoxo and all that but...." This girl may have a future as an executive yet!

Colbie Caillat [MySpace]

It could be perceived as an Internet variation of the popular series "MTV Unplugged," but with a revenue stream built in. When musicians participate in the MTV series, their work is sometimes released as albums months or years later. On MySpace, the work will be available immediately.

"If I like what I see, I can take it with me," said Josh Brooks, vice president for programming and content of MySpace.

For years MySpace, now owned by the News Corporation, has served as a promotional platform for artists and labels, primarily through the MySpace Music portion of the Web site. Now the company wants to provide a sales component. Unlike Apple's iTunes music store, which charges a flat rate of 99 cents a song, MySpace will let distributors set their own prices.

"We're enabling artists to choose how they want to distribute their music," Mr. Brooks said.

This is MySpace's second foray into selling music after its failed dalliance with the music-sales-widget company Snocap, which is a little over a year old; Transmissions' revenue model is also "enabling artists" to decide whether or not they want to share the money with MySpace, an option that Blunt is not pursuing. Whether or not this model will actually work depends on MySpace getting the right artists—i.e. artists with fanbases that will shell out the cash and navigate their way to the Transmission page, and not just any old artist who is trying to throw album-promotion spaghetti at any nearby wall in hopes that some of it will stick—than any other factor, to be, er, blunt. (I'm speaking in part from experience, having worked for about six months at a site that had a similar setup, and a roster of artists that was sorely lacking in the "will anyone care?" department.) No word yet on which other bands have signed up for future Transmissions, although I'm going to guess that, in keeping with company policy, Universal Music Group artists will only perform 90-second versions of their hits.

MySpace to Showcase Music and Sell Performance Videos [NYT]

Hey everyone...bad news. Due to circumstances beyond my control I have to swap the songs out on my page for 90 second versions instead of full length versions. In fact some of the songs have already been swapped as I write this.

Every artist signed to a Universal label has to comply immediately.

You can listen to full versions of some of my songs on my personal webpage www.colbiecaillatmusic.com. I will make sure that the songs that were available here are available there as soon as possible.

I apologize to everyone for the inconvenience especially those that use my songs for personal profiles. Hopefully the politics involved here gets worked out soon and we can return to full length songs as soon as possible. Thank you everyone for your continued support!!

Checking MySpace pages from other Universal artists shows that this policy isn't limited to Caillat's page, although newer signings appear to have not yet complied. But why is MySpace being singled out here? After all, as Caillat noted, the full songs are still being streamed from her personal site. Is it in celebration of the one-year anniversary of Universal's lawsuit against MySpace? And is it really smart to give your artists fewer places to promote their music?

Colbie Caillat [MySpace]

Contact MTV and hold them responsible for allowing Britney to come out and really give us all the finger because she knew we'd all be curious to see what she did.

Contact her record label and let them know you'll buy her album, but not until she is clean and sober and realizes the amazing life she has created for herself.

Contact her music publishing house who is responsible for tracking Britney's music. Publishing houses pay artists when their music is played on the radio or purchased in stores or on- line or played at live performances such as her MTV disaster.

Contact her management and let them know that they'll make money together with her for a much longer period of time if she is clean and sober. Management's role will be constantly in jeopardy if Britney continues to spiral out of control.

Clearly Britney is not in a good state of mind; a judge would not have ordered her children to be taken away from her had she proven to be in a good frame of mind to care for two young children. What makes anyone else think that she will be able to "go on with the show" in the same state of mind?

Ultimately we ask that you show Britney you care about her by being proactive. Let her know by contacting these responsible parties. Let them know you'll be around to buy her music, her merchandise, etc when she sets a better example of how to be a performer.

I'm not sure if this will work—although I do suspect that Blackout's sales next week will be saggy enough that these people will be able to claim a victory of sorts. Maybe their tactics would be more effective if they also called on people to tell Starbucks baristas to stop serving her at every stop she makes—surely once she comes down from that caffeine-and-sugar rush, she'll realize some of the mess she's in, right?

Be Proactive To Help [MySpace]

"Salt and Sand" from Frontier was just posted to the group's MySpace page, and it's a frosty, delicate song that provides a winter-beach-day backdrop to Rosie Cuckston's sing-songy, childlike vocals; there's a certain out-there aspect to Pram's minimal, yet expansive music that never fails to be completely arresting, even at its most bare.

Pram [MySpace]
Pram - The Moving Frontier [Domino]

"Chelle," the No. 2 friend behind the corpse of Lenny Bruce, is the profile allegedly belonging to Spector's wife (it's since been deleted, no doubt after some counseling from lawyers). But the real surprise comes from the fact that whoever's managing Ronnie Spector's official page seems to have added "Team Spector" to her roster of MySpace pals; her presence in the "Team Spector" top 8 made me initially think that this whole Team Spector thing was actually an attempt to bring bandom and current events together, but I guess the joke's on me.

Spector judge gets MySpace threat as jury deliberates [Reuters]
[Screengrab: Defamer]

This is the kind of thing that can veer dangerously close to irritating irony, but something about the execution here is pretty pitch-perfect. It's almost like a parody of the concept of mash-ups, and it's a damn amusing jab at pretentious Radiohead fandom. Don't shoot me, but I honestly might like the "Popozao" version of "Idioteque" better than the original. (I just alienated a whole lot of people, didn't I?)

RadioFed [MySpace]

There are two reasons for this. First off, any band that has to put out a press release letting people know that one of its members is, in fact, recovering with Lindsay Lohan is probably doing so out of desperation to actually get noticed, or at least pop up in Google News searches about the troubled starlet. (Not that the Aug. 25 release has helped all that much; so far, the band's MySpace profile has only been viewed about 6,300 times.)

Second, the band is—and this may not surprise you much!—absolutely wretched. Imagine a world in which the evolution of music stopped after Orgy dropped its cover of "Blue Monday," but somehow allowed Hinder to exist in some weird space-time warp, and you might get a vague idea of the craptasticness that is Dead Stays Alive. (They should not be confused with these guys in any way.) Listening to their blend of middle-of-the-road rock, lazy electro beats, and yarling made me reflect on the skilled musicianship and catchy songs that are sprinkled throughout Nickelback's catalog.

Either way, this whole kerfuffle will probably get the guys some sort of record deal, perhaps even with the long-dormant Casablanca Records. After all, the music business is, as an old boss of mine would never hesitate to tell me, "all about relationships," and what sort of relationship could be stronger than two people becoming friends in rehab, and one of them subsequently whoring that friendship out to the press for cheap publicity purposes?

Dead Stays Alive [MySpace]