A Pepsi-Yahoo promotion on Yahoo Music called cover art has several artists performing covers of hit songs. The best cover among them is Many Moore's cover of Rihanna's terrific song "Umbrella." Moore says she doesn't normally listen to pop music but says that "you just cannot deny how melodic this song is." Rihanna's original video for "Umbrella" runs in the background during Moore's cover. You can see the original video from Rihanna here. Here is Mandy Moore's cover of "Umbrella."
It is pretty to easy to see why Carrie Underwood's music video for "Before He Cheats" was the CMT music video of the year. It is a great video although it is a little painful to watch as Carrie takes her revenge out on her cheating ex's four-wheel drive with her Louisville slugger. It goes right along with the song's lyrics.
That I dug my key into the side of his pretty little souped up 4 wheel drive,
carved my name into his leather seats...
I took a Louisville slugger to both headlights,
slashed a hole in all 4 tires...
Here is the video for " Before He Cheats." Carrie also has several other videos on YouTube.
The New York Times is reporting that Universal Music Group (UMI) is going to sell much of its catalog without copyright protection - or DRM protection. However, the music will not be sold DRM-free on iTunes.
Signaling another departure from the music industry's longtime antipiracy strategy, the Universal Music Group will sell a significant portion of its catalog without the customary copy protection software for at least the next few months, the company announced yesterday.
Universal, the world's biggest music conglomerate, said it would offer albums and songs without the software, known as digital rights management, through existing digital music retail services like RealNetworks and Wal-Mart, nascent services from Amazon.com and Google, and some artists' Web sites.
But the music will not be offered D.R.M.-free through Apple's iTunes, the leading music service. The use of copy protection software has become a major bone of contention in the digital music business, where iTunes accounts for the vast majority of download sales. The record labels generally have required that retailers place electronic locks to limit copying of music files.
Some might remember that it was Steve Jobs himself who proposed that all music be DRM free earlier this year so it seems odd that UMI is now selling music without DRM protection everywhere but on iTunes. Engadget it calls it a snub of iTunes.
The Sun is reporting that Nine Inch Nails singer Trent Reznor has written a tv show about the band's latest album (Year Zero) and the group is trying to pitch the idea to tv networks.
It is a concept album about the singer's forecast of the America in 20 years time, and Trevor is currently pitching the idea to TV networks.
He said: "We've got a producer on board and have met with writers.
"We're about to pitch it to the network, so we're a couple of weeks away from meeting all of the main people, and we'll see what happens."
Nine Inch Nails the tv show? Like Trent says, "If it works, it works and if it doesn't, it doesn't." Nine Inch Nails also has an official site on YouTube. There's nothing there about a tv show but here is a video of NIN performing in Stockholm, Sweden.
Britney Spears is working on a new single. It's a ballad. You can hear the song here on PerezHilton.com. Ryan Seacrest also mentioned the song on his radio show. This sounds like a song that was recorded in the studio but it does not sound like the final version of the song. It is not a new dance track - like Britney fans have been hoping for - but it sounds good enough to get Britney radio play again and likely back in the Top 40.
Here are the lyrics.
Everyday, I'm in a daze
Looking for that someone
And everyday, I sit and kneel and pray
Oh, sweet love, can I get some?
So why do you desert me, baby boy?
I need your love right now!
And if you desert me, baby boy
Don't you leave me in your crowd
Talking
Hey baby, what time you gonna get home?
Oh, really?
[Sigh]
Alright, well, I'll see you later, then
Oh, wait
Would you mind getting some...
Yeah, when you come home
Yeah, that's it
I love you too
Bye
[Singing again]
Some day when you see my face
You will think that you have won
And some day when it's all away
Our love just begun
So why did you desert me, baby boy?
I thought that you, you were the one
So if you preferred the other one
She won't bring you the sun(son)
Van Halen and David Lee Roth have announced their first tour in 22 years on their website at van-halen.com. Van Halen is best known to most people for their 1984 album which stayed at number one on Billboard's charts for five start weeks. 1984 included the hit songs "Jump, "Panama, "Hot For Teacher" and "I'll Wait."
Tickets for the first Van Halen tour in more than 22 years with David Lee Roth as lead vocalist went on sale this weekend and resulted in immediate sell outs in multiple markets around the country, including Charlotte, Detroit (Palace), 2 shows in Toronto, 2 in Chicago and one in Philadelphia. Tour producer Live Nation immediately added additional shows in Philadelphia (Wachovia Center 10/3) and Detroit (Joe Louis Arena 10/20) which will go on sale this Saturday, August 25th.
An additional stop was also scheduled for Washington, DC's Verizon Center (11/1), extending Van Halen's historic trek to 29 dates in all. Tickets for the Washington, DC date will go on sale this Friday, August 24th. In addition, tickets for the band's October 30th show at Boston's TD Banknorth Garden go on sale this Saturday, August 25th.
SFGate.com's culture blog predicted this even earlier this year. Are people still listening to Van Halen. Yes, they are. They have been able to add tour dates because of strong ticket sales. YouTube shows 12,500 results for a Van Halen search. This video for "Jump" has over 1.6 million views.
The L.A. Times has an article about Disney's upcoming musical High School Musical 2. The article says the two films about a fictional high school are expected to generate $100 million in profits for Disney. Disney even has a soundtrack out for the new film. It has already made big stars out of the film's singing actors including Zac Efron, Ashley Tisdale and Vanessa Hudgens. But how long can Disney hold the interest of the fickle teenage crowd.
"That teenage audience is extremely fickle," said veteran media analyst Larry Gerbrandt. "And they also have this nasty habit of growing up. You have to be able to keep drawing in a younger audience."
Originally a low-budget sleeper, "High School Musical" became a pop-culture phenomenon, attracting 160 million viewers worldwide who tuned in to watch the interpersonal dramas at fictional East High School.
It also produced the top-selling album of 2006, a bestselling novel and a 42-date sold-out concert tour in North America and a subsequent five-country sweep through Latin America.
The movie's success also gave a broader boost to the Disney Channel. Derek Baine, an entertainment analyst with SNL Kagan, said "High School Musical" spurred a jump in revenue from sponsorships and DVD sales to $72 million last year, compared with about $15 million to $20 million annually through 2005.
Based on the popularity of the High School Musical videos on YouTube Disney should be able to hold the interest of teenagers for a little while longer. A quick search shows over 100,000 High School Musical videos on YouTube. The video are also listed under the abbreviations HSM and HSM2. Will there be an HSM3? You can count on it.
Disney also has a YouTube channel for High School Musical 2. The most popular video on it is this one for "Everyday."
John Lennon's solo catalog is now available on iTunes. Apple, the company behind iTunes, made the announcement in a statement on its website.
"John would have loved the fact that his music will now be available in a format suited to a new generation of listeners," said Yoko Ono.
"John Lennon is one of the greatest artists of our time," said Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO. "We're thrilled to have his solo catalog available on the iTunes Store for the first time."
As part of EMI Music's digital catalog, the John Lennon solo works will be available in iTunes Plus, offering DRM-free music tracks with high quality 256 kbps AAC encoding for audio quality virtually indistinguishable from the original recordings-for just $1.29 per song.
The iTunes Store features the world's largest catalog with over five million songs, 550 television shows and over 500 movies. The iTunes Store has sold over three billion songs, 50 million TV shows and over two million movies, making it the world's most popular online music, TV and movie store.
SlipperyBrick says Lennon is the second Beatles artist to allow iTunes to sell their solo albums. Paul McCartney was the first. CMJ says Ringo Starr is involved with iTunes as well.
Victoria Hart: From Waitress to Million Dollar Contract
Victoria Hart was a waitress before she landed her million dollar record deal. Before her sudden success she was waitressing at a restaurant in Richmond called the Naked Turtle. Hello Magazine says she was "picked from obscurity" to perform at a lavish party in front of a group of huge stars that included Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The audience of a-listers loved her performance and soon there was a bidding war among music publishers.
Recalling the moment she was asked to sing for the Hollywood elite, the Essex-raised blonde says: "I was in a bit of a bad mood that day, but then they said, 'Guess who's going to be there? Brad Pitt and George Clooney.' I couldn't stop laughing."
Ironically it was at a jazz event in Cannes that Victoria, then aged 15, was first discovered, although her big break has not come until now. Since the party, interest in the singer has rocketed and she has accepted an offer to perform at Glastonbury. There's a single out soon and her first album, Whatever Happened To Romance, is scheduled for release at the start of July.
Despite the prospect of a future in showbiz, Victoria says she won't be giving up on waitressing at the Naked Turtle just yet. She does plan on reducing her work hours to one shift a fortnight, though.
Writers Write, Inc. Launches Fantasy and Science Fiction Blog
Writers Write, Inc. has added a new blog to its blog network called FantasySFBlog.com. Fantasy/SF Blog is a daily blog covering what's new and interesting in the worlds of fantasy, SF, and horror, including books, movies, TV and gaming.
Lucky Twice, a duo of Swedish teen girls Hannah (15) and Sofie (16), have become a YouTube sensation with their hit song "Lucky." The music video for "Lucky" has received nearly 1.25 million views. There is a good reason for their success. "Lucky" is a catchy, fun and uplifting tune. Many who hear it probably find themselves returning to its YouTube page to hear it again. On the duo's website at www.luckytwice.com the girls explain how they came to write "Lucky."
One day we decided to write a song together, I didnt take it so serious, says Sofie, I didnt even now that Hannah could really sing or was so interested in music, but then I noticed continues Sofie, (who already at tender age of six, was taking part in her first musical; Kristina från Duvemåla). One day my brothers manager Victoria called my mother, she was looking for two girls to sing in a duo, and then my mother told her about me and Hannah says Sofie. We went to up to Stockholm and recorded Lucky and we both got a management contract as well as a recording deal! And then LUCKY TWICE was born!
They probably had no idea how well the song would be received on YouTube. So far YouTube contains a music video of the song "Lucky" as well as a video clip of a live performance at Fernsehgarten. Hannah and Sofie each gave a great performance live but the two boys they had dancing around them did not. Here is Lucky Twice's single "Lucky."
Sunrise Avenue has been receiving some buzz lately for their single, "Fairytale Gone Bad." Wikipedia says the hot single "went Gold in Germany after selling more than 150.000 units." The internationally-known band has recently been on tour in Finland. They blogged about it in a recent diary entry.
We took my car with Sami instead of the buss to ride free. It's so cool to wake up at the hotel and just sit an hour at the breakfast table and start driving when you feel like it. With the buss you must to have a clear schedule, it's so many guys.
The first show was at Lohja at Rantajamit (Isn't Finnish language funny ;). All was ok apart from the weather but fortunately the whole thing happened in a huge tent. The only thing I must say the Finnish festival organizers can't take care of is the privacy stuff. It's only in Finland where you get to your dressing room after the show and it's less than a minute when people are knocking the door to get autographs. Cultural thing. We drove home after the show to get deep sleep in our own beds.
Here's the video for "Fairytale Gone Bad" which has over 2 million views on YouTube.com.
Britney Spears' assistant and "cousin" Alli Sims wants to launch a music career. Peoplereports that bloggers have been watching Alli's website at www.alllisims.com for any announcements. Recently a cover of "On My Own" from Les Miserables was added to the website. People also asked Alli about Britney's odd behavior.
And, the newly launched singer tells PEOPLE, she already has a staunch supporter in Spears.
Shrugging off rumors that Britney resented her decision to pursue her lifelong dream, Sims, 26, says: "She heard my songs on the laptop and was like, 'I love this song! This is you singing?' She has always been supportive."
As for Spears's parenting skills, which have come under fire recently, Sims tells PEOPLE in its new issue, "She's a wonderful mom and she is so hands-on. ... Britney loves those babies to death. And they adore her."
When it comes to her former employer, Sims adds, "I love her, she's beautiful inside and out. We're still great friends."
And when it comes to her music, the Southerner says she's after a "soulful" sound, and the single on her Web site is "more of a filler song until I get my new stuff recorded. Honestly, we put that one up there because all the other ones I had put down in the past had a little more of a country vibe, and I do not want to go there at all."
It sounds like country is out for Alli. It might be easier for Alli to break in if Britney Spears is able to hold it together long enough to help promote Alli's music. The way Britney has been acting lately makes it unclear if that is even possible.
A Lollapalooza performance by Pearl Jam was censored in an AT&T webcast. The part where lead singer Eddie Vedder sang about President George Bush was muted by AT&T. Save the Internet explains:
Over the weekend AT&T gave us a glimpse of their plans for the Web when they censored a Pearl Jam performance that didn't meet their standard of "Internet freedom."
During the live Lollapalooza Webcast of a concert by the Seattle-based super-group, the telco giant muted lead singer Eddie Vedder just as he launched into a lyric against President George Bush. The lines - "George Bush, leave this world alone" and "George Bush find yourself another home" were somehow lost in the mix.
Pearl Jam gave the following statement regarding the censorship, "What happened to us this weekend was a wake up call, and it's about something much bigger than the censorship of a rock band."
Save the Internet posted this video clip of the censorship on YouTube.
Nicole Scherzinger, the leadsinger of the Pussycat Dolls, has new channels on MySpace and YouTube. She posted this video below on YouTube and called it her "MySpace Drop." Technically, she probably should have called it a "YouTube Drop."
Nicole is promoting her new solo album called Her Name is Nicole. It
will be available on 10.16.07. Nicole also a website with the same name: www.hernameisnicole.com. The website has a built-in social network and video sharing community.
Natalie Imbruglia has a singles collection album coming out August 21, 2007 called Glorious: The Singles 1997-2007. This is the video for "Glorious" - one of the songs on the album.
MTV has announced the nominations for the 2007 Video Music Awards. In artists with multiple nominations Justin Timberlake and Beyonce are the leaders. They each had seven nominations. Kanye West and Rihanna have five nominations each. Amy Winehouse has three. Shakira is also named multiple times because of the "Beautiful Liar" single featuring both Shakira and Beyonce. Below we have listed the nominations for Video of the Year and linked each one to the video on YouTube.
It is crystal clear that Colbie Caillat has a hit on her hands with "Bubbly."
The video for "Bubbly" can be found here. It is a very catchy song. Caillat's pleasant voice helps make "Bubbly" a fun easy-listening song. The video was shot in Caillat's home townof Malibu, California -- and partly in Santa Barbara.
Caillat's new album COCO has gotten off to a fast start. It debuted at #5 Billboard's Top Album chart. Colbie's new album also jumped to the #1 spot of the iTunes Album chart within hours of its July 17 release according to Universal Republic Records. Her single "Bubbly" has been in the Top 20 on the iTunes pop single chart. USA Today has already called her "the Norah Jones successor." Colbie also has more than 165,000 friends on her MySpace website which is pretty useful if you are trying to sell music.
Apple has announced (hat tip The Daily Mac) that more than three billion songs have been purchased and downloaded from the iTunes Store at www.itunes.com. The iTunes website contains the following according to Apple.
5 million songs
550 television programs
500 films
"We'd like to thank all of our customers who have contributed to this incredible milestone," said Eddy Cue, Apple's vice president of iTunes. With the praise the music portion of the iPhone has received Apple should be able to sell plenty more songs over the coming years.
Mia Rose, a singer who became popular on YouTube, has a new video entry. In it she says she has been working on an album that she hopes will be coming out this Fall. That's really cool that someone got a record deal by singing songs on YouTube. Mia was signed (via Thug Online) by Ryan Leslie in April, 2007 to his Next Selection label. Mia's latest video post also includes clips of her in the recording studio.
Universal Music claims Sa Dingding has become the first Chinese singer/songwriter to cross over to Western markets. Full Phatt, who has worked with Usher, Outkast and Christina Aguilera, has remixed the title song from Sa dingding's album Alive.
Sa Dingding combines different kinds of Eastern and Western music. The track "Alive" combines Chinese Folk Music and Western electronica. Sa Dingding was signed to Universal Records. Iain Snodgrass, a Marketing Director for Universal Records said "No other Chinese singer/songwriter has received the level of worldwide interest that Sa Dingding is generating. Sa Dingding is very special and well chosen to lead China onto the world stage."
Born in Mongolia to a Mongolian mother and Chinese father, Sa Dingding developed a fascination for ethnic minority music at an early age. She has interests in buddhism, dyana yoga and sanskrit. Sa Dingding released her debut album in China at age 18. In her own country Sa Dingding is a regular performer at prestigious events such as the MTV Style Gala and CCTV-MTV Video Music Awards.
Here is an "Alive" video from YouTube labeled as the sanskrit version.
This is the video for "Before It's Too Late" by the Goo Goo Dolls. It was part of the Transformerssoundtrack for the Transformers movie. The Goo Goo Dolls have had some great hits in the past like "Iris" and "Black Balloon."
The Sun is 
Van Halen and David Lee Roth have announced their first tour in 22 years on their website at 
The L.A. Times has an 
John Lennon's solo catalog is now available on 
Victoria Hart was a waitress before she landed her million dollar record deal. Before her sudden success she was waitressing at a restaurant in Richmond called the Naked Turtle. Hello Magazine says she was "picked from obscurity" to perform at a lavish party in front of a group of huge stars that included Brad Pitt and George Clooney. The audience of a-listers loved her performance and soon there was a bidding war among music publishers.
Writers Write, Inc. has added a new blog to its blog network called 
Lucky Twice, a duo of Swedish teen girls Hannah (15) and Sofie (16), have become a YouTube sensation with their hit song "Lucky." The music video for "Lucky" has received nearly 1.25 million views. There is a good reason for their success. "Lucky" is a catchy, fun and uplifting tune. Many who hear it probably find themselves returning to its YouTube page to hear it again. On the duo's website at 
Britney Spears' assistant and "cousin" Alli Sims wants to launch a music career. People 
Nicole Scherzinger, the leadsinger of the Pussycat Dolls, has new channels on 
Apple has announced (hat tip 
Universal Music claims Sa Dingding has become the first Chinese singer/songwriter to cross over to Western markets. Full Phatt, who has worked with Usher, Outkast and Christina Aguilera, has remixed the title song from Sa dingding's album Alive.
