Category: music

“If contemporary music is to thrive, it must do so in a pluralist and eclectic culture. Then, the best of modernism can be appreciated alongside the parallel strands in new music. The young do not appreciate being lectured by sniffy cultural snobs, reliving their own glory days of 1968. Time and music have moved on.”

“Brown cut an album in Los Angeles the summer before he died in December 2006, but the songs are not being released because of courtroom disputes about who should benefit from his legacy and music royalties.”

The number of music downloads sold in the UK in the final week of 2007 was double the total of 12 months earlier.

“Digital music files just don’t provide the same amount of content that a CD package does. That includes liner notes, extended album art and lyrics. Buy a digital album today and all you get are a list of tracks and (maybe) a thumbnail image of the album cover that you can’t even read.”

“Chaos continues to be the guiding principle in every facet of the pop landscape, as veterans and upstarts alike grapple with the unraveling of old business models and a deeply uncertain future.”

“A number of sound engineers and artists are taking a hard look at the effects of the so-called loudness war and producing albums at lower volumes. One producer who says he made loud records for years has started an organization called Turn Me Up, which aims to show artists, music labels and fans that louder doesn’t always mean better.”

None of them is exactly a shocker, but who is Colbie Caillat, and why would anyone buy an album from someone named Colbie?

A breakthrough album from classical singer Hayley Westenra has been named the UK’s biggest-selling classical album of the 21st century so far. The New Zealand-born singer, now 20, released her third album Pure when she was 15.

“In the third quarter of 2007, exactly half of Mac owners paid to download music at least once, while only 16 percent of PC owners did. In part, the disparity reflects the ways Apple Macintosh and PC owners use their computers: Mac owners are more likely to listen to music on their computers and to upload music to digital music players.”

“Album sales for 2007 are now down 15.3% for the year, compared with 2006. But for the four weeks beginning with Thanksgiving week and ending December 26, U.S. album sales were down 20% to 84.2 million units from 105.3 million a year ago.”