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Led Zeppelin comes to Spotify
Now THIS is the news we were waiting for from Spotify. A little Coda to today's Spotify event in New York City -- one of the great rock bands of all time is coming to the streaming service. As CEO Daniel Ek put it, "I can't wait to get the Led out." Free is all well and good, but what's a streaming service without a little Houses of the Holy? Dazed and confused about where to begin? The company's created a handy little playlist. Though, for the record, old Led Zeppelin I isn't a bad place to start.
Radical.FM launches free, user-supported digital streaming radio for iPhone
Streaming radio services are pretty common for iPhone; with the release of iOS 7, for example, iPhone users will have access to iRadio, Apple's own streaming radio service. Also in existence at this time are Pandora, Spotify, BBC iPlayer and others. Now a new streaming service, Radical.FM, is arriving with a rather interesting business plan -- they want you to pay them what you feel the service is worth. The free Radical.FM app is available today, and as the name suggests, it appears that the founder seems to wish he was living in the late 1960s -- "Radical is a corporation with a conscience; we believe in a sustainable planet, global humanity and local action. We compensate artists, composers and labels for all the music you stream. And we believe everyone is entitled to a great musical experience, even the unemployed and working poor." As touchy-feely as that sounds, it ignores the fact that all of the other services also compensate artists, composers and labels. And I can't help but thinking that the working stiffs in the world are going to be subsidizing "the unemployed and working poor," as well as everyone else who decides that they don't feel like paying their fair share. Sure, being commercial-free is a nice goal, but altruism doesn't necessarily pay the bills. I'm wondering how long it will take Radical.FM to resort to the PBS/NPR model of "no advertising," but tons of blurbs for corporate sponsors as well as monthly beg-a-thons for support. The app itself is unexciting. You sign in or create a new account -- it said that my attempt to sign in with a Facebook account was rejected due to my security settings -- and then select the stations you want to listen to. Being a true child of the '60s and '70s, I picked '70s Classic Rock as my first station... which ended up being called "My First Station." At least you can rename the stations. There's a "tune station" feature that makes no sense, using a + and - continuum to do something to the station -- what it does, I have no clue. An explanation in the app of what this feature does would be helpful. Does it skew the music towards the beginning or end of an era? Does it give a Led Zeppelin channel more or less Jimmy Page? Who knows? As it is, you're presented with a grid of album covers, with the playlist set up to go from top-left to bottom-right. The album containing the song you're listening to covers up six of the other album covers, and features a progress bar for the song in question. A simple play/pause button is located at the bottom-left of the screen, and there's a "fast-forward" button if you absolutely cannot stand the song you're listening to. Unlike the "commercial" streaming stations, Radical.FM provides no way to purchase a song that you like. iRadio has a simple button at the top of each song page with the price clearly listed: if I want to buy it and add it to my iTunes library, it's a simple tap away. Even Pandora lets you opt into purchasing a song that you may have loved years ago, but totally forgot about. It seems like selling music through Radical.FM would be a great funding opportunity, so it's odd that the service doesn't offer any way to buy songs or albums. One feature of Radical.FM that is touted quite heavily is the service's 25 million song library, which contains -- and I quote -- "online rarities like The Beatles, AC/DC and Bob Seger." That's quite interesting to hear, since I can't seem to get away from AC/DC on the iRadio beta; Bob Seger shows up between the ads on Pandora with no problems (even on the free version); and the Beatles are easily accessible on Pandora as well. Anyway, it's a new service, a new app and a new day. In the end, Radical.FM may end up being the most successful streaming radio service on the 'net. It's up to you, the consumer, to decide whether you want to try the service and how much you want to donate to Radical.FM. In the end, perhaps my lack of faith in the generosity of the general public may be overpowered by all of you opening your wallets.
Harmonix polling fan interest in future Rock Band titles
How do you feel about Led Zeppelin getting their own Rock Band title? Maybe you'd be happier with Pink Floyd or The Eagles? Perhaps U2? Yeah, none of those sound particularly enthralling to us either. Thankfully, Harmonix gave us the option to write in our own choice (Flock of Seagulls, duh!) for a possible future artist-specific Rock Band title via a recent poll offered on the developer's forums. Not interested in more one-group/artist RB titles? That's also an option! Harmonix explains the poll as a way to interact with its community and solicit fan response to future titles that are being considered. "With the release of Green Day: Rock Band just a few days away, we wanted to take the opportunity to ask all of you to tell us about which other artists you might want to see as the focus of future artist specific games." As you might imagine, though, the company says it's not planning on making any of these games for sure just yet. "This survey isn't a guarantee that Harmonix is going to make games based on any of these bands, but community feedback is and always has been absolutely invaluable to us in determining our focus within the world of Rock Band as we move forward." We're holding out hope that a group of hardcore Scott Stapp fans aren't secretly plotting to overwhelm the poll with requests for Creed: Rock Band. [Via Blast Magazine]
Jack White: learning about music through Guitar Hero is 'depressing'
Speaking at a press conference for a documentary, both the White Stripes' frontman Jack White and legendary Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page discussed the popularity of music games like Guitar Hero. "It's depressing to have a label come and tell you that [Guitar Hero] is how kids are learning about music and experiencing music," White said. It may seem hypocritical that the man saying this fronts two bands in the new Guitar Hero 5, but White said he doesn't attempt to dictate "which format people should get their music in..."Page added, "You think of the drum part that John Bonham did on Led Zeppelin's first track on the first album, 'Good Times Bad Times.' How many drummers in the world can play that part, let alone on Christmas morning?" It's true -- video games aren't doing enough to teach kids to be like John Bonham.Neither one said that the games weren't fun, or that they shouldn't exist, or anything like that. If anything, the two musicians were commenting on the way kids choose to get their music now, which we understand -- having our music handed to us in game form by Activision is very different from discovering it on the radio or trading tapes. Plus, well, Page is old, and therefore gets a pass on matters of technology. And Jack White wrote "The Same Boy You've Always Known" and can basically say whatever the hell he wants, as far as we're concerned.[Via Eurogamer]
Zeppelin's Jimmy Page uncomfortable lending master recordings to rhythm games
Many of us could write entire volumes of songs and bands we'd like to see in one or both of the reigning emperors of the rhythm genre, Rock Band and Guitar Hero -- we'd wager that included in everyone's wishlist is a track or twelve from the legendary early 70s rock outfit Led Zeppelin. Unfortunately, Zeppelin front man Jimmy Page recently hung a definitive "No Stairway" sign on the genre, citing his hesitance to lend game developers the band's valuable master tracks.The reasons behind Page's apprehension are unknown -- perhaps it has to do with the recent news of the easily misplaceable nature of master recordings. We hope the group's co-founder can be persuaded to part with the recordings before the siren call of "Immigrant Song" swoons the games' developers, forcing them to include earnest but unsatisfying covers of Zeppelin's bigger tracks. Discerning ears know -- there really is no rock-scream like a Robert Plant rock-scream.
Led Zeppelin tunes land on Verizon Wireless
Earlier this summer, Led Zepplin decided to make the leap to iTunes, and now a segment of the band's catalog will also be available through Verizon Wireless. Reportedly, VZW customers will soon be able to access landmark jams for use in ring tones, ringback tones, alerts and over-the-air song downloads, and for the true fan, you can even select a Zeppelin wallpaper. Unfortunately, details beyond that are pretty slim, but we do know that full-song downloads will launch on November 13th to coincide with the release of Mothership, "a two-CD collection that spans the band's illustrious career."
Led Zeppelin embraces iTunes, Eminem sues
It looks like Apple has more than just 3 billion songs sold to celebrate, as it's now managed to bring longtime hold-outs Led Zepplin into the iTunes fold. The band isn't quite going all out, however, with it instead simply offering greatest hits of sorts called "Mothership," which will include 'Stairway to Heaven', 'Whole Lotta Love,' 'Dazed and Confused' and other songs personally selected Jimmy Page, Robert Plant and John Paul Jones. Look for it to be available on November 12th. In other iTunes news, Apple appears to have found itself on Eminem's bad side (again), with the rapper and his music publisher now suing the company over, you guessed it, alleged copyright violations. As The Detroit News reports, Eminem's music publisher and copyright manager are claiming that they never actually authorized Universal to offer Eminem's music on iTunes in the first place, and they're now asking Apple to cease and desist its reproduction and distribution. Not surprisingly Apple doesn't appear to be quite ready to comply with that, although it's so far staying mum on the matter.Read - Reuters, "Apple says iTunes sales top 3 billion songs"Read - The Observer, "Led Zeppelin join the net generation"Read - The Detroit News, "Eminem suit targets Apple" [Via AppleInsider]
