I love going to concerts! It’s a great experience to share with friends and an opportunity to watch your favorite artist perform. However, I absolutely hate buying the tickets because of all the fees that are charged to your credit card after you find the perfect seats. This month Live Nation is trying to change that. They are launching a new promotion called “No Service Fee June,” which will eliminate service fees on over 8 million tickets. Live Nation claims that this promotion will help reduce cost by $12-$13 on the average ticket price for all of their artists. These artists include Dave Matthew’s (an office favorite), Jimmy Buffet, Jonas Brothers and Kings of Leon. Live Nation is hoping that this promotion will reduce the percentage of the now 40% of tickets that go unsold. Now that “No Service Fee June” has started, don’t be surprised if you see me in the crowd at multiple concerts this summer!

Source: brandweek.com

Music artists from all genres have started to use the Internet (Facebook/twitter) to connect and communicate with their fans more efficiently. I know that I spend time everyday looking at these sites to try to keep up with all the new concerts and albums that are being announced. Now MTV, VH1 and CMT are launching online channels that will feature an new artist each month. These websites will include videos, pictures, and live feeds of the featured artists Facebook and twitter. MTV is hoping that these sites will allow “super-serving music enthusiasts that expect back-and-forth relationships with their favorite performers, while enabling fans to foster those relationships in a single locale.” Also AT&T is the official sponsor of these online channels which will allow viewers to scroll over ads for the carrier’s new phones, and there will be videos of the featured artists with these phones. The first featured artists will be Adam Lambert, All Time Low and LeAnn Rimes. Maroon 5 and Sara Bareilles are scheduled as well.

Source: adweek.com

A company in Japan has developed headphones that sense eye movement. Look right to left to pause your music, roll them clockwise to increase the volume. NTT DoCoMo, the company who created the new technology, doesn’t have plans yet to market or sell them, but if this catches on we could soon see some pretty crazy eye moving in public.

They work by sensing tiny changes in electric charge; apparently the cornea in our eyes has a positive charge, and changes in charge can be detected as far away as your ears. Who knew? Let’s just hope no one misinterprets a turn-up-the-music eye roll with a you’re-being-ridiculous eye roll.

CodeOrgan.com is a great site for totally geeky musical entertainment. Type any URL into CodeOrgan, and the site will use an algorithm to compose music based on the website’s code. It first scans the text on the page and removes all of the letters that aren’t musical notes (so, letters that aren’t A-G). It then scans for the most popular “note,” turning the song into either major or minor key. Then, it uses the total number of letters on the page to determine which synthesizer tone to use, and finally creates a drum beat based on the ratio of “note” letters to non-note letters.

In other words, it’s a very complicated way of saying: CodeOrgan shows off an extremely geeky way to make music. Check it out at codeorgan.com

Source: GeekSugar

FreeAllMusic.com, which began a test version for invited users on Dec. 22 and plans to open to the public in January, will allow users to download songs, which may be copied and shared — unencumbered, in other words, by digital rights management restrictions.

In return, instead of paying 99 cents a song as on iTunes, users must first watch a 15- to 30-second advertisement.

“It’s iTunes meets Hulu,” said Richard Nailling, chief executive of FreeAllMusic.

Two of the four major labels have signed with the service and will provide their full digital catalogs, said Mr. Nailling, who declined to name the labels. Six advertisers are on board for the site’s debut, he added, including Coca-Cola, Warner Brothers Television and Zappos.com.

Source: New York Times

Ever struggle to pull together a playlist for that big party you planned? Or perhaps just are tired of putting your Jack Johnson CD on repeat while at work? Well, fear no more - Playlist Now is here to help.

From a coterie of nerdy Parisians, Now’s a free ‘n’ easy user-generated playlist portal streaming an eclectic selection of YouTube and music-blog-sourced tunes organized into categories and lists specifically designed to fit with whatever you’re up to. Get listening by browsing tags, from basic moods (i.e. tired, melancholic, nostalgic), to places/things connected to what you’re doing (computer, work), or search to get uber-specific options from “partying very hard”, to “in a meeting”; pick one, and you’ll get a list full of tracks you can shuffle or skip forward/back to at any time, from artists as mainstream as Jay-Z and Beck to more obscure acts like Da Grassroots Body and Zebraville.

Check it out here

Source: Thrillist

Vitaminwater and 50 Cent have teamed up to launch a new iPhone app that allows fans to remix parts of 50 Cent’s album on their device. Users can create and share their own mixes of “Baby by Me,” the first single from 50 Cent’s LP “Before I Self Destruct,” via their iPhone or iPod Touch.

Additionally, 50 Cent is giving one aspiring fan a chance to show off their skills with him in the recording studio. 50 Cent will scout out the best remix of his latest single and invite that person to meet up with him.

Users can record and share their personal mixes via Facebook, email, or on the interactive music companion site: http://www.50soundlab.com. The app will be available as long as 50 Cent is scouting the remixes. The deadline for entry is February 16.

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Live Nation is offering a “club passport” to concert lovers alike. For $49.00 it gets them free concerts in the city they purchase their “passport” in until the end of the year!

Check it out here, but be sure to read the fine print… this passport comes with strings attached / blackout dates.

Despite Jay-Z’s best efforts, it looks as if Auto-Tune, the software that adjusts the pitch of a singer’s voice, isn’t destined for the graveyard after all. Instead, it’s headed to the iPhone.

An application called “I Am T-Pain,” after the rapper who most recently popularized the Auto-Tune software with a liberal use of it in his songs, transforms the iPhone into an auto-tune microphone. The application was developed as a joint collaboration between T-Pain, Antares Audio Technologies, the company that produces the software that creates the vocal effect, and Smule, a start-up that develops applications for the iPhone.

The application, which costs $2.99, turns the iPhone into an Auto-Tune microphone, allowing users to sing alongside popular T-Pain tracks. “I Am T-Pain” comes bundled with five songs, including the radio hits “Bartender” and “Sprung.” Players will also have the option of buying more songs via the application to digitally harmonize along with.

In addition, players can create and record songs using a “freestyle” Auto-Tune effect, which can be uploaded to the Web and sent to friends via e-mail Facebook and MySpace.

Source: New York Times

Rapper Jay-Z held a news conference today (August 31) to formally announce the “Answer The Call” charity concert that will take place at Madison Square Garden on September 11th 2009. Tickets are $50 and ALL proceeds go to New York Police and Fire Widows’ and Children’s Benefit Fund. 

Jay-Z will also release his much anticipated album “Blueprint 3″ on the same day. 

Read more about what made him decide to hold the concert on 9/11, here: Jay-Z Benefit Concert