qspmusic.com

The Hype Machine follows music blog discussions.

Every day, thousands of people around the world write about music they love — and it all ends up there. You can stay up to date with who is being written about on blogs across the world and ecven listen to streams of the tracks being commented on - and this includes hard to find remixes.

Their favourite artist at the moment is one of mine too - Cut Copy - who were awesome when I saw them 6 weeks ago in London.

visit the www.hypem.com.

I couldn’t beleive this when I read it in a UK sunday newspaper at the weekend - the quote below is directly from a pop star who doesn’t even like music! How can someone in such a fortunate position be doing something others would kill to do and not like the fruits of her labour?

The only answer is not to buy anything put out by Anastacia - and to be honest i’d hope that readers of this site would have the good taste to not buy anything by her anyway, as it’s MOR pop rock crap. True music lovers should be music by artists who truly love music.

Here’s the quote:

“This might sound unbelievable but I really don’t like music. I like writing and performing but I prefer silence to putting on a CD. Listening to music doesn’t relax me and I find it hard to think straight when it’s on. I have an ipod but I can’t recall the last time I used it. I’ve never bought a record in my life. I bought a Janet Jackson cassette once but that’s it. Music has never moved me. It doesn’t do anything for me. To be honest I find it irritating.”

5 minutes of fun can be yours with  a visit to www.ravegenerator.com.

It is a simple but surprisingly effective tool and lets you select drums, breaks, bass and leads along with  a choice of whistles, screams, an MC shouting ‘Drop the Bass’ and crowd noises to choose from (or even use all of them simultaneously).

You’ll be back in the early 90s in no time.  Have fun.

DJ Z Trip is one of the few remaining ‘proper’ old-style DJs around: he’s a turntablist.

Although he is obviously in the vinyl camp, he’s also not averse to  a bit of digital as well as he has made a huge range of music available for free.

There are 20+ MP3s recordings of remixes, scratch jams, live recordings and mixes. Z Trip was way ahead of the mash up movement and his stuff includes the seminal Bruce Hornsby’s That’s The Way It Is into Run DMC’s It’s Like That.

None of the stuff here would ever get past legal sample clearances so could never be released conventionally but it is here for your enjoyment on www.DJZTrip.com  

If your taste is more towards the breaks, beats and even jungle then you must check out www.Breaksblog.biz. This site focusses on drum’n'bass and jungle and includes classic sets from the mid 90s as well as the newer DJs on the scene.

There are over 1,000 items to download and include Fabio, Randall, Bukem and Doc Scott from way back.

One of the most popular items right now is a set from May by Alex Perez at http://www.breaksblog.biz/alix-perez-live-medium-21052008/

Some of the most happening stuff is coming from this scene and even if it is not your usual taste you should check out some of the sound textures these guys use.

A new website is promising to put the Music Industry on its’ head. DanceFreeway.com is a new site dedicated to offering dance music fans free legal mp3 downloads in an easy to use environment. There’s no registration required, and no maze of pop up ads and “special offers.”

“So what’s the catch?”, asked Ron HIrsch of DanceFreeway.com. “There is no catch. Yes, you will see ads on the site, but they won’t interfere with your ability to stream or download music…all at no charge.”

The site is actually the brainchild of record label, Act 2 Records. So why would a record label design a site to give away their music and others’? Isn’t that counter productive to making money? I asked this question to Act 2’s President Ron Hirsch. He said that “the Economics of the Music Industry have changed so dramatically, that it has forced us to re-evaluate how people value music. Clearly people still enjoy music, but they’re just not going to pay $16 for a CD anymore. And frankly, 99 cents or lower for a download is a good deal for the consumer, however it’s too small a margin for a label to sustain itself.”

So then what is the value of music? Mr. Hirsch believes that “music has value as a promotional product. And that the Music Industry’s future will more closely resemble other mediums like radio and television. Specifically, we will offer a free product (ie music), and sustain ourselves by selling advertisements.”

DanceFreeway.com was launched in May 2008 with 2 sister sites (HipHopFreeway.com & RockFreeway.com) launched in June. Mr. Hirsch states that “so far the amount of traffic and the amount of downloads hasgreatly surpassed our most aggressive estimates.”

But not everything’s free on the site. The basic premise for the site is that in exchange for Artist’s offering songs for free, they will be allowed to post additional songs that people can purchase and they will receive 100% of the net proceeds.

“It’s really a win-win-win & win concept”, says Mr. Hirsch. “The User wins by getting free downloads in an easy to use legal environment. The Artist wins by getting exposure to new fans and incremental revenue. The Advertiser wins by getting a targeted consumer. And we win by creating an additional stream of revenue for ourselves.”

Mr. Hirsch goes on to say: “It’s really a fun process. It’s like the old days again. We help new Artists’ get exposure, (recently having one get signed to a major record deal), and we also get to turn people on to some great new music. What could be better?”

 Artists may “Get On The Freeway” by submitting an application on line at one of the three current sites. Futuresites include CountryFreeway, IndieFreeway, LatinFreeway, ChristianFreeway and others.

A quote from Toby McColl this morning on the new partnership between the long running One little Indian and Fat Cat record labels:

“All I have ever been interested in is releasing music I love. Genres are just words, styles ephemeral: it’s the conviction of the artists that matter. That is why I work at One little Indian…This June I began doing the same for Fat Cat Records after both labels announced a partnership.”

One Little indian has had groundbreaking artists such as The Sugarcubes, Bjork, The Shamen, and The Sneaker Pimps on their label and really have been doyens of the indie scene in the UK for over 2o years. And Fat cat should be lauded just for bring the sublime Sigur Ros to our attention, never mind signing exciting new acts such as Animal Collective.

And this other quote further demonstrates their great ethos:

“Fat Cat’s a label that shares our core beliefs of independence, honesty and musical integrity. That’s how you make it as a record label; put out tunes you love. Sure music is a commodity like anything else but we’re in this to release good music; making money is necessary but not our be-all and end-all…the feeling that you love what you do and that you’re making a difference.”

This is almost enough on its own to have me running out and being the next releases on One Little Indian and FatCat. They deserve success just for their attitude.

I’ll be honest - I love emusic and their great MP3 service over at
http://tinyurl.com/emusicfree.

I get 30 tracks a month for about £8.99 and they have a great selection of both new and old stuff. Be warned though, if your tastes are current chart and big names, this is not for you and only caters to the more underground and independent acts, though there are some big names too such as the new Beck album.

But if you like electronic or new wave or indie then you will love the service.

If you use the link below you can even get 25 free downloads (no DRM restrictions at all either) just for trying the service.

http://tinyurl.com/emusicfree.

As I get older I still love music just as much as I ever did but, with young kids and a busy job, I don’t get a chance to listen to as much music as I would like. And the music that I do buy now is rarely played on CD  as most of my listening is done on the commute into work so when I get a CD I immediately rip it to MP3 format and put it on my iPod.

So the logical step was to stop buying so many CDs and buy MP3s directly and when I discovered a free trial to emusic.com that is exactly what I did. Once I had trialled my generous 30 free tracks - about 2 or 3 albums worth depending on your choice - I enjoyed it so much I stayed with it and am now a very happy subscriber and look forward to choosing my new tracks each month.

And - to get back to my initial point - the spin off benefits have been the reviews and ‘new on site’ sections of emusic that have led me to a whole host of new artists as well as rediscovering some old favourites. Emusic is not your kind of place if you want the latest chart, pop or R’n'B sounds but if you like more underground electronic, dance, indie, punk etc then you will love it.

My favourite album of the year so far (and I can’t imagine anything beating it) is Beat Box by Glass Candy, a shimmering slice of messed up electro disco with the coolest of female vocals by the mysterious Ida No backed up with Johnny Jewel’s electronic soundscape.

At the same time I re-discovered a great live album by The Cult - Dreamtime Live at the London Lyceum from about 1984 and this takes me back to the early exciting days of their goth tinged beginnings before Billy Duffy had turned into a ‘rawk’ god.

Anyway, more new stuff from emusic and also myspace to come.

There are some great sites out there on the web for the aspiring drummers amongst us.  Some of my favouites are as follows :

www.onlinedrummer.com

Full of lessons on all aspects of drumming. It also has a great Drum TV section where you can watch drummers in action and analyse what they do in a trainspottery fashion…

www.DrumBum.com and www.DrumBum.com/lessons

This defintely gets the best name award for drumming sites and is scarily close to the truth when it comes to many drummers! The best thing about this site is the amazing range of free lessons on all types of styles, methods and muscial genres from punk to jazz-funk and reggae to rock. You can get the lowdown on techniques like drags, flams and buzz roll as well as the basics on balance and gripsand it is all backed up with video on some of the areas.

www.EveryDrummer.com

This is a site covering the greatest drummers of all time. From John Bonham to Carl Palmer and Keith Moon to Neil Peart, they are all here. You can search by band name and you can find out more about them individually too, though the bios a re a bit short in most cases.  A good starting point for drummer research.

And don’t forget about the teaching videos available on youtube.com at http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=drum+tutorial+videos&search=Search.