Myspcae, Your Home For Karaoke?

In a move I can't say I saw coming, Myspace has launched a Beta version of a new service...Karaoke. This means that not only can you listen to thousands of terrible bands on myspace, but now you can also listen to people even worse belting it out to the likes of The Pussy Cat Doll's "Don't Cha." I can hardly wait.

With the new ability to sing Karaoke, users can record themselves singing one of the many songs that myspace has on it's platform. Said users can then upload it onto the myspace karaoke section where other users can listen to them and vote on them, rating the songs on a 10 star rating and even allowing you to leave feadback.

I suppose this could be pretty fun to compete with your friends, but I'd personally rather compete in Rockband or, say, in a real band, but maybe that's just me. It is definitely something people seem to be visiting and using, so who knows, maybe this could be the next big thing for myspace that sets it apart from facebook...but probably not.

More on Myspace Karaoke:
Myspace Karaoke Goes Live

Songkick, Your New Best Friend

According to Ian Hogarth, over 70% of people in the U.S. did not attend a concert last year...not a one. Why? Well, it's simply a pain in the butt for most people to look up bands they like to see if their even touring, let alone going to stop in near where they live.

This is why Ian, along with a few other bright chaps, came up with Songkick. Songkick is basically iConcertCal and JamBase's concert listings on steroids. Their goal is to make finding the concerts you want to see as easy as possible.

To do this, Songkick does a few things, but does them well. First, and a huge time-saver, Songkick is able to take a list of the artists in your computer's media player (i.e. iTunes) and load them all into your profile. This is especially nice if any of you have used Jambase's artist notifier and were somewhat annoyed at having to enter in each artist you like individually. This is very handy when you have, say, over 500 or so artists in your play list.

Songkick also e-mails you when your artists are coming into town. No more searching for dates and tours, it's all e-mailed directly to you. And on top of this, Songkick even will list the cheapest tickets for sale, as searched for from over 16 different ticket distributors in the US and UK. So now you've been notified of when the show is and you even know you're getting the cheapest tickets, life can't get any sweeter, right?

Well, actually, it can as Songkick also has a great section of concert recommendations based on the artists you uploaded into your profile. This is usually the trickiest part of any music based website as everyone's taste is different and the only two people to have gotten it right so far are a rocket scientist (seriously, the guy who wrote the algorithm for Pandora is a rocket scientist) and the geniuses at Last.fm. However, Songkick does an impressively good job and I would now add them to the previous list of two.

Overall, a great website with many more features that you should definitely check out. Thanks again to my boy Matt at parislemon for giving me the heads up on this. Who knew that being friends with the 8th most influential tech blogger would actually pay off?

More on Songkick:
Songkick Goes to 11
Ian Hogarth at Download Squad

iTape, youTape, we all tape for Muxtape

So one of my new favorite sites (thanks to my boy Parislemon) is Muxtape. Muxtape is a great website that allows users to upload a single mix of 12 songs that they deem awesome or of a great flow or whatever. Once you have your 12 songs uploaded, you organize them how you please and presto, you have a muxtape.

This is such a great idea that it makes me slightly giddy. It takes making mixes back to the 80's, when putting songs together actually mattered and was something you thought about due to the time it took to create a mix tape. Now-a-days, people just put songs into play lists and burn them onto CDs in minutes instead of taking hours (if not days) to think about and create their mixes. Muxtape doesn't do this by making the process tedious or painfully long, but by making the user actually think about the songs they will be choosing for their mix as there is a 12 song limit.

Many people have created simply great mixes that are available to anyone, whether the participant member or simply someone looking for some good music. I highly recommend checking it out, signing up, and creating a mix for everyone to listen to. If you do, please leave a comment at the bottom with a link to your mix, I'd love to check out what you think I should be listening to.

more on muxtape:
Got Your Muxtape and It Changed My Mind
Make Us A Muxtape

Hey, We're (I'm) Back! Woopiee!

Hey everyone, sorry for the ridiculously long hiatus, I should have warned you I was going to be away, but I didn't, oops. I won't go into details, but this picture sums up my life fairly well. As for Natalie not posting, well, she won't be with us this summer as she has to go study fruit flies in the upper peninsula of Michigan until August (true story, that's what happens when you're a biologist). So, be sure to keep an eye out for some new posts coming very soonly, not that my life doesn't still look like that picture, but I'm going to make time to keep the thousands (read: 4) people who read this blog informed on everything I deem interesting.

BAM!

Have you ever wanted to cook for your girlfriend, but were afraid to try? Is she one of those "salad-eating bitches?" No worries; Coolio has got your back. Check out mydamnchannel.com for Cookin With Coolio. Who knows what the hell Rachel Ray or Paula Dean mean when they say "a pinch" or "a bushel," anyways? Coolio keeps it real by using terms real people can understand, such as a "dime bag of seasoning." Complete with his own Sauce Girls, Cookin' With Coolio will show you how to make food that "looks better than yo' mama's titties." Word.

Speaking of keepin' it real, check out Rolling Stone's recent interview with Billy Corgan. Whether or not you enjoy the Smashing Pumpkin's new release, this front man has got it spot-on about the record industry today. He rips big record companies and new one, and encourages emerging artists to regularly "kick the butts" of music industry vets. While the Smashing Pumpkins new release doesn't compare to Siamese Dream or Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness, maybe their new-found freedom from the big execs will inspire them to write some truly unique tunes. (It's interesting these words are coming from the front man for the Smashing Pumpkins, who were known to some in their grunge hey-day as "the grunge Monkees). If not, at least kudos to Mr. Corgan for tellin' it like it is.

Stevie Nicks Can Withstand the Testosterone A Little Longer

Sheryl Crow told Spinner, an AOL music website, earlier this month that she and the members of Fleetwood Mac "definitely have plans for collaborating in the future," apparently implying that Stevie Nicks would like to add a bit more estrogen into the mix. Christine McVie left the band in the late 1990s, making Nicks the group's only female. However, Lindsey Buckingham told Billboard after she made that statement that the members of Fleetwood Mac were all "a little surprised." I'm with Lindsey on this one-if Fleetwood Mac wants another female on board, I feel like they wouldn't be hard pressed to find a better replacement for McVie.

Don't get me wrong, Sheryl Crow has made some worthy contributions to pop music in the past. Tuesday Night Music Club is one of the better pop records of the 90s; belting "Strong Enough" while driving in my car will never get old for me. And as far as I'm concerned, female musicians who continue to write their own music and can hold their own on lead guitar are great. I haven't given Crow's latest effort, Detours, a listen to yet, but her first single sounds like a Jack Johnson rip-off. The chorus of "Love is Free," the first single, repeats "everybody's makin' love because love is free." Last time I checked, things you make yourself are usually free of charge. It seems like Crow is jumping on the neo-hippie bandwagon, and with very little originality. While I am happy to see her return to the formula that made her famous with "All I Wanna Do" and "Strong Enough"- stripped down rock tunes- Detours seems a bit fake. After all, can you really be environmentally and socially conscious and a spokesperson for Revlon at the same time? (Granted, some of the proceeds from her ads are going to charity). While "Love Is Free" aims to bring people together, it really just makes me want to get as far away as possible from people who actually buy that crap. Keep your options open, Fleetwood Mac.

Justice for Satellite Radio...Sorta

The Justice Department has finally given a go for the XM/Sirius merger (so says CNN) that was announced over a year ago (February 19th, 2007 for those keeping score). This is a big step for the two (and only) satellite radio companies in the U.S. but it still could mean diddly squat if the FCC doesn't give them the OK Go.

For the past year, stock prices have been all over the place and customers have been getting more and more angry having no idea what is to become of their current subscription. This still isn't resolved with certain "analysts" saying that new equipment would to be purchased but XM stating that current subscribers would be able to keep their current radio and still receive content. More fun than this is having to renegotiate (or create all new) contracts with auto companies (as each have exclusive deals with many a car manufacturer) as well as content including NFL, MLB, and on air personalities like Howard Stern and Oprah.

Even more fun is that no one is sure how much the new service will cost and how many services there will be. Last year, the stations had mentioned offering a la carte options from between $6.99 to $16.99 a month (compared to the $12.95 is currently costs for each) and have made a point of stating that it will cost less than $25.90 (12.95+12.95...woot math!), the current price for both subscriptions.

Bits of actual good news (other than the first paragraph) are actually here, though. Most importantly is that this ruling could help put some pressure to on the FCC as to finally come to a conclusion (it only took the Justice Department about 395 days to make their decision, c'mon FCC!). And for those partial owners of the company (i.e. stock holders), prices went up 15.5% and 8.6% for XM and Sirius, respectively.