Snocap vs. Burnlounge: The statistics are in and Nielsen Soundscan cited a “dramatic increase” in digital download music sales for 2006. InStat reported that digital downloads generated over $2 billion in music market revenue and anticipate over $4 billion in 2007. The question is whose market share will increase the most in 2007? This year, we saw two new entrants in the digital music industry, Snocap and Burnlounge. Both products are very fresh and rely heavily on the new social community phenomenon. Snocap has instant viral potential and uses the “widget” technology, which we all love. While Burnlounge has an open- access media catalog and a dose of multi-level marketing. The first to go viral and open their catalog to all users will see the biggest increase in market share for 2007.

EURweb.com – THE 2007 ONLINE MUSIC MARKET TRENDS: Fan Force CEO, Marco Hansell Recaps 2006 and Forecasts 2007

USA Today:

Chris Daughtry is looking to launch his music career after getting booted from American Idol. Fuel is searching for a lead singer after Brett Scallions quit.

The band offered Daughtry a job Thursday, hours after viewers voted him off the Fox television talent show.

Bass player Jeff Abercrombie and guitarist Carl Bell made their pitch on the TV show Extra.

“Chris, if you are watching, we’ve talked about
this before, and if you want to entertain it again we’ll take it and
go,” Abercrombie said.

Daughtry, who dreamed of becoming a rock star
while working in the service department at a Greensboro car dealership,
told reporters earlier Thursday he was considering whether to pursue
fronting an established rock band or launching a solo career.

“I’m a songwriter myself,” the 26-year-old said. “To be able to launch my own career would be a dream” come true.

The buzz around Daughtry for weeks has been that he could end up Fuel’s lead singer; Scallions left the band in February.

I even once got in trouble for playing an N.W.A. song at a high school dance. (see picture on right of N.W.A.’s first and least known album)

Hip Hop music has always been a bit of a passion for me and speaking of passion for Hip Hop, I urge you to check this out…

The DJ Project:

The DJ Project classes in audio production, DJ-ing and breakdancing are
currently underway. Stay tuned for dates/times for our next graduation
performance.

Youth from The DJ Project are busy planning "Grind and
Glory" – a 3-part music series for youth and young adults that are eager to
enter the music industry. The first phase of Grind and Glory is a music
conference for aspiring hip-hop artists, 15-25, who are serious about their
business but still need some polish before they can shine.

To
pre-register for the Music Conference on Saturday, May 27th at SFSU’s College of
Extended Learning (425 Market Street), click here.

Here is the scoop:

Napster is not compatible with an iPod, but they claim that millions of songs are burned onto  CD’s and then loaded into iPods. They are advertising "never pay 99 cents a track again", but when you go to burn the songs on a CD, they charge you 99 cents a song. I have to say that I like the Napster interface and search much better than iTunes, but it’s too much of a pain to move the songs from Napster to my iPod.

iTunes could learn a thing or two from Napster’s interface. On Napster, I was able to search for a song and then search for artists in the same genre, there is no such search on iTunes.

I ended up downloading 22 songs from iTunes, uploading a Marshill Worship 1 CD into my iTunes library, and then some other MP3′s that I had saved on my hard drive from my church, live worship music stuff. I now have 45 songs or about 3 hours worth of music and it cost me a little more than 20 bucks and I was able to load it onto my wife’s iPod as well.

Here is a little of what’s playing, shamelessly influenced by the 80′s:

Pride – U2
Tainted Love – Soft Cell
Shellshock – New Order
I Got You – Split Enz
Chaka Khan – Aint Nobody
Listen Like Theives – INXS
Lips Like Sugar – Echo & The Bunnymen
Under The Milky Way – The Church
The Metro – Berlin
Love My Way – The Psychedelic Furs
Cities in Dust – Siouxsie and The Banshees