Music+Update+4

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The Grammy Awards have cut 31 of their award categories from 109 categories to 78. A lot of categories merged together and the hardest hit categories involvedothe R&B award categories. Now Male, Female, and Group are in one category.Both Pop and Country have a similar layout in their categories, mixing Female, Males, and Groups in one category. "After explaining that the amount of categories has grown from 1959′s 29 to last February’s chubby 109, Recording Academy president Neil Portnow said the changes were met with “some pretty passionate discomfort” from a few musicians."=====

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=Abimbola Beverly Adanritaylor= =**April 6, 2011**= = //**Can The Music Industry Be Saved By Artists Managing Themselves?**// =

With the likes of such programs such as Napster, Morpheus, LimeWire, FrostWire, etc. The music industry has been experiencing a decrease in sales and no one seems to have the answer to this monumental problem...but it looks like things MIGHT change for the better. Topspin Media, is a direct-to-fan marketing-and-retail software platform that was introduced to the public at South by Southwest in Texas. Artists like, Paul McCartney, Arcade Fire, Linkin Park, Eminem, and the Beastie Boys have all signed up to the service creating an artist's relationship with their fans deeply personal again.Topspin allows artists to upload and manage music, videos, images and other digital assets. With Topspin artists can manage merchandise, fan clubs and VIP membership. They can book shows, sell tickets and even use an iPhone app on the door to make sure that people have paid entry for an event. Most importantly, you can bundle and sell any of those things across the world without having to deal with taxes and privacy issues. "Topspin will help music regrow after years of mass marketing, lawsuits and draconian restrictions imposed by the record labels that have near ruined it." But there are some who think Topspin isn't going to do a damn thing. "I doubt it will save the music industry in the way people are hoping. There's still a need for cash to be pumped into it and there's got to be systems in place for it to work properly and efficiently." All that aside, Topspin seems like a really good idea. It allows musicians to manage their own careers, IF they're willing to put in the hard work on both the creative and business sides of things. [|Article]

=Amanda Garcia= =April 7, 2011= =Hello Music Does Its Part to Help Independent Artists= The number of independent artists have greatly increased in recent years due to the fact that they are able to freely disperse their talents through the internet, and with the use of music platform site Hello Music, their contributions to the industry have grown massively. Recently, this music platform has announced that they will be doing one more thing to help musicians flourish, and that is by providing them with Hello Music Deals,anew website where they can get limited-time daily deals on anything they need. From recording gear to accessories, this site allows people to grab upto 70% off discounted products so that they can continue to do what they love at a fairly cheaper price. Starting out in the music business is quite expensive, and this would allow anybody to financially afford to do something they may have always wanted to do. For more information on this new site, click [|here]

=**Dafne Troyce**= =**April 7, 2011**=

9 Reasons Apple and Google Should be Worried About Amazon
This article gives 9 reasons as to why Apple and Google should be worried about Amazon, in this case talking specifically about the launch of a music locker. For a while now Google and Apple have been rumored to be getting ready to release a music locker, but there was never a rumor that Amazon was going to do the same. Amazon released their music locker last week. So this article goes on to talk about different reasons why Amazon might be a threat to Google and Apple.

http://www.hypebot.com/hypebot/2011/04/9-reasons-apple-and-google-should-be-worried-about-amazon.html

=Patrick Muniga= =April 7, 2011=



With Summer On the Horizon, Time to Strap In for Warped Tour
Every year, Christmas lasts 3 months for hard rocks fans. No it's not in December, and there are definitely no jingles being sang. Instead, it starts June 24th, and instead of presents there are extreme sports contests, and replacing the jingles are metal, punk and reggae tunes. For 17 years, Vans has been sponsoring this amazing music festival that cuts straight into the heart of the skateboard culture and keeps true to the Southern California roots upon which Vans was founded on. Past acts have included the likes of The Offspring, AFI, Bad Religion and many more. Although there are huge shoes to fill, this year's line-up is very impressive with bands such as Unwritten Law, Pepper, The Expendables, Paramore, Less than Jake and many other mainstream and local bands. With tickets around $50, come out Aug. 9th to Cricket Amphitheater and enjoy some skating, bmx, swag, and some great live music.

For more info check out: http://vanswarpedtour.com/

=﻿Jessica Yount= =﻿April 7, 2011=

=Website to pay $950,000 for Beatles piracy= A california website that had sold the Beatles Songs for 25 cents prior to them being legally sold on ITunes is paying the band's EMI label $950,000 to settle a lawsuit dealing with copyright issues. BlueBeat.com claims it was not posting original material because they had re-recorded the songs and inserted new "artistic touches". Aarguing that this was not copyright but re-creating versions of the Beatle's music. However, the case followed to argue that this was a "long-winded way of desscribing sampling" and shot down the arguement. [|Full Article]