Category: Digital Music

Microsoft Erases The Last Bit Of Zune Branding

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News via Paul Thurrott that Microsoft’s last grandfathered piece of Zune Content – the Zune Music Pass – is about to be archived. Users of the subscription music service that also offered ten free DRM-free downloads a month will be switched to the Groove music service (neé Xbox Music Pass) in October. And yes, the ten free downloads are not carrying over: As of November 15, 2015, Zune services will be retired, You will no longer be able to stream or download content to your device from the Zune music service. However, Zune devices will still function as music players

The BBC Hide Iron Maiden Away After Topping The Charts

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Iron Maiden’s ‘The Book Of Souls‘ album came out last week, and went straight to the top of the UK album charts. I’m sure everyone will be glad to see them showcased on the BBC’s news page… Picture of the number one single act (The Jacksons, who were playing Proms In The Park, which was convenient)…. picture of last week’s number one single act (Justin Bieber)… banner advert for the Chart Show… No Iron Maiden. PS: I still can’t get used to the charts coming out on a Friday…

The Top Forty countdown, with only our favourite songs, moves to Friday

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I don’t listen regularly to the Top 40 any more, so its move to Friday afternoon instead of Sunday evening is just another “well, back in my day” to add to my brain, but one thing I loved (and still love) about the Top 40 is that no matter what the song was, it was always played in the countdown. It was one of the few chances to bypass the pluggers and pickers of the national pop music station and get airplay. Be it Status Quo, The London Philharmonic Orchestra, or that year’s winning Eurovision Song Contest, if it made the Top

Rolling Stones Top Fifty Albums… of the last ten months

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With four weeks still to go, Rolling Stone shows its hand for the Top 50 Albums of the Year. The lower reaches are rather interesting, but there’s a discomforting amount of mainstream label-drive choices in the Top Ten. And no sign at all of Peroxide. You know what though? I hope all of these end of year lists (likely drafted in September and October) are all put out of joint when Adele rolls out ’25’ onto Soundcloud on Christmas Eve.

Landing on an comet, what is it good for? Record sales!

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Apparently landing on a comet boosting the popularity of  Aerosmith’s ‘I Don’t Wanna Miss A Thing’. Via Spotify: Back on earth, it didn’t take long for the memes to set in, including widely-echoed references to Armageddon the movie… The effect was musically felt as well, as we discovered after Spotify staffer Dariusz Dzuik tipped us off to a tweetfrom @jlax, asking us to look into one particular song from the film’s soundtrack: Can someone @spotify please release the data for Aerosmith song plays today vs the historical average? …See that spike in plays for “I Don’t Want To Miss A Thing” from the Armageddon soundtrack? It happened on November 13, the day after Philae touched down