Lady Gaga only worth 99¢

Well, this isn't my personal opinion... but according to Amazon.com today Lady Gaga's newest album (featuring the fastest selling Single in history)  is available for 99¢.  I'm not sure if I view this as the deal of a century or an absolutely offensive indicator of where the music business is going...  Of course what Amazon and Gaga are banking on is the fact that people who would have NEVER bought her full length album (like me) will now buy it, consume it, become fans, buy concert tickets/t-shirts/keychains, and join the legions of other Monster faithful in the cult of Gaga.  Incidentally, you can get all of the above from Amazon (except for the tickets- but I am sure they will find a way into that racket soon enough.)

The thing about this move that keeps me wondering is will the tonnage of sales of this one day $! album mean vast revenues for Lady Gaga and Interscope, or will it only cheapen her product when it has a retail face value more in line with what we are used to?    Certainly this is a calculated move, but really?  The whole album is only worth $1?  REALLY?  Of course this is not the first time an established act has done something outside of the box with a new release...  Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, and the entire label X5 have had releases built around the discount album but I find it hard to believe that arguably the most marketable name in pop music needs to result to this type of fumblrooskie on her album launch to gain (even more) chart dominance.  I would love to know if there is any back-end remuneration happening from Amazon on this "promotion."

File this one under "things that make me scratch my head" and "too cheap not to give it a try".  Here goes nothing...

The Lost art of Album Art

By Randall Foster My last post on albums got me thinking (along with Kanye's rant about his album art) that perhaps it would be good to feature album art in a post.  Album art is a bit of a lost art form these days I believe.  I'm not sure if it is the diminished size- going from more than a square foot to a measly 6"X6" or if it is simply a representation of our speedy move towards everything digital, quick, and cheap that moved the emphasis away from the artwork in the almighty album.  No matter what the cause- I think it is a shame that future generations may not grow up to know and love album art as we have, did and do (for the other vinyl hoarding Luddites* in the crowd). With that I present a list of my TOP 9 Cover Art of all time. **

[gallery link="file"]

* I dont really consider myself a Luddite... just a huge fan of Vinyl

** Ok.. maybe not of all time- but at least some of my favorites... and why 9 you say?  Because 10 would not have fit neatly in my post... the 3X3 rows are cathartic

Ping... what's the point?

So anyone not living under a rock has most likely seen information on Apple's newest venture, "Ping" in the past few weeks.  Ping is Apple's answer to social media phenoms like Facebook and Twitter utilizing a new network from which we can share our musical tastes, see what our favorite artists are listening to, and see eachother's new <ahem> profiles.  I dont believe they are wrong in wanting to jump onto the social bandwagon, just flawed in their approach.  Other music services have integrated into these other platforms successfully... just look at iLike and Spotify among others.  they have utilized the tools (read: API) that are out there and integrated into the places we already reside rather than requiring us to create yet another new profile to participate.  Why must Steve Jobs always recreate the wheel?  Granted, his quest to "build the better mousetrap" usually yields righteous results- but I fear that this one may fall flat.

So how does this affect artists?  Well, if you are a Major Label talent with a huge following already it has been an easy transaction.  At launch, most of my favorite mainstream artists had pages...  Apple did a good job of making sure the the stud horses of the stable were included at launch but what about the others?  Will they get lost in the herd?  Initially, Tunecore was the only 3rd party mentioned loading content and now it has opened up to a few more aggregators such as the Orchard and CD Baby.  According to Digital Music News, Apple plans to open up to other labels and aggregators but at this point it is slow going.  As far as I can tell at this point, independent groups have no option for inclusion other than the use of a 3rd party.

In the end, will Ping be a game-changer?  Probably not.  Truth is, Apple should have accessed some of the already prevalent technologies in the marketplace to strengthen their launch.  I don't know if John Q Public is going to be willing to join yet ANOTHER social network.