Apple iTunes

Okay, Illegal Downloads Probably Are Hurting the Music Industry

By Dan Moore This would have surprised me no matter who had turned it up, but there was a special irony in learning that illegal music downloads "aren't hurting the music industry" from a beleaguered print magazine's free-news arm: Illegal downloads aren't hurting the music industry, new study cla ... More >>

Teengirl Fantasy+Kelela+Laurel Halo+Fatherhood

New David Bowie Video!

There's been a lot of speculation about what's been up with timeless provocateur David Bowie over the last few years, but here he is, in a new video for a song that's been released at the iTunes store. And it's Bowie-r than ever.

Three Reasons Why Old Records Are Bigger Than Ever

Deep catalog diving

100 & Single: Gotye And fun. Help Alternative Rock Go Pop Once Again

Consider this six-pack of rock acts: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Big Audio Dynamite, the Psychedelic Furs, U2, R.E.M. and Julian Cope. My dream Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? Not quite—it's a list of the first six artists to go to No. 1 on the chart Billboard launched in the fall of 1988, then call ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Drake, Lil Wayne, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry, And The Era Of The Hit Bonus Track

Superstar pals and Young Money labelmates Lil Wayne and Drake released two of the biggest albums of 2011—Tha Carter IV and Take Care—and both are still spinning off hits well into 2012. But a look at the singles charts reveals something odd: the biggest current hits off both albums aren' ... More >>

100 & Single: Adele's Focus-Grouped Chart-Topper And The Demise Of The "Deep Cut"

Remember the album cut—the track deep on a disc that fans knew best, that only cool radio stations would play? Like so many cherished things from before the iTunes era, it's essentially extinct. My evidence for this bold and seemingly facile statement isn't the steady, well-chronicled disappe ... More >>

Radio Hits One: Hot 100 Peaks Only Tell Half The Story For Cee Lo, Britney Spears, And Other Year-End Winners

One of the most frustrating things about discussing the Billboard singles charts is how a song's peak position—the highest spot it occupied on a chart during its run—is almost universally regarded as the permanent measurement of its success or popularity. Any song that reaches No. 1 is e ... More >>

100 & Single: Can Katy Perry Turn The States' Post-Christmas No. 1 Race Into Something UKrazy?

​Thanks to her husband, Katy Perry considers herself as an honorary Brit. But as the most frequent current inhabitant of the Billboard charts, she must wish we were all anglophiles. If only America had a Christmas No. 1 competition as rabid and media-fueled as Old Blighty's! Katy would have t ... More >>

MUSIC MANIA

The holiday wish list just got a little longer

Coke Bust

The Olivia Tremor Control

Watch The Throne Is Out. Has Your Life Been Changed Yet?

.bbpBox100429870294769664 {background:url(http://a2.twimg.com/profile_background_images/278688287/kast.jpg) #adadad;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-bor ... More >>

100 & Single: How Digital Changed The Charts, From Gwen To GoonRock

Spotify's top tracks (left) and albums on Friday, July 15.​The headline-grabbing music story of the week isn't on the Billboard charts—it's the U.S. debut of Spotify. With the streaming-music service less than 48 hours old here, it's a bit too soon to analyze what songs are getting the m ... More >>

Village Voice "Best Of" App Now Available!

​Exciting news: Our long awaited "Best Of..." app is finally here! Featuring more than 10,000 of the best things to eat, drink, buy, and experience in cities all across the U.S., the app is built from our annual "Best Of" issue and features recommendations on nearly every block in New York Cit ... More >>

For Shame: Park Slope Food Coop Members Send in Nannies to Cover Shifts; Mocktails A-Go-Go

​New research shows that diners are eating outside the comfort zone of the "big three" ethnic cuisines -- Italian, Mexican, and Chinese -- and opting for Caribbean, Japanese, and Thai. [Nation's Restaurant News] One out of eight restaurant workers has come to work at least twice in the past y ... More >>

The Civil Wars

Vampire Weekend's New iTunes EP Includes Their Cover of Bruce Springsteen's "I'm Goin' Down"

​Any last-minute digital-music shoppers out there are hereby advised that there's a new six-song Vampire Weekend EP up on iTunes today, mostly reprising their own work but including the whimsically bloopy cover of Springsteen's "I'm Goin' Down" that surfaced earlier this year. Given that the B ... More >>

The 20 Worst Songs of 2010, #3: Cast of Glee, "Loser"

F2K10 is a countdown of the 20 worst songs of 2010. Track our progress here. ​The Fox show Glee might have been the most aggravating pop-cultural phenomenon of the year, what with its persistent conflation of the terms "stereotype" and "nuanced character who's really bringing something new to ... More >>

Top Five Beatles Songs Guaranteed Not To Top The iTunes Singles Chart Today

​So the Beatles catalog is now available on iTunes. This is, contrary to your attempts to be contrary, A Big Deal. You may naturally (and not unreasonably) assume that everyone in the world already owns all the Beatles songs they'd ever care to own. You are mistaken. The iTunes chart run desti ... More >>

Paul McCartney Is Playing The Apollo, And You Probably Can't Go

​Yes, that's right -- showtime at the Apollo, starring Sir Paul, vocalist for what is, as I type this, the 56th most popular song on iTunes ("Let It Be"). "The legend plans to perform selections from his solo career and other familiar tunes," the venue promises, on December 13. Sounds awesome. ... More >>

The Best Of The #beatlesasMP3s Hashtag

So Beatles-on-iTunes day is almost over. We all survived. No sales records were broken -- in fact, Dr. Luke would like to point out that Ke$ha remains atop the charts. And yet the day was a rousing success in terms of Twitter Comedy -- join us now as we survey the best of the #beatlesasMP3s hashta ... More >>

Even the New Gap Logo Hates the New MySpace Logo

​Amid an internet uproar about how bad the new Gap logo is -- and just after iTunes faced similar scrutiny for the updated iTunes 10 icon -- MySpace is getting in on the Any Press is Good Press action by releasing their own terrible new logo. TechCrunch describes it literally as "the word 'my' ... More >>

Farewell Streaming Music Service Lala

​Lala, the streaming, cloud-based music service familiar to anyone who's googled a song in the last year or two, only to have a free Lala stream come back as the first result, is shutting down, reports Billboard. The service was bought by Apple in the waning months of 2009; after that, it was ... More >>

Tonight! Evanescence, Sean Kingston, and Buraka Som Sistema

Still the jam, right It seems ludicrous that Evanescence has not yet appeared on a Twilight soundtrack, but there's two sequels to go, and Amy Lee's grandiosely maudlin goth-pop monolith seems to be revving up again after several lifetimes' worth of intra-band calamity. They're at the Grand Ballro ... More >>

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Gloriana's "Wild at Heart"

Last week's prediction: Nothing like this again, unless iTunes wants a revolt. Sometimes, you get a real child-slavery vibe from these young, recently formed Nashville acts. From the official Gloriana bio: "We spend most of our time rehearsing and writing at our band house in Nashville. Most nigh ... More >>

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Jean's "Stop the Clock (Peligro de Extinción)"

Last week's prediction: Inauguration-themed "Latino R&B crooner" Jean is more than a bit of an enigma--if your band name, song title, and album title (Out of the Box) are three different unGooglable clichés, you might start to wonder if you are in fact merely the last faint gasp of human intelli ... More >>

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: The Boxer Rebellion's "Evacuate"

Last week's prediction: Teary-eyed, overweight The message board-born Boxer Rebellion, like Glasvegas, sport an endorsement from Creation Records founder/Oasis-discoverer Alan McGee, a distinction that, in the UK, is more or less an excuse to print money. Or print hysteria? One-time supposed Cold ... More >>

Macworld News Includes Scary Face Recognition

CNET live-blogged this morning's Macworld session in San Francisco. Global marketing VP Phil Schiller announced Apple's agreement with Sony BMG, Universal, and Warner Music to distribute copy-protection-free iTunes from those massive vendors, and flexible pricing on songs purchased from the service ... More >>

More Apocalyptic Discourse with Appetite for Self-Destruction scribe Steve Knopper

'If they're waiting for the next Thriller to come along and save everything, they're really, really misguided. I hope they've figured it out by now.' This week in the hopelessly antiquated print version of the Voice, I chat with veteran Rolling Stone editor/reporter Steve Knopper, whose new book ... More >>

This Kayne/KAWS 808s Nonsense Should End

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Dark Captain Light Captain's "Jealous Enemies"

NYT at CMJ: Pure Pop for Old People

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: The 88's "Go, Go, Go"

Muxtape Vs. iTunes Genius: Can Machines Replace A Good Mixtape?

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: The Tough Alliance's "Neo Violence"

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: Ha-Ash's "Already Home (With Brandi Carlile)"

Another Free iTunes Single of the Week: The Republic Tigers' "Buildings and Mountains"

Why MySpace Music Won't Succeed

Rupert Murdoch's pride and joy is trying to go legit; mayhem may ensue, and success may not

Grading the iTunes Hits: David Cook, Rihanna, Coldplay

Grading the iTunes Hits, Again

Grading the iTunes Hits

Status Ain't Hood Podcast 27

Universal Records Fucks Up Bad

Good Riddance, Tower Records

Standing in the Shadow of iTunes

Three upstart local online music stores aim for their own niche markets

High School Musical: The Cult Success of the Year

The Status Ain't Hood Valentine's Day Playlist

"Laffy Taffy" is the Number One Song in the Country

Fair Useless

Corporations vainly scheme to the beat of a different DRM