Madonna, Material Girl In $120m Live Nation Rumour

Madonna, Material Girl In $120m Live Nation RumourThe WSJ is reporting that the ever-innovative Madonna has been in negotiations with a number of parties about her forthcoming years in the music industry.

She’s going to be exiting her Warner Brothers contract soon, and it’s understood that Live Nation, a concert promoter, is trying to woo her with a 10-year / $120 million deal that would cover three albums, concerts, merchandise and licensing her name for use on products.

As we’ve reported, there’s been some major shifts in the music industry of late, such as Radiohead giving fans the option of name their own price for their latest album, and Alan McGee talking about giving the Charlatans records away.

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Pet Shop Boys Integral: Anti ID Card Song, With QR Codes!

Pet Shop Boys: Anti ID Card Song, With QR Codes!Those krazy kids, The Pet Shop Boys, have released their new single.

Why are we interested? Two reasons, it’s drawing attention to UK ID Card – which we think are are serious blow for the future of civil liberties in the UK – plus the video has also got QR codes in it – letting people find out further info just by point their camera phone at it.
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Wiinstrument: Wii Drumming On Mac: Video & Podcast

Wiinstrument: Wii Druming On Mac: Video and PodcastWe’ve all see Wii-motes being used for all sort of strange purposes, well this one is useful.

A bunch of students at University of Potsdam, Germany have written a programme that lets you use your Wiimote and nunchuck to trigger sounds, such as drums and cymbals on a Mac. It’s not just drums that can be triggered, but any MIDI sound.

The accelerometer in the Wii-mote senses how hard the drums are being played, varying the loudness and harshness of the sound. It’s wire-free as it uses Bluetooth to connect.
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Charlatans To Give Away Their Single

Charlatans To Give Away Their SingleThe Charlatans plan to give away their forthcoming single.

If the news from earlier in the week about Radiohead letting their fans choose how much to pay for their next album didn’t make you sit up, you could well spit out your coffee when you hear what Alan McGee and the Charlatans are planning to do.
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Radiohead Tell Fans: “Pay What You Want”

Radiohead Tell Fans: Pay What You WantRadiohead have long been known as a band who like to do things differently, and their approach to selling their long-awaited seventh studio album certainly breaks new ground, with fans invited to pay whatever they like.
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Is Sony Making A Significant Shift?

Is Sony Making A Significant Shift?Rick Rubin, he of Def Jam records, has been running Colombia Records, owned by Sony.

Yesterday, there was a 12 page piece in the IHT about Rubin and his attempt to change Colombia Records

Beyond the “‘You might never see me, I may never wear shoes, you’re not the boss of me,” demand that Rubin was supposed to have made, there’s also some meat that will be of interest to anyone who watches the shift of digital media.
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Sony Rolly: More (Sketchy) Details

We’ve been digging deep into our Sony contact book in an effort to find out more details about the now-seen Sony Rolly.

Cards are being held very close to the chest about it all over at Sony. As we know Engadget have been through the video with a fine tooth comb in a desperate attempt to try and suss out more.
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Pacemaker DJ Handheld Mixing: Video

Pacemaker: Handheld DJing tool: VideoWe were privileged to get our hands on the Pacemaker a while back – something we’d had a burning desire to do since we first heard about what the Pacemaker might be.

It’s a handheld DJ unit that packs a considerable punch – sufficient to make it realistic to play a whole DJ set using just the Pacemaker and no external units.

Slightly smaller than a vertically held PSP, it packs a 120GB drive; a colour display at the top touch sensitive cross-fader in the middle; circular selection pad at the bottom; a couple of buttons on each side and connectors on the bottom.
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Wal-Mart Launches DRM-Free MP3 Download Service

Wal-Mart Launches DRM-Free MP3 Download ServiceRetail titans Wal-Mart have started offering digital music downloads on its Web site free of the copy-protection technology inflicted on most MP3 web sites.

Boasting thousands of albums and songs from major record labels like Universal and EMI Group, Wal-Mart’s service will let users download tracks free of any digital rights management.
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