PUBLIC MARKS from misspaige with tag music

So how about predicting what you'll do next? Since the mid-1990s, online music recommendation or music discovery tools have studied our tastes and told us what to buy. And in the past year, several startups have launched with new, more ambitious software that someday may understand us better than we know ourselves.

This is pretty neat.

Impifree Bloggus: An anthropological study into the behaviour and habits of some wonderful creatures.

"All this activity does signify one thing - the hectic disarray of iTunes and filesharing is nothing more than the digital mirror of the chaotic physical world of black plastic. Perhaps it's merely representative of the general avalanche, but there is simply too much music. Too much of it is good; too much demands of it attention. Insists on it, lest one be left out of the "current shit," as David Axelrod would say."

Don't be mistaken, these radio shows aren't for you: they're for 30-something Grups with money to burn at Waterloo.

In 2004 Mr. Merritt, writing in The New York Times, chose seven records for a feature called Playlist. None of the records he chose were by black artists, prompting Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, to conclude at the time on his personal blog that Mr. Merritt had a bias against black music, calling him " 'Southern Strategy' Merritt."

In classic German style, there's actually a municipal office dedicated to making sure street musicians are licensed and that everyone gets equal access to the best spots. Every morning at 6am the musicians meet at the city office and get their 'beat assignments' for the day.

"Hell," said Jean-Paul Sartre, "is other people." I'd qualify that slightly. People are fine; it's their music that's hell.

He's committed to the game, y'all.

Vinyl junkies don't just buy music: they rescue it from obscurity in discount bins or car-boot sales. Dorian Lynskey delves into the dusty underground world of the 'diggers'

... but that didn't stop Brendan Benson from getting together with his pal Jack White in the Raconteurs. They tell Laura Barton how they've left the White Stripes far behind.

he very idea of Dave Berman going out on tour seemed unlikely even as late as the release of the excellent fifth Silver Jews LP, 2005's Tanglewood Numbers. In an interview I conducted with Berman prior to the release of Tanglewood he told me that he'd do it, "If it paid well and I could figure out away to get off by myself." Still, if it hadn't happened in the last 15 years, what were the odds it was going to go down now?

A digital music identification system that can search through 17 million songs in under 1 second has been launched in the US.

An 80's Finnish music video called "I Wanna Love You Tender" by Armi & Danny

When b-sides get their own videos, that I always invite the question, if it was so good to release it as a video, why the hell didn't you include that bloody song of the goddamn album, jackass? Lindsey Wells is the lovely subject of this non-album track.

Radiohead's Thom Yorke calls the music industry "a bunch of fucking retards" in this week's issue of NME.

NEW ORDER bassist PETER HOOK has slammed the English Football Association (FA) for choosing EMBRACE to sing this summer's soccer World Cup anthem over newcomers the ARCTIC MONKEYS.

Food and music will be available gratis this Sunday, from 11 am to 11 pm, at Fourth and Guadalupe, Republic Square and environs.

"We are pleased to license a wide range of songs from Matador artists for the 2K Sports Major League Baseball 2K6 video game. Given that our roster is filled with avid gamers and baseball fans, this was a natural fit."

Apple Computer opened its defense in London's High Court on Thursday against charges by the Beatles' company, Apple Corps, that it had violated a 1991 trademark agreement by moving into the music business.

Evolving definition of genre accounts for changes in successful video game marketing tactics

Close listeners coming into musical consciousness in the 1980s were faced with a paradox: while past recordings that had slipped into obscurity had become available once again, the sonic quality and production values that had marked the great age of vinyl had been swept aside by record companies in order to reissue as many albums as possible.

Every year when springtime finally arrives and the world is getting ready to stow away pullovers and thick coats in exchange for looser clothing and more colourful shirts, I start to search for two things that mean the start of the warm part of the year for me: one is an electronica record that has nice beats and a laid-back feeling but enough progressiveness to keep me interested yet enough trip hop or dancefloor easiness to keep me relaxed.

Blogs operate under the premise of having an uncorrupted opinion, free of manipulation or avarice. Take away this independence and blogs risk becoming nothing more than press release mouths for corporations who have long recognized the value of uninfluenced, "nine out of every ten doctor recommends"-type advocacy. Promoters want real fans to talk up bands. Bloggers achieve what a PR release could never do, speak with the voice of a loyal supporter who promotes the music because it's good.

Indie rock will never die, because people keep reanimating it's mid-90's era corpse and dressing it up in progressively more retarded names.