Music business takes a few steps in the right direction

While the big four record labels are still stuck in the previous century, technology continues to democratize the music industry. Not only do we have cheap multitrack recording software and online distribution, but we’re seeing some interesting funding models as well. In September, Wired covered Nettwerk‘s return to good-guy status, helping the Barenaked Ladies break …

top 20 CDs of 2005

Luke Doucet/Broken (and other rogue states) Kyler England/Live Wire Jason Mraz/MR. A-Z Sylvie Lewis/Tangos & Tantrums Libbie Schrader/Taking the Fall Samantha Murphy/Somewhere Between Starving & Stardom Josh Rouse/Nashville Pocket Dwellers/PD-Atrics Erin McKeown/We Will Become Like Birds Sarah Harmer/I’m a Mountain Kathleen Edwards/Back to Me Emm Gryner/The Great Lakes Great Big Sea/The Hard and The Easy …

congrats Mark and Catie!

Mark Erelli and Catie Curtis just won the grand prize in the International Songwriting Competition. Their song, “People Look Around,” is a stark, honest portrait of the United States and a cry for humanity — for us to be more human: Mississippi River divides this land in two, Like the way we tend to think …

free music from verve

I found a card at SXSW for a free music sampler from Verve. They want you to go to verveforecast.com/sxsw, then register, thenenter in the “download code” of vforecastsxsw. The music sampler (Jamie Cullum, Brazilian Girls, Jackie Greene, Rhett Miller, Susan Tedeschi, Teddy Thompson) comes in four formats, all of which are annoying: WMA, zip …