iTunes is now the third largest music retailer in the country in terms of albums sold, according to NPD Group, a market research provider. iTunes lags behind only WalMart and Best Buy, and leads Amazon and Target.

(In order to compare iTunes to the more traditional outlets, NPD counted each 12 tracks sold on iTunes as the equivalent of an album sold elsewhere.)

With iTunes commanding so many sales, it may put more pressure on Apple to allow those songs to be played with competing technologies. European regulators are already trying to force the company to do so. The vast majority of iTunes music can only be played on the iPod or on iTunes. But Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, recently blamed this on the technical difficulties of adding copyright protections to those songs, which most of the music labels demand.

A friend of mine named Ashley Waer created this mash up a couple months ago using Jamglue.

Mum’s 2000 self titled album was heavily funk influenced and more rhythmic than its more recent spacey, chill out stuff. The shining achievement on this album is the first song; “Zero Gravity,” the song remixed here. Coming with a tuff hip hop structure, it was perfect for the sample play of mashing up an Obama speech with music.

She chose Obama because of the ease of access to MP3s of his speeches (and because the bar she worked at was throwing a fund raiser for him.)

So, enjoy. It’s not bang you over the head with her political views or anything. It’s still unfinished, she only finished one "verse,"so the second half of it is just the original "Zero Gravity" song.

People seeking to discover new forms of culture - like music, books, and films - tend not to turn to the web, but rely first and foremost on their friends and family to expose them, according to a recent study. While they do use the internet, the report finds, it is usually to follow up on cultural information received by other sources, such as the people close them or more traditional forms of media.

The study, performed by the University of Toronto’s, Barry Wellman, a sociologist, and Jennifer Kayahara, a doctoral student there, shows that people generally do not have enough leisure time to spend searching for culture online - unless, of course, it proves more efficient than other means.

One study subject, identified as Carter, 24, said he uses it for certain purposes. "[I’ll go online if] I need to look for a schedule for a movie, or if I need to see information about where I’m going like festivals or concerts—things like that. That’s faster."

Indeed, using the web to find out about local cultural events proved very common.

But the unlimited amount of information available online makes finding something as vague as new music too daunting for most people in the study, which was performed in the East York neighborhood of Toronto.

"[W]ith the Internet, I also find it’s almost too much; it’s just very hard to filter it," says Kate, 41, another study participant.

Also, while some people would go to a music store, for example, and just browse, nobody in the study mentioned using services such as Amazon’s recommendations.

But there is a glimmer of hope for blogs like this: The vast majority of subjects with passionate interests or hobbies uses to the web for whatever it is they are dedicated to.

When I started this post about Berg Sans Nipple’s new 7" Hero Heroin, which dropped this month on Chocolate Industries, my nipples got hard and I lost my focus. (Sorry, you know I had to make a nipple joke. It is hot though.)

These Nipplites are a duo hailing from Paris and Nebraska (I’ve noted the cultural fermentation of Omaha on this blog before) with a sound as inclusive as the distance between their two homelands.

Cop the single in person at the Turntable Lab shop, or go online and get it at Juno. If you want to see them, they’re on a US tour right now that includes the TO, Boston, and Dirty City, but not New York. (WTF?) Also, their recent album Along the Quai, released on Team Love, can be streamed here (but be patient, the audio controls will take a second to show up.)

Nipple.

 

  

Number 5, from the 80’s movie Short Circuit.

Musipedia - as in a Wikipedia for music - has got a new music search program that looks for music by melody rather than text. The site has a keyboard (above) that you search with by clicking the melody. It also has a function where you can whistle the tune. It then searches for the melody in a Wiki database filled with melodies submitted by the public. Great idea, too bad I wasn’t actually able to use it! Maybe it’ll be more useful to someone who can play the piano.

It seems like most of the music technology institutions are after similar technology. I guess it’s the next "killer app" for the music world.

The Musipedia site also has some great links to comparable services.

<Via MusTech>

Emancipator

By using music with a rep for being more uplifting and sometimes ethereal like M83 and Sigur Ros, and mashing them up with artists like Mobb Deep and Three Six Mafia, Emancipator has developed an interesting flavor. The combinations lend a woefulness to a genre that is sometimes criticized as glamorizing violence and corruption. The mixes take the subject matter out of context and seem to lament the deplorable state of affairs articulated by the emcees.

No MP3’s. Sorry. Peep his MySpace page, and listen to "M836Mafia" and "Shook."

Emancipator’s unsigned, too.

I’m sure you’ve seen them everywhere: The AM New York leaflets left out for the "Make Music New York" on the weekend.

Lots of stuff, but not much I’d go out on a limb and see. This here is a little list of some of the more interesting jump offs.

Update: Hopefully none of you took any of this info too seriously or anything, because apparently, neither did the organizers of "Make Music NY". I only know about the shows I worte about here, but two of those four had the wrong listings. The Morningside event was nowhere to be found, and the Cave show didn’t start until sundown (that was a mission of a bike ride for nothing!)

In other corrections today - this one my own fault - the Cave Art Space is named after a natural cave, you know, like a hole in a wall? Nothing to do with virtual environments.

B. Chen

While much of B. Chen’s music is ensconced in the 8-bit style of 80’s video games, his innovative use of the primitive electronic sounds, and his addition of piano and synth melodies, allows for more complexity and a depth of mood that keeps his songs interesting.

Chen - who’s alias is a shortening of his given name, Brandon Chen - is woefully under acknowledged by music heads at large. He boasts no label, and his MySpace profile clocks barely over a hundred views. But if talent means anything, he deserves more exposure than many of his more accoladed counterparts in the industry that have garnered attention for much, much less.

In the midst of working on an EP, the four songs currently on his profile are all worthwhile.

With a consistently nasty rhythm that’ll keep the head nodders happy, he rocks a pallet of longish melodies that are introduced as solos one after the other. While they get reused within the same song a little to often, he waits long enough to reintroduce them to ward of the repetitiveness that would otherwise ensue. Also, he layers them over one another so creatively that the act itself is interesting enough.

The songs possess a range of atmospheres that will keep anybody from tiring of his style. From the thoroughly 8-Bit, almost silly, “Dancing Squirrels” instrumental (made for his collaborative effort, The Bobby Brown), to the loungy, contemplative “Detour,” to the bouncy, up-rock-able “Etc.,” B. Chen keeps it movin.

Maybe he’ll put them up for sale on his MySpace pages eventually, but for now, they’re free. So show him some love and download them.

Another in a long line of utterly useless things: the Tqualizer. The shirt with a built in equalizer.

I got this through a web TV site called Thread Bangers as part of a video segment on making screen prints at home, a bit more useful than the Tqualizer.

<Techcrunch - Via Core 77>

Daniel Hillis did this in 2005, albiet with video projectors. (Click here for video)

While it’s certainly uptempo, they take their time introducing the song’s melodies. But anticipation makes some things better, and you’ll be glad you waited once they get around to them.

(In case you’re confused, DJ Kicks is not a person. It’s more of an ambassadorship, the title of which is given to a new musician for every album - in this case, Hot Chip - who chooses the songs. Kinda like DJ Food, I guess.)

Track listing after

the jump » »