Showing posts with label country music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label country music. Show all posts

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Spotify: Changing the Music Industry One Song at a Time

Spotify.

This music service is set to change everything here in the US. It's like Limewire or Napster (in the olden days) but....legal.

And free.

Wait, free? Yep.

Unlimited streaming of a music catalogue that appears to have only left out the usuals: the Beatles, AC/DC, etc. It's available by invite only currently in the US for the free streaming but they are offering their $4.99 subscription/per month for unlimited music openly. The premiere subscription leaves out the ads, which you get about once every 25 minutes (think 5-6 songs) when streaming with the free edition. It's barely noticeable, and certainly doesn't bother me enough to make me pay to leave out a few harmless seconds of advertising.

It's revolutionary. It's like having everything available on iTunes....but for free. All the time.

What's the catch? There isn't one. All the major record labels have signed on. They're getting paid. The artists are getting paid. Everyone leaves happy at the end of the day. (Well, maybe not happy, but that's the nature of the beast.)

Get your free invite here (Coca-Cola has started a brilliant partnership with them):

Friday, July 15, 2011

Katy Isn't the Only Talented Perry

The Band Perry have been rising in their acclaim here in Music City over the past year, but I hadn't really had the chance to hear them live until CMA Fest at the nightly LP Field show. They played the same night as heavyweights Blake Shelton, Miranda Lambert, and Taylor Swift. You would think amidst all that star power, the freshman band would get lost in the shuffle.

Not even close.

Kimberly Perry, the rambunctious and beautiful blonde that steers this Perry ship to stardom, owned the stage as though she and her band of brothers were the main attraction. 

"As I Die Young," proved to be a crowd favorite over the evening, as the football stadium of people sang it sweetly with the young crooner. An eruption of excitement took over as they broke into their latest hit, "You Lie."

Not a believer before this night, I was impressed. I thought they were some gimmick band that Big Machine had thrown on the roster to be a cookie cutter act. But here they were, with a totally different sound from anything I had ever heard with her vocals piercing through the night.

So I did what any potential convert would do. I decided to investigate further before crossing over to the dark side. I bought the album to paint the bigger picture the very next day.

And that's when my like shifted to love.

The Band Perry's debut album brings a freshness to the genre I personally haven't encountered in a long time. Their sound is completely unique, just as every great star before them has been. Miss Perry floats through the songs with a country voice that has just the right warmth to it. The lyrics are distinctly stylistic of someone who hasn't been told what to write or what general pattern works. They sound genuine and moving.

"Postcard from Paris" is an absolute album gem, comparing her pining over a man and anything other than him being "a postcard from Paris when I've seen the real thing." Other stand outs (besides the obvious first 3 hit singles) on the album include "Double Heart," "Walk Me Down the Middle," and "Miss You Being Gone."

And moving 52K copies the first week of release, I'm guessing I'm not alone in my love for this new band. Within four months of the release, it was certified gold and was the best selling debut album from a new country act last year.

If you like country music or just good music in general....check out these new kids on the block.