Essential Coachella Prep

Greetings from the Yahoo! Music HQ. I’m Mick Orlosky, a Yahoo! music fanatic.  I’ve been endlessly raving to my coworkers about the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival for months – so much, in fact, that my comrades suggested – nay demanded – that I blog about it. And, since it’s this coming weekend, I guess it’s about time. 

What’s Coachella, you ask? Only one of the best music festivals in the world — two full days out in the springtime California desert with about 100 amazing bands. It’s truly an awe-inspiring event. This will be my fifth go at Coachella, and this time around I feel like I am more musically prepared then ever. See, I’ve always had access to tons of music – much of it provided free promotionally. Getting my hands on this or that album to check out a new artist has never been that hard.  But, with the advent of on-demand streaming services like Yahoo! Music Unlimited,everything has changed. It is so much faster and easier to just type in a name and start playing music. I’ve at least tripled my music exploration, and that’s saying something.

So for this monumentous weekend, I’ve created some Coachella playlists in Unlimited highlighting some of my festival picks. These are the acts I’m the most excited to see this weekend.

Play Coachella: Saturday Essentials. Featuring Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Eagles of Death Metal, The Juan Maclean, Lady Sovereign, The Walkmen, Platinum Pied Pipers, and Sigur Rós

Play Coachella: Sunday Essentials: Featuring Phoenix, Be Your Own Pet, Ted Leo & The Pharmacists, Minus The Bear, Giant Drag, Seu Jorge, and Massive Attack

Or if you want to just go nuts, this Coachella Overload playlist features key tracks from just about everyone else. (Playlist links require the Yahoo! Music Engine, of course) (Memo to Tool: Please join us in the 21^st century and clear your catalog for digital distro. Thanks.)  

Gnarls Barkley would make the Sunday list, but they haven t released anything Stateside just yet. I’m looking forward to that set bigtime. Sigur Rós at sunset may be life-altering, right? I bet they never figured James Blunt would be so huge when they booked him. He could have potential, too. My advice for first-timers: Don’t stress over seeing any specific band, since things can get a little crazy. Don’t count on your cellphone working. Keep an open mind, wander around and take in music you never thought you’d like, and drink plenty of water!! See you on the Polo grounds!

-Mick 0, Yahoo! Music

Mojo Filter vs. Yahoo! Music Unlimited, March, 2006

Aloha! Time once again for our nearly-monthly comparison between the reviews section of Mojo Magazine and the vast catalog of Yahoo! Music Unlimited. In case you haven’t seen this feature before, Mojo is my favorite music magazine, hailing from the UK, and Yahoo! Music Unlimited is Yahoo!’s super-rad $5/month all-you-can-eat subscription service. Every month since Yahoo! Music Unlimited launched nearly one year ago I’ve searched for every album reviewed in Mojo in the subscription service and posted the results as well as a playlist. The purpose of this somewhat tedious yet musically rewarding exercise is to track our catalog coverage against “important” new releases as well as make a playlist of new music to share with the world. For past comparisons and playlists, start with last month and work your way backward.

Mojo Filter, March, 2006

The following albums can be found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. A playlist of these albums, nearly 20 hours of new music, can be found here.
Kris Kristofferson - This Old Road
Ryan Adams - 29
The Minus 5 - The Minus 5
Holly Throsby - On Night
Town and Country - Up Above
Television Personalities - My Dark Places
Devics - Push The Heart
Battles - EP C/B EP
Beth Orton - Comfort of Strangers
B.B. King and Friends - 80
Stellastarr* - Harmonies For The Haunted
Kathy Valentine - Light Years
Buddy Guy - Bring ‘Em In
Swearing At Motorists - Last Night Becomes Morning
Arctic Monkeys - Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not…
The Czars - Sorry I Made You Cry
Euros Childs - Chops
Kelley Stoltz - Below The Branches
Ariel Pink - Haunted Graffiti 5: House Arrest
Notorious B.I.G. - Duets: The Final Chapter
Liars - Drums Not Dead
The Village Orchestra - Et In Arcadia Ego
Dengue Fever - Escape From Dragon House
Celebration - Celebration
Giant Drag - Hearts and Unicorns
Prefuse 73 - Security Screenings

These albums, however, could not be found in Yahoo! Music Unlimited. I’ve also included the label listed in Mojo (which is the UK release, not always helpful or telling) and other services which carry the release, found via Yahoo! Audio Search:
The Kooks - Inside In/Inside Out (Virgin; Napster)
The Saw Doctors - The Cure (Shamtown; Napster)
Michael Messer - Lucky Charms (Cooking Vinyl; iTunes, Wippit)
Mogwai - Mr. Beast (Matador; iTunes, Rhapsody, Napster, Audio Lunchbox, Wippit)
Solveig Slettahjell - Pixiedust (Act; iTunes)
Deadstring Brothers - Starving Winter Report (Bloodshot; iTunes, Emusic)
Dawn Of The Replicants - Fangs (5L; iTunes)
Halloween, Alaska - Halloween, Alaska (East Side Digital)
Omar Rodriguez - Omar Rodriguez (Willie Anderson Recordings)
Grouper - Way Their Crept (Free Procupine Society)
Ocean - Here’s Where Nothing Grows (Important)
Pearls and Brass - Indian Tower (Drag City; iTunes)
Diane Cluck - Count Less Times (Voodoo-Eros; iTunes, Emusic)
Regina Spektor - Mary Ann Meets The Grave Diggers and Other Stories by Regina Spektor (Transgressive)
Various - I Am The Resurrection: A Tribute to John Fahey (Vanguard; iTunes, MusicMatch, Rhapsody)
Christy Moore - Burning Times (Sony)
Jeffrey and Jack Lewis - City and Eastern Songs (Rough Trade)
Otis Rush - All Your Love (I Miss Loving) (Delmark)
The 18th Day of May - The 18th Day of May (Hannibal)
Various - Hands Across The Water (Compass; iTunes, Emusic)
Maddy and The Girls - Under The Covers (Park)
Malinky - The Unseen Hours (Greentrax)
KTB - Bluebird (Tatinga)
Chris Brokaw - Incredible Love (Rock Action; iTunes)
The Research - Breaking Up (At Large)
Blade - Guerilla Tactics (691 Influential)
Amy Allison - Everything and Nothing Too (Spit and Polish)
The Hazey Janes - Hotel Radio (Measured; Rhapsody)
Sway - This Is My Demo (Dcypha)
DaVinChe - Dirty Canvas: The Legacy (Paperchase)
Various - B-More Club Music (Milkcrate)
Various - Kenny Dope Presents Randy Muller’s Best (Plaza)
Tiga - Sexor (Different/Pias)
Angie Reed - XYZ Frequency (Chicks On Speed)
Christina Kulukundis - Christina Kulukundis (www.christinakulukundis.com)

Math time:
Total Albums: 62
Found in Y! Music Unlimited: 26 (42%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited: 36 (58%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited, found in iTunes: 10 (28%)
Not found in Y! Music Unlimited, not found in any other online service: 20 (56%)

Nothing particularly surprising this month, pretty much par for the course. iTunes still leads, and we’re still on par with Rhapsody and Napster in terms of coverage (though Napster had a couple of surprises early in the list). Emusic had a couple of goodies this month but didn’t have as impressive a showing as last month. Note that I’m not searching for items we do have in the other services, so I’m not shining any light on any cases where we have something the other services do not. I’m giving the other services the benefit of the doubt, which may or may not be fair. I’m guessing there are a couple of cases where we have things others don’t, but I’m not certain to be honest.

We should have the Mogwai record, since we carry Matador. I think there’s a delivery problem with Matador. Apparently the MusicNet folks are looking into it.

BONUS PLAYLIST: I pulled together what I could from the “50 Greatest English Tracks Ever!” playlist in the March issue, too. Some key goodies are missing (Beatles, Small Faces, etc), but it’s still a really great and interesting playlist. Dig!
Music is the best,
ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

Firefox Support for Yahoo! Music Videos

We’ve taken a lot of crap over the past couple of years for not having any Firefox support, or even a reasonable error message, with our massively popular Music Videos offering. Thanks to a finally-working Active X plugin for Firefox, Music Videos now play just fine in Firefox 1.5, and our error messages when we can’t play you a video for technical reasons are now circa 2006, even on the Mac.

Click here for instructions on how to install the plugin and click here to get started watching the world’s most popular music videos site in Firefox.

Mac nerds: we have not forgotten about you. You’re next on our list. Would be most helpful if Microsoft would build a scriptable version of the Windows Media plugin for your platform, but we’ve given up on relying on our pals in Redmond for that. Don’t hold your breath, but we will get there eventually, one way or another. You are loved and we’re trying to figure out the best way to get Music Videos to you. Promise.

[thanks Mick O for the image!]

ian c rogers
Yahoo! Music

“Who’s Next?” Updated! The Best New Music Platform on The Web

We just released a new version of Who’s Next?, arguably the best new music platform on the ol’ information superhighway since it was originally released a year and a half ago, featuring a sexy new look, more features, and (most importantly) MORE NEW MUSIC.
For those keeping score, Who’s Next? comprises three core features:

The New Now: Our marquee new-artist this-is-gonna-be-huge platform, which has showcased such artists as James Blunt, Mike Jones, KT Tunstall, Death Cab For Cutie, the Pussycat Dolls well before the mainstream got hip to their varied ways. Plus, there’s some strange thrill in being able to include the disparate sounds of Death Cab and PCD in the same sentence.

Critical Eye: Until now known as One To Watch, Critical Eye is where we get to slot in stuff that we know is just damn good, original, and potentially enduring—regardless of its relationship to sales charts and major-label priority sheets and all that mumbo jumbo. It’s good for the soul to get to spotlight such iconoclasts like the Bravery, Bloc Party, Aqualung, the Raveonettes, and Ed Harcourt. Personal favorite? Giant Drag. Quite a bit of noise from those two kids. Really.

User’s Choice: The feature that has the kids buzzing—our monthly beauty contest in which the public gets to help us choose who we bring into our studio. We’ve done pretty well here — winners have included My Chemical Romance, Hawthorne Heights, Jack’s Mannequin, Relient K, Eisley, and Anna Nalick. Collectively, that’s a lot of gold and platinum records and critical acclaim. No complaints there.

And now, Who’s Next? also features various sub-features that round out the experience. Among them Globetrotting, in which we span the globe to bring you the constant variety of popular music that might not be popular yet (or perhaps ever) to us Yanks; New & Approved, in which the Coldplays and Hoobastanks and Snow Patrols tells us what cool new music they’ve discovered recently; They Sure Sound Like links new artists with their like-sounding predecessors; and The Hit List offers MORE MORE MORE new music videos of all genres, because there’s never enough room to showcase all the good music out there.

On a personal note, as the new version of Who’s Next? splashes, I can’t think of anything better I’d rather be doing with my time. Where else would I get to witness first-hand such quality music? Where else would I get to stand literally five feet from My Chemical Romance as they blow the roof off our quaint Santa Monica studio? Where else would I get to go go-karting with My Chemical Romance, ballroom dancing with Anna Nalick, cake-eating with the Like, or tattoo-ing with As I Lay Dying? And, perhaps the piece de resistance, after having interviews CCM-pop outfit Barlow Girl, seeing my photo with the splendid gals on the Christian chart page of Radio & Records. The first time a Jewish kid has ever been featured there? Maybe so. Another cultural milestone!

Neal Weiss
Yahoo! Music (and Weedpatch)