Music Download Sites Blog

Music Download Sites Blog Moving to Wordpress

2010-04-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Just one last reminder that the blog will be moving over to Wordpress in the next little while and after today, I will not be able to update anymore until the switch is made since Blogger is stopping FTP uploading.

So to all subscribers of this blog, be sure to bookmark my homepage where we review the best legal music download sites available and stay tuned for the "Blog" link to bring you to a new looking blog where I'll continue providing you with music download news, songs to discover, album and concert reviews and much more.

See you guys in just a little bit at the new Wordpress blog!

Oh and if there is anything you would like to see more or less of through these blogs, or to suggest a song to discover or album to review, by all means, email us at feedback@comparemusicdownloadsites.com.

I look forward to seeing you guys at the new blog soon!

Music Download Sites - What Makes a Site Legal Or Illegal?

2010-04-26T20:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I just wanted to share with you a recent article I wrote about the legality of music download sites that is now published on http://www.ezinearticles.com/.

As an artist myself, I am frustrated with the illegal methods of downloading music which are still around but I tell myself if people don't know what makes a site legal or illegal, it's not their fault for using them so might as well put some information out there to educate users who are interested. Plus it helps me justify being upset a little since aside from my homepage which only compares the top legal music download sites, I'm getting a new article out there available to anyone interested in doing the right thing ... so now you know :)

The article takes a look at how music download sites started and got popular, what makes a site legal or illegal and what to look out for.

Check it out!

EzineArtciles - Music Download Sites - What Makes a Site Legal or Illegal

Please feel free to rate the article, pass it around, tweet it, all of the above. I'll try and put more of these together throughout the year but will get back to focusing on some music oriented posts which reminds me.

Another quick reminder, Blogger is taking out FTP uploading so I will be changing up the blog in the new upcoming month to Wordpress so to all subscirbers, you will have to re-subscribe. The "Blog" link through the homepage (www.comparemusicdownloadsites.com) will point to the new blog when it's up and running.

Thanks guys, enjoy the article and I'll hit you up with more music and music news soon!

Songs to Discover - Defying Gravity - Glee

2010-04-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

First thing's first. I apologize. I took a step away from the song discovery theme which I've been getting some great feedback from only as "Blogger" seems to be doing a switch and will no longer allow FTP upload so we are thinking of switching everything to Wordpress. I'll keep you posted on that one. For now, I couldn't hold off on showing you a little something.

I don't watch the show but have a close friend who's a huge fan of "Glee" and knows I'm big into music so has always tried getting me to give it a shot. I just don't want to get addicted to another television show.

That said, this friend of mine sat me down in front of YouTube recently and said, dude, give this a listen ...

This is the first broadway type song I'm sharing with you because after a listen, there was just something with the song that really hit me that I haven't felt too often with this style of music.

First impression, when I heard that chorus that first time, the melody was just so strong. It felt unexpected and not predictable especially with the much more broadway feel to the verses.

My Interpretation

Well, it's a packed 2 minutes of what feels like a straight forward theme but I love the simplicity of the lyrics that were able to bring such a positive and important message across with ease. Don't be scared, take that leap towards whatever it is you're gunning for, don't let others stop you or take you down, you know, all that usual stuff. I've heard a lot of songs with the same theme but this one flows so well and just has the perfect musical and melodic accompaniment to pull it off.

I personally love it and hit repeat a good +10 times that same day it was shown to me. I hope you take a second, give it a listen, and enjoy it even half as much as I did.

As mentioned above, we may move everything to Wordpress so stay tuned since after May 1st, they are stopping this FTP upload bit that is very convenient so to all our subscribers, put a little mark in the calendar cause you may have to re-subscribe once the new set up is done.

Till then, enjoy the tune and I'll talk to you guys soon with some more little musical gems and other great music download sites news of course!

Poker Face - Chris Daughtry Acoustic Cover

2010-04-17T11:07:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

Recently I wrote up a post about a well written song being great when stripped down to the bare minimum.

I found another great example I wanted to share with you guys of Chris Daughtry covering Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" on a radio show. Just him and an acoustic guitar playing a fantastic song:

The guy has a great voice, fine, but the point is to show that a well written song will sound fantastic even when you take away all the bells and whistles a producer added on top of the song to make it commercially accepteable and in the style of whichever artist is putting the song on their album.

Enjoy the clip, it's a great performance and an amazing song.

Concert Review - Nickelback in Montreal April 9th 2010

2010-04-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

So I was at the Bell Center in Montreal for the Nickelback concert on April 9th, 2010 and what a show it was. Talk about a line up:

- Sick Puppies
- Shinedown
- Breaking Benjamin
- Nickelback

One of the problems with the show was that it started way too early though with 4 bands, I guess it would have been hard to put it on any other way.

Sick Puppies was on first and they started at roughly 6:15 PM which has to be the earliest I've ever seen a band play at the Bell Center. They started strong with "War" and as usual put on a fantastic show. The only negative is that 4 songs later, they were off the stage. Talk about a short set ...

Shinedown came on and I was really excited as they are one of my favorite bands. They played a good 30 minute set full of the radio hits and a few off their new album which rocked. Best part of it was the acoustic version of "Simple Man" mid way showing off the singer's incredible voice. He impressed me as a front man and did try to get the crowd going but I was personally embarassed at how relaxed the crowd was during the set. I understand most came for the headliner but man, you're at a rock show. It's ok to get into the opening bands!

Breaking Benjamin was next playing a good 30-40 minute set again with all the radio hits and mixing it up with a few songs from each album. Same problem with the crowd though. I don't know if technology is hurting concert goers where they just text and play games while waiting for the only band they paid the ticket for but man, once again, I bowed my head down in shame looking at the crowd response to such a great live band.

The sound overall for the openers was to be desired but the same goes for a lot of opening acts. They won't get the same juice from the PA as the headliners so they are quite limited, let's not even talk about the 10% of lighting they get next to headliners.

Nickelback was next and from the start, the sound was amazing, pyro was going off everywhere, light show was half descent, you felt the rock show started after that. The crowd was 100% behind Chad's every word and singing along all night.

They must be the tightest band I've ever seen live. I'd be impressed if you could point out a mistake musically or vocally. They are all just spot on. Incredible. I was impressed by the small amount of sequences used also. Usually, you have rock bands go on and you hear 12 violins, back vocals, and hundred of sounds in the back to fill it up but they were very transparent with Nickelback to the point where in some songs, I couldn't guarantee that they used any at all.

All the radio hits were played and as they've been around for a little time and have a few hit albums out, hits pretty much made up their entire 2 hour set. Chad did a great job of interacting with the crowd and the show was built up to be very fun and entertaining.

There was a drum solo 3 quarters in. Now he may be a very tight drummer but I was a little dissapointed with the drum solo. A lot of it was rythm patterns as opposed to showing off and doing something impressive to the drummers in the room. Like most drum solos, people just went crazy anyways anytime there was double bass and a lot of noise regardless if it was at some of the simpler parts during the solo. I give it a 6/10 from all drum solos I've seen live. Far from the worst but no where near a top 10 drum solo.

Overall, the show was awesome and I recommend checking Nickelback out any time they are in your area and headlining. Easily the tightest band I've seen live and one of the best vocals too. I know people like to give them a hard time but if you can't appreciate a Nickelback show, you're just being ignorant cause it's really hard to say it was anything but a great rock show. Good job guys! See you at the next one.

What Ever Happened To Good Lyrics? Jason Derulo Lyrics Are Horrid

2010-04-04T13:19:00.000-07:00

So the radio was on in the car and doesn't Jason Derulo's new single come on, "In My Head". Aside from having the beginning of the chorus identical to Lady Gaga's song (I'll keep that for another post), my first impression was that the song is insanely catchy but holy crap, who wrote the lyrics and are they serious?

What ever happened to lyrics that mean something? I get that it's the pop style and the idea is to pump these songs out ready to play at clubs so you throw in "girl", "baby", "dance floor" and all of the cliche terms you can but I at least feel better putting it out there that lyrics to these songs are getting worse and worse.

You be the judge for yourself. Here's a lyric video to the new single from Jason Derulo:

Are you done reading the lyrics? Is this serious?

I don't want to take away too much from the song cause indeed, it's insanely catchy and at least in my area, I wouldn't be surprise if it hits #1 soon enough. Maybe I'm jeleous that artists are almost "getting away with it". They water down songs so much and now even slacking on lyrics.

So I guess this post is to throw it out there that while you may find these songs extremely catchy, don't let it make you think this is great songwriting as a whole. It's like the quicky of songs. In and out, throw all the moves that work and just have a bunch in the pipeline to keep feeding people. I think music lovers are smarter than that and hope they can notice bad lyrics when they hear it but puting up a post while at least make me sleep easier at night.

Damn it's catchy though and serves its purpose well, just harder to respect lyric wise.

Side note, if you are looking for legal ways to download the top music hits around, be sure to check out our main page where we review the best music download sites on the net.

A Good Song is a Good Song - Rihanna Covers

2010-03-25T21:03:00.000-07:00

I'm a songwriter with songs written having been in rotation on MuchLOUD and even top 10 on radio stations around my area. I think this is the first time I pass a link in a blog about my band but I'm the singer and lead songwriter of Play The Angel by the way - http://www.playtheangel.com/. It's only when I started getting really into writing songs that I started noticing the beauty in a lot of other songs around me.

When I'm in a car with someone else driving somewhere and a pop song comes on produced as hip hop or any other genre, sometimes I'll say out loud, "Dam, that's an amazing song". I'm a rocker so no one gets it and some of my friends even give me a weird look but what I mean is that there's a reason the song is being played on radio that much and built up to be an amazing success. Here's the reason:

A great song is a great song!

All these hip hop songs or super pop songs like Britney Spears or Rihanna, these songs made it to be such successes cause they are insanely well written songs. When you break it down to an acoustic version in your head, or if someone plays you a cover just voice / piano or voice / acoustic guitar, the songs are absolutely amazing. This is why a producer can take that version from these great songwriters and producing them to being these hip hop or very pop songs and they are insanely catchy. It's not the "yeah yeah's" in the back they add (though that does give an element), it's cause the song is just a great song to begin with. It's almost hard to mess it up at that point ...

Here are 2 quick examples of Rihanna songs that are amazing when broken down to their original state so hopefully the rockers out there like me can break out of that shell and start giving credit where credit is due to these great song writers. I'm not talking about Britney and Rihanna, I'm talking about the song writers who wrote their songs. Please don't get these mixed up, but start appreciating good song writing no matter what the genre they are produced in dammit!

Enjoy!

Rihanna's Disturbia - Acoustic Cover

Rihanna's Umbrella - Acoustic Cover

Funny Music Video - Regular Everday Normal Guy

2010-03-18T21:26:00.000-07:00

I love any music that makes me feel something. If I were to be stuck on a desert island for the rest of my life with a small bank of songs to be my only entertainment, I'd try to spread it out to have music covering positive topics, serious ones, and anything with down right incredible lyrics and / or melodies but would probably throw one or two in that are just fun, or even, rediculously funny to cheer me up. Well ... This funny music video would have a good chance of being one of the only "funny" songs I'd bring with me:

The funny music video / song is called "Regular Everyday Normal Guy" by Jon Lajoie. I'm proud to say he's from my home town of Montreal, Canada. I don't know him personally but the funny music video was shown to me a while back by a buddy who said I had to check out this Montreal guy. This was when the video had maybe a few thousand plays. He must be doing it right cause he has well over 14,000,000 plays right now and counting. If ever he's reading this, Congrats!

He has loads of other funny music videos so if you like what he does, check him out through YouTube or go visit his website. You will not be dissapointed:

www.jonlajoie.com

The Muse in Montreal was amazing!

2010-03-11T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hey guys,

So last night, the Muse was in town. Some buddies and I went to go check out the show. I've been looking forward to it for quite some time, especially after seeing their live DVD:

So we go to the show and catch the opener (Silversun Pickup) who rocked it out. They had a few hits going so it was nice to recognize a few songs. Always a plus ...

The Muse gets on stage, each of the three members on their own seperate platform and up maybe 20 feet from teh actual stage with columns of lights above and below them displaying incredible visual effects while in sync to the music of course. If it's not enough, towards the middle of the set, they had what felt like hundreds of laser effects going nuts which really kicked it up a notch. Let's face it, a live show, you have 3 guys on a stage, $500,000 worth of lights and lasers surely makes you seem larger than life. Helium filled balloons with eyeball designs fall from the cieling at another point, 2 encores later finishing off the show with Nights of Sydonia and everyone in the packed Bell Center was on their feet and felt like they had drank a few red bulls.

Overall, I have to say the concert was an easy 9 / 10, probably top 5 in my life. It helps when you know all the songs but these guys are just too good. Vocals are spot on, music incredible, and the lead singer has too much talent for one musician, it's almost sickening.

For any music lover, going to see them perform live is an aboluste must. If they are in your town, go check it out. You won't regret!

Songs to Discover : The Fray - You Found Me

2010-03-03T13:16:00.000-08:00

Songs to Discover

The Fray - You Found Me

Getting back to a serious note with the "Songs to Discover", for this week, I wanted to share with you a song with very strong lyrics and great melodies. This week goes to The Fray's You Found Me.

This is the first time I talk about a song that did hit radio but it's so good that if you've never heard it before, but heard a few times and didn't know who it was, I felt it was completely worth sharing.

Originally titled "Amistad" back in 2007, You Found Me went on to seling over 2,000,000 music downloads, taking the 13th spot on the Hot 100 Songs of 2009 list, and 36th on Billboard's Best Adult Pop SOngs of the Decade. Pretty impressive but when you take a listen to the song, any music lover who appreciates a strong and emtional vocal performance, meaningful lyrics, and a catchy melody would rush to hit repeat.

My Interpretation

For me, the song is of someone who lost his faith in God after stepping back and taking a look at how much crap there is in the world. None of his prayers have been answered so he figures there is no God, or if there is one, maybe he forgot about us. The character bumps in to God on a street corner and asks where He's been, and letting all of his thoughts and anger out saying how it's too late now. He lost his faith already and now he shows up ... what timing.

Take a listen to the lyrics yourself. They are beautiful and the kind that get you into the story and thinking from the first few lines. Fantastic job The Fray!

If you've never heard the song before, take 4 minutes of your life, hit play on the YouTube video above and enjoy!

If your looking for legal music download sites, be sure to head on over to our homepage where we review the best music download sites on the net!

Vancouver Olympics Nickelback Rocked It

2010-02-28T22:52:00.001-08:00

Hey Everyone,

Not sure how many caught the closing ceremonies of this year's 2010 Vancouver Olympics but the last 30 minutes or so was a concert with a few major acts. I hope my memory gets them all in the right order ...

- Nickelback
- Avril Lavign
- Alanis Morissette
- Simple Plan
- Hedley
- Marie Mai
- K-Os

There was one big problem with the line up in my opinion and it was that they shoved Nickelback first. Now I know they are the band people love to hate but I will still share my musical taste and personal opinion with you (as always). Nickelback rocks. I'm now an even a bigger fan. Chad can sing like a machine. Every live concert I've seen and television clip has him singing like the record and on pitch at all times, and the band is tight as hell. Tonight was just adding to the list of their practically perfect performances.

Now I know that they had the opening advantage where as the sound was probably set up just right and the following acts had to deal with on the fly adjustments, but still, they are the type of band that even a soundman out of college could make sound good as everything and ever member individually rocks. You'd have to botch your job up pretty good to make them look bad. Plus you had their usual pyro with things blowing up everywhere. What a hell of a kick start.

It was followed by Avril lavign who I think stayed within a 2 foot radious at all times. Come on Avril. Move a little. Now I went to go see her in Montreal a littleo ver a year ago and remember being very dissapointed. Seeing her tonight standing like a pogo stick didn't help. Going after the tightest live band and a solid singer like Chad didn't help her cause either. She did well, but she should have gone earlier in the line up.

Alanis was up next. Great vocals. I'm a big fan of Jagged Little Pill but she sang something newer. Great song but which it was some of the older music.

Simple Plan sounded like they had a bigger french accent than usual and the sound wasn't incredible for them so it kind of hurt their performance a little, but catchy song, still very solid.

Hedley ... I'm also a big fan. Saw these guys at Metropolis in Montreal and I was blown away by the singer from stage performance to vocal performance. The olympic closing ceremonies did not give the band justice to me. I know they can rock a stage. Felt like something was missing but still a very good performance. My second favorite of the evening.

For Marie Mai. I'm a little bias as my band is signed to the same publishing company and we're all very big fans of her music but as usual, she rocked it out. Her latest CD is amazing overall. I'm usually not a big fan of french artists (though I'm from Montreal myself), but she is one of the only ones that I could listen to over and over again, and who I really enjoy watching live. Great energy. Awesome vocals.

K-Os didn't do it for me. I didn't see it as a closing act. It felt like the order was all wrong for the evening. As I said and the post title suggests, Nickelback by far was the tightest and most impressive act of the evening. They should have closed off the ceremonies and it would have all made a little more sense to me. Aside frome that, it was entertaining, kept me wanting to see who was up next, and the artist selection prooved to be interesting and easily enjoyable.

Good job Vancouver.

iTunes Sells 10 Billion Songs

2010-02-26T23:43:00.000-08:00

What a milestone ...

We want to send out our congrats to iTunes, selling it's 10 billionth song download on Wednesday (February 24, 2010). Got to figure, they only started their music download service in 2003.

For anyone curious, the actual song downloaded was Johnny Cash's "Guess Things Happen That Way" by 71 year old Louie Sulcer from Woodstock. To mark the event and as a special bonus to Louie for helping crack the 11 digit total download mark, he received a $10,000 gift card. Not so bad though anyone doing the math could get a quick glimpse that at $1 a download (and now up to $1.29), even if the artist gets a good chunk, iTunes probably has very deep pockets and couldn't care less about $10,000 and the publicity over the achievement and gesture sure brought them a heck of a lot of positive press worth many times that.

Got to say, good job to iTunes for keeping legal music downloads alive and well. Just goes to show not everyone is downloading music for free. If you're reading this and still using torrents or another method of stealing music, quit it. Artists need to get paid for their work like you need to get paid for going in to the office or anything else. No one would ask you to work for free or make a product to simply give it away.

If you are interested in legal music downloads, check out our site where we compare only the best music download sites out there, reviewing and rating each. We even have an iTunes Review for those interested.

Keep up the good work iTunes!

Songs to Discover : Paramore - Decoy

2010-02-22T22:20:00.000-08:00

Songs to Discover

Paramore - Decoy

Last week's "Songs to Discover" was Missy Higgins, "Where I Stood" which is probably one of my favorite songs of all time from a song writting prespective. This week, I wanted to spread the variety and genre a little to one of my favorite feel good songs, more from a music a driving perspective than a lyrical one. The type that you are waiting for at a concert that can get the place moving and you'd want to learn on guitar just cause it's a catchy riff. This week's blog is dedicated to Paramore's "Decoy".

For starters, I'm a huge fan of the band. I paid $100 to see them open for No Doubt in Montreal where they played a 25 minute set and I felt it was worth it. It's too bad I wasn't into No Doubt cause they played for what felt like hours. I don't know, Gwen wasn't doing it for me that evening. Everything felt too routine. It's fine if it is, but don't make it seem like it. Now back to Paramore.

The girl can sing and live has the cardio of a marathon running which really makes a difference in their live performance. Can't stand the pogo stick rock bands that come on and seem to have an invisible cage around them stopping any type of stage performance.

"Decoy" is off of their very successful "Riot" album but only on certain extended versions of it. For some reason, I couldn't find it through Amazon so I included the regular "Riot" album with samples at the bottom of this post as the whole album is awesome (stay tuned for a review). There are so many on there that I'd like to mention but keeping with the theme of songs to discover, "Decoy" was the non radio hit that really got me after a listen and had me looping it for a while.

I'd usually go into the "My Interpretation" section about here but honestly, I don't find it very deep lyrically especially next to some of the past "Songs to Discover". It has a great melody, guitar riff, and overall production with a catchiness factor through the roof.

I'll go back to a song with deeper lyrical meaning for the next entry I promise but sometimes, you need that song to get the blood flowing without the brain thinking. There is quite a good batch out there that aren't too well known that I'll be throwing in from time to time. For now, relax a little, clear your thoughts, don't think too hard on this one and just let the music do the talking.

Enjoy!

If your looking for a music download sites offering legal music downloads, head to our homepage for reviews on only the best legal music download services.

Songs to Discover : Missy Higgins - Where I Stood

2010-02-16T21:19:00.000-08:00

Songs to Discover

Missy Higgins - Where I Stood

You guys seem to be enjoying the "Songs to Discover" thing so I'll keep going on it. This blog is going to Missy Higgins' "Where I Stood", one of the strongest songs lyrically I've come across that accomplishes bringing out an incredible amount of emotion through such simple text.

While finding lyric version of the song on YouTube for you guys, I also landed on the following live version. Just when I thought I couldn't love this song any more and then an incredible live performance. Writting this blog brought me another favorite live clip from YouTube so thanks guys for reading these and letting me discover more because of them along the way:

Listening to the album version first may make you appreciate the live version a little more actually but you owe it to yourself to check both out.

I honestly first heard this song when I walked into a room and someone was watching "Smallville" at my place. There was a scene going on with this song playing in the background. Now I don't particularly like sitting in front of the television but I heard a part of this song, stopped in my footsteps, and sat in front to listen and watch the scene. Incredible song.

This is another song that around my area never really hit radio very much but holy crap, such a powerful song. The vocal performance on the album version is intense. I don't think you could pin point even a word of it that isn't perfect vocally. The production of it is simple and a perfect fit as well.

My Interpretation

"Where I Stood" is one of those songs that are an easy listen. So strong lyrically, but so simple that you don't have to put a puzzle together. In a first listen, even tuning in and out of the song, you'll still understand it quite well and catching a few key lines will make you want to re-listen to catch the rest.

As always, lyrics are very open to interpretation so I simply share what I hear. I'll quit saying this line after a few more posts :)

This song is of a woman in a heavy relationship with someone she loves. Though she loves him, she has to let him go cause she knows deep down it's not right and they aren't right for each other which takes more guts and a very strong person as oppossed to someone who would have been in the same situation and perhaps drag it out, or even stick around for the conviniance of it all.

In the song, she goes through with the break up which is hard on both of them. Even he is telling her to stay which doesn't make things easier obviously, but she trusts herself enough to still go through with it. You can see she is doing it for the right reasons though as she does give many compliments to the relationship, examples of how she's learned from it, and as the love was genuine, even says that she'll always be close by if ever he needs anything.

The strongest lines are in the chorus though:

'Cos I dont know who I am, who I am without you
All I know is that I should
And I don't know if I could stand another hand upon you
All I know is that I should
'Cos she will love you more than I could
She who dares to stand where I stood

Feel free to share your thoughts on the song but either way take a listen. You owe it to yourself to hear this one as a music lover, songwriter, singer, anyone really.

Here are some samples from the entire CD which hold other great songs, but none topping "Where I Stood".

Enjoy!

If your looking for the best music download sites, be sure to head to our homepage where we review only the top legal music download services.

Songs to Discover : Shinedown - What a Shame

2010-02-12T20:24:00.000-08:00

Songs to Discover

Shinedown - What a Shame

Keeping on with the "Songs to Discover", this blog is dedicated to one of my favorite artists, Shinedown, and to my favorite "underground" song of theirs; What a Shame.

First off, to me, the singer (Brent Smith) has one of the best modern rock vocals out there. The vocal performances in general on each of their albums is amazing. He has an insane range staying with his full voice (not falsetto), really pushing it to the max on the album tracks, and you get a good idea of it with this song.

Shinedown has quite a few hits. The weren't the biggest band around in my area but I have always been a fan ever since one of their first hits here, "45". The track I'm showing you guys today though is off of their more recent "Sound of Madness" album which is starting to have a few radio singles from but this song is not one of them yet, at least here.

My Interpretation

"What a Shame" has a great build up and story line lyrically. To each their own interpretation but for me, I see it as someone who has lost a friend who's relatively close. As they were good friends, the character knew him very well and saw sides of him others may not have seen where as he was a loving and caring soul but had his troubles in life as in general, things along the way, or people along the way made it hard for him and in turn, made him seem like bitter person around others who didn't know him as well. After this person passed away, the character in the song is singing his letter to God, trying to convince him that regardless what a lot of others may have seen, this was a good man so please "give this man his wings" ... let him go to heaven.

You may disagree. Feel free to share your thoughts or at the least, take a listen to the song. If you like rock in general, I'd be surprised after a few listens that you don't enjoy this one. Either way, you can check out samples below of all their songs from their latest album "Sound of Madness" which is overall a great album. Keep an eye for an upcoming review on it.

For now, take in the samples and take in the song. It's a great one to discover if you've never heard it before.

Enjoy!

If your looking for a legal music download service, head to our homepage for reviews on only the best legal music download sites.

Songs to Discover : Flyleaf - Circles

2010-02-09T09:24:00.000-08:00

Songs to Discover

Flyleaf - Circles

Flyleaf had a few hit songs and music videos that got some airplay in the last few years but this one was not one of them (yet).

After listening to their new album Memento Mori which is overall a pretty descent album (I'll keep my full comments for an eventual full review of the album), this song in particular, Circles, was the one that I was repeating in my car quite a few times and still am loving it every time it plays.

The story makes for a great build up, the emotion in the vocal take, and the killer bridge both musicially and lyrically towards the end tops it off making this a simply great song to discover that I wanted to share with you guys.

A full review will be coming for this and many other albums so subscribe to our blog, follow us on twitter, and all that good stuff. For now, here are music samples of all the songs off of Memento.

Enjoy!

For ratings and reviews on the best music download sites, be sure to visit our homepage!

YouTube Vevo Music Videos Inflate Plays

2010-02-07T21:01:00.000-08:00

YouTube Vevo Music Videos Inflate Plays

This is not a fact, I am simply sharing my observation with you ...

I landed on the above music video from Bullet For My Valentine which plays through Vevo on YouTube. Side note, the song didn't really hit radio where I live but I absolutely love this song and the band. Lyrics are a little weaker than the music I find, but overall very rocking. Now back to the reason for the post.

The video today showed over 20,000,000 views with roughly 1,100 star ratings. That means only 1 rating came for every roughly 18,000 views. I found that rediculously low so I went to compare with the first video that popped in my head that I knew wouldn't be under Vevo and would probably have some what 'honest' stats:

The above video is of a song I discovered last year and couldn't stop listening to. I even wrote a whole blog on these guys - People in Planes.

In any case, today the music video has roughly only 48,000 views and 218 ratings meaning 1 rating for every 220 views! Compared to 1 in 18,000, talk about a difference.

All that to say, with this quick observation along with a few others I've made of music videos not on Vevo, I am personally under the assumption that most videos under Vevo ('major' acts) have inflated plays / views which in turn produces these low rating to view ratios. Even if we consider people can view Vevo videos at http://www.vevo.com/ now, still, the video in my example with 20 million views was favorited only 120 times at Vevo with a single page of comments so I don't see that angle accounting for millions of plays.

You make your own conclusion but I found it interesting. At the same time I understand for any music label to want to give the impression of having their new music videos played millions of times even if it's only a front as it's more impressive to users than an honest 48,000 plays right.

Nothing new here though, just another example that it's all for show. Marketing wise, I agree with them. Why do you think commercials still use the '2,000,000 satisfied customers to date!' type of lines? I guess if people feel millions before them thought a product was worth spending money on, must mean it's good and you wouldn't be a crazy person if you did too? As a consumer though, hearing these types of lines makes me do a little more research before jumping in.

I put this blog together to simply put out a possibility so that if any of you judge a song even slightly before listening to it by looking at stats, quit it! If you have to, listen to the song first, see what you think about it, then take a look at the plays out of curiosity so it won't influence you before even taking an ear to something. Be open to new music regardless if the band is backed by a huge record company that has bots inflating plays or just a starter band as you may pass up discovering those hundreds and thousands of really rocking smaller bands with only 10,000 views but some of the greatest music you'll ever hear.

Beyonce Grammy Performance 2010

2010-02-04T15:39:00.000-08:00

Beyonce Grammy Performance 2010

Thinking back at the Grammy awards this year, there were so many that were singing off key and just didn't grab my attention so I felt for the few that did do an awesome job, why not show some support and share with you their great performances.

Earlier this week, I posted up a blog on Lady Gaga and Elton John's Grammy Performance which was easily the best of the evening so today, a look at Beyonce's grammy performance.

Things have really kicked up a notch as far as entertainment these past few years with larger set ups, bigger stages, and more back up dancers / singers. Beyonce made great use of all of it this year putting on a killer performance.

"Halo" is a great song to begin with but they made it interesting from the start with an awesome solo piano part, the horn and much more orchestral section right after, continuous alterations and dynamics throughout, then cutting into Alanis Mroissette's "You Oughta Know", and back to finish "Halo".

Another impressive part was the stage show she gave, running around like crazy, moving like an animal and singing in key without giving us the feeling at any point of being out of breathe or it being hard for her.

Beyonce, just want to say bravo! It's too bad we don't have more "real" entertainers around at shows like these that can pull off every angle of a performance as well as she did.

To everyone else, practice more. You're up against some serious competition so no singing off key dammit and give us a show will you. Don't be lazy.

Lady Gage and Elton John Best Grammy Performance

2010-02-01T23:36:00.000-08:00

Lada Gaga and Elton John Best Grammy Performance

So I took a look at all of the grammy performances. I may comment on a few but I wanted to at least put this blog together dedicated to the best musical performance of the night in my opinion. Lady Gage and Elton John. Absolutely amazing.

We may think Lada Gaga tries a little too hard at times with her over the top outfits but put that aside for a second. This girl can sing and entertain and you're either a fool or have very particular taste if you disagree. She may not have the biggest or best voice even in comparison to the other perofmers that night, but at the least, man is she on and that's way more than I can say about Taylor Swift for example who took home quite a few awards but when it came time to perform, I practically changed the channel cause her singing was so off key. Given, Lady Gaga went on first so chances are the sound was set just right before the show started and then as it's live, you do the best you can so it's very possible Taylor Swift couldn't hear a thing she sang. Don't know, maybe she has hundreds of live clips where she is rocking it out and the music and vocals are on but I'm only going by that evening for this blog.

Ok, back to Lady Gaga. Even the stage set up, the narrator between her performace of the 2 songs, the dark look, double piano with arms coming out of it, the whole thing oozes entertainment and she sang very well, kicking off the show with one of the biggest songs of last year.

To top it, you have Elton John singing with her for the second half which holy crap, can this guy be any better vocally? Everytime I heard anything he did live, it could be an album take and would rock. Props to Elton John, it just goes to show how a pro who's been around does it and how he can put practically all the singers that night to shame pitch wise at least.

By far, this was my favorite musical performance of the evening.

Enjoy the clip!

American Idol - Can You Dig It

2010-01-25T22:53:00.000-08:00

American Idol - Can You Dig It

I wanted to share with you guys one of my favourite 'bad' auditions from a past season of American Idol.

Singer, dancer, musician Leroy Wells with his abundance of energy trying to convince the judges and guest judge Gene Simons to get him to Hollywood. Though the effort didn't pan out, he has to be one of the most entertaining characters I've ever seen on the show. I just wish they would make a reality show around this guy. I practically don't care what he'd be doing, as long as they let him pitch his talent to random people or execs, or just let him be himself in public with different challenges every week.

Leroy, screw American Idol. I haven't been that entertained from any other audition thus far. You rock!

Simon Cowell Leaving Americal Idol for X Factor

2010-01-11T19:17:00.000-08:00

Simon Cowell Leaving American Idol

After being part of America's most popular show, news hit that Simon Cowell has decided to leave American Idol after this season.

Simon Cowell was making a reported $36 million a year to be on American Idol and offered much more to stay but as the reason for leaving is to bring his own show over (The X Factor) which is already popular in Britan, chances are if it becomes a hit here, $36 million would be just a fraction of what he'll earn. Fox has already agreed to take the show on so expect a new talent show to keep track of soon.

The decision comes as a surprise to loads of fans, me included. After all, let's face it. Simon rocked and was the only honest judge who maintained focus, judging the performance and singing of each contestant that stepped on stage honestly, and not deviating his comments to other unecessary compliments to soften the blow. Yes, this is a Paula hit. No one cares about their nice shoes cause no one will pay to go see them walk around and sing off key all night. It's not helping anyone.

That said, the producers of Idol are faced with one heck of a dilemma. Not only did they loose Paula who even I enjoyed watching from time to time to see what would come out of her mouth next or see her slurring words, but now they are loosing the most popular and coolest judge ever. I would not want to be holding too many stocks in Idol after Simon leaves ...

So who would be a good replacement anyways? Personally, I'm finding it hard to think of Idol without him, but American Idol is such a machine. It is the reason behind the careers of some of the most successful artists of our generation. I'm sure they have a good team behind them that have a few candidates in mind, and probably the name and money to get anyone they want ... except for Simon it seems.

Mariah Carey Drunk Acceptance Speech

2010-01-07T09:11:00.000-08:00

Drunk Mariah Carey - Highlights from her acceptance speech:

I had to share this one with you guys for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. What class. I couldn't stop laughing.

These were the highlights of Mariah Carey's acceptance speech for her award as "Breakthrough Actress" for her performance in "Precious" at the Palm Springs International Film Festival. As she's escorted to the stage, even before she could open her mouth, you could see the girl is drunk. It was the first time I was excited to hear what she had to say.

I don't blame her. These things are hours long and get boring. Even the edited versions you watch on TV can sometimes get lengthy. I for one would probably watch many more award shows from start to finish if I could expect a few drunks to give deep and intellectual speeches like Mariah.

Good job Mariah Carey. I wasn't a big fan before but I'm starting to like this one. Bottoms up!

Compare Music Download Sites in 2010

2010-01-04T10:14:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year everyone! Hope you had a great holiday season. Went by a little too fast as usual but what can you do.

We've been meaning to revamp the site and this year, I've decided to add it as part of a lengthy resolution list. I figure at least a few resolutions will stick and this one has been put off for a little while but I think it's time to take the site to a new level.

We want to work on putting together a new look for the site and in the process, adding a few new sections to help users. Some ideas are floating around for now (mobile phone music download service reviews, top portable music players, album reviews, ...) but we wanted to open the floor to your ideas so if there's something you wish you would see on the site, contests, free music, whatever, feel free to contact us, share your thoughts, suggestions, whatever you have and we'll try to work in as many positive ideas as we can. In the end, the goal of this site was to educate users on how and where to legally download music which I think we do pretty well so might as well kick it up a notch.

If all goes well, the site revamp will get started in a few months but never the less, it's never too early to get some juices flowing so send us an email, we want to hear from you!

Either way, be sure to subscribe to our blog if you haven't already as we will keep bringing you relevant and interesting music news, personal music picks, great music videos, and much more through this music blog.

Susan Boyle's Debut Album 'I Dreamed a Dream' Beats UK Sales Record

2009-12-05T23:18:00.000-08:00

You might remember Susan Boyle from Britain's Got Talent even if you don't catch the show in your area only as they made such a huge deal about it across global media that you couldn't help but catch a glimpse of her performance which seemed to have knocked the socks off all of the judges. In case you missed it:

Her recently released debut album has gone to break the UK record for most units sold in it's first week with over 410,000 units!

I'm not sure what is more impressive. The number of units sold or how powerful reality TV shows are becoming making such an impact on what consumers are buying. It's far from the first reality TV success story making you wonder what's to come in another 10 years of show winners. Reality talent shows will run the charts and pretty much dictate what we're going to buy and what music we listen to. Come to think about it, I guess the best move for record labels would be to grab their top few potential artists, show them on a reality TV show, pay off whoever they need to and get their guys as far as possible, winning the competition, and then they're guaranteed record sales. It's not like they didn't use to pay off radio stations to get their songs played. Even if no one requested it, it was a sneaky but effective way as hearing the same song a few times will eventually have people singing it back. Same concept here. It's reality TV. People get attached to the characters and anyone on the show for 10 weeks will get a load of attention which will result in album sales afterwards. I think this could all just lead to pay for reality positioning if it hasn't already which is no fun to think about so I'll stop thinking about it.

In any case, back to Boyle. Good for her. She has a great voice and used the opportunity of being in TV to show her talent and in a sense get a huge short cut into the industry and now selling an insane amount of records. Maybe the whole thing makes me jeleous so I'll leave this post at that ... a record breaking contest winner sells a whole lot of records ... now you know.

For anyone interested:

UK Working on Reducing Illegal Music Downloads

2009-11-28T07:06:00.000-08:00

Looks like the UK is working on reducing the amount of illegal music downloads in the country. The move will involve implementing technology to track illegal music downloaders, warning repeat offenders, and in drastic cases, disconnecting users completely with the help and cooperation of ISPs. Here's the full story:

Illegal downloaders will be disconnected - eventually - Article by Computing.co.uk

This is far from being a new concept as this has been discussed in many other countries, and many other times before. The problem lies with invading one's privacy and not respecting human rights since for all of this to work, monitoring of users internet habits and visited web pages would come into play. Is everyone comfortable knowing they are being monitored so closely, down to files they download and share with friends? France for instance has already made internet access a human right so not too sure how they will work around that one, or if this type of move will even be possible?

One number that shocked me in the article was claiming only 1 in 20 music downloads in UK were legal! I think everyone can at least agree something needs to be done about it. If we all enjoy music and our favorite artists, we need to support what they do. If everyone steals their music, how in the hell do you expect people to keep making records, have the money to back big scale touring, pretty much keep the music business going?

I'm not saying monitoring every every household computer's activity is the solution, but it is a solution and unfortunately, too many people are stealing music. If the numbers weren't so drastic, perhaps these types of measures would have never been discussed or brought to the table in the first place.

To sum it up, stop downloading music illegally! It's a point we push very hard at our site where we compare only reliable sites offering legal music downloads so if you want artists to keep creating music and coming to your town, putting on amazing live concerts, if you're still downloading off torrent sites or other illegal manners where artists are not compensated, check out these places to download music instead.