*As signalled yesterday, Last.fm has announced a change in its model. Users can now stream full songs up to three times, with CBS generating revenue for these kinds of users through advertising. Users who want more can pay a subscription rate for all-you-can-stream. [uk register]
*Yahoo’s been very active in the digital music space of late. Today, Mashable floats the rumor that Y!’s prepping to sell drm-free music digitally (or offer it via an ad-supported model).
*P. Diddy will now be going by the name Sean John. [musicfilter]
*Read: The Village Voice’s Pazz + Jop. [fimoculous]
*I’m all ears: speakers shaped like gigantic earbuds. [geeksugar]
*More gear: A stone turntable. Soothingness, Bedrock style. [crave]
*LOCAL AND MUSICAL: Uncle Con (Conrad) in the papers again. Pic of him setting up for M.I.A. in a story on a day in the life of First Avenue. Also, I did not know that the side entrance is called “Conrad’s Door.” [via mediation + overheard at a late x-mas celebration this weekend, but not followed up on. I kinda suck as a local blogger.]
*News conference tomorrow: CBS to morph recent acquisition Last.fm into a video endeavor? Tune in…
*The incomparable Metal Sucks points us at some of death metal’s most over-the-top band names: Torsofuck and Squash Bowels, to name just two.
*Dancing with the Stars contestant Mark Cuban says that the album is dead.
*If you are obsessed with Kanye West’s “Flashing Lights,” maybe you will like it even better with R. Kelly singing a bonus verse. [vulture]
*Have you ever wondered how an audio recording of a shower running would sound when played in other bathrooms? You may be an artist.
*What are the opportunities for makers of mp3 players wishing to court the SpongeBob demo? (Kinda good!)
*The New York Sun profiles Cat Power.
Dangerously blog-buzzy Vampire Weekend plays “Mansard Roof” for the Take Away Shows.
*Ad-supported music purveyor We7 (backed in part by Peter Gabriel) has taken $6 million in Series A funding. [mashable]
*Target starts selling digital music (in a small way). They have a deal with Sony BMG, and will sell the latest John Legend album on Target.com. [paidcontent]
*The New Scientist reports on a wi-fi device that polls party-goers for their musical preferences. [techmeme]
*Brooklyn Vegan offers extensive coverage of a recent NYC gig by Tay Zonday. (For Minneapolites: Looks like Zonday will be playing at the Uptown a week from Saturday.)
*On-the-rise party-starting singing style of the moment: Sacred Harp. [ypulse]
*Leonard Cohen is going on tour for the first time since 1993. [dailyswarm]
*The week’s best guitar amp: The Fucking Fucker. [boingboing]
*Listenerd fave Benjamin Franklin (known for his cold-air baths) is profiled in the New Yorker.
*PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT LINK I WILL POST ALL YEAR: A slideshow of the Top Ten Beards in Modern Music. Includes Devendra Banhart and Kyp Malone; no Ben Bridwell. [reddit]
*Rob Walker talks about theoretical listenerd favorite Yo Gabba Gabba! in this week’s New York Times Magazine. (Weirdly, I first wrote about Yo Gabba Gabba! for the day job in 2006 – long before it was even picked up.) Walker also invokes “kindie rock;” where children’s music and indie meet, but calls neologisms such as these “vaguely grating.”
*The New York Times Bits blog on Blu-Ray, the HD format wars and tech-buying in general: “To stay sane, any consumer needs to think of digital technology as a subscription rather than a product.”
*David Milch is going back to doing cop shows. [medialoper]
*The top 5 folk covers of hip-hop tunes (with videos) include “Straight Outta Compton” and “Gin and Juice.”
*This we have long known: Sean Paul causes seizures.
*Sasha Frere-Jones takes on Kate Nash and the MySpacification of music marketing. [murketing]
*Tons of people writing (or filming) “DRM is Dead” rhetoric. It’s almost enough to get me to write my flaming, 500-dragon screed about punditocratic myopia. Almost.
*Deborah Gibson has launched Camp Electric Youth, a training ground for aspiring young performers. (Is it just me, or is the opening imagery for her site…scary?) [ypulse]
*Tangential: the MyStrands blog reminds me that I need a Nokia N95 phone. Which reminds me that I need a lot of money.
The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. [neatorama]
Everyone’s favorite lumberjack.
