Rdio is one of three music subscription services — along with Spotify and Deezer — that operate across a significant portion of the world. Rdio operates in 51 countries, offering a catalog of music 30 million songs deep (and nearly identical to its two main competitors). What differentiates Rdio is the user experience, which is…

Spotify released their ‘most viral’ tracks list for March 24-30. The lists are based on the number of people who shared it divided by the number who listened. These numbers are via Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter and Spotify. Via Hypebot   UNITED STATES…

Sitting down with Complex in a Rik Cordero-directed Q&A, Prodigy and Havoc described the making of their new album, The Infamous Mobb Deep. Breaking down several tracks on the album, the duo spoke about sampling The Notorious B.I.G. on their song “All A Dream,” working with Alchemist on “Waterboarding,” and Havoc’s collaborating with Boi-1da on…

Los Angeles-based electronic dance music artist PAZ went to great lengths to pull off what he believes is one hell of an April Fools’ prank. According to several posts on his Facebook page, PAZ had 5,000 CDs of his new “From The Bottom Of My Heart To The Top Of Your Lungs” mixtape packaged to…

Michael “Flea” Balzary, one of the music’s preeminent bassists, is ready to tell his self-described “epic” tale of hard drugs, bohemia and funk-rock glory. Grand Central Publishing, a division of the Hachette Book Group, has acquired the rights to the Red Hot Chili Pepper‘s as-yet-untitled memoir, written by Balzary himself. “Grand Central is thrilled to publish Flea’s memoir,”…

It is the middle of the night between Friday and Saturday, and I am thinking about Guitar Center. If the above sentence appears strange to you, we are in the same boat. I do not know how bizarre and random your life appears to you, but mine is definitely some sort of mysterious fractal. About…

Tribeca Film Festival opening-night film Time Is Illmatic — chronicling the making of hip-hop artist Nas‘ 1994 debut album — will be the inaugural recipient of the Candescent Award, part of a new grant program designed to support the making of documentary films. Lilly Hartley‘s Candescent Films announced the multi-year award program on Wednesday in…

On Friday, Disney let it be known at the U.S. Trademark Office that it is investigating a trademark registration filed by Deadmau5 (pronounced “dead mouse”). This one is intriguing. Deadmau5 is the stage name of EDM star Joel Zimmerman. Last year, Zimmerman’s Ronica Holdings Limited applied for a mark consisting of a caricature of a…

U.S music sales grew by 0.8% to total $4.47 billion in 2013, accounting for 30% of global trade revenues, according to IFPI’s 2014 “Recording Industry In Numbers” report, which was published today (Apr.1). The annual report, which provides detailed figures and market breakdowns for 50 international territories, reaffirmed America’s dominant position as the world’s largest…

With various musicians being sued left and right over decades-old sampling sins, one could hardly expect a recording artist who has been dead for 17 years to be given a pass. Now, the estate of Notorious B.I.G., the late rapper born Christopher Wallace, has filed a lawsuit seeking declaratory relief that his song “The What”…