I have a few items today before I go on too deeply into our January 09 post.  The first is that I’d like to wish my brother a Happy 50th.  Mark, in addition to the ‘turning the corner’ aging milestone has also made the resolve to quit smoking (in exchange for an iPhone, the manipulator) and we wish him best of luck in that.  Living in Winnipeg these many years, and currently suffering the deep freeze they have going on there, we hope that his celebrations end up great and his resolve successful. 

Secondly, in my obit for Ron Asheton, I erroneously listed Asheton as guitarist on Raw Power.  My apologies to readers for that piece of misinformation.

And now:

The new year has certainly brought some dramatic changes to music distribution that might be a turning point of sorts.  First was the RIAA’s discontinuance of lawsuits aimed and downloaders, an interesting cessation all its own.  The other was the fact that Apple’s iTunes have decided to reduce the rate of older, slower-selling MP3s to $0.69, $0.99 for the average seller, and $1.29 for hot-selling songs.  In addition, DRM has been lifted and will now allow for uploading to a player of your choice.  All of this is interesting in that, while short of the RIAA and the member labels having figured out how to monetize today’s distribution channels, it seems that those mentioned have moved toward a different paradigm, and these two resolved issues are the precursor to whatever plans they may have in store.

This certainly benefits many other industries as well.  The player units should be somewhat energized by the sudden availability of iTunes songs.  In addition, sound distributors like Sonos, whose chief business is to push sound throughout your house via an easily managed system, should thrive by selling units that are no longer hampered by restrictive DRM.  Of course, there are others that will benefit as well.

But what about the business models of services like Napster, Rhapsody, or eMusic, who make available a large catalogue of songs on a ‘rental’ basis.  Will they be able to survive with iTunes slowly creeping into their territories?  They still generally offer an ‘all you can eat’ tethered approach to music listening, but who knows, maybe iTunes will offer that as a sales point soon.

2008 was not too kind with sales of physical CDs tanking further.  Will we soon see the end of an industry released CD as a sales product?  Even as vinyl LPs have climbed in sales (a point of interest all its own – is it sound quality that many buyers are after…or is it the cool factor), the label issued CD have spiraled downward.

2009/2010 should prove to be interesting years.

We have several things to kick-off the New Year with. The first is our Annual Reader's Choice 'Best of 20xx' picks. In this case, you'll be picking the Best of 2008. i always look forward to these picks because it gives me a fast way to check up on things that I have missed over the year. I have always made new gains to my library with the arrival of these lists and I'm sure to do so again. You guys know the rules by now. Just send a list of the Best that graced our players over the course of 2008. We'll run this through January and then post results in February. Send them here at The Best Albums of 2008.

Also, we haven't forgot the fun Poll that picks the best album from a band's career. We're gpoing to kick off this new year with one for Aerosmith. Now Aerosmith is a band that rose to peak, crashed and burned, redefined, rose to another peak before silently fading away. Yes, the band still exists and still make recordings but not to the same degree of popularity that we have seen from them...twice. I suspect that we're going to see several schools of opinion here. Those that love the albums that began their career, those that love the second period of their revival, and those that just loved the band no matter what they did. I have a favourite. It is easily their second album, Get Your Wings. Full of high-energy bluesy rock, it was very hard for me to get back on track to anything that have done since then. However, I did love their works afterward, it was all measured against the power of that second album. So send us your choice for the Best Album for Aerosmith. You are invited to add commentary as to why you think your choice is the right one. Send them to the Best Album of Aerosmith at this easy-to-use email link. We'll post results in two weeks on January 19.

In addition, and to start the New Year Out, we have several more things before moving on. The first is a new band introduction, found below in the reviews section. They are called The Pains of Being Pure at Heart. Be sure to scroll down for that. the second is that we have (tried) to launch a Facebook set of pages. We have a button for you to click on and befriend us and we hope that you will. We have a personal TAP page (because Facebook insists). And we also have a Business page and a Group page. I know...complicated. And it is. But we'll figure which to use in the long run but until then, check them all out. They are a bit different in content. I do suspect that it will be the personal page that you'll want to frequent most often as it easily leads to both of the other pages. I'm still trying to make one singular page the most impactful but haven't figured how to do it yet. If anyone has any ideas, let me know. There's nothing worse than being a 'noob' trying to produce a bit of usefulness...and not succeeding very well at it. There are some new things that we can do with it. For example, there is plenty of room there to discuss in an open forum. For those that wanted this to happen, here's an opportunity to guage it. In addition, there may als obe extra content there, capsule-like reviews, etc. This is an experiment to see what happens. You might have to sign up to check us out...I don't know. Forgive any problems that might arise from this but we'll get it figured out somehow.

For the long promised Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die! list (#28), I will be posting a letter each post until exhausted (there were only 17 21 25 27 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 40 emails).  Some were only a few titles, some only one.  But there were more than a few that were massive and a few extended, well-detailed lists.  I’ll post them as I received them.  For today's post, we have one that is short and to the point. Thanks to MK for his entry.

Pere Ubu - Terminal Tower, a collection of singles that mark the beginning of the New Wave...

We're going to keep the Best Album of ALL Time up for a long while as we continually update it. But I'll say this: The Beatles took the lead with not only The White Album but also the fact that they have been selected with two albums. Like The Albums You MUST Hear Before You Die! run, which does not show signs of stopping (I'm still getting emails, which I have no problem with and encourage - Send Them In), I'm hoping that this new thing stays strong. Send in your selection (one only, please) for the album that is the ruler of all.

If you have missed the last As The Disc Spins (updated), check it out here.

To access the previous site and catch up, click here.

Verve Forecast will release a Rock title with Where It Ends coming from 16 Frames.  This album is expected on March 24.

A series set from Universal called Playlist Your Way is continuing with new releases for Rod Stewart, DMX, Gin Blossoms, Bloodhound Gang, and Insane Clown Posse.  All of these artist comps are expected on February 24.

Varese Sarabande has a few coming that include With Glasses: The Very Best of John Fred and the Playboy Band from the band of the same name.  It is planned for February 24.  The label will also release a soundtrack for the film, Taking Chances (score by Marcelo Zarvos), which is scheduled for February 17.  Varese Sarabande will also release a Lightnin’ Hopkins title called Blues From Dowling Street on February 24.

Concord Jazz will release a title from Lionel Hampton called Centennial Celebration, scheduling that for release on April 14.

Hip-O Records will be releasing a Various Artists comp for the Playlist Your Way series called Classic Rock.  It is coming on February 24, along with the other scheduled Playlist Your Way series collections.

Storied label, Abkco Records, will re-release The Poet I & II (1981/1984) from Bobby Womack in a single disc, scheduling the album for a February 17 release date.

Nettwerk Records have a few titles coming that include A Book Like This (Angus & Julia Stone – March 3); Maybe Tomorrow (Molly Jenson – March 3); and Barracuda (Kinky – February 24).

Wind-up Records will release Ordinary Riches from Company of Thieves, planned for February 24 as a Developing Artist release.

Shout! Factory has a DVD coming for BB King called BB King: Live in Africa ’74.  That is planned for release on February 24.  The label will also release a DVD for Otis Redding called Respect: Otis Live, same date.  Finally, Shout! Factory has something referred to as 50 Years: John Lee Hooker Anthology, which is on scheduled for February 17.

Columbia and Legacy team to release The Clancey Bothers and Tommy Makem in Person at Carnegie Hall from The Clancey Brothers with Tommy Makem.  This is slated for February 17.

Epic has the next Lamb of God project coming on February 24.  The album, which is called Wrath, will be available in several forms on CD as well as an LP.

Jeff Beck is one of our great guitar heroes, who has played with many of the guitar legends in bands (Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Ronnie Wood) that he was an integral part of. Beck still makes a mean album and his Live at Ronnie Scott's is a raw listen to one of our treasures. Mark Squirek gives us the report on this album.

We've located a pretty good indie band from NYC. Named as a the tongue-twisting The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, they have released a self-titled EP, a few sold-out 7" singles, and an upcoming full-length CD, also self-titled, expected on February 3 from Slumberland Records in both CD and LP format. We enjoy their music, which is an influenced set that sounds quite cool for this time. We recommend you check out their Myspace page for a hit on their music, or even their Facebook page, as well as their own website. There is a downloadable MP3 of their song, "Everything With You" that you may enjoy.