National Tolerance Week & LET IT SNOW!

I recently learned that the first week in December is "National Tolerance Week". Being at the start of the holiday season its a great time to remind ourselves that its okay for others to be different than us. Race, Age, Sex and Religion are just a few factors that we all pay too much attention to when interacting with others. Lets face it...we are all human beings at the core and irregardless of our own beliefs we should all be respectful, tolerant and understanding of each other in every aspect of life. I tried to search online for some more information on National Tolerance week and was surprised when most of the search results had to do with promotional products to be bought (yes Hallmark has even invaded the peace message :)). Oh well at least its a start. So when you go out into the world this week, this month and next year....when you run into someone who is different from you and your first inner reaction is to pull back...think again and instead reach out. We are one world, one planet and one race..the human race.

That's my heavy topic for the weekend...now on to the lighter side...specially snow. I'm happy to say that we have SNOW in Philadelphia again in early December. My first son was born today and it seems that almost every year there is snow on Dec 5th...maybe its just me but I think I'm on to something...maybe he should have been born an elf or something :)

Hope you are having a great week and keeping warm (I heard it snowed in Houston this week...really???). We'll be back with another post on Monday and some music news you can use :)

~Vincent

Put One Foot in Front of the Other

Yes its almost holiday time so I'll throw in a Christmas reference now and again :) All I can say is thank goodness the local radio stations aren't playing holiday music already. I guess all those complaints we made finally got their attention. Although I was in the grocery store on Nov 1st and was treated to some way too early Christmas music...o wellll...

Alright on to the topic of the post. Slowly (very slowly) but surely we are making strides to move forward with the website. We updated our Voting charts last week for Nov and December and we will have a special holiday chart that launches day after Thanksgiving. We'll also post a few Holiday related MP3s for you to download between then and New Years.

Whats next...well we've been wanting to launch an International Love Songs section for quite a while and it will finally be real on Jan 1st (as opposed to April 1st...no Foolin :)). We have visitors come to LoveSongs.com from all over the world so many countries I lose track. Our first rendition of the International section will have favorites from 10-12 countries and we'll build from there. Look for more info in our November newsletter going out this Friday (if you're not on the list just sign up on the top of the our home page at LoveSongs.com

Other good stuff is on the way stay tuned as we slowly put "one foot in front of the other"...soon we'll be "walking out the doooooor"...quick name that Holiday special!! Have a great Wednesday and we'll be back with another post on Friday.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Whats Your Purpose??

Did you ever wonder why the person known as you was put on this planet Earth? I have to say thats not something I often thought about during my own life. I was recently had the good fortune to read a motivational book entitled "Success Principles" by none other than Jack Canfield...co-author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series (more on how this happened later...it starts with horses). While reading I soon discovered that I've been wandering (not wondering) my entire adult life without any purpose at all. I tried this activity and then I tried that one, and then maybe I tried something else. Sometimes I tried all three things at the same time (lack of focus..thats another chapter in the book). It turns out I was missing the ground floor of the building of success...namely having a purpose that gives your actions some meaning...gives you something to build upon.

So I spent some time thinking about it...I know I love music..I love to play it, hear it, write it, pretty much anything to do with music. I also know that I have a deep caring for my fellow human. It really bothers me when I read or hear about bad news whether its a friend or someone far away in another country. So after breaking my brain for a few hours I've come up with this purpose:

"My lifes purpose is to use my creativity and compassion to entertain, inspire and motivate others to live joyfully and to be loving towards all humanity"

Pretty much this just means I want to use the creative gifts that God has given me to help make people happy and to help us all treat each other better.

I've been slacking bigtime on the LoveSongs website and this blog (6 months between posts really??). Now that I have a purpose my goal is to have 3 blog updates per week with Monday's purpose highlighting the chapter in the "Success Principles" book. Chapter 1 was about finding your purpose and I've finally found mine.

Did you know that today November 16th is International Tolerance Day (and Dec 1-7 is National Tolerance week in the US). Lets all try a little harder to be nicer to folks we meet, people we know and even people we don't know (a little more smiling on the road and a little less yelling ha ha). Life is too short to be spent being angry at anyone especially for things that in the grand scheme of things are not important. As the Beatles once said "All We Need is Love"

For info on "Success Principles" visit Success Principles Online Site. There are lots of free online resources here to help you on your way.

Have a great Monday folks and we will be back on Wednesday with a musical update!

~Vincent

American Idol down to 5 and we’re baaaaaack

Last week was such a blur I barely remember a single thing that happened...hopefully this week will be much calmer and we’ll actually get our blog postings out. Okay here’s whats up:

Last week on American Idol we lost two folks Anoop and Lil’Round and neither was a surprise to go. Both were very talented but there was nothing original about the sound of their voice, look, song selection, etc that made them stand out as star material. Not to say they won’t continue to develop these qualities and one day become stars it’s just not happening right now. Now we’re down to 5 contestants and the choices are going to be tougher. After last night’s performances I would definitely put Matt and Kris in the bottom two. Adam, Allison and Danny are all at a different level than Matt and Kris and I think the results this week and next will pan that out (or at least I hope so :)). Beyond that I had been hoping for an Adam vs. Allison finale for a long time but I can see its going to be difficult to keep Danny out of the finale. I really like Danny a lot, his voice and artistry are really good..I just think commercially that both Adam and Allison have a better shot at becoming a legimate star after the intial Idol attention fades (ie. A Kelly or Carrie vs. Taylor or Ruben.

This week is apparently National Karoake week so there are many opportunities to sing your stuff in your local bars, clubs and even online. Its kinda funny that this week coincides with nearing the end of the Idol season. Maybe you can use this week as a springboard to audition for next years American Idol :)

Mothers Day is around the corner (less than 2 weeks) and we’ll be posting lyrics to some of our favorite songs about Mom later this weekend. In the meantime have a great Tuesday and we’ll be back at ya on Thursday after the Idol results.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Weekend Edition - National Record Day 4/18/2009

Saturday April 18th is National Record day where you can help celebrate the spirit of the independant record store in 1000 locations throughout the US. Once the hot spot where almost everyone stopped and shopped to listen to and buy their favorite records, the number of stores continue to dwindle as the big chains and online retailers take over. I can remember early in my youth going to record stores, walking the aisles and browsing through hundreds of artists and titles and being fascinating by the very cool album covers (remember album covers anyone??). Oh well maybe album art will make a comeback in some fashion in the online world so we can print out own covers and posters from our favorites. Well remember a bit of history tomorrow by visiting your local indy record shop..there are contests, live performances and other cool stuff going on to help celebrate the day (visit Record Store Day for locations near you.

Sad note for all you baseball fans, our Philadelphia Phillies announcer for the last almost 40 years has moved on to the big baseball diamond in the sky. That's right Harry Kalas "That ball is outta here" passed away suddenly earlier this week and will be greatly missed by many. You could also hear Harry's voice prominently on NFL films for the last 32 years which brought Harry fans far beyond the Philadelphia and baseball worlds. Baseball and music were my two passions growing up and Harry's voice on the radio was a big part of my baseball world and I will definitely miss hearing him.

That's all for the weekend edition folks...enjoy the weekend and we'll be back at ya on Monday with some new music news.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Saved by the Bell and Britains Got Talent Toooo!

As expected Adam and Allison were both safe safe safe (yeah) and our bottom three of the night was Lil Rounds, Matt Giraud and Anoop Desai. Matt drew the short straw and was sent home...no wait a minute the judges have decided to finally invoke the special save and Matt stays another week. Matt is certainly relieved and next week two contestants will be sent packing (most likely two out of the three in the bottom three this week). Next weeks music theme is ugggh Disco week :) Well I kinda liked Disco as a passing fad (no other music sounds more dated to me). It should be interesting to hear what 7 song choices these folks come up with and I hope and pray they mix it up at least a little bit (ie. take a Disco song and extract the disco out of it...should be interesting.

So what did everybody think of the two judge comments after each performance on Tuesday instead of all four? I have to say it definitely felt better paced though at times I missed hearing what certain judges (meaning Simon) had to say about a certain performance. If all of the judges could learn to keep their comments brief and not ramble on then I guess it wouldn't be necessary ...I guess we'll see what happens next week.

I'm sure many of you have seen the story already but in case you haven't, there recently was an amazing audition contestant for AI's counterpart Britain's Got Talent. Apparently for this show there is no age limit and when 47-yr old Susan Boyle took the stage absolutely no-one in the audience wanted to give her a chance. As the old adage goes "appearances can be deceiving" and they certainly were as Susan "rocked the house" with her rendition of "I Dreamed a Dream" from Le Miserables. Check out this incredible clip on YouTube at Susan Boyle Audition tape

That's all for Thursday will be back Friday with some non-Idol related music news (hey we've got to find something else to talk about once this years show is over sometime in May :))

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tuesday - Adam in Concert and This Rose isn't blooming

Sorry we missed our post yesterday this means we'll need an extra one this weekend to catch up ha ha. Last nights Idol Movie Theme night demonstrated once again why Adam Lambert is the clear front runner. Singing "Born to be Wild" from Steppenwolf he managed to take his performance both vocally and visually to another level. I honestly don't see any other contestant having a chance against Adam in the finals. The trick will be what song choice will they dump on Adam once he is the new Idol and how much leeway will he have after the initial Idol song to forge his own artistic direction.

Most of the other songs sung last night were nicely done but my goodness with all the possible movie songs did we really need to hear that many sappy ballads (and this is coming from me the king of ballads ha :)). Anoop sang "Everything I do" from Bryan Adams and Matt sang "Have you Ever Really Loved a Woman" both well sung and with great feeling but just too much slow stuff. I more enjoyed Kris Allen's take on an obscure song that I can't even remember at the moment but at the time it had me more interested (bad me I'll have to look up the tune again..it was faintly recognizable as I heard it last night).

Lastly Lil decided once again to sing an old song "The Rose" which is again again another ballad and another old song for her. Yes she dressed up the 2nd half with some R&B flavor but in the end its still "The Rose" from like 1980 and you would never hear that song in a ballad arrangement as a new tune on radio. With all the great vocal ability Lil has, she really doesn't understand what Simon means about song choice...pick something more current/hip, whatever you want to call it and even then re-arrange it to make it your own. For the first half of "The Rose" last night I could close my eyes and it was almost exactly like Bette Midler's version from way back..which was real nice way back :)

I really think that unfortunately we'll be down to a single lady contestant after tonight and that will actually be teen Allison Iraheta who did a nice job with Aerosmith's "Don't Wanna Miss a Thing". It was a current song (within last decade) and was sung originally by a different gender (always smart to do) and although the beginning part of the arrangement was a little dull, the song and her voice picked up considerably after that.

So my bottom 3 for tonight will be Lil, Kris and Matt and Lil getting the unwanted ticket home.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Monday - Start of Tax week boooo :)

That's right if your in the US this is the week to get your taxes in by April 15th oh what fun. I usually manage to delay mine by 4-6 months with an extension so we'll see how it goes by this Wednesday :)

I took a look around and thought it was interesting that Entertainment weekly also is listing Adam (no surprise) and Allison (yeah!) as their favorites to be in the American Idol finals (see Adam and Alison on EW ). With any luck and some continued seasoning on Allison's part our wish will come true :)

Todays posting is short as not much went on music wise over the Easter weekend. I did see that the new Music video channel coming from Google and Universal has a name and the name is "Vevo"...kinda like Viva only not as exciting ha ha. Hopefully the service will do a little better than the name.

Have a great rest of tooday Monday and we'll see ya tomorrow for some new info on AI and other music happenings.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Happy Easter Weekend!!

To all the folks who celebrate this holiday I wish you all a very happy Easter Weekend. Its a very meaningful holiday for many of us and for the rest well its an excuse to scarf down jelly beans, marshmellow peeps and chocolate bunnies :)

Amazon joins ITunes with Variable Pricing for MP3s

It appears that Amazon.com, Walmart.com and other online retailers are also being pushed into variable MP3 pricing by the record labels. Some songs are at 0.69, many more at 0.99 and some of the bigger hits are 1.29 . Its funny now that the labels finally see the eventual demise of record stores and physical CDs they are starting to jack up the price. I know I said this before but come on I should be able to buy 10 good songs for $10...there are no manufacturing or inventory costs for them so the profit they make from each sale is increased. In fact if the record labels had jumped on the digital band wagon long ago like they should have then they could have had their own digital online store eliminating the middle man costs of Itunes/Amazon and letting us pay even less.

No More Digital Rights Management for MP3s

The only good thing the labels have done with the variable pricing move is finally eliminate the DRM (Digital Rights Management) protection the MP3's sold...now we can freely move our purchased songs from computer to computer to Ipod to anywhere without having to worry about losing our rights. This move was long over due and of course will give the labels a chance to blame piracy once again for their own misguided business decisions. Since the labels in large part no longer discover and nurture new talent, new and even existing artists no longer have to be tied to major labels to get their music out to the masses. I can write a song this morning, record it this afternoon and have it available for listening and for sale by this evening all over the world. What an incredible shift in power this is for artists folks. Of course with this power comes the responsiblity to create the best art we can and not litter the internet landscape with piles of sub-par art that we all have to wade through just to find something decent. More on this topic later...

Please all have a great weekend and we'll see ya on Monday with another update. AI is down to seven contestants and we'll see whose star is rising and whose star is beginning to fade.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Its ByeBye for Scott - Was a great ride!

I admit when I first heard Scott MacIntyre audition I was rooting for him. He definitely has a great voice but like most of us there are limitions to his voice and some of his recent song and arrangement choices did not serve him well. But we will get to see Scott on the tour and hopefully his American Idol exposure will lead to some good opportunities for him.

We're now down to the lucky 7 AI Contestants and its going to get harder each week as more talented folks start to get cut. I was originally rooting for Anoop to be in the top 2-3 and he certainly has the voice to be..however I don't believe his onstage persona is large enough to rate star quality and that will eventually bring him down in the competition. The same goes for Kris Allen and Matt and Lil to a lesser extent. I believe the top 4 will round out to be Adam, Danny, Allison and I'm rooting for Lil to make an artistic comeback with some smart song and arrangement choices...we'll see as the weeks count down.

Universal and Google to Launch All-Music Video Channel - Just announced Google and Universal are teaming up to launch an all music video online website later this year. Universal Records is one of the four major labels left in the game and currently only their artists will be a part of the channel, but the new venture is negotiating to bring the other 3 into the venture. Well if your old enough to remember the launch of MTV in August 1981 it was so cool back then when there was a channel dedicated to playing video's all day and night..yes I know there are MTV spin-offs/etc that do play mostly videos but its just never the same as the original. Maybe this new web channel will bring a spark of creativity and newness to the Music Video profession and we'll be rewarded with some really cool music videos made especially for web viewing.

That's all folks see ya tomorrow with our Easter-edition weekend blog!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Wednesday – Idol Recap, Beatles Remastered and Itunes

My AI Recap - Last night was practically 80’s night with most of the idol’s singing songs from the year of their birth which only puts Allison in the 90’s. Adam Lambert closed the show with a Tears for Fears cover “Mad World” and his amazing performance was rewarded with a rare standing ovation from all 4 judges. Week in and week out Adam finds a way to amaze us with both his vocal chops and his artistic choices. Other Idols delivering good performances last night included Danny Gokey, Anoop Desai and Allison Iraheta. Many of the idols however broke the golden rule and picked songs from the same gender and the only time you can get away with that is if your performance and arrangement are over the top incredible. Lil’Round in particular did a great Tina Turner’ish version of “Whats Love Got to do with It” which unfortunately can only be compared with Tina’s version and it doesn’t match up. Scott MacIntyre also made the same mistake and fared even worse with his version of Survivors “The Search if Over” as his vocal chops were definitely not up to par with the original for that song. In both cases if Scott and Lil had substantially rearranged their songs to be different from the original they would have gotten away with it. Doing that serves two purposes as it allows their performances to not be compared with the original artist so easily and it demonstrates their own creative artistry which is sorely lacking by most of the Idols. This is as they say “where we separate the men from the boys”..the folks that can just sing and the folks that are true artists.

My vote tonight is for Scott to go home and I am hoping Lil can return at least one more week with a glimpse of real artistry.

Beatles and Apple - In other unrelated news it looks like the Beatles catalog is going to be finally digitally remastered. Most other classic groups have seen their catalog digitally upgraded two or three times since CD’s first came on the scene in 1983. Should be pretty interesting to hear the difference on some of our favorite amazing Beatle tunes when this comes out. For more info check out this LA Times article Beatles Remastered. Also yesterday the new ITunes variable pricing from Apple began and in a week or two we’ll start to see if there is any fallout from that.

That’s all for Weddddnesday folks. Have a great day and we’ll be back tomorrow with Idol results and other new news!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Tooosday Today - What makes a great song choice??

Did you ever wonder why Tuesday is not spelled Tuesday?? I don't know why but I do :) Well today is Idol Tuesday and I'm a little late posting as the show starts in a little more than an hour (plenty of time right ha). Tonight we get to hear songs from the year each contestant was born and like you I'm praying for some good song choices.

Here's my top 3 rules for choosing the right song....

#1 Pick a song sung by the opposite gender....

#2 Pick a song that has not been played to death or was made popular by a major voice (Celine, Whitney, Michael Jackson, etc).

#3 And last but not least pick a song that you can sing well and make it your own by changing the arrangement (possibly a lot) and melody (at least a little).

Make us want to hear your version of the song again and again. Granted this isn't always an easy task but with some research and effort this is achievable by almost anyone. So we'll tune in at 8 PM EST and see what they sing and we'll report on it in a Wednesday morning blog (that's right I said morning ;))...see ya in the AM and have a great nite!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Monday Monday – Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Paul McCartney and Carrie Underwood

It was a busy music weekend with lots going on. First up Paul and Ringo reunited for a benefit show in New York on Saturday nite for the David Lynch Foundation. David is the writer/film maker behind Eraserhead and Blue Velvet who is trying to spread the message of change through meditation. In addition to McCartney and Starr other acts included Sheryl Crow, Eddy Vedder and Ben Harper. For the full scope visit Paul and Ringo reunite and you can also catch some of the performances on YouTube search David Lynch

Saturday nite was also the inducation of the 24th class of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio with Metallica, Jeff Back, Run-DMC and Bobby Womack among those honored. The 3 ½ hour show included a who’s who of guitar legends onstage including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Ronnie Wood (Rolling Stones) and Joe Perry from Aerosmith. Boy I would have loved to have been on stage for that one..here let me let down a few simple piano chords for you guys to jam on :) For full info on the night visit Rock and Roll 24th Induction

Last but not least the Academy of Country Music Awards show was last night and American Idol queen Carrie Underwood took home the top honor Entertainer of the Year…the first time a female entertainer had won that award since the Dixie Chicks won in 2000. Newcomer Taylor Swift also snagged a top honor with Album of the Year with the album “Fearless” that featured tracks “Love Story”, “Our Song” and “Teardrops on My Guitar”. Was a great night for the gals of country which is always good to see. If you missed the awards you can catch up with some of the performances on my favorite Video channel YouTubeeee.

That’s all for Monday folks..a little late today but hey you know what they say :) Have a great nite and we’ll see ya tomorrow ‘round lunch time and we’ll talk some Idol

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Dizzler Fun - Listen to any song you want!

Woo hoo the weekend is finally here and can you believe it we did 5 new Blog postings this week! I almost can't believe it myself :) but hey we're on a roll and will be posting 5x/week Monday through Friday going forward. Soon you'll also be able to post replies on the blog and tell us whats on your mind.

Well we were going to talk about some of the interesting online dating sites today, but we'll cover that sometime next week. Instead I want to mention this really cool free music service called Dizzler. Dizzler allows you to listen to almost any song you want and build up a playlist of favorite songs. I'm not exactly sure how it works but somehow it goes out on the internet and finds available MP3 copies of songs and streams those songs right to you. You can't download or save the songs (at least i don't know how to :)) but I'm sure the music industry lawyers are still trying to find a way to shut it down. Basically it amounts to free online radio where you can pick the songs you want to hear..an idea whose time has come. It also looks like they even provide a widget you can add to your own Website so you can stream almost any song right from your own (that I will have to check out).

To check out Dizzler visit Dizzler.com . To learn more about its launch last year here's the Fox News press release at Fox News Dizzler article

Have a great weekend folks and will be back on Monday with a new post!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Thirsty Thursday – Idol’s and Song Choice

Okay I don’t know what Thirsty Thursday has to do with song choice, except after last night I am really dying for some better songs (read on). Last night was the Idol Results Show and I there wasn’t much love lost when we said goodbye to Megan Joy. Earlier in the season I kinda liked her vocal style and it seemed to fit with the song choices she made. But as the weeks wore on it just became harder to listen to her quivering voice. At least she’ll be able to do the tour, get some more experience under her belt and perhaps something will come of her Idol experience.

David Cook and Song Choice - Yes I know David Cook is last years Idol but now more than ever song choice is very important if you want your career to have life after your initial Idol album. I was listening to David’s performance last night of “Come Back To Me” and was the first time I had heard this tune. Honestly this is a B-Side song if I ever heard one…a B-side for those not from the Vinyl days is a song that’s not good enough to be an A-side hit on the front of the 45 Single (back when we all played records on a turntable :)). I jumped online and was relieved to see that “Come Back To Me” was off David’s debut Idol album and not a new album. Meaning the record label is just trying to milk the album for more singles (after "The Time of My Life" and “Light On”)…I haven’t heard the rest of the album but if “Come Back to Me” is the next best song its time to stop marketing singles off this CD and quickly put together a new one with at least 2-3 hit quality songs. Many of the Idol winners (Taylor Hicks, Fantasia, Ruben Studdard) and runner ups have not had much chart success after their initial album and the #1 reason is song choice, song choice, song choice. Instead of the label/19 Entertainment going out and finding the best possible hit songs for these artists the song choice is left more to the artist or others controlling the production of the CD (producer, manager, etc). There’s a saying “It all starts with a song” and its absolutely true the better songs they put on the albums (regardless of who wrote them), the better chance the artist will have a lengthy career. So can you tell I’m a songwriter with this rant :)

We’ll do a followup posting on Song choice soon with more fun details to kick around. Next week this years Idols will be singing songs from the year they were born…so will range from 1980 (Danny Gokey) to 1992 (Allison Iraheta). As always should be interesting to see what songs they pick.

Tomorrow’s blog will touch on some different dating websites and the different audiences they attract. Have a great Thursday and will see ya soon!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Happy Fools Day (as I wave to myself in the mirror :))

World Kissing Record - Yep today is April Fools day and unfortunately I don’t have any timely news for this holiday. I did however see something interesting recently that happened back on valentines Day. About 40,000 people gathered on Valentines Day in Mexico City for a group kiss and set the worlds record for the largest group ever assembled for a group kiss (see http://news.aol.com/article/mexico-city-kissing-record/343849 ).

Now that would have been an event I would have liked to have joined in on ha ha. Seriously though its nice ot see positive news and events coming out of Mexico with all the reports of gun-violence below the border. I can’t wait to see what they do to try and top the 40,000 puckered lips next year :)

American Idol Recap - Last night was definitely interesting with a few songs that I wasn’t really familiar with. I pretty much agreed with the judges across the board especially regarding Lil’Rounds song choice..she definitely needs to lean younger/hipper on her choices. I did however like Alison’s outfit, my only problem with her was her singing Gwen Stefani made it more sound-a-like with less room for originality. I know she’s only 16 so she probably needs more real guidance on song choice than anyone. Overall my favs last night were Adam Lambert (again) and Scott MacIntyre (which surprised me). As much as Megan seems nice to talk with and has the looks and image, I really have trouble listening to her sing the last few weeks (even after she’s feeling better). Her voice quivers way too much giving it little to no definition..something the ear can latch on to. She may keep on hanging in there though as there are only 3 girls left..more than likely one of the guys will go these time.

That’s all for wacky Wednesday April fools day….be back tomorrow with some new news on the website and reactions to tonights results show.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Two Blog Tuesday HA HA :)

That’s right folks its two blogs in a row like in back to back as in absolutely amazing :) Okay I promise not to celebrate again until Friday when and if I hit 5 blogs in a row :)

Piano Glove – Turning you into a Player Piano - Today we’re gonna talk about this cool Piano invention I saw called the “Piano Glove” that actually turns any 5 fingered person into a player piano (pretty cool huh :)). Seems the lightweight glove hooks up to a computer and will send each finger vibrations when that finger is supposed to hit a key. Gee I wonder if it does just the 5 keys in front of your hand or if it can tell your fingers/hand to move up and down the keyboard :) As a piano player myself this invention does sound pretty neat although I’m not entirely sure of its benefit beyond the novelty aspect. The general selling point is that by using the glove you are training your brain to remember which fingers to use (and maybe helps prevent lazy fingers ha ha..I can see the extreme version next where the vibration becomes a shock if you don’t play the right key. The Piano glove is also apparently wireless and to learn more about it at the GA Tech website at Piano Glove

AI Tonight – Top Itunes Downloads - I went searching today to find out what the music theme for tonight was going to be and low and behold its Idols singing the Top ITunes Downloads. That’s pretty funny after I did my rant in Monday’s blog about the ITunes price hike that starts April 1st. I’m sure the timing of the ITunes theme night is meant to somehow offset the bad-press of the price hike but it might backfire and give it more attention. So if its Itunes night I suspect we’ll hear a lot of current tunes sung by the Idols tonight. Best way to stay in the game is to choose a song sung by the other gender (ie. Not yours) and change the arrangement so it doesn’t sound like bad karaoke. It also helps if you improve upon the current arrangement now being blasted at us on radio a bazillion times/day. This week is probably do or die for Scott MacIntyre who seems out of his league these days although Megan joy could also be in trouble if she doesn’t remember what it was we liked about her way back.

That’s all for today Tuesday…tomorrow we’ll blog about the Idol performances from tonight and some other music’n’love tidbits :)

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Happy Monday ALL!

Its been a whopping 4 ½ months since my last blog posting wow that’s pretty sad. Well to make it up to you starting this week I’ll be doing 5 blog postings per week Monday-Friday with new info and opinions posted each day. I figure if I can’t do once a week then maybe if I do once/day I’ll get into a rhythm (ha rhythm it’s a musical thing :)). Okay here goes:

Today we’re gonna talk about American Idol and ITunes Price hike that starts April 1st (that’s no joke).

American Idol – I’ve been watching AI pretty closely this year and have been very impressed with the quality of the contestants that made it into the Final 12. Alhough I wasn't surpised to see Michael Sarver go this past week, I was surprised to see Alexis grace go the week before. It seemed the only thing she was guilty of was the dreadful song choice ("Jolene") and then having to sing that same song in an emotional sing or bye bye event at the end of that night. Definitely didn’t feel it was her time to go but hey plenty of good ones left. Right now I’ll stake out my two favorites for the finals and say it will be Adam Lambert and Allison Iraheta. Adam has a voice that is not to be believed and has the stage presence and artistry to go along with it. Give him the right songs and he will sell millions and millions of CDs without a doubt. Allison is also an amazing talent and to think she is only 16 is mind boggling. If she can keep hitting us with smart song choices and the same quality of performance she has been doing you just might see Adam vs. Allison in the finals in a battle of the A’s :)

ITunes Price Hike – After selling tunes for 99 cents since its inception I’m amazed to see Itunes raising the price to 1.29 for the most popular songs. I know this is being driven by the record labels and again the labels are making a big mistake in my opinion. Its easier in the consumer’s mind to know that all tunes are 0.99 instead of 0.69 to 1.29 . This change will just serve to confuse and alienate the consumer who will switch to Amazon or other places to get their legal MP3’s. Of course Apple Itunes will now give us MP3’s without the DRM Copy protection but that is long long overdue. If Apple is not careful they will see their market share of the MP3 market slowly decline. As far as the general price of MP3 downloads is concerned even 0.99 is probably more than it should be. A physical album used to cost $ 10-$15 which would be $1 - $1.50 per track..but in that was included the cost of packaging (now gone) and the payments due the record stores and distributors (now goes to Apple but hey NO PHYSICAL INVENTORY costs). So in my opinion selling any MP3 downlaods for more than 0.60-0.70 cents per song never ever made sense.

Okay that’s my rant for today..please stop back tomorrow to see whats new in the world of Love, Songs, Love Songs and Music :)

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com