The Voice vs. American Idol & Shakira Lip Syncs Empire?

So I FINALLY saw my first episodes of The Voice this week. I caught up on Monday's 12 performances on Tuesday via Comcast OnDemand (I definitely will DVR next time because OnDemand makes you watch alllll the commercials ugh) and then I watched Tuesday's Live show as it happened. After just those two episodes I'm starting to get a better idea of why The Voice pales in comparison to the early years of American Idol. Unfortunately, I can't compare it to Idols current shows because some of what made Idol so popular is now gone. In fact it now appears that The Voice is winning the TV ratings battle each week despite having some weaker elements - American Idol was viewed by 8+ million people and The Voice viewed by 11+ million people this past week.

Okay now on with the show comparison:

Hosts - Carson Daly is a good enough host for the Voice but lets face it, he's no Ryan Seacrest. Ryan has two things that Carson lacks, a unique sounding voice (how ironic) and a much stronger TV personality. He is just much more interesting to watch and listen to. The banter between Ryan and the Idol judges was almost always fun and helped make us tune in week after week.

Judges - Musically speaking Shakira, Usher, Blake Shelton and Adam Levine have it all over many of the Idol judges of the past. But folks this is a live TV show where these judges are mostly talking and not singing. On their worst TV day, Idol judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson were infinitely more interesting to watch then the current crop of judges on the Voice. Its not that they "look" better, but they are much more interesting TV personalities (and yep this is a TV show :)). Part of the reason we watch these shows at all is the judges - you watch to see and hear what they will do and say next.

Theme Music - No comparison - Idol's instrumental theme music was always energizing even after many seasons - I listen to the The Voice for two episodes and their "This is the Voice" theme music is just bland bland bland - I can't believe they haven't come up with something better - there's just no excuse for a musical show to have a theme like that.

Contestants - This is where The Voice generally comes out on top - with just a few exceptions. I am finding the Voice contestants having better voice and performance chops at this stage in the show than the Idol contestants I used to watch (haven't seen Idol for a few years). I'll detail some more of this in a future blog but there were several standout Voices including Tess Boyer, Audra McLaughlin and Josh Kaufman

Shakira Lipsyncs through Empire

Yes the word on the street is Shakira lip synced through her performance of "Empire" this week on the show. I'm here to tell you that yep it's absolutely true - I told my wife as we watched the show - "she's not even singing and this is a singing competition where she's supposed to be "coaching" the contestants" - what the heck is that all about!! Sure the performance was visually stunning with the fire on the stage, her outfit and well Shakira herself of course. But if you can't pull it off singing it live on a singing show then "just don't do it". The only caveat here is maybe The Voice and Shakira did this on purpose just to get the people talking more about the Voice on social media (this would not surprise me at all). Check it out here for yourself and see what you think - Mayyyybe she's singing the first couple lines live but after that no wayyyy!

Phillip Phillips catching on with "Raging Fire"

Since we're talking about fire and music, American Idol 2012 winner Phillip Phillips is catching on at radio again with his new song "Raging Fire". When I first heard the song I didn't really think much of it. It definitely pales in comparison to "Home" (Top 10 on the Billboard chart and 4 million sold) and "Gone Gone Gone" (Top 25 Billboard and 1 million sold). But something about "Raging Fire" makes it start to stick in your head and I think it's the "come out come out come out" part that started playing in my head when I started waking up each morning. This still won't propel "Raging Fire" to "Home" or "Gone" heights but it will ensure that Phillip Phillips, with perhaps his "worst" single, is still miles above the success rate of any winning contestant on The Voice so far. See my previous blog post below for more on this "Will the VOICE find its VOICE with its Season 6 Winner?"

That's all for today kiddies - Have a gggreat weekend and I'll be back shortly with another post on new music and musical happenings in the world.

Peace, Love & Laughter

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Will the VOICE find its VOICE with its Season 6 Winner?

I have to confess, I have never watched an episode of The Voice which is now in its 6th season after debuting in the spring of 2011. I'm sure there have been numerous great singers performing on the show, most more talented then yours truly. I also must confess that I haven't watched American Idol for the last few seasons either. We all enjoyed Simon Cowells below the belt (but funny as all) comments to the contestants and the bickering between Paula Abdul and Simon. But what really peaked my interest was that Winners for the first several American Idol seasons would start releasing top quality songs on their recordings. Not songs that would be often hard pressed to be released as B-sides on a single back in the day (anybody remember B-sides?). In my opinion, the primary reason the Idol winners (and often 1st, 2nd and 3rd runner up contestants) were successful with radio and record sales was the quality of the songs.

It has been said by many, that "it all starts with a song" and they aren't kidding. If you don't have a great song you're not going to make a star out of anyone. Too many times songs are selected for these artists because of "who wrote the song", "who controls the song", translation: "who stands to gain money IF the song is a hit". Well I'm here to tell you that if you release a crappy song it isn't going to be a hit and there isn't going to be much money to be had :)

If I could give one piece of advice (as if they are listening) to the producers of future Idol and Voice winners it would be simply be: Find the absolute best songs you can that fits your artist and go with that song regardless of who wrote the song or who owns the publishing. Heck take an old song and re-work and have the artist make it their own - its no secret that some of the best songs ever written were not written recently. OR maybe the next time Adam Levine and his Maroon 5 band mates come up with another song like "Pay Phone", "Love Somebody" or "Daylight" he'll decide to let the Voice Winner take this song to the bank AND finally answer the question: "Will The Voice ever produce a star"?

Inside TV has some insightful information on this same topic here: The Voice vs. American Idol

In this article, Forbes magazine tells us last year the top earning American idol winners and Alumni - I think its possible to say that each of these 12 folks on the list have earned more than all of The Voice winners combined: Top 12 American Idol alumni earnings from 2013

Here's the gal that started it all winning "American Idol" season 1 - Kelly Clarkson singing "A Moment Like This" - the first of many great song released by Kelly since her 2002 debut:

Okay that's my soapbox for now - the reason for today's rant is that I realized I couldn't find a new song that I really liked enough to write about. Recently I've written about "Human", "Say Something", "Story of My Life", "Pompeii", "Happy" and "All of Me" - and each of these songs are STILL on the charts because they are THAT good. I'm sure there is something new out there I will really love but I just haven't heard it yet. Stay tuned I'll be looking and listening :) You can always tell me your favorite new song by voting on our "Love Song" poll at Vote for Favorite Love Song or post on our Facebook page at LoveSongs.com on Facebook

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Ringtones and Randy Jackson both on their way out

Over the last week we learned that ring tones and Randy Jackson are both on their way out. Okay so they aren't totally going away :) But business for cell phone ring tones is way way down from its peak of $600 million dollars in 2006 to about $ 160 million dollars last year. What's to blame for this huge drop in ring tone sales? Do you still use/buy ring tones? Or are you like most of us that customize our own ring tones from the songs we've already gotten? For some interesting insight on whats changing in the ring tone world here's an interesting CNN article Whatever Happened to Ring Tones?

As for Randy Jackson, he has simply decided that 12 years of American Idol is enough already. I really enjoyed the show in its early hey day with Simon, Randy (the Dawg man) and crazy Paula (sorry Paula, we really love you but you have to admit some of those episodes were a little loopy :)). But it just hasn't been the same these last several years. Even Simon's last year or two was a bit of a let down. So now the last man standing for American Idol is Ryan Seacrest and you have to wonder will we really be seeing Ryan for American Idol 25th Anniversary? If so I hope Idol finds a way to make it more interesting again like the early days.

Well it's a cold May day in Philly today (not quite 60 degrees Fahrenheit) and we are really looking forward to spring returning. By the time that happens we'll be back to you with another update next week!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Spring is drawing closer - Prayers for Japan

We are nearing the middle of March pretty quickly and its so hard to believe Spring is knocking on our door. At the same time I'm very saddened by the events unfolding in Japan this week. The amount of force that Mother Nature can unleash on the planet is pretty unbelievable. Be thankful for what you have, for your family, your health, everything, because you never know when it can all be taken away in a second. Please send out your prayers and other assistance if you can to those really needing it this week in Japan.

American Idol is Back - Pia James has got my attention :))

American Idol is back and I'm happily enjoying the fresh new format with Steven Tyler and J Lo on the panel. Sure I miss Simon's spot on criticism with his sarcastic style, but having two bonafide recording artists with one being a legend on the panel makes up for it. Looking at the Top 12 left after this week I'm gonna put my vote in for Pia Toscano and James Durbin to both make the finals. While are some very talented voices left after that I just don't see any of them competing with Pia or James in the end. As always it will be interesting to see how the show progresses and see which singers grow the most during the process (and which fall by the wayside). Overall a much better caliber group of singers then we usually see in the Top 12.

LoveSongs BLOGGG is Back

Yes I know its been like 5 months since my last blog posting which is a bit ridiculous. Was just so many things going on in life either with music or away from music I couldn't keep up. I'm hoping to be back to a 2x/week blog and will start posting my favorite new songs on the radio (or internet or anywhere). I'm always on the look for the next pop masterpiece and I'll let you know the best I find every week. Have a great rest of the weekend and again please send your prayers out to all the people affected by the quake and tsunami in Japan.

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Crystal Rocks it like there is no tomorrow on Idol

Well lets start with what was undeniably the best performance of the nite and maybe the best of the season. Crystal Bowersox took on Janis Joplin's "Me and Bobby Magee" and she nailed that sucker to the wall :) Regardless if Crystal wins the competion or not, American Idol has found another star artist who will launch like a rocket when the show is over. My only hope is that they don't doom her with terrible songs to sing (please somebody listen :))

As for the rest of the night much of it was pretty terrible...so many old irrelevant songs. I mean you can do an old song (Crystal did) but then you have to deliver big time on it or its a huge disappointment. Between that and the pitchyness all over the place it was a mess (as Simon would say). Some bright spots were Aaron Kelly with "I Don't Want to Miss a Thing" by Aerosmith..obviously under the weather this week Aaron still delivered one of the better vocals tonight. And Michael Lynche delivered nicely on "When a Man Loves a Woman"...but as the judges noted it was a safe choice and not an artist defining moment.

Its a toss up this week as to who may be going home...my bottom three would be Paige Miles (Paige where have you gone?), Tim Urban (its time Tim) and Andrew Garcia (another early favorite fading fast). My bet would be on Paige to go home tomorrow which is a shame that she would miss the Idol tour.

That's my picks and guesses for the night..will be back tomorrow with a new featured song and Idol results to see how I did :)

~V

Weekend Flashback Feature - "A Moment Like This" by Kelly Clarkson

Now that American Idol Season 9 is fully in gear, I decided to take a look back at where it all started in 2002. As we all know Kelly Clarkson won the first year and has since gone on to sell over 20 million albums worldwide. Its safe to say that American idol has definitely fulfilled its purpose in finding new music stars (and bringing in boatloads of money to the shows creators, producers and FOX not to mention Simon Cowell and the many others involved :)). "A Moment Like This" was perhaps the perfect first coronation song for AI as it delivers both lyrically and musically on the emotion of the moment for the winner (no pun intended). It truly is one of the great ballads of the decade. There have been 8 other Idol winner songs since then and honestly I have a hard time remembering any of them. Kelly's winning song went to #1 on the Billboard Top 100 chart in both US and Canada and went on to sell a million copies of the single alone (and this is before the paid download era so would probably be more if it happened today). Take a walk down memory lane from 8 years ago and take a listen and watch the original video here: "A Moment Like This" by Kelly Clarkson (YouTube)

Spring is Here - Lets hear some great new tunes!

Hard to believe it just 5 weeks ago there was like 2 feet of snow still outside (and 6 weeks ago it was still falling). The long awaited spring has finally arrived and it feels soooo good. I'm looking forward to see what interesting music news comes across the wire this new season and what new songs are released. There was a ton of great new pop songs near the end of 2009 into 2010 but lately there hasn't seemed to be much. If you happen upon an incredible new pop song please let us know by posting it hear so we can check it out. It doesn't matter if its a ballad, rock, country or R&B as long as its got that amazing hook that draws you in. The kind of song that will rise up the chart without any promotion or hype at all just because the song is that good.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend folks (sorry we missed our post on Friday was a crazy few days)...we'll be back on Monday nite with another post and a new featured song!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

VH1 Behind the Music is Back!

VH1's Behind the Music is back with several update episodes including Judas Priest, John Lennon and Genesis. All three of those are available to watch online here: Watch VH1 Behind the Music . Also an updated Def Leppard episode debuts this Saturday March 6th on Vh1. Some of the best music-related television I ever watched was some of these behind the music shows. Its good to see VH1 bringing them back and hopefully they will continue and do new artists as well.

American Idol - Bye bye to 2 girls and 2 guys - I was 3 for 4 :)

Tonight we said goodbye to 2 girls and 2 guys as we're now down to 16 finalists. 3 of the 4 that went home tonight I picked in last nights blog posting and they were
Haeley Vaughn , Michelle Delamor and Jermaine Sellers. John Park also went home tonight so that means my other pick Toddrick Hall lives on another week. Check back next Tuesday and Wednesday as I review the shows and try to guess the next 4 going home (its gonna get harder and harder to do). After next weeks show we'll have the Top 12 which is where the competition really heats up.

Hey hey tomorrow Friday is finally here YEAAAH we'll be back with another post tomorrow nite and a new featured song for the weekend!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

ITunes sells its 10 BILLIONTH SONG!

In less than 7 years Apple's ITunes has managed to sell 10 Billion songs...that is a little more than one song for every second since they launched...that is just amazing. All that and they claim they still aren't making money hand over fist. Yes I know the record labels take a nice cut from each song sold (so the artists and songwriters can be paid and the labels kept on life support). But 10 BILLION Songs...I mean even if Apple was making just a nickel per song thats $ 500 Million dollars in just under 7 years. That's a lost of song cashola for any company don't you think? And add into that all the Apple hardward they sold along with it (Ipods, Iphones, soon the iPad maybe ha :)). Apple really has got a huge thing going on and by the looks of it will only get bigger and bigger. Remember when Microsoft was the big bad wolf to look out for and Apple was the underdog favorite....maybe just maybe those times are changing we'll have to wait and see. For an interesting article on the 10 BILLIONTH song, who bought it and what they got check out the full article here: ITunes sells 10 Billionth Song

American Idol says goodbye to 4

Just finished watching the first results show and there were a lot of surprises...Tyler Grady? Ashley Rodriguez? Even Joe Munoz really connected with his performance (not a great song but he has the stage charisma)...and Janelle Wheeler going home instead of Lacey Brown. I mean what is America thinking? I don't know but definitely some of the front runners in my mind went home the first week. I hope the trend doesn't continue or it will be hard to watch the final 12 be whittled down to one when its all over.

That's all for tooooday folks - its another snowy Thursday nite (but hey its not sticking yet :))....we'll be back with another post and our weekend song feature tomorrow!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Thursdays Featured Song - "Not Meant to Be" by Theory of a Deadman

Definitely one of the strange band names I've come across, but the song "Not Meant to Be" is a great pop tune...about love that maybes not gonna go anywheres and coming to grips with having to walk away...never easy. Theory of a Deadman (also known as TOAD) hails from Canada and is very popular up there and also managed to sell 500,000 copies off their 2008 CD "Scars and Souvenirs" where "Not Meant To be" is from. The song itself peaked at #55 on the Billboard chart and if they were more known in the states would have gone much higher - its thats good a song. Check out the song and video here:

"Not Meant to Be" by Theory of a Deadman (YouTube)


American Idol Top 24 is Ready to GOOO!!!

Watched both episodes of AI this week as they rounded down the numbers to the best 24 in the group. There were a few surprises in the selection but not many. Some of my favorites to make it to the top 12 are Aaron Kelly, Casey James, Ashley Rodriguez, Janelle Wheeler, Katie Stevens, Lily Scott, Todrick Hall and Tyler Grady. There thats my top 8 ha ha...I'll check back with you next week to see how many of these make it to the Top 12. Definitely looking forward this year as its a great crew of performers and as they get better each week some will be amazing (and of course some will falter as the pressure builds up). That's what makes it so much fun to watch because its as real as you get in the music biz.

That's all for Thursday folks - will be back tomorrow with another song and some more music fun for you!!

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Wednesdays Featured Song - "Love Song" by Sara Bareilles

Yes its been almost 3 years since "Love Song" was released but hey its our first chance to feature it for Valentines week :) "Love Song" was offered as the free song of the week by Itunes in June 2007 and it gradually picked up steam from there week after week. After appearances by Sara on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and the Today Show it eventually peaked at #4 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart and went on to sell 3 Million copies. The album from which it came is called "Little Voices" and that managed to go Gold selling 500 thousand copies and peaking at #7 on the Billboard album chart. Unfortunately for Sara, recovering from this one monster hit song may prove to be impossible. "Love Song" is such a catchy uptempo tune - talking about how she doesn't have to write him a love song just to prove how she feels - it's infectious, so well written and performed that anything else Sara does will most likely pale by comparison. I have to say most likely because we just never know. Hopefully Sara will be out with a new CD sometime later this year or early next and we'll get to hear where she's going with her music. For now check out this amazingly good song and video for Valentines week called "Love Song"

"Love Song" by Sara Bareilles - YouTube

Ellen has arrived on Idol -and it was cool!

We all got a chance to see Ellen on American Idol for the first time and she was everything we hoped she would be. Funny, interesting and definitely honest when she needed to me (no more Paula praising how some one looks because the performance was terrible). Was absolutely a fun show and looking forward to more from Ellen. The one Paula related note that was a highlight was an amazing performance of Paula's "Straight Up" by 24 years old dad Andrew Garcia. His acoustic rendition and arrangement was exactly as fellow judge Kara Dioguardi stated last night...absolutely genius. I'm hoping Andrew can keep the momentum going as we go into group night tonight which always proves to be the undoing of some of the better contestants. Working well with others is such a hard thing to do for some :) For more info and clips of last night Idol show check out this article:

Ellen has arrived on American Idol

That's all for Wednesday folks - The snow is moving in again to the mid-Atlantic area so I see more snow shoveling in my future (as in today :)). Will be back tomorrow with another Valentines week feature and music news!

~Vincent

Wednesdays Song - "Already Gone" by Kelly Clarkson

Kelly, Kelly, Kelly still love you! On her 4th album including her American Idol debut CD in 2003, Kelly shows she has no plans to leave the pop music scene anytime soon. This album featured "My Life Would Suck Without You" (#1 Billboard Hot 100), "I Do Not Hook Up" (#20 and another great pop/rocker like "My Life would Suck.." and now she hits us with "Already Gone" which made it to #13 on the Hot 100 chart. This is a haunting mid-tempo song that draws you in slowly one line at a time in the verse...then the soaring chorus of "Already Gone..." seals the deal and you undeniably in love with another Kelly tune. I was so glad to see her bounce back from the disappointing "My December" and look forward to seeing many more great tunes from her. 10 Million albums sold in the US and counting way to go Kelly and thanks to American Idol for finding this talented girl! Watch and listen to "Already Gone" here:

"Already Gone" - YouTube

Imagine for minute how many lives would have been different had Justin Guarini had won the First American Idol back in 2002. You just never know where fate is gonna take you!

Music Biz exec to replace Simon Cowell at American Idol?

Didn't I just post about this yesterday - man I'm psychic ha ha. Seems that music biz veteran Tommy Mottola (ie. the former Mr. Mariah Carey) is being courted by producers to replace Simon Cowell. I don't know if Tommy or any music biz exec has the charisma to pull this off but I guess we'll have to wait and find out. I wonder if its not working out Fox will pull an NBC move and yank the new judge and try to get Simon back :) The entertainment biz is a strange place. Here's a CNN Article on the possibility of Tommy Mottola replacing Simon: Tommy Mottola to replace Simon?

I watched both nites of Idol this week - there were a few singers that really caught my attention and some interesting back stories (and the whip was a nice touch too from the Barney girl :)). All in all its shaping up to be a good season and looking forward to the Hollywood round in a few weeks.

That's for Wednesday folks its been a crazy crazy day in my world. Have a great nite and will be back tomorrow with another tune for ya!

~Vincent

Thursday's Tune - "Just Haven't Met You Yet" by Michael Buble

Michael Buble's big break came from singing at a corporate party when an aide to former Canadian Prime Minister heard him and passed his CD along and Michael ended up singing at a wedding where legendary producer David Foster was in attendance. It took some convincing and a lot more work on Michael's part but things worked out. He soon had a very strong career doing mostly covers of old standards and the occassional original song that came through. "Home" from his second album put him on the Billboard Pop chart for the first time and "Everything" from his 3rd album did it again landing a little higher on the chart (#46). Fast forward to fall 2009 and the release of Michael's 4th CD and the song "Just Haven't Met you Yet" is a wonderful pop gem. Uptempo, slightly reminiscint of Sara Barrelis "Love Song" (but definitely its own song)..it has such a cool groove and vocal hook you can't help but want to hear it again and again. Check it out here and see if you don't agree:

"Just Haven't Met You Yet" - YouTube

American Idol - Orlando fared much better

Based on the reviews from last nights show, Orlando fared much better than the snooze fest in Chicago the night before. Definitely looking forward to hearing the sunshine state contestants when Hollywood week starts. Speaking of Michael Buble and American Idol, he appeared on an AI episode back in 2007 and I'm no drinker but the man definitely came off as having a few too many. Being a live TV show I was pretty shocked to see it and my opinion of Michael wasn't too high at that point. Unfortunately the lives on forever on the internet and will hopefully serve as a reminder to performers what not to do when going on live TV. Here's a link to a story and clip from 2007:

Michael Buble on American Idol results show in 2007

That's all for Thuuursday folks...have a great nite and will be back to you Friday with another cool pop'n'love song.

~Vincent

Tuesday's Song - "Uprising"

Okay is kind of a wierd song and even a weirder video....and thats before the giant evil stuff teddy bears crawl out of the ground and start wreaking havoc on the city. There is however something very cool about the song as the verses bring you into a trance and then the chorus hits you over the head with a big pop anthemic (is that a word) sound. The song "Uprising" is by alt-rockers Muse from across the pond in the UK. Out in the music world since 1994, this is their 5th studio album and "Uprising" is their first foray into the US Top 40 radio market (congrats!). See kids hang around long enough and you just might start to get the attention you deserve. Check out "Uprising" by Muse on this YouTube Link

"Uprising" - YouTube

Tonights the Night for IDOL

First set of auditions start tonight with auditions in Boston along with guest judge Victoria Beckham otherwise known as Posh Spice. Looking forward to some strange auditions and hopefully some bright spots as well. We'll be back tomorrow with our thoughts along with another song of the dayyyy!

~Vincent

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

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