Musical Freedom on Independence Day???

Since paid music downloads first came on the scene with ITunes in 2003, the sales of these downloads has increased every year helping to offset the decline in physical CD sales. Last year in 2013, marked the first year that paid download sales decreased and by a full six percent. Fast forward to this year 2014 and already paid downloads have decreased another 15 percent from January to June from last years first half. Its clear to see this trend is beginning to rapidly accelerate.

The decline in CD sales and paid MP3 downloads has begun to be somewhat replaced by the multitude of music streaming services now available, with everything from YouTube, Pandora, Spotify and of course Beats the recent Apple acquisition. Studies have been done analyzing the income that artists and songwriters receive from these streaming services and it certainly appears they don't make up for what is being lost. While this downward trend in revenue for artists and songwriters may be temporary, when you combine it with the fact that music and arts programs continue to be cut from schools it is a troubling trend.

We're on a new music at LoveSongs.com to raise the awareness of just how important music is to all of us. For more information please click on "Keep Music Alive" at www.LoveSongs.com and check out this New York Times Article that tells the story in detail:

NY Times: Sharp Rise in Music Streaming while CD and Download Sales Plummet

MAGIC! seeks freedom from oppressive Dad :

Four lads from Toronto Canada recently hit #2 on the USA Billboard chart with a fun reggae-beat song entitled "Rude". This little pop-ditty tells the story of a young man who wants to marry this mans daughter, but apparently his musician-persona isn't good enough. Instead he has his sights set on his daughter marrying someone who on the surface appears to be more educated and refined (ouch, I'm a musician too :)). Great great pop hook and love the verse melodies and story too - One of the best songs on the radio right now and a cute video too:

"Why you gotta be so rudeeee...
Don't you know I'm human too
Why you gotta be so rude....
I'm gonna marry her anyway

Check out the video, I swear that the guy the Dad wants his daughter to marry is actually the bass player in the band - What's he got against singers anyway haaa

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

p.s. KEEP MUSIC ALIVE Day #4 - Visit our first post from Tuesday July 1st for more information about our mission

Alex B hits 1 Million YouTube views w/"Will You Be My Girl"

Philadelphia's very own up and coming pop star Alex B recently hit 1 Million YouTube views for his song and video "Will You Be My Girl". We recently featured Alex as our Indie Love Songs artist of the month with his groovin' uptempo Pop tune "Rollercoaster". We're so happy to see Alex cross the 1 Million mark for "Will You Be My Girl" that we're giving him an extra month of fame here at LoveSongs.com.

Currently only 14 years old, Alex performs like he has been performing on stage for years and years. He is so amazingly comfortable entertaining the crowd young and old and its obvious he's having the time of his life enjoying the experience. Add to that Alex's growing collection of great original pop songs, you now have a recipe for a big star in the making. Alex has already performed at some of the top venues in the Philadelphia area including the TLA downtown, World Café Live in Wilmington and multiple Xfinity Live events. It's only a matter of time before this young pop star bubbles up onto the national scene.

Check out Alex's "Rollercoaster" now playing on the front page of www.LoveSongs.com till the end of June.

If you haven't already heard "Will You Be My Girl" here's the Official video that crossed the one million mark:

Yet another great pop tune by Alex is "This Thing Called Love" and here's the video:

We will definitely be keeping an eye on Alex's progress towards the national stage and wish him the very best on his journey.

Apple/Beats Music jumping into the Music Streaming World

Apple computers recent acquisition of Beats means that it will be jumping headfirst into the music streaming business competing with Pandora, Spotify and the legions of others. Amazon will also be jumping into the bigger music streaming pool soon as they announced they'll be offering a new Music Streaming service to their millions of Amazon Prime members. All these developments definitely make an interesting story-line for what options we as music lovers have to hear our music (anyone still missing our vinyl records??). Here's a recent article on how the Apple Beats combination might fit into the streaming scene: How Does Apple Beats Shake Up Music Streaming?

Do you currently use Pandora, Spotify or Beats music streaming and if you do how do you like it so far? How would you like to see these services change to better enhance our musical listening experience? Leave a comment here and let us know.

That's all for today folks - be back later this weekend with another post - until then have mucho fun tooooday!

Peace, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com