APRIL is Here & Lets Keep the MUSIC ALIVE!

After a winter that just wouldn't quit - 15+ snowfalls in our area and a total of over 5 feet of the white stuff - the month of April is FINALLY here Hallelujah! I hope that all is well in your world now that spring has finally, actually sprung :) With spring comes new beginnings and the start of a new mission for us here at LoveSongs.com .

Will anyone buy music 10 years from now??

Does anyone else notice that more and more, music is becoming devalued in our society? Over the last 10 years we have switched from buying physical CDs to instead buying MP3s online via Itunes, Amazon, etc (and sometimes just downloading songs for free on other sites). What's funny is that now that the increase in online music purchases has finally evened out the loss in physical CD purchases, we're starting to see the online purchases are also beginning to go down. That's right, our newest technology friend is music streaming (think Pandora, Spotify, Beats and at least a dozen others).

Billboard Magazine - Digital music purchases shrunk in 2013

So now we're firmly entering the music streaming world with YouTube, Pandora, Spotify and IHeartRadio leading the way. While these services do all compensate songwriters and artists, its becoming apparent that the money available is greatly reduced compared to royalty rates on physical CDs and actual song downloads. I'm sure this doesn't have a huge impact on superstar artists like Bruno Mars, Miley Cyrus and perhaps a few dozen others each year. But for the 10s of thousands of other songwriters and artists that used to count on music to earn their living it may be another story.

We all inherently know the value of music in our lives and many of us also know the value music brings to education and numerous types of therapy (it's that right brain thing). Imagine if we reached a point where no new music was being created, for the simple fact that there was no longer a business model that supported musicians and songwriters. Now this is far-fetched of course, since there will always be musicians and songwriters creating art. However its not such a stretch to imagine the quality of new music going down the tubes (some would argue that it would be continuing trend already in progress. With less new quality music, fewer and fewer kids would take up learning instruments compounding the current issue of music programs being cut from schools.

I don't know what the answer to all this is, but I do see a problem and have to say something about it. Music has always been very important in my life whether I was earning money playing & writing music or not. I want to live to see the importance and value of music re-established in our youth, in our schools, and in our culture. Here at LoveSongs.com, we will be looking for ways to help share this message and for ways to recognize the value music is giving to all of us.

Let Her Go - Passenger

Okay now off my soapbox and back to the music :) One of my favorite songs playing this month is "Let Her Go" by Michael David Rosenberg, better known as Passenger - Apparently Michael fronted the UK band Passenger from 2003-2009 and when the band broke up he kept on using the name. "Let her go" is a really beautiful mid-tempo tune that reminds us to always appreciate what we have while we have it instead of waiting till...

"Well you only need the light when it's burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go...and you let her go"

That's all for today folks - look for a new posting shortly and also news about new & updated features launching at LoveSongs.com this week!

Music, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

So "HAPPY" Spring is here - "BEST Day of My Life!"

FINALLY, Spring has come but WAIT there's one at least one more snowstorm in our future this week - can you BELIEVE that?? Well I'm not gonna let one more snowstorm get me down - I am HAPPY that Spring is here! And unless you've been living under a HUGE rock the past few months, you've also heard Pharrell Williams song called, you guessed it, "Happy" - you know "Clap along if you feel like a room without a room, cause I'm HAPPPY". The song and lyrics are infectious - once you hear them you won't be able to stop clapping & singing along. First released as part of the "Despicable Me 2" movie, "Happy" was released as a single on November 21st, 2013 and reached #1 on the Billboard chart just 2 weeks ago on March 8th and stayed there for 2 weeks. Now having topped the music charts in 23 countries AND 3 Million copies sold later, "Happy" is still going strong and will probably be with us for a good while longer.

Check out the Official Video for "Happy" right here - even the the Cat'n'Mouse GEICO commercial makes me laugh (although it doesn't end up too well for the mouse, despite the Cat still missing his lunch :))

I know it's Monday and for some we REALLLY don't like Monday's, but hey there's another upbeat song that's bean making the rounds over the past year: "Best Day of My Life" by the band American Authors reached #13 on the Billboard charts and made the Top 40 in 7 different countries (not too shabby ehhhh). "This is gonna be the best day of my LIFE" is a positive proclamation that we should all start our days with - If we did we might find that we're HAPPY a lot more often than not :) Check out the video here for "Best Day of My Life" - The pre-video Lebron/McDonalds Bacon cheeseburger Ad wasn't nearly as funny as the "Happy" cat'n'mouse ad but at least its over in about 15 seconds :)

ALL Robot band from Japan - "Z Machines"

Last on the list for today is something INCREDIBLE - okay well it is really cool at least - Check out this ROBOT (yes ROBOT) band called "Z-machines". This "all-electric" band features a guitarist with 78 fingers and cable dreadlocks, a drummer with 22 arms and last but not least, a keyboard player with green lasers for eyes. Straight from Japan you have to see this to believe it. I wonder if they will be playing love songs anytime soon? Z-Machines-The ALL Robot Band from Japan

Hope you have a Grrrrrreat week and make it past the last snowstorm of the season (we hope!). I'll be back at you with another posting sooner than you can say APRIL FOOLS!

Peace, Love & Laughter

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Spring and Spring Weddings are ALMOST Here

That's right, just a couple more days and Spring 2014 will finally be upon us. In the Philadelphia area we've had a record snowfall total this year with almost 70 inches of the white freezy stuff. But now its time to start the spring thaw and getting ready for the surge of weddings coming this spring and summer. To help get you in the mood we found one fun and one very useful article you might be interested in.

The first is 10 Wedding superstitions from around the World. Read about some pretty interesting superstitions from all the world including Ireland, Japan, India, Italy, England and more.

The 2nd article is for after the "I do's", when the honeymoon period is over and you're trying to figure out how to live together for the rest of your lives. For this you need 5 Rules for a Happy Marriage . I can attest that after almost 24 years of marriage, my wife and I have stuck to almost everything in this article and its definitely helped make us a very happy couple as we get closer and closer to our 25th Anniversary in 2015.

To finish off today's post, I leave you with a very special love song that has drawn me in more and more everytime I listen. Check out John Legend's "All of Me" with these lyrics that say it all:

"Your crazy and I'm out of my mind
Cause All of me loves all of you
Love your curves and all your edges
All your perfect imperfections"

Have a great week everyone and be back to you with another post this weekend!

Peace, Love & Happiness

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

MARCH Roars in with more snow - Don't wanna live "Without You"

Could you ever imagine living without your soul mate once you have finally found them? For me that would feel like the end of the world is really here. I know this song is 2 years old, but I it struck me again this week when I happened upon it on the radio dial. Written by Usher, Taio Cruz, Rico Love and French DJ David Guetta, the song "Without You" combines the perfect longing lyrics, driving beat and crying out emotional melodies and vocal performance by Usher. Before "Without You" I really hadn't payed a lot of attention to Usher's music but am going back to rediscover some more gems now after hearing this song.

From the Album "Nothing But the Beat" released one day before my own wedding Anniversary Sept 27, 2011:

"I am lost, I am vain..I will never be the same..without youuuuu...without youuuu". If you don't remember this song I urge you to listen one more time and see if you don't agree that this one of the most powerful & emotional songs you've heard in a quite a while:

Yes it's going to snow AGAIN in the North east (and many other parts of the country where it already is). Here is Philadelphia we've already had 50+ inches of snow this year which put us at #3 on the all-time snowfall for one season in this area. I don't know what #1 and #2 were but tonight and tomorrow's 10+ inches of new snow will probably get us pretty darn close to them. I mean it's soooo pretty but does it have to fall down to earth soooo many times in one season haaa.

For all the kiddies who want to go play in the snow one more time this year: "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" by Kristen Bell & Agatha Lee from the blockbuster movie "Frozen"

Hope you're enjoying this first weekend of March - just a couple more weeks until SPRING YAYYYYY!!!!

Peace, Love & Laughter,

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Counting Stars and NEW Musical Instruments Invented!

Do you ever get tired of just guitars, pianos, bass, drums, strings, horns and all the other instruments we've heard for decades (and centuries in some cases)? I recently came across an article about an annual competition at the Georgia Institute of Technology where they invite inventors from all over the world to come demonstrate new types of musical instruments. This year 23 inventors from 14 countries came to compete for prizes up to $5K and for recognition of their design and engineering expertise. To learn more about this very cool competition check out this link New Musical Instruments Competition.

Maybe when this is all over there's still time for me to learn a new instrument or two :)

Going forward we'll be trying to blog at least once a week and when we do we'll be featuring a new song that has gotten our attention. This weeks entry is "Counting Stars" by One Republic, the act whose original success as an unsigned act out of Colorado Springs shot them to stardom like nobodys business. That first single "Apologize" went to #2 on the US charts and we again see One Republic's "Counting Stars" recently hitting #2 on the Billboard chart (currently #6 but climbing again). If you're not one of the 182 Million people who have listened to this great song on YouTube already I invite you to check out the tune and video for "Counting Stars" It's a great pop tune that will grow on you a little bit more each time you listen.

We're heading towards the end of February already and the spring thaw has begun (60 degrees this weekend in Philadelphia). Looking forward to the rest of the thaw and some more good music as March roars into the calendar. Enjoy the last week of February and see you next month! Peace, Love & Laughter, ~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Happy Valentines Day from LoveSongs.com!

Happy Valentines to everyone out there in the USA and beyond. Not sure if Valentines is celebrated much outside America (probably a Hallmark invented holiday) but hey it definitely should be.

Although I'm from the Northern parts (of the US that is),I really like this compilation of Valentines songs from the All Alabama site along with their Spotify link. Artists on the list range from Elvis, Journey, Johnny Cash, Michael Buble, Elton John and many more. Check it out here and let us know what your favorite Valentines song is: Valentines Day Song Playlist

My personal all-time favorite Valentines song would have to my wedding song that I share with my beautiful wife Joann: "Nothing's Gonna Change My Love For You". Written Gerry Goffin and Michael Masser, it was originally released by George Benson in 1985. But young Glenn Mederios released his version at the age of 17 and that catapulted the song and Glenn forever into our musical hearts.

Take a moment to soak in these lyrics and listen to the beautiful melody that goes with it..just a one of a kind beautiful song!

"If the road ahead is not so easy, our love will lead the way for us...like a guiding star"

"I'll be there for you if you should need me, you won't have to change a thing..I love you just the way you are"

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Hope you all have a great Valentines and if you're in the snow belt this weekend stay in and cuddle up!

Peace, Love & Laughter, ~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com

Happy New Year 2014!

Yes I know about 10 days late to the party, but I had some very important errands to attend to :) Seriously though, there is so much commotion on Jan 1st, I sometimes like to wait a week or so till that dies down before I express my love for the New Year. Also just in case the new year is not going so well I could just choose to skip the year altogether.

The Death of Digital downloads - But WAIT there's more!

Everybody's saying it...we were finally hooked on the concept of owning our music digitally when digital download sales dropped in 2013 for the very first time (6% down). Before we get too upset it seems the lack of digital music sales has been offset by a 32 percent increase in digital music streaming. Trouble is of course, artists and songwriters make a lot less from a song streamed then digital sale. But a song can be streamed over and over again (from your phone, tablet, computer, car?) and if there is advertising or other money supporting that stream then its a good thing for the music industry. I think its way too early to tell how this is really gone turn out, but for my sake and millions of other musicians on the planet I hope there will also be a way to compensate musicians and songwriters for the art and craft.

Here's a few recent articles from Rolling Stone, Variety and Forbes magainine alll discussing the download/streaming changeover:

Rolling Stone - Digital-music-takes-a-dive-as-record-sales-slip-again-in-2013

Variety - Music-in-2013-purchases-down-6-timberlake-tops-album-sales

Forbes - The-music-industry-moves-kicking-and-screaming-into-a-streaming-world

Tune into Space Radio - Music from the Moon

You might think I'm making this up folks but I'm not and it's pretty cool. You can tune into Crater radio and literally hear the sounds of space interpreted by music. It takes data fro From NPR: "The CRaTER streaming radio station essentially gives a weather report by playing samples of instruments in various keys and pitches, interpreting conditions in space by a set of established rules. The musical instruments range from a piano to a banjo. The raw data comes from six different detectors on the spacecraft — so in a sense, it's like hearing a musical sextet from space." For the full article and to learn how to tune in click on the link below. I'm listening now and it's pretty interesting that's for sure.

NPR - Space-music-how-to-hear-solar-flares-from-the-moon

Well that's all for today kiddies - we'll be back to you next week with another edition of the love songs blog with some new and interesting music news for you.

Music, Love & Laughter

~Vincent James @ LoveSongs.com