By Brad Stone – NY Times

Several reports Wednesday indicate that Google is set to roll-out a music service at an event at the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood next Wednesday. The service, we’ve confirmed from three people briefed on the details, will offer searchers a better way to find and sample music on Google – much in the same way people can get detailed financial information about a company from Google Finance. [Read More]

By Omar Kholeif – MOG       

In 1999, on the eve of PopMatters’ inception, I was an angst-ridden teenager, who had a tendency for ditching classes only to sit in the toilet reading back issues of Rolling Stone. By the end of the decade, my love for grunge music had sent me searching through expanses that spanned Punk & New Wave to classic rock, gospel, and soul. [Read More]

By Brad Stone – NY Times

SAN FRANCISCO — The idea of selling monthly subscriptions to a vast catalog of online music has met with only limited success. That isn’t stopping a new batch of entrepreneurs from trying to make it work.

The latest and perhaps most surprising entrants to the field are the European entrepreneurs Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis. In 2001, they created and financed Kazaa, one of the original peer-to-peer file-sharing services that hurt the music industry. The two have created and financed a secretive start-up called Rdio, with offices in Los Angeles and San Francisco. [Read More]

By Freshness Magazine

Walk past Marc Jacobs‘ flagship in SoHo or his numerous specialty stores along Bleecker Street and you would think someone has a grudge against the influential fashion designer.  On each of the storefront window is a mysterious tag in drippy paint.  Of course the tagging is all intentional as it marks an upcoming collaboration project between Marc Jacobs and graffiti crew 1134NYC members MINT&SERF (aka MIRF).  More detailed information to come soon… [Read More]

By Vibe Magazine

Instead of waiting for a record label to finance their new album, Public Enemy has an even better idea: Have the fans pay for it. [Read More]

By Douglas Martin – NY Times

Mr. Magic, whose panache and persistence in bringing once-reviled rap to mainstream radio in the 1980s helped pave the way for the breakout of hip-hop culture, died on Friday in Brooklyn. He was 53.

The cause was a heart attack, said Tyrone Williams, his manager and producer. [Read More]