By the end of September the MySpace music store will be up and running. It will allow users to download and stream millions of songs from major labels. New music and back catalog will be available.

MySpace Music will be competing with Apple iTunes but they are planning on offering more music sharing and an overall better program. The downloads will be powered through Amazon. Fans can share music through personal MySpace pages, build communal playlists and use the store to buy tickets or artist merchandise.

MySpace Music will focus on sharing music and gathering new tracks from friends. You can check out what others are listening to also. So quit your complaining about the new Facebook and start using MySpace again. At least it will have handy applications like this.

It’ll look something like this so you can buy tracks/albums right off the artist page:

This band fucking rocks. Not only are they solid musicians and a great live act, but somehow they were kind enough to let us film them in a private acoustic session (see video). Now the boys are about to drop a new album on us, entitled Censored Colors, and they’ve decided to be super nice and stream the entire thing on their myspace. What do I think about it? Haven’t listened, but I’ll put some cold hard cash it’s better than Metallica’s Death Magnetic.

Here’s And I off the new CD.

Girl Talk doesn’t waste time; the just made Feed The Animals, which was just mastered, is coming out Thursday. Yeah, this Thursday. Being made available on the Illegal Art website. Currently, MTV is reporting that Gregg Gillis aka Girl Talk, is reviewing the mastered work now, and if it passes his standards, the web should have a shiny new copy of the hyper-sampled work in 2 days.

Oh fuck it, MTV does this better than I do.

“I haven’t heard the master yet, but Gregg has it and he’s reviewing it right now,” Philo T. Farnsworth, the owner of Illegal Art, told MTV News by phone on Tuesday (June 17). “If he decides something is wrong with it, well, then I guess that could hold up the release — either that or resolving some server issues. But it’s correct to say that it’ll be available on the Illegal Art Web site starting on Thursday … that’s correct as of right now.”

As luck would have it, an MTV News crew was actually with Gillis at his Pittsburgh home late Monday when he received the mastered version of Animals — according to our producer, not only does the album sound great (snippets of Kanye, Shawty Lo, Madonna and Heart — to name just a few — are sprinkled throughout), but Gillis seemed so happy with it that he asked us to decide when it should be released to the Net — our producer picked Thursday, and that’s the day you’ll be able to hear it.

“The plan was always to put it out as quickly as possible — before the physical release in September, for sure — and so that’s what we’re doing,” Philo said. “Gregg didn’t want to leak any of it early to the press; he wanted everyone to hear it, and when [the album] goes on the site it will be the first time [virtually] anyone’s gonna hear it. I mean, I’ve heard an unmastered version of it, and a few other people here have, but that’s about it. We have all been very cautious about it.

And Illegal Art’s plan will sound familiar to anyone who’s followed Radiohead’s in Rainbows or Nine Inch Nails’ Ghosts I-V (or even Saul Williams’ The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust album): Downloaders can pay what they want for Animals, though Philo said that if they spend, say, $5 or $10, they’ll get not only the album, but FLAC files and a physical copy when they’re available.

I’m not exactly sure what Donkey Style is, but I’ve got a few guesses. Maybe the Brazilian kids in Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS) can help clue me in. The follow up to their 2006 self-titled release will be called Donkey and is set to hit stores July 21st.

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Coldplay is just giving it away - details in the press release below:

“Violet Hill,” the first single from Coldplay’s upcoming album, Viva La Vida, will be available as a free download from the band’s website (http://www.coldplay.com) for one week beginning Tuesday, April 29th, at 7:15 a.m. EDT - a full week before it goes on sale at digital retailers. Viva La Vida will be released in North America on June 17th.

“Violet Hill” also debuts on radio this Tuesday. On the same day, Coldplay will post preliminary details on its website regarding the band’s upcoming free show:

June 23rd New York, NY Madison Square Garden

Please check http://www.coldplay.com beginning April 29th for details on how to win tickets. As this is a free show, no tickets will be available for purchase. Coldplay will also be playing a free show at Brixton Academy in London, England on June 16th.

Viva La Vida was produced by Brian Eno and Markus Dravs. It is the follow-up to the immensely successful X&Y, which has sold 10 million copies worldwide since its release in 2005.

Good luck Tom:

MySpace, the world’s largest social network Web site, said it has formed an online music venture with three major recording companies in a challenge to Apple Inc’s dominant iTunes Music Store. Vivendi’s Universal Music Group, Sony BMG Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group have minority stakes in the new MySpace Music venture announced on Thursday. Financial terms were not disclosed.
MySpace Music will offer free music and video streaming supported by advertising, paid-for MP3 downloads, ringtones for cell phones, concert ticket sales and merchandise. Chris De Wolfe, chief executive of MySpace, said the launch date of the new service was “fluid” with commercial features being added to the site over the next three to four months. He said MySpace is in talks with more music industry partners to offer their services on MySpace Music.

In the meantime, Apple’s iTunes recently supplanted Wal-Mart as being America’s #1 music retailer, with 19% of the music sold in January.