After acquiring both Idolator and Stereogum earlier this year, Buzznet, the social-media site partially owned by Universal Music Group has also now officially picked up one of my favorite music sites, and possibly the biggest misnomer in the history of the internet, Absolutepunk.net. From AP.net founder and ringleader Jason Tate’s blog:

I sat down with a variety of people to figure out the best course of action. Family members, business associates, fans, staff, friends, advisers – the works. I weighed all of my options … and after having met with everyone at the Buzznet offices … I knew I had found a match. From the board of the directors, to the CEO, to the secretary – I found a group that had similar visions as I did for the internet and for the music industry as a whole. I found a group that believed in me. They accepted the over-confident goofy kid in jeans, flip-flops, and a potty mouth. They listened to my goals, my dreams, my thoughts – and showed me how I could achieve them. Not only to continue to grow AP.net as I see fit (creative control, vision, voice, etc.) – but also to expand and work in other facets of the internet as my other ideas and creativity bursts forth. So, after weeks of soul searching – I realized it was time to shit or get off the pot. I decided to move forward with what may end up being one of the biggest decisions of my life. I decided to push the website into a direction where we have the potential to be massive. Where we have the potential to bring our unique content and voice to anyone who wants access to it.

Baller status.

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.

I don’t usually do the Band of the Day thing, but today I’m going to hijack it. Because I already love Flobots…

Hailing from Denver, Colorado, the group consists of:

Jonny 5 - Emcee, Vocals
Brer Rabbit - Emcee, Vocals
Andy Guerrero - Guitar, Vocals
Mackenzie Roberts - Viola, Vocals
Jesse Walker - Bass
Kenny Ortiz - Drums
Joe Ferrone - Trumpet

… who all made a killer album in 2007 called Fight With Tools, and were recently signed to Universal Republic Records. Check out the songs on their MySpace site, especially their hit “Handlebars” which recently made it’s debut on LA’s KROQ. Their sound (not their message) is like Eminem meets Cake and it’ll have you repeating the last four syllables of everything you say. Everything you say. Everything you say. (Ok, I realize that was 5 syllables.) Catchy beats, interesting lyrics, and a message of hope for a “fully engaged, non-violent society” equals ice cream to my ears. Here’s their website. Check ‘em out, add a song to your MySpace page and don’t forget to sing along.

Just got this press release regarding the Deluxe Edition of Beck’s Odelay released this week:

The first pressing of the recent Odelay Deluxe Reissue was found to have gone out with unproofed lyrics that were taken from a lyrics website as place holders for layout purposes.

Beck apologizes for this unfortunate oversight and is making arrangements for the corrected lyrics to be available gratis via
Beck.com. Subsequent pressings of the Odelay Deluxe will also include the corrected lyrics

This is lulz for several reasons. First off, the fact that the staff at Geffen used a lyrics site for whatever reason is just a little bit ironic, given that the music industry has made a point to try to shut down these very sites through litigation and threats of jail time many times in the past. And second of all, the fact that the “corrected lyrics will be available” online kind of diminishes the idea that buying an actual legit copy of a record is worthwhile, especially at $19.99. But what do I know? After all, the music industry had a banner year in 2007, especially Geffen’s parent company, Universal.

Depending on who you ask, Jay-Z is set to quit/was already fired as President of Def Jam Recordings:

A source told the New York Daily News newspaper: “He wanted big, big money from the owners Universal Music and that was way out of sync with the realities of today’s record business. “L.A. Reid, the Chief Executive Officer of Island/ Def Jam Records, and his boss Doug Morris have found Jay-Z’s demands excessive in light of the amount of time he’s spent on tour. “Everyone knows he’s not around the office much. Everyone at Universal loves him, but they just can’t justify paying him the money he wants when so many people have to be laid off.”

Universal Music Group, the largest of the big three major labels, is forcing all of its bands to take down the full versions of songs on their myspace profiles and replace them with 90 second samplers.  From Wired:

Word on the grapevine is that this policy was enacted about six months ago, but that in many cases, artists were only recently notified.  Universal has limited the music by artists on all of its labels to posting only 90 second samples on MySpace and other third-party sites, unless they have a contract with Universal that allows them to stream the full song on-demand.  (Labels can also choose to add an audio tag to the beginning and end of the audio files rather than limiting songs to 90 seconds, but most are going with the 90-second sample option.) The policy applies to any site where music can be embedded, except for Universal’s own official sites, which still offer free on-demand streaming of certain complete songs.

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Dumb. If you’re one of the lopdicks at UMG who thought this up, let’s talk in about 6 months and see how thing work out. That is, if you’re still around…