Music lovers check it out

I came across this music lovers site today. Just pop in a title of a band or artist and watch the results. I'm pretty impressed with some pretty obscure search results so far.

Check out Musotik here.

Dave's million dollar T-shirt idea

It pains me to see teenagers walking around with old/new band tour t-shirts like The Allman Brothers. When I would buy t-shirts from shows it would be as a souvenir from the show. Today it's trendy to buy t-shirts for concerts you've never been to, for bands that broke up before you were born. Of course, trends change.

There is a transmitter you can buy for an iPod called an iTrip. The iTrip brodcasts the music to your FM radio; then it plays your music over it's airwaves. The Zune can actually send the MP3 file to another Zune player, so you can share the music with your pals (temporarily, as the file goes bye-bye after a few plays without purchase).

Here's my BIG idea.
We create a small transmitter to plug into any MP3 player that will send the files ID3 tag information, for example the artist name and name of the song, directly to your t-shirt!

Picture a scrolling LED light, like the one below:

Now imagine the light you see built right into your t-shirt or other piece of clothing. You're walking down the street as you're listening to "God Save the Queen" by the Sex Pistols. As you're listening to the song, "Sex Pistols - God Save The Queen" scrolls across your chest.
A tweak could possibly include the album cover art, like most MP3s in iTunes.

Strangers walking passed you would nod in approval, or turn away in horror. Either way, you'd know who your friends (and enemies) are straight away.

So what do you think? Crack pot idea or pure genius? Should I have used Country Music as an example instead?

Who wants to finance it? We'll be millionaires.

Dave

Country music struggles to find foreign market

There's an interesting article in The Tennessean about the demise of Country Music sales abroad. The article blames many issues including: illegal downloading as well as the lack of a ready-made network of country radio and TV outlets abroad.

Having had the chance to listen to some "new" country as I had my haircut
the other day, it makes me wonder if one of the commenters on the site may have
hit the nail on the head:

Is it any wonder that Country Music does not sell in other countries? The
content of many songs and the attitude of many of the artists is focused on
the USA being right on every issue and Americans being superior to all
others. This does not go over well in most countries. Country Music is
focused and targeted to a certain part of the US population. If they want to
change that target they have a long ways to change.

There certainly is some validity to this. Perhaps the labels should hire some Mandarin and Cantonese podcasters to start up some Country music podcasts and local radio shows to help boost interest in the regions. Better yet, how about some Chinese country stars? Could that pass in the States?

I'm a big fan of old school Country music, the stuff with the real soul. Hank Williams Sr. and Johnny Cash among others. These are the artists that need to be promoted to help boost sales abroad. Let the people hear where the music came from, that's the best of the best.

D