It looks like all of the ad sponsored music sites are going kaput.

MySpace has reportedly acquired Imeem for a measly $8 million. Imeem will now join iLike in the purgatory of MySpace hell.

For now, Imeem will still be run independently of MySpace, but, word on the street is that it will soon by assimilated into MySpace Music. Another rumor is that MySpace may soon be charging for music services, so, is all this gobbling up of sites like Imeem and iLike a move into that direction?

So how did it come down to this for Imeem, a site that had over 4 million users?

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I recently participated in a very interesting discussion about the future of the music industry on a LinkedIn.com forum (props to Ja War for kick-starting the discussion). Below I share with you some of my ideas about the future of the music business.

The record deal that rapper Drake landed with Cash Money/Young Money/Universal is a great example of the seismic shift happening in the music industry. In his deal Drake retains the publishing rights to his songs and only pays 25% of his music sales to his labels as a “distribution fee.”

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My buddy Paul and his crew introduced me to Enter Shakari almost 2 years ago with the video for “You’re Not a Winner”. With a new album due to hit the ‘States in the spring, it was cool to snag this interview from their press peeps and share it with you.

Oh, and I also snagged a copy an album/poster pack for the first reader to leave a comment. Make sure to include your email so we can send you the swag!

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The 2009 MTV Video Music Awards are all the buzz right now. In case you missed it (or want to briefly re-live it) here’s a recap of what happened at this year’s VMAs:

Lady GaGa shows up to the VMAs with her date for the evening: Kermit the frog. [Outrageous Lady GaGa ensemble #1]

Madonna opens up the festivities with a moving speech and tribute to the late great Michael Jackson.

A parade of fantastic dancers re-enact some of Michael Jackson’s most memorable video moments and execute MJ’s signature dance moves with pizzazz.

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Among the many highlights on Black Gives Way To Blue, the highly anticipated new album from ALICE IN CHAINS, is a special guest performance by Elton John. The two rock legends collaborated on the album’s stunning title track, “Black Gives Way To Blue,” a heart-stirring tribute to Alice In Chains’ late lead singer Layne Staley. The album arrives in stores September 29.

“We were thinking about adding piano to the track and a friend suggested we call Elton,” recalls guitarist/vocalist Jerry Cantrell. “I remember laughing and saying, ‘Yeah, I’ll get right on that.’ But I decided it was worth trying and wrote Elton an email explaining what that song means to us — that it’s a real, raw openhearted song for Layne.

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We here at evolvor apologize for the lack of news and notes over the past few weeks – we’ve been busy doing some major updates to the site!

One of the first things we wanted to tackle was moving to a badass hosting company – one that can handle the traffic we expect to receive soon as we start rolling out new projects and of course kick-ass content about the always developing digital music industry.

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I just checked out the stats on music sales in 2008, and it may not be the end of the world for the music biz.

According to Nielsen SoundScan, music sales actually rose 10% in 2008, despite the fact that CD sales were down. Obviously, people have been continuing to go digital. Digital sales increased from 50 million in 2007 to 65 million in 2008. While that is an awesome slap in the face for the traditional minded labels, the real awesome stat was the increase in vinyl sales. Yup, you read that correctly. In fact, vinyl sales made an 89% jump from 2007 with 1.88 million sold. This was the best year for vinyl sales since Nielsen SoundScan began in 1991.

It’s that time of the month for a Pearl Jam post.

I figured with the all excitement still swirling from last weeks election that I would mention the recently released documentary Pearl Jam: Vote for Change? 2004.

The documentary was shot all on 8mm, so it looks pretty sweet. The filming took place during the 2004 Presidential Election, when a bunch of bands ranging from The Boss, R.E.M., Dave Matthews Band, The Dixie Chicks, John Mellencamp, Bright Eyes, Death Cab For Cutie and many more, hit the road in several key states for the Vote For Change Tour. The tour had several acts play in different cities of a state, or region, during the same night to get people to vote out George W. Bush.

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Yup, it’s finally here…Election Day!

For all your voting info, check out Rock the Vote.

While I’m all about Obama, some folks may still be undecided. Maybe a look at the playlists of the candidates will change your mind.

Barack Obamas Favorite Music Playlist

John McCains Favorite Music Playlist

Hmm, McCain has the Beach Boys (which I like), but he’s got not one, but two, Abba songs. Meanwhile, Obama has The Boss, Th e Stone, Nina Simone and The Fugees. Oh yeah, he’s got his own song on there too.

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Las Vegas natives The Killers have released details about their upcoming third album.

The follow up to 2006’s Sam’s Town is entitled Day and Age and will be released on November 24 in the UK and November 25 in the U.S., with the first single being “Human”.

Other songs confirmed for the new album are “Spaceman”, “Losing Touch”, “I Can’t Stay” and “Goodnight, Travel Well”. Front man Brandon Flowers told NME that “Losing Touch” is his favorite track on the new album. The band have already previewed some new tracks while out on the road this past summer, including “Spaceman” and “Neon Tiger”.

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Stone Temple Pilots frontman Scott Weiland will be embarking on a solo tour this November and December. Weiland will be on the road promoting his second solo album Happy in Galoshes. I mentioned the release date last week, which will be November 18, but I had the title wrong. My bad. Hopefully, Scott won’t fuck up this solo tour like he did in 1998 when promoting 12 Bar Blues.

Here’s Scott Weiland’s tour dates, with more to be added:

This week the web’s best creative stock photography site Crestock has teamed up with gangsta/rapper/father/legend Snoop Dogg to bring you one of the coolest contests I’ve seen lately.

The Snoop Dogg wallpaper contest gives you the chance to design desktop wallpapers to help promoe Snoop’s new album Ego Trippin, using selected shots from Crestock’s massive photo archive.

Winners of the contest get to snag some cool Apple schwag, but I’d be happy just having my art associated with such a marquee player in the music industry. An awesome way to add something neat to your design portfolio.

Pre-Release from New Album Streamed Every Two Seconds on First Day

Judas Priest, on the verge of releasing their first new album in 3 years, pre-released the title track to “Nostradamus” via the ReverbNation TuneWidget on April 21st to a throng of hungry fans. The TuneWidget was initially placed on only four websites but allowed fans to grab it and embed it on their MySpace pages and blogs, leading to over 200,000 impressions on launch day alone.

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I’ve been putting off this post for quite some time, and I’m excited to finally see it; remember you read it here folks, because the sound coming out of 61 North is going to be cranking out of your car speakers in the near future.

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