Morning Music Notes – Rappers Who Rap About Being Rich Sometimes Actually Are Rich

Rdio Goes Free in Multiple Countries

Music streaming service Rdio is trying to attract some new listeners (read: customers) and is enabling away free music streaming in select countries. You can get half a year of free streaming whether you are a new or existing user. The countries include Canada, USA (free since October 2011) United Kingdom, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, and Sweden. Germany and Brazil get the shaft from Rdio (due to licensing I believe).

“What’s the catch, Pete?” Why, let me tell you. There is a cap of how many songs you can listen to for free. Their 18 million song library plays without commercials (unlike Spotify). Will this help Rdio catch up? They reportedly have 100,000 monthly users, compared to Deezer’s 1 million+ users, compared to Spotify’s 10 million+ users (via Tech Crunch). A 6 month trial versus a 7 day trial like they used to offer might help a lot.

Meet The 10 Richest Musicians of All-Time

Any guesses who the richest musician of all-time is? My immediate guess was Sir Paul McCartney. Good guess, but only #2. I didn’t really have a back up in mind, but throwing out the guess of Bono would net me the #3 spot. Okay, I give up. The richest musician of all-time is musical producer Andrew Lloyd Webber (via Hypebot). Yes, he’s a musician but he’s a musical dude so my mind wasn’t thinking of him.

Below is the full list from Popdust and their approximate valuation:

1. Andrew Lloyd Webber: $1.2 billion
2. Paul McCartney: $800 million
3. Bono: $600 million
4. Bing Crosby: $550 million
5. Sean “Diddy” Combs: $550 million
6. Mariah Carey: $500 million
7. Jay-Z: $475 million
8. Dolly Parton: $450 million
9. Jimmy Buffett: $400 million
10. Michael Jackson: $350 million

That is one interesting line. It has a mix of new and old artists, but not necessarily the older and newer artists you would think. No Madonna? She has monster tours and is likely more successful than Mariah Carey in terms of sales (note: no research done for this statement).

Weird News: People Are Twice as Likely to Cough at a Classical Concert Than Normal Life

I’m not sure who researches these things, or why, but German economist Professor Andreas Wagner said existing research indicates that classical concert audiences are more likely to cough than people in ‘regular life’ (via Telegraph). Is that because of all the old, rich people at classical shows? I thought they didn’t get sick.

Bizarrely, it appears that the more modern pieces of 20th century classical music, with slower and quiet movements, that seem to attract more coughs. This article must’ve been written by the Onion – there’s no way this is true!

One of the theories behind this is that people are not used to such a quiet environment and get tense, which leads to coughs. The same is true for stifling a cough. Yup, sounds well researched to me.

Watch! Grizzly Bear – gun-shy

Another new video from Grizzly Bear, off of last year’s album, Shields. And you can get some animated gifs here, like the cool one above – bonus! Check out gun-shy below, and feel like you’re watching a weird episode of LOST.

Grizzly Bear – gun-shy