This is Volume 18 of ‘Around the Web in Seven Days‘. Throughout each and every week, I highlight what’s hot in the digital landscape, share entertainment and music news at the crossroads of the internet, discuss emerging media in traditional radio, recap breaking tech stories, provide helpful insight, share cool and imaginative findings and much, much more. If it’s noteworthy and innovative, it will be included. So put your reading cheaters on if needed and let’s get started.
Week of July 11, 2011 : Subscribe and stay up to date 
Adele breaks digital sales record … Adeles album, 21, is the fastest selling digital album in the U.S. to surpass one million units. According to Columbia Records, Adele has already sold 2.5 million units in the U.S. “Rolling In The Deep” was recently certified quadruple platinum for digital sales after selling over 4 million tracks. Adele has sold over 9 million albums around the world.
Chris Cornell says Jimi Hendrix wouldn’t get played on radio today … Soundgarden singer Chris Cornell has taken a dig at the state of rock radio today in a new interview with Ultimate Classic Rock, saying that mainstream music has become too conservative. He explained, “Think about Jimi Hendrix’s Smash Hits. This is an album by Jimi Hendrix and it’s even called Smash Hits. But if it came out today it wouldn’t be played on the radio. That’s weird to me. It’s odd that an album that came out in 1967 would be too strange for radio play in 2011.” Cornell added, “Radio and TV can still push a band, but things need to be shaken up. There is the internet, but mostly what I see there is little kids on YouTube playing music. They’re great at what they do, but they’re little kids. It needs to go beyond YouTube for a real shake up to happen.” Although the music business has gone through a lot of changes and downsizing during the years that Soundgarden was away, Cornell says that the band is excited about coming back now, “The business of music as we know it is gone, and what it can be is sort of whatever you make it, and the rules change every day. There pretty much aren’t any, and that’s an exciting feeling too, because that was the feeling we had in the beginning as an indie band. It was kind of like, well, we can sort of write this book any way we want, and that always worked for us. And that’s kind of where we’re at now.” Rock radio has not been unkind to Soundgarden since the band reunited last year. The previously unreleased track “Black Rain,” issued as part of last fall’s Telephantasm retrospective set, rocketed into the Top Five.
3 Doors Down streaming new album today … 3 Doors Down is giving fans an exclusive chance to stream the band’s new album, ‘Time Of My Life’, at the group’s official website beginning today (July 15th) at 3:00 p.m. ET. Starting then, fans can visit the site and ask the band questions in real time using the twitter hashtag #TimeOfMyLife. Every time the hashtag is used, it will unlock another stream of music from the album, so the more fans tweet questions, the more of the new record they get to hear. ‘Time Of My Life’ arrives in stores this Tuesday (July 19th) after being delayed twice from April and May release dates.
Rebecca Black releasing a new single and video next week … the singer made famous by her smash YouTube sensation, “Friday”, will air the new video on her YouTube channel on July 18th at 8pm. According to E!, Black’s latest song, “My Moment”, will be about her life. The video will feature home footage from her greatest moments including collecting an award from her junior high school and clips from her hosting MTV’s Online Music Awards. “My Moment” was written by Brandon “Blue” Hamilton and Quinton Tolbert. Rebecca is also set to release a five-track EP next month.
Netflix introduces new plans and announces price changes … as I was checking email last night before calling it a day, I received my notice from Netflix that my monthly rate was going up. I am currently on the Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out at-a-time plan for $23.99 (including $4.00 for Blu-ray) plus taxes. The email was nice enough and informed me of the following, “The price of your Unlimited Streaming + 3 DVDs out at-a-time (Unlimited) plan will change to $27.98 (including $4.00 for Blu-ray) (plus any applicable tax) a month starting with your next billing period on or after Sep 01, 2011. If you select a new plan in the meantime, you will only be able to return to your current plan at the new price, regardless of when you make the change.” According to their official blog, Netflix had this to say, “First, we are launching new DVD only plans. These plans offer our lowest prices ever for unlimited DVDs – only $7.99 a month for our 1 DVD out at-a-time plan and $11.99 a month for our 2 DVDs out at-a-time plan. By offering our lowest prices ever, we hope to provide great value to our current and future DVDs by mail members. New members can sign up for these plans by going to DVD.netflix.com. Second, we are separating unlimited DVDs by mail and unlimited streaming into separate plans to better reflect the costs of each and to give our members a choice: a streaming only plan, a DVD only plan or the option to subscribe to both. With this change, we will no longer offer a plan that includes both unlimited streaming and DVDs by mail”. So basically, my monthly cost is going up $4.00. Is this the end of the world? Not to me, but reports are circulating that many customers are irked by the price hikes and the timing thereof. The major movie studios are putting the squeeze on Neflix and raising their costs for content licensing and in return, I guess we have to help pick up the difference … that is if you decide to accept the price increases and remain a Neflix customer. Are you irked by the increases and will you remain a subscriber? Let me know by leaving a comment below.
Happy anniversary “Disco Demolition Night” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park … tonight (July 12th) marks the 32nd anniversary of the infamous “Disco Demolition Night” at Chicago’s Comiskey Park. In 1979, a local Chicago DJ named Steve Dahl, who had just been fired and had to get a new job after his radio station switched to a disco format, came up with a promotion idea. He invited fans to bring their unwanted disco records to a scheduled twilight-night American League doubleheader on July 12th, between the Chicago White Sox and the Detroit Tigers, in exchange for admission of 98 cents. The event was billed as “Disco Demolition Night.” Promoters hoped for an attendance boost of 5,000, but about 50,000 people showed up, many of whom did not get in. During the break between games, a box containing the disco records was brought to center field, and it was then exploded. The bomb in the box ripped a hole in the outfield grass, and thousands of fans then ran onto the field, setting fires and ripping up bases. Police in riot gear were eventually needed to clear fans off the field, and the manager of the Detroit Tigers refused to let his team play, out of fears for their safety. The White Sox forfeited the game to the Tigers. Six people reported minor injuries and 39 were arrested for disorderly conduct.
Today is the anniversary of Disco Demolition Night at Chicago’s Comiskey Park
Lady Gaga opens her ‘heart’ to radio … Lady Gaga is just one of the many acts set to perform at the first iHeartRadio Festival scheduled for September 23 and 24 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Ryan Seacrest will host the show which will stream live online and via mobile devices at iHeartRadio.com. You can also purchase tickets to be there live as well. In addition to Lady Gaga, other acts include: Coldplay, Nicki Minaj, the Black Eyed Peas, Alicia Keys, Carrie Underwood, Steven Tyler, Kenny Chesney, Jennifer Lopez, David Guetta, Rascal Flatts, Kelly Clarkson and John Mayer. Organizers are reportedly promising more artists will be added to the bill.
Watch today’s Foo Fighters show in London on your iPad … Foo Fighters’ concert today (July 11th) at the 2011 iTunes Festival in London will be broadcast live via a free iTunes app. Simply download the app and the concert can be viewed through an iPad, iPhone or iPod. If you prefer to watch the show on your computer, open iTunes and click on the iTunes Festival banner. The concert will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET.
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You can always stay up to date with all things digital by visiting the Digital Resource Articles section of the site. I comb a mass array of technology resources daily and these articles provide insightful information on the ever-changing digital landscape. The authors are leading experts in their fields and only articles that stand out in each category will be added and compiled. Feel free to explore and research to add this knowledge to your digital arsenal as I do on a daily basis.
Until next time … see you on the web!
