EirePreneur

Bono is the new Pope

Via Marc Canter: Bono is the new Pope.

Mickey Joe Harte, Juventus goalkeeper

So this is where ex-Irish Eurovision entrants go.....

to play in goals for Italian soccer teams.

After watching last night's game I'd have to advise you go back to singing Mickey. Or maybe Gianluigi Buffon could sing for Ireland ;-)

IMP - Irish Music Podcasters

AMP is the Association of Music Podcasting

"We are an organization of 6 shows dedicated to exposing indie musicians and unsigned artists."

I wonder if there willl soon be enough momentum behind Irish Podcasting to form an Irish chapter? Liam Burke, what do you think?

Gone dismantling....

Light blogging all week.... I can't blog while I'm listening to great music.... and I can't stop listenting to U2's new album, 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'. And I'm probably not the only one.

U2 prove that downloads help sales

Yet more proof for the RIAA lawyers that music downloads can help sales of physical CDs comes in the form of a rare number 1 on the British chart for Irish supergroup U2.

As Yahoo! Launch points out, about the song Vertigo from their new album, How to dismantle an atomic bomb -

"... the track has actually been available to download for about six weeks now and has been top of just about every download chart going - including the official one where since its "release" only a novelty record has been able to dislodge it. Now given that U2 appeal to a rather more mature audience than your average pop fan is kind of follows that they would be the rather more affluent types who would own personal digital players or be in the habit of downloading things to burn to CD. Yet despite this lead in, despite the thousands of downloads that have already been made, the physical release of the CD has still prompted people to flock to the shops to purchase it. Admittedly if you are a huge U2 fan you will want to get the single for the b-side alone but despite this, 'Vertigo' has nicely become one of the first releases to be both a smash hit download and a top-selling CD."

 

Of course the hype surrounding the launch of the special edition U2 iPod can't have done any harm but this is still an incredible feat for a band who've had a dearth of number 1 hits in the UK down through the years. Ok, the song is good but it's not that good, is it? What more proof is required to demonstrate that music downloads really do help to sell more music?

No, no iTMS for Ireland

Unbelievable! Ireland doesn't appear to be on Apple's map of Europe -

"Apple® today launched a European Union version of its revolutionary iTunes® Music Store, giving music fans in Austria, Belgium, Finland, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain the same innovative features and breakthrough price of €0.99 per song that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world."

U2, you didn't just sell out on your fans, you sold out on your homeland.

PS. Only slagging, I'm still a fan and I'm not that desperate for iTMS. In fact eircom's white labelled Music Club is doing me fine.

iTunes for Ireland?

Is the Apple iTunes Music Store coming to Ireland or isn't it? How ironic if Ireland is left out on a limb on the same day that Apple announced the U2 iPod.

u2Pod

Forbes.com reports that Irish supergroup U2 has signed a pioneering deal with Apple Computer to sell custom iPods and give exclusive rights to sell all the songs from their new album online through Apple's iTunes Music Store for at least the first few weeks following a release.

"Sources close to the group say the U2 edition of the popular digital music player will come preloaded with the band's new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, along with portions of the Irish supergroup's 25-year catalogue. The iPods will be black and will be made available the same week as the band's 11th studio album, which is slated to be released in the U.S. by Universal Music Group's Interscope Records on November 23."

I worked in Apple Computer in Cork for a year, at a time when the company was going through an all time low. So I get a huge buzz now following their ongoing rebound and reinvention, and their efforts to reinvent the music industry. Go Apple, go!

DIY Record Label

Only getting around to reading last week's Limerick Leader this evening I was intrigued to learn about OUT ON A LIMB RECORDS. From their website -

Out On A Limb Records was set up in Limerick city, Ireland, in the summer of 2003 by two individuals, with the primary objective being to unleash "Is it ok to be loud, Jesus?", the debut album from local band GIVEAMANAKICK. The year was topped off with the joyous release of the GIVEAMANAKICK/REST split Christmas single.

Since that particular release, the label has doubled in size with the addition of two more people, who were as equally enthused about the bands on the label's roster. Not only does the label have something of a base in Limerick, it also has representation in Cork city. Thus, the primary source areas for the label will be the mid-west and south-west regions of Ireland. However, don't be surprised to see us releasing other quality material from all kinds of other directions!

In the Leader article one of the founders, Richard Bourke, describes the outfit as a virtual label of sorts -

"We don't have a real office. We just use our kitchens and sitting rooms so we are pretty much a portable label in that respect."

It's great stuff and as you'd expect they provide some downloadable MP3s for your listening pleasure. Even a record label can be a microbusiness.

Blog to the beat

Blogging time has taken a serious hit lately as I've been spending most of my spare minutes (and bandwidth) filling the Dunloe size gaps in my music collection with downloads from Eircom's Music Club.

This is the way music was meant to be compiled. Sure, I'm cherry picking but there have been so many great tunes down through the years that I didn't add to my collection because (a) singles are a rip-off, and (b) the albums on which they were packaged were full of fillers.

The problem was I'd forgotten the names of most of those tunes and the artists. Fortunately though I found EveryHit.com - the UK Top 40 Chart Archive which seems to cover the British Singles and Album charts over the last half century, although I'm only gone back as fas as 1993 yet.

One side effect of browsing yesteryear's hits, that I hadn't accounted for, is nostalgia! Jeez, I can't believe the emotions evoked by simply remembering classics such as "4 Non Blondes - What's Up", from June 1993. My God, is it really 11 years since that was a hit?