Made-for-TV Frontman Charmed Many a Believer

Back in 1965, Davy Jones answered an ad in Variety looking for "four insane boys" to star in a television comedy about a band resembling the Beatles. The result was "The Monkees," a pioneering effort in prefabricated pop culture. More...

Anatomy of a Tear-Jerker

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Internet to Artists: Drop Dead

Contrary to myth, providing consumers with convenient downloads at reasonable prices, as iTunes did, does not appear to have ameliorated piracy at all. More...

Books That Are Never Done Being Written

Digital text is ushering in an era of perpetual revision and updating, for better and for worse 

I recently got a glimpse into the future of books. A few months ago, I dug out a handful of old essays I'd written about innovation, combined them into a single document, and uploaded the file to Amazon's Kindle Direct Publishing service. Two days later, my little e-book was on sale at Amazon's site. The whole process couldn't have been simpler. More...

Jazz in the City Wants You!

Jazz in the City, a group for local jazz aficionados, which introduces you to the finest musicians performing at some of the coolest venues around the world, is seeking organizers for Meetups in the following cities:

Boston 
California 
Chicago 
DC 
Houston 
London 
Miami 
Paris 
Philadelphia 
San Francisco 
Seattle 
Vancouver 
Toronto

• Must have a passion for music particularly jazz.
• Must have good organizational skills
• Must be willing to devote at least 5 hours per week

We're looking for someone with good leadership skills who is friendly and hospitable.

If you posses the above mentioned qualities, then we'd like to speak to you.

For more details, please contact Charles at charles@jazzinthecity.org or visit us at Jazz in the City.

http://mim.io/7a23e1

At Last, a Label Goes Digital

For years Dan Storper would get an occasional phone call from an executive at iTunes or the Amazon MP3 store, asking the same question every time: “Have you changed your mind yet?”

The calls were about Mr. Storper’s record label, Putumayo World Music, which has developed a multimillion-dollar franchise around the idea of making the sounds of distant corners of the planet accessible to everyday Western shoppers. World music releases often end up as a particularly low-selling species of esoterica, but Putumayo’s colorfully decorated, novice-level compilations, like “Acoustic Brazil” and “French Café,” have sold 27 million copies around the world. More...

Jerry Leiber, Prolific Writer of 1950s Hits, Dies at 78

Jerry Leiber, the lyricist who, with his partner, Mike Stoller, wrote some of the most enduring classics in the history of rock ’n’ roll, including “Hound Dog,” “Yakety Yak,” “Stand By Me” and “On Broadway,” died on Monday in Los Angeles. He was 78. More...

Nick Ashford, of Motown Writing Duo, Dies at 70

Nick Ashford, who with Valerie Simpson, his songwriting partner and later wife, wrote some of Motown’s biggest hits, like “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough“ and “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing,” and later recorded their own hits and toured as a duo, died Monday at a hospital in New York City. He was 70 and lived in Manhattan. More...

A Village Person Tests the Copyright Law

The prefab, gaudily costumed 1970s group the Village People and its big hit “Y.M.C.A.” are enduring symbols of the disco era. But now this campy and eternally popular song has become the centerpiece of what could be a significant test of copyright law. More...