Music Museums take Center Stage
Make that "center page." Music critic Jon Pareles took stock of the emergence of music museums in a high-profile article in the New York Times, asking "What have the new museums done to music?"  More...

Montreux Archives Cut Loose
The world's leading festival of jazz, rock and pop has created music history for almost four decades. Soon that history will be unearthed and cleaned up for an encore. The 3500 archived hours of film and sound recordings are being prepared for broadcast and consumer release.  More...

Of Trilobites & Trumpets
Dr. Niles Eldredge should keep his day job as a museum curator; he'd never make it as a cornet player. However, his personal collection of the horns is yielding secrets about "a general theory of material cultural evolution," because Eldredge is studying them as he does his beloved trilobite fossils.  More...

BOOKSHELF: Playback & Free Culture
Two recent books tell the story of the music industry from two very different angles: by looking the business itself, and by looking at the history of intellectual property rights.  More...

Do the Beatles Still Matter? Does Mingering Mike?
Marking the 40th anniversary of the Beatles' invasion of the US, Entertainment Weekly mused whether the Fab Four still have any relevance -- and offered a "surprising" answer. Meanwhile, a "digger" at a used record store has uncovered a huge collection from singer Mingering Mike, who actually doesn't even exist.  More...



FUSION: "Hick-Hop - Hip-Hop meets the Hollow"
Rural Kentucky is the unlikely laboratory for a new fusion of mountain music and hip-hop. "Hill Hop" or "Hick Hop" is a growing scene in Appalachia, spawning acts like The Kuntry Killaz and Delivery.  More...

"Is the Music Store Over?"
No, but we are reaching the end of the music store as we know it. Bankruptcy and store closings seem like a final crashing chord, but radical new models of retail may keep the music coming.  More...

BOOKSHELF: Nietzsche & Music
Friedrich Nietzsche's most famous (if misunderstood) quote is "God is dead." But the philosopher had a great deal to say about music, as compiled and examined in a new book by Georges Liebert, including, "Without music, life would be an error."  More...



CRAFT: Secrets of Stradivarius; Radical Archtop Guitars
What made 17th century Cremona the Golden Age for violins? (It probably wasn't a special sauce in Stradivari's varnish - it may have been the climate.) Also: Are we now in the Golden Age of archtop guitars? Innovative designs abound, and from a growing number of builders.  More...

What ARE they Singing, Anyway?
From glittering opera houses to seedy taverns around the world, a common refrain is heard: "Huh?" Recent research has shown why sopranos are so hard to understand, and other articles track the diabolical spread of karaoke.  More...



THE MUSICAL LIFE: Helping in Hard Times
For most professional musicians, life can be hard even while they're young, active and in the public eye. What happens when they get old or infirmed, and when they fall out of sight? Two organizations are helping take care of needy musicians.  More...

BUSINESS: Brands, Bugs and Bottoms
The interface of business and arts is often in the Twilight Zone, where good ideas and intentions swim alongside the twisted and the surreal. A Berlin-based firm is exploring how companies' brands need to include just the right sounds, but some other business ventures (involving viruses and hemorrhoids) just don't sound right.  More...

Death of the Album… again
A recent article in the Toronto Globe and Mail was just the latest reappearance of some variation of the question, "Is the album dead?" Guy Dixon's essay created a buzz among musicians and their chat rooms.  More...



SOUND POWER: Fighting Cancer (& Insomnia), Finding Landmines
Scientists have found ways to safely reach out and touch dangerous items - using sound waves. Hidden land mines can be located - and cancer cells destroyed - by singing the right tune. Meanwhile, while one artist promises that his CD will put you to sleep, other artists are robbing your neighbors of sleep, by cranking up the volume of their CDs.  More...

GADGETS: MP3 Player Literally Spins Tunes; Wooden You Like New Headphones?
This month's gadgets have a distinct yin-yang theme. A new MP3 music player is powered by the throw and dance of a yo-yo, and a high-tech set of headphones cures its musical brews in a cask of mahogany.  More...



Doggie Bags for Concerts
eMusic Live is experimenting with a new technology for giving concert-goers instant gratification - a take-home digital version of the show, packed onto a tiny USB drive.  More...



Summertime, and Camp Living is Easy
Frost has only recently stopped biting fingers across parts of the US, but it's already time to start limbering up those fingers for summer music study. Music and arts camps across the US and Europe are filling up.  More...

New Media Site Abandons Copyright
Some artists are fighting hard for changes in copyright laws, but to some students in Maine, those folks are swimming against the current. They'd rather dip into The Pool, a collaborative online environment in which sharing creative works is the norm.  More...