Apple will soon allow record companies more flexible pricing of songs on their iTunes music store. Songs may be priced at 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29. In exchange for that, however, iTunes will make every available song completely DRM-free.

This essentially heralds the death of digital music purchases with DRM. While no doubt Amazon has been a big player in that (and in turn, they have received a lot of my business), this definitively puts the nail in the coffin. Since iTunes is the leader in digital music sales, all other stores will have no choice but to follow suit to remain even remotely competitive. This is great news for music lovers/tech geeks everywhere.

There are other possible ramifications for this move. I imagine more music players will start supporting AAC files, the format that iTunes uses, now that the songs will no longer require specially configured players (iPods) to play them. Also, with DRM gone, Apple has almost no good reason to keep their firmware locked down like they have with the past couple generations of iPods, so maybe future models will be more RockBox-friendly.

Even though it is Tuesday, which is the usual day for new music releases, the new Rush DVD actually came out in stores yesterday. The latest release is a full concert recording of Rush on the first leg of their Snaked & Arrows tour. The “soundtrack” was released as a live album earlier this year, but the DVD documents the whole spectacle that is a Rush concert, and includes some extra footage that was left out of the R30 tour DVD and the songs they added on the second leg of the tour.

I saw them on this tour no less than three times. The first time was during the first leg of the tour, and I got to see the show from the front row. It was easily the most thrilling concert experience I ever had. Almost every track they played was a surprise to me, and I got to rock out with other Rush fanatics. I got to see them two more times on the second leg, and while I wasn’t so close either time, I got to share the experience with various friends.

Having already done the “greatest hits and classics” tour for their 30th anniversary tour, on this one they pulled out several tracks that they had not played in a long time (and in the case of one song, never played). They also played nine tracks off the stellar new album, which speaks volumes about the quality of their current output.

The concert is out on Blu-Ray as well as plain ol’ DVD, thereby making it the first thing to come out to truly tempt me into buying a Blu-Ray player.

You can find YouTube videos of some of the tracks from this fan blog posting.

The albums featured are Trespass (1970), Nursery Cryme (1971), Foxtrot (1972), Selling England By The Pound (1973), and their hallmark double-concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway (1974). A bonus disc is included in the box set with a couple of B-sides and rarities, including never heard before early recordings of a soundtrack the band was working on for a documentary that never saw the light of day.

Each album in the boxset comes with a remixed and remastered stereo mix on CD and a DVD with the new surround sound mixes. The European version (like what I bought) have a SACD hybrid disc that also contains the surround sound mixes. Unfortunately, the rumor is that when the individual albums get released (tentatively for January ’09), they will only be the CDs and will not include the DVDs. I don’t know why they are doing this. It’s totally inconsistent with the other released sets, but supposedly it has to do with the sales of the individual albums in the past. Supposedly the box sets have generally been selling much better as it mostly have been the fans buying them. So if you’re interested in the surround mixes, buying the box set is the only way to go.

I ordered my set from then-Genesis guitarist Steve Hackett’s website, so I had to wait a little over a week from the US release date to get my set. I finally got it now, and of course it has been worth the wait. The surround mixes suit many of these songs very well, as a lot of these early songs were very atmospheric and complex. Also, by pre-ordering from Hackett’s website, I got the man himself to put his John Hancock on it.

All together now!

The album’s two parts will be available as single volumes as well, so you can purchase only one disc if you so desire. If you’re all about instant gratification, low price and no shipping costs, they also have the album available as high quality MP3s (~$10 per “disc”).

Update: The album is out in the US now as well. I saw a few copies at Fry’s the other day, and you can buy the CDs or download MP3s from good ol’ American online retailers like Amazon.com.

Volume 1: Essence – CD, MP3s
Volume 2: The Hard Shoulder – CD, MP3s

So apparently Amazon’s MP3 store is doing a “daily deal” thing in which they sell old and classic albums for really cheap, and that seems to be how I caught Steely Dan’s “Aja” that way. Today, they are selling a classic album from one of my very favorite bands, Rush. Permanent Waves is regarded as one of Rush’s best albums and is considered to be in the same league as the classics Moving Pictures and 2112. And you can buy it today for only 99 cents + tax from Amazon.com. There is no cheaper (legal) way to get some Rush music into your library, and I would highly recommend getting it.

Recently, they have collaborated again to make an album where the two strictly stayed in defined realms of the songwriting partnership: Eno would write the music, and Byrne would write the lyrics and vocal melodies. The result is their new album “Everything That Happens Will Happen Today.” The best thing is you can listen to the whole album, right now, in the little Flash widget down below. Then you can go to their website and purchase the album in pure digitial format (in either MP3 or lossless FLAC) with the option to receive a physical disc later. How can you lose?

Since I last mentioned, the DVD for last year’s reunion tour has come out. It’s a three disc set with the concert on the first two discs and well-done documentary on the third. Needless to say, it rocks so hard that it makes me soil myself. Sadly, you can only find it in Wal-Mart and, even more sadly, they barely keep any in stock. Your best bet is to order it online from Wal-Mart or the Genesis official store. Below is a trailer for the documentary, which is an excellent behind the scenes look at the tour and how the band operates:

The Genesis hit “That’s All” was also recently covered by a country artist named Doc Walker. It was also covered live no too long ago by Allison Kraus with Union Station and Vince Gill.

This video is for Willie’s cover of Dave Matthews’ “Gravedigger”. The video is well done, and Willie totally carries the gravitas required for both the song and the video.

A new live album will also be out chronicling the best performances of the recent reunion tour in Europe. Simply titled “Live Over Europe,” it is the full setlist on two CDs. The setlist is an amazingly well balanced combination of classic and epic fan favorites with well-known hits and is a pretty good sampling of the band’s career, and I would highly recommend it if you ever wanted to know what Genesis is really all about. A concert DVD of their performance in Rome will also be out in February, tentatively titled “When In Rome.”

You know Genesis is back in the public eye when Starbucks releases an exclusive compilation of their music.

“14 From Our Past” is a unique Genesis edition of Starbucks’ Opus Collection series that you can only get while you are at Starbucks to pick up your organic Green MochaFrappaWakkaWakkaLatte. It is unique in that it doesn’t try to be a greatest hits compilation or an exhaustive career-defining collection of songs, but rather it tries to concisely grab bits of Genesis’s entire career by including exactly one track from each album or album recording session since 1970′s “Trespass” up to 1997′s “Calling All Stations”. This is a very unique but great collection for those who are curious about the history of Genesis. Take a look at it the next time you’re in Starbucks, and if you’re lucky, you might hear it playing in the cafe itself.

I also have a video already on YouTube of the ending to “Afterglow”, which is one of my favorite moments from the show. It’s two and a half minutes long, but you must watch the whole thing.

Many more videos are to come.

So it is timely that a microsite has just gone up in promotion of the second of three Genesis boxsets of re-releases. Genesis 1983-1998 covers the bands most commercially successful albums which contains the hits most everyone knows. The set contains Genesis (1983), Invisible Touch (1986), We Can’t Dance (1991) and the less popular but in my opinion equally good post-Collins release Calling All Stations (1997). There is also an extra tracks disc with b-sides from those album sessions. Each album has been completely remixed and remastered in both surround sound and stereo and includes a DVD with extra video goodies. The box set will have the extra tracks disc a bound booklet reflecting on the time period. Each album will be available individually as well. The funny thing is, no dates have been confirmed for release, but it has generally been said that the UK will see them in October and the US perhaps shortly after.

For those who want a more concise collection, there are plenty of options. In 1999, a one-disc greatest hits style collections called “Turn It On Again – The Hits” was released, and a couple years back a anthology-styled three-disc “Platinum Collection” was made available. A happy medium between the two that include the remixed and remastered tracks was recently released in the form of the two-disc “Turn It On Again – The Hits: The Tour Edition” that supposedly will continue to be produced in favor of the other two compilations.

The (current) name of the station is (appropiately) thisStrangeRadio. Unfortunately, it’s ad-supported out the wazoo, but I hope you don’t mind too much.

Bruce Hornsby releases a new album tomorrow which is actually a real jazz album with real jazz musicians Christian McBride and Jack DeJohnette. The album is called “Camp Meeting” and promises to be full of more Hornsby goodness, but in a completely undistilled jazz instrumental form. Between this and the bluegrass album he released with Ricky Skaggs earlier this year, Bruce has really seized the opportunity this year to achieve a couple of lofty dreams for a pianist normally associated with pop music.

Everyone’s favorite band of directly-related young East Texans, Eisley, is scheduled to finally release their second full album Combinations on August 14. The whole crew has really grown as people and musicians since the first album. The samples that have so far been released show that their songwriting has improved by leaps and bounds, and that both Sherri and Stacy have become stronger singers. It seems all the promise and potential that they hinted at in the past is being fulfilled. A “viral video” (they used to call them music videos, but whatever) for the first single “Invasion” has been out, and the song itself is available on iTunes, but just save yourself the trouble and buy the whole shebang when it comes out.

Oh yeah, Suzanne Vega‘s new album “Beauty & Crime” came out sometime ago, and it’s possibly her best work, despite being awfully short. Maybe I’ll talk about it more later.

The highlights for me, of course, is Genesis opening up the London show and Crowded House closing out the concert in Sydney with a full hour set that is available for viewing! The latter is particularly fun to watch to see the kind of hold this band has on the crowd when they perform in their native Australia. Remember that the new Crowded House album comes out in America tomorrow. Also, for fun, make sure to check out the “Other” section of the videos for a performance from Nunatak, and band on Antarctica comprised of research scientists! The song they play is pretty good, too!

Not suprisingly, since the site is hosted by MSN, your best bet is to use IE, at least it was that way for me.

Today sees the release of Dream Theater – Systematic Chaos, which is the first album prog-metal giants Dream Theater has released on the Roadrunner label. While the initial sneak peek tracks general got a very lukewarm reception, fans who were able to get their hands on an advanced copy has claimed that the rest of the album is significantly better, and as a whole it may be the best thing they’ve released since Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence. There is also a limited edition release which includes a DVD with a making-of documentary and the complete album in 5.1 surround sound.

The long-awaited reissue of the two Traveling Wilburys albums will be released on June 12 as The Traveling Wilburys Collection. The Traveling Wilburys was a short-lived supergroup in the late 80s which comprised completely of rock and roll legends: George Harrison, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne (of ELO) and Roy Orbison. For whatever reason, the albums this incredible group put out went out of print, and it has taken many many years to get the rights to republish them. Now, after over 15 years, the music will be available to the public again at a reasonable price. No more shelling out $30+ for a used copy! Now you can pay $30+ for new copies of both albums with bonus tracks and DVD content.

The newly reunited and reformed Crowded House will put out their brand new album in America on July 10, and the album will be called Time On Earth. While in the US they may be considered a two-hit wonder, they are considered legendary in their homeland of Australia and remained popular in the UK up to their split in 1996. They will play a handful of dates across the US including an hour slot at the Austin City Limits festival this year!

And then on July 17 will we see the release of the first album of new material released by Suzanne Vega in six years. This will be her first release on the Blue Note record label and the album will be called Beauty & Crime.

And finally, the many-times-delayed release of the “MVI” (surround sound + DVD content) version of Rush’s recent album Snakes & Arrows will finally see the light of day on June 26.

Woohoo!

It sounds like it’ll be as good as the William Shatner CD, and I say that with no sense of irony whatsoever.