Live Nation Gone To The Birds

As if Live Nation isn't having enough problems, now they have to refund tickets to the Kings of Leon show that took place on July 23rd in St Louis.  The band played 3 songs and left the stage.  There was an announcement that due to the band's safety, the show had been canceled.  Kings "safety" was compromised by a pooping pigeon that apparently landed it's goods in the mouth of the bass player.

We7-Peter Gabriel's New Streaming Site

Albums and songs can be streamed in full on the new site, We7.com, which was co-founded by Peter Gabriel. Being that it comes from a musician, the artists will get paid if their music is streamed. It's akin to Internet radio, but on demand. Artists (or their labels) get paid via an advertising based model. In theory it sounds great. There are so many artists I'd love to hear what they or their latest record sounds like. Indie911.com is a great place to stream a new record, but the choices are limited.

I did a search of artists that ranged from the classic to the obscure and here are results

• Beach Boys delivered a bunch of karaoke versions of their songs.
  
• Brian Wilson had similar results.
  
• Boz Scaggs-no results.
  
• James Morrison -asks if I mean Van Morrison.
  
• Florence and the Machine-no results.
• Kings of Leon-no results.
• Black Eyed Peas -karaoke versions.
• My Morning Jacket-no results.
  
• Keith Urban and Carrie Underwood -karaoke versions
• The most perplexing of all is Peter Gabriel yielding a karaoke version of Sledgehammer.
  

According to the article in NME, the site contains millions of tracks including those from Nickelback. I search Nickelback and karaoke tracks tracks were listed. Thievery Corporation was on the homepage, so I clicked and was able to listen to a track. The list of recommendations of other artists that sound like TC was headed by Zero 7, so I clicked on the link. It brought to a page that had other recommendations, a link to their bio, a button to share or join an email list. There was also a bar that measured the popularity of the band. I'm not sure how they determine that or what it actually means. Bottom Line: I couldn't find a Zero 7 track to listen to. Why would they recommend it, if it's not available to stream? I'm not a neophyte when it comes to the web. My experience on We7 has been frustrating and unproductive. If someone has had a great user experience on the site, I would love to hear from you.