Alicia Keys has always been one of those artists who defied the norms of the RnB mould, instead of carrying on with the standard boring repetitive beats, she moved into releasing material she always wanted to release, while also embracing the digital age we all know and love. Her unplugged album is an absolute masterpeice, something one rarely expects from an RnB artist; most of them tend to not actually have the real raw talent to release a live, reletively unmastered release.

Alicia Keys comes back to Ireland and the UK for a series of live shows.


* 19 May, Birmingham
* 21 May, Dublin
* 23 May, Glasgow
* 25 May, London
* 26 May, London
* 29 May, Manchester


If you want to go to Alicia Keys concert, you should save yourself a ticket.

She will be in other countries as well:

* 02 May, Verona
* 08 May, Arnhem
* 09 May, Frankfurt
* 12 May, Hamburg
* 13 May, Oberhausen
* 17 May, Zurich
* 31 May, Paris
* 02 Jun, Barcelona
* 04 Jun, Lyon

Half of US digital music downloaders have paid Digital Music - The Future

The good news: Research company Ipsos Insight reported that over half of US digital music downloaders have paid for the music. About 25 million downloaders have paid, 11 million in the past month. The bad news: Despite this penetration, authorized services represent a tiny fraction of total downloading. The major labels and online retailers have a long way to go to sell the public on the value of paid offerings [...] Read More


Paid Downloads Cool Down Digital Music - The Future

According to Nielsen Soundscan, there were 581 million downloads in 2006 for a growth rate of 54 percent over last year, less than the previous year's growth rate of 163 percent. Market share leader Apple has sold two billion downloads in four years. We covered this a year ago when weekly year to year growth rates were lower than the previous year. The year end numbers confirm this trend. We wrote [...] Read More


Digital music doldrums - Long-term change Digital Music - The Future

This article is one in a series examining the Pali Capital report that showed paid music download growth is slowing. Long-term change The long-term message is that the industry's problems can no longer be obscured by digital. Does this spell doom for music? It depends on your definition of music. Independent artists are thriving through the Internet and P2P. Big music though is another story. While the industry falsely blames others [...] Read More


Good news/bad news: Half of US digital music downloaders have paid P2P File Sharing

The good news: Research company Ipsos Insight reported that over half of US digital music downloaders have paid for the music. About 25 million downloaders have paid, 11 million in the past month. The bad news: Despite this penetration, authorized services represent a tiny fraction of total downloading. The major labels and online retailers have a long way to go to sell the public on the value of paid offerings [...] Read More


Paid Downloads Cool Down P2P File Sharing

According to Nielsen Soundscan, there were 581 million downloads in 2006 for a growth rate of 54 percent over last year, less than the previous year's growth rate of 163 percent. Market share leader Apple has sold two billion downloads in four years. We covered this a year ago when weekly year to year growth rates were lower than the previous year. The year end numbers confirm this trend. We wrote [...] Read More

This is beginning to make the whole legal process that goes into shutting down torrent sites and the like look, well, a bit of a joke. See, a few months ago the Pirate Bay was served with shutdown orders, and two people who apparently run it were hit with big fines, yet nothing has actually happened; all "still running" fines have been postponed pending appeal, and the two people charged are being difficult to pin to owning the site.

What's more, the site still runs, bringing thousands of new illegal torrents each day... but, did you really expect them to go down without a fight?

About me Digital Music - The Future

Welcome to the Digital Music Future Weblog, written by Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of RazorPop and consulting analyst for The Diffusion Group. I speak at industry forums like the billboard Digital Entertainment Conference and the Global Entertainment Media Summit. I look forward to charting the path of digital music. This is an exciting time. Tradtional CD sales have started an inevitable decline. While the music industry would have you believe [...] Read More


About me P2P File Sharing

Welcome to the P2P Weblog, written by Marc Freedman, founder and CEO of RazorPop. The P2P Weblog provides an insider's perspective of the P2P industry. I speak at industry forums like the Billboard Digital Entertainment Conference, the Global Entertainment Media Summit, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation conference to combat child pornography, and the Federal Trade Commission Workshop on consumer risks. I am an ardent supporter of innovation and a [...] Read More


Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure PCGamers Blog

The Gang over at Happy Puppy has a review of a game that never really caught my attention, Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure. I am a bit of a game snob and prefer my titles to have gratuitous violence or at least lots of shooting and stuff blowing up. That said, the reviewer mentions the title is ambitious, if a bit preachy as to how graffiti is a [...] Read More

As much as I hate to admit it, Apples iTunes has actually become a viable program to use for getting music legally and at a half decent quality. Of course, it's the biggest out there by some margin, as evidenced by it's continual rise to account for over 3/4ths of all legal music downloads in the US, and the parent company isn't doing half bad either... AAPL shares went through the $200 barrier just before Christmas... a massive acheivement for a company which has brought itself to the forefront of digital media in the past decade.