links for 2011-01-25

I think YouTube is becoming people's number one choice for discovering music. You get a more complete idea about a band from that, see a video, live performance, maybe an interview too. MySpace offered too much, tried to do everything, now it's regressing to just a music discovery site but it's just too late. It long lost its cool and it didn't do itself any favors by relaunching itself over and over, it just became a joke.

On July 1st, Facebook is introducing its Facebook Credits virtual currency. First, the company will make it the main payment system for all apps, taking a 30 percent cut of transactions. Soon thereafter, Facebook could also use this payment system as the preferred system for buying goods, concert tickets, or songs.

Das Prinzip jedenfalls klingt einleuchtend, wenn auch alles andere als revolutionär: Songs sollen sofort zu kaufen sein, sobald sie im Radio gespielt werden. Erstaunlich daran ist eigentlich nur, warum es so lange gedauert hat, das so zu handhaben. Denn die Realität ist schon seit Jahren so: Man hört einen Song, will ihn haben und sucht ihn online. Gefunden wurde er bisher allerdings meist eben nicht in den eingängigen MP3-Shops, sondern „illegal“. Wie auch sonst?

Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and co-composer Atticus Ross have been nominated for the film industry's highest honor: an Academy Award for Best Original Score for their music for the David Fincher film The Social Network.