November 23, 2004
GamesIndustry.biz reports that GTA: San Andreas and Need for Speed Underground 2 are at first and second place in the UK Charts. GTA: San Andreas has regained no. 1 while Need for Speed Underground 2 debut sales beat out Half-Life 2. However, they point out that Half-Life 2′s direct download sales via Valve’s new Steam download service are not included in the figures.
In related news, Valve has disabled over 20k Steam accounts due to attempts to download Half-Life 2 without paying.
November 23, 2004
Although the only direct connection to hip hop seems to be the headline, this article on college radio station WMUC 88.1 FM’s founding of a record label also discusses their gradual move from a nonprofit to a self-funded project. WMUC is based at the University of Maryland.
November 23, 2004
AllHipHop.com has more on P. Diddy’s Mavs uniforms, including some background and fan reactions.
November 23, 2004
Rush Limbaugh is an idiot but the problem is he has media power. Please, those of you that recognize that the NBA brawl was much more about longstanding issues in American masculinity and sports violence, rather than anything intrinsic to hip hop, should let your feelings be known. And, if you’ve got media power, use it.
It’s one thing for those of us within hip hop to put our beliefs on the table in order to change the context in which we work. And we’ve got difficult issues to face. But it’s quite another for someone as despicable as Limbaugh to make the claims he’s currently making. If you’re not sure how to respond due to personal discomfort over the Vibe fiasco, don’t let it stop you now. Limbaugh threatens much more than the commercial viability of hip hop. He’s a serious threat to democracy both here and abroad and needs to be countered strongly, at least till his drug abuse finishes him off.
Alternate titles:
Rush Limbaugh, Drug Abuser, Lashes Out
Time to Institutionalize Rush Limbaugh?
What’s Rush Popping Now?
November 23, 2004
Mobile content and applications company Dwango announced record revenues for the third quarter. Third quarter activities included expanded ringtone options from INgrooves, an online digital music company whose offerings include hip hop.
Unfortunately, INgrooves’ website does not support my current browser and refused to let me proceed further without using a different one. Not a best practice, by any means. While I understand that online apps may legitimately require specific browsers, providing a text based introduction to the service with a list of available artists would have encouraged me to load a workable browser to take a closer look.
November 23, 2004
Fox Music recently announced a digital music store at FoxMusic.com. The cool thing about it is that you can purchase ringtones based on Fox TV theme songs and soundtracks. Unfortunately, the only songs listed under hip hop were from Dark Angel and In Living Color. This raises the question that, if hip hop is dominating ringtones, what will happen with companies that have few hip hop related properties? On the other hand, the availability of ringtones based on incredibly popular television shows like The Simpsons may undermine hip hop’s dominance in that market.
November 23, 2004
November 23, 2004
EMI, home for such artists as Chingy, announced increased profits and margins. The announcement also affirmed the growing importance of digital music to the bottom line as well as the recording industry trend of reducing the artist roster.
November 23, 2004
It appears that the premiere of P. Diddy’s new alternate uniforms for the Mavs has received little press coverage. Apparently they will appear in 10 more games.
November 23, 2004
Hip hop is already a big driver in the mobile content scene and my theme of hip hop’s dominance in the ringtone market seems to have been picked up at MocoNews.net. Whether or not that’s the case, James Pearce links to an article about youth and ringtones that digs a bit more into the presence of hip hop. More importantly, the article considers the fact that ringtones are becoming a signifier of identity among young people, who are apparently willing to spend regularly on new tones. While some look to ringtones and related mobile content to buoy the music market, software packages such as Xingtones suggest that such hopes could be undermined.
