The News Review:

- Menifee Union spares music program from budget cuts
- Coachella Music Festival Ready For Purple Reign
- Jazz Fest: Wet and wild captures the spirit in New rleans
- eMusic has best-ever holiday season sales
- Game Group boss Lisa Morgan plays for keeps

Menifee Union spares music program from budget cuts
Press-Enterprise – Apr 26, 2008
The fifth annual Instrument Petting Zoo at Menifee Valley Middle School where kids can come and experiment with different instruments. "The idea is to open the door and show them how much more there is out there. It’s not just rap and hip-hop or rock and metal" said Richard Kettner a band and guitar teacher at Bell Mountain Middle School who has taught music for 25 years. "There’s something about creating. Music makes us unique as human beings. " Alexxandra Cortez 9 came to the instrument round-robin to explore the differences between the clarinet and the flute the instrument she picked up at the beginning of her fourth-grade year last July. "I like the noise.

Coachella Music Festival Ready For Purple Reign
CBS 2 – Apr 26, 2008
com – Coachella Music Festival Ready For Purple Reign. All Rights Reserved… Many more are expected for Saturday. Although traffic is reportedly always a problem during the festival Indio police spokesman Ben Guitron said Friday’s congestion was less than last year’s adding that Monroe Street one of the festival’s main arteries was under construction at the time. He also said this was the third year in a row that “amnesty cans” large metal containers with slots were being placed at the festival entrance for concert goers to drop illegal drug contraband before entering. “It seems to work well” Guitron said. “We’re trying to give them (festival-goers) a chance to grow up and be responsible and make a conscious decision. f course we’ll always have the ones who want the challenge of getting it (drugs) in but they’ve gotta get through security first. “The concert industry trade publication Pollstar reported that 62212 tickets were sold for last year’s festival which equated to an attendance of 180000 over three days.

Jazz Fest: Wet and wild captures the spirit in New rleans
USA Today – Apr 26, 2008
it seemed that everyone had congregated at one stage on the sprawling Fair Grounds Race Course for an hour-long set by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. The oddly harmonious couple a bluegrass fiddler and heavy metal pioneer set the early high bar for the rest of Jazz Fest’s eclectic bill. Against a suitable backdrop of cool breezes and darkening skies the duo dipped into their acclaimed Raising Sand album playing Appalachian-kissed versions of Rich Woman and Killing the Blues. They also sampled their respective catalogs with a captivating dip into the Led Zeppelin realm that turned Black Dog into a steamy haunted ballad. The duo’s band included Sand producer T-Bone Burnett on guitar. n stage Plant dubbed the pairing “new fantastic and stimulating” and talked about an early frustration with British pop that led to his fascination with America’s urban music especially the sensual earthy sounds that flowed from New rleans… They also sampled their respective catalogs with a captivating dip into the Led Zeppelin realm that turned Black Dog into a steamy haunted ballad. The duo’s band included Sand producer T-Bone Burnett on guitar. n stage Plant dubbed the pairing “new fantastic and stimulating” and talked about an early frustration with British pop that led to his fascination with America’s urban music especially the sensual earthy sounds that flowed from New rleans. He beamed as he mentioned meeting singer Aaron Neville backstage and “the magnificent” Allen Toussaint whose Fortune Teller (“a song I played when I was 14″) was a raucous highlight. Dapper in a tie and sport coat Toussaint was grinning at the side of the stage during the performance. “It was so tasteful the way they took it in a different direction.

eMusic has best-ever holiday season sales
MediaSyndicate – MediaSyndicate (press release) – Apr 26, 2008
2 2008 — eMusic the world’s largest retailer of independent music and the world’s second-largest digital music service after iTunes ended 2007 with a bang surpassing its most aggressive holiday forecasts by 100% and doubling the number of new customer trials on Christmas Day from the previous year. The dramatic results pushed eMusic past the 400000 paid subscriber mark less than two months since the company announced that it reached 350000 subscribers in November. eMusic downloads of digital music and audiobooks reached an all-time peak on Christmas Day with nearly half a million downloads (700 mpbs of data) delivered. With more than three million tracks from more than 20000 labels eMusic continues to provide the largest catalogue of independent music ever amassed. Since establishing its current subscription model in November 2003 the retailer has sold more than 177 million music downloads and approximately 50000 digital audiobooks. “We had the most explosive December 25 and 26 in eMusic history doubling our projections and blowing away our numbers” said David Pakman President and CE of eMusic. “As this holiday season marks our greatest ever I’d like to personally thank our customers for their ongoing support and wish everyone a very happy holiday… ” eMusic customers include conventional web-based subscribers as well as subscribers to eMusic Mobile eMusic’s over-the-air download service with AT&T which is now available on 11 mobile phones. eMusic’s diverse collection of independent music is ever-increasing with new label and distributor signings and labels added through existing agreements. New titles from every musical genre including jazz classical R&B metal electronic and more — appear on a weekly basis. eMusic is adding new audiobooks titles continually and will announce several audiobook publisher deals in the coming months. About eMusic eMusic (www. com) is a digital entertainment retailer focused on serving customers aged 25+ by offering independent music and audiobooks in a universally compatible format at a great value.

Game Group boss Lisa Morgan plays for keeps
Telegraph.co.uk – Apr 26, 2008
Playing computer games is the new rock ‘n’ roll – it’s official. Last year video games outsold recorded music in the UK for the first time and the market is worth around £3… It is definitely mainstream now” she says. The computer games industry was very different when Morgan joined it in 1990. Then gaming was solely the domain of the geeks – heavy metal-loving Red Dwarf fans with the social graces of cavemen. Morgan took her first job at 19 as a buyer at Tandy the now defunct electricals chain. She started as a toy buyer (“all toys that included batteries – cars walkie-talkies musical instruments”) and was responsible for bringing in the first Gameboys. She says that these crude handheld computer consoles were the “size of a house brick”. But the low-margin gadgets sold like hot cakes and Morgan got a taste for computers.