Tag: Music

Remastered Beatles Tracks Available Digitally for $279.99

The Beatles Store is taking pre-orders for a @279.99 USB apple containing the entire remastered works of the band. According to the site:

This unique, apple-shaped USB drive is loaded with the re-mastered audio for The Bealtes’ 14 stereo titles, as well as all of the re-mastered CDs’ visual elements, including 13 mini-documentary films about the studio albums, replicated original UK art, rare photos and expanded liner notes. A specially designed Flash interface has been installed, and the 16GB USB’s audio and visual contents will be provided in FLAC 44.1 Khz 24 bit and MP3 320 Kbps formats, fully compatible with PC and Mac.

Beatles apple

On one hand, this is a really expensive item. On the other, it’s still the frickin’ Beatles! For those of you with three hands, keep in mind that this is a pretty cool collector’s item. I’m happy that both FLAC and MP3 versions are included.

Anyone going to bite the apple bullet and pick this baby up?

Final Fantasy Tactics Concert Hitting Japan on November 22

FFT concert

A lot of you know that Final Fantasy Tactics is my favorite game of all time. One of the reasons why I love the game so much is its excellent soundtrack. Apparently I’m not the only one that feels that way. A group of (mostly) volunteers is putting on an orchestral (plus saxophones?) concert of the FFT score. Original Sound Version noted:

Not only will there be a live concert featuring the music from Final Fantasy Tactics on November 22, 2009 in Japan, but arrangements of 61 songs will be performed in medley form, just ten songs short of the entire soundtrack.

This group of performers put the word out over a year ago, calling for players, conductors, and production staff to volunteer their time with the intent of tailoring their arrangements to whatever ensemble they could get together.

Man, I’d love to be in Japan to catch this…. I’m completely impressed that this event is happening. It’s a testament to how passionate Japanese gamers are about their hobby. I mean, I was already impressed by the intricate costumes of Japanese videogame cosplayers (they make Americans look like a joke), but this is taking it to another level.

Anyone want to put on an FFT concert with me? I’m pretty awesome with a triangle.

Source via Kotaku

Foo Fighters Concert Streaming on Facebook Tonight

In an interesting (and geeky) promotional event, Facebook will be hosting a streaming Foo Fighters concert tonight at 7PM PST. The event will be broadcast using Livestream’s technology and is being held to promote the band’s upcoming Greatest Hits album.

Whether you’re a fan of the band or not, you have to admit that this is pretty awesome. It’s crazy how far technology has come in such a short time. When Foo Fighter’s frontman Dave Grohl was playing drums in Nirvana, I’m pretty sure he didn’t envision reaching millions of fans through a streaming concert hosted by a social networking site…but that’s just conjecture.

Foo Fighters

Click here and here for more info on the concert.

Final Fantasy XIII Special Edition Soundtrack Detailed

FFXIII soundtrack

In addition to a soundtrack coming out in conjunction with Final Fantasy XIII’s December 2009 release, Square Enix will be releasing a super-duper special-edition soundtrack a month later. Andriasang has the details:

On top of the four music discs, the limited edition adds a bonus drama CD featuring a retelling of the Encounter volume of the Final Fantasy XIII Episode Zero Promise web novel that’s currently being distributed at the FFXIII official site. The drama CD uses the same voice staff as the game.

Also included with the limited edition is a special box case, a special sleeve, and a 32 page visual book that’s also — you guessed it — special.

Look for the FFXIII soundtrack on January 27. Pricing is set at ¥3,990 for the standard version and ¥5,250 for the limited edition.

It’s expensive, excessive, and a little ridiculous…which means I’m probably going to buy it. *sigh* I love Japanese packaging.

Source

Google Set to Launch Music Service

Google music logo

It looks like Google is partnering with iLike (MySpace) and Lala for an upcoming music service. TechCrunch claims that the service will be announced on October 28. Supposedly called Google Audio, the effort gives Google yet another way to serve ads. Perhaps more importantly, it gives the company a music service that can be leveraged by products that use Google Android. TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington reported:

Google will soon launch a music service, we’ve heard from multiple sources, and the company has spent the last several weeks securing content for the launch of the service from the major music labels. One source has referred to the new service as Google Audio.

This new service will be available for at least U.S. users, our sources confirm, although it isn’t clear if it’s a download or streaming service, or both. Google already has a decent (if little used) music search engine that can be accessed by simply typing “music:” before a query. But songs are not available for streaming or download from those searches.

Apple and Google have been competing in more and more areas, with the companies growing increasingly icy towards each other. Google has had recent difficulty integrating its products (Google Voice) into Apple’s (iPhone). A recent rumor stated that Apple was working on its own mapping program to remove Google Maps as the default on the iPhone and iPod Touch. Google starting a service that competes head-on with Apple’s iTunes is an even bigger shot. Hopefully there will be blood soon.

Continue reading “Google Set to Launch Music Service”

Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver Soundtrack Details

Pokemon Heart Gold Soul Silver soundtrack

Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver for Nintendo DS are destined to be enormous hits, but just in case that isn’t enough for Pokefreaks around the world, the games are getting an excellent soundtrack treatment. According to Andrisang:

Announced earlier this week, the Pokemon Heart Gold and Soul Silver Music Super Complete soundtrack contains 3 CDs with 270 tracks totaling around 3 hours of music. Outside of the game’s main music tracks, the soundtrack also includes the Pokemon Gold and Silver music as recreated via the in-game GB Player.

Yeah, I’m definitely going to have to pick this up on my next trip to Japan. It’s too good.

Source

Squre Enix Taps Bon Jovi for Final Fantasy: Crystal Bearers

Square Enix + Bon Jovi = Awesome! To help promote Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: The Crystal Bearers, Square Enix has enlisted the help of the New Jersey rockers. According to Andriasang:

Square Enix announced today that it will be tapping none other than Bon Jovi for the new Wii Crystal Chronicles game.

Commercials for the game will make use of ‘We Weren’t Born to Follow’ off the band’s new The Circle album. The commercials will start appearing later this month.

Bon Jovi band

I love Bon Jovi and I love Square Enix games, so I’m thrilled by this partnership. I can’t wait to see the Japanese commercials online!

What do you make of the Square Enix/Bon Jovi pairing? Do you think Sega will try to get Cinderella to help them out? Maybe From Software will use Dokken. Also, isn’t this the same song MLB is using to promote the playoffs?

Source

Michael Jackson’s “This Is It” Revealed

Michael Jackson’s single “This Is It” was released through his official site. The song kicks off a series of posthumous works from the King of Pop. Coming October 26 is an album called This Is It, a This Is It movie on October 28, and a vinyl release on November 10 (guess what it’s called).

Jackson wrote and recorded several songs that he wanted released after his death. The rumor was that he wanted to beat out Tupac in posthumous sales. (Okay, I totally made that last part up.)

Let me know what you think of the song. I need to listen to it about a dozen more times before I can form an opinion. I’m sure the single will top the charts and the album will do crazy numbers, but I’ll always prefer the Off the Wall and Thriller days.

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