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Today the iconic North London Abbey Road zebra crossing used on the Beatles "Abbey Road" album cover has been declared a Grade II listed site by English Heritage. An English Heritage spokesman said: "It's a place of pilgrimage for fans from all over the world."

Abbey Road Studios were also listed Grade II in February.

Find out more about the story in Factiva the newspapaer e-resource available via Library Search

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Music in the Twentieth Century

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Coming soon to the Harrow library, two books by Alex Ross the music reviewer of the New Yorker.

Listen to this (2010) and The rest is noise (2009)

Ross writes that the aim of Listen to this is to "approach music not as a self-sufficient sphere but as a way of knowing the world." He aims to "treat pop music as serious art and classical music as part of the wider culture; my hope is that the book will serve as an introduction to crucial figures and ideas in classical music, and also give an alternative perspective on modern pop".

Alex's blog contains some supporting material including an i tunes playlist and a Listen to this Audio guide which contains brief excerpts of the works discussed in Listen to this.

Use Library Search www.westmisnter.ac.uk/Librarysearch to search for the books and to request them if they are on loan.

I'm always happy to take suggestions for books to order for the library.

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New Keith Richards biography

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The new Keith Richards biography - "Life" is now available to borrow from the library.
Watch the BBC2 Culture Show 60 minute special that was broadcast BBC Two, 7:00pm Thursday 28 Oct 2010 to mark the the publication.
Find reviews of the biography in Factiva (available through Library Search) by using the search - "Keith Richards" and biography.
Find DVDs, books and CDs related to the Rolling Stones in Library Search http://www.westminster.ac.uk/Librarysearch

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Music week subscription

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Music Week are offering a subscription to students of approx. 40% off standard price (on proof of your student card).

£141 for print or £130.20 for online.

If you are interested in taking up this offer go to www.subscription.co.uk/help and click on Music Week. You can also contact Music Week at ubmi@subscription.co.uk quoting email reference TPS3413900A

The library subscribes to the print version of Music Week - full text of the current and back issues are available through Library Search (search for Music Week, click on the online access tab under the Music week entry to access the title through Business Source Complete - off and on campus).

There's also a feed (on the right hand side)in this blog to some of the news stories from the online version of Music Week.

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Present your undergraduate Research

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Calling all Undergraduates, the first British Conference of Undergraduate Research will be taking place in Preston 19th-20th April 2011 - present your dissertation, or any other original piece of research - whatever your area of study.

Visit http://www.bcur.org/ for more information - deadline for online submission 3rd December 2010.

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New business models for the music business

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I've just discovered this article by Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the Financial Times. The article discusses enrepreneurs who have been exploring innovative new business models for the music industry, as revenues from recorded music are drying up.

A lot of content to the FT online is subscription only, but we have access to content through Library Search to Factiva (the newspaper database)

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Billboard viral video

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I've added a feed to Billboard viral video - " daily dose of must-see music clips spreading across the web".

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John Lennon's birthday

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Join Google and Yoko Ono in celebrating what would have been the 70th birthday of John Lennon this Saturday (9th October). Google has created it's most interactive Google doodle to date - a yoodle video doodle.

Yoko Ono will commemorating the occasion by taking part in several live events inIceland . You can also take part by joining her on twitter and tweeting 1 million wishes to the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER

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Interested in Ethnomusicology?

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Many of you are being asked to research ethnomusicology.
The Library as set up a trial to Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive for a month. From this site you will be able to find information on music subcultures that includes images, research essays from 1940 - 2010, video content and DJ History.com essays.
If you are interested in trying PYMCA, contact Eleri for log-in details kyffine@westminster.ac.uk

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Welcome

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Welcome to new students and welcome back to continuing students. It was good to meet you during induction and I''m looking forward to meeting you during the forthcoming academic year.

For those of you that don't know me - I'm Eleri and I'm your academic liaison librarian - my job is to give library support to the music courses.

Keep your eye on this blog (and subscribe to get updates straight to your email inbox) for information about library resources, details of training and links to online training guides to help you make the most of the Library.

***New this year*** Use Library Search to find books, view your library account to see what books you have and when they are due back, and to renew and reserve books. Use Library Search to find journals, e-journals and articles for your assignments. Use Library Search to access e-resources needed for your study such as Business Source Complete, Jstor and Mintel. I will be recommending useful resources on this blog.

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What does a Polyphonic Corsican sound like?

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Listen to the BBC Radio 3 archive of world music and find out
Ten years of on-location recordings from around the world - from the Appalacian mountains to the Tasrab music of Zanzibar are now available. Click on the interactive map to navigate around the world and explore the music of all the continents
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/worldmusic/

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Paid for vs free

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A new report in Mintel - Consumer attitudes to pricing in media and music has identified that growth of single sales and overall decline in album sales go hand in hand, and constitute a cultural shift (amongst younger music listeners in particular) away from the ‘album’ concept towards a ‘cherry-picking’ approach. However, it remains to be seen to what extent rising digital album sales can slow or even reverse the decline of the album.

As the market for digital music takes off, consumers have an ever increasing array of online suppliers to choose from and a growing diversity of ways to access music.
According to the IFPI , the number of licensed music services available on the internet has grown from less than 50 in 2003 to around 400 in 2009.
The dominance of iTunes is being challenged by other à la carte download services such as Amazon, Tesco and 7Digital (half of which was bought by HMV in September 2009). More competition is helping to lead to more competitive and more flexible pricing.

A guide to legal downloading is availalable from the Guardian website http://arts.guardian.co.uk/netmusic/page/0,,1127237,00.html

More information on this topic is available from Mintel (access online via infolinx) and the IFPI Industry in Numbers 2010 (available in teh library

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I'm in a rock and roll band - continued

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The voting's over on BBC2's I'm in a rock and roll band - the winner of best band is Led Zepplin, beating Queen and The Beatles.
the Fantasy band consists of Freddie Murcury (singer), Jimmi Hendrix (guitarist), John Bonham (drummer), and Flea (bassist) .
Watch videos of the bands and see the full long lists.

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Mojo honours list 2010 - Jimmy Page

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Jimmy Page was inducted into the Mojo hall of Fame on June 10th - alumni include the Doors, Madness, Arthur Lee and Elton John.

Mojo honours focus on "heritage acts" - reflected by the lifetime achivement award to Jean Michel Jarre and hero award to Marc Almond (30 years as a singer). Breakthrough act was awarded to Low Anthem and the classic songwriter award was given to Roy Wood.

More information on the awards are on the Mojo website

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Ivor Novello Awards

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The 2010 Ivor Novello Award winners have been announced.
The Novello's are judged and presented by the British songwriting and composing community . This year for the first time an award has gone to best original video game score which was won by Joris de Man for Killzone 2.

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Stoke Newington Literary Festival 4/ 5/ 6th June

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Fans of Edwyn Collins will be pleased to see that he is appearing at Stoke Newington Literary Festival on Saturday 6th June - he'll be playing a short set with his band as well as contributing to a discussion about the book Falling and Laughing written by his partner Grace Maxwell which chronicles his recovery from a stroke.

On Sunday 7th June, Phill Jupitus, Tim Wells and Miriam Elia will be discussing their record collections and music writing.

further information and tickets are available from

http://www.stokenewingtonliteraryfestival.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=5&Itemid=5

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Blu-ray market

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A new report on DVD players from Mintel (March 2010) examines the home entertainment market and the take up of various formats including Blu-ray.

To access Mintel try the new library collections search on the library home page and type in Mintel.

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Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers: Runnin' down a dream

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An epic portrait by Peter Bogdanovitch of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (almost 4 hours). Covers the early bands to the most recent album and includes detailed discussion about their battle with their record label. Bob Dylan, The Traveling Wilburys days, Johnny Cash, Stevie Nicks, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne and various others are interviewed along the way
Catch up with it on BBC iplayer for the next 7 days .

The library has recorded the programme so if you miss it, you'll be able to borrow the DVD; search the catalogue for related CDs, DVDs and books.

For journal articles about Tom Petty try using IIMP (International Index Music Periodicals).

http://bbc.co.uk/i/scr6s/

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Never mind the boxset - the album post i-tunes

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Event: Thursday May 20th

Musictank, chaired by Keith Harris will be examining just what the recordings industry can do to revive the album's flagging condition. From the sensible to the extreme the evening event will hear from those who believe that technology, design, and marketing can provide a shot in the arm to the format that gave us 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Nevermind', 'OK Computer' and 'Please Hammer Don't Hurt 'Em', and hear from those who have turned their back on the album altogether.

Cost
£25 MusicTank Members £30 Trade Body £35 Full Price *Price includes drink on arrival and post-event written transcript *

Further details:
http://www.musictank.co.uk/events/album-format

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The phenomena of Glee

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Are you a Gleek? Like Marmite, you either love them or hate them but have a look at the cover article in Billboard 30 April 2010 for a great case study using the Glee phenomena to demonstrate how music is being marketed today.

Find further information about marketing music by searching via infolinx on Business Source Complete.

If you've missed the opportunity to watch early episodes of Glee,

season one volume one "the road to sectionals" is available to borrow from the library.

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Lena Horne Dies 9 May 2010

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Singer, actress and activist Lena Horne died last week at the age of 92. She was one of the first African Americans to cross over the music business colour divide and in the 1040s became the highest paid African American actress. She battled segregation and McCarthyism and became a civil right activist in the 1960s

Find out more by reading her obituary at the Guardian web site
Watch her perform her theme song Stormy weather on YouTube.

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I'm in a rock n roll band

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"I'm in a rock n roll band" is being aired on BBC2 at 9.45 on Saturday night . The six part series aims to break down the constituent parts of a great rock band. Catch up with it on BBC iplayer.

Don't worry if you miss it, the library is recording it for the collection so that you can catch up with the series at a later date.

Cast your vote for best band, best singer and favourite guitarist at the accompanying website

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio2/rocknrollband/

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Uk album purchases

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According to the BPI the UK still buy more music per person than almost anywhere else in the world, despite piracy and illegal file sharing. 10 million albums were bought digitally in 2008 and the UK is the world's third largest music market.

In 2008 almost half of all album sales in the UK were by British artists. Read the full report at the BPI

The library regularly subscribes to reports from the BPI, search the library to see what's available.

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