Pan American Television

X Factor USA will become the first reality TV show to permit viewers to vote through social networking site twitter. The producers of the show announced the partnership with the social media network which allows viewers to vote for their favorite finalists. Voting will be open from November 2 after the live performanaces.

You will not be voting with tweets which will be very chaotic but through your account’s direct message feature. In addition XFactor fans can vote via Facebook, text messaging, the Xtra factor mobile application on Verizon Android phones and by phoning in.

“I think it’s fantastic that Verizon and ‘The X Factor’ are giving fans so many different ways to vote. Launching touch screen voting on Verizon’s The Xtra Factor App and the new voting on Twitter is really exciting, I love that the audience has more and more choice in the way that they can vote,” Simon Cowell said in a statement.

Only the votes sent via direct message to @TheXFactorUSA will count while publicly visible will not be counted as votes. Viewers who cast votes via TheXFactorUSA.com and Twitter are limited to 50 votes per account.

I remember so many good times that I had with my friends growing up when I was listening to Blink-182. They were by far one of my favorite bands over the years. I was, of course, devastated when they broke up but I knew that I had the old stuff to listen to. So I’m pretty exciting about all this new music that Blink-182 is getting ready to release!

I’ve been blogging quite a bit about it on my music blog and while I was reading up on it a little bit more a few nights ago, I ran across the website DOMAINNAMES.com. I had been thinking about moving my blog onto my own website, so I looked through the site and decided to buy a domain for my brand new blog.

I really can’t wait for this new Blink 182 album to come out so I can review it. I think I might do a big week-long special leading up to the big review. Needless to say, I’m really excited for the new Blink-182 material

Television seems to be taking the center spot and is responsible for even driving music sales and exposure for artists. Over the years, labels and publishers avoided TV pacts, but with everyone in the industry looking for new ways of making profits, topped off with radio making its way to a slow death and music videos on MTV and VH1 being more or less rare – TV has now become a fairly important source for labels’ marketing departments.

A good example is when Mamie Coleman, VP of music and production for Fox Broadcasting spread the word to music labels and publishers of the need for a new upbeat tune for its January promotional campaign for American Idol and 24. The overwhelming response is evidence of the big impact of TV on the music production industry.

The profits can be huge. Veterans of American Idol have currently sold close to 40 million records, and have under their belt 60 number one hits and 14 platinum albums – all these are just for one TV show.

However, not all situations are win-win. Music deal-making is extremely complicated, with all parties tussling over the use of music, be it in snippets versus the entire tune, the most crucial of which are those deals that involve the internet and home video rights.

Major labels have so far shunned digital distribution, but now, with the shift in power, some major players have managed to get into the game with very low upfront costs and without the need to make use of manufacturing or distribution infrastructures.

Coleman says, “We have so much direct contact with the labels and publishers now. We are always getting people telling us they have the perfect song for ‘House’ or a great song for ‘Idol’. A lot of labels have performances for us in their offices, and when we like what we hear, we sign a deal right then and there.”

Recently Lady Gaga appeared in the MTV Video Musci Awards dresses in meat. She atcually changed her dress several times during the show. On her last outfit change, while accepting an award, it was not so obvious that her dress was made out of meat, until she announced “I cannot believe that I would ever asj Cher to hold my meat purse.”

Lady Gaga has been known to wear strange clothing, sometimes trendy and cool, but most of the time wierd. However, this has to be the most bizarre dress she has ever worn.

Later she announced that she was trying to make a point that she was not just a “piece of meat!”

Last month she had appeared on cover of Vogue magazine in a meat bikini were she raised some controversy. However, this time she has  taken it one step further.

See the dress in the picture here and decide for yourself, if it is fashion or just bizarre.

The big question up until now, with regard to “American Idol”, was “Who will replace Simon Cowell?” Although that question still remains unanswered, another question has joined the queue – “Who will replace Ellen DeGeneres?” Ellen left the show even though she had 4 more years left on her contract.

With one well established judge and one people friendly judge gone, there were also rumors that Kara DioGuardi had been fired leaving three spots vacant on the judging panel. The chairman of Fox Entertainment, Peter Rice, refused to comment on that matter which in turn gave the rumor more substance. When asked about the rumors that Jennifer Lopez and Steven Tyler had been tied up as replacement judges, Rice said that no such deals had been signed.

The show has been in trouble for a few years now as viewership has steadily declined. In the last 4 years it has lost a total of six million viewers and this was probably a key reason for lynchpin judge Simon Cowell to leave the show. The drop has also seen Idol valiantly defending its number one spot in the ratings.

There have been rumors that Nigel Lythgoe would come back to the show in order to conduct massive make-overs, but Rice refused to comment on this story as well. He did say that big changes would be in place for the next season of Idol but did not elaborate further. The only thing he did admit to was that the judges would be in place when auditions get underway in mid-September.

Music has always been a part of conventional radio for a long time now until MTV invaded our homes and revolutionized the way music was presented to newer generations. And now, it is the turn of the internet to take over the place that television snatched away from conventional radio so long ago. Ironically, this is in the form of streaming radio and is generally offered for free over the internet.

While there are several genres that one can listen to as well a mix of the top music of the week, there is one genre that is a billion dollar industry and literally stands on its own apart from mainstream music, and is known as gospel music.

Musicians such as Ron Kenoly, Amy Grant, Jars of Clay, DC Talk and Petra revolutionized every sub-genre of Christian music forever apart from the traditional devotional music offering that has been a part of the music industry for sometime to come.

And with the advent of internet radio, people from all over the world can now listen to both the oldies as well as the latest music released by (most probably) CCM in the United States as well as in the United Kingdom.

And just like the best things in life come for free, one can listen to streaming radio for no cost at all.

Christian music has evolved into a billion dollar industry ever since the explosion of contemporary music that has imbibed sounds that resonates with regular pop and rock music in the mainstream music scene today.

Not only has the way people view devotional music changed, with these developments, but the medium by which one can listen to this kind of music has evolved too. Of course, with the internet finding more and more relevance to our lives just by the clicking of a few buttons, more and more people are taking a fancy to the multimedia offerings that the World Wide Web has in store for them and specifically in the form of online music that is available for 24 hours a day and 7 days a week.

Not only do they play the latest songs that have been released by Christian artists but they also play music that some people cannot get a hold of in countries outside the United States. However, with the huge audience that is available over the internet, it also bodes well for promotional activity for these artists as well.

In the broader genre of gospel music, there are several subgenres that have evolved over the last few decades. With Black Gospel and Praise & Worship music being music that has the traditional tag, Christian Rock, Pop, and Rap that obviously appeals to a younger generation have also found their way onto online radio, and is here to stay.

So, not only does the listener get to listen to their kind of music but are also encouraged to experiment with other types of music that fall within their area of interests.

This is a guest post from Daniel Horne

I had to take more elective classes for school one semester and there were a variety of online classes to choose. Since I have never taken an online class before and it was only an elective, I was willing to give it a shot. I signed up for Music Appreciation. I have always had an appreciation for music, what I heard on the radio anyways, and figured this class would be an easy A and help boost my grade point average. Boy was I wrong. The whole class started out bad. I could not get to the website I needed. After I found that, I couldn’t watch any of the videos that the instructor had posted. They would just stop in the middle and never start back up again. I called my instructor who informed me that it was most likely my internet connection. I told him that it shouldn’t be a problem because I had cable internet and he suggested that I give hughs net a try. That afternoon I called hughes in SC and the next day had satellite internet installed in my apartment. Since then I have always been able to watch the course required movies. I have had no trouble uploading and downloading files and while I wasn’t right about this class being an easy A, it is easier now that I can access the material properly.