Weekly Music Round Up

North Carolina's own blues/R&B legend Nappy Brown passed away with week. He had been battling an illness since collapsing at a show in June. If you're unfamiliar with his music, you can check out a few track on his MySpace page and read more about him on Rev. Keith A. Gordon's About.com's Blues site.

SMES started in Myrtle Beach, SC, on Friday. Lots of good panels going on. The awards ceremony will be held Sunday night. Remember Waleed Coyote, who is working on the Peace in the Middle East project with MC Serch and who walked us all through becoming a DJ? He's up for an award for his radio show and another for his label, Othaz Records. I'll let you know how it turns out.

As you know, the new MySpace Music launched this week. Now, the totally unsurprising news is surfacing that indie labels aren't so happy that MySpace is giving the major labels an equity stake but not offering the same to the indies. As Charles Caldas, CEO of Merlin pointed out, this is akin to giving the indies' competitors control their promotion. Really, it's almost funny. Bad call, MySpace.

The very wonderful Drowned in Sound had an interview this week with the equally wonderful Peter Hook. Lots of Factory, Joy Division and New Order talk. You can check it out here.

SlotMusic Cards - your new favorite format? Not so much for me, but my birthday is around the corner and there's a chance I'm getting old. For some ruminations on the ever changing music industry, check out Matthew Ryan's guest blog on KnowTheMusicBiz.