Frank Black's Ticket Pricing: Is This Proper Marketing or Ageism?

Take a look at this ad and tell me how you feel about the third line from the bottom.

Basing ticket prices on age has rankled more than a few people.  Some are cheering it, saying that it offers a break to younger people who may be struggling financially.  Others are saying it discriminates against people based on their age.  Thoughts?

(Via Slicing Up Eyeballs)

Top 10 Song Picks for Mother's Day

1.  Top pick?  Gotta go with "Take Your Mama" from Scissor Sisters.  

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America Hates Justin Bieber But Wants Timberlake for President

God bless 'Murica.  From TIME (via John):

The highly regarded polling firm Public Policy Polling doesn’t usually ask survey respondents about pop music but, with the first round of results from their latest poll released May 9, it’s clear they’re onto something. They created politician-style favorability ratings for some of the biggest names in pop music, and the results were, at least in one case, stark: Justin Bieber was the only artist who tested unfavorably across party lines. His numbers were 23 unfavorable to 54 favorable among Democrats, 17-52 among Republicans and 18-56 among independents.

Other artists who tested unfavorably, not accounting for political affiliation, were Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, Jay-Z and Rihanna. On the other side, Taylor Swift, Adele, Beyonce and Justin Timberlake had high approval ratings. Timberlake also received a winning 34% of votes when respondents were asked who they would vote for for President. (At the same time, 31% of people said, when asked which of his endeavors they prefer, that Timberlake should just focus on playing golf.) Bieber got 8%; fortunately for 92% of Americans, he’s Canadian.

Read more. 

How Music Blogging Has Changed

I keep a very close eye on traffic to A Journal of Musical Things because I obviously want to see if anyone cares.  Fortunately, things are good, but I'm always looking for more readers and contributors.  

And it's not because I make any money from this site.  Advertising brings in just enough to cover hosting expenses and domain registration for the year.  It certain doesn't even begin to offer me any kind of income.

Because I spend so much time with this site, you can understand why this article in Hypebot on the state of music blogs/websites caught my attention:

Over the years, I’ve written about music blogging and interviewed music bloggers. It’s an interesting sector. However, having grown up on a farm next to a town of 200 people in North Dakota, I can’t recall anyone mentioning music blogs or discovering music on the Hype Machine.

The awareness of music blogs is so low that a friend of mine, who worked at a coffee shop, loved Young The Giant, and long-boarded to college class had never heard of Pitchfork.

“But it’s for you,” I protested. “How haven’t you heard of it?

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This is Vicious: Musicians Summed Up in One GIF

And this is the most kind of the bunch.  See them all here.