Great dance mashup

It’s three decades since the companions of Ivan Doroschuk—of the Canadian Men Without Hats group—pranced around the village on their virtual pogo sticks, performing the strangely-named Safety Dance.

Earlier this year, an imaginative and finely-tuned mashup illustrated this celebrated song by means of images from dozens of different movies, of all kinds.

If ever an extraterrestrial were to acquire and view this mashup, he would surely form the opinion that we earthlings are weirdly-agitated creatures, who never stand still. Well, maybe we are…

Awesome orchestra

Most people are familiar with the situation of being overcome, emotionally, by the beauty of music performed by a symphony orchestra. Here, it is the beauty of the orchestra itself, the artists and their instruments, that stuns us first of all, leaving us wordless.

This simple video provides me with one of those rare moments when it suddenly feels right, exceptionally, to have faith in humanity.

Bee Gees

After endless health problems (some of which were hereditary), Robin Gibb has finally left us, at the age of 62. During the '60s and '70s, Robin's ethereal voice played a major role in the fascination exerted by the three brothers from the Isle of Man... who migrated to Queensland when they were young boys.

Today, only Barry Gibb survives.

Jamendo and Podiobooks: free audio content

For private users, listening to the music on Jamendo and downloading it is free, for commercial users (restaurants, video content producers), it is an interesting alternative to the GEMA rights management association. Artists that put their content on Jamendo have no up-front costs (which makes it very appealing for less popular artists) and their contract is non-exclusive, they are free to persue other revenue streams. Artists and Jamendo make money in several ways:

• Commercial use: Jamendo gets 50% (which is relatively high, but no up-front costs and non-exclusivity often make it worth it). Note that if a commercial user wants popular hits, she still has to turn to the more expensive GEMA in Germany.
  
• Donations: Jamendo gets 50 cents (Euro) per transaction.
• Advertising in audio streams and on web pages: the artist gets 50% (this is a new revenue stream for artists).
  

Related: Podiobooks hosts free audio books.

Paul McCartney on YouTube

I've recently found out that Paul McCartney even has an official YouTube presence. Among other things, it features two recent videos of his (see below). Impressive that after all those years, his music still feels fresh (compare this to Stevie Wonder or Prince, whose music has disappointed me for quite a while now).


"Dance tonight": Directed by Michael Gondry, stars Natalie Portman!


"Ever present past".

Music video: "Here it goes again"

The group OK Go has done a nicely choreographed video: