MusicNewsTidBits.com

Ok this is just weird. The Barbie doll is getting a new look. For the 50th Anniversary of “Space Oddity” by David Bowie, Barbie is making a Ziggy Stardust doll. It’s $50 and will be marketed more towards adults. This doll looks nothing like Bowie except for the clothes. Mattel, the Barbie maker, was expecting parents to wonder if the doll is a boy or a girl. Not sure about you but she is VERY much a woman. These people that live under a rock just amazes me.

Yes you heard that right.  Hard Rock Cafe is releasing the first playable burger guitar.  The instrument is powered by Hard Rock Cafe’s 24-Karat Gold Leaf Steak Burger and uses the players body to provide a unique electrical current through the burger.  This is just crazy.  Here’s a pic and a video if you want to delve into it more:

I haven’t really used iTunes in the past 5-7 years so I’m not so worried about this.  Apple is replacing iTunes with new individual apps.  iTunes Music Store will operate in the sidebar in the music app and will continue to exist on Windows.

They are breaking up into podcasts, TV Shows and movies.  These 3 apps will launch in the next version of Mac OS, named ‘Catalina’, coming later this fall.

Since this is pretty big, I’ll leave the link to the full story on Billboard.com

https://www.billboard.com/biz/articles/8514199/apple-announces-new-apple-music-app-replacing-itunes-at-wwdc-2019

For the first time in history, a hip-hop artist has reached $1 billion in worth.  Yes, Jay-Z is now the first hip-hop billionaire due to his partnership with liquor brands ($410 million), Tidal ($100 million) and Roc Nation ($75 million.  Then there’s his $220 million in cash and investments.

I know a lot of you, like me, thought Dr. Dre already hit the billion dollar mark when he sold Beats By Dre to Apple for $3 billion but Forbes claims that his net worth is at $850 million.

Pandora has made some interesting changes to their plans.  First was the ‘Family Plan’ for $14.99 for up to six family members.  Now they are offering a ‘Student Plan’ for $4.99 per month and a ‘Military Plan’ for $7.99 per month.

Great move for Pandora.

Technics is putting out a new edition of the first direct drive turntable next summer 2018.  The new turntable is called the Technics SP-10R, a reissue of the SP-10 that came out in….1970!  As Technics called it,

“most premium analog, direct-drive turntable to date.”

No price on it yet.

I love this Sex Pistols set from FUNKO. The come in at 3.75 inches tall all dressed in the similar style of the Sex Pistols right down to the pad lock chain on Sid. You can get them individually or as a 3 pack for $26.95.

Check them out over at Aggronautix

Motorhead and The Great Fog jewelers have released The Motorhead Warpig ring.  Lemmy has loved The Great Fog jewelers for years and he gave the final approval of the limited edition and number engraved ring.  It costs about $280 USD. See what it looks like below

Ziggy Marley has created…..Marijuanaman. It’s going to be a comic written by Man of Action Studios Joe Casey with illustration by Jim Mahfood and will come in an oversized deluxe hardcover graphic novel.

Marley states “Marijuanaman represents the hope of the future… the hope that we will utilize all of the power that the universe has given us to save our planet.”

The 48 page full cover hardcover will hit stores at $24.99 this year on….wait for it….April 20th!!

The word’s been out for about a month but I finally got around to checking it out. The TDK Boombox is pretty cool but for $399/$499 you can get much better products for that price. Check out the pic then the Cnet review on it.

The good: The TDK Three Speaker Boombox delivers a finely tuned, powerful sound in a portable system with an unforgettable design. Features such as AM/FM radio, as well as RCA and instrument input, set it apart from the competition.

The bad: There’s no way to secure your iPod/iPhone or other connected device; support for Bluetooth is absent; radio antennas are handled by two dangling wires; no remote; hefty weight and battery-hungry design make portability impractical.

The bottom line: TDK’s Three Speaker Boombox is as beautiful as it is powerful, but the hefty design does not travel well.

Trading cards are coming for AC/DC. Press Pass is presenting the first trading cards with AC/DC on them. Here’s what you get

*100 Card Base Set takes you on a journey from their Austalian beginnings through the recent Black Ice Tour.

* Subsets include It’s a Long Way to the Top, Back in Black, Thunderstruck, and Rock ‘N Roll Train.

* Foil Inserts: We Salute You and On The Highway to…

* Autographed Memorabilia!

I saw this in a magazine and I thought I would show you guys. You know how bad you want to record those live shows your at all the time? Well your phone or some cheap recorder just won’t cut it. Well this Zoom H1 is pretty damn sick. It has two microphones so you can get a balanced recording. The files are saved as MP3’s or WAV’s. How I wish I had this years ago when I went to more shows. I should be getting paid for this recommendation.

The founders of Skype and Kaaza have created a new music service called RDIO, and yes there is a missing ‘A’ in there. Now its here in the US and will be available everywhere else later this year. All four major labels are in along with some indie ones. It looks like the subscription will be somewhere between $5 – $10 per month and can be accessed via the web or smartphones.

“No one has managed to elegantly integrate discovery and a high-quality music streaming experience, under one roof,” said co-founder Janus Friis. Rdio apps know what album or playlist the user and their friends are listening to and can sync music to the phone to play offline.

Ludacris hooked up with Trojan Magnum condoms for the “Magnum Live Large Project”. If you use Magnums, you could win $5,000. I don’t know exactly how they will tell if you actually use Magnums unless….well ya know. If you do, you can go go Magnum to download an instrumental track to record your lyrics about the condom line. Then visitors and Ludacris will vote on the track to pick from the top 10. If you win, you’ll get your song on the radio and get to go to the Hip Hop festival in Atlanta and get up on stage. So go check it if you got it!

Wendy O. Williams will be the first female Throbblehead and limited to only 2,000 numbered units. The Throbblehead is made by Aggronautix and is the 6th of the Throbblehead series. If you like this one you should really go check out the rest of them. Here’s a pic of it and the video that the design came from.