Digital downloads are hot!  College students spend money on music because it’s very important to them.  Most of their digital music is shared from other students’ music CDs, but even so, they spend around $242 million annually (not as individuals!  as a whole group of course!) on digital music and pressed copies of CDs.  They also spend a lot on music related electronics such as mp3 players and headphones.  College students are more likely to buy music than food, some studies suggest.  I’m not sure I believe that, but next to beer and food I would guess that music downloads must rank about third, at least.  Am I right?

Here is a great infographic that shows us just what college kids are spending money on.  Check out where music shows up?

Source: eCampus.com

One band that definitely impacted the music world is obviously the Rolling Stones.  These rockers did more than influence a generation.  Their music lives on and rocks on even to this day.  That is not to say that the band has had it easy though, oh no.  They have been through their ups and downs just like any musical act, but the fact is that these dudes helped make many genres of music what they are today. Regardless of what you do for a living, whether it’s running  a website like www.allglasswindows.com or owning a pizza shop, you have to have an appreciation for The Rolling Stones!

Take a look at where they have been to where they are now.  -Click to enlarge-

First up:  Randy Jackson saying “dawg.”  That’s right, Randy, we love you, man, but it’s the same old word from you all the time.  It’s like someone’s scratching vinyl or something.  Can’t you try out some new words for us this season?  Some other words and phrases that could be cut back just a tad are “dude,” “dude, that was not good for me,” “man,” “dawg pound, we got a hot one tonight,” and “you could sing the phonebook.”  We’ve heard that a lot, really, and it’s gotten a bit stale — or, as Simon used to say too often, “it’s hideous.”

We will be looking forward to counting how many times Randy utters any of the aforementioned words and phrases as we check out American Idol tonight on its designated channel, based on the lineup we got after registering for satellite television at http://www.nonstopvid.com and getting access to tons of music channels as well as all the network stations.  This is going to be so much fun tonight, y’all, so be sure to tune in and you won’t miss a thing.

We’ll also be checking out J-Lo’s wardrobe of course.  She was still with ex-hubby Marc Anthony during his last performance on the show last season, when he sang and she danced.  Now, the two are rumored to be continuing on with former plans to complete a joint project in reality television — but don’t expect another appearance on American Idol by Anthony.  The marriage is really over, say sources from both camps.

And speaking of marriage, this year Steven Tyler is an engaged man!  Maybe he will dish about his new fiancee on the new Idol season.  Either way, it’s going to be a great show.

But isn’t that part of being a performer and a part of the entertainment industry? What happened to “the show must go on” mentality that’s supposed to dominate live performances? When Cee Lo Green decided not to show up to his bill at The Hangout Music Festival in Gulf Shores, AL earlier this summer, headliner Foo Fighters Dave Grohl came out on stage and rocked old school throwbacks while Cee Lo arrived 75 minutes late for his set, and rushed through a couple of his hits in sweatpants to close out what ended up being the Foo Fighters second performance of the weekend. But having your comedian friend cover for you for a measly 15 minutes while you’re not trying to figure out a way to make things work is not a good way to keep your fans happy. Who knows what kind of technical problems they were having, but we know that at the very least the microphone was working. Who cares if the show doesn’t have all the glitz and glamour they planned for, fans waited for well over an hour and in the end got nothing. An acoustic set or impromptu arrangement would have done, and a true performer would have rocked that just as hard as a decked out set. Thunder and rain and mud at Lollapalooza? No problem for house music extraordinaire Deadmau5, who continued rocking the turn tables hard on the final night of the 20th anniversary of the former road show, despite the damage to LED lights and other electrical equipment on stage due to the rain. And electro-dance shows are the most digitally and technically reliant performances of any music genre.

Is Big Boi falling apart after his drug arrest in Miami last week? OutKast’s superstar was charged with possession of ecstasy pills, MDMA powder, and Viagra that he had no prescription for as his luggage was searched while getting off of a cruise ship in the Port of Miami. But in a day and age where it seems like every major musician has had some sort of drug related run-in with the law, and Big Boi’s lawyer is confident he will be “completely exonerated”, we can’t imagine how that would affect his morale so much when it comes to liver performances and pleasing the fans. Big Boi, come back to San Fran and turn it around quick.

Her self-titled debut album outsold debut records of Alicia Keys and Lauryn Hill to break the record for biggest opening week sales for new female artist. From there Ashanti continued to break records as the first female artist to ever have three songs simultaneously charting the Billboard Hot 100 with “Foolish”, “What’s Love” and “Always on Time”. The only other artist to ever have three songs simultaneously on the Billboard Hot 100 before her was The Beatles. She was also the first artist to ever simultaneously hold the top two positions on the Billboard Top 100 charts with “Foolish” and “What’s Love”. After selling more than 30 million albums world wide, she ended the decade behind Beyonce and Alicia Keys as the third top new R&B artist.

But what has she been up to since then? Why haven’t we heard more from the singer since her record shattering debut? Taking up acting and modeling as well, it seems Ashanti may have gotten a little distracted from her main focus. But her fifth studio album, slated to be released later this year on her own label Written Entertainment, will hopefully bring it back full swing. With rumors of Lil Wayne, Dr. Dre, Darkchild, Game, The-Dream, and more producing, collaborating, and writing for her latest effort, you can only hope for and expect something big. Although she was supposed to release her lead single this summer, along with a follow up single before her album drops, we still have yet to hear anything concrete. By the looks of her promo, however, you can’t help but expect something epic. Let’s cross our fingers and hope for the best.

But one of the most important features of the premium service (for serious music fans, that is) is the fact that the lauded higher music quality on the premium version of the service is apparently not there. Several independent entities randomly rested the sound quality on songs from the premium service, and none of them came back with results that showed songs at or above the advertised quality of 320 kbps. Spotify sneaks around this sticky marketing situation with a brief disclaimer on their website stating ”not all tracks are currently available in high bitrate”. A Spotify employee stated that “We’re somewhere in the 60% range of the entire catalogue and considering that we convert based on popularity, that covers most of what people listen too,” which is a little bit misleading based on their marketing.

“All tracks are not currently available in high bitrate (320 kbps) for our Premium users, which we make clear on our website, but we are working very hard to transcode the remaining tracks, as quickly as possible,” the company said in a statement. But this could get pretty difficult when the Spotify catalogue increases by up to 10,000 songs per day. Given the huge success abroad and the potential to fight pirating and illegal downloads in the US, in addition to competing with monopolizing services like iTunes, we’re hoping Spotify can smooth out these new changes and improve their overall quality for the sake of the consumer.

Umphrey’s plans to continue this trend with their upcoming fall tour showcasing Death By Stereo, an album which is said to breach new, more harder hitting territory for the band. The band has yet to release an official tracklist, but confirmed track titles include “Conduit”, “Booth Love”, “Sticky Fingers”, “Wellwishers”, “Domino Theory”, and “Miami Virtue”.While still maintaining their “fluid and majestic” psychedelic rock foundations, tracks on their new album explore both more Rolling Stones-eque classic rock, as well as some more bluesy thumping sets. They still have their 70′s style funk horns on “Booth Love,” while reaching for a more kaleidoscopic sound on “Miami Virtue,” which almost sounds like an upbeat pop Phoenix song.

Death By Stereo is the band’s first album released on ATO Records (My Morning Jacket, Drive By Truckers, the John Butler Trio), solidifying Umphrey’s clout as recording artists as much as they are already known for their superior live sets. For their last album, they broke huge ground in unique social media directing and ordering in promotions, allowing fans to directly text message the band in real time and revealing new layers of content to these fans based on pre-order sales thresholds. No news on any similar marketing and connections techniques for their new album yet, but we look forward to see what they’ll show us this time around, and what new solutions they’ll use given the much evolved environment around digital music distribution that has changed drastically since their last release (Spotify broke ground in the US on Thursday, so we’ll see how this changes iTunes and other distributors by September, which could be significant). Either way, their growth as a band, as well as the expansion of their fan base, will no doubt have had a major influence on the album, generating much excitement for its release, as well as anticipating the announcement of a single release sometime in the near future.

2011 Umphrey’s McGee Fall Tour Schedule:

1. “The Birds” explores the more electronic side of these Brit’s tendencies, adding in more echoing group choral vocals that readily reveal their homeland’s roots.

2. “Lippy Kids” lends itself to a more swooning rock sound, bringing together the nostalgic whimpering of simplicity (with a simple piano) with whistling and humming that do anything but make the listener sad a bout times past.

3. “With Love” is an instantly catchy foot-tapping hand-clapping tune with a celebratory sound echoed by anthemic sound complimented by gospel harmonies that accentuate Garvey’s best notes. The positive “fill your eyes with love” lyrics almost instantly make this the best track in the set.

Out since March 7, 2011, Build a Rocket Boys! has already peaked at the UK Billboard chart #2, the highest any Elbow album has ever reached, let alone debuted at. Based on the band’s reluctance to grow up entirely, the overall sound and mood can be related to by many fans as well as new followers, because everyone has a little Peter Pan and Wendy in them.

But just as Lollapalooza spread alternative, punk and grunge to the masses before they exploded as massively popular genres, Skullcandy’s IDentity Festival is now doing the same for electronic, house, mash-up and dub-step artists. IDentity Festival is hitting 20 North American cities this summer, featuring heavy hitters like Kaskade, Afrojack, Pretty Lights, Skrillex and The Disco Biscuits alongside dozens of other lesser known house acts trying to break through not only on in the electronic scene, but to prove that their crossover potential is just as great as the headliners. Smaller acts like Hercules & Love Affair, Jessie & the Toy Boys, Data Romance, Nervo and many, many more are looking to stand out and make an impact in cities across the continent.

Bands and artists like Booka Shade, Darius Syrossian, Pete Tong, Nervo (not to be confused with Nero), Avicii, Aeroplane and more are already major hits in Europe and looking to gain an American audience and following while touring throughout the US and Canada this summer. As different trends in music spread to different parts of the world at various times, it is safe to say that the US is definitely behind Europe when it comes to the growing international house music scene. But while we may be a little slow to follow, the electronic music scene in America is undeniably reaching the mainstream, not only because major US festivals like Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo and many others feature dozens of electronic acts and have greater numbers of house music followers in tow, but when you listen to Top 40 radio, you can distinctly hear the influence of house music on pop songs. Its no longer just remixes and side projects where major pop stars are incorporating synth beats, but electro dance jams are rising to the top of the charts, making us wonder how much longer it will be before Deadmau5 and Pretty Lights have Top 40 hits. But for now, go to an IDentity Festival nearest to you, and see what all the hype is about.

And while West Virginia may remind you of a four piece banjos strumming folk band (don’t worry, there still will be plenty of that), the late night shows emphasize electronic house vibes, with bands like Big Gigantic, Karl Denson’s Tiny Universe, and most of all new Pretty Lights show, All Good Festival is so much more than anything you’d imagine when you say “West Virginia mountain music festival”. After unveiling his brand new stage and show at Bonnaroo, Derek Smith is sure to have just as much of an amazing set at All Good, if not more amazing after more tweaks and loose ends tied up. So get on the country roads of West Virginia for this July, and get ready for some of the best rock and roll, jam band, and electronic music out there!