This is just a short note to let everyone know (not that you haven’t noticed already), that Burgo’s Blog now has an all-new look… the snazzy theme you’re looking at right now.

Last night, over the course of a very few frustrating hours, I decided that it was time to shake things up on the blog with a sleek new theme. Really, this blog is starting to take up more and more of my time, and I suppose the new look is a reflection of that, and a reflection of the potential that I feel this blog has. I hope you like it…

I just wanted to drop a quick shout-out to the theme’s creator, Magnus Jepson (see his site here). He’s a freelance web designer who creates some really stunning Wordpress themes, and if you’re looking to overhaul your blog, I’d wholeheartedly recommend him. As I said, there were a few frustrating hours there, but Magnus was on hand to help out with anything that I had a problem with. So thanks, Magnus, for your patience.

Anyway, I’m off down the coast for the weekend, so posts will resume again next week. If you’re a regular reader of the blog, I’d really appreciate any thoughts you have on the new theme (like it, don’t like it, ambivalent?), so drop a comment below with your thoughts.

Thanks all, and have a great weekend.

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A New Look for Burgo’s Blog…

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Those poor ripped-off artists.

Remember when every other post here was about artists allowing digital downloads of their works, for however much you wanted to pay? There have been mixed reports as to how some of those experiments have been going. Did you donate any money for Radiohead’s “In Rainbows” when it came out?
No? Feel guilty?
Then the Dear Rockers site is just for you! In line with the PostSecrets craze, Dear Rockers allows you to secretly confess your sins when it comes to downloading mp3’s… and then encourages you to make restitution by sending in a $5 donation to the artists label, or fan clubs (addresses are on the site).

The site is an amusing look at people’s true feelings about the subject. The girl who gives Axl Rose $5 in change has captured my heart.

Finally, on a completely unrelated note, and simply because you should be listening to this, here’s Farryl Purkiss’s “Speechless”.

Farryl Purkiss – Speechless

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Those poor ripped-off artists.

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Ok, so this is something we’ve been excited about for a while, but Gibson have released some new pics of their “Robotic Guitar”. No longer must tone-deaf guitar players drown in a sea of irony; the Robot Guitar can tune itself with a simple push of a button.

Release date has been slated as the 7^th of December, which is guranateed to excite guitar players around the world; unfortunately, with an initial limited release of 4000 models, we suspect that the price tag is going to be slightly higher than what the average garage band can afford.

Still, isn’t it enough to drool over the pictures?

Here’s an instructional video on the workings of the guitar:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WetVXbYRfWk]

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Gibson’s “Robot Guitar”

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So another online playlist has hit my radar (only about a year late or so, so I’m getting better!)
Anyway, this time the site is projectplaylist, which creates an online playlist for you.
The advertising is a bit of a turn off, but the interface itself is very sleek and sexy…

The good news… it has a great range, as it scours the net and finds the suitable streaming files for you.
Side tip… it’s also great for finding online mp3 files that you can download. Not that we would ever advocate that or anything…

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ProjectPlaylist.com

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Via Reuters, we’ve seen that Led Zeppelin is finally going to release their music to be sold online.

Page and Plant has previously indicated that they would only be releasing a 24-track sampler via iTunes, but that tune has now changed, with the announcement that “the complete Led Zeppelin catalogue will now be available digitally”, and not only exclusively through iTunes, but rather “all online music retailers”.

Reuters labels the Led “one of the last major pop music acts to offer their catalogue digitally.”

I could point out quite a few errors with that short sentence, but hey, I’ll let sleeping dogs lie.

In the end, what’s left to say, but… that’s “A Whole Lotta Love”!

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Led Zep to sell music online… finally!

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While things are not set in stone now, it looks like the free release of music is sealing the coffin on the current incarnation of the record industry.

Following on from his “Steal my shit” speech in Australia last month, Trent Reznor, via the NIN site, released the following statement:

I’ve waited a LONG time to be able to make the following announcement: as of right now Nine Inch Nails is a totally free agent, free of any recording contract with any label. I have been under recording contracts for 18 years and have watched the business radically mutate from one thing to something inherently very different and it gives me great pleasure to be able to finally have a direct relationship with the audience as I see fit and appropriate.

Following hot on the heels of that announcement, it appears that Oasis and Jamiroquai may now be following suit. And then the Charlatans announce the same thing.

We think that Gizmodo said it best:

If two of the biggest acts in the industry can see the digital writing on the wall and totally embrace it—that the old way of doing business is broken—why can’t the labels? What Radiohead and NIN are showing is that the business model “of the future” feared by entrenched interests isn’t arriving some time in the horizon. It’s touching down now.

Couple in three new bands to Gizmodo’s statement, and we can see an avalanche, waiting for just one more snowflake…

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Nine Inch Nails, Oasis & Jamiroquai (& The Charlatans) to possibly follow free download trend?

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Just a short note to all you Radiohead fanatics… don’t forget, In Rainbows is released in a few hours.

Forget? Who are we kidding?

I mean… YOU didn’t forget, right?

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Radiohead – In Rainbows

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1. Another “Best Albums of the Decade” (2000 – 2009) List…

Unfortunately this will have to be a quickie today (no matter how mature you get, that line always gives a twinge of a chuckle), but time waits for no man!

So, quickly:

The news has spread that Radiohead have placed a price on their new album, “In Rainbows”. The price? Whatever you want to pay for it. That’s right, you choose the price you wish to pay for the album – including free – which will be available for download from the website from the 10^th of October.
All we can say is: We hope this won’t be abused. It’s a fantastic step, and one we hope many bands follow.
Also, they’re doing this all without the support of a music label, ala Dispatch.
Crumble stagnant music industry, crumble I say!

Secondly, we recently dug out our copy of Farryl Purkiss’ self-titled CD… we highly suggest you give him a spin on his myspace page. Do it.

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Radiohead and Farryl Purkiss

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Ok, so this might not be news to some of you, but to others, it certainly will be.

Online social music sites have definitely blossomed over the last few years, but I always keep my eye out for another to add to the arsenal. Some of my favourites in the past were Pandora.com (the true OG of 2.0 music sites) and Last.fm.

However, what with Pandora having closed its doors to non-US IP addresses (and it just being too much of a bitch to always listen through a proxy), and Last.fm’s suggestions seeming to deteriorate lately, I’ve now moved on to one of my new best friends online… Finetune.com.

Although Finetune’s been around for a while, it’s only recently that I became aware of its existence; all I can say is that it has seriously impressed me within that short time.

The layout and design is simply stunning, and it not only supports the standard “artist radio” of other social music sites, but also allows the user to create custom playlists of specific songs.

Unfortunately damn Wordpress won’t let me embed the player here.

However, I would suggest you take a look at a sample playlist… one of mine is at http://www.finetune.com/playlist/1778859

That’s a snippet of what it looks like. Curse Wordpress and its inability to embed this flash player and instead compress the image to make it look crappy!

Sigh…

Anyway, go check it out.

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Finetune.com – My new Friend

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