Posted by admin on 21 Feb 2011 | Tagged as: news, plagiarism
Let’s be clear: I think the answer is no, for a number of reasons. The web is alive with claims about Britney Spears “ripping off” song lyrics for her latest release, “Hold it Against Me”. The writers of “If I Said You Had A Beautiful Body Would You Hold It Against Me” by the Bellamy [...]
Posted by admin on 30 Nov 2010 | Tagged as: news, protest
Collectors will surely swoop on the upcoming auction of Bob Dylan’s handwritten lyrics for “The Times They Are a-Changing” that will take place in Sotheby’s on December 10, 2010. The song is iconic, defining the mood of protest and change in the sixties. On top of that, the actual manuscript is suitably battered and worn [...]
Posted by admin on 23 Nov 2010 | Tagged as: events
Britain’s PRS has organised a wonderful charity drive. On December 15 they will put up for auction the lyrics of classic songs handwritten by the lyricist themselves! The proceeds go to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Pieces have been donated by world famous artists such as Sir Paul McCartney, Paul Weller, Jim Kerr, Sir Tim Rice, [...]
Posted by admin on 30 May 2010 | Tagged as: awards, Eurovision, gadgets, meanings
Image via Wikipedia It must be said: Germany’s entry, “Satellite” by Lena, was a very so-so song, and it wasn’t exactly an electric vocal performance. Strange that they received so many votes, although this sort of thing is said every year. But what about the lyrics? A research and semantics laboratory had the fun idea [...]
Posted by admin on 01 May 2010 | Tagged as: news
Image via Wikipedia John Lennon’s handwritten lyrics to “A Day in the Life” are going up for auction in May, with estimates of $500,000 being floated. Not all lyrics do as well as expected at auction, but as investors currently look to place their bets in places outside currency and property, I’d think this one [...]
Posted by admin on 11 Feb 2010 | Tagged as: gadgets, tip
I took some time at Midem 2010 to put a question to David Stark, publisher of SongLink. His tipsheet provides some of the best tips in the business, hooking up major artists with songs. The “names” have included Tina Tuner, James Blunt, Kim Wilde and many others. Publishers and songwriters use SongLink obviously to get [...]
Posted by admin on 28 Dec 2009 | Tagged as: events, protest
Image via Wikipedia Eminem will be back in the UK for a show in 2010, the first in over 5 years. However, organisers were worried that the shows would be boycotted by the powerful Outrage gay rights group, who protested at previous shows and have been very effective in obstructing shows by Jamaican artists with [...]
Posted by admin on 14 Oct 2009 | Tagged as: gadgets, news
Image via Wikipedia As I reported here a while back, LyricWiki was recently served notice that it could no longer supply its lyrics to various applications. Rather than go the way of so many web-based initiatives, it is now being incorporated into Wikia and has negotiated a deal with Gracenote that will do two interesting [...]
Posted by admin on 24 Sep 2009 | Tagged as: tip
Feeling stuck on a song? Worried about blank page fever? Writer’s block? Then try a little exercise. Take out all your lyrics and give them a hard look. Spot any trends? Are you still writing about that one big break-up? Are you still fuming about that same two-faced liar? Are you still copying Smokey Robinson [...]
Posted by admin on 06 Aug 2009 | Tagged as: gadgets, news
A number of lyric applications are about to lose their source of lyrics. Sean Colombo of LyricWiki has informed them that due to licensing restrictions from some of the major publishers, LyricWiki has to stop providing lyrics through the LyricWiki API. People were using this to run various applications, such as connecting lyrics to Last.fm [...]