Is it a new model for musicians and record labels, or simply a slick way to get the mobile phone brand out on the road? Verizon has created studio on wheels to tour the country, record tracks for artists and add the new music to its digital store offerings. Each month the wireless phone provider will sponsor a Mobile Producer in Residence to ride with the bus and record tracks from new artists around the country. Timbaland was the first producer in the series…

A perennial trend in the country format has been a stream of pop stars trying to cross over to country, with current examples including Jewel and Hootie and the Blowfish front man Darius Rucker. But a more interesting trend is developing on the country charts right now—a sudden influx of pop songs being covered by country artists.

There are currently three pop songs remade by country artists on the charts: Blake Shelton’s cover of Michael Buble’s “Home,” the Sugarland/Little Big Town/Jake Owen cover of British Pop band Dream Academy’s 1985 top 10 hit “Life In A Northern Town,” and David Nail’s new cover of the rock band Train’s “I’m About To Come Alive.” Joining them with a May 5 add date will be Rissi Palmer’s remake of the Jordin Sparks pop hit “No Air,” which Sparks performed on American Idol just a few weeks ago. Continued

John Rich’s Get Rich Talent Search hosted its second competition at 12th & Porter last night (4/29). Nine acts competed for fame and glory, plus cash prizes in front of eight industry judges including ASCAP’s Connie Bradley, Warner Bros. A&R VP Tracy Gershon, CMA leader Tammy Genovese, Manager Marc Oswald, Billboard writer Ken Tucker, Producer/Warner Music Creative head Scott Hendricks, Sony BMG A&R Jim Catino and Music Row’s Humble Scribe, David M. Ross.

“We want to discover talent that is gifted but struggling,” Rich told the audience. “Hopefully by putting them in front of our judges—industry professionals it would normally take years to get to—we can help speed things up for them by 5 or 6 years.” One of Nashville’s true entertainment impresarios, Rich stormed the stage between acts congratulating and complimenting each of the evenings performers. Continued

Pictured (L-R): Kyle Young, Donna Stoneman, Patsy Stoneman, Roni Stoneman, Tammy Genovese and Emmylou Harris. Photo: Donn Jones

“I think this is the highest concentration of greatness in the whole universe,” proclaimed Jim Lauderdale as he took the stage at the Medallion Ceremony which officially inducted Emmylou Harris and the late Ernest V. “Pop” Stoneman into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Continued

The National Association of Recording Merchandisers (NARM) 2008 Convention will feature a two-day digital conference on May 6-7 in San Francisco. Digital NARM is designed to improve the bottom line for industry professionals who market or sell music in this rapidly-evolving marketplace.

Digital NARM will create discussion around the convergence of physical, digital, and mobile music fueled by rapid technological advancement. Highlights will include Digital Copyright “Crossfire,” The Mobile Movement, and Music and Social Networking.

Participating speakers represent: Amazon.com; AT&T; eMusic; Facebook; My Space Records; Motorola; Napster; IODA; IRIS; The Orchard; Nokia; 9 Squared; Imeem; last.fm; and the four major music distribution companies.

ShowClix (www.showclix.com), a Pittsburgh-based live event search engine and online ticketing company, has released the latest version of its online ticketing solution, which now includes an innovative mobile ticketing service. ShowClix has partnered with bCODE (www.bcode.com), a developer of mobile technologies, to deliver event tickets to buyers’ cell phones as SMS (Short Message Service) text messages – rather than mobile barcode images – making the delivery method compatible with over 99% of mobile devices. Continued

A new documentary, which is now available on DVD, tells the story of the five decade competition to decide the guitar sound that will dominate rock music. Starting with their conception and design in the early fifties, “Solidbodies, The 50 Year Guitar War” focuses on the competitive influences that have made the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul the guitars heard on more popular recordings than any others instruments during the rock era. The documentary features players, historians and collectors offering commentary accompanied by performance segments and a soundtrack featuring solos played on those two guitars.

Continued

SpiralFrog, the free, ad-supported music Web site, announced its Top Ten Most Downloaded Songs for the month of March.

1. Timbaland - “Apologize”
2. Soulja Boy Tell’em - “Crank That (Soulja Boy)”
3. Rihanna - “Don’t Stop the Music”
4. Snoop Dogg - “Sensual Seduction”
5. Rihanna - “Hate That I Love You”
6. Rihanna - “Umbrella”
7. Mariah Carey - “Touch My Body”
8. Fergie - “Big Girls Don’t Cry (Personal)”
9. Rascal Flatts - “What Hurts the Most”
10. Sugarland - “Stay”

With over 1 million songs, 4,000 music videos and more than 2 million unique visitors a month, SpiralFrog is one of the fastest growing music sites on the Internet, enabling music fans to discover and download all the music and videos they want for free, legally and safely.

Songs and videos downloaded on SpiralFrog will play on Windows PCs running XP and Vista. Users can download to their PCs and synchronize their music with portable music players or music-enabled phones that support Windows Media digital rights management.

The Big Idea behind music subscription plans is that they may be an idea whose time has come. The debate over the benefits of music subscriptions vs. music purchases has heated up lately. A number of subscription services have been in the market for a time, including Rhapsody, Napster among others. iTunes, the world’s second largest music retailer, is said to be looking at the idea, in a bundling format with the iPod. Among music companies, there is some concern that subscriptions would be so popular they would hasten the demise of the CD, still an important profit center for music labels.

AT ISSUE: Can music subscriptions provide enough economic fuel for the music industry to replace the revenue lost by un-paid consumption of music? Continued

The Washington Post profiles the music industry’s most opinionated blogger.