Just about everyone is talking about how crazy it is that so many notable personalities have passed away in the past couple weeks. The propagators of online rumors are well aware of this, and have already begun to take full advantage.
So far we have lost Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcet, Michael Jackson, and now famed “pitchman” Billie Mays. However, according to numerous tweets and random “celebrity bloggers”, pop icons Britney Spears and Miley Cyrus are the latest ones to bite the dust.
What motivates the instigators of internet rumors to spread these lies? Well, it could be a number of things, ranging from web profits to just plain old entertainment value. However, if you’re the subject of one of these rumors, is it really such a bad thing?
Since Michael Jackson passed away, his record sales have exploded. He is already dominating the UK music charts, and radio play of the King of Pop’s music here in the United States has increased by a whopping 1,735% since the news of his death.
Of course, baseless internet rumors can’t be expected to make the sort of impact as the death of Michael Jackson, but I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that such false rumors do benefit the artists involved to some extent, even if it is just a microcosm of the aforementioned effect.
It still has yet to really sink in. Possibly the most famous musician of our time has passed away. All controversies and eccentricities aside, you can’t deny the fact that Michael Jackson was quite possibly the greatest entertainer of the 20th century.
The details of his death have yet to be disclosed. Right now the music industry and music fans all over the world are in a state of collective shock.
According to CNN, sales of Michael Jackson’s music have soared since the news of his death yesterday.
I’ll admit I never really dug deep into Jackson’s music. But like so many others, I was a huge fan of his monster singles like Billie Jean, Beat It, Thriller, etc. Let us not forget that Thriller was the greatest selling album in history.
I know just about everyone is blogging about MJ right now. But if anything, that is just a testament to the incredible reach of his fame. His legacy will likely live on much longer than all of us.
The world has lost a truly great talent.
Disclaimer: I’m about seven beers deep.
Lately I have found myself addicted to a site called Blip.fm. If you haven’t already heard about it, allow me to give you a quick run down.
Blip.fm is basically a site where you can broadcast to your friends what music you’re listening to at that moment. In itself, that probably doesn’t sound all that special. But the beauty of it is that the people that add your Blip to their favorites and are online while you “Blip” will hear your selections played for them. Once you’ve built a base of listeners (by Blipping awesome songs), you turn into an internet DJ responsible for selecting tunes you think your audience will enjoy.
If you’re more of a listener and less of a “you have to hear this song!” type of person, Blip can also be just a cool place to hang out and discover new music. Lots of folks like to hang out in the general area listening to random songs that users have selected and distributing “props” accordingly.
If you’re a musician wondering how you can use Blip to gain more exposure for your band, you’re in luck. Once you’ve created a regular account, head over to “settings” (it’s by the logout button) and then choose the “music” tab. From there you can enter the URL of a song you want added and it will become accessible by Blip.fm users. Just make sure you have your mp3 hosted somewhere reliable AND it must have proper ID3 tags so Blip can figure out all the track info. If the file isn’t properly tagged, it won’t work. The same applies if you’re just a fan and you can’t find a song you’d like to Blip. Just find it somewhere on the internet (or upload it yourself, but don’t tell the FBI) and then enter the URL the same way.
Have fun!
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