Media Blog

People nowadays are spending a lot of their time in front of a television or a computer. In fact watching videos, either on the Internet or TV, seems to have become a national hobby. Video playback equipment has become an inseparable part of our lives. There was a time when we all used to buy or rent VHS tapes to watch a movie at home. The world has now shifted to the likes of VCDs and DVDs. However, thanks to the increasing popularity of the Internet, it is now possible to access and playback feature films, music videos, cartoons etc without spending a penny! Welcome to the new era of free videos.

No matter what your favorite program on television is, there are a plenty of sites that offer free videos of songs, movies, sitcoms and even news. These could be available for a download or it could be a streaming video. You have an option of accessing, previewing, playback or download. And if you are desperate enough to own it, you can buy these for a pittance.

Every onesit of the major website is moving in to catch on this craze of online videos. Talk of Yahoo, MSN or Google, all of them have their own hosting facility and most of these can be accessed as free videos. The latest offering in the field of free videos is the daily news. You can now watch daily news, as it happens, on the websites of the likes of CBS, CNN etc. Another new phenomenon catching fever is hosting of personal videos. These are the home productions that are uploaded on the host sites and are usually available for free.

We all have been using e-greetings for some time now. Well, the world has changed here also. The latest is the advent of free video postcards! You can have Marilyn Monroe singing happy birthday to JFK or even choose to personalize it based on your own preferences. Don?t believe it? Check out one such site at http://tesla.liketelevision.com. Last but not least, free videos are available for downloading on to our iPods also. iPods are becoming popular amongst all and the latest version comes with a facility for video playback. There are plenty of es including iTunes that offer free videos for downloading to your iPod.

Who says you need money to buy things? There are some good things in life that come for free! The only catch is that you should be looking for it in the right place.

Pharrell Williams (aka Skateboard P) is a songwriter, singer, and rapper, from Virginia Beach, Virginia. He is the songwriter for hip-hop production duo, The Neptunes, alongside with Chad Hugo. In addition, he is the lead singer and drummer for funk/rock group N*E*R*D, with Hugo and Shae Haley. He also is a budding solo artist, both as a singer and rapper. Pharrell and Hugo first met each other in Junior School and after graduating from high school, together formed The Neptunes.

In 1998, they scored their first major production hit was with N.O.R.E.s Superthug, which would climb to #36 on the Billboard Hot 100. Thereafter, the pair would go on to produce Kelis first album, Kaleidoscope, as well as OlDirty Bastards record, Got your money. The duo would later work with Mystikal on his Shake Ya Ass single and also with Diddys single, Diddy. In both songs, Pharrell sang the hook.

In 2001, Pharrell, Hugo, and Haley released their first album, In Search Of? (electronic), as N*E*R*D in Europe. Before its worldwide release in 2002, the group reworked the N*E*R*D sound to make it more unique and re-recorded the album with the funk-rock band, Spymob. In August 2002, The Neptunes were honored as Producers of the Year at both The Source Awards and the Billboard Music Awards.

That same year, Pharrell wrote and produced rapper Nellys single, Hot in Herre, which would go on to peak at the top of U.S. music charts. Thereafter, Pharrell would provide Britney Spears with a hit single as well, with Im A Slave 4 U. In 2003, Pharrell released his first solo single, Frontin, which featured Jay-Z. The single was a big summer hit and would keep the ball rolling for Pharrell, as The Neptunes released the album, The Neptunes Present?Clones, which would debut at the top of the album charts in August 2003.

Pharrell had a big year in 2004. Not only did N*E*R*D release their second album, Fly Or Die, Pharrell would also win two Grammy Awards, one for Producer of the year, Non-Classical and the other for Best Pop Vocal Album for his work on Justin Timberlakes album, Justified. Pharrells next solo album is scheduled to be released on July 25, 2006 and will feature several popular musical guests, including: Gwen Stefani, Daddy Yankee, Jay-Z, and Kanye West. Besides music, Pharrell also has a hand in business, as the owner of two clothing brands, Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.

Pharrell Ringtones

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When I was a kid I had heard the Pet Shop Boys on the radio whenever new singles had been released but it wasnt until I was about 14 or 15 when I started to take more of an interest in their music. This was because I had never taken the time to listen to more than one song at a time. I used to chill with a group of dudes at my friend chickens house and he had the Pet Shop Boys Discography album and used to play it and the more times I heard it the better it became. I have most Pet Shop Boys albums now and listen to them on a regular basis.

Pet Shop boys consist of Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe and are a synthpop/electronic music duo. They have sold over 100 million records worldwide since their founding in 1981 when they met in a music shop in Chelsea, London. Originally they were called West End because of the area in London that they came from but eventually settled on Pet Shop Boys because a couple of their friends worked in a pet shop.

In 1985 the Pet Shop Boys signed to Parlophone, recorded and released the album Please in 1986 which contains some of their most famous hits like West End Girls, Opportunities (Lets Make Lots of Money), Suburbia and Love Comes Quickly. West End Girls was their first UK #1 and it went on to be #1 in Canada, USA, Finland, Ireland, Hong Kong, Israel, Lebanon, Norway and New Zealand. Disco which is a remix album of Please was also released in 1986.

1987 was a busy year for the Pet Shop Boys. The Single West End Girls earned them a BRIT award and also an Ivor Novello Award. The album Actually was released and they had some recording sessions with Dusty Springfield for the single What Have I Done To Deserve This. Another couple of massive hits off the album were Its A Sin and Rent. The Pet Shop Boys also played on a special TV concert for the 10th anniversary of Elviss death where they played Always On My Mind.

Introspective was the album released in 1988 which also contained some of their most popular songs: Left To My Own Devices, Im Not Scared, Domino Dancing and the single Always On My Mind. The Pet Shop Boys went on a huge tour of Hong Kong, Japan and the UK and it wasnt until 1990 when they released their fourth album Behaviour which had a different style to their more usual upbeat albums.

Since the release of Discography in 1991 which contained most of their hits the Pet Shop Boys have released several more studio albums and remix albums and have written and collaborated with many other musicians. The Pet Shop Boys have also changed their style several times, from the old style of Adidas Tracksuits to the new futuristic looks like in the single Go West.

Some of the artists who have worked with the Pet Shop Boys on music and videos are: Liza Minelli, Dusty Springfield, Patsy Kensit, Mark Farrow, Barbra Windsor, Ian McKellen, Bernard Sumner, Johnny Marr, Boy George, Blur and David Bowie to name a few.

Some of their most notable albums are Please, Actually, Introspective, Behaviour, Very, Bilingual, Nightlife, Release, Fundamental, Disco 1-4 and Pop-Art and some of their most famous songs over the years have been: West End Girls, What Have I Done to Deserve This, Left To My Own Devices, Its A Sin, Go West, Absolutely Fabulous, Bet Shes Not Your Girlfriend, Se a Vida E (Thats The Way Life Is), Im With Stupid and Numb.

My Top 10 Pet Shop Boys Songs are:

01. Suburbia
02. What Have I Done to Deserve This
03. Left to my own devices
04. Jealousy
05. One Thing Leads to Another
06. One In a Million
07. Radiophonic
08. It Couldnt Happen Here
09. Opportunities (Lets Make Lots of Money)
10. A Red Letter Day

Youve heard all your favorite music and artists on your local radio station. Youve tuned in while hoping to hear something new and exciting. Unfortunately, the radio stations usually play the same tunes over and over. This causes other musicians to get left out in the cold. You may never hear of many fabulous rock singers, R and B artists, jazz professionals and Gospel greats if you only listen to what your radio station has to offer. Here are some tips to show you how to expand your music library with great songs youve probably never heard before.

Where Did The Music Go?

If hundreds of singing groups and musicians submit their songs to producers each year, but only a few get chosen, then where do all these amazing musicians go? Where and how are their songs being heard? Do they just give up? In the past, many of them would likely quit playing or singing all together once they were rejected in the mainstream music industry. But nowadays, a new avenue of getting their sensational music to the public has arisen; its called the World Wide Web!

There are now thousands of hip songs available online today that will probably never make it to the radio stations. The artists names will probably never be mentioned in the mainstream music industry. But, that doesnt mean the songs are cheesy or that the artists have bad singing voices. It simply means they didnt get chosen to be in the top music charts. Their music might be wonderful, but was overlooked or got lost in the crowd of other musicians and bands.

A Variety of Music

This happening isnt limited to only one certain type of music or musician. Almost any type of music can fall victim to getting tossed in the rejection pile. This includes jazz, Latin, pop, R and B, hip hop, reggae, rock, folk, comedy, Gospel, blues, techno, spoken word, rap, etc.

No matter what your taste in music, there are probably thousands of artists who never made it in the big-time that you would enjoy listening to their music. Your music library can grow with great music CDs from these singers so you can listen to many different songs whenever you want instead of being limited to the over-played music on the radio.

Music on the Web

There are specialty websites online that focus on publicizing music and artists that have never been heard before. You can go online to listen to unique sample music, buy CDs, and buy merchandise. These artists are great even though they never made it big. You can usually try their music before you buy it to be certain it is right for you. So, theres nothing to lose, but lots of amazing music to gain.

Music for Your Business

If you own a business where music is played often, you can also play some unknown music over the loud speaker for others to hear. Your customers will be amazed at all the distinct songs they hear in your store. Youll be the talk of the town!

Whether its rock, jazz or hip hop you enjoy, or if its Gospel, country, folk, or some other type of music, you can expand your music library in no time with many great tunes that never made it to the top!

Many people download lyrics off from the internet today. Having done that they many times wish that they did buy the disc as even the legal downloads do not come with any lyrics to the songs that they have. Finding lyrics online is easy with the growth of the internet but intergrating them with your mp3 software might not be as easy as what many think.

With so many download services on the internet today, most companies still ignore the issue of lyrics as most uses would like to have the music with the lyrics. So how do you get your lyrics onto your mp3 player?

Just as there are many lyrics sites, there is today a huge variety of shareware developers who have created plugins for most of the devices on the market. Now you can import the lyrics into your IPod or MP3 player for most music bought on the internet. A good example is the iTunes tracker software that which connects online to retrieve your lyrics. The software not only allows you to organize the lyrics but also to save, edit and store them.

The software is very simple when reading lyrics. The progams are similiar to to the first version on Windows Player where it would read the file to extract the name of the song and the artist. What most of these software packages does is merely to connect to the internet after completing the same process and downloading the lyrics for the song that it had identified. The technology for find lyrics is not new.

Now that you have the song, what do you do with it. Most of the lyric software allows you to tag or mark the lyrics so that each time the music was played it would display the lyrics on your screen. The software varies and each is different. Some will not store the lyrics for you on a long term bases and you need to download the lyrics each time you listen tot he song. Others keep the lyrics for you on your player so each time you play it the lyrics would be displayed. Very few of these however allow you to print the lyrics when done. So they do limit the use of lyrics on your mp3 player. The shareware market is filled with lyrics readers, but most of them have very limited features as they require you to but the full version or proffessional edition of the software to make use of all the features.

Lyrics can be download or view online for most applications. Happy singing!