Music for Nothing and the Fans for Free

Consumers won’t pay for recorded music in the future — but fans will pay for music experiences.

Viral Video: I'm Going to Hold This One Against Britney

BoomTown usually loves a good Britney Spears music video. But this one, for the single “Hold It Against Me,” pretty much poses her in front of dancers and not much else. Still, it’s garnering kabillions of views online and that’s kind of the point, I guess.

Alleged Twitter Hacker Ordered to Appear in French Court

A 25-year-old who allegedly hacked into the Twitter accounts of Barack Obama and Britney Spears has been ordered to appear in French court June 24 after he was arrested and released earlier today.

Vevo, Big Music’s New Video Site, Peeks Out From Behind the Curtain

Vevo, the “Hulu for Music” site featuring videos from three of the big music labels, is supposed to officially go live tonight, and there’s a big party in New York to kick things off. But if you’re not going to that and want to see the site now, you can get a peek.
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Search Users Evidently Just a Bunch of Megan Fox-Ogling, WWE-Patronizing Nascar Fans

If our search engine queries are, on some level, a reflection of who we are as a people, then we are a sorry, sorry lot indeed. Google, Microsoft and Yahoo all released their lists of the top search queries for 2009 today and they reveal us to be a nation of celebrity-obsessed, swine flu-suffering, vampire-loving, Megan Fox-ogling, Lady Gaga-humming, World Wrestling Entertainment-patronizing Nascar fans.
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Twitter Investors Celebrate: The Paparazzi Proof!

Well, it’s not like Twitter’s investors are Britney Spears or anything, but somehow, the $1 billion valuation of Twitter deserves a BoomTown all-lenses-shooting response. Thus, the crack team at All Things Digital went all out in trying to capture one such investor in his true state. Click in to see photographic proof!
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The Internet Loves MTV, Taylor Swift and Kanye West, but YouTube Keeps Its Distance

It’s a not-quite-annual tradition: Something unexpected (but perhaps not unplanned) happens at MTV’s Video Music Awards and the Internet can’t stop talking about it. But Viacom’s copyright lawsuit means that you’ll have work a bit if you want to see for yourself on YouTube.
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TMZ's Harvey Levin Speaks About Michael Jackson and More!

On the spur of the moment yesterday–as Los Angeles was gridlocked by the memorial service for pop legend Michael Jackson–BoomTown decided to pay a quick visit to Harvey Levin, who runs TMZ. Located on Sunset Boulevard–natch!–TMZ is the celebrity news Web site that actually broke the news of Jackson’s death, before any other media outlet. And it has pretty much led the coverage as the sad story has unfolded–and keeps doing so.
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Liveblogging the 2009 Yahoo Annual Meeting: Carol-tastic!

BoomTown is at the lovely Santa Clara Marriott in Silicon Valley at the 2009 Yahoo annual meeting, liveblogging the event, which should be spectacularly dull. Here is a rundown of what went on. 10:05 am: The meeting kicks off with a little video presentation with various and sundry television talking heads saying “Yahoo” in quick succession. Actually, this was the year during which all of those hype-magnets repeated “Twitter” so many times that it has began to make my ears bleed. But I like the spirit of trying to make Yahoo seem relevant and innovative again.
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Why Robert Scoble Is Wronger About "2010 Web": A BoomTown Translation!

Oh, Scooby-Don’t… You could not be more wrong in your post last week–titled, “Why Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg are wrong about naming Web 3.0 ‘Web 3.0′”–about Walt and I being wrong about naming Web 3.0 “Web 3.0″ in an essay we posted at the start of our D: All Things Digital conference, which took place last week. I know writing “Kara Swisher,” “Walt Mossberg” and “Wrong” is well-nigh irresistible, but your solution of calling the digital era we are in the “2010 Web” is equally confusing and incorrect.
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Will Britney Get a Bailout?

Can Music Sales Get Any Worse? Just Watch.

Another Obama Winner: YouTube, Of Course

Facebook Lexicon: The Britney Test