House Research Institute, a non-profit dedicated to improving the quality of life for people with hearing loss and related disorders, has outlined five ways musicians and music fans can preserve their hearing.

1) Know thyself: have your hearing tested.

Often, hearing loss issues are initially detected by family and friends rather than the person experiencing it. “When a person frequently has trouble understanding conversations in places where there is significant background noise, such as at parties, crowded restaurants and clubs, it might be a good time for a hearing test and an ear examination,” observes John W. House, MD, President of House Research Read the rest of this entry »

Sloan by Andrew MacNaughtan

Some sad news being reported this morning. This is from the Toronto Star:

Toronto photographer Andrew MacNaughtan, longtime documenter of Rush’s exploits and the man behind dozens of iconic portraits of Canadian celebrities, passed away suddenly in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

MacNaughtan, in his mid-40s, reportedly suffered a heart attack while in California shooting his old friends, Rush.

A member of the band’s local management staff told the Star the office was “heartbroken over here,” while Rush members Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart issued a joint statement in MacNaughtan’s honour via their Facebook page: “We’re deeply shocked and heartbroken to learn of the sudden passing of our close friend and longtime photographer, Andrew MacNaughtan. He was a sweet person and a very talented artist. Words cannot describe how much he will be missed.”

Read the rest here: http://www.toronto.com/article/711519?bn=1

Just got word of a cool event coming up here in Toronto: the Digital Media Summit, happening at the Fairmont Royal York (home of Canadian Music Week) from March 21-22, 2012. Featuring presentations from industry leaders including Arianna Huffington (The Huffington Post), top digital experts from Google, Facebook, the CBC, Bell Media, and more, the conference will help connect you with media and brand specialists that can help fine-tune your digital media strategies.

As has probably been beaten into peoples’ heads at every music conference ever, if you’re trying to make it in the music business, YOU are a brand, and YOU are a business. What’s more, there are a number of musically-related sponsors and presenters behind this event, so there’s no doubt it’ll be of value to those who want a better understanding of this industry.

Find out more at www.digitalmediasummit.ca. There’s a current promotion in place to save 40 per cent on registration…

A new batch of over 150 showcasing artists was announced yesterday for Canadian Music Fest 2012, part of Canadian Music Week. Among the new announcements that may have Canadians particularly excited are Treble Charger, The Inbreds, Dragonette, Blackie and The Rodeo Kings (doing tunes from their outstanding duets album Kings & Queens), Dinosaur Bones, 3 Inches Of Blood, Madison Violet, and many more. Check out the full lineup and get all the desired details at www.canadianmusicfest.com.

Finally, I posted this video on my personal Facebook account yesterday morning, hours after it had been uploaded. Right now, 24 hours after my initial post and less than 40 since being uploaded, the video has surpassed 4.5 million views. Why? Take a look.

We’re more than proud to have Kathleen Edwards grace the cover of our Jan/Feb 2012 issue, and I think this performance from Letterman last night explains why. A further shout-out goes to Dan Ledwell of our pals In-Flight Safety who’s rocking keys for Kathleen on her upcoming dates.

For the past 21 years, Neilsen SoundScan & Billboard have released their annual Music Industry Report. It’s always an interesting read and offers a great insight into the current state of the music industry.

Some of the highlights from 2011 are as follows:

-For the first time, total music purchases reached the 1.6 Billion mark for the year.

-Overall Album sales (including Albums and Track Equivalent Album sales) were up 3.2% compared to 2010.

-There were 228 million physical album sales in 2011, a decline of 5% over 2010. This is significantly less than the 19.5% decline in 2010.

-Adele’s 21 finishes the year as the biggest selling album with just more than 5.8 million sales. This is the first time since 2004 that an album sold more than 5 million copies in a year (Usher’s Confessions sold nearly 8 million copies in 2004).

-For the fourth consecutive year, more vinyl albums were purchased than any other year in the history of Nielsen SoundScan.

-In 2011, vinyl album sales reached 3.9 million in sales, shattering the previous record of 2.8 million LP album sales in 2010. Note that 67% of all vinyl albums were purchased at an independent music store during 2011.

-Katy Perry ends the year as the most played artist over the airways in 2011 with more than 1.4 million spins; edging out Bruno Mars by 17,000 spins.

-Seven out of the top 10 played artists in 2011 all had more than 1 million detections for the year.

-Lady Gaga claimed the top spot as the most streamed artist in 2011 with more than 135 million streams.

-Nicki Minaj’s “Super Bass” was the most streamed song and music video in 2011 with 84.9 million audio streams and 71 million video streams.

Read the full report here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20120105005547/en/Nielsen-Company-Billboard%E2%80%99s-2011-Music-Industry-Report

Our pals at Exclaim! have posted their list of the 20 Most Anticipated Canadian Albums of 2012, and there are some great titles on there (ones I’ve heard and ones I just know will be solid). I’ve posted it, though, because one of the records in their top 5 is by an artist that will appear on our January/February 2012 cover – and the album is discussed in plenty of detail. Keep your eyes out – first for the issue, and then for these discs by some of our finest. (Did the picture give it away?)

It’s a Canadian song, and one of the dudes from Blue Rodeo used to play in Wilco. Good enough for me to warrant a share, as I think I’ve played this about 6 times today. Cheers to a great weekend – more from us soon!

So it’s about that time (or maybe just past that time) that the blogosphere starts to spit out its slew of Top 5, 10, 25, 100, etc. albums of the last year. I haven’t been inclined to come up with a rigid numbered list in the last couple of years, but looking back on 2011, we’ve had some damn fine releases come from Canadian artists.

Some that’ve spent a lot of time in my personal rotation include Braids – Native Speaker, Rich Aucoin – We’re All Dying To Live, and Ohbijou – Metal Meets. It seemed like a slower year for metal, punk, and hip hop. (That’s not to say there weren’t great discs from those genres; simply that I think more significant releases have surfaced in previous years).

Anyhow, I’d love to hear some of your favourites from fellow canucks this past year. Share ‘em in the replies!

My good pal (and CM contributor) Mark Desloges called me last night (Sunday) pretty stoked on a new service he’d used for the first time the night before. The service is called eTix Now, is based out of Edmonton, and is being embraced by a lot of venues and promoters out here on the coast.

The service allows concertgoers to buy tickets which are essentially just QR codes which can be scanned at the door by any mobile device. Bought tickets for your friends? You can send them the code digitally without having to worry about the hand-off. Lost your code? If you have your ID and e-mail address, the person at the door can verify your purchase.

Check www.etixnow.com for more info.