Spotify

April 20th, 2012 | 11:45 am by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Dope Tracks: The Top 25 Songs About Weed

Today may indeed be Earth Day, but the date 4/20 means something else entirely to people who are proud owners of medical marijuana prescriptions (and maybe a few of you lawbreakers out there, too). April 20 is an unofficial national holiday for weed enthusiasts, and since we know that a few of you out there partake in the occasional puff puff pass session, we thought we’d take some time to update the list we created back in 2008 of Dope Tracks: The 20 Best Songs About Weed. That list focused exclusively on the rap community’s obsession with Mary Jane, so we thought we’d branch out a bit and put together a brand new Spotify playlist for you that incorporates the sticky-ickiest songs from not just the hip-hop universe, but also from classic rock, reggae, and folk music. So, without further ado, we present to you this brand new collection we’re calling Dope Tracks: The Top 25 Songs About Weed.

We’ve got our complete guide as to why we selected these songs for you below.
Read more…

April 16th, 2012 | 1:56 pm by Christina Leake (@_bobina)

That Metal Debate: That Metal Show‘s Top 5 Title Tracks Ever

This week on That Metal Show, we were joined by Mick Brown, Jeff Pilson, and George Lynch of T&N, as well as Brian Tichy, who was our guest drummer for the second week in a row. We asked the one and only Slash to stop by and help us sort out this week’s TMS Top 5: Title Tracks.

“Highway to Hell” by AC/DC was a no-brainer, given its place as one of Rolling Stone‘s 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time, but choosing just one Black Sabbath song didn’t come as easy. Obviously, this is a very broad category and we could come up with 5 different versions of this list, but after shuffling the list around, we came up with the TMS Top 5 Title Tracks.

March 26th, 2012 | 2:00 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Train, The Shins, Fun. And Other Acts Come Out In Support Of Spotify (VIDEO)

While there seems to be near-universal consensus about the benefits of Spotify from a consumer-perspective, the same cannot be said for the artists whose work actually appears on streaming services. There are varied reports as to how much money musical acts actually make from services like Spotify, MOG and Rdio —one widely circulated report last summer claimed that Lady Gaga only made $167 after her song “Poker Face” was spun one million times on Spotify— and some acts like The Black Keys have been very vocal about the reasons they have NOT chosen to make their music available there (“For a band that makes a living selling music, it’s not at a point where it’s feasible for us.”)

This hot button issue was on the top of everyone’s mind at this year’s SXSW Festival, where the worlds of technology and music collided for a few days earlier this month. Spotify executive Sean Parker explained during a VH1 Rock Docs panel audience that “There’s definitely some sort of dissent brewing between record labels, publishing companies and artists [about the compensation they get from streaming services] … Spotify is returning a HUGE amount of money [to the record labels]. If we continue growing at our current rate in terms of subscriptions and downloads, we’ll overtake iTunes in terms of contributions to the recorded music business in under two years.”

But what do the musicians themselves think? We sat down with a number of artists at varying stages of their careers —veteran acts like Train, The Shins, and Keane, as well as relative newcomers like Alabama Shakes, Best Coast, Fun. and Gary Clark Jr.— to get their perspectives on this controversial subject. Find out what they have to say in this exclusive VH1 Tuner video!

March 2nd, 2012 | 4:00 pm by Monse Barrera

Playlist: Listen To All Of The Songs Featured On Your Favorite VH1 Shows During The Month Of February

For each and every show that airs on VH1, a team of music supervisors here at the network have spent countless hours determining exactly what pieces of music best complement the footage that we have shot. This team —the CMI (Creative Music Integration) group— listen to thousands of songs each month in an attempt to figure out how best to utilize musical cues to reinforce the emotion and drama on shows like Mob Wives and Basketball Wives, so we thought it would be a cool idea to give you an inside glimpse into their world.

Each month, we’ll put together a list of all the songs that have been featured on the programs and promos that you see on VH1, which will be accompanied by two things: Specific commentary from the music supervisor as to why they selected a particular song for a particular scene in a show, as well as a Spotify playlist for you to sample these songs. Without further ado, here are all the songs that we featured on VH1 during the month of February!

VH1 SHOWS PLAYLIST: FEBRUARY 2012
(Listen to the playlist on Spotify)

VH1 PROMOS

Deluka‘s “OMFG” in the theme for 40 Greatest TRL Moments
Ellie Goulding‘s “Starry Eyed” is featured in VH1′s 100 Greatest Women in Music promo
Carmen Liana’s “Who I Am” in Black History Month Promo
“When the promos department approached us for ideas on a song to be used in several Black History Month promos, Carmen Liana’s ‘Who I Am’ immediately came to mind. It’s a driving track with a touch of attitude in the hook that catches your attention. Lyrically, the theme of the song, which celebrates embracing your identity, ties in nicely with Black History Month.“—Lacey, VH1/CMI Department Assistant

February 12th, 2012 | 2:24 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Dance With Me Baby: A Special Spotify Playlist Featuring All Of Whitney Houston’s Top 40 Hits

When Whitney Houston passed away yesterday, we lost a once-in-a-generation talent, a singer whose voice was so pure and emotive that it was heralded by people of of all ages, races and nationalities. During a remarkable stretch from December of 1985 until March of 1988, Whitney scored a record seven consecutive #1 Billboard singles in a row; she ultimately finished her career with 11 #1 songs, good for 7th place on the all-time list of history’s most popular recording artists.

As we all struggle to cope with the sudden loss of Whitney Houston, we put together the following Spotify playlist as a way to remember Whitney at her finest — Dance With Me Baby: All Of Whitney Houston’s Top 40 hits. The playlist consists of 31 tracks, and is organized in order of chart success. It ranges from “I Will Always Love You”, which spent an astounding 14 weeks at #1 in 1992-1993, to “Queen Of The Night”, a deep cut from The Bodyguard that peaked at #36 on the Billboard charts.

The playlist’s tracklist is as follows:

Song: “I Will Always Love You”
Released: November 14, 1992
Peak Position: #1 for 14 weeks

Song: “Greatest Love Of All”
Released: April 5, 1986
Peak Position: #1 for 3 weeks

Song: “How Will I Know”
Released: December 28, 1985
Peak Position: #1 for 2 weeks

January 29th, 2012 | 9:00 am by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Get Your Nineties Nostalgia On With Our Spotify Soundtrack For The TRL Decade

VH1′s latest entry in the award-winning Rock Docs franchise, The TRL Decade, premieres tonight at 9:30 pm. The hour-long special takes a look back at the colorful history of the long-running MTV video request program and the effect that it had on the music industry, and features insightful interviews from former VJs like Carson Daly and Dave Holmes, as well as some of that era’s most popular musical acts.

In order to get you in the mood for tonight’s premiere, we built this special
Spotify playlist for The TRL Decade, which features many of the songs that you’ll hear in this documentary feature. Get your ’90s nostalgia on with boy band faves like “Larger Than Life” by the Backstreet Boys, rap-rock smashes like Korn‘s “Freak On A Leash”, hip hop hits like P. Diddy‘s “Bad Boy For Life”, sugar coated girl pop classics like Mandy Moore‘s “Candy”, and many more.

The TRL Decade [Spotify]

[Photo Credit: Getty Images]

December 22nd, 2011 | 10:03 am by Kat George and Mark Graham (@kat_george)

The Best Songs Of 2011 (According To Your Friendly Neighborhood VH1 Staffers)

When we began compiling our Best Songs of 2011 list, there were many differing opinions, and after briefly toying with the idea of pitting all our staff against one another in a Hunger Games fight-to-the-death scenario against the backdrop of Times Square, we conceded that the most diplomatic and least murderous thing to do would be to each submit our own list. You know, in the name of preserving a civil work environment and whatnot (not to mention our longstanding policy of avoiding contact with the human resources department). So while we didn’t battle it out in a conference room or some such nonsense, each one of us faced an internal battle — choosing our favorite songs of the year. As you can see, it wasn’t easy (some of us got a little greedy with 20 strong lists), and while the usual suspects like “Rolling In The Deep” and “Holocene” made appearances, there were a few surprises in the music tastes of the VH1 office folk…

(Btw, before we get into this, we’d like to note that we put together the following Spotify playlist for your listening pleasure: VH1 Staffers Pick Their Favorite Songs Of 2011. It’s sequenced in alpha order by artist first name, so we wholeheartedly recommend you hit Shuffle while listening to this 120 track playlist. Now, on with the show…)

August 23rd, 2011 | 3:30 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

Quakin’ – Songs To Help You Cope With Today’s Eastern Seaboard Earthquake

If you were anywhere on the Eastern seaboard in the last hour or so, you no doubt felt the effect of an earthquake that registered 5.9 on the Richter Scale. Here in Times Square at VH1 HQ, we felt the building sway and bounce uncomfortably for a good five or six seconds. Everyone seems to be okay, if a bit freaked out.

In order to help you (and us!) calm down on this hectic afternoon, we just created the following playlist of earthquake-themed songs for all you Spotify users out there:
Quakin’ – Songs To Help You Cope With The 2011 New York City Earthquake

(If you’re not on Spotify, this room on Turntable.fm also just cropped up: Earthquake 2K11.)

Full playlist for you after the jump:

August 3rd, 2011 | 7:30 pm by Mark Graham (@unclegrambo)

The Hunger Games Soundtrack Tracklisting (Of Our Dreams)

While it will still be another 18 months or so until Twilight-mania finally subsides, the next big franchise poised to gobble up the disposable income of America’s rabid teenage girl fanbase will almost certainly be The Hunger Games¹. There is currently a film adaptation in the works, and it is scheduled to hit theaters next March. Earlier today, The Hollywood Reporter landed the scoop that there will be not one but TWO soundtrack albums produced for the Lionsgate film. One will feature the instrumental score co-composed by Grammy-winning soundtrack maestros T. Bone Burnett and Danny Elfman, while the other will feature “collections of the songs featured in the film and songs directly influenced by the themes — freedom, rebellion, survival, family — and subject matter of the film.” No specific artists have been announced yet, but we’re not going to let a silly thing like that stop us from speculating about the contents of said soundtrack. Here is the The Hunger Games soundtrack tracklisting … of our dreams.

(And if you’re into this sort of thing, check out The Hunger Games Soundtrack (Of Our Dreams) on Spotify.)

1) Temple Of The Dog, “Hunger Strike”
2) Lenny Kravitz, “Always On The Run”
3) Eric Carmen, “Hungry Eyes”
4) Weird Al Yankovic, “Eat It”
5) The Clash, “Career Opportunities”

6) Duran Duran, “Hungry Like The Wolf”
7) The Postal Service, “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight”
Read more…

July 14th, 2011 | 3:00 pm by Nick Minichino

Spotify Launches In America! Does It Live Up To The Hype?

Cloud-based streaming music service Spotify has launched in the United States, and you can sign up for their “unlimited” or “premium” monthly subscriptions or, with an invite, listen for free, with advertising. The hype machine is in full force, but how does the service stack up against other available options? We broke down the aspects of Spotify’s appeal to cut through the hype and look at what the service offers.

Spotify is streaming-only, so it does not allow users to download from its music catalog. This allows the service to license the music at a lower rate (and is part of what makes the advertising-supported service possible). As a free option, Spotify improves on Pandora by allowing listeners to choose what songs they hear, rather than having a playlist programmed for them. Its subscription service is not dissimilar to Rhapsody‘s or Rdio‘s streaming services, but both of those allow subscribers to download songs, so they can only offer free trials rather than a full-fledged advertising-supported service, and their subscription services start at a higher price point than Spotify’s $4.99/mo. “Unlimited” subscription.

Spotify is also touted for being cloud-based, which is to say that music is provided by content owners and stored by the service, not by the user. This allows users to have access to a larger catalog than they would able to store on their computers, phones, etc. However, control of the music is ultimately out of the user’s hands, so it can become unavailable. For example, even the services that have licenses with Sony do not stream Milli Vanilli songs, because that music has been deliberately removed from circulation by the company.