Slate looks at single-topic blogs and their inevitable book deals.

Remember Sexman? Yeah. So here’s a video of him with 50 Cent. I have no words… [via]

My new eMusic credit cycle doesn’t kick in for a few days, but if these changes are accurate, I can see my account getting cancelled pretty quick.

★ Certain tracks can only be downloaded with “paid” credits, not the free credits eMusic hands out for trial memberships.

★ Individual track downloads disabled for tracks longer than 10 minutes - you must download the entire album

★ Certain (popular) sub-10-minute tracks disabled for individual download

★ No downloading individual discs in multi-disc sets

★ Most new albums use 12-credit album pricing (very few reports of 6 or 9 credit album pricing)

★ Many (a significant portion in the classical section at least) albums with fewer than 12 tracks cost 12 credits

★ Many albums previously available on eMusic have been re-priced (in some cases, tracks available for 1 credit on June 30 now require 12 credits)

UPDATE: After poking around eMusic for a bit, I’ve noticed that none of these changes seem to affect Canada. Of course, we also don’t get the Sony catalogue, but I wasn’t missing it anyway. One oddity: It says I’m subscribed to eMusic Premium, so I get 75 downloads. But on the plans page, it lists the Premium subscription as being only 50 downloads. Was a grandfathered from a previous price plan? Also, when the fuck is Amazon launching their Canadian MP3 store?

The question that’s been keeping me up at night since MJ died: What ever happened to bubbles? [via]

I wanted to do this last weekend, but I was on my technology diet. Mixtape Porno: MJ, now on Vinylslut.fm and available for download.

Asteroids, the movie. No shit?

Ten years of Play.

Star Wars is going to be a live-action TV show.

Michael Jackson is the first artist to sell more than 1-million downloads in a week. Also, here’s his will. He left his kids to his mother. (Really? I mean, I don’t want to judge, but her track record for raising normal kids isn’t exactly spotless.) And if she can’t do it, Diana Ross is next. (This is probably a better choice, but still kind of, you know, completely insane.) Also, they may not be his kids. Or something. I’m finding it difficult to maintain my initial enthusiasm.

To recap: Chris Anderson wrote a book (US). Malcolm Gladwell reviewed (and disagreed with) it. Anderson replied. Now Seth Godin is jumping in (uninvited) and backing Anderson by doing that thing he does so well—you know, sounding all smart while pointing out the obvious. (I have no idea why I dislike Seth Godin so much. It’s kind of irrational, but at the same time I really hate that guy.)

UPDATE: Anil Dash thinks people in glass houses should get dressed in the basement. Also, TechDirt analyzes Gladwell vs. Anderson.

UPDATE 2: Chris Anderson is worse than Wal-Mart. [via]

Vibe is shutting down. [via]

Hype Machine has published a list of bands they believe have attempted to manipulate the HM charts. In terms of PR it kind of worked since I didn’t know about any of these bands until this list went up. [via]

Book deal of the day: Texts From Last Night. [via]

IFC’s 50 greatest movie trailers. [via]

Joe Jackson knows a good PR opportunity when he sees one. Also, he’s kind of an asshole.

The Pirate Bay has been sold for the pittance of $7.8-million. The new owner plans on turning it legit. Because that’s worked out so well for Napster. Here’s the less informative and naïvely optimistic official blog post.

A famous person has died. [via]

Harvard Business uses Michael Jackson to explain the zombieconomy. [via]

If the world’s biggest pop star only made $12 million a year from his recordings, why would anyone make serious music? Where did the rest of the money go? Why, straight into record labels’ pockets. Did they make better music with it? Nope — they made Britney and Lady GaGa. And that’s how they killed themselves: by underinvesting in quality, to rake in the take.

A pretty harsh review of a Fatboy Slim DJ set. The fact that this review even exists is fucking hilarious. [via via]

This morning, I linked to Malcolm Gladwell’s review of Chris Anderson’s Free. Now Anderson has responded. And he comes off as a bit arrogant.

Some info on the status and fate of the Beatles’ song catalog now that Michael Jackson is dead.

NOTE: I collected a lot of MJ-related links here. I assume the frequency of interesting stuff will decrease, so I’m not updating that post anymore. New links will be new posts.

The BBC got some kid to trade in his iPod for a Walkman for a week. He’s pretty funny and a suspiciously good writer (but not too good, making it more suspicious).

Another notable feature that the iPod has and the Walkman doesn’t is “shuffle”, where the player selects random tracks to play. Its a function that, on the face of it, the Walkman lacks. But I managed to create an impromptu shuffle feature simply by holding down “rewind” and releasing it randomly - effective, if a little laboured.

Remember how much Roger Ebert hated Transformers 2? Apparently, that didn’t really matter. This makes me wonder what role critics even play anymore.

I was just talking about this with people yesterday: Bending journalism rules with Twitter coverage of Iran.

Many mainstream media sources, which have in the past been critical of the undifferentiated sources of information on the Web, had little choice but to throw open their doors in this case. As the protests against Mr. Ahmadinejad grew, the government sharply curtailed the foreign press. As visas expired, many journalists packed up, and the ones who stayed were barred from reporting on the streets.

In a news vacuum, amateur videos and eyewitness accounts became the de facto source for information. In fact, the symbol of the protests, the image of a young woman named Neda bleeding to death on a Tehran street, was filmed by two people holding camera phones.

Ze Frank is doing video for Time.com. First one here, second one here.

How did the New York Times keep David Rohde’s kidnapping off Wikipedia for seven months? Also, was it ethical? [via]

During my technology-free weekend Billy Mays died. When I heard this, I could only respond “Who the fuck is Billy Mays?” Now I know. The best comment comes from Texts From Last Night:

They say celebs die in threes. Leave it to Billy Mays to throw in one extra COMPLETELY FREE!

Tumblr of note: STFU, Parents.

The Listenerd examines the recent Twitter meme, Cool Bands Made Uncool. It’s kind of funny, but then he says “the platform feels like the start of a recommendation engine for ideas.” It’s the kind of statement that gives me a headache thinking about it.

Malcolm Gladwell isn’t buying Chris Anderson’s Free.

Why is it a law? Free is just another price, and prices are set by individual actors, in accordance with the aggregated particulars of marketplace power. “Information wants to be free,” Anderson tells us, “in the same way that life wants to spread and water wants to run downhill.” But information can’t actually want anything, can it? Amazon wants the information in the Dallas paper to be free, because that way Amazon makes more money. Why are the self-interested motives of powerful companies being elevated to a philosophical principle?