After a whole lot of chatter as to where G-Unit would end up, they’ve signed with EMI. Earlier speculation pointed at Def Jam, considering crony Sha Money XL has set up shop over there. Yet, now both Lloyd Banks and Tony Yayo’s new albums will be released through their new label.

While you’d think this would make 50′s future clear as well, this isn’t necessarily true. After Interscope lost faith in the other artists on Fiddy’s roster, he began seeking out other venues for them. This could simply be that venue. Chances are that 50 signed along with his posse, but the General Manager of the label made no mention of any 50 material, instead speaking of only Banks and Yayo. One would think he’d liked to have focused on the flagship artist of the Unit if he could have. Also adding to my (likely overzealous) scrutiny are 50′s words from earlier this year denying he’d sign with Capitol/EMI.

In any case, heads still loyal to G-Unit around the Internet have been making a fuss about this being the beginning of a second takeover for the group. Doubtful, if you ask me. With enough clever marketing, I’m sure 50 can rediscover a comfortable – if never as commanding as it once was – position in hip hop. Banks is a solid artist, while I’d say Yayo is less so. I’ll give the former some chance of a bigger role in the game, but I doubt either of them will ever create a Young Money-like fervor around 50. Essentially, I see this move as a chance for 50 to boost himself back up, but if he couldn’t manage that at Shady on a Recovery-high, I’m unsure he’ll manage (Black Magic it must have been, because it sure disappeared). Speaking of which, perhaps most interesting is the big question mark this places on the relationships between 50 and Eminem and Dr. Dre – Gatman and Robbin’ no more? At least Game will feel more at home back on Aftermath.

It seems like the petition may have done some good, Atlantic Records posted a twitter simply saying, “#Lasers is coming folks!” Labels can never accused of consistency, so who knows whether this will hold true, but with any luck this means the record is actually coming. Lupe recently came under fire from collaborating producer Prolyfic, who declared the wait to be more Lupe’s fault than the label’s, and that his refusal to create singles was holding up progress, which today started an overly dramatic Tweet war. Let’s hope the album holds up to all the hype the wait has created.

The shortlist for the 2010 Mercury Prize has been announced today. The Mercury Prize is given each year to the “Best British Album” and is considered the most prestigious prize for British musical acts. Past winners include Arctic Monkeys, PJ Harvey and Portishead, but the judges also like to pull out surprises such as last year’s winner Speech Debelle and Antony and the Johnsons who were more or less unknown before their 2005 victory.

According to the bookies this year’s favourites are The XX and Dizzee Rascal, closely followed by Paul Weller whose nomination is something of a surprise. The full list of nominees is below.

Biffy Clyro – Only Revolutions
Corinne Bailey Rae – The Sea
Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N Cheek
Foals – Total Life Forever
I Am Kloot – Sky At Night
Kit Downes Trio – Golden
Laura Marling – I Speak Because I Can
Mumford & Sons – Sigh No More
Paul Weller – Wake Up The Nation
Villagers – Becoming A Jackal
Wild Beasts – Two Dancers
The XX – XX

The final ceremony when the winner is announced is on September 7th.

While I was reading one of my favorite design blogs this morning I ran across this intriguing piece of news, graphic designer and artist Andrio Abero is curating a new DJ podcast series called Psychometry. As Abero puts it, “I find it interesting that a lot of designers I know are also DJ’s. With that said for future episodes I plan on splitting the mix between myself and a guest DJ.”

A pretty ambitious plan, but something that could potentially be very exciting if other designers invest in the project. Being able to hear some of the influences a designer or artist might have is a great opportunity, especially when some of that music spills over into their everyday work. Below you can see some of Abero’s work for the Sasquatch Festival last month. The podcast series is going to focus mainly on “electronic, deep house, techno with a splash of pop and indie” says Abero. You can download the first episode right now on his website or subscribe on iTunes, either of which I highly recommend.

There are many reasons that I love my home state of Minnesota, and the awesome music scene has always been one of them. But now, more than ever, the Minneapolis area has been getting attention for more than just Prince and Atmosphere.

Moon Glyph is the two year old project of Steve Rosborough, who originally started the label as a way to release his own band’s material. Since then, or more specifically in the last month or two, the label has exploded in popularity, being touted as the next big thing from Gorilla v. Bear and Chocolate Bobka alike. Foxy Digitalis recently did a Q&A with Rosborough, who discussed his label and his thoughts on the bourgeoning limited release market. Read the highlights from the interview and grab an mp3 after the jump.
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Photo by Ryan Sahb

The music industry’s sales numbers have been discouraging for years now, but last week they hit a new low. According to Nielsen Soundscan, last week was officially the worst week of album sales since Soundscan started in 1994. In total, a record-setting total of only 4.98 million new and back-catalog albums were sold in the week ending on May 30, 2010.

This is a major drop from the last week of May in 2009, which showed sales of 5.76 million, and it certainly contrasts the record for most albums sold in a week: 45.4 million in December 2000. With the emergence of the internet as way to distribute music (both legally and otherwise), the last decade has been rough for album sales, and now sales are at a historic low point. Although accurate tallies are not available from before 1994, Billboard estimates that this could be the lowest single-week sales since the 1970s.

Jim Urie, Distribution president of Universal Music Group, blamed internet piracy for the lack of sales, but expressed optimism, saying “June will be big. Look at all the big records coming out, including Sara McLachlan, Drake, Miley Cyrus, Eminem and Jack Johnson.”

[Via Billboard]

In Sweden, the Polar Music Prize is kind of a big deal. According to Björk’s website:

The Polar Music Prize is an annual music prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. It was created in 1989 with funds donated by Stig Anderson, manager of ABBA and founder of the record label Polar Music. The awardees will each be receiving one million crisp Swedish Kronor, which will be handed to them personally by the Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf on a ceremony on August 30th.

This year’s recipients are Icelandic iconoclast Björk and Italian composer Ennio Morricone, the latter of whom is perhaps most well known for his score of the Spaghetti western, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, but he has composed many scores that have been successful in their own right. As for Björk, she has been an active musician since the late ’70s, but not rising to popularity until her stint with pop-punk band The Sugarcubes and later becoming a successful solo artist. Both Morricone and Björk have been enormously influential in the music world and beyond.

It’s about time that we finally heard and saw something regarding Apple’s acquiring of Lala.com, which occurred late last year.

If you visit the Lala site right now, you will be prompted for log-in credentials (established users only), but the site woefully appears with a stark white background to announce that its doors will close on May 31. The service will not register new users.

The site has promised refunds to anyone with credits or balances, which will be good for use in the iTunes store, according to Lala. Could this mean the upcoming launch of iTunes.com? If things are going in that direction, Apple has stayed somewhat mum on the subject. Lala has been a tremendous help for music blogs and webzines, especially as a service which allows full-album embedding so that readers may simultaneously read reviews and stream the album before buying. Let’s hope that a more Apple-centric website permits the same kind of friendly uploading and streaming privileges.

This week, the music world lost one of its most well-known photographers. Jim Marshall, responsible for iconic photographs of Jimi Hendrix, Johnny Cash, The Beatles, and Led Zeppelin, died in his sleep in New York City on Tuesday at age 74. It has been said that Marshall contributed some of pop culture’s most important images throughout the 20th century, such as the infamous photo of Johnny Cash flipping off the camera.

Marshall was not survived by any immediate family members, but he left behind a truly inspiring collection of images, laying the foundation for many rock photographers, both his ’70s-era contemporaries and 21st century followers. You can read his obituary in The New York Times. In his memory, Rolling Stone has also posted an overview of some of his most famous shots.

Just a few weeks ago, OK Go frontman Damian Kulash contributed a brave op-ed to The New York Times which criticized EMI for stopping video embedding on other websites. Now, it seems as though that column was OK Go’s parting shot: the band very recently announced their departure from the label via a YouTube video.

EMI released a sufficiently polite statement that read, “We’ve really enjoyed our relationship with OK Go. They’ve always pushed creative boundaries and have broken new ground, particularly with their videos. We wish them the greatest success for the future.” Likewise, Kulash said in the video, “We’d like to thank the people at EMI Music who have worked so hard on our behalf.” Way to stay amicable about it. Props.

We’re certain the band will reveal more plans in the coming months or year, but so far, their main priority seems to be re-releasing Of the Blue Colour of the Sky on their own new label this April, oddly named Paracadute Recordings.

Despite their latest LP selling only approximately 20,000 copies thus far, their latest video for “This Too Shall Pass” has enjoyed 7,590,101 views at the time of this story’s publication. Now that embedding restrictions don’t apply to them anymore, will their album sales also increase? It’s difficult to say, but perhaps OK Go know what they’re doing.

(Digital Spy)