Online sessions are now part of any big artist's promotional push, but the Foo Fighters' recent Yahoo show (yahoo.co.uk/music) raised the bar. Instead of the standard performance of three songs to two cameras and a dozen competition winners, this barrelling eight-song session has the production values of a TV special, with Dave Grohl's chart-rockers entertaining hundreds of US fans on an expensive-looking set (paid for, presumably, by the mildly annoying Nissan ads that appear throughout). Aside from Grohl's ill-advised attempt at piano balladry, it's an enjoyable performance. The endearingly relaxed Q&A session between Grohl and the audience is the icing on the cake.
Most music videos are watched for free, on TV or online. But the newly launched ilovevideo.com download store hopes to change that, by selling promo clips from acts such as Pavement, Arctic Monkeys, Pixies, White Stripes and the Prodigy. Although the site currently offers just 300 videos, they plan to expand that to 3,000, with all sold at near-broadcast quality. Because the videos are free from Digital Rights Management (unlike the iTunes Store), you can do what you like with them. So if you want to make a DVD compilation of 15 classic videos, you can. Problem is, at £1.99 to download each 90MB promo, you'd need deepish pockets, bundles of patience (while they download) and a hefty hard drive. Ultimately, that's why the quicker, more comprehensive and cost-free YouTube.com remains the definitive site for music videos, despite its inferior picture quality.
The mash-up scene has slunk back into the shadows since its spell in the pop spotlight at the beginning of the decade, but there is still a vibrant community of bedroom producers mixing tracks together, then posting the result online. A potential new star is Southampton-based Jamiecg74, whose website (jamiecg74.co.uk) offers 23 mash-ups to download for free.
There are two skills involved in making a great bootleg: the imagination to match tracks and the technical ability to fuse them successfully. Jamiecg74 has both. Who knew that Gerry and the Pacemakers' Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying could serve as such a delicious backdrop to a KRS-One rap? Or that 50 Cent was born to spit rhymes over the Cure's Boys Don't Cry? This site deserves many more than its current total of 1,100 visitors.
