Yes, there’s a whole new line of IPods announced yesterday. They have phones, cameras, and frappe blenders attached to them.

What they don’t have is...music.

Whether you listen to digital music on an IPod or — my personal favorite–a Creative Zen XFi2-- it doesn’t matter. You simply aren’t hearing what was recorded. This is especially true for classical, jazz, and classic rock records. No matter how good the earbuds– from the Klipsches we heard last week in L.A. to my preferred Ultimate Ears— 50% of the music is lost.

Some digital music is called “lossless” but that’s not true. In…

My dear Hanson fans:

You are a devoted group but you’re not buying CDs.

According to Nielsen Soundscan, the new Hanson album, “Shout it Out,” has sold a paltry 31,000 copies.

The most recent one before that was called “Walk.” Total sales to date from 2007: 54,000 copies.

The days of “MMMBop” are long since passed. This doesn’t mean Hanson are not talented musicians. It’s just that their day in the sun has come and gone. This can be said for plenty of acts. I wish them well in all their endeavors.

Seal– such a good singer songwriter, has a new album coming out on September 28th. It’s called “Commitment.”

Did you know about it? Of course not. It’s from Warner Music Group.

The first single is called “Secret.” It was released to YouTube and other outlets three days ago. Surprise!

I ran into Seal at the Governor’s Ball for the Emmy Awards with his delicious wife, Heidi Klum. They were celebrating losing the Emmy for “Project Runway” to “Top Chef.” Oh well. It’s better to look good than to feel good.

Seal told me he decided to stick with WMG for…

The great and legendary musician Billy Preston would have turned 64 on September 2nd. He died in June 2006, however, leaving a crazy legal entanglement.

Billy was the real “Fifth Beatle,” the only artist ever to have his name on a record with the Beatles–”Get Back.” He played on many of their hits, and with the Rolling Stones and Eric Clapton. Of course, he’s not in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Billy’s hits included “Will it Go Round in Circles,” “Nothing from Nothing,” and “Outta Space.” He co-wrote the classic hit song, “You Are So Beautiful to Me.”…

I wrote about Hanson today and got a lot of email from their fans. I didn’t even know they had fans. Who knew? Hanson seems very 1997. If they sell CDs or downloads, they must have a very devoted group of followers. It’s not like Hanson recordings are showing up in sales charts or on the tradio.

But plenty of groups inspire loyalty who are not that well known anymore. So I tip my hat to Hanson’s gang of believers. Never will take their name, with o or an e, in vain again! All hail Hanson!

http://tinyurl.com/ckqb9e

No one in what’s left of the music business still does this: Clive Davis and his Arista Records family brought the world to Las Vegas yesterday and launched Carlos Santana’s latest creation, an album of the greatest guitar songs featuring a panoply of stars.

Santana is in the middle of a residency at the Hard Rock Hotel’s venue, called The Joint. So rather than wait for the famed musician and his band to be in New York or L.A., Davis invited the business and the media to the sizzling desert (one hundred and six degrees in the shade).

Santana’s album…

Let’s think about this: you don’t make a huge, long trip from Los Angeles to Rio de Janiero and then do grueling concerts if you’re in the middle of a tricky pregnancy. So enough already with Mariah Carey-is-preggers-rumors. Poor Mariah. It was cold in Brazil. She wore a t shirt over her dress. She wore a sweater. But really, photos from her Rio shows only indicate that she’s got a flat tummy.

Mariah has been trying to get pregnant. She doesn’t need any stress from the tabloid press, believe me.

On the other hand, Mariah has been working hard in…

Like they say about The Masters golf tournament, the annual L.A. bash Bob Merlis and Linda Keeler throws in August for a visiting New York music journalist friend is a tradition unlike any other.
This year’s event (hereinafter referred to as “the Rock Party”) brought 90 or so friends to Merlis’s “Gower Tower” domicile in Larchmont, including most of John Mellencamp’s band—Mellencamp being a client of legendary music business publicist Merlis’s Merlis For Hire p.r. firm. The band was in town to back Mellencamp on a series of dates relating to his just-released “No Better Than This” (an album…

Chris Noth--Mr. Big to you, but also star of “The Good Wife”– and Steve Walter are planning to open a new Cutting Room this fall. The second edition of their famed rock club will be on East 32nd St. and Park Avenue, across the street from Artisanal Restaurant.

The old Cutting Room, on West 24th St., was one of the city’s most popular music spots. But I’m told a greedy landlord–as usual–made it impossible to stay open. At the original spot, Noth and Walter hosted lots of big name acts like Sheryl Crow and Sting, but also introduced tons of…

Flash: I just heard from Los Angeles that Michael Jackson’s long time manager, Frank Di Leo, has triumphed in court against a crazy claim from a concert promoter.

The word is that AllGood Entertainment’s assertion that DiLeo had agreed to let Michael Jackson tour for them, and for Patrick Alloco and Leonard Rowe to be involved in Michael’s London concerts, was found without basis by a judge. AllGood’s claims, I’m told, were thrown out. We’ll get more details in a little while.

Alloco, Leonard Rowe, Joseph Jackson were among those who banded together to try and derail Michael’s deal with…