UGC CONVERGENCE Ezine's fake 8bit metal game trailer

To the eyes of someone who fondly recalls all the acts featured, and the (now!) primitive video game style pastiched, this is a thing of marvel - a trailer for a notional 'Monsters of Rock' game, with legendary bands, music videos and singles all rendered in this retro style.

Bands like Chipmunk have of course made tech-retro part of youth/popular culture, fetishising 80s synths and recording technology.

This is a great example of convergence - an e-zine (there is no print edition, and Facebook, where I most often find its articles, seems to be, in effect, its key 'distributor') commissioned a fake retro video game trailer, 'published' on YouTube, featuring lo-fi music renderings that recall the early mobile phone ringtones.

[below the line: a second example, some important terminology, and points on 2005's Crazy Frog...]

FINANCE: pay to meet-and-greet stars at gigs

Read Michael Hann's article here.

This is either despicable exploitation or a sensible means of countering the reduced revenues from record sales: the trend for pop/rock acts to offer premium gig packages which include meet and greets amongst other things. Would you pay £215 to meet Avril Lavigne and have a photo taken 'with' her (standing apart with a clearly faked, fixed grin)? Clearly for a lot of folks the answer is mais oui, but she's just one of many plying this field:

On Kiss's forthcoming US tour, for example, you can pay $1,250 (£737) for a package that includes a seat in the first 10 rows, a meet-and-greet, a photo with the band, autographs from the band, sitting in on the sound check and a selection of merchandise. A similar package for Def Leppard, who are opening for Kiss, is $750 ($441). The lower the star power, the lower the price. For example, £159 will buy you the chance to meet Michael Bolton on his UK tour – and get the inevitable photographs and array of merch.

Def Leppard rerecord entire back catalogue?

Here's a very relevant headline from the Guardian's music industry section:

Get rocked, Universal! Def Leppard plan to rerecord their back catalogue
Sheffield rockers are so angry with their label over royalties issues that they plan to replace their old recordings with copies

The article sets out their plan to rerecord ... for which they would want fresh videos?!
Another example of the real-world industry relevance of making new music videos for back-catalogue music.