AUSTRALIAN MUSIC NEWS BULLETIN
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Australian Music News 8th March 2010
In this week's Australian Music News, South Australian Premier Mike Rann has promised, if his government is re-elected, to make the biennial Adelaide Festival an annual event from 2012. The announcement has been met with both support and criticism. Some local arts companies fear they will be excluded from the festival in favour of expensive international acts.
Also in Adelaide, the world music festival WOMADelaide draws to a close today. This year's festival was headlined by Indian sitar master Ravi Shankar with his daughter Anoushka Shankar, and featured over 500 artists from 27 countries.
Singer-songwriter Lou Reed and performance artist Laurie Anderson will take over from Brian Eno as curators of the Vivid Sydney festival of music, light and ideas. The second annual festival will run from May 27 to June 21.
A Victorian teenager from the town of Timboon has been arrested on charges of offensive behaviour for listening to rap music. The 19 year-old was listening to a CD in a car parked outside a supermarket while waiting for his mother. Police officers claimed the music was "offensive and derogatory to females". The case, the first of its kind in Australia, could set legal precedent.
The State Library of Queensland has opened its new centre for digital culture, the Edge. The aim of the centre is to promote experimentation in design, art and technology. The complex provides production spaces for various media, accommodation for artists, and spaces for workshops, conferences and informal discussion.
For more stories, check out the Australian Music News Bulletin.
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For the first time ever, Australia leads all countries second only to the USA in both the number of entries and finalists in the prestigious 2009 International Songwriting Competition (ISC). Out of almost 15,000 entries worldwide, 44 Australian artists are finalists and 73 are semi-finalists in the 2009 competition.
Source: ISC
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Heaps has changed on Brisbane's music scene in the past 17 years, but one thing that hasn't is people’s thirst for live music.
Source: Courier Mail
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Academic's at Melbourne University's prestigious music school say the 115-year-old institution's future is at risk and have called for it to split from the Victorian College of the Arts and Music.
Source: The Age
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Right up until the moment he started singing, nobody was sure if Archie Roach would be able to perform at the Port Fairy folk festival.
Source: SMH
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Matthew Hindson infuses his exhilarating compositions with elements of popular music.
Source: Brisbane Times
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It was playing a piece from bluesman Buddy Guy that got Jeff Beck the job as guitarist with the Yardbirds back in the early 1960s.
Source: Courier Mail
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"The hills are alive with the sound of music,'' says the song, and if the hills in question are the ones west of Sydney, they are becoming more so. Long a haunt of artists, writers and actors, the Blue Mountains have an increasing population of musicians, akin to the concentration that existed in Balmain or Darlinghurst before those suburbs became too expensive.
Source: SMH
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First it was at the Oscars, now a woman has broken the glass ceiling at the Australian Music Prize.
Source: SMH
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Lisa Mitchell finally stepped out of the Australian Idol shadow today, winning one of the nation's most prestigious music prizes.
Source: The Australian
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British theatre critics have given a lukewarm reception to the much-anticipated sequel to Lord Andrew Lloyd Webber's smash hit musical Phantom of the Opera.
Source: SMH
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Simon Leadley (1956 - 2010) was one of Australia's leading audio and music-for-film craftsmen. A founder of Trackdown Digital, now a world renowned orchestral recording stucio in Sydney, he was known as a "computer whisperer" who had a sixth sense on how to do things smarter and break through many of the outmoded conventions in his field.
Source: The Age
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An entertainment lawyer has cast doubt on whether local artists will benefit from a Pink Floyd legal victory that protects the "artistic integrity" of albums sold online.
Source: The Australian
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After many off-stage dramas, Opera Australia is counting on tomorrow's world premiere of the new Australian opera Bliss to alter its fortunes.
Source: SMH
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The Adelaide Festival is set to end on a redemptive note tonight when 5119 people attend a concert of Mahler's Symphony of a Thousand at Adelaide Entertainment Centre.
Source: The Australian
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Country singer Nanci Griffith has never been afraid to load her songs with powerful political statements, writes Bruce Elder.
Source: SMH
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Album lovers may rejoice a little at last: a British court says Pink Floyd, purveyor of iTunes-unfriendly concept records, cannot be unbundled.
Source: SMH
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Queensland's most successful band has slammed the Government's plan to close Brisbane nightspots by 2am.
Source: Courier Mail
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Music lovers have long followed the manufacturers' instructions, writes Bernard Zuel.
Source: SMH
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Are Gorillaz - an animated band living in a virtual world - the ultimate 21st-century pop group?
Source: SMH
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Mark Linkous, (1962 – 2010) created fractured songs that told of sparrows, ''painbirds'' and junebugs; fabulous meditations on the beauty and impermanence of life.
Source: SMH
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Perhaps it is the life-size fake camel that pushed them over the edge. Or maybe it's the collection of antique dummies. Whatever it is, one of Sydney's most eccentric venues has been forced to shut because it does not meet council regulations.
Source: SMH
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The small studio behind "Power Gig: Rise of the SixString" hopes to compete with the bigwigs behind "Guitar Hero" and "Rock Band" by having players strum real string, not buttons, to play.
Source: SMH
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Continuing the legacy of her famous father Ravi, Anoushka Shankar is a world music performer for the 21st century, writes Bruce Elder.
Source: SMH
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It's taken a long time and a lot of work, but country singers the McClymonts have finally hit the big time. Now, they tell Guy Blackman, their sights are set on Nashville.
Source: The Age
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It began with Angela Catterns and, bizarrely, is ending with Alice Cooper: Vega 95.3 FM, Sydney's $100 million experiment in baby boomer radio, has finally been put out of its misery.
Source: SMH
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The power of music collided head-on with the forces of nature yesterday and it was two of Adelaide's biggest music festivals that emerged triumphant.
Source: Adelaide Now
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US saxophonist Wayne Shorter has been playing, composing and influencing countless other musicians on all instruments for 50 years. He has played with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Art Blakey, Miles Davis and Herbie Hancock, and in 1970 formed the ground-breaking Weather Report, a premier fusion group lasting 15 years.
Source: The Australian
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Antisocial themes in music may contribute to young listeners becoming more aggressive, an expert has warned.
Source: new.com
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The 21st-century library will not just be a repository for information, but also a place for "creating, experimenting, connecting", a place where you can go not only to find out about but also use digital technologies to create "art, design, gaming, engineering, sound, science, craft and architecture".
Source: The Australian
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Mike Rann wants to make the Adelaide Festival an annual event but not everyone is pleased
Source: The Australian
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Ravi Shankar is proud of bringing Indian music to the Western world over the past 60 years, but he's prouder still of passing on his composing and sitar-playing skills to his daughter Anoushka.
Source: The Australian
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The long and sometimes painful journey of Brett Dean's new opera to the stage is almost over
Source: The Australian
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Australia cannot afford to let disability and language remain barriers to creativity, writes Adam Fulton.
Source: SMH
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A teenager has been arrested for listening to what police deemed to be offensive rap music.
Source: Adelaide Now
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British pop superstar George Michael and beloved French indie rockers Phoenix have praised their Australian audiences after our music fans have copped international blogerati backlash for criticising disappointing tours by Britney Spears and Whitney Houston.
Source: News com
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The French quartet have achieved the popular vote thanks to a track they were going to throw away, writes Andrew Murfett.
Source: The Age
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A dispute has erupted over control of the Yothu Yindi Foundation, a non-profit Aboriginal corporation that runs Garma, Australia's leading cultural exchange festival.
Source: The Age
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The agency charged with delivering the Federal Government's national curriculum and schools transparency agenda is to be led by a former geography teacher who has helped transform school systems on five continents.
Source: SMH
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Singer Archie Roach is hoping to appear as scheduled at the Port Fairy Folk Festival this weekend. The funeral of his partner, singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter, will be held this afternoon in South Australia.
Source: The Age
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Xavier Rudd is known for his pulsating rhythms and a do-it-yourself work ethic that has seen the blues'n' roots singer top many Australian festival line-ups.
Source: Adelaide Now
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The jazz queen loves sharing the stage with her female cohorts, writes Bernard Zuel.
Source: SMH
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Veteran singer-songwriter Lou Reed and performance artist Laurie Anderson are taking over from Brian Eno as curators of the Vivid Sydney festival.
Source: SMH
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Brody Dalle's maternal instincts have driven her back to rock, writes Jo Roberts.
Source: The Age
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Peter Gabriel strips songs to their bare essentials in his latest album, the first in eight years, but he is as passionate about new technologies and saving the world as he is about music.
Source: SMH
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Voodoo drumming is one of Haiti's most thrilling musical traditions. Jude Rogers tells how it is being used in the relief effort.
Source: SMH
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Old white men, kicking arse. Who would've thought that rock 'n roll would come to this? But it was inevitable wasn't it? When I was way younger I used to wonder sometimes if we'd all be sitting around in retirement homes one day tapping our toes to AC/DC or Metallica, the same way that the wrinklies of that time sat around under their blankets, humming along to the hits of the 1930s and 40s. It just seemed wrong, the idea that something as brutal as rock music would eventually grow old, slow down and even die.
Source: SMH
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Sir John Dankworth, who has died aged 82, was a pioneer of modern jazz in Britain, a leading composer of film music, and a superb instrumentalist in his own right.
Source: The Age
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Australia is the country of fusion where it is quite normal to hear an oud here and a tabla there, says master of fusion music Bobby Singh.
Source: Adelaide Now
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Hallelujah! So Digital Dave slew Greedy Goliath and the kingdom is at peace.
Source: SMH
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This weekend at the Port Fairy Folk Festival, Colin Hay will perform his smash hit Down Under for the first time since a judge ruled that he and co-author Ron Strykert had plundered from folk song Kookaburra Sits in the Old Gum Tree.
Source: The Age
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The largest contingent of world music acts assembled in Australia - 56 groups, troupes and DJs - will converge at Adelaide's 34-hectare Botanic Park this weekend for the 18th WOMADelaide Festival.
Source: The Age
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The Music Board of the Australia Council for the Arts have announced that the 2010 Fellowship grants have been awarded to Archie Roach and Andrea Keller. Each will receive $90,000 over two years for their ongoing creative work and professional development.
Source: Australia Council for the Arts
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An Australian Council for the Arts survey of over 3000 Australians has revealed that 15-24 year olds are vastly more creative than any other age group.
Source: Australia Council for the Arts
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EMI Music is appealing against a court ruling that found Australian band Men at Work plagiarised a Girl Guides' song in their 1983 hit Down Under.
Source: BBC
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Over 16 million Australians are actively participating in the arts, according to new research released today by the Australia Council for the Arts.
Source: Australia Council for the Arts
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MusicNSW and Industry and Investment NSW are thrilled to announce 11 quick response grants built to support artists and independent industry in developing trade opportunities whilst attending the South By Southwest (SXSW) conference in Austin, Texas this March.
Source: The Music
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The spaces and streets of Melbourne hit a resounding common chord in the first week of May, celebrating the universal language of jazz in an extraordinary program that invites the entire city to get involved and play along.
Source: Melbourne International Jazz Festival
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Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), on behalf of Australian recording artists and recording labels, has launched a constitutional case in the High Court challenging 40 year old legislation which unfairly limits the price that the commercial radio industry pays for the recordings it broadcasts.
Source: PPCA
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The TDO is a refreshingly new, bold idea in Australian orchestral music making, designed to offer musicians with advanced orchestral instrument skills the opportunity to come together and make great music in Hobart, Tasmania.
Source: University of Tasmania
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Sydney’s hosting of the ISCM World New Music Days Festival from 30 April to 9 May heralds the first time in the 88-year history of the International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM) that the prestigious event will be held in the Southern Hemisphere. It will also be the largest festival of contemporary music ever held in Australia.
Source: ISCM World New Music Days festival
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The Australian Music Radio Airplay Project (AMRAP) today announced stage two of its AirIT initiative at the Adelaide Fuse Festival. AirIT is community radio’s exclusive catalogue of Australian music, provided free by Amrap for both the sector and the music industry.
Source: Amrap
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Apple Inc. said Thursday that it has sold 10 billion songs from the iTunes Store since it opened in 2003, cementing its position as the world's largest music retailer.
Source: SMH
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The BBC is to close down half its website, cut spending on imported American programmes and close two radio stations in an admission it has become too large, a newspaper reported Friday.
Source: SMH
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When jazz saxophonist Branford Marsalis and his friend Harry Connick Jr heard about the devastation of New Orleans in 2005, their reaction was heartfelt and practical. They organised the building of a Musicians' Village.
Source: Courier Mail
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A planned protest by thousands of music fans turned into a celebration after the Victorian government backed down on tougher liquor licensing laws for live music venues.
Source: SMH
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Struggling music company EMI Group has shelved plans to sell Abbey Road, the London recording studio made famous by The Beatles.
Source: SMH
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Carol Nicoll, former head of the Industry Skills Development Group and senior Australian Education International official, will be the new chief of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.
Source: The Australian
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Iranian authorities have cancelled a traditional music concert in the western city of Tabriz because two members of the band are women, the ISNA news agency reports.
Source: SMH
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AC/DC, long the pre-eminent musical heroes of blue-collar Australia will finish their career with the distinction of having won over fans of all classes and ages.
Source: Courier Mail
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Central Melbourne came to a standstill yesterday as more than 10,000 musicians and music fans hit the streets in support of the city's live music scene.
Source: SMH
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The most significant cast member of Gyorgy Ligeti's absurdist opera Le Grand Macabre doesn't sing or dance, but is unmissable.
Source: SMH
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Ojos de Brujo, the award-winning Barcelona-based collective, is a band without leaders. Percussionist and beat-boxer Maxwell Wright calls it a laboratory for making music. "If we have a common denominator, I guess it is a shared love of flamenco," he says.
Source:
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Paul Grabowsky has a powerful vision for the Adelaide Festival, as he tells David Nason
Source: The Australian
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Classical music is cool again. How do we know? Because cool people say so.
Source: SMH
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Adelaide will finally join other state capitals and host an annual arts festival from 2013 if Labor is re-elected next month, South Australian Premier Mike Rann has pledged.
Source: The Australian
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The University of Melbourne is facing calls for an independent review of its financial treatment of the old Victorian College of the Arts amid a push for the college to be made a stand-alone entity.
Source: The Australian
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Cowbell China has officially been launched in conjunction with the Chinese New Year celebrations enabling the 1.3 billion people who reside in China access to independent artists from around the world.
Source: Cowbell China
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Premier and Arts Minister Anna Bligh today announced the opening of the $20,000 Grant McLennan Fellowship for 2010, and encouraged the state's contemporary musicians to apply.
Source: Qld Government
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Sydney's Pinchgut Opera has appointed Anna Cerneaz as its general manager.
Source: Pinchgut Opera
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Stephen Peach, Chief Executive Officer of industry organisations Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) and Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA), today announced his resignation from the positions he has held for the last eight years.
Source: ARIA//PPCA
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The London recording studio immortalised by the multi-million-selling Beatles album of the same name has been put up for sale by its owners.
Source: The Australian
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A child of the stolen generation, the singer-songwriter Ruby Hunter created music from her troubled past, writes Martin Flanagan.
Source: SMH
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The body established to pay authors for the use of their copyright last year spent more on its own staff -- including more than $350,000 for a chief executive -- than it paid authors and artists directly.
Source: The Australian
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In what critics are calling "musicblogocide 2010", Google has deleted at least six popular music blogs that it claims violated copyright law. These sites, hosted by Google's Blogger and Blogspot services, received notices only after their sites – and years of archives – were wiped from the internet.
Source: Guardian UK
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The musical Jersey Boys has scored 10 nominations in this year's Green Room Awards, with the winners to be announced on March 15 at the Arts Centre. The two leads, Bobby Fox as Frankie Valli and Scott Johnson as Tommy De Vito, are competing for best male artist.
Source: The Age
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Janet Ritterman fosters musicians who also can earn a living
Source: The Australian
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The Brumby government has moved to boost its flagging relationship with the music industry, providing $250,000 for a new independent body, Music Victoria, to represent the industry's interests.
Source: The Age
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She is married to an Oscar-winning actor and she has two children, but that does not stop Danielle Spencer forging ahead with her music career.
Source: Brisbane Times
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Two new companies are giving consumers a way to download songs for free by watching a few ads. The idea has been tried before but this time it appears it might work, because the startups have found advertisers that are willing to pay around $2 to have a moment of your time.
Source: SMH
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Pope Benedict XVI was nominated on Monday for a top British classical music award and will fight for the prize against reality television stars.
Source: SMH
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