Last Day of 2007

Rollingstone compliled a list of all the concerts that are happening tonight across the US as well as all the New Year’s events on TV. After a few rounds of candyland I’ll get my 3yr old asleep and then I will have a very relaxing, mellow evening listening to Widespread Panic on Sirius and watching the Radiohead webcast of ‘In Rainbows’ at midnight. For a solo New Years at home I couldn’t be more excited…..Happy New Year!

To see the full list of US concerts and events tonight click here.

Giwise compiled all the UK gigs for our European friends here.

Amazon Continues Making Moves

Warner Music Group has begun selling DRM-free downloads through Amazon.com. Now users can download Digital Rights Management (DRM)-free music from artists including the Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Eagles, Led Zeppelin, Madonna and Metallica.

At about 2.9 million songs, Amazon MP3’s catalog is less than half the size of Apple’s iTunes Store, although many of the songs offered through the iTunes Store employ DRM protection

Radiohead Free New Year’s Eve

Radiohead continues to play the free album that keeps on giving.

Radiohead will perform its new album, “In Rainbows,” in its entirety during a pre-taped, hour-long set that will premiere New Year’s Eve on TV and the Internet.

The event will air on Al Gore’s Current TV and Current.com starting 12 a.m. ET on Dec. 31, and will repeat three times throughout the next day.-Billboard

Alley Insider pointed out an early win by Amazon’s MP3 store. On Tuesday, Jan. 1, In Rainbows goes on sale in CD format in North America and also Amazon’s MP3 store before iTunes. This could be a glimpse of things to come in the digital battle ground.

For all things Radiohead check out Ateaseweb.com.

Live Music

Wolfgang’s Vault is streaming The Kinks from the legendary Winterland in San Francisco from February 19, 1977.

To listen click here.

London’d Mirror is reporting that the original Kinks lineup is set to reform.

Wolfgang’s have also tallied the fan favorites and pulled together their best shows from the Concert Vault.

To see the entire list of shows click here.

Rock Art Wednesday

Thanks to all of the artists that have contributed to Rock Art Wednesday. It’s been great to learn more about what goes on behind the scenes and have the opportunity to showcase their work. I’ve got a lot of great artists in the works and 2008 is going to be a big year for Runaway Dinosaur!

Check out all the Rock Art Wednesday interviews and posters here.

Here are my favorite posters from each of this years artists.

Todd Slater

Wes Wilson

Greg Gordon

Jermaine Rogers

Nate Duval

Happy Holidays From Runaway Dinosaur!

Thanks for making the launch of Runaway Dinosaur a great success!

Jay Z Leaves Def Jam

Jay Z will leave his job as President of Universal Music Group’s Def Jam Records label after his contract expires this year.

Jay-Z stated: “I’ve been incredibly fortunate to have served as President of such a culturally-defining label as Def Jam over the last three years. During that time, I’ve had the pleasure of working with many of the world’s most dynamic artists and many of the most dedicated and talented executives in the music business today, including [IDJMG Chairman/ CEO] Antonia “L.A.” Reid. But now it’s time for me to take on new challenges. I am pleased to have had the opportunity to build upon the Def Jam legacy, helping to move the company into a new era of artistic success.”

Live Nation Quiz

Take Live Nation’s “50 Moments that Revolutionized Music” Holiday Quiz.

2008 Year of the Live Music Webcast

I’ve been saying I think the market is huge for music fans that can’t make it out to shows. The music industry is in search for new revenue streams but up till now live music webcasts have been slowed by three major roadblocks having to do with technology, audience and record labels. In a great article Wired says all 3 obstacles will give way and 2008 is the year of the webcast.

The Worst is Yet to Come

Imagine what the numbers will be once we run out of reunion tours?

The North American concert industry posted its worst year since 2004. All of the high priced reunion tours by the Police, Van Halen and Genesis could not save the falling numbers.

The top 20 tours generated $996 million, down 15.6% from the year before, according to preliminary data issued on Friday by Pollstar.