You've just listened to this amazing new song by Sara Bareilles and you want to send it to your friend. Only problem is, you were listening to it on Beats Music, and your friend only has Spotify. So you end up having to go to YouTube, searching for the song, and then sending the link to your friend. Except your friend lives in Turkey and can't access the link.

Instead of having to figure out how to share music with your friends, you can now use a universal music streaming site called bop.fm. Realizing the current world of online music streaming is super fragmented, bop.fm functions as a central hub that merges different streaming services like Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, and Beats, and makes it simple and easy to share and listen to music.

"If I want to share a picture with you I don’t have to use jpeg, why shouldn’t it be the same with music," bop.fm cofounder Shehzad Daredia told Business Insider. "There’s a giant mess that’s all brought about the fragmentation in the industry and we thought there needs to a base, a layer that combines this into one interface. We wanted to build that one default location."

So he and his cofounder Stefan Gomez went on to create the "Switzerland of online music." And this morning, bop.fm announced it has raised $2 million from a funding round led by Charles Ventures to develop the platform further. 

The way bop.fm works is that it goes through a hierarchy to give you the song you're looking for.

Let's say you want to play a certain song. First bop.fm will detect whether that song is available on Spotify, Rdio, Beats, or Deezer, and if you have access to those streaming services, bop.fm will play the song. If you don't have access to the song on any of those platforms, bop.fm will provide you with the YouTube or Soundhound clip.

In the beginning, bop.fm just used the streaming services' open APIs to play music, but now it is partnering directly with those companies to get private API access or higher rate limits. You may think Spotify and the like wouldn't be too happy about bop.fm stealing their traffic, but in reality, they're still getting good marketing, and bop.fm users still need to subscribe to Spotify to access their streaming service.

"The idea is that we set out to be a win-win-win for every stakeholder," Shehzad said. "The users win because they get a free agnostic share of music, the music services get a marketing channel, artists and labels win because we promote healthy adoption of music rather than piracy."

Bop.fm is even platform agnostic for actually purchasing songs. You can buy a song from iTunes, Amazon, or Google Play directly from bop.fm.

Starting today, the company is also launching a new feature called Verified Artist Pages, which will feature curated playlists by musicians like Tiesto, Snoop Dogg, and Paul McCartney.

Shehzad is hoping this will be an added draw for new users — or new song plays, which is how bop.fm prefers to measure its success.

Since launching to the general public in December, bop.fm has played more than 50 million songs.

"The number that matters to us is song plays," Shehzad said. "That can be driven not just by attracting more people to the platform but also getting them to use it more."

SEE ALSO: Spotify Will Never Be Profitable Unless It Changes How It Pays Artists

SEE ALSO: Amazon Music Is The First Worthy Competitor To Spotify — If You Already Have A Prime Membership

Join the conversation about this story »

Robin Thicke's attempt to win back wife Paula Patton hasn't worked out just yet — and neither has selling his latest album. The Guardian reports that his latest studio album, titled Paula, only sold 530 copies in the U.K. in its first week of sales. In contrast, his smash album Blurred Lines sold 25,981 copies in July 2013.

This year has proven to be a bit difficult for Thicke, 37. He split from actress Patton, 38, in February and admitted that he has "no idea" what he's doing while promoting his album on Good Morning America earlier this month.

"I'm just kind of flying by the seat of my pants on this one," he said at the time. "I just wanted to make something artistic out of a very difficult period. When you lose the love of your life, you don't have much to hide anymore."

"She's the best person I ever met," he added of Patton. "So I thought the least I could do would be to devote an album to her." On July 1, he also admitted on New York's Hot 97 radio station that he hasn't seen Patton "for four months." (The estranged couple are parents to son Julian, 4.) 

Even worse, a Q&A to promote Paula went terribly wrong last month. When VH1 asked fans to tweet in questions using the hashtag #AskThicke, the Billboard Award winner was slammed with comments about misogyny, his raunchy 2013 VMA performance with Miley Cyrus, and more.

Thicke's albums sales in the U.S. have yet to be revealed.

SEE ALSO: Robin Thicke Took Questions On Twitter — And It Went Hilariously Wrong

Join the conversation about this story »

Ireland is going ballistic after Garth Brooks announced he would cancel a long-anticipated five-show "Comeback Special" rather than cave to a Dublin City Council ruling cutting his run short.

About 400,000 ticket holders — equivalent to nearly one-tenth of Ireland's population — had purchased tickets to the July 25-29 dates at Dublin’s 83,000-capacity Croke Park Stadium.

But the Dublin City Council approved only three dates after it had received more than 300 complaints from local residents that the five-day set violated Croke Park's code. The stadium, built in 1913, sits squarely in a residential section of Dublin. There'd also been reports of protests.

Those complaints are being swamped by the fury coming from Brooks fans who've had their plans scuttled. 

Enda Kenny, Ireland's Taoiseach, or prime minister, has been forced to intervene. It emerged late Wednesday he is calling for a reconciliation between Dublin and Brooks' promoters. He'd warned the cancellations could prove “a shock to the system in terms of the economy of the city and the reputation of our country.”

The Dublin Chamber of Commerce has put the cost of the cancellations at 50 million euros, or about $68 million, and the Irish Mirror reported fans had spent a total of $35.5 million on tickets, with over 200,000 hotel rooms booked for what was to be the start of a mid-summer comeback tour that would kick off in Dublin’s 83,000-capacity Croke Park Stadium later this month.

The issue has now made it into both houses of Ireland's Parliament, where bills are under consideration to ensure similar debacles do not occur again. 

Meanwhile, the announced cancellations have blown up Irish social media.  

@joancooke5 We all hate Garth Brooks. And his fans. And Croke Park residents. And Aiken Promotions. And Dublin City Council. Welcome back!

— Aoife Martin (@aoifemrtn) July 9, 2014

@Herdotie Hope that small minority are happy now Ireland is a laughing stock re Tourism!

— Gemma (@GG_jemma) July 8, 2014

@McWill99 were the laughing stock again

— darren muphy (@darrmurf) July 9, 2014

Facebook was filled with angry fans.

Licenses for Monday and Tuesday night concerts were rejected because the city noted said five nights of concerts would be "an over intensification of use of the stadium."

Brooks released a statement saying he would only "play five shows or none at all," explaining that to "choose which shows to do and which shows not to do, would be like asking to choose one child over another."

While Ticketmaster will honor refunds for the 400,000 tickets purchased, the city of Dublin is out about $68 million from the botched deal, Irish senator Averil Power told FOX411.

"The cancelation of the concerts has been a massive disappointment to the Garth Brooks fans here, and it's also been a disaster for the city of Dublin,"Power added.

The shows entailed 22 truckloads of equipment, video equipment, and a large set, and couldn't be moved to another venue in Dublin.

Ireland Councillor Nial Ring tells Fox that Brooks' decision to cancel all five shows was for the singer's own financial reasons:

"Garth Brooks hasn't been here in 17 years and if he loves his Irish fans then why is he pulling out of these concerts?" Ring asked. "He says it's because he doesn't want to disappoint some fans but quite frankly, I don't buy that. I have no doubt that his accountants and the money people behind him had done the numbers and I believe he would have made money [from fewer shows]. Three would have been enough and the five would have been enough to pay off the national debt of Ireland."

But a source argues to The Daily Mail:

"When Garth was told that there was going to be five dates, he decided to pump money into the production for the live shows ... Every cent that he would have made from the first three nights was ploughed straight into the staging, the lighting and the rigging. He had ordered graphics and custom-built screens. It was going to be a show of a lifetime and all 400,000 fans were going to see something special.

'This has nothing to do with greed for Garth. This has to do with a decision he made to put on a series of concerts that would have been unrivaled in the history of country music. He is not a charity and for these gigs to have made money, he would have had to play the five dates."

Concert promoter Peter Aiken is quoted in the Daily Mail as defending Brooks for "sticking by his principles."

"It's the right decision. We are devastated, it was going to be the biggest musical event, there will never be another artist in my lifetime that's going to do 400,000 tickets and I don't know where the position is with Garth Brooks coming back to Ireland. There will be flak, you'll take flak, I'll take the flak but it's the right decision. He is devastated, he's down for millions in this deal, if it was any other artist maybe they'd say let's play the three and recoup some money."

SEE ALSO: Beyoncé And Jay Z's 'On The Run' Tour Prove They're The Ultimate Concert Duo

AND: Why ABBA Turned Down $1 Billion To Reunite In 2000

Join the conversation about this story »

Tommy Ramone, the original drummer for the Ramones and the band's last surviving original member, died on Friday at the age of 65.

A spokesman for Ramone's family confirmed the news to Rolling Stone.

Tommy Ramone on Birth of the Ramones: 'It Was Time for Something New'

"Tom died yesterday, July 11, at 12:15 p.m. at his home in Ridgewood, Queens," Andy Schwartz, publisher of New York Rocker magazine, said on behalf of Ramone's family. "He was in hospice care following treatment for cancer of the bile duct." (Schwartz also confirmed Ramone's age as 65.)

Ramone was a founding member of the family of "brothers" who helped invent punk rock in New York's frenetic 1970s music scene. Harnessing a powerful combination of short, propulsive three-chord singalongs with playful lyrics on themes of adolescent angst, the Ramones created a durable sound in songs like "Beat on the Brat,""I Wanna Be Sedated," "Blitzkrieg Bop" and "Sheena Is a Punk Rocker" that would go on to influence countless later bands. 

Born Erdelyi Tamas in Budapest in 1949, Ramone emigrated to America in 1957. He grew up in Forest Hills, Queens, where he began playing music with John Cummings (a.k.a. Johnny Ramone) while he was in high school. The two formed a garage band called the Tangerine Puppets before Tommy moved on to study recording engineering, finding work at the famed Record Plant studios.

In 1974, Erdelyi and Cummings joined together with two fellow Forest Hills compatriots, singer Jeffrey Hyman (Joey) and bassist Douglas Colvin (Dee Dee), and began playing simple, rapid-fire punk under a common surname. The band found a home and an audience at New York's CBGB and released their debut album, Ramones, in 1976. "Our music is an answer to the early Seventies when artsy people with big egos would do vocal harmonies and play long guitar solos and get called geniuses," Tommy, who was the main writer on many of the band's early hits, told Rolling Stone in a feature on the Ramones that year. "That was bullshit. We play rock & roll. We don't do solos. Our only harmonics are in the overtones from the guitar chords." 

The Ramones' Career in Photos

Tommy began his career in the Ramones as the band's manager, but soon took on drumming duty so Joey could concentrate on vocals. He played on the Ramones' first three studio albums, Ramones and 1977's Leave Home and Rocket to Russia, as well as the band's 1979 live record, It's Alive. 

Tommy left the Ramones in 1978 to concentrate on studio work. He had co-produced four albums for the band and would go on to co-produce their 1984 record Too Tough To Die. The following year, he produced the Replacements' major label debut album, Tim, and in 1987, he produced L.A. punks Redd Kross' album Neurotica. More recently, he formed the bluegrass and country band Uncle Monk with his longtime partner Claudia Tienan. The duo released a self-titled album in 2006 on their own label, Airday.

The Ramones officially disbanded in 1996 after releasing 21 studio, live and compilation albums. In 2001, Joey Ramone announced that he had been diagnosed with lymphoma and died later that year. Dee Dee followed him the following year with a drug overdose and Johnny Ramone died in 2004 of prostate cancer. 

"After Joey’s passing, everything became just a shock," Tommy Ramone told Rolling Stone in 2009. "Dee Dee’s was totally unexpected. After that, I was numb. Johnny, once he started getting really sick, we started to anticipate it. It was a long mourning, really. I compartmentalized the whole situation."

From the Archives: The Ramones Are Punks and Will Beat You Up

In March of 2002, in the midst of those tumultuous times, the Ramones were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

"When we were inducted in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, it meant a lot to us," Ramone told Rolling Stone. "As contradictory as it may sound for a punk group to be getting an award like that, it mattered a lot to us because we knew we were good for the past 25 years or whatever. But it was hard to tell because we never got that much promotion and the records weren’t getting in the stores. We were kinda confused about how good we actually were. We thought we were good, but we could have been deluded. But the fact that we were inducted on the first ballot seemed to say, 'Oh, wow, it was real. We were as good as we thought we were.' It meant a lot to us. 'Wow, all that was worth it. We weren’t kidding ourselves.' It meant something in that way."

More From Rolling Stone:

• Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time
• Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Songs of All Time
• In Pics: Summer 2014’s 40-Must See Music Festivals
• In Pics: Summer 2014’s 40 Hottest Tours
• Rolling Stone’s Best Summer Songs of All Time

SEE ALSO: Taylor Swift Wrote An Op-Ed In The Wall Street Journal, And It's Filled With Fascinating Insights

Join the conversation about this story »

SoundCloud is reportedly in talks with a number of major record labels, including Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and Warner Music Group.

SoundCloud, sometimes referred to as the "YouTube of music," lets people upload and share songs.

SoundCloud is now negotiating for licenses to play songs from those major labels, Bloomberg reports.

That's likely because some of the songs on SoundCloud have been uploaded without the owners' permission, which leaves the door open for legal disputes.

SoundCloud would reportedly give each label anywhere from a 3% to 5% stake in the company, as well as a percentage of future revenue. In exchange, SoundCloud would be protected from getting sued over copyright infringement. 

Record labels holding stakes in music companies is nothing new. Before Apple bought Beats Electronics for $3 billion earlier this year, Universal Music had a 14% stake in the company. Universal also has a 5% stake in Spotify.

As of October 2013, SoundCloud had 250 million monthly users. Earlier this year, SoundCloud was valued at $700 million following a funding round.

Back in May, Twitter was reportedly in talks to buy SoundCloud but backed out of the deal.

SEE ALSO: This Chart Shows How Huge Apple's $3 Billion Acquisition Of Beats Really Is

Join the conversation about this story »

Arena and stadium music acts will vanish within a decade because no one is buying albums anymore, according to music industry analyst Mark Mulligan.

In a new post on his blog, Mulligan, a widely cited industry expert who runs the MIDiA research group, says most music listeners now engage in a phenomenon he calls "grazing" that fails to yield a meaningful relationship with a single artist. That jibes with data Spotify's Paul Lamere recently published showing the average music streamer doesn't even finish the song they're listening to. "In the on-demand age with effectively limitless supply they flit from here to there," Mulligan writes, "consuming more individual artists in a single playlist than an average music fan would have bought albums by in an entire year in the CD era." 

Mulligan elaborated to us in an email, saying that "heritage" acts like the Rolling Stones are getting into their twilight years, and that most new artists just aren't big enough to fill the void.

"For example, a Kings of Leon or a Coldplay are become exceptions rather than norms in terms of band lifespans. Large venue managers I have spoken to are already heavily focusing on non-music acts in order to safeguard against a future music collapse."

This is no skin off our backs — we've previously written why we hate arena shows — the acoustics and/or sight-lines are almost always horrible.

For its part, Live Nation, the country's biggest concert promoter, is betting on an end-around: They've just partnered with Yahoo's YouTube rival, Screen, to bring free streaming shows to music fans. But the New York Times' Ben Sisario notes previous attempts at this kind of product haven't caught on. 

"Talent agents said they welcomed the program, and particularly the promotional power of Yahoo, which says it has 800 million users around the world. But several expressed doubts that Yahoo and Live Nation would be able to succeed in drawing large numbers of viewers to concert streams where so many others have failed. 'The demand just isn’t there,' said one prominent agent, who spoke anonymously to preserve relations with Live Nation and others."

Live Nation shares were down 0.6% Tuesday.

SEE ALSO: The Science Of Why You Should Never See A Stadium Show

Join the conversation about this story »

New York is a place with a deep musical history, and the city itself has made many appearances in song lyrics. From legendary New York musicians like the Ramones and Lou Reed, to rappers like Jay Z and the Wu-Tang Clan, and everyone in between, dozens of famous songs references to New York City's streets and neighborhoods, as well as the beaches of Long Island.

Music aficionado Constantine Valhouli mapped these references using Google Maps.

Spanning multiple genres and generations, Valhoulis' map shows us various interesting locational connections and stories throughout time, like Billy Joel and rap group Dead Prez hanging out in the same neighborhood (Bedford-Stuyvesant). The best part is that you can contribute your own suggestions (email Constantine at musicmapnyc@gmail.com).

Check out the map below.

SEE ALSO: Check Out This Music Startup's Graffiti-Covered New York City Office

FOLLOW US: Business Insider is on Instagram

Join the conversation about this story »

Earlier this week, a clip surfaced on YouTube showing the first-ever performance of Prince's "Purple Rain."

Unveiled at a benefit concert in Minneapolis in 1983, the clip is absolutely breathtaking. With some slight tweaks, Prince ended up using the cut for the eponymous album. 

But within a few days' of the clip's posting, it was taken down. It was briefly salvaged by Slate, but they too were forced to remove it last night, after receiving a similar warning.

Prince has gained a reputation as one of the most aggressive protectors of copyright in the world. He famously painted the world "slave" on his face upon realizing the extent of Warner Brothers' ownership of his image and music. You'll only find two Prince music videos on YouTube, and no fan clips of any of his recorded songs. Indeed, he once threatened to sue super-fan bootleggers of his material for $1 million each. 

But if you believe in what Taylor Swift has to say about the music industry, you really shouldn't be getting too mad at him.

In her recent op-ed for the Wall Street Journal, Swift described the unique artist in 2014 who is able to form a lifelong relationship with his or her fans. "...Some artists will be like finding 'the one,'" she wrote. "We will cherish every album they put out until they retire and we will play their music for our children and grandchildren. As an artist, this is the dream bond we hope to establish with our fans. I think the future still holds the possibility for this kind of bond, the one my father has with the Beach Boys and the one my mother has with Carly Simon."

For Duane Harriott, a DJ at WFMU and the former sales manager at legendary record label Other Music, this is exactly the type of bond Prince enjoys with his fans. As such, they should accept Prince's bringing the hammer down on unlicensed use of his stuff.

"YouTube and all that other stuff is the reverse of what his philosophy is," Harriott told us recently. He continued: "He's not a social guy. He's looking for like-minded individuals, including his fans, and I think he looks at listening and the way people socialize is a bit too easy. He looks at it like, 'Why should I do this just because everyone is doing this?'"

The "slave" incident crystallized this attitude. "The message to fans was, 'If you want to roll  with me, and still listen to my music, this is where I'm going to go,' " Harriot said.

There's long been speculation about what Prince will do with his vast archive of material, which Billboard has argued it is "the most significant catalog of unreleased material of the past 40 years." Any other pop artist as relevant has Prince has either released all their material, or is only holding onto items that did not come during a creative peak, the magazine says.

But there are signs we could see it soon. Prince signed a new deal with Warner Brothers last month, something many analysts say was only possible because the label's rights to Prince's master recordings was about to expire. In annoucning the deal, Prince said fans could expect "the release of long-awaited, previously unheard material."

Prince's rights over a fan video from 1983 likely extend to it being a recording of a performance that was later fully licensed, so for now you'll likely have to look elsewhere to find it again.

But even if that weren't the case, if you still believe in forming a Swift-ian bond with your favorite band, you should be willing to give them as much control as they need over how they get their material to you.

Join the conversation about this story »

What if there could be a pair of headphones that’s completely unique to you — something that fits your ears, but also your style?

OwnPhones, which just launched on Kickstarter, boasts the world’s first 3D-printed wireless earbuds that are “custom fitted to your ears and perfectly designed to match your personality.”

You use a mobile app to upload a video of your ears, and OwnPhones' servers convert those images into the 3D data needed to print your custom earbuds. After that, the actual customization part kicks in, where you get to select from dozens of materials, colors, and styles to create your own unique pair of earbuds.

The company says there are more than 10,000 possible combinations of OwnPhones. And thanks to Bluetooth 4.0 technology, all OwnPhones play your music wirelessly, so you don't need to worry about tangled cords — or any cords, for that matter.

The company's suggested retail price for OwnPhones is $299, but early Kickstarter backers can get a pair for $149 when they start shipping next March.

Finding The Form-Fitting Solution

OwnPhones founder and CEO Itamar Jobani, 34, spent the last 12 years working as a sculptor — first in Brooklyn, now in San Diego, California.

Jobani, a graduate of New York's Pratt Institute, is familiar with all of the major publication tools for scanning and modeling, laser cutting and 3D scanning, but he’s also extremely fascinated with human anatomy.

“My last project was something I collaborated with designers and architects,” Jobani told Business Insider. “We made a 3D-printed dress.”

At the time, Jobani says he and his team scanned a model and fitted her with a unique design that responds to the body. But since he moved to California last September, Jobani has moved onto his next “wearable” project.

With OwnPhones, Jobani is taking a similar design approach to the 3D-printed dress to help people get the customized earbuds of their dreams.

“When I moved out to California, I started running a lot, and I listen to music when I run,” Jobani told us. “I spent a lot of money trying the premium projects out there… They just didn’t cut it.”

Jobani wanted to make a pair of headphones that would never fall out of his ears, or any ears. He also wanted them to be comfortable in any setting — running or sitting still. 

“I thought I could make something that could fit me physically,” he said. “So I tried scanning my ears with just an iPhone and I got a great result, so I decided I’d pursue it seriously.”

Jobani was determined: He recruited a small team of electrical engineers and industrial designers from the San Diego community, and started getting to work on a prototype for 3D-printed wireless earbuds.

He said he tried “pretty much every 3D technology out there,” printing 560 prototypes in about six months’ time. Finally, Jobani settled on a 3D-printing process he was happy with.

“We have a photographic process where you create photos of the same object from different angles,” Jobani said. “It’s widely used for things like 3D maps. So you can go from the far back to the front and cover the entire orbit around the ear, and that gives us enough information.”

Jobani said the key is to making this manufacturing process “mass produceable” was breaking down the ear into several elements, identifying and analyzing its various curves, and then punching the data into a special algorithm. This ever-improving science of making 3D objects from photos, called “photogrammetry,” is the key to OwnPhones’ tailor-made platform.

The customization aspect of OwnPhones, according to Jobani, is what truly excites him about this project. Like the 3D-printed dress, 3D-printed headphones let customers fit their styles to the product, rather than the other way around.

“You can do different shapes, colors, materials, so you can choose exactly what you want,” Jobani said. “We have some very talented designers and some that came to collaborate on this. We built 20 to 30 designs. Each one of those designs could have so many variations with colors and even jewelry pieces made of gold and silver and bronze and copper. But we’re also reaching out to the designer community, asking them to join us to design whatever they want.”

Compared to most manufacturing processes for headphones, which usually involve plastic molds and skilled mold makers for quality control, Jobani says his 3D-printing process allows for greater adaptability, and the price of printing has dropped to the point where it's now competitive with other construction techniques. Jobani says it’s no longer necessary to mass produce a million headphones; thanks to 3D printing, you can build them specific to each customer's order, which ensures it's something they actually want.

“With 3D printing, it doesn’t matter if each part you print is different, it’s still going to take exactly the same time,” Jobani said. “So if you print 40 of the same model or 40 different models with flowers, etc., they will all take the same time.”

Jobani is impressed with his early results, but he's looking for Kickstarter funding to also improve the company's photogrammetry algorithm, which it calls "mind-bogglingly complex." Jobani says the company has automated about 80% of the ear-scanning process, but is looking to improve the further streamline the operation with more accurate high-resolution scans. Still, Jobani is already thinking big: He believes the rise of premium customizable earbuds could have a cultural impact.

“Musicians wear custom-fit earbuds on tours, but they’re usually trying to hide them. It’s not part of their identity,” Jobani said. “But pop stars like Lady Gaga can wear something that fits her look and offer it to the public so they can identify with her. They can connect people with sports figures. If you want your initials or certain graphic elements, you can do that too. You can create a logo and share it with your friends, or do something for your school, or family, or basketball team, or friends at work. Customers aren’t used to this yet.”

SEE ALSO: The 12 Craziest (And Wrong) Apple Rumors Of All-Time

SEE ALSO: Here's How Apple Can Take Its Iconic Headphones To The Next Level

Join the conversation about this story »

Weird Al Yankovic is back, releasing eight new parody music videos in eight days to promote his new album "Mandatory Fun."

The 54-year-old singer is everywhere this week getting the word out about his 14th album, including Fox Business Network’s "Varney & Company."

Yankovic had an enlightening interview with host Stuart Varney as to what this whole internet thing is all about, and how the parody singer makes money from releasing his videos online.

Yankovic:"MTV is not really music television anymore, the internet is essentially MTV. The internet consumes things very quickly, things go viral for a day — you can be famous for 24 hours. So I figured the best way to advertise my new album is every single day of release week, put out a new video people get excited about."

Varney:"How do you make money putting things on the internet? Who pays you for this?"

Yankovic:"Well, they don't pay me for it, but I get the video for free because I'm partnered up with Funny or Die, College Humor, Yahoo, and Nerdist. They're all looking for content and I'm looking for a video so we partner and it's a win-win situation."

Varney:"How do you get the money?"

Yankovic:"The partners do. They don't pay me, they pay for the production of the video and hopefully, that will make people want to buy the album because the videos are essentially commercials for the album."

Perhaps most interesting, however, is that Yankovic revealed his new album is the last of a 32-year record deal.

"This is the end of my album deal. I've been under contract since 1982," he explained. "So this is album number 14, it's the end of a 32-year album deal."

And now that the deal is over, the singer plans to change his business model.

"After this I think I'm just going to be releasing singles," Yankovic explained. "Because the stuff I do is topical and timely and if I wait until I have 12 songs and put out an album, chances are a lot of those songs aren't going to be topical and timely."

As Varney then pointed out, "What you're doing is putting content on the internet and that's why Time Warner is so valuable — $80 billion not enough to buy them, it's going to take a whole lot more."

Watch the full interview below:

Watch Yankovic's videos he's released so far this week.

"Tacky" parody of Pharrell's "Happy":

"Word Crimes" grammar lesson parody of Robin Thicke's "Blurred Lines":

"Foil" aluminum foil parody of Lorde's "Royals":

"Handy" parody of Iggy Azalea's "Fancy":

SEE ALSO: Here's The Insanely Long List Of Things Rupert Murdoch Would Own If He Bought Time Warner

Join the conversation about this story »

At first, Deezer, the international song-streaming service available in 182 countries, didn't fully understand how to reach music fans in Brazil — its featured-artists homepage didn't emphasize sertanejo country hits or forro dance anthems or even bass-heavy funk that, in turn, turned off working-class Brazilians.

But since early last year, as the service made deals with local record labels and hired experienced curators, Deezer has taken off regionally and drawn 2 million monthly users.

"It takes a lot of time to get the local knowledge," says Emmanuel Zunz, chief executive of ONErpm, a Sao Paulo-based music-distribution company. "Brazil is such a massive country and every city is quite distinct. Over time, Deezer started to understand what was the right balance."

Founded in France seven years ago, Deezer distinguishes itself from rivals Spotify, Beats Music, Amazon, Rdio and others by methodically conquering all kinds of territories, even those with piracy problems or complex music scenes: Russia, Colombia, Thailand, Singapore, Brazil. The company has so far avoided the biggest markets, including Japan, where expensive CDs still reign, and the U.S., although the company has strongly hinted it plans to expand here later this year. "We decided not to enter the U.S. first but to develop a global footprint," Christopher Coonen, the Paris-based service's chief operating officer, tells Rolling Stone. "To be relevant in Turkey or Russia or Brazil, you need to make sure you cover the local aspect."

Streaming music has grown 42 percent since last year, while iTunes-style download sales have dropped 13 percent (for tracks) and 15 percent (for albums), according to Nielsen Soundscan numbers released last week. This growth has created a highly competitive market — Spotify has 10 million worldwide paid users, Apple bought Beats Music in May, Amazon recently launched a service and YouTube is aggressively negotiating with independent record labels for its planned service later this year.

Deezer has just 5 million paid users, but its model of partnering with telecommunications companies, such as Orange in parts of Europe and dtac in Thailand, gives it a foothold in many countries. The company is also big on bundling — earlier this year, Samsung announced its Galaxy S5 smartphone would include six months of free Deezer for European customers.

Spotify and others are also available outside the U.S. and Europe, and have local telecom partnerships as well, but Deezer is in more markets and, more than any other service, emphasizes global expansion to distinguish itself from rivals. "If you look at all the markets where piracy was active up until a few years ago, we think we've really helped," Coonen says. "We've taken people who were pirating to paying."

By this point, all the major streaming services are simple to use and provide millions of on-demand tracks, so they distinguish themselves mostly through "curation"— playlists and radio channels that help listeners decide what to hear next. Here, too, Deezer's edge is international, relying on experts to recommend South Korean or Russian songs to listeners in other locations.

Deezer supporters say this international focus helps American indie labels break bands outside the U.S., but some say they've yet to see the benefits. "If they have a large usage base, it's one that isn't listening to much of our content," says Robb Nansel, owner of Omaha-based Saddle Creek Records, home of Bright Eyes, the Thermals and others, adding that Deezer provides "light" financial compensation so far.

But Deezer is nonetheless preparing for its long-awaited U.S. launch, recently hiring an American CEO and opening a new office in San Francisco. Deezer reps refuse to elaborate on U.S. plans, but Coonen drops a hint about the importance of expanding here, in addition to almost everywhere else in the world. "We estimate 25 million people in the world, including the U.S., are paying for streaming services, out of a total Web-connected population of 2 billion," he says. "We're really at the beginning of this market."

More From Rolling Stone:

• For Apple, Beats' Streaming Service Trumps Headphone Business
• YouTube's New Paid Streaming Music Service Rankles Some Indie Labels
• 'South Park' Creators Ink Streaming Deal With Hulu
• Amazon Launches Prime Music Streaming Service
• 30 Best Music Documentaries on Netflix Streaming This Instant

Join the conversation about this story »

I took piano lessons as a kid, but it's hard lugging a piano around when you want to take your tune-playing on the road. 

I tried teaching myself some chords on the guitar, but it turns out that you need big, strong hands to press down on the strings hard enough to make music.

My hands are neither big, nor are they strong.

So instead I picked up the ukulele, and, using YouTube, taught myself how to play. 

The problem is, I've run out of songs to play that are remedial enough for me to learn. That's where Riffstation Play comes in.

The online app gives you the guitar, ukulele, and even piano chords and notes to pretty much any song you can find online. It even includes a search engine. 

The chord diagrams are on the right, while a bar displaying the chords scrolls below. It syncs to the video. 

With a library of 10 million songs and still growing, it looks like I'll never run out of things to play for my friends.

"Not only are we able to provide chords for any version of any song in the world, we also get to collect the data on what songs are most popular within the guitar player community,"Dan Barry, cofounder of Riffstation, told TechCrunch. "Furthermore, the fact that our chord recognition is automatic, means that the size of our catalog is limitless. Our index already has over 10 million songs listed."

Riffstation uses an automatic chord recognition algorithm that "detects major, minor and 7th triads with about 85% accuracy in typical rock/pop music," according to the website.

It's still in beta, but at least one thing it's working on is allowing users to fill in a proper chord if the algorithm messes up.

SEE ALSO: 'Dog Park' is one of the most bizarre games ever made, and I can't wait to play it

Join the conversation about this story »

A few months ago, most people hadn't heard of the woman who is now the most-searched-for musician on Google.

But in the past several months, 24-year-old Iggy Azalea — real name Amethyst Amelia Kelly — has risen to global fame with her hit "Fancy,"which has been called the Song of the Summer.

Some of the buzz surrounding Iggy has to do with her being a white female rapper with a unique background.

She grew up in Australia but moved to the U.S. in 2007 when she was 16 years old. According to a Billboard profile, Iggy told her mom that she was going to Miami on vacation with a friend, when really she came to the U.S. by herself to try to make it in music.

After arriving in America, Iggy spent time perfecting her craft in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, and L.A., where she recorded her mixtape "Ignorant Art" and made a music video for her song PU$$Y that went viral and helped launch her career, according to a 2012 Gawker profile.

She used the last of her savings to shoot the video and hoped it would pay off. As Gawker noted: "She and her girls licked at ice pops in such a way that one does not generally lick at ice pops in public, and there was also an adorable young boy doing the Dougie. It went viral soon after."

Iggy's name is as unusual as her style — once she decided to get into the music business, she created her rap persona by combining the name of her childhood pet (Iggy) with the name of the street her mother lives on (Azalea).

Atlanta rapper T.I. has been a mentor to Iggy from the start, and she had a management deal with his label Grand Hustle Entertainment in 2012. But that fell through, delaying the release of her debut album, and she signed with Island Def Jam in 2013.

So far, her album "The New Classic," released in April, has brought her considerable commercial success.

Her hit single "Fancy" was the most-played song on U.S. radio earlier this summer, and the video has amassed more than 160 million views on YouTube. It riffs off the popular 1995 movie "Clueless," with Iggy dressing as the movie's main character, Cher. Scenes from the movie are also recreated in the video.

Here's Iggy in the video:

And here's a shot from "Clueless":

Iggy's hard work over the past several years has landed her some high-profile gigs. Before she rose to mainstream popularity with "Fancy," she was the supporting act for Beyoncé on the Australian leg of her "Mrs. Carter" tour last year. She has also toured with rapper Nas.

And Iggy does more than just music — she also models and has a contract with Wilhelmina, a big-time modeling agency based in New York.

As Iggy has risen to fame, she's faced a lot of criticism. She's a white female in a business dominated by black men, and she raps with a southern twang even though she speaks with an Australian accent.

Emma Carmichael wrote for Gawker in 2012:

There is a studied nature to her flow. She sounds very much like someone who learned to rap by listening to other (black, male) rappers and mimicking them. ... Rappers' flows are called flows because they are supposed to sound natural. Though she says she now feels as if she's totally found it, Iggy's sounds practiced. In conversation, her voice is high and light, her Australian accent unmistakable. When she raps, though, her voice lowers a near octave. She growls, sneers, and takes on an accent that is decidedly un-Australian.

But Iggy says there is authenticity in her rapping — she told the Sydney Morning Herald last year that southern rap reminds her of growing up in her small Australian hometown of Mullumbimby and made her realize that "the country is cool."

Beyond being called inauthentic, Iggy has been accused of appropriating black culture.

Brittney Cooper, a writer for Salon who teaches Africana Studies at Rutgers University, wrote last week that Iggy "has very little appreciation of Black culture or the problematic ways that white privilege can colonize that culture to the tune of millions of dollars." As Cooper points out, "though rap music is a Black and Brown art form, one does not need to mimic Blackness to be good at it."

Iggy talked to BET about race in hip hop in 2013, saying: "I think this idea of 'rap should be Black' or 'rap should be this or that' is worrying to me because it's like segregation. ... If we have something in music that is unifying, that other cultures are drawn to ... then it should be a positive thing."

Iggy is now working on recording another album.

SEE ALSO: 10 Crazy Quotes From Kanye West's New GQ Interview

Join the conversation about this story »

Happy first birthday, Chromecast!

Google released its $35 TV streaming dongle about one year ago, and to celebrate, the company is giving users a free, 90-day subscription to All Access Music, its unlimited streaming service that usually costs $9.99 a month. 

Chromecast, which plugs into your TV and sucks in content from your phone, tablet, or PC, is the cheapest option in the crowded streaming space, which also includes Amazon's Fire TV, Apple TV, and Roku.

Here's a look at how the device fared over its first year:

• Google has sold "millions" of devices and users have made more than 400 million casts
• There are now hundreds of apps for Chromecast like HBO GO, ESPN, Songza, and more
• More than 6,000 developers are actively working on more than 10,000 Google Cast apps across Android, iOS and Chrome
• Chromecasts are now sold in 20 countries including the UK, France, Germany, Japan, Korea, Australia, Ireland, and Brazil

Business Insider Intelligence forecasts Chromecast will sell 4 million devices in 2014:

SEE ALSO: A New Google Maps Update Makes It Even Easier To Plan Your Perfect Day

Join the conversation about this story »

A few months ago, most people hadn't heard of the woman who is now the most-searched-for musician on Google.

But in the past several months, 24-year-old Iggy Azalea — real name Amethyst Amelia Kelly — has risen to global fame with her hit "Fancy,"which has been called the Song of the Summer.

Some of the buzz surrounding Iggy has to do with her being a white female rapper with a unique background.

She grew up in Australia but moved to the U.S. in 2007 when she was 16 years old. According to a Billboard profile, Iggy told her mom that she was going to Miami on vacation with a friend, when really she came to the U.S. by herself to try to make it in music.

After arriving in America, Iggy spent time perfecting her craft in Miami, Atlanta, Houston, and L.A., where she recorded her mixtape "Ignorant Art" and made a music video for her song PU$$Y that went viral and helped launch her career, according to a 2012 Gawker profile.

She used the last of her savings to shoot the video and hoped it would pay off. As Gawker noted: "She and her girls licked at ice pops in such a way that one does not generally lick at ice pops in public, and there was also an adorable young boy doing the Dougie. It went viral soon after."

Iggy's name is as unusual as her style — once she decided to get into the music business, she created her rap persona by combining the name of her childhood pet (Iggy) with the name of the street her mother lives on (Azalea).

Atlanta rapper T.I. has been a mentor to Iggy from the start, and she had a management deal with his label Grand Hustle Entertainment in 2012. But that fell through, delaying the release of her debut album, and she signed with Island Def Jam in 2013.

So far, her album "The New Classic," released in April, has brought her considerable commercial success.

Her hit single "Fancy" was the most-played song on U.S. radio earlier this summer, and the video has amassed more than 160 million views on YouTube. It riffs off the popular 1995 movie "Clueless," with Iggy dressing as the movie's main character, Cher. Scenes from the movie are also recreated in the video.

Here's Iggy in the video:

And here's a shot from "Clueless":

Iggy's hard work over the past several years has landed her some high-profile gigs. Before she rose to mainstream popularity with "Fancy," she was the supporting act for Beyoncé on the Australian leg of her "Mrs. Carter" tour last year. She has also toured with rapper Nas.

And Iggy does more than just music — she also models and has a contract with Wilhelmina, a big-time modeling agency based in New York.

As Iggy has risen to fame, she's faced a lot of criticism. She's a white female in a business dominated by black men, and she raps with a southern twang even though she speaks with an Australian accent.

Emma Carmichael wrote for Gawker in 2012:

There is a studied nature to her flow. She sounds very much like someone who learned to rap by listening to other (black, male) rappers and mimicking them. ... Rappers' flows are called flows because they are supposed to sound natural. Though she says she now feels as if she's totally found it, Iggy's sounds practiced. In conversation, her voice is high and light, her Australian accent unmistakable. When she raps, though, her voice lowers a near octave. She growls, sneers, and takes on an accent that is decidedly un-Australian.

But Iggy says there is authenticity in her rapping — she told the Sydney Morning Herald last year that southern rap reminds her of growing up in her small Australian hometown of Mullumbimby and made her realize that "the country is cool."

Beyond being called inauthentic, Iggy has been accused of appropriating black culture.

Brittney Cooper, a writer for Salon who teaches Africana Studies at Rutgers University, wrote last week that Iggy "has very little appreciation of Black culture or the problematic ways that white privilege can colonize that culture to the tune of millions of dollars." As Cooper points out, "though rap music is a Black and Brown art form, one does not need to mimic Blackness to be good at it."

Iggy talked to BET about race in hip hop in 2013, saying: "I think this idea of 'rap should be Black' or 'rap should be this or that' is worrying to me because it's like segregation. ... If we have something in music that is unifying, that other cultures are drawn to ... then it should be a positive thing."

Iggy is now working on recording another album.

SEE ALSO: 10 Crazy Quotes From Kanye West's New GQ Interview

Join the conversation about this story »

Do you know who Shawn Mendes is?

The honest answer is probably not. But get this: the 15-year-old Vine star (he has a massive following on the video-sharing platform that debuted in February 2013) released his first album Sunday night. And thanks to his loyal fans, Mendes rose to the top of the iTunes album charts in under 40 minutes.

Mashable reports Mendes launched a livestream late Sunday night in anticipation of his album hitting iTunes and "urged the viewers to tweet "#ShawnToNumber1."

Within 37 minutes, he was there, earning the top spot on the iTunes Top Albums chart.

"Meanwhile, the hashtag became Twitter's top trending topic as his army of 1.5 million followers rallied in support," Mashable states.

It's a pretty incredible accomplishment for a teenager who isn't privvy to the same spotlight as his boy band-esque competitors like Justin Bieber or more recently, a group called 5 Seconds Of Summer (bumped by Mendes to the #2 spot on iTunes.)

Mendes, who got his start after posting a 6-second clip of Bieber's "As Long As You Love Me" and went viral overnight, gaining 10,000 likes and tons of followers.

More clips followed (like this one of Beyonce's "Drunk In Love"), and Island Records signed him. 

For $3.99, his album carries his first single called "Life Of The Party."

He now has over 2.9 million followers on Vine, where he still posts covers and clips of his original songs.

David Massey, president of Island Records, talked to Mashable about Mendes' success:

I mean the Vine thing completely misleads you in terms of what is the serious ability that he has. The Vine part of it is the way that he got discovered, as a way that he built a fan base, which is absolutely wonderful, but what the results should send is he's a serious star.

Overnight, the record has been reviewed 2,149 times — with 1,943 of those reviews giving a five-star rating:

Here's a portrait of Mendes taken by AP:

SEE ALSO: 21 Stunning Photos Taken By A 15-Year-Old Instagram Photographer

Join the conversation about this story »

Some of these could should also probably be on the the list of worst song lyrics of all time.

But users of U.K. music service BlinkBox have voted the following phrase-turns the 10-weirdest of all time.

No. 1? "Are we human, or are we dancer?" by The Killers. We've actually always kind of liked that one.

But things swiftly deteriorate thereafter. Check it out. We first saw this at the AV Club » 

1. The Killers, Human "Are we human, or are we dancer?"
2. The Beatles, I Am The Walrus "I am the eggman, they are the eggmen, I am the walrus, goo goo g'joob."
3. Michael Jackson, Earth Song "What about elephants? Have we lost their trust?"
4. Lionel Richie, All Night Long "Tom bo li de se de moi ya, yeah jambo jambo."
5. Carly Rae Jepsen, Call Me Maybe "Before you came into my life, I missed you so bad."
6. Black Eyed Peas, Boom Boom Pow "Beats so big I'm stepping on leprechauns."
7. Duran Duran, The Reflex "The reflex is an only child, he's waiting in the park."
8. Wham! Club Tropicana "Club Tropicana, drinks are free, fun and sunshine, there's enough for everyone, all that's missing is the sea."
9. Taylor Swift, Love Story -"Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter, and my daddy said stay away from Juliet."
10. Oasis, Champagne Supernova "Slowly walking down the hall, faster than a cannonball."

There are some clear omissions here, including half of Led Zeppelin's catalogue ("This is the wonder of devotion – I see the torch we all must hold; This is the mystery of the quotient – upon us all a little rain must fall,”  anyone? UltimateClassicRock has a great list of the 10 weirdest Zep lyrics here »), and 90% of Rush's lyrics.

But this is a pretty good place to start.  

Join the conversation about this story »

Last night, Beyoncé dropped a surprise remix to "Flawless" with Nicki Minaj.

In true Beyoncé fashion, no one saw it coming. With the rumor mill running wild about the condition of her marriage to Jay Z, the powerhouse released a song that somewhat addressed the chatter that began when sister Solange was caught hitting and kicking Jay Z in an elevator at New York City's Standard Hotel while Beyoncé stood by and witnessed.

In the beginning of the remix with Minaj, Beyoncé sings: "Of course sometimes sh*t go down when it's a billion dollars on an elevator."

Prior to the song release, Solange, 28, addressed the situation publicly for the first time on July 7 in tandem with a statement from the family:

Jay and Solange each assume their share of responsibility for what has occurred. They both acknowledge their role in this private matter that has played out in the public. They both have apologized to each other and we have moved forward as a united family," the statement read, in part.

At the end of the day families have problems and we're no different," the statement continued. "We love each other and above all we are family. We've put this behind us and hope everyone else will do the same.

Since then, gossip has suggested the pair is planning on splitting after the "On The Run" tour comes to an end.

Take a listen to the "Flawless" remix from Beyoncé and Nicki Minaj here.

Join the conversation about this story »

The 10th annual Lollapalooza took place this weekend in Chicago's Grant Park.

More than 130 bands performed on eight stages over the course of the three-day music festival.

Outkast reunited yet again, Malia Obama watched Lorde perform, and Rihanna made a cameo during Eminem's set.

Check out the best photos of the festival and after parties.

Lollapalooza is held in Grant Park in downtown Chicago.

More than 130 bands performed on eight stages over the course of the three-day music festival.

Iggy Azalea performed her hit song of the summer, "Fancy," during the festival's opening day.

Just as Marvel’s The Avengers gave shawarma sales a huge boost in the summer of 2012, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has brought forth a newly-rediscovered love for cassette tapes. This is thanks to the “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” that Peter Quill’s (Chris Pratt), dying mother made for him in 1988. Quill kept the joy of mix tapes alive while he bounced around the galaxy for 26 years, rocking out to music from Blue Swede, The Jackson 5, David Bowie, and The Runaways.

As a child of the 80s, I am intimately familiar with cassettes, Walkmans, old-school 1/8” headphones, and the awesomeness of a mix tape. However, I also remember burning through my fair share of cassettes in my youth (and needing a pencil more than a few times). Of course, the track list for “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” will always be awesome, but seeing all that Quill goes through in Guardians of the Galaxy, it got me thinking. Would that mix tape have lasted for 26 years in space? Would it even still work? 

The Answer: Yes, but playing it might be a bigger challenge.

Sure, you had to rewind and fast-forward through tapes to get to certain spots, and you can’t jump around instantly like you can with digital media, but cassette tapes offered a flexibility and functionality in their heyday. Not only were personal portable tape players like the classic Sony Walkman extremely stable (unlike their CD counterparts that tended to skip when jolted), the tapes allowed for even the least-technically-minded person to make a mix. All you needed were two tape decks and the right cable.

However, one of the drawbacks of mix tapes was their lack of longevity. On the positive side, the cassettes themselves were strong, and it took a lot to damage them. As long as you were somewhat careful with your equipment, it was unlikely your tapes were going to be eaten by a player – and if they were, you could literally splice them together back home.

However, making a mix tape on a 60-minute Maxell consumer grade cassette was never going to come off with the quality of studio masters or even the original store-bought product. There was relatively little quality lost when they were dubbed once, but after that tape was played over and over again, damage would occur. The tape could be stretched out. The heads that read the tape could affect the magnetic encoding on the tape itself. Worst of all, leaving your tape in the car where it could get too hot or too cold could damage the recording.

When it comes to Peter Quill’s “Awesome Mix Vol. 1,” it was his only copy. He could have made dubs from the original master, but as is seen in the film, he doesn’t. He plays the hell out of that tape, both in his deck on his ship and on his Walkman. Because audio tapes can last anywhere from 30 to 100 years if cared for properly, he could have kept the tape in decent condition.

But that was just the tape.

What about his equipment?

Here’s where Quill might run into problems. Because he was stranded in space as a young teenager, he couldn’t just run down to Radio Shack to pick up a new Walkman whenever he wanted one. If your interest is to preserve a recording system in space, that’s one thing. However, if you have only one or two playback machines and a single mix tape, things get a lot dicier.

To keep a tape player functioning properly for years, he would have to have some way to perform maintenance on it. At the very least, it would be good to clean the heads of the system at least a few times while on his journeys. Of course, he could presumably figure out a way to do this with whatever resources he had access to in space.

Then there’s the power. The tape deck in his ship was certainly wired into his vehicle’s electric system. However, his Walkman was not. Anyone who used portable tape devices knows that those things go through batteries like crazy. According to Radio Shack, a typical portable tape player will run for about 18 hours of continuous play before the AA batteries wear out. That’s not a big deal if there’s a ready supply of AA batteries at every supermarket, gas station and electronics store within a mile or two. However, Duracell doesn’t have much presence off our planet.

Unless Quill found a way to jury rig a portable power source for his Walkman (which is quite possible), he would probably need a couple thousand AA batteries to keep it running for 26 years.

Still, this is a better option than if his mother had put the “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” on a CD or an iPod. With the physical durability of a cassette tape, he wouldn’t have to worry about the CD (which is also prone to deterioration over time) skipping in the middle of a song or have to forever search for a USB port in which to charge his iPod.

However, while it is possible for the tape to survive and the equipment to run, there’s still a greater challenge to playing “Awesome Mix Vol. 1” for 26 years.

Would it play in space?

Space is a hostile environment. While it is a whole lot of nothing, the scant few things found in its vacuum can wreak havoc on electronics. The first problem with anything in space is that it is exposed to extreme temperatures. The ideal temperature in which to store a cassette tape is between 50 and 70 degrees Fahrenheit. Unfortunately, the temperature in space can fluctuate to wild extremes, depending on what it’s exposed to. It can be as low as 455 degrees below zero Fahrenheit in the coldest part of space, but it can also be millions of degrees in the path of a solar flare.

Even if the temperature can be dealt with, there’s other things in space that would cause problems. Because there is no atmosphere to act as a cosmic filter, space is filled with high levels of radiation, which can cause a wide variety of problems in electronics. The smaller the electronics, the greater chance they will be susceptible to radiation that can cause electric arcing, voltage spikes, electronic noise and many other issues.

It is because of this intense background radiation that electronics built for space exploration are shielded or radiation hardened to counteract the effects. Because portable cassette players have been made specifically for terrestrial use, they aren’t made with radiation shielding.

So, if Peter Quill took really good care of “Awesome Mix Vol. 1,” and if he managed to keep his equipment in working order with a proper power source, and if he kept the tape in proper storage without exposing it to extreme heat or extreme cold, and if he only used his Walkman inside a space ship or on a planet with a thick enough atmosphere to filter out ionization radiation, then he could still be hooked on a feeling 26 years later.

SEE ALSO: 7 Reasons Why ‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’ Blew Up The Box Office

Join the conversation about this story »