the listenerd

*Wait. So Natalie Portman and Devendra Banhart are a thing? [the playlist]

*Last.fm says that making music free has boosted sales by 119%. [ars technica]

*YouTube launches a trendspotting channel. (Uh oh?) First up: Political Music Videos. [watching tv online]

*On the heels of Beyonce v. Jay-Z wedding rumors, Billboard analyses what marriage does for record sales. [backstage pass] Next up, what pregnancy does for CD sales?

*In the money: OurStage (basically, crowdsourcing A&R) and mTraks (another indy MySpace) take venture capital. [venture beat]