Smile. Lilly Allen gives some indication of the kind of back room deals that go with selling music via iTunes in this Sound Opinion interview:

…iTunes [is] kind of bullying people into corners by making sure they have extra, you know, extra songs so they can put them on the front page. And they won’t [advertise] your album unless you kind of give them extra material and so on. And we’ve kind of been backed into a corner. We want to do this remix, but the remix isn’t ready, but they need it delivered by today and blah blah blah. So I said, ‘Okay, fine, give iTunes the rubbish remix, and then what I’ll do I’ll get the people remixing it to do a good remix and then we’ll give it away for free on MySpace.” (Link Hat Tip: Idolator)

Wave of success. Naval officer’s songwriting gets noticed.

When Chris Verdell learned via e-mail from his wife, Sabrina, about the International Songwriting Competition, there was a slight problem: He was pulling a three-month deployment in the Pacific aboard the USS Kitty Hawk, the Navy’s oldest active aircraft carrier.

… He got a break: The ISC extended the deadline, Verdell returned to his home port in Yokosuko, Japan, days before the deadline, and he was able to enter four gospel tunes he had written.

One of them, Instead of Me, is among 15 songs to reach the finals. The ISC had nearly 15,000 entries from 88 countries. Winners in 17 categories will be announced in March. (Link)

The Boston Herald interviews singer-songwriter Elvis Perkins

“What’s lucky about being a songwriter is that nobody can typecast you into anything,” he said. “You can do anything because you do your own casting. You can cast yourself into various voices, and nobody is telling you what to do next.” (Link)