Open up your mind and say, ahh...

I’m currently a little too obsessed with the musician/DJ Skrillex, as he’s known (real name Sonny Moore). He’s become the “from out of nowhere” face of a movement. Interestingly, he’s not the face of dubstep itself, exactly, but instead, I’d offer that he’s the face of “the mainstream’s introduction to dubstep.” The distinction is huge. ( If you want even more on dubstep, Spin produced this primer.)

It also means that Sonny Moore has a lot in common with Tony Robbins, Run DMC, Banksy, and Sir Richard Branson. And, quite interestingly, there’s also something underneath their similarities that has me realizing that this, too, is part of the building your platform series.

Coldplay isn’t making its latest album, Mylo Xyloto, available on Spotify or any other streaming music subscription service.

Fans will either need to purchase physical copies or MP3 downloads from places like Apple’s iTunes store, Microsoft’s Zune store or Amazon.

The reason for the decision isn’t entirely clear. An anonymous industry source told Cnet that Coldplay wants Mylo Xyloto to be heard as “one cohesive work” — which hardly makes any sense, given that the songs are available for individual purchase online.

The decision is more likely financially motivated. As one of the world’s bestselling music artists, Coldplay stands to make a great deal more money by encouraging the tens of millions of consumers who have streaming music subscriptions to purchase the songs.

Recording artists only make about three-tenths of a cent every time one of their songs is streamed, and 20 cents for every song sold on iTunes, according to estimates published in Rolling Stone.

The decision not to stream appears to be an effective one, as The Guardian points out. Adele’s latest album, 19 — which hasn’t been made available on subscription streaming services — recently broke sales records worldwide. And Mylo Xyloto is on track to hit number one.

SEE ALSO: 11 Apps and Services for Sharing, Discovering and Organizing Music

In an emailed statement, the band’s record label, EMI, said, “We always work with our artists and management on a case-by-case basis to deliver the best outcome for each release.”

Spotify, for its part, said that it respects Coldplay’s decision not to have its music on Spotify, whatever the reason. “We do however hope that they will change their minds as we believe that the Spotify model is adding, and will continue to add, huge value to the music industry,” a spokesperson said. “Right now we have already convinced millions of consumers to pay for music again, and… As we increase in scale, we will continue to re-educate millions of additional consumers as to the value of music, and we will thereby revitalize artists’ ability to make music and make money from it.”

Rhapsody declined to comment.

Should Artists Delay Album Releases on Streaming Services?

This is not necessarily the case for less established artists. Speaking of its client Idle Warship‘s decision to distribute its latest album on Spotify three weeks before its official release, Element 9 VP Stu Pflaum said, “I think we gain more than we lose, especially with an underground project like Idle Warship where it’s not that well known. Just getting the music in people’s hands is the ultimate goal.”

“Our web traffic has more than tripled in terms of site visitors and discussion,” he said in a separate interview with Billboard. “Nobody is pirating the album even after we’ve distributed promo copies. And most importantly, we’re getting real-time feedback from listeners on which tracks they favor and are able to adjust our marketing accordingly with most of our budget still intact. The group and the album have a legitimate buzz now.”

It will be interesting to see whether a trend is established between bestselling and lesser-known artists, and the timeliness with which each group releases new songs and albums on streaming music services.

Facebook is partnering with online music and video companies for the launch of a new feature that will integrate outside media into profile pages, according to a new report.

The new feature will take the shape of a widget or tab on the user’s profile page, according to The New York Times. It will display the songs a user listens to the most and provide a method for friends to listen to and share those songs. Facebook will do the same thing for video and television content.

The social network has reportedly been talking to various media companies about integrating their content to Facebook’s new feature, including Spotify. Earlier this week, rumors about a potential Spotify and Facebook partnership made the rounds. The rumors made it seem like Facebook had chosen Spotify to power a Facebook music service. NYT reports however that Facebook doesn’t want to tie itself to just one music service, but instead wants multiple partners for its media platform.

Imagine if you could see what your friends were watching on Netflix or listening to on Pandora from their Facebook pages. Now imagine if you could also see their recommendations and access their content with a single click. It could turn Facebook into the web’s central hub for multimedia content. Media content and recommendations could give Facebook a new engagement layer that would compel its users to stay on the site for longer.

Facebook wants to become the operating system of the web. That much was clear when it acquired web operating system Parakey in 2007. In order to be the web’s central dashboard though, it needs to have access to the music, movies, TV shows and books of its users. This new feature seems designed to do exactly that. We’ll let you know if we hear more about this Facebook feature.

Jessica Miller has written for Jewcy.com, The Jew and the Carrot, and is an avid digital music explorer. She holds a B.A. in religion from Barnard College, and blogs regularly on her own site, The Boomerang Blog.

Most music enthusiasts will agree that there is a big difference between hearing a band on a CD and seeing them perform live. While it might have been the recording that got you to the show, it’s often the live concert experience that transforms an artist you like into your favorite band.

But since many of us don’t always have the time or ticket funds to see as many concerts as we’d like, here are seven sites that will bring all the intimacy of a live show to your desktop. Their combination of rare live recordings, unusual video locations, and behind-the-scenes snapshots are sure to please any music fan. So get ready to fall in love with your favorite bands all over again, and to discover some new ones along the way.

1. La Blogotheque

If you’re in the market for charming, offbeat music videos, La Blogotheque is a must-see nexus of musicianship and cinematography. The French website produces weekly podcasts of unconventional music videos called “Take Away Shows.” These to-go cups of music video goodness feature well-known artists playing in unusual surroundings.

For instance, Take Away Show director, Vincent Moon, put the band Arcade Fire, instruments and all, into a freight elevator, and had them play their single, “Neon Bible” — no small feat, considering there are about nine people in the group. Other Take Away Show highlights include unsuspecting café goers chanting “Blake’s got a new face!” along with Vampire Weekend, Jason Mraz jamming with an elderly Bulgarian street busker, and Andrew Bird acting as the veritable pied piper of Montmartre.

2. The Black Cab Sessions

The Black Cab Sessions takes all the fun and eccentricity of La Blogotheque and puts it on wheels. Similar to the Take Away Shows’ “In a Van Sessions” series, this website transforms the taxicab into a moving recording studio for our audiovisual pleasure.

While Jens Lekman’s kalimba rendition of his song “Black Cab” is certainly the most pertinent video on the site, there are loads of musical goodies here, with performances from the likes of Jamie Lidell, Death Cab for Cutie, Badly Drawn Boy, and many more.

3. Daytrotter

Daytrotter is a delicious little website run out of a recording studio in Illinois. It aims to capture unreleased songs, alternate versions of tracks, and the little spontaneous moments that occur in the recording process.

Thanks to the many working artists who pass through the studio while on tour, Daytrotter has racked up a truly impressive vault of live audio recordings (all available for free download, by the way) with artists ranging from The Swell Season, to Raphael Saadiq, to Grizzly Bear, to Carly Simon — and the list grows longer almost by the day. Each unique post is supplemented with gorgeous written descriptions, and colorful, hand-drawn artist portraits that make you feel like you’re witnessing something precious. Daytrotter is definitely a great site to get lost in.

4. NPR’s All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Concerts

With all those musicians traipsing through the NPR offices, you have to imagine what it would be like to be a fly on a wall there. Luckily, All Songs Considered Host/Creator Bob Boilen is now making it possible with his “Tiny Desk Concerts.” These “concerts” are literally songs performed at, on, behind, and in front of Boilen’s tiny office desk.

Although the settings are not romantic in the traditional sense, many special moments have been created there by the likes of Moby, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Thao Nguyen, and Jakob Dylan.

5. They Shoot Music – Don’t They

Another Blogotheque-inspired website, They Shoot Music – Don’t They is a video blog powered by Viennese cinematographers and music enthusiasts who aim to turn their favorite urban locations into great performance stages. In this way, TSMDT is able to not only create beautiful musical moments, but also bring attention to sites of cultural importance within their city.

For instance, the brains behind TSMDT try to bring attention to the Viennese region of Erdberg (one of the oldest settlements in Vienna, but now an underappreciated industrial center) by letting I’m From Barcelona frontman Emanual Lundgren roam about it on film. What ensues is the cutest musician-canine interaction you have ever seen.

6. Live From Daryl’s House

Most of us know Daryl Hall as half of the 70s and 80s pop duo Hall & Oates. But what you might not know is that Daryl Hall is also the brains behind a web show sensation called Live From Daryl’s House.

Hall first got the idea to post videos online of himself jamming at home with his friends three years ago. Of course, when you’re Daryl Hall, your friends include Toots and the Maytals, Smokey Robinson, KT Tunstall, and The Bacon Brothers. My personal favorite installment is the set he did with Chromeo that ended up going viral. It helps if you’re already a Hall & Oates fan, but it’s not required to enjoy this site.

7. From the Basement

From the Basement is the work of producer and Radiohead collaborator Nigel Godrich. This site started as just a mere collection of audience-free music performances, but was soon picked up by television networks both in the U.S. and Great Britain. The original website can still stand alone on the moments and music it helped to foster, by recording artists such as Gnarls Barkley, Beck, Damien Rice, and The Dead Weather.