QUICK HITS

Oct 1, 2005 12:00 PM

GOLDEN YEARS

Although the term major label may now conjure images of global media empires, there is no denying that, for decades, labels like Sire had a big hand in shaping the history of popular music. Founded in 1966 by Seymour Stein and Richard Grottehrer, Sire's artist roster has included everyone from Echo and the Bunnymen to Ministry. So to celebrate Sire's expansive catalog, Rhino Records is issuing the new box set Just Say Sire: The Sire Records Story (2005). This three-CD, one-DVD collection includes tracks from The Cure, Erasure and dozens of others.

REST IN PEACE

This fall, Propellerhead Software officially stops development of ReBirth. Widely regarded as the first successful virtual instrument, ReBirth RB-338 became available in 1997 and included software emulations of the Roland TB-303 Bass Line synth as well as the TR-808 and TR-909 Rhythm Composers. Many of ReBirth's key features helped to set the standard for the future of virtual instruments. ReBirth will live on as a free download, and the company has created a dedicated Website at www.rebirthmuseum.com.

YOU PAID WHAT?

Money is definitely in making beats — a lot of it. If you haven't already heard, it was recently widely reported that rapper Nas paid a whopping $2 million for a single kick-ass beat from The Neptunes. The beat got so much buzz, it instigated a major bidding war among beat-hungry rappers, including Nas and Diddy. The Neptunes constructed such a desirable track, Busta Rhymes exclaims, “If Nas is gonna rap to this beat, it's going to be over. This will be the biggest hit in the history of hip-hop.”

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