By Lisa Engelbrektson

In a move that marks the current culture of downloadable music, Island/Def Jam artists The Roots made a single from their forthcoming album "How I Got Over" available for free download via their website. 

"Dear God 2.0," a re-imagined version of Monsters of Folk's "Dear God" featuring the indie-folk-rock supergroup's Jim James (My Morning Jacket), Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes) and M. Ward, will be part of the album set to drop June 22.

The concept of "How I Got Over," which the band discusses at length in a video on YouTube, focuses on music from the 1960s and '70s that concentrated on social awareness, and is thus a compilation of covers from the same era.  In addition to Jim James, vocalist John Legend is also featured on tracks "Doin' it Again," and "The Fire."

Track listing with featured artists is below:

1) Walk Alone (Truck North, Porn, Dice Raw,Mercedes Martinez)
2) Dear God 2.0 (Jim James, MOF)
3) Radio Daze (Blu, Porn, Dice Raw, Mercedes Martinez)
4) Now Or Never (Phonte Coleman, Dice Raw)
5 )How I Got Over (Dice Raw)
6) The Day (Blu, Phonte Coleman, Patty Crash)
7) Right On (Joanna Newsom, Sugar Tongue Slim)
8) Doin It Again (John Legend)
9) The Fire (John Legend, Rick Friedrich)

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By Lisa Engelbrektson

With the help of performing rights org Broadcast Music Inc., songwriters, composers and music publishers will be able to check their royalty statements via their smart phone while they're ordering an iced double chai latte, or waiting in line at the post office.     

BMI, whose President and CEO Del Bryant claims “was the first in the industry to launch a website," introduced the mobile version of their website today for easy access by iPhone, Android, Palm, Symbian and the soon-to-be released Blackberry 6.0 smart-phones.

According to Bryant, regular visitors of bmi.com already access the site via their smart-phones, making mobile-specific access "a logical step to enable our web visitors to discover the information on BMI's business, its members, licensing processes, and over 200 sponsored events."

But the impending launch of a mobile version of their Online Services by July will facilitate the process even further.  Says Bryant: "We will continue to develop applications for new technologies that our affiliates and licensees use in the course of business."

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