Phil Vassar will team up with The Tennessee Titans to entertain fans on the new Titans Party Stage at LP Field for every home game this season.

This offseason the Titans made upgrades to LP Field, including the addition of the Party Stage, where Vassar and his band will perform prior to kickoff during selected breaks and during half-time. The stage will be located under the new video board in the north end zone.

In addition, Vassar will tap into Nashville’s music pool, inviting artists from rock, pop and other genres to join him onstage.

“We have one of the best talent pools in the world to bring up special guests,” said Vassar. “We’re going to throw out a great selection of different music at every game. They have a killer new sound system at LP Field, and we’re gonna ‘turn it up’!”

“We really wanted to improve the fan’s experience at LP Field and tried to set Nashville apart from any other NFL venue,” said Tracy Holliday, Titans Event Coordinator. “The obvious choice was music, so we added the stage to give Titans fans an even more enjoyable atmosphere on game days.”

Question: How do you get listeners to pay attention and engage with your work when all music is so readily and easily available?

Answer: Go seriously old school and release an album’s worth of unrecorded sheet music through a publishing house.

At least, that’s what you do if you’re Beck. The shape-shifting singer/songwriter made headlines last week with the announcement that his new album, Beck Hansen’s Song Reader, would be released not in CD, download or vinyl form, but as sheet music with companion artwork. The deluxe collection, due in December from McSweeney’s, features 20 songs (18 with lyrics, 2 instrumental), an introduction by writer Jody Rosen, and a foreword by Beck, for a total of 108 pages across 20 books.

“The Song Reader is an experiment in what an album can be at the end of 2012—an alternative that enlists the listener in the tone of every track, and that’s as visually absorbing as a dozen gatefold LPs put together,” says a post on Beck’s website.

While there is the distinct possibility this could be a publicity stunt to drum up support for an eventual musical release, it is still an interesting approach to fan engagement. Consumers have practically instant access to any album or song they desire, so getting them to spend some time with your work is increasingly difficult. Unless, of course, they have no idea what it sounds like. (In this case, we’re guessing it’s not “Loser”). It’s also a big risk, as the fans who just want to jam out to a new Beck album could be alienated.

But in the online age, uploading a YouTube video of yourself performing a popular song is now part of the culture, and perhaps an opportunity for 12-15 minutes of fame. Song Reader hopes to capitalize on this environment by having fans come up with their own interpretations of Beck’s work, and recording/posting them. There could be hundreds of different versions. Who knows, maybe some of the songs are even good.

McSweeney’s says it will post readers’ and “select musicians’” versions of the songs on its website. No word if Beck himself is included in that group.

This project might serve another useful purpose for the artist. Assuming no CD/download is coming for this album, you can bet fans will line up for tickets to Beck’s shows to hear how he imagined the songs.

Don’t expect everyone to rush out and start releasing unrecorded sheet-music-as-album, though. If you’re Beck, you can probably get away with it. But coming up with off the wall ideas to keep fans involved and people talking, is a crucial part of standing out from the crowd.

Dolly Parton helped Cracker Barrel achieve its first-ever RIAA Gold certification with the two-disc set, An Evening With… Dolly, available exclusively through the restaurant chain.

Since its April 2 release, the DVD/CD debuted at No. 2 on Billboard’s Top DVD Music Videos Chart and has sold in excess of 50,000 units required for certification, a first for Dolly Records in the U.S., with previous Gold certifications in Australia and the UK.

The two-disc set, which features two previously unreleased live bonus tracks, is available for $11.99 exclusively through Cracker Barrel stores and online.

During the announcement, Parton also remarked on the status of her water and snow park planned for Nashville. “Gaylord is involved at the moment with changes of their own, so we are waiting until they have everything straightened out. Nothing has been signed yet, but I won’t put my name on it or be involved unless it’s exactly right for me and for everyone else.”

Google announced today (8/10) that it is updating its search algorithms beginning next week to factor in valid copyright removal notices for sites. Those sites with higher numbers of removal notices may appear lower in search rankings, and therefore help users find legitimate sources of content more easily, such as a song on NPR’s website, streaming music on Spotify, or television on Hulu.

“This change is an important step in the right direction – a step we’ve been urging Google to take for a long time – and we commend the company for its action,” commented RIAA Chairman and CEO Cary Sherman in a response.

Google’s announcement goes on to say the company is now processing more copyright removal notices daily than the entirety of 2009. The company claims to have examined more than 4.3 million URLs in the past month, which will now be used in future searches.