I feel like we hear about it all the time. Legendary Australian venues being forced to undergo expensive changes from their local council to cater to new residents who are bitching and moaning in the area. Some may argue this is the price we pay for an ever expanding urban sprawl, but when a venue has been there for 25 years and you move in next door, you know what - you're the dickhead that should get sound proofing for being dumb enough not to expect that as a result.

As reported earlier last month by The Guardian, Beyoncé "has banned professional photographers from her current world tour." Instead, publications are able to use photos from the only accredited photographer on the tour, Frank Micelotta. Plenty of tours suffer from similar restrictions on photographers, but the controversy here is that the ban comes in the light of the unflattering photos that were published of the star after her Super Bowl performance earlier this year.

DO NOT UPLOAD

It would be easy to suggest that Stone Music Festival was an optimistic endeavour, both in terms of anticipated attendance and the patience of their targeted crowd to attend an all day event. But putting this aside for a moment, the lineup was a well curated rock and roll event - both of new and classic scenes. It celebrated local music and heralded our attention to some of the industry's legends - all of whom rarely visit our shores. A ballsy move, definitely. But one worthy of the negative sentiment towards it? Definitely not.

Saturday is Record Store Day.

In less than a month, the city of Austin, Texas will be throwing open its doors to tens of thousands of music fans, industry officials and musicians for the annual SXSW music festival and conference. Amongst that number are over thirty Australian artists. Over the course of the next couple of weeks we'll be profiling these artists, offering a brief introduction to what they’re about and what they have to offer.

With the arrival of Spotify to Australia earlier the year, the choice available to music listeners got even greater. There are now more ways than ever for music lovers to consume and purchase music. Though there are many out there - myself included - who still enjoy riffling through record shops, more and more of us are turning to the internet for our music listening and purchasing needs; whether it be to stream or download.

Already into the second half of the year and what a month it was!

1. Big Day Out 2013 line-up announcement

A new revolution was spawned when reality television paved the way for relatively unknown musicians to catapult themselves onto the main stage and become what seemed an almost overnight success.

In this month's edition of "The AU Monthly Review", we look back over the month of May, which unfortunately got off to a sombre start...

1. In Memoriam - Adam Yauch, Donna Summer and Robin Gibb

It's a shame we won't get to see any coverage of the Glastonbury Festival this year due to the preparation of the 2012 London Olympics (still exciting though!), however, there are plenty of other offerings over the coming months that are sure to please. Only if you're planning to travel overseas in the near future though... For the rest of us, we'll just have to live vicariously through our well-travelled friends.

In this month's AU Crew Poll, we asked ten of our contributors to tell us which artists they were dying to see perform live in Australia. As you will soon find out, most of our contributors had a lot to say on the matter!

Jay-Z, Depeche Mode, My Bloody Valentine and Of Montreal

As we introduce yet another feature to The AU Review, there are plenty of things to be excited about over the next month. What are they, exactly? Well, read on...

1. Digitalism Australian Tour

Welcome to the introduction of our new feature! One that hopes to make you reflect on all the good times (and possibly some bad times) over the last month. So, what events in April stood out for you? Before you go off into a train of thought, here's our top 10 highlights for the month (in no particular order):

1. Coachella Music Festival

As a Sydney sider I hate admitting when Melbourne has one up on us but it’s pretty hard to deny the strength and diversity of their music scene. Amidst the burnt sienna sea of indie bands, Sabrina and the Red Vans bring a striking fresh shade to the colour spectrum. Their new album, Cheap Romance, paints a picture of a low-lit pub and whiskey bourbon.

Welcome back to another installment of The AU Crew Poll! This time we asked our lovely contributors to tell us which albums are currently on high rotation and why. The variety of responses not only reflect the diversity of music tastes, but also how far in the past they went, as there were mentions of albums released over the last decade. Here are what some of our contributors had to say...