-Civilian has signed with Russ Rieger and Pipeline Management
and are getting love from Kat Corbett at KROQ, who said this about the band -  “I can’t believe these guys haven’t been snatched up yet. The amount of crap SIGNED music I get sent to me is ridiculous – these guys are a no brainer. I handed over tracks directly to Lisa Worden and Rodney on the Roq. Now if these fu**s would only get a myspace page I could get my nephew off my back.â€? Legal is Chris Castle
-Alternative solo artist Adam Richmand is officially out of his deal with OR/Sony. For more information contact Dan Friedman.
-Canadian rock band Cauterize, formerly on Wind Up, have signed to High Four Records (distributed by Fontana/Universal); Legal rep: Ben McLane, Esq
–Universal Music Group has reached a tentative agreement with German media company Bertelsmann AG to acquire BMG Music Publishing for $2.05 billion (Ђ1.6 billion).
–Robbie Williams has threatened to quit singing for good. The Angels singer says he no longer wants to be part of the “pop machine” because he feels it has turned him into a “monster”. The 32-year-old, who is believed to be worth around £100-million, said: Â
“I’ve got to take the view over the next 18 months and see if I want to be part of the machine any more, because I don’t see me singing again. “It’s a question of what I want and where I want to be. Can I live without the radio picking my song and putting it on the playlist? Or is this fame thing something I’m addicted to?”
–Major Labels are now embracing mobile technology
Warner Music Group recently introduced its first mobile videogame on T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless. Capitol Records is supporting the debut album by Dave Navarro’s new band the Panic Channel with a first-of-its-kind mobile-TV promotion in conjunction with Sprint and GoTV. Warner Music and Sony BMG have developed their own mobile-game publishing divisions, rather than licensing the rights to existing game developers
In 2004, I asked an executive in a major label sales department what the dominant configuration was that fans used to listen to music. His reaction was predictable, which was why I phrased the question the way I did. The dominant configuration was the compact disc. I suggested to him that the dominant configuration that fans used to listen to music was the mp3 file—the dominant configuration that he used to sell music was the compact disc.  Not the same thing at all. My friend looked at me like a dog on a mirror.
Then I asked him if he thought he would be doing a good job if there was a configuration that resulted in hundreds of millions of “listensâ€? a month and he wasn’t selling music in that configuration. Again, dog on a mirror. But I knew the truth: The lawyers won’t let him. He has to sell digitally in either Microsoft’s or Apple’s DRM.Â
Locks Keep Out the Honest People
In case it hasn’t dawned on anyone—DRM, like locks, keeps out the honest people, whether it’s Microsoft’s, Apple’s, or whatever’s DRM. The DRM for sound recordings on digital files will always be relatively weak if for no other reason than the simple fact that you can’t put a $99 security solution on something that sells for $0.99 and the computer manufacturers refuse to cooperate with developing copyright-respecting protections. Plus, copy protections on CDs have not been uniformly successful (to be extraordinarily kind). The fact that DRM is hackable is not a reason not to use it. The day man invented fire the first arsonist was born, but thankfully that did not stop the use of fire.
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