Festival Fatigue: Organizers are claiming that several festivals this year are likely to flop. The festivals have become extremely redundant with similar line-ups and there are a few big name acts spread to thinly over too many stages. Some critics claim that a backlash has been observed against corporate branding.

“We did a lot of research and it became clear that people are a little bit pissed off with festivals says Vince Powers. The whole thing has just become more and more about marketing and branding and I just felt people were getting short-changed. We want to get back to basics and do it for the music. We want to make it inclusive rather than exclusive.” He said at his event there would be none of the backstage or corporate hospitality areas that had proliferated elsewhere.

Google Geek to Join EMI: Douglas Merrill, one of Google top engineers will head over to EMI to help them figure out how to turn around its struggling business. He is the the third executive to depart from Google this month. Facebook hired Google executive Sheryl Sandberg to be its operating chief and also hired Google’s director of social media, Ethan Beard.

Top Current Albums:

Panic At The Disco – Pretty Odd – (TW) 139,000
Counting Crows – Saturday Nights – (TW) 107,000
Alicia Keys – As I Am – (TW) 23,000 (Total) 3,340,000
Jordin Sparks – Jordin Sparks – (TW) 17,000 (Total) 612,000
Paramore – Riot! – (TW) 12,000 (Total) 821,000
Sheryl Crow – Detours – (TW) 12,800 (Total) 270,000

Clive on Cloud 9: Music mogul Clive Davis is bragging to Page Six about his latest hit artist, Leona Lewis. Davis said of the music sensation, who is the first Brit girl to top the Billboard 100 in 21 years, “Leona is a true original. This album might be the biggest new album of the year.”

Clive gets to rub his new pet project in all of our faces. That’s fine. Congratulations!

New Music: Really digging the new Katy Perry track I Kissed a Girl. It definitely has an 80’s vibe and it’s much stronger than Ashlee Simpson debut track. My gosh, it wasn’t produced by Timbaland. Her debut record will be released this Spring through Capitol Records.