Throwing Music Pirates Off The Net: The law that will tackle music piracy was voted overwhelmingly by the French Senate. Net firms will be enrolled as watchdogs that will keep an eye on consumers indulging in casual piracy and companies will be encouraged to install firewalls blocking content sharing by employees. Read the entire article here.

Bleak 2008 Christmas Season: As reported last week, Circuit City will close down 155 retails stores and slash its work force. Of course this is another blow to the music business as Circuit City bolstered CD sales. Music retailer Wal-Mart offers more damaging news as it is rapidly downsizing shelf space for music CDs while increasing availability of Blu-ray, video games and electronics.

“As packaged media continues to fade, Wal-Mart is focused on acquiring exclusive rights to music content, which enables it to sell multiple products to a consumer at one time; not just an $11.99 CD,” Greenfield wrote. He said Wal-Mart’s scaled-back interest in music coupled with the potential bankruptcy of Circuit City Stores, a top music CD retailer, portends a bleak 2008 holiday season for the music industry.

Hollywood is looking to cash in on uploaded videos to the internet. Viacom plans to pair advertising with video clips that MySpace users upload to the site, whether they have permission or not. This is similar to that of YouTube, which launched a system that offers copyright holders a choice of removing material or letting YouTube place ads in exchange for a piece of the revenue.

These media companies like MTV cannot make money even though they are embracing the consumer led digital revolution. In fact, MTV plans to cancel their big annual Christmas party and plan to fire a slew of employees according to sources. How much is Hollywood looking to cash in on viral videos watched by millions? I certainly hope their expectations are low.

The founding member of The Descendents, Frank Navetta, passed away on October 31, 2008 after becoming ill over the course of a few days.

Hello Operator who hails from Canada has always been a KOAR favorite. They were called a “newsmaker” in Macleans magazine, and listed as “one of 12 bands to watch out for” by Canoe.ca after their exciting Canadian Music Week performance. Their video for Chasing Satellites has been in regular rotation on Much Music and Much Loud since November 2007. The band just shot a new video for their track 55 Regrets. We won’t hide the fact that we love The Cars!

Def Jam executive VP of A&R Shakir Stewart committed suicide on November 1st in Atlanta according to sources. He signed signed artists such as Rick Ross, Young Jeezy and Karina Pasian.

I Quit The Music Business: Alan McGee, who signed Oasis, Primal Scream and The Jesus and Mary Chain, has said he has quit the music business after 25 years. “We don’t really have a place in the music industry any more because we actually like music,” he said. “I think the pre-requisite for being in the music industry is not liking music and playing the corporate game, agreeing with your boss.”

McGee also claims that he couldn’t have predicted Oasis success. “It was obvious Oasis were going to become successful,” he explained. “That they were going to sell 54 million albums and go out and do a 168 date tour around the world this year? “No, I couldn’t have predicted that. I couldn’t have predicted that in 2008 they were still going to be absolutely relevant and still mean a lot to a lot of people. They kind of defy gravity.”

Why The iPod is Doomed: A article from MSN Money says, “iTunes and those beloved iPods — the company is veering toward trouble. Read here and see why!

New Stream: You can stream the entire Hinder record on their myspace. The record titled ‘Take It To The Limit’ will be available in stores on election day (November 4th). Our favorites include Lost In The Sun and Far From Home.

Alter Bridge Singer Jams With Zeppelin: Myles Kennedy who fronts Alter Bridge (ex-Creed members) may just land the Led Zeppelin re-union gig if Robert Plant refuses to join in. Kennedy has already rehearsed with Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones and drummer Jason Bonham according to sources. Sources also claim that Kennedy’s departure from Alter Bridge could lead to a Creed re-union tour. I’m sure Kennedy could never have imagined jamming with Jimmy Page.

EMI News: EMI is considering turning over its distribution, sales and marketing operations in the United States to a rival in an attempt to cut its extensive losses, said Fortune Magazine. “Sources close to the talks say EMI could save as much as $300 million a year if it completely outsourced its American marketing and distribution operation.”

Listen to Lonely Ones by One Lone Car. The band hails form Missouri and will be playing a string dates on the East Coast, performing at Arlenes Grocery (NYC) on November 6th. The band cites Matthew Good Band, Ryan Adams, Gin Blossoms, and Nada Surf as influences.

Rock acts today seem to find inspiration in Jonas Brothers, Hanson and Miley Cyrus rather than blues based rock bands ala Aerosmith, AC/DC, and Guns N’ Roses. To illustrate, check out Stereo Skyline who was recently a PureVolume featured artist and sees steady plays on their myspace. “I see alot of artists on myspace list modern acts from their own genre as influences. These are not people who have connected to music. If the artist has never connected to music, they won’t create music that connects with others,” says Angela Jenson at Altsounds. Most of these rock bands today simply cannot find an audience and disappear after a couple of performances on Warped Tour.

Nickelback is streaming a new song called ‘Something In Your Mouth‘. We at KOAR were betting that legendary rock producer, Mutt Lange (Def Leppard, AC/DC, Foreigner) would breath new life into Nickelback, but sadly to say, we are getting cold feet. Rock bands today just simply lost their edge except for the slim few like AC/DC and Metallica. Of course Avenged Sevenfold and Disturbed still perform and live like rock stars, but we still need a crop load of new ‘game changing’ bands if rock is looking for a resurgence.

Is it still possible to sell 3 million records and 2 million iTune singles? Absolutely, and is it still achievable for a new artist to be traveling with 3 tour buses and performing at New Jersey’s Meadowlands Arena with an audience so big that cars are causing traffic on the turn pike like a football game? Sure, that’s possible as well. Anything is possible!

Music history shows us that the greatest rock artists had the similar ingredients that caused music listeners to tremble. For instance, Def Leppard (Mutt Lange) who sold millions of records and packed arenas were certainly not original. They just plagiarized and ripped off AC/DC as can be seen in the video
Let It Go.

The moral of the story is stop trying to be original. We pity those acts that find inspiration in Miley Cyrus and Jonas Brothers. Artists that listen to disposable music will create disposable music and the cycle must come to an end. Start referencing legendary bands as your main source of inspiration. Steal from the greatest artists and copy the riffs and slightly re-arrange the choruses and the verses as every guitarist should be able to kick out classic AC/DC riffs.

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