Major CD Distributor Calls It Quits: Major music distributor Handleman Corp. has announced that it is exiting the music business. “The Wal-Mart chain has been Handleman’s biggest CD customer. Handleman president/CEO Albert A. Koch said, “CD music sales have been declining at double-digit rates for several years, both industry wide and at our customers’ stores, resulting in a sharp drop-off in our business.”Unfortunately, even the significant steps we’ve taken over the past two years to reduce our costs have not enabled the company to return to profitability.”

Recommended Listening: Electric Choir by The Hoodies. The band just finished new recordings with producer Mark Trombino (Jimmy Eat World).

Dispute Between Prince and Radiohead? Prince covered Radiohead’s “Creep” at Coachella. Ok? So big deal. Radiohead singer Thom Yorke said he heard about Prince’s performance from a text message and thought it was “hilarious.” Fans went to YouTube to view the live performance of ‘Creep’ performed by the little prince only to find the video was pulled due to a copyright violation. According to news outlets, Prince blocked the video. Whatever…

War on Piracy: “Last week TorrentFreak reported that Cleveland Police had arrested a user of OiNK, who was questioned and later released on police bail”. Oink which was an illegal site, was shut down last October, and was the biggest source for pre-releases.

Interview: Edgar Bronfman CEO of Warner Music Group talks to Chrystia Freeland, US Managing Editor of Financial Times.

Edgar says digital sales are still narrowly focused on ringtones and iTunes but it will eventually grow rapidly and expand beyond those platforms. Edgar doesn’t believe uniform pricing is appropriate for artists. When will the music industry return to growth? (He says) no one knows..

The transformative surge of the internet has every business scratching its head. The general criticism of the music biz is it has been to slow to adapt to technology.

Edgar says even if we were the most ‘forward thinking’ people, no one has shown him yet what we (record industry) could have done. No one showed him a business model that worked that he failed to adapt.

Edgar says once the mp3 file became transferable across every computer in the world there was no technological business model to take advantage of that. We certainly agree to that..

The Bottom Line: When will the music biz return to growth? when we have a resurgence of new interesting artists that will offer a full body of work.

MTV – A New Reality Show: MTV has teamed up with 50 Cent to search for the nation’s next street-smart business mogul. Now that’s original…

Is Warner Excited For the New Metallica Album? ‘Warner Music Group Corp.’s shareholders must be happy to see that Metallica, one of the company’s top-selling acts, is promoting an album that won’t come out for at least four months. The feeling may not last too long’. (Bloomberg)

Metallica who has sold 100+ million albums announced they are writing and recording its new studio album due in fall. This new record fulfills the Warner Contract. Warner has put out its albums since 1984. Some say Metallica’s future with Warner may be short-lived as the band already sells recordings over the internet. Could Metallica walk in the same path as NIN and Radiohead?

Recommended Listening….

Keep The Mood By Empires

Right Time By Negative Space

EMI Drama: According to a UK paper Guy Hands is considering selling EMI’s recorded music business leaving him with only the publishing arm. He also may move the US headquarters of the label from East Coast to West.

American Idol: Still a Launch Pad for Stardom: Negative news plagued American Idol this year. We heard about the ratings drop and the lack of talent, but it hasn’t stopped the Idol show breaking new artists. Idol champ David Cook just set some new sales records..

“David Cook will set a record for debut entries on the Billboard Hot 100 and Hot Digital Songs tomorrow as 11 titles enter the former, while 14 songs jump on the download tally. Cook’s takeover of the Hot 100 shatters the mark for debuts set by Miley Cyrus (as Hannah Montana) in the Nov. 11, 2006, issue, when she placed six new titles on the list. The 11 songs on the chart are the most in a week by any artist in the Nielsen Music era, which began in December 1991 when the chart converted to Nielsen BDS and Nielsen SoundScan data. His haul also marks the most placements on the list since the Beatles charted 14 songs on the Hot 100 in the week of April 11, 1964.” (Billboard)

Recommended Shows: Carlotta @ Annex (NYC) on June 2nd at 8:45pm. Listen to the tracks Rise and Fall and Maybe in a Year. For more information contact Gil c/o Moir Ent.

The Vanishing Album: Sony chief executive Howard Stringer said at a recent tech-focused conference,”The problem with the iPod model is it is a singles model, and the album stands for a body of work, and the vanishing album is an issue I worry about, but maybe I am old.” (Digital Music News)

No Howard, your not old. It’s just that many artists can’t focus long enough to complete a body of work. Medical professionals call this the ADD generation. The ADD generation are held hostage by distractions. Let’s all give a huge thanks to Coldplay. They haven’t forgot about the album as they go through every note, every melody line, every verse and chorus with a fine tooth comb. The album cover and art work even goes throughs a torture process. It isn’t a technology problem, it’s an artistic problem…

Imagine traveling and having your iPod and labtop searched by police looking for stolen content. In reality, it’s no different buying goods at a Wholesale Club. Upon exiting the door, security guards will look at your receipt for the proof of purchases. If something is in your shopping cart that is not shown on the receipt you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.

Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) is a new plan that could see Canada joining other countries, including the United States and members of the European Union, to form an international coalition against copyright infringement.

The deal could turn border guards and other public security personnel into copyright police. “The security officials would be charged with checking laptops, iPods and even cellular phones for content that infringes” on copyright laws, such as ripped CDs and movies.”

“Anyone found with infringing content in their possession would be open to a fine. They may also have their device confiscated or destroyed, according to the four-page document.”

“This government is working both at home and internationally to protect the intellectual property rights of Canadian artists, creators, inventors and investors.” Read the full article here.

Sometimes the government has to go to extreme measures to protect the ‘creators of content’ from thieves, and because of thieves the international copyright laws must be revamped.