Check Your Pulse: Pulse Recordings, a full scope entertainment company, which was founded by music producer Josh Abraham has inked a exclusive distribution deal with Universal Music Group indie distribution arm Fontana. Known for its work on the debut album of “American Idol” Elliot Yamin, Pulse next will release Filter’s “Anthems for the Damned” on May 13 along with new releases from the Outline, Ima Robot and Lukas Haas will follow.

EMI Drama: What are the issues affecting the restructuring of EMI? Well, the key crucial issue is the provision that allow superstar artists to leave a label if a “key man” such as a label president or A&R executive who signed the act leaves or is fired.

New Music: Listen to Suitcase Afternoon by Ricky Young. This is for fans of Wilco, Neil Young and Dylan. These tracks are perfectly fitting for a Sunday drive on the Pacific Coast Highway.

A Troubling Time For Magazines: Ad pages for the three biggest music magazines slid 26% in the first quarter and now the the auto industry has cut magazine ad spending by 21% in the first quarter. Regardless of the the grim outlook, magazine publishers are still optimistic about the future claiming that the Internet has increased their value to readers. “They need a credible guide,” says Mr. Madden. “Nothing online can be that guide.”

Blender $11 million (down 9% from first quarter 2007); 110 pages (down 20%)
Rolling Stone $31 million (down 27%); 195 (down 33%)
Spin $8 million (up 27% from 2007); 146 (up 22%)
Vibe $18 million (down 19% from 2007); 185 (down 22%)

Amazon Removes Idol Contestant: ‘American Idol’ contestant David Cook’s album “Analog Heart” was available for downloading on Amazon’s MP3 site. It skyrocketed to #1 beating out the latest release from Mariah Carey. Amazon yanked the digital album from its site along with all the snippets.

Recommended Listening: Listen to How To Ruin A Reputation by
Return to Arms. Of course emo/punk bands are dying a slow death, but we will always recommend artists with a good sense of songwriting no matter what style – except for rap!

I heard this track yesterday titled Should’ve Known Better on Music Choice yesterday and it caught my ear. Call me cheezy, I can take the heat. Regardless, it’s a good up-tempo rock song by a band called Cinder Road. The band is being managed by the same team who manages Nickelback.

Kings of A&R: You heard it before and you will hear it again and again. We want to hear new music from new artists. We want to hear music from artists with substance and style. Give us some great songs and we will give something back. Email Tips@Kingsofar.com with a link to your myspace and a song that we should be listening too. Never let us scour through your Myspace music player trying to find a good song, that’s not fair and you should be your own best critic…

Nokia Partners With Sony BMG For Free Music Offering: This is the day and age where just about every manufacturer of mobile telephones is teaming up with major music labels. This time, Nokia will offer free 12-month access to music from artists of Sony BMG. Nokia struck a similar deal for its “Comes With Music” phones with the Universal Music and expects all labels will come to the table.

Pitchfork Media: Ad consultants claim that the hipster site Pitchfork pulls in at least $5 million a year. Sounds fishy to me….

New Music: Listen to Blink Of An Eye by Hodges. It Definitely has top 40 flavor, except without a story.

Study: According to a new study LimeWire is the #1 peer to peer application. After LimeWire, the most popular P2P application is µTorrent, followed by BitTorrent, Ares, and Azureus.

One More Reason: OLR also known as One Less Reason gives us another reason how today’s artists can position themselves to be successful. The band who happens to be a Myspace cult band, just licensed their song
‘A Day To Be Alone‘ for the movie ‘Heroes Wanted’ and their track
‘Sadly Smiling‘ to the clothing retailer Buckle. The track will be played in 327 stores in 38 states. The band will be performing with One Republic tomorrow night at the University of Alabama.

Guns N’ Roses To Release New Album? According to the bands website Guns N’ Roses is “in negotiations” for the release of its long awaited album ‘Chinese Democracy’.

Breaking Artists: Congratulations to KTCL, the Denver Clear Channel tastemaker station who have been taking chances by adding new artists to their playlist without major label backing. KTCL is known for breaking baby acts and getting them national exposure. KTCL recently broke Meese, Flobots, and Tickle Me Pink.

Blogs will be Record Labels, and Bloggers will be the new Music Moguls: Digtital Music News wrote an interesting column that gives an imaginary glimpse into the future. Within 2 years, the leading music blogs will become what used to be called ‘Record Labels’. The people running them will be those sharp, tuned-in, hyper-networked and resourceful BlogJs formerly known as bloggers.

Could Major-Label Money Taint Music Blogs? Buzznet recently acquired the music blogs Idolator and Stereogum. Universal Music invested into Buzznet in order to maximize exposure for their artists. Universal plans to license its catalog for full-song streaming and provide editorial content directly from artists who will participate as guest bloggers. While Universal Music may not save the day, music blogs need a shot in the arm. Generally, It’s been a harder time for music blogs as the tabloid and gossip industry is the preferred choice for pop culture.

New Music: Listen to Maybe in a Year & Rise and Fall by Carlotta.

American Idol Ratings Slip: “Idol” has slipped 7% in average total viewers (to 29.2 million, as of last week) compared with last season, according to figures from Nielsen Media Research. The ratings are still huge even though even if they were huger in the past.

Ratings Slip Due to the Lack of Talent? Idol contestant David Cook and his self-released album is on the charts and the current season isn’t even over. Cook auditioned in Omaha for “American Idol,” and is a friend of the multi-platinum selling artist Chris Daughtry. Some ask “what happened to “American Idol” simply being a competition for totally unknown or undiscovered artists?” Well maybe they need to go a step beyond the local yocals to find talent and maintain ratings..

Sparks Ignite: American Idol Jordin Sparks who is on the brink of stardom has been struck with a career-threatening throat injury that has forced her to cancel three shows over the weekend.

Study: Every other day it seems like we have a new study pertaining to illegal downloading. A new study says most music comes from friends or from peer-to-peer file-sharing and that 58% of music isn’t paid for in the US.

New Company Launch: Former Sony A&R executive Ben Goldman has launched a new company called Blackledge Music that will be distributed by Altlantic Records. His new signing are Josh Hoge, Tim Brantley and These Green Eyes.

Hits Cure Cancer: The music biz was shocked last week when hit maker Clive Davis was forced to give up his corporate role as head of BMG only to be replaced by Barry Weiss who is known for signing talent and cost cutting.

The New York Times says, “the pop hits that Mr. Davis is known for delivering typically require the kind of expensive videos and marketing campaigns that labels are reluctant to finance at a time when music sales have been sliding. Sony BMG’s decision to promote Mr. Weiss underscores the idea that hits alone cannot save the industry”.

The New York Times should have said HITS combined with erratic spending cannot save the industry. Major music labels definitely need breakout artists and Clive Davis along with his guardian angels know and understand the formula. Hits are the cure…

Ousting The Man Behind The Current #1 Album: Fox’s Roger Friedman said ‘the situation with Clive Davis at BMG Music on late Thursday caught all of us unawares —including Davis himself, his loyal lieutenant Charles Goldstuck and everyone else at Sony/BMG’. On BMG’s part, it was a brilliant stroke of deception.

Seven years ago, when word leaked out that Davis would be ousted from Arista Records, journalists like myself and Mitchell Fink — then of the New York Daily News — were able to raise a ruckus.

This time, the people arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic-like recording business moved swiftly and without one bit of thought about the larger picture.

Friedman says the “larger picture” is the bottom line, the succession of executives and who gets a bigger corner office. It has nothing to do with the future of the record business or any passion for the music. Otherwise, Schmidt Holtz and his other cronies wouldn’t have made such a miserable showing of ousting the man behind the current No. 1 album (by Leona Lewis), the biggest album so far of the year (Alicia Keys) or the one man with whom anything positive about the business is still identified.

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Sony BMG Sending Shockwaves: Clive Davis has been replaced by Barry Weiss as chairman and chief executive officer of the BMG label group. Davis will become chief creative officer of Sony BMG. Stripping Clive Davis from his throne and kicking Charles Goldstuck (pictured), his right hand man to the curb sent shockwaves through the music industry. Some say the shakeup is a prelude to a break-up or sale of Sony BMG.

Music industry spent $2.8M lobbying federal government: The RIAA lobbied on a bill to limit fees charged to Internet radio stations for music broadcasts and on efforts to limit copyright violations, especially overseas.

ASCAP Launches ‘Bill of Rights for Songwriters and Composers’: The awareness is built around 10 core principles including “We have the right to be compensated for the use of our creative works, and share in the revenues that they generate” and “We have the right to license our works and control the ways in which they are used.”

Cowell Says Idol Singers Lack Personality: “They are giving very safe answers to questions, making safe song selections. We are not getting a sense of who they are. We have to try to pull it out of them more.” What are the ingredients of a superstar? Great songs, great live performances and being infectious!

New Music: Listen to the track titled Electric Choir by The Hoodies. The band had a track featured on the ‘Real World’ and have performed along side the likes of Say Anything, Gym Class Heroes, Hellogoodbye, and The Format.

Recommended Listening: The Same Way and How Much Longer by Brave Citizens.