Selling Out: Once upon a time artists refuse to sellout or refused to sacrifice his morals, values or people close to him purely for personal gain. Careers were built by saying NO, not YES to things. Indie rockers prided themselves by railing against the corporate machine. Today, no such thing exists. It’s impossible to sellout. Because of illegal downloading, indie rock group Band of Horses licensed a song for a Wal-Mart online campaign only to reverse their decision after they experienced a fan backlash.

Pop stars now embrace “Nascar-style,” logo-splattering sponsorships and must get used to promoting their favorite boxer briefs to help make up for the industry’s shortfall says Advertising Age. “For new artists, it’s become nearly impossible to develop a major following without a branded tie-in. Many of the major breakout music stars of the past year, from Paramore to Sara Bareilles to Feist, have benefited from corporate tie-ins or licensing of their songs via ads. “All brands have become music-promotion houses,”
Mr. McQuivey said.

Spitzer Has 48 Hours to Leave Town: If music biz nemesis Gov. Eliot Spitzer who cracked down on record labels opts to roll the dice and not resign, state Republican leadership will force him to go all-in and call for his impeachment from office, according to a state Assemblyman. The clock is ticking, resign now!

Universal Holds Up Myspace Deal: CEO of Universal, Doug Morris always knows how to crash a party, but sometimes that’s a good thing. MySpace has accelerated discussions with the major music labels about creating an online music service, but Universal Music is holding out, which is insisting that MySpace first resolve a lawsuit that it filed against the site over alleged copyright violation says Financial Times. “One person familiar with the talks said that MySpace was considering launching the service without Universal”.

FCC Chairman Tips Hand On Comcast’s Net Neutrality: FCC Chairman Kevin Martin said that he may find Comcast guilty of violating the agency’s network neutrality principles. Net Neutrality is a principle that says a broadband network must not restrict content, sites, or platforms and where communication is not unreasonably degraded by other communication streams would be considered neutral by most observers.

Martin said that he found it troubling that Comcast had initially denied it was slowing or blocking its broadband Internet customers’ access to a file- sharing peer-to-peer software application.

Both myself and FCC Chairman Kevin Martin are both deeply troubled. We both feel a principle has been violated, except he is talking about net neutrality and I’m talking about illegal filesharing. So where does the rubber meet the road? How can we be friends? He doesn’t want to discriminate against filesharing sites and I don’t want artists’ discriminated against. Maybe Kevin Martin can reach in his deep pockets and pay for the loss of music sales.

Cheapskate: Apple paid a total of $80,000 for master and sync rights for Feist’s “1234” and another 80,000 for Ms. Naim’s song. Some say the exposure is well worth the lower fees.

An ear attuned to sounds of greatness: “In the morning of last month’s Grammy Awards, Tom Whalley, chief executive of Warner Brothers Records, seemed to have everything going his way. Warner Brothers had just finished 2007 in first place in the US market, the second time it had done so in the last three years. Its holiday album, Josh Groban’s Noël, was still topping the charts long after the Christmas lights had come down”. “Yet Mr Whalley, dressed in jeans and a fitted blazer, was hardly celebrating. Such is the mood of record mogul these days.” Check out the full article written by Joshua Chaffin, it’s a must read.

New Music: Who wants to weed through 100,000 new record releases and 200 million videos on Youtube? You don’t, but we will. With that said, check out the video and song titled ‘Morphine‘ from Tupelo Honey which is currently making its rounds at Canadian rock radio. The vocalist belts like Chris Cornell, although his voice is a bit thinner…. That’s ok, he pulls it off nicely. What the heck is Tupelo Honey? Tupelo Honey is an album by singer-songwriter Van Morrison, released in 1971. For more information contact here.

Recommened Listening: New Low by Middle Class Rut. Sounds like Refused and Jane’s Addiction. The band’s first major tour was in Fall 2007 with Receiving End Of Sirens and Envy On The Coast. Sacramento’s Live 105 & KWOD have been playing “New Low”.

Â

The Tables Turned: Gov. Eliot Spitzer and music biz nemesis has been implicated in a prostitution ring and caught on a federal wiretap arranging to meet with a high-priced prostitute at a Washington hotel last month, according to a person briefed on the federal investigation.

“I have acted in a way that violates my obligation to my family and violates my or any sense of right or wrong,” said Mr. Spitzer, who appeared with his wife Silda at his Manhattan office. “I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better.”

The music biz is very familiar with Eliot Spitzer, the office of Eliot Spitzer served subpoenas against record labels in an investigation into “payola,” the illegal compensation of radio stations for playing certain songs. These subpoenas uncovered deals for disc jockeys to receive gifts from promoters in exchange for playing the songs a certain number of times during the day.

“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.

The Rolling Stones Shake It Up: If the Rolling Stones decide to leave EMI, they’ll be taking their catalog with them says the NY Post. Some sources claim they are looking to ink a deal with Live Nation for merchandising and touring, but with Live Nation having limited experience in the record business, some industry executives believe the likeliest outcome is a split-rights deal with Live Nation, and either Universal or EMI.

Social Networking Site Imeem: Why is Imeem getting so much hype? Forbes magazine published an article titled Free Music, Big Money. Imeem provides consumers with free, advertising-supported access to songs over the Internet. I don’t just want to stream songs, I want to own songs via buying a CD or downloading.

MTV Gets Hacked: Computer files with confidential data on about 5,000 employees at MTV Networks was hacked by someone outside the company. The company encouraged the affected employees to place a 90-day fraud alert on their credit files with the three major credit agencies, and offered credit monitoring for two years at company expense.

eMusic: eMusic, the world’s second largest music service after iTunes, announced Monday that its catalog is now more than 3.5 million tracks. eMusic sells its music by subscription, users pay a monthly fee to download a set number of tracks per month, but doesn’t encrypt the music. Everything is sold in high bit-rate MP3 — audio files that can be played back in iTunes, on iPods or using any other music player.

The Creative Drought: Author Susan Jacoby sees a cultural landscape that is, in her words, “defining dumbness downward.” In her new book, The Age of American Unreason, she argues that Americans have grown increasingly passive and uninformed amid a video-driven culture that prizes ‘infotainment,’ celebrates ignorance, and devalues critical thinking. Do you really need to ask yourself why music has become dumbed down?

Recommened Listening: KOAR reader Dallas turned us on to the pop rock band Gillmor. Check out the track Hey which was co-written by Sugarcult front-man Tim Pagnotta and is currently in regular rotation on Sacramento’s KWOD fm radio station.

On the hill: The PRO-IP Act won unanimous approval by the House Judiciary Committee’s intellectual property subcommittee on Thursday. Subcommittee chairman Rep. Howard Berman, D-Calif., estimated that counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy at least $225 billion a year. Although Berman is the bill’s primary author, many of the recommendations were developed by the U.S. Chamber off Commerce’s Coalition Against Counterfeiting and Piracy, headed up by NBC Universal executive vp and general counsel Rick Cotton. (hollywoodreporter)

Whaaat?: Clive Davis says too much original material is killing careers (yahoo/reuters)

Legal News: Tanya Andersen, yet another single mother, is filing suit against the RIAA for “RICO violations, fraud, invasion of privacy, abuse of process, electronic trespass, violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, negligent misrepresentation, the tort of ‘outrage,’ and deceptive business practices”. Ms. Andersen was originally sued by the organization for sharing music online, but was found innocent. (wired)

Continued Radio decline: For all of last year, radio’s grand total revenue was $21,310 billion, a 2% fall from 2006. In Q4, total local & national revenue was down 5% compared to the previous year, with local down 3% and national falling by 11 %. (fmqb.com)

Big Trouble: Following a recent performance in China, Bjork found herself in some hot water. Bjork chanted ‘Tibet!’ after performing her song “Declare Independence,” which she has used in the past to promote independence movements in other places such as Kosovo. Apparently that is against the law. Bjork said it wasn’t her intent to offend but added, “The fact that it has translated to its broadest meaning, the struggle of a suppressed nation, gives me much pleasure. I would like to wish all individuals and nations good luck in their battle for independence.” (yahoo)

Random: Is Huckabee awesome or does the game Rock Band suck? The former Presidential nominee throws an after party complete with lasagne and video rocking (hotlineblog)

Linda Perry Sues Warner: Singer/songwriter, Linda Perry who signed James Blunt is suing Warner Music Group over royalties she says she is owed for the singer’s debut album Back to Bedlam. Blunt’s label Custard, run by Linda Perry, has filed the breach of contract lawsuit in New York and is seeking lost royalties plus $5m in damages.

Musicians still waiting on a YouTube payday: Here is another article that talks about artists not seeing any money from the licensing deals the four major music labels have signed with YouTube over the past 18 months. “I don’t know any artist who has gotten a royalty statement (from their label that includes YouTube money),” said music attorney Chris Castle.

Agency News: Don Muller who books Pearl Jam, Rage Against the Machine, The Mars Volta, Foo Fighters, Weezer, Beastie Boys recently left Creative Artists Agency to join William Morris. His roster of bands followed him along.

Recommended Listening: Check out The Getaway Plan who hails from Australia. The second single from the album ‘Where The City Meets The Sea‘ will be released in Australia on March 15th via Boomtown Records / Shock Records.

Sold Out: Trent Reznor is brilliant. He quietly released his new instrumental album and The ultra-deluxe edition is already sold out which is priced at $300. Trent has fans and they will buy whatever he releases, even if it’s noise. Gotta love it!

Bertelsmann in talks with at least two parties over Sony BMG stake: Bertelsmann AG’s chief financial officer Thomas Rabe met with at least two private equity companies to discuss the possible sale of its 50 pct stake in Sony BMG. Read the full story in the Financial Times.

Survey – Most British filesharers would stop if warned: Seven out of 10 British file-sharers say they would stop infringing if they received a termination warning from their ISP according to a recent survey. Seventy percent of respondents agreed that if they received a warning from the ISP, they would stop sharing online. 66 percent said they would stop if there was a stronger chance of them being caught.

War on Piracy: Check out this article that involves Baidu and China’s non existent music industry. Baidu search engine is being asked to remove all links to thousands of websites that provide pirated copies of songs that are owned by the major record labels

Pearlman pays the price: Lou Pearlman, the snake-oil salesman who launched the Backstreet Boys and ‘N Sync, has plead guilty and will make restitution to victims swindled out of an estimated $300 million in phony bank and investment schemes. Pearlman should have listened to the old proverb – ‘we reap what we sow’.

Warner signs 7digital MP3 deal in Europe: Warner Music has signed a deal with digital media site 7digital.com to provide its catalogue in the MP3 format, which can be played on nearly all music devices.

Artist Updates: Listen to the track Be Still and Breathe by Tooth and Nail act Ivory Line. It’s #1 on the Christian Rock Radio Chart. Los Angeles KROQ has added Beautiful by 10 Years, it’s big news for a new rock band.