British and Dutch police have shut down Oink the world’s biggest site of pirated pre-release albums. OiNK distributed albums weeks ahead of their official release date and had an estimated membership of 180,000.

This membership model was as creepy as the website name oink. People were only invited to become members if they could prove they had music to offer and had to keep posting tracks to maintain their membership.

Authorities found the site was operated by a 24-year-old man who lived near Middlesbrough in north-east England. He was arrested Tuesday. The site’s servers, based in Amsterdam which is the home of prostitution and drugs, were seized in raids last week.

Jeremy Banks, head of the IFPI’s Internet anti-piracy unit said “This was not a case of friends sharing music for pleasure. This was a worldwide network that got hold of music they did not own the rights to and posted it online.” (Reuters)

Ticket Prices skyrocketing: Do you remember when you called Ticketmaster hoping to get 7 tickets to you’re favorite concert? I wanted to purchase tickets for all of my friends to share the experience, hoping they would pay me back. I remember being up in arms when ticketmaster told me it was a 4 ticket maximum. Those days are done. Brokers are now sneaking around security measures and using AUTOMATED BOTS to purchase thousands tickets and selling them for insane prices. Tickets for Hannah Montana cost $36.00 at face-value and scalpers offered top seats for as high as $4,000. What is even more ridiculous is that the authorities are doing next to nothing to prevent this illegal trade. The technological trend is on a downward spiral, meaning its causing more harm than good.

CMJ 2007: KOAR always enjoys thrusting our ADD into high gear by hopping from club to club and party to party during the fall CMJ music conference. We get to catch 20 seconds of hundreds of bands. In most cases, 20 seconds is enough. I believe this quote from Idolator sums it up: 75% of the bands we saw this week couldn’t really write a song with a million-dollar recording contract to their heads–hardly a big surprise in the world of “indie” music–but some bands pulled off the atmospheric shtick better than others…..

Houston, TX based alternative rock band Thee Armada have signed to Foundation Records which is distributed by Universal. Their new record will be produced by Brian McTernan (Circa Survive, Thrice) and mixed by David Bendeth (Paramore). Legal rep is Ben McLane.

Free Can’t Satisfy the Thief: According to calculations by Los Angeles company Big Champagne, The new Radiohead album is being downloaded at a higher rate illegally than legally. On the day of the album’s “release,” 240,000 users illegally downloaded the album, and the following days averaged 100,000 more per, ultimately resulting in over 500,000 illegal downloads of a possibly free legal download. (RollingStone)

If you want to become a worldwide pop phenomenon then check out the column “How the internet can make you a pop star for almost nothing“.

Tool frontman Maynard Talks Business: “We’re kind of in a new era of music, and this is the perfect project to embrace that. Between MySpace and YouTube and Trig.com and iTunes, whatever’s coming is going to be really interesting,” Keenan said. “It’s not the dog-and-pony show of ‘Here’s the band, here’s the four guys, here’s them going out on their first tour.’ All that stuff goes along with the old way of thinking.” “In a way, I’m trying to discover…a way to make music and survive without it being this capitalist monster trying to take over the world and sell three million units.” (full article)

The RIAA Targets Universities: The ninth wave of pre-litigation letters has been sent by the RIAA to administrators at 19 universities. The effort is for those using university networks to illegally share music to settle claims before they are named in a lawsuit. According to market research firm NPD Group, college students alone accounted for more than 1.3 billion illegal music downloads in 2006. (Billboard)

YouTube Debuts Copyright Enforcement System: Youtube has new technology that is designed to let content owners prevent YouTube users from uploading copies of their videos. You can read the details here.

The Next Great American Band hopes to win a crowd by following the “American Idol” model: The three judges will consist of John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls, the 80’s “star” Shelia E., and Ian Dickson. Supposedly it features talented and delusional performers, with some destined to be cheered and others mocked from their first appearance on TV. Some say it looks like the show is being set up to fail with a Friday Night time slot and decent competition. Also, it’s derivative of “Idol” with a lead judge that holds an foreign accent like Simon.

Kelly Clarkson’s success gave American Idol credibility and ‘The Next Great American Band’ needs the same solution. If a band fails to connect with the American Public then the show will flop like Flipper. It’s all about the song and the performer..

The new record from Jimmy Eat World can be streamed in its entirety and is expected to sell 70k units in the first week. The songs sound decent with a first listen..

Coheed and Cambria is now streaming a new song that we like a lot on myspace called Gravemakers & Gunslingers. The new record ‘No World For Tomorrow’ will be released 10/23.

Epic Records has partnered with interactive karaoke restaurant: The restaurant is called Spotlight Live, located in Times Square. Under the deal with Epic, Spotlight Live will host the singing competition every Thursday night from November 7 through January 24, where karaoke contestants will compete to record a single for Epic Records. “There’s no such thing as a traditional record company anymore, which is why this partnership with Spotlight Live is so appealing,” says Epic President Charlie Walk.

Wow, getting down and dirty and working the streets all the way to karaoke bars in hopes to find the ‘next star’. We need to give that initiative an A for effort.

Apple is taking no chances: Apple is reducing the price of all songs on its iTunes Store without anti-copying software. Although iTunes is by far the largest digital retailer, this price reduction follows the recent entry of Amazon into the digital music market with DRM-free tracks from a broader array of recording companies, some of them for as low as 89 cents a song.

Warner Music Group Downplays Madonna’s Exit: “We remain committed to maintaining financial discipline. We simply will not enter into agreements with artists that fail this test—whether or not the artists are well-known, and regardless of media reaction.” —Edgar Bronfman told employees in an memo obtained by The Post.

This Week Sales…

Kid Rock ‘Rock n Roll Jesus’ (172k)
Matchbox Twenty (74k)
Jennifer Lopez ‘Brave’ (52k)
Alter Bridge ‘Black Bird’ (46k)
Colbie Caillat ‘Coco’ (41k)
Casting Crowns ‘Altar & the Door (21k)
Daughtry (19k)
James Blunt ‘All the Lost Souls’ (19k)