Advocates argue DRM is necessary for copyright holders to prevent unauthorized duplication of their work to ensure continued revenue streams. Apple will sell the record company’s songs online without copy protection software. You can now download songs without the copying restrictions once imposed by labels.

We are going to give iTunes customers a choice—the current versions of our songs for the same 99 cent price, or new DRM-free versions of the same songs with even higher audio quality and the security of interoperability for just 30 cents more,” said Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple.

Executives at several rival record companies said they had expected EMI to drop DRM but questioned whether EMI had done sufficient market research to justify the move.

“It’s problematic,” said one executive. “EMI haven’t tested it enough so they don’t know what the market reaction is going to be to open MP3s.”Check out Silicon Valley Lawyer Chris Castle’s article ‘Why not Sell MP3’s’

Check out the webcast of the presentation between Steve Jobs and Eric Nicoli.

The Ever Changing Industry Landscape……

Hot Topic sales are down and they contribute the decline as a result of changing musical tastes and trends. Hot Topic believes the iPod has reduced the number of ‘one genre’ fans.

In other news….

The P2P file sharing site LIMEWIRE is making HEADLINES as of late….

LimeWire has tapped former EMI exec Ted Cohen to pitch a new strategy to labels, one that includes 99-cent downloads of P2P-based content. “At the end of six months, you will know if they are willing to pay or not,” Cohen explained. “The worst result is that after six months, we find out that it was all about free.”

iTunes offers a New Way To Buy Albums……
The Complete My Album program allows customers to buy full albums at a reduced price if they have already purchased a single from the record.

BMI Projects Ringtone Sales Decrease In 2007, click here to check out KOARs post on Gambling on the Ringtone Business.

Victory Records will now be booking their own bands. Bands who sign to Victory will no longer need to establish an outside booking agent. More profits for Victory too…

Sounds Under Radio is the only unsigned band on the Spiderman 3 Soundtrack. The track Portrait of a Summer Thief will appear on the soundtrack. Contact is DanFriedman

Emo band Thursday and Island Records have parted ways.

Sony BMG UK are no longer accepting demo submissions in the form of CD’s. Instead, two websites were created so artists can post their songs and other media for consideration by the label.

They claim..

“100,000 new blogs go online each day at the moment, and the blogosphere is doubling every 230 days so it makes complete sense for the major labels to use the process in a creative way to encourage, discover and communicate with new artists,” Ged Doherty, chairman and CEO of Sony BMG UK and Ireland Music Entertainment, told Reuters.

This Sick Puppies album is good..really really good. No need to hype it, just stream the music here.

The White Tie Affair has signed to Epic, similiar to Panic at the Disco.

New Pop Music………………………….

Kate Perry
Marketing Profile:
playing off the tough girl ‘I don’t give a crapola’ attitude.
The color tones are PINK, ala Paris Hilton.
The story is she is a pastors daughter and began singing in church, ala Jessica Simpson
The Matrix, the songwriting/producing team behind behind Avril and Britney.

I have a habit of writing down what people say when I overhear something interesting or if something said strikes me as odd. After this year’s SXSW, my hand is cramped from scribbling down stupid quote after stupid quote. Between the two of us at KOAR, our rolodex is expansive, however at one point we looked at each other and said ‘who the hell are all these people?’ This year was overrun with ‘newbies,’ and while a part of me wants to be excited that people are so interested in entering the music industry even with all of the problems, a new industry packed to the rafters with people who don’t know what they’re doing won’t exactly solve the problems. Here are a few of my favorite quotes from SXSW07:

(manager to band) “The A&R heard part of your song and said he liked it. I got his card, so I will call him next week and we can start negotiations.”

(band to A&R) “We’re the only band that can successfully pull off 3-part harmonies.”

(indie label owner to me) “That classic rock sound is cool and everything, but I don’t think it has a place in the mainstream. Right now its all about dance pop and emotional rock. That’s where the smart money is.”

(A&R to artist) “If you don’t move to New York or LA, you’ll never make it.”

(PR to band) “It can be difficult to stand out. You need to get your image together. You need the hair, you need the style. Consider wearing matching suits.”

(band member to band member) “With all this industry here, how could we not land something?”

(douchebag to douchebag) “Brooklyn sets all the trends. If its not hot there, it won’t be hot anywhere.”

The last, and best, comes direct from a major label employee. I’ll let you guess which department…

“The more you know about music, the less objective you can be.”

So, this is where we are. Some of these are adorably naïve and some are simply frightening. Sure, there were good performances…even some great ones. Bratty over-hyped brit rockers tearing apart stages, and some kick ass straight up American Rock n Roll, but they were just leaves in the SXSW pool of shitty fad bands and mediocre singer/songwriters. What happened?

AJ, KOAR

Check out new artist Eric James who is signed to Pure Tone Music which is owned by Pete Ganbarg who recently A&R’d albums for Daughtry, Santana and Aaron Neville. Comparisons to Death Cab For Cutie and Pete Yorn. Eric James has been added to rotation on XM Satellite Radio’s “The Loft”. Producers Christopher Thorn and Brad Smith (Under The Influence of Giants) worked on the recent EP “The City Lights”.

‘While I get a lot of comparisons to Coldplay, which these days seems to go hand in hand with touching a piano at any point in the set, I have a lot of respect for Springsteen’, says James. He’s had a lot of things to say and has always found an artful way of saying them.

Pure Tone is looking for a label and/or publishing partner for Eric. For more information contact Pete Ganbarg or manager Chris Bradstreet (Lovedrug). Check out the tracks Its Ok, Daylight , and Trust.   Â

And……………………………….Â

Who is the most hated artist?Â

Nickelback!

Read the article ‘Sales Can’t Buy Love For Some Top Bands’. Few bands inspire such intense hatred as Nickelback. Hinder is hated too.

Yet these acts have sold millions upon millions of albums. So are the critics wrong? Do music buyers have bad taste? Is this karmic payback to all the haters?

The New York Times called Nickelback “hard-rock ridiculousness” and Allmusic.com called them “unspeakably awful”.

Nickelback sells records to music lovers and to consumers who typically won’t buy CD’s. Do you really think passive music buyers give a crap about the White Stripes or Bloc Party? NO! those bands sell records to 18-24 year old hipsters who pay top dollar for VINTAGE clothing.

Bottom Line: Its a good sign When an artist can sell records to passive music listeners that don’t typically buy CD’s. This means that something struck a chord with the listener.